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I was wondering if anyone had any rules for sea forces in 40k?
I just can't see why there is no navval representation in any of the gaming systems. What's up with that?
Any help in finding rules much appreciated

BFG

Do you mean using sea based forces in a 40k setting or more of a ship to ship combat setting? If the latter the you would probably benefit from Skinnattittar's suggestion of the battlefleet gothic rule set or if I'm not mistaken there may be something of a fan-based aquatic combat rule set floating around dakka somewhere. For the former You could treat ships as super-heavies, just use some of the pre-existing apocalypse rules for weapons, structure points, and the like.

You just need fluff, then write those rules into Apoc or Epic.

So is there fluff, or do we get to make it up ourselves?

hmmm...

ships are hard to move between worlds, therefore Imperium probably considers them a PDF thing.
Orks - all the way
Tyranids - had to have evolved one sometime!


If there are any SM the chapter name has to be Aqua Marines.
Eldar & Tau - hard to justify
Necrons - NEVER

Well there are boats in 40k, supertankers on armageddon, for instance.
Another reason is chimeras but I just don't see why in the entire galaxy all the fighting would be done on land, in the air or in space.

Tyranid forces in a naval wargame would be absolutely devastating. They'd all be underwater, for a start. We be Kraken you open now.

Submarines are an effective way of doing things on the naval platform, with advanced technology. But then air superiority, such as the Eldar and Tau would have, could trump that with torpedoe-bombers and superior scanning equipment.

I seem to remember mention of Ork submersibles on Armageddon during the Third War - I still have my campaign poster somewhere so I'll check that out. Really Imperial Guard is where it's all at - they'd be the only armies backward enough to try massed battleship-type engagements. Tankers and aircraft carriers have their obvious uses, but everything else would be flying or diving by that point.

If you wanted to incorporate a naval conflict into a campaign, there are plenty of rulesets that already exist.

Using them as super heavies would also be a neat idea in Apocalypse - a big blue table off to the side bombarding the main tables - perhaps with airborne units on the defender's side to counter them. The BIG White Dwarf report during the Third War for Armageddon featured, amidst the simultaneous conflicts played on seperate tables, guess range bombardments from one table to the other. That WAS cool. Almost a decade before Apocalypse too.

THE ORKS DO HAVE SUBMERSIBLES, IT'S IN APOCALYPSE!<(-_-)>
Alright so I should use super heavy rules on water with forces like eldar and tau using skimmers, Maybe making water count as dangerous terrain for infantry? Or just impassable for infantry and all landbased stuff except the chimera.

Yeah something like that would probably work, if you wanted to get really in-depth you could have one table for surface craft and an entirely seperate table for submerged craft. Just an idea, although that might take some tinkering to work out reactions between the two..

A grid system or a table with a glass shelf over it would fix the problem easily

It's an interesting idea, but I think the reason it isn't there is that it's not too practical in a far future setting, so the battlefield gothic takes it's place. Large scale Naval combat doesn't work so well in an environment where you can take orbital and sub-orbital hops from one continent to another, and have units that can teleport onto a battlefield. Large vessels at that point become targets for orbital bombardment, while anything small enough to not bother with only carries enough for kill team/necromunda type encounters (perfect for story missions about infiltrating sea based resources, or counter-terrorism missions). Unfortunately if they do get togethor enough to be a serious force, they become worthwhile targets for orbital barrages again. Submersible combat is somewhat more practical, as you tend to get some slight protection from orbital ships, but as was pointed out, you still need to worry about air superiority and air dropped torpedos.

Then there's practicality concerns. When your concerned about space warfare, and moving battlefronts back and forth amongst several planets, watercraft become something of a special needs only tool. Protecting deep see mining, protecting underwater communities, or infiltrating same. When it comes down to it though, underwater facilites will tend to capitulate if there's a chance they can survive what the captors do to them, as, much like spacecraft, they tend to lose everything if the hull gets seriously breached.

Step 1: Buy BFG
Step 2: Pretend that they are boats not spacecraft (if your an able modeller, conversion could also work)
Step 3: Convert all terminology to seafareing terminology (planets become reefs, orbital bombardment becomes Shore bombardment, bombers/fighters become guided torpedo's etc)

May not be the brightest suggestion, but its certain;ly the most cost efffective if you want to use GW rules and models.

Hope it helps :thumbsup

Hahaha, your smiley/orkmoticon failed!
Sorry, thankyou for the suggestion!

lmao
no probs, also noted my own mispelling, comes from typing quick as I should have been working at the time

once upon a time their was boat month for war hammer
now we must convince gw to make the same thing for 40k

i might still have the necron boat i made