How Many

[patghiggins]

I have few questions I would like cleared up

I know Sectors are going to be different sizes to a degree

So

1) How many Sectors are there?

2) How many have a Sector Fleet?

3) Is a Sector Fleet different than a Battle Fleet

4) What does a Sector Fleet consist of?

5) Would there other Fleets besides the Sector Fleets (Like Bastion Fleets) and How many are there in the Whole Imperium.

[Plaxor]

I have few questions I would like cleared up

I know Sectors are going to be different sizes to a degree

So

1) How many Sectors are there?

5, Tempestus, Solar, Pacificus, Obscuras, Ultima

2) How many have a Sector Fleet?

All 

3) Is a Sector Fleet different than a Battle Fleet

I think a battle fleet is just similar to a battle group. It's just a definition of a group of vessels.

4) What does a Sector Fleet consist of?

It...depends, the only real solid example we have is the gothic sector, which had 20 lunars, 1 dominator, 4 battleships, at least 4 of every other basic cruiser, 4bcs, and who knows how many escorts. I think it comes out ultimately to around 50-60 cruisers, 4-5 battlecruisers, and 4 battleships. Although the Gothic sector may have been more defended than a normal sector. Battleships are a fairly rare thing, and it's a bit surprising to see 4 in one sector.

5) Would there other Fleets besides the Sector Fleets (Like Bastion Fleets) and How many are there in the Whole Imperium.

Hmmmm... not sure what you're asking. I think that the IN pulls various sector garrisons together to form things like the Armageddon fleet. Honestly I think GW is vague on this one.

[BaronIveagh]

I have few questions I would like cleared up

I know Sectors are going to be different sizes to a degree

So

1) How many Sectors are there?

5, Tempestus, Solar, Pacificus, Obscuras, Ultima

2) How many have a Sector Fleet?

All  

3) Is a Sector Fleet different than a Battle Fleet

I think a battle fleet is just similar to a battle group. It's just a definition of a group of vessels.

4) What does a Sector Fleet consist of?

It...depends, the only real solid example we have is the gothic sector, which had 20 lunars, 1 dominator, 4 battleships, at least 4 of every other basic cruiser, 4bcs, and who knows how many escorts. I think it comes out ultimately to around 50-60 cruisers, 4-5 battlecruisers, and 4 battleships. Although the Gothic sector may have been more defended than a normal sector. Battleships are a fairly rare thing, and it's a bit surprising to see 4 in one sector.

5) Would there other Fleets besides the Sector Fleets (Like Bastion Fleets) and How many are there in the Whole Imperium.

Hmmmm... not sure what you're asking. I think that the IN pulls various sector garrisons together to form things like the Armageddon fleet. Honestly I think GW is vague on this one.

Plaxor, that's a segmentum.  A sector is much smaller (Calixis, Ixnaid, Scarus, Mandragora, so on...) and there are a lot of them.  IIRC a sector is an area of space approx 200 light years on a side.  

Battlefleet Obscura, for example, would be all the ships in all the sector fleets within Segmentum Obscuras

And Gothic was somewhat undermanned, as at the beginning of the gothic war they took heavy (un named) losses in Chaos surprise attacks.  According to Codex: Eye of Terror, Battlefleet Cadia had 12 battleships, 12 cruiser squadrons, and 21 escort squadrons, or about 50 capitol ships and 84 escorts combat ready, which, given how such things work in real life, probably means that they had half again that number in drydock or mothballed.

[RCgothic]

Yup, there are five Segmentums: Solar, Pacificus, Obscurus, Ultima, Tempestus.

A Sector is an volume of space roughly equivalent to 8 million cubic light years. The Sector itself is composed of subsectors (themselves centred around heavily populated star systems), and intervening wilderness space.

The estimated number of sectors differs based on how you try and go about it. Unlike subsectors, there is no space between neighbouring sectors. Assuming the Imperium takes up 1/2 the volume of the galaxy, then there are 2.4375 million sectors. Most of these won't be inhabited, contain subsectors, or have a defending fleet other than the very occasional patrol.

Alternatively, if you assume something like the Scarus Sector is typical, it consists of 35 worlds. Distributed over the Imperium, that makes 28,571 Sectors.

[patghiggins]

Aren't those 5 Segmentum's and aren't they divided into Sectors? So how many SECTORS are there and does each one have itown fleet?

OK The bottom line is, I'm trying to figure out just how big the Imperial Fleet really is.  I like looking at the big picture, that GW seems to ignore, after all there are approximatlly 1000 Space Marine Chapters.  Yet since 5th edtion, GW seems to want us to think there is only about 7 or 8 that do anything. 

I see the the same trend in BFG in most cases, it also seems that lot of new players get the impression the only naval activity in the Gothic Sector

[Plaxor]

Yeah, sorry pat, thought you were asking about segmentums. RC probably answered it best.

A sector is about 200ly on each side cubed. The milky way is 100,000ly in diameter and 1000ly thick. Therefore you can assume that there are 5 layers of sectors, and that there are 785,000 per layer, for a total close to 4million sectors.


Probably less than half of these are inhabited by Imperial citizens, and as well the light of the astronomicon doesn't extend to the edges of the galaxy. There are also a lot of regions where there is empty space, such as between galactic arms. Or warp storms, such as the maelstrom or EoT, ork strongholds such as the domain of the arch arsonist etc.

As well I believe I remember seeing the imperium described as a million worlds, although this could just be something that is said to mean 'a lot'. In this case, most described sectors have around 3 dozen inhabited worlds then yes, you would have about 28 thousand like RC said.

[Plaxor]

Oh, and not everyone has it's own fleet, but practically all do. Especially if they have permanent Imperial Populations of significant size.

[patghiggins]

Check the reply I just updated.  Also where is the link to the latest version of the 2010 FAQ

[RCgothic]

I imagine that most sector fleets are made up of component subsector fleets. As subsectors are the bits worth defending, they all would have fleets attached. If a sector has no subectors (ie is uninhavited), then it probably has no fleet either.

[Plaxor]

OK The bottom line is, I'm trying to figure out just how big the Imperial Fleet really is.  I like looking at the big picture, that GW seems to ignore, after all there are approximatlly 1000 Space Marine Chapters.  Yet since 5th edtion, GW seems to want us to think there is only about 7 or 8 that do anything. 

This helps sell models, rather than describe the fame of someone like the Genesis chapter, it makes more sense to describe one that has a codex and would make more money by selling an army for.

I see the the same trend in BFG in most cases, it also seems that lot of new players get the impression the only naval activity in the Gothic Sector

I think this is just laziness on GW's part. They don't want to come up with new ship names and sector names so they just keep recycling the Gothic sector.

You could say that they are veterans of fighting chaos, and that their skills would be valuable in the 13th black crusade, however everyone from the gothic war is long dead as it is 700 years later

[Plaxor]

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0Bw_dULEfC3rbYzUyNjQzZTAtMDZiMS00ZjRlLWJjNzMtYTE5YmNjZjdjODQ1

Link to Nate's (flybywire) documents.

[horizon]

Hi,

a sector warfleet consists between 5-75 warships.

Warships is Capital Ships AND frigates/destroyers.

Excluding system ships, merchants, transports, traders, etc these make up the massive bulk of shipment within the Imperium.

[BaronIveagh]

Hi,

a sector warfleet consists between 5-75 warships.

Warships is Capital Ships AND frigates/destroyers.

Excluding system ships, merchants, transports, traders, etc these make up the massive bulk of shipment within the Imperium.

Except the bastion fleets and fleets centered on the segmentum fortresses, which can be much larger.  (And why do I have a feeling of deja-vu?)

[Plaxor]

Sorry, screwed up in my calculation earlier. It shouldn't be 4 million sectors, it should be 1million.

50,000x50,000x3.14/(200x200)x5=~1,000,000


Although if you look at fluff in the BBB it says that less than 1% of stars have planets. The milky way has about 200 billion stars. If we assume that .5% have planets, then each sector would have 1000 stars with planets. As well as.... 200,000 stars.

[Valhallan]

and that 1% would probably represent terraform-able planets/ moons. its much more likely that many stars have planets but most are completely unable to support anything close to life.

if the above numbers are ~about~ right, then we could average, say, 42.5 ships per sector? with 1mil. sectors, that's a good deal of ships (of course with more constantly on the way).