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Hi Brethren.

 

I want to know if our Flagship is a battle barge (like in the old fluff) or now a ship of the glorianna class.

In some listings (lexicanum; 40k-Wiki,...) there is told that the Eternal Crusader is the ship which was build for the Imperial Fists as flagship (one gloriana-class shipt for each legion), but because Rogal Dorn used the Phalanx, the Black Templars get the ship. (I would prefer to have this kind of ship).

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Perhaps the best way to smooth the fluff is to say that it is in fact a Gloriana-class battleship by definition, but is 'classed' as a Battlebarge as Space Marine Chapters don't have battleships?

 

This sort of complicated naming pattern has always been very popular in the Royal Navy. Take ships and ships for instance, a sloop in the navy was anything that wasn't a ship or a boat. So a brig, which is a largish type of sailing vessel didn't exist in the Navy as a class, so all brigs were classed as 'sloops'. Similarly, a post- Captain couldn't command a sloop, even if the vessel technically was one. Post- captains could only command ships, so therefore any vessel commanded by a captain, which wasn't technically a ship (strictly speaking three masts and square rigged) was classed as a 'post-ship'. So a brig, commanded by a post-Captain was called a ship.

 

Confused? You should be.

Edited by Brother Adelard

I can't speak to the novels, but the following is derived from the various articles that have been published over time.

 

The original Index Astartes article for the Black Templars came out during 3rd edition and described the Eternal Crusader as a "battle barge." During that same period, however, the Battlefleet Gothic game published several articles about the Space Marines and their fleets. One of those is key here:

A battle barge is not a class of vessel, but rather it is the name given to any vessel configured to fulfil the role of battle barge. Because of this, it is theoretically possible for any large capital ship to fulfill the role of battle barge, although the specially designed battle barge vessels are by far the most common example. However, some older chapters, particularly members of the first founding, maintain much more ancient vessels dating from a time when Space Marines and the Navy were more closely united than they now are, and so commonly employed reconfigured Navy vessels as battle barges. Such vessels are completely unique (indeed, some of them were later used as the basis for new ship classes) and as such are greatly venerated by the Space Marines.

Such vessels generally fall under the rubric of a "venerable battle barge" in game play.

 

In addition, Fanatic Magazine (GW's in house magazine for its range of Specialist games), Battlefleet Gothic Magazine (GW's in house magazine for BFG), or the Battlefleet Gothic mini-site within the Specialist Games site published Black Templars Fleet, an article with house rules for playing a Black Templars fleet in Battlefleet Gothic. Even though they are house rules, publication by Games Workshop gives the rules a tacit nod of approval from Games Workshop, though some level of skepticism is reasonable:

...although technically a Venerable Battle Barge the Eternal Crusader has its own fleet requirements in its rules...

With the Gloriana class battle ship developed later [in the lore] as the apex battle ship of the Imperium during the time of the Great Crusade, it makes sense that the Eternal Crusader, a "[venerable] battle barge," would have been clarified as having its origins as one of those vessels. "Becoming" a Gloriana class battle ship doesn't change the fact that it's a [venerable] battle barge.

Meh, doesn't seem like something to work at explaining away.  It's like a retcon that says Guilliman wears a size 27 power armor boot instead of a 26.  The Eternal Crusader was a super huge killy ship of righteous death, now it's a super huge killy ship of righteous death with a fancier license plate.

Edited by Firepower

Meh, doesn't seem like something to work at explaining away.  It's like a retcon that says Guilliman wears a size 27 power armor boot instead of a 26.  The Eternal Crusader was a super huge killy ship of righteous death, now it's a super huge killy ship of righteous death with a fancier license plate.

 

While I'm pretty much in the same battlebarge boat, getting a proper battleship fits really well with the good old "We do what the Emperor told us, screw Guilliman's brother vs. daddy and i was late-issues" so i really like that more than getting what everyone else gets and pimping it up later...

 

Meh, doesn't seem like something to work at explaining away.  It's like a retcon that says Guilliman wears a size 27 power armor boot instead of a 26.  The Eternal Crusader was a super huge killy ship of righteous death, now it's a super huge killy ship of righteous death with a fancier license plate.

 

While I'm pretty much in the same battlebarge boat, getting a proper battleship fits really well with the good old "We do what the Emperor told us, screw Guilliman's brother vs. daddy and i was late-issues" so i really like that more than getting what everyone else gets and pimping it up later...

 

 

How?

 

If every legion had a Gloriana-class then that makes the Eternal Crusader less unique.

 

The Ultramarines and the Nemesis chapter (Ultramarines successor) are the only other chapters confirmed to have a Gloriana-class ships post Horus Heresy.

 

 

Meh, doesn't seem like something to work at explaining away.  It's like a retcon that says Guilliman wears a size 27 power armor boot instead of a 26.  The Eternal Crusader was a super huge killy ship of righteous death, now it's a super huge killy ship of righteous death with a fancier license plate.

 

While I'm pretty much in the same battlebarge boat, getting a proper battleship fits really well with the good old "We do what the Emperor told us, screw Guilliman's brother vs. daddy and i was late-issues" so i really like that more than getting what everyone else gets and pimping it up later...

 

 

How?

 

If every legion had a Gloriana-class then that makes the Eternal Crusader less unique.

 

The Ultramarines and the Nemesis chapter (Ultramarines successor) are the only other chapters confirmed to have a Gloriana-class ships post Horus Heresy.

 

 

Funny how that one legion must have had two Glorianas if they can gift one to their successor and still keep one :huh.:

I never read of other chapters (not saying much, i don't read that much BL) having a real BB, so I assumed they would have lost theirs along the way, making it unique for Templars. Then again your train of thought makes perfect sense and i might have jumped the gun on that conclusion.

Edited by Marshal Wolfhart

The Glorianas have provoked quite a bit of debate. From what I have gathered from recent comments Laurie Goulding and AD-B have made, Gloriana is not a class of vessel. Rather it is a designator/ honourific for a variety of particularly impressive macro sized warships. The legions could also possess more than one Gloriana. The Twenty Glorianas made for the Primarchs are just that, they were command ships made specifically for them (except for the Red Tear according to Fear to Tread, which pre-dated the Great Crusade's departure), but are not the sum total to exist. That is why the vessels are all so different. Iron Blood was built to Perturabo's personal design, whereas Vengeful Spirit was apparently the 'largest vessel built to the Scylla-schemata' ever. Both are Glorianas.

I believe the one possessed by the Nemesis Chapter was actually originally captured from the Word Bearers (in one of the Black Books I think). 

Eternal Crusader is just a very large and very honoured Battle Barge which falls into the Gloriana category.

 

I think until Macragge's Honour was suddenly revealed to have been sitting as museum or something somewhere in Ultramar in Rise of the Primarch (guess the UMs thought it too big and holy to be worth manning), Eternal Crusader and the Nemesis vessel were the only loyalist versions we are aware of existing.

 

 

 

 

Meh, doesn't seem like something to work at explaining away. It's like a retcon that says Guilliman wears a size 27 power armor boot instead of a 26. The Eternal Crusader was a super huge killy ship of righteous death, now it's a super huge killy ship of righteous death with a fancier license plate.

While I'm pretty much in the same battlebarge boat, getting a proper battleship fits really well with the good old "We do what the Emperor told us, screw Guilliman's brother vs. daddy and i was late-issues" so i really like that more than getting what everyone else gets and pimping it up later...

How?

 

If every legion had a Gloriana-class then that makes the Eternal Crusader less unique.

 

The Ultramarines and the Nemesis chapter (Ultramarines successor) are the only other chapters confirmed to have a Gloriana-class ships post Horus Heresy.

It wouldn’t make the EC less unique in the context of space marine chapters though. Since only the Ultramarines and their successors have the others.

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