Heresy era battlebarges yet again...
This could have gone into Modelling, but the topic is considerably broader than just modelling.
I realize that the Venerable battlebarge rules are supposed to cover these older Heresy era ships (especially for game balance), but browsing through HHCV and seeing images of ships that are obviously considerably larger than the current BBs and battlebarges makes the modeler in me want to damn the torpedos and build some of these ships.
HHCV disclaimer:
Yeah, I know, artistic license, artful exaggeration, no weapons modules detail, etc., etc. Yeah, there are problems, but there is more ship info in these Heresy era paintings than is available anywhere else. The main warship painters in HHVC are Justin Norman, Richard Sandinha and David Deen. Deen's and Sandinha's paintings are pretty useless for anything except ship names, but Norman must have done at least some research before painting as most of his ships have coherent and more or less correct "in universe" designs.
Weapons modules are not detailed much in HHCV, but looking at the BFG blue book I notice that there is not much in the way of artwork that shows the different types of weapons bays either; most of the illustrations show generic weapons modules much like many of the HHCV illustrations.
Using HHVC as the primary source, I have come up with four possible configurations for these larger battleship based battlebarges. Two configurations extend the weapons bay sections of the ship to four and five bays long compared to the normal three bays long for a BB. Ships shown in these configurations are:
4 weapons bays each side
p 37 DG Indomitable Will
p 300 EC Erewhon (This ship could also be a 4 bay double stack ship with WBs over LBs)
5 weapons bays each side
p 285 EC Longinus
p 98 Malcador's Observer
The other two configurations extend the weapons bay sections AND use double stacked weapons bays to increase the number of weapons bays on the ships. This makes them similar in concept to Vengeance Class Grand Cruisers, although all of the battlebarges shown are in IN configuration using double stacked IN weapons modules. Ships shown in these configurations are:
4 weapons bays double stacked (ASC Imperator Class Dreadnought?)
p 285 WB Balthamir's Sword
p 303 DG Spectre of Death
p 247 DG Reapers' Scythe
5 weapons bays double stacked (ASC Colossus Class Imperial Dreadnought?)
p 32 Aratan In "Honor the Dead", the Aratan is described as an AdMech ship, although the lower bays looks like LBs, but its AdMech, so anything is possible...
p 385 DG Stalwart
Most of these battlebarges are shown in normal IN BB layout. Reading the fluff about the first build dates for the large ships, it looks like the only base ships available for Heresy era battlebarges are Emperor, Retribution, Apocalypse, the Desolator variants and the Space Marine battlebarge. Gloriana and Infernus class ships are also possibilities, but I know little about them. Three ships are depicted with with Chaos/Desolator rear hulls and Imperial battleship style prows, so the base hull must be the Desolator, but with more modern prows added:
p 37 EC Pride of the Emperor
p 32 DG Endurance
p 301 WE Conqueror
There are also a number of ship in HHVC shown using standard GW Marine battlebarge design:
p 335 EC The Agony and the Ecstasy
p 246 Unknown legion Pax Chaotica
p 348 DG The Undying
p190 UM Gauntlet of Power
Oddball:
p 35 Vengeful Spirit: 2 weapons bays double stacked; needs to be much bigger...
Have seen a number of dreadnought sized ships built here. so people are thinking in terms of double stacked weapons bays. Tyberious's magnificent Virtus Imperator is pretty much a double stacked four bay battlebarge:
http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=4039.0CommanderSamirus' Lux Aeterna is also basically a double stacked four bay battlebarge:
http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=5322.msg43678#msg43678I'm hoping the four configurations described above will provide a common framework for building Heresy era battlebarges larger than BFG battleships, but smaller than the really huge stuff like Vengeful Spirit and Conqueror that carry Titan forces.
Begin the discussion!
Tim
