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I'm kiiinda considering making our ship in our upcoming Rogue Trader game an ancient ship that enacts Exterminatus...but has long since been without any 'ammunition'. This could lead to many Imperial followers being very uneasy around it, suffice it to say - and those who don't know any better could become quite nervous in its presence. Not to mention how many on the ship itself might think it's a dumb idea to be on it at all in the first place, after they dig it up and requisition a crew.

So I need to know what sort of ship I'm dealing with, so I can create one for our Rogue Trader game. We can make a transport, a frigate, a raider, a light cruiser, or a cruiser. They make mention of other ship types like Battleships, but we can't use those.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Exterminatus#.UYXI57U3vOw

Lexicanicum seems to have nothing on it^ so I'd like to know what possibilities exist for sake of this.

So - does anyone have any input on the matter?

(PS-If you know of any reasons as to why this would be extremely improbable, do let me know. It's just an idea )

Imperial Navy Emperor and Retribution class battleships, Space Marine battle barges.

I don't know the identification for the various imperial craft, but this clip might help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67JpMyrOVE

The thing is there's dozens of different types of exterminatus and technically any ship with macro batteries and enough time on its hands can repeatedly blast the surface of a planet until it's wiped clean.

Most of the other types of exterminatus you see come from the specific ammunition used rather than a specific weapon. Any macro battery could virus bomb a planet if it had the right shells.

The standard seems to be Space Marine Battle Barges, but I've also seen Battleship-class IN vessels used.

I would say anything with a bombardment cannon. Most times( if not all times) exterminatus is a type of shell, they may not all do the same thing but they are shells. So it seems to me they would need a system designed to attack a planet.

Anything with the exterminatus ammo/device aboard. You don't need a specific type of ship, just the tool itself. Every Imperial ships has both batteries and torpedo tubes with which to commit exterminatus.

There are multiple types of Exterminatus from cyclonic torpedoes, atmospheric incinerators, the life eater virus, bombs placed on the surface of the planet.

In the HH novels it describes the life-eater virus as being contained in glass baubles that can be handled manually by servitors and other lowly working class menials. If the ordinance is so small I can see most fleet vessels being able to deploy them.

According to BFG, any capital ship may have its prow armament refitted with an 'Armageddon Weapon'. The result varies from simple 'glassing' to outright planetary annihilation.

Smaller vessels can also do it - as noted in various publications such as Tactica Imperalis. As noted before - you really just need the weapon and a launch tube / suitable firing platform.

You also need the authority to carry it out AND more improtantly potentially justify it to your peers and others.

re the OP - I like the idea - you could even have the Machine Spirit of the ship either bloodthristy to carry out such tasks again or somewhat ashamed of its deeds................this could effect the magos in charge of maintaining it and his/her servitors as well??

It might also depend on why the Eterminatus was conducted - was to save the souls fo those already condemed to death at the hands of Chaos or the Xenos or as the actions of a arrogant Inquisitor etc.

Maybe use an old Inquisitorial Black Ship, one which was specially outfitted to carry out Exterminatus missions?

 Netsurfer733 wrote:
I'm kiiinda considering making our ship in our upcoming Rogue Trader game an ancient ship that enacts Exterminatus...but has long since been without any 'ammunition'. This could lead to many Imperial followers being very uneasy around it, suffice it to say - and those who don't know any better could become quite nervous in its presence. Not to mention how many on the ship itself might think it's a dumb idea to be on it at all in the first place, after they dig it up and requisition a crew.

So I need to know what sort of ship I'm dealing with, so I can create one for our Rogue Trader game. We can make a transport, a frigate, a raider, a light cruiser, or a cruiser. They make mention of other ship types like Battleships, but we can't use those.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Exterminatus#.UYXI57U3vOw

Lexicanicum seems to have nothing on this^ so I'd like to know what possibilities exist for sake of this.

So - does anyone have any input on this?

(PS-If you know of any reasons as to why this would be extremely improbably, do let me know. It's just an idea )

Theoretically any ship can enact exterminatus as long as it has naval grade guns. Multi tera and gigaton shots being hammered into the planet over a period of time can sterilize it as well as a cyclonic torpedo or virus bomb, it just takes a lot longer.

In one of the older white dwarfs ( below 300) there is an article for a scenario against necron. In the story a inquisitor investigates a tomb world that has some kind of pulse in its energy readings. With a deathwatch team, a cadian squad (iirc they were nicknamed the firebrands) and a techpriest for exterminatus. The only two ships the inquisitor brought were a transport and a cobra class destroyer with the cyclonic torpedoes on board (which were used). Its the smallest vessel with this ordnance Ive seen being mentioned yet.

Any ship that has Torpedo tubes can enact an Exterminatus with virus bombs or Cyclonic torpedoes, in theory.

Now not every ship carries these weapons. Only the Inquisition, Space Marine chapters, or very high ranking Imperial officials will have access to these weapons.


Virus Bombs are only given out for explicitly sanctioned Exterminatus missions, no spur of the moment planet killing.

Battle Barges do carry Cyclonic Torpedoes and Virus Bombs standard because Space Marines are authorized to carry out Exterminatus. Any Inquisitorial vessels will also carry one or more of these weapons.




Exterminatus has several steps.

1) Conventional bombardment to destroy any hardened bunkers and methods of escape from the doomed planet.

2) Deployment of Virus Bombs via torpedoes. The Virus reacts with any organic matter, causing almost instant deterioration. This causes a buildup of flammable gas planet wide.

3) The flammable gas is ignited, usually via lance strike. This causes a planet-wide firestorm, burning anything that may have survived to this point to ash.

4) This doesn't always happen, but at this point Cyclonic Torpedoes may be launched. These burrow deep into the planet's crust and detonate, causing the planet to break apart. This is the only way to destroy Necron Tomb worlds.


Steps 1-3 can be seen in this cutscene from DoW2.

A couple of ideas:

1. While many different weapons can be used in Exterminatus, it could be a ship whose primary gun is impractical for any other purpose. For example, the whole ship could be built around a massive lance emitter (a la Macross) that is far too unwieldy to target ships, but is able to crack a planet's crust with ease.

2. It could be not so much the type of armament, but the history of the ship itself. The ship itself could be a relic, many thousands of years old, that has dealt the deathblow to a thousand worlds and has its hull etched with the names of all of them.

You could always go down the DAoT road and have a smallish ship that has a weapon capable of destroying an entire planet, a weapon that has deteriorated to the point where its not within anybody but the Ad Mech's capability to repair it.

A DAoT relic, the handwavium of the 40k universe.

The Inquisition also has automated ships running round behind enemy lines and exterminatus'ing their worlds.

Lexicanum wrote:The Exterminatus order can be given by any Inquisitor, Space Marine Chapter Master, Lord High Admiral, or Lord Commander[1]. An astropath will relay the order to a Space Marine Chapter nearest the condemned world. Upon receiving the order, the Space Marine fleet will be dispatched with the desired methods of annihilation.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Exterminatus#.UYc9hLWR9mE

 Grey Templar wrote:
Any ship that has Torpedo tubes can enact an Exterminatus with virus bombs or Cyclonic torpedoes, in theory.

Now not every ship carries these weapons. Only the Inquisition, Space Marine chapters, or very high ranking Imperial officials will have access to these weapons.


Virus Bombs are only given out for explicitly sanctioned Exterminatus missions, no spur of the moment planet killing.

Battle Barges do carry Cyclonic Torpedoes and Virus Bombs standard because Space Marines are authorized to carry out Exterminatus. Any Inquisitorial vessels will also carry one or more of these weapons.




Exterminatus has several steps.

1) Conventional bombardment to destroy any hardened bunkers and methods of escape from the doomed planet.

2) Deployment of Virus Bombs via torpedoes. The Virus reacts with any organic matter, causing almost instant deterioration. This causes a buildup of flammable gas planet wide.

3) The flammable gas is ignited, usually via lance strike. This causes a planet-wide firestorm, burning anything that may have survived to this point to ash.

4) This doesn't always happen, but at this point Cyclonic Torpedoes may be launched. These burrow deep into the planet's crust and detonate, causing the planet to break apart. This is the only way to destroy Necron Tomb worlds.


Steps 1-3 can be seen in this cutscene from DoW2.

Typhon was exterminatus'd with a cyclonic torpedo methinks.

 Mr Morden wrote:
re the OP - I like the idea - you could even have the Machine Spirit of the ship either bloodthristy to carry out such tasks again or somewhat ashamed of its deeds................this could effect the magos in charge of maintaining it and his/her servitors as well??

It might also depend on why the Eterminatus was conducted - was to save the souls fo those already condemed to death at the hands of Chaos or the Xenos or as the actions of a arrogant Inquisitor etc.

This is a good idea!

-STS

For some reason it's quite fun to read all of your guys' posts about this

I'll say first that the name we decided on for the ship was Pride of the Aquila, so to that end we just weren't comfortable enough in keeping this ship a frigate (which is what we were originally thinking) - we'll be going with either a Light Cruiser or a Cruiser. Would you guys say then that Mars Pattern Macrobatteries would do?

slade the sniper wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
re the OP - I like the idea - you could even have the Machine Spirit of the ship either bloodthristy to carry out such tasks again or somewhat ashamed of its deeds................this could effect the magos in charge of maintaining it and his/her servitors as well??

It might also depend on why the Eterminatus was conducted - was to save the souls fo those already condemed to death at the hands of Chaos or the Xenos or as the actions of a arrogant Inquisitor etc.

This is a good idea!

-STS

I definitely do love that idea! However I was actually considering something different. Since this is an imperial (probably Mars-made) ship, I was thinking it would actually be very prideful and righteous, not at all ashamed. As though it was the instrument of some divinity, and despite the incredibly, terribly awful things that it did, it somehow would always give you the impression that it was right. That the Imperial Creed it follows was right.

The reason I think that would be interesting is because my Rogue Trader and my friends' characters will actually not be very gung-ho imperials in the slightest. Mine will be from more criminal/con-man origins, etc., and my gf will be from a death world. So I think that would all contrast really well with this.

Really ironic btw that you point out the magos and the servitors; I was thinking that this ship would have essentially been lying in wait for the next Rogue Trader of the bloodline (lost for centuries or millenia) aboard this ship, somewhere hidden. So he and his servitors would have been just keeping the ship together until that day, thanks to what would probably be the last wishes of my Rogue Trader's ancestor's wishes (whom of course this magos would have served and been made loyal to).

Anyway this will be our first pen & paper RPG game ever, so I'm open to any thoughts about all this as well, since you guys seem to be interested

 Kain wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Any ship that has Torpedo tubes can enact an Exterminatus with virus bombs or Cyclonic torpedoes, in theory.

Now not every ship carries these weapons. Only the Inquisition, Space Marine chapters, or very high ranking Imperial officials will have access to these weapons.


Virus Bombs are only given out for explicitly sanctioned Exterminatus missions, no spur of the moment planet killing.

Battle Barges do carry Cyclonic Torpedoes and Virus Bombs standard because Space Marines are authorized to carry out Exterminatus. Any Inquisitorial vessels will also carry one or more of these weapons.




Exterminatus has several steps.

1) Conventional bombardment to destroy any hardened bunkers and methods of escape from the doomed planet.

2) Deployment of Virus Bombs via torpedoes. The Virus reacts with any organic matter, causing almost instant deterioration. This causes a buildup of flammable gas planet wide.

3) The flammable gas is ignited, usually via lance strike. This causes a planet-wide firestorm, burning anything that may have survived to this point to ash.

4) This doesn't always happen, but at this point Cyclonic Torpedoes may be launched. These burrow deep into the planet's crust and detonate, causing the planet to break apart. This is the only way to destroy Necron Tomb worlds.


Steps 1-3 can be seen in this cutscene from DoW2.

Typhon was exterminatus'd with a cyclonic torpedo methinks.

I don't think so, the planet still exists(as a dead husk but it exists nonetheless)

Cyclonic Torpedoes give the planet the whole Deathstar treatment. Nothing left but a new asteroid belt.

I would say that there are many ways to perform an Exterminatus action.

-Cyclonic torpedoes from one or more ships crack the crust.

-The life-eater virus. As it sets up a giant chain-reaction that is self-sustaining, I'm sure the initial implementation could be dropped in a single warhead, or a half-dozen spread across the planet.

-Massed Fleet bombardment. I could especially see ships using torpedos and Nova Cannons. A Nova Cannon is so idiotically powerful, that even in a game where the ships are meant to represent what would otherwise be tiny dots at the center of the flying stem, it uses a frigging blast template.

-And the Imperium still has simple nukes, I wager. Doesn't take many of what we are capable of building now to render all live on a planet into dust.