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What do they use to designate it an Imperial craft. Eg. We un the US use the U.S.S Whatever. I'm trying to work out some data on my custom chapter, and one of the first happenings is the SoM giving hte new chapter command of the Heritics End, a Star Cruiser like the Son's of Medusa use. I want to mention it in my fluff, but I'm not sure what It'd be called.

I don't believe there is a canon answer, but how about...

His Divine Majesty's Ship? HDMS
His Immortal Majesty's Ship? HIMS

Just some suggestions.

They don't. Ships are generally referred to by name if they're a capital ship, by their battlegroup for smaller vessels, or again by name if they're the ship of a Rogue Trader.

The Lord Inquisitor NPC I use in my DH game rolls about with his cruiser, the Vindicator of Faith. The crew, and others familiar with the ship, refer to it simply as "the Vindicator", but that's a short-hand reference.

EDIT: I've seen some references in BL novels using various appellations from the British Royal Navy in reference to certain ships, but these seem rather random and scatter-shot, and may be, in fact, pointing out that the name of the ship is actually "The HMS Puffinstuff", rather than simply being identified with "HMS" or similar designations.

In all the BFG books and magazines I've ever seen, no Imperial ship ever had a prefix - regardless of whether it was on some force composition chart or as part of an in-character letter or report from some officer, all ships were simply called by name alone.

A prefix isn't considered necessary, it seems - and for what it's worth, it's not like the tradition of using prefixes has always been a part of Earth's navies in our real life as well.

Lynata wrote:In all the BFG books and magazines I've ever seen, no Imperial ship ever had a prefix - regardless of whether it was on some force composition chart or as part of an in-character letter or report from some officer, all ships were simply called by name alone.

A prefix isn't considered necessary, it seems - and for what it's worth, it's not like the tradition of using prefixes has always been a part of Earth's navies in our real life as well.

Sure but compare:
Ark Royal.
to
HMS Ark Royal.
The fluff missed out when it came to this.

They just give it a title. There's no prefix.

Really it's incredible how many things are named in 40k. I get the ships, Titans, and even Baneblades. But naming individual tanks, APC's is fairly ridiculous. They even name bolters, which had me facepalming. They must have a massive bank of names somewhere.

Ok, interesting, I was working on the background is why. I'm using the Blood Raven's codex to estimate size, trying to effectivly build a proper codex for mine I thought that would be cool, having a cover and everything like it was an offical codex

There is no Blood Ravens codex...
Also no prefix. Why would you need one?
Imperial stuff tends to be distinctive compared to chaos and xenos stuff.
Even the chaos stuff that is Imperial looking is probably gonna make it a touch obvious that they're coming for you...

Harriticus wrote:They just give it a title. There's no prefix.

Really it's incredible how many things are named in 40k. I get the ships, Titans, and even Baneblades. But naming individual tanks, APC's is fairly ridiculous. They even name bolters, which had me facepalming. They must have a massive bank of names somewhere.

You really shouldn't be face palming, it is perfectly normal behavior even in modern militaries. It is very common for solders to name their planes, transports, and tanks. The military even has rules governing the naming and types of art allowed.

And naming weapons was extremely common in mideival times. You know, the period of time 40k is constantly emulating? Even today solders using 'special' weaponry like anti-material rifles will sometimes give it a name. Heck, people name their trucks. It is human nature.

And it isn't like everything with a name requires a unique, individual name either. Two bolters can be named 'bessy'.

riplikash wrote:And it isn't like everything with a name requires a unique, individual name either. Two bolters can be named 'bessy'.

Aye, and so can probably two Leman Russ tanks as long as they're in different companies. I'm sure the IoM forces are able to identify their vehicles and ships by battlegroup etc if it's necessary, and that they keep tabs so that important things like battleships don't get duplicate names in the same area.

Sorry, I ment Blood Angels, blood ravens just got stuck in my mind., its 28 pages of info, and most of those are pictures lol

xaviorbat wrote:Sorry, I ment Blood Angels, blood ravens just got stuck in my mind., its 28 pages of info, and most of those are pictures lol

Okay then...
Got a touch confused for a second...
Wondered if i had missed something.

Joey wrote:Sure but compare:
Ark Royal.
to
HMS Ark Royal.
The fluff missed out when it came to this.

Ah, it depends ... I have to say, it sounds a bit more "majestic" if you treat the ships like people, meaning that they only have one name with no prefix. Far more ... "individual", I think.

Would you also give a prefix to a Titan, for comparison?

Well, comparing a titan to our nearest real world equivilant, the tank, I would assume those using said vehicle might give it a name however the an offical designation such as "Enterprise" or "Concordia" is a big naval tradition really. I have no idea how it started but any boat bigger then a fishing boat, by law, in the real world, is required to have a designation.

Lynata wrote:

Joey wrote:Sure but compare:
Ark Royal.
to
HMS Ark Royal.
The fluff missed out when it came to this.

Ah, it depends ... I have to say, it sounds a bit more "majestic" if you treat the ships like people, meaning that they only have one name with no prefix. Far more ... "individual", I think.

Would you also give a prefix to a Titan, for comparison?

GMCT

God Machine of the Collegia Titanica

BASOF

Big A** Ship Of Death

or just BAS

Big A** Ship

xaviorbat wrote:Well, comparing a titan to our nearest real world equivilant, the tank, I would assume those using said vehicle might give it a name however the an offical designation such as "Enterprise" or "Concordia" is a big naval tradition really. I have no idea how it started but any boat bigger then a fishing boat, by law, in the real world, is required to have a designation.

Um, no, I was referring to the prefix, not the name. We know that the IoM gives names to just about everything - but when people think that a, say, "HDM Invincible" sounds better than just "Invincible" for a starship, why don't they think the same about Titans, which are similarly impressive and just as (or even more, depending on type) important? In other words, if you think Titans do fine without a prefix, then it's really just real life familiarity that could make you think voidships really need one.

Lynata wrote:

xaviorbat wrote:Well, comparing a titan to our nearest real world equivilant, the tank, I would assume those using said vehicle might give it a name however the an offical designation such as "Enterprise" or "Concordia" is a big naval tradition really. I have no idea how it started but any boat bigger then a fishing boat, by law, in the real world, is required to have a designation.

Um, no, I was referring to the prefix, not the name. We know that the IoM gives names to just about everything - but when people think that a, say, "HDM Invincible" sounds better than just "Invincible" for a starship, why don't they think the same about Titans, which are similarly impressive and just as (or even more, depending on type) important? In other words, if you think Titans do fine without a prefix, then it's really just real life familiarity that could make you think voidships really need one.

Titans are only a fraction the size of even the smallest spaceship so I wouldn't have thought so.

Harriticus wrote:They just give it a title. There's no prefix.

Really it's incredible how many things are named in 40k. I get the ships, Titans, and even Baneblades. But naming individual tanks, APC's is fairly ridiculous. They even name bolters, which had me facepalming. They must have a massive bank of names somewhere.

I don't know about APC's but in the real world we do name individual tanks (At least in the US Army/USMC) although not every tank is named, and even then its usually only the crews that do it. Likewise, its not uncommon for an individual troop to name their weapon (every weapon I am issued bears the name "Black Betty").

As for why the Imperium doesn't use deisgnators, there is nothing to confuse the ship with... In the real world you use "HMS such and such" or "USS such and such" so that the speaker knows to which nation the vessel belongs... in the Imperium, if its not a human ship, it doesn't have a name worth mentioning because its going to be a debris field in a few minutes...

I'm sure I've seen the HDMS prefix somewhere. Probably the Cain books.

I like it with both the prefix and without...
With the prefix it has an air of authority but without it it almost has a personality...

Flinty wrote:I'm sure I've seen the HDMS prefix somewhere. Probably the Cain books.

Hah. Considering all the other things those novels apparently want to tell, I wouldn't be surprised.

chaos0xomega wrote:

Harriticus wrote:They just give it a title. There's no prefix.

Really it's incredible how many things are named in 40k. I get the ships, Titans, and even Baneblades. But naming individual tanks, APC's is fairly ridiculous. They even name bolters, which had me facepalming. They must have a massive bank of names somewhere.

I don't know about APC's but in the real world we do name individual tanks (At least in the US Army/USMC) although not every tank is named, and even then its usually only the crews that do it. Likewise, its not uncommon for an individual troop to name their weapon (every weapon I am issued bears the name "Black Betty").

As for why the Imperium doesn't use deisgnators, there is nothing to confuse the ship with... In the real world you use "HMS such and such" or "USS such and such" so that the speaker knows to which nation the vessel belongs... in the Imperium, if its not a human ship, it doesn't have a name worth mentioning because its going to be a debris field in a few minutes...

Agreed - to the Imperials there is only the Imperium and enemies/ those that they ignore, non Imperial human ships are likely the former.

It may be dedicated System/ planetary defence ships have designators but probably not - even Space Marine Chaptors seem to see no reason to have a designator as such....

regarding vehicles - these often last considerably longer than a human lifetime and in the case of Titans are objects of veneration and worship in their own right - why would such things not be named!