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So I was just pondering by the creek the other day and this strange thought about the 40k universe struck me. Why is it that there are no navies, as in ones on the water not in space, in any of the armies. Also why are there not any water terrain types for the table top? You would think that at some point there would be some kinda civilization encountered that had developed some kinda fleet or that a battle would take place over water at least once! I mean maybe even an underwater culture on one of the thousand thousand worlds the Imperium has fought on. Does this seem strange to anyone else? Or are instances of battles taking place on actual oceans and I am just unfamiliar with them?

There is an underwater battle in the SW codex.
There are also instances of PDF using wet navies to transport units.
Orks also use submersibles to do Orky things.
Essentially there are wet navies but you simply don't see them as much or at all.

There's only one that I know of. An ork sub for apocalypse games in one of those books (and used to assault Helsreach).

Otherwise, I haven't seen much naval presense. Perhaps because if there are large oceans on a planet, getting from continent to continent would be faster with their space ships.

Further, if a planet was all water, why the heck would there be a bunch of people there? Sure, you can grow plants underwater and in a floating city or two to promote a colony there, but what would they really contribute to the Imperium that would be worth heavy investment and, thus, require protection and garrisons?

I'm just looking at it from a return on investment view.

There's no naval rules but boats exist in the fluff. Blood and Iron is a book about an IG regiment that specializes in amphibious assaults and a good chunk of the book is spent on a nearby aircraft carrier. The scope of the tabletop game just doesn't include naval combat is all.

There is a considerable amount of fluff about IoM PDFs with naval vessels and xeno sea vessels. Many common transports like chimeras are aquatic too.

40k however is based on land based combat, so it makes little sense to include sea vessels.

Second that I see no reason the Imperium would bother with a world that doesn't have livable land for humans.

As for why there aren't navel units, I suspect it has more to do with uniformity than anything else. You can fight jets vs. tanks, you can fight tanks vs. infantry, but running tanks vs. boats is hard, and infantry vs. boats is all washed up.(pun intended)

Also, the thought of minis that can go into a bathtub...

Bounty wrote:Second that I see no reason the Imperium would bother with a world that doesn't have livable land for humans.

As for why there aren't navel units, I suspect it has more to do with uniformity than anything else. You can fight jets vs. tanks, you can fight tanks vs. infantry, but running tanks vs. boats is hard, and infantry vs. boats is all washed up.(pun intended)

Also, the thought of minis that can go into a bathtub...

Massive amaount sof resources?
Many worlds in the Imperium are uninhabitable by normal means but the Imperium colonised them anyway because they have a lot of resources.

Also, if assaulting a planet that features a water-borne navy with a space-borne navy, it's much easier to neutralize the watercraft from orbit with laser or torpedo bombardment than it is to try to engage them from the ground or launching your own terrestrial navy.

Seems to me that, while it might be featured on certain worlds and certain planets suffering, basically, a civil war, it's a bit outside of the scope of 40K.

ok well that makes sense, at least GW and the 40k creators did not totally overlook naval warfare and beachhead assaults. An i understand why there is no naval warfare in the tabletop game. I just thought it might be a cool custom scenario to have a beachhead assault of battling along a coastal city that has rivers running thru it and such.

darkcloud92 wrote:ok well that makes sense, at least GW and the 40k creators did not totally overlook naval warfare and beachhead assaults. An i understand why there is no naval warfare in the tabletop game. I just thought it might be a cool custom scenario to have a beachhead assault of battling along a coastal city that has rivers running thru it and such.

No reason you can't make your own naval assault scenario - go for it!

I'm actually trying to design a table terrain that's an elevated bridge spanning a series of small islands. So there's going to be dry ground mainly in the NE/SW corners of the table, where the Road goes on and off the table, and difficult(or dangerous) shallow water, or impassible deep water, through most of the middle of the table.

I think it'll play hell on the Orks my buddy loves to beat me with.

That sounds fun...

Bounty wrote:Second that I see no reason the Imperium would bother with a world that doesn't have livable land for humans.

The Imperium isn't alone in the galaxy.

I think full naval rules are stretching it a bit - while 40k can go to apocalypse scale, it's still too small. However, I think 40k needs more rules for interacting with water such as rivers, streams and lakes besides a few transports having the amphibious rule.