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As the title asks. Can anyone tell me the class/type of this ship?

Is it Imperial Navy? (I suspect it is)

Is there any way this ship could be part of a Space Marine fleet? (as opposed to Imperial Navy)

Many thanks for your input.

Lunar Class cruiser. Navy.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Lunar Class cruiser. Navy.

This is correct. Nice pic.

Thanks guys.

 alanmckenzie wrote:
Thanks guys.

To answer your second question: probably not. IIRC space marine fleets are composed of battle barges, strike cruisers, and supporting light craft. Anything as powerful as a cruiser is firmly in the Navy's hands.

That said, the galaxy is a big place, and there are exceptions to almost everything. I could see a space based chapter taking one as a prize from a rebel capatin, and keeping it for their own use. Particuarly if they lost a number of their own ships in the engagement. Images of bording craft passing torpedoes and lances in the black void, knowing the barge they launched from is a glowing ball of dispersing plasma, the marines fight to find a new home.

Or whatever fluff floats your kilometer long warship...

That type of ship could definitely be in a Space Marine fleet, but it would be rare.

Space Marines do not use a single class of vessel for Strike Cruisers or Battle Barges. Those are simply niches that a specific ship can fill.

Chapters often refit ships to fit their task or are built ships specifically by the Ad Mech. So a modified Luna cruiser is definitely a possibility.


Ships are also often salvaged, so a particularly ship poor chapter could definitely find a damaged Luna cruiser floating around and claim it for themselves.

Grey Templar has the right of it, though I want to emphasize that a design like this would be extremely rare for any chapter to have. Strike cruisers tend to follow a similar pattern in that they're orbital bombardment/support vessels primarily and fleet combat oriented secondarily. A Lunar is very much the epitome of a fleet vessel with its array of lances and broadside batteries.

Most IN designs that chapters do use are venerable Grand cruiser hulls from the heresy/immediate post heresy and are used for Battle Barges due to their size.

So, you could use a Lunar in a marine fleet, but I'd heavily modify to represent the weapons on a strike cruiser better. The game itself (or at least the 2010 FAQ) has the option to select one Grand Cruiser from an IN fleet to become a chapter's Battle Barge, with some modifications of course.

Actually any Capital Ship can be selected for the Venerable Battle Barge option. Its just the Grand Cruisers and Battleships are the best use of that option. A Luna is too little bang for that slot.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Actually any Capital Ship can be selected for the Venerable Battle Barge option. Its just the Grand Cruisers and Battleships are the best use of that option. A Luna is too little bang for that slot.

I stand corrected.

Space wolfs use any ship they confiscated in a battle

While there are exceptions, it is frowned upon for Space Marines to have ships too focused on ship to ship combat. This as explained in the BFG sources is a post-Heresy change to ensure the Space Marines cannot challenge the Imperial Navy for space supremacy in case of rebellion. The standard Space Marine barges and strike cruisers are meant to be able to fight sufficiently in space to deliver their cargo of Space Marines to a target. They are not meant for fleet battles.

Some major Chapters such as former Legions may get away with a little bit of bending of the rules and other Imperial institutions turning a blind eye, but this is a matter of politics. If a lesser Chapter were to start amassing many ships capable of challenging the Imperial Navy in a straight fleet battle, then they might start getting into trouble. In much the same way, Huron's expansion of his Chapter far far beyond the limits set by the Codex was one reason among many why he was declared a rebel. All the post-Heresy reforms were enacted to prevent any one Imperial institution from being able to launch a full scale rebellion on its own.

I can well see that several of the first founding chpters may have a few relic ships still in inventory, but i would suspect they would likely be older pattern ships, such as those used by the chaos fleets. I would suspect they would be few in number, but still well maintained.

As to whether a more modern Lunar Class cruiser would be in a space marine force, i don't see why not. Space marine ships are designed to be able to deliver the strike force to a planetary surface, and each chapter only has a limited number of them together with smaller frigate sized strike craft. If the Marines were part of a task force intended to fight an organised enemy with access to large ships, the imperial Navy would likely cooperate in which case you would have Marine battle barges together with imperial ships.

Case in point, the damocles gulf crusade had elements drawn from the imperial navy, army as well as the astartes. Where overall command would reside would depend on the exact circumstances, but it easily possible for an imperial navy squadron to be seconded to a marine task force for a specific mission.

It should be noted however that under normal circumstances, thanks to the 'enlightened' reforms of girlyman, the navy, army, and the astartes operate independently from one another

madtankbloke wrote:
I can well see that several of the first founding chpters may have a few relic ships still in inventory, but i would suspect they would likely be older pattern ships, such as those used by the chaos fleets. I would suspect they would be few in number, but still well maintained.

As to whether a more modern Lunar Class cruiser would be in a space marine force, i don't see why not. Space marine ships are designed to be able to deliver the strike force to a planetary surface, and each chapter only has a limited number of them together with smaller frigate sized strike craft. If the Marines were part of a task force intended to fight an organised enemy with access to large ships, the imperial Navy would likely cooperate in which case you would have Marine battle barges together with imperial ships.

Case in point, the damocles gulf crusade had elements drawn from the imperial navy, army as well as the astartes. Where overall command would reside would depend on the exact circumstances, but it easily possible for an imperial navy squadron to be seconded to a marine task force for a specific mission.

It should be noted however that under normal circumstances, thanks to the 'enlightened' reforms of girlyman, the navy, army, and the astartes operate independently from one another

Indeed, it would be more likely to find an Imperial cruiser captain operating with an Astartes unit out of friendship or a vow or something, rather than being under official control of the Astartes commanders.