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I was looking at some info on the various Imperial Navy ships in order to understand better what size ships can transport titans. From the HH series I seem to remember the largest titan classes being aboard the largest battleships and being dropped planetside individually with thrusters etc not via a transport craft. If you wanted to transport a warhound for example what would be the minimum starhship class needed? How would it then get transported planetside?

Interested in everyones thoughts.

The Ad Mech has specialized transport ships for carrying Titan Legions.

Yep. The AdMech transport them to and from the planet's surface with massive bulk-lifter vehicles. The AdMech also has massive inter-stellar transport craft for moving Titans from Point A to B.

The Titans are not the property or possessions of the Departmento Munitorum, they are owned by the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Navy is not responsible (or even frequently tasked) with ferrying a Titan Legion around.

I thought the Dies Irai Imperator class titan was on Horus battleship in the HH. What your saying makes sense since the Mechanicus is independant. On the 40K lexicanum wiki it says the Mechanicus have access to the same warships as the Imperium with the addition of other "unique" vessels.

Would be interested if there is any specific info on what specific vessels transport titans.


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 Psienesis wrote:
Yep. The AdMech transport them to and from the planet's surface with massive bulk-lifter vehicles. The AdMech also has massive inter-stellar transport craft for moving Titans from Point A to B.

The Titans are not the property or possessions of the Departmento Munitorum, they are owned by the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Navy is not responsible (or even frequently tasked) with ferrying a Titan Legion around.

Any idea what class of ships they use for intersteller transport? (just a shot in the dark )

The Heresy was a different time. There was much more cooperation. Plus Horus's flagship was a unique vessel and could have had Titan storage. he was the Warmaster after all. A personal Titan legion wouldn't have been out of the question.


As for how they are taken to the surface,

Emperor and Warlord titans will be taken down in a lander which is little more than a shell with thrusters around the titan itself.

Reavers and Warhounds will be fully enclosed and be taken down in groups.


The actual transports are most likely a specially made Universe class Mass Conveyor, or other class of transport ship. http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Universe_Class_Mass_Conveyor#.Ufaefpz_dPs

I'm not sure the class is ever named anywhere, though the Oberon-class cruisers and a modified Goliath-class vessel seem the most likely candidates.

 Grey Templar wrote:
The Heresy was a different time. There was much more cooperation. Plus Horus's flagship was a unique vessel and could have had Titan storage. he was the Warmaster after all. A personal Titan legion wouldn't have been out of the question.


As for how they are taken to the surface,

Emperor and Warlord titans will be taken down in a lander which is little more than a shell with thrusters around the titan itself.

Reavers and Warhounds will be fully enclosed and be taken down in groups.


The actual transports are most likely a specially made Universe class Mass Conveyor, or other class of transport ship. http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Universe_Class_Mass_Conveyor#.Ufaefpz_dPs

I'm not sure the class is ever named anywhere, though the Oberon-class cruisers and a modified Goliath-class vessel seem the most likely candidates.

thanks to you both most helpful!

 Psienesis wrote:
I'm not sure the class is ever named anywhere, though the Oberon-class cruisers and a modified Goliath-class vessel seem the most likely candidates.

Are there two Oberon-class vessels? It was a Battleship in Gothic, not a Cruiser.

Nah, the battleship is the one I'm talking about, though I'd also imagine that almost any vessel in the same tonnage could carry several Titans as well as the support staff and materials required.

There's also that Universe-class bulk transporter that is just gargantuan, even amongst Imperial naval vessels.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Universe_Class_Mass_Conveyor#.UfbUBqyYv_Y

the ship itself may be big enough, but that doesn't mean it actually has facilities to store the Titans.

I imagine the Ad Mech has some pretty stringent containment guidelines and maintenance facility requirements. Plus you have to have the open space for the Titans and their drop ships to actually fit.

Since the AdMech is responsible for building these ships, taking the hull of a vessel-class of the appropriate dimensions and then fitting it with the necessary gubbins is probably the route they go.

Like I said previously, I don't know if the class of vessel that hauls the Titans around is ever explicitly named, so I provided the names of some ships that are capable of doing so. Almost any Imperial vessel of Light Cruiser or larger size is, with the proper outfitting, capable of hauling a Titan and its transport craft. Titans are big, but they're not *that* big, compared to a vessel that's a kilometer and a half long and 350 meters abeam and tall.

There is quite a bit about Titan transport in Titanicus, By Dan Abnett, if you take it as canon.

It describes bulk transporters that carry the titans in "void-storage", which I assume to be unheated bays that are not pressurized, as one of the Titans' bridges was still at freezing temp when entered. They are transported down to the planet in gigantic lifter ships (so big they blot the sun out to huge areas of the ground) that actually hover over the landing site and lower the Titans down with cranes, rather then have them walk out on their own.

Now, I'm not sure if that was something semi-unique because they had a prepared and loyal Adeptus Mechanicus-held forgeworld to arrive to. On planets without an infrastructure, they might actually land the ships on the planet and then walk out under their own power, though the former fits with the monolithic, brute-force nature of the Imperium's militaries.

Interesting in Titanicus did it have any other info on the type of ships transporting the titans and did it differentiate by titan class?

Pure speculation here, but the way I envision the transport working is a ship that's mostly a framework. The Titans are pre-loaded into their dropships (which are pretty much just a crate around the Titan, covered in retro-thrusters and enough armor to have a chance of surviving a defense laser hit) which are attached to the frame. The Titan crews ride with the ship's crew while it's traveling to the war zone, then board the Titan just before launch.

I've always envisioned a Titan-freighter, that being the ship that transports it from the void-farer to a planet's surface, to be a really big version of this ship from Star Wars:




... it's basically a big, flying box.

Dunno. I know Legion Invicta arrived to that planet with 48 titans of all Warhound, Reaver and Warlord class, so I am assuming several ships carried them.

As Dan Abnett wrote it, the lander ships were so big that it was speculated they would disrupt weather patterns. One part describes crane ships shuttling titans down from one as it hovered at 1000 meters over the surface, and it was so big that another one like it could be seen over 40 kilometers away by people.

According to Abnett, all large ships that enter the atmosphere disrupt the weather, servitors are capable of cracking jokes and carrying on intelligent conversations, including telling an Inquisitor to go get knotted (not in so many words, but it was a stressful situation), and that Inquisitors get a free pass on the whole Sanctioning process when they develop psychic powers.

I mean, I like Abnett's books, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't write for general 40K, he writes for the "Daniverse", which is his interpretation of 40K, which he is completely entitled to have and create.

Yeah, but the "monolithic with a capitol M" part of the Imperium exists in all the material.

Sure, but there's nothing saying that a giant box shipping a Titan dirtside can't blot out the sun... a ship doesn't actually have to be *that* large to do that, because it's a matter of perspective. Shoot, you can blot out the sun with your hand, though that's a very localized example of the same event.

And I have never heard of single ships, that weren't full sized warships, disrupting weather patterns. A ship in low orbit maintaining a steady orbit can have its engines cause disturbances.

Hundreds of landing craft do though. Like the planetary invasion in the GG series. Trillions of tons of steel being dropped into the atmosphere causing hurricane force winds for example.

A single ship won't do much more than a single ripple, but hundreds will cause massive problems.

The SM battle novel Wrath of Iron when the titan legion arrives on describes the titan carriers as being 'twice as tall as it was wide and deep'. The sides are covered in 'baroque bronze imagery - angels, demigos, mythical beasts, arcane machinery of long forgotten providence'. One side is taken up with a 'single immense load-bay'. The titans are mounted on kept on tracked units 'many metres across and clad in thick blast armour' that wheel them out of the bulk carrier until they can walk off under their own power. Hope that gives you some further understanding.
Chaos titans are probably moved in weird ways, in the Storm of Iron book, Dies Irae (Traitor Emperor Class) is moved by what sounded like a captured and corrupted tyranid ship or daemonic vessel