Imperial Line Cruisers
Lunar Class Cruiser
Size: 5 KM long, 0.8 KM abeam at the wings
Crew: 95,000
Max Acceleration: 2.5 g
Defences: tipple-armoured adamantium prow, faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 cruiser class Void shield.
Standard Main Armament: 8 Macro Cannons (4 per broadside), 4 plasma Lances (2 per broudside) and either 6 Torpedo launchers or a Nova Cannon.
Standard secondary Armament: Turbo lasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)
Auxiliary craft: 2 Arvus lighters, 1 Apulia lander
Lore: The Lunar is the workhorse, backbone and most common line cruiser of the Imperial Navy. She was created in M33 to replace the outdated and inefficient Relentless, Murder and Emasculator Class cruisers and provide the Imperium with a single mass-producible multirole line-cruiser. It proved a wild success. The next most common cruiser, the Gothic, outnumbered by about a third by Lunar Class cruisers.
Primary reason for this is the ship's armaments. She has a plasma lance battery per broadside, each lance having respectable range and terrifying anti-armour capabilities; a battery of Macro Cannons that can make short work out of anything it hits and act as suppression as well as either 6 torpedo launchers or even the legendary Nova Cannon. She also has a large cargo capacity, effective auspex equipment, and a pair of extended command and control towers and secondary bridge to allow the ship to fulfil flagship duties for smaller fleets as well as direct strike craft groups launched from carriers onto key targets. Retaining average mobility, speed and armour protection for a line cruiser alongside this versatility.
While the lunar may not be as impressive in any one role as some other Imperial cruisers, the fact she can fill such a wide variety of roles makes her a highly valued ship by nearly every battle fleet in the Navy. Vast flotillas being found everywhere in the Imperium and most battle lines being made up mainly of these cruisers.
Gothic Class Cruiser
Size: 5 KM long, 0.8 KM abeam at the wings
Crew: 93,800
Max Acceleration: 2.5 g
Defences: tipple-armoured adamantium prow, faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 cruiser class Void shield.
Standard Main Armament: 4 Plasma 'Purgatory' Lance batteries (2 per broadside), 6 torpedo launchers
Standard secondary Armament: Turbo lasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)
Auxiliary craft: 2 Arvus lighters, 1 Aquila lander
Lore: The Gothic Class is largely considered a failed experiment by the Imperial Navy.
The Cruiser was originally conceived to hopefully fill the same role as the mighty Apocalypse Class Battleship, which was becoming increasingly rare due to the inability to construct further vessels of that class. The battleship having a vast armament of exclusively lances that could overwhelm and destroy any vessel's defences in minutes under a massed and concentred barrage. The converted Lunar, named the Gothic Class, designed to be a cheap supplement for this role.
Unfortunately, this dream was never realised, the Gothic had very serious issues from the start. First, the power transfer technology for the Apocalypse's massed lances was lost, and only a limited number of shipyards could produce the Imperium's complex, arcane replacement; only inefficient and much less effective power transfers could be fitted to most of these cruisers. Even that proving complicated and time consuming to produce.
Secondly, the lances and new power conduit required a new armour profile which made the Gothic far too heavy and sluggish with conventional cruiser engines. Designers compensated by literally removing all armour from several main areas of the hull. The new armour layout and power consumption of the Gothic's lances preventing the chance of a Nova Cannon being added, unlike the Lunar on which she was based.
When the Gothic was finally put through combat trials, her first commanders discovered a third devastating setback. The Gothic's vaunted lances were too weak and too few to cripple other cruiser-class vessels with a single broadside (as the Apocalypse could do), and were too delicate to be fired rapidly without a serious risk of shipboard explosions. This lead to the saying: 'A lone Gothic is a dead Gothic', as the ship had to be escorted by another cruiser to be effective against most enemies.
Despite its initial failures, the Gothic class quickly found a niche: being an incredible counter to escort type vessels. The concentrated and highly accurate lance strikes from a Gothic were perfect for picking off frigates and destroyers as they attempted to close in on fleets for attack runs. And the Gothic's armour, though underwhelming for a cruiser, was more than sufficient to withstand hits from its smaller targets. Making the Gothic a favourite for anti-piracy operations and convoy escorts, where more successful and generally useful cruisers would be wasted: many Gothic cruisers being produced to fill exactly those largely less-important roles.
Dominator Class Cruiser
Size: 5.4 KM long, 0.9 KM abeam at the wings
Crew: 98,000
Max Acceleration: 2.4 g
Defences: tipple-armoured adamantium prow, faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 cruiser class Void shield.
Standard Main Armament: 16 Heavy 'Titian Forge' Macro Cannons (8 per broadside), 1 Prow Nova Cannon
Standard secondary Armament: Turbo lasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)
Auxiliary craft: 2 Arvus lighters, 1 Aquila lander.
Lore: The Dominator is the deadliest and least common of the Imperial cruisers. This ship has roughly average armour and speed, but has a terrifying array of weapons for a ship of her weight class: being the only cruiser to boast a Nova Cannon as standard and Heavy Macro batteries equal in strength to the mighty Retribution battleship, although the limitations of the cruisers power supply allowing only half the range of the much larger battleship.
The idea behind the design was quite simple. The cruiser would deploy in small groups behind the main battle line on major combat fronts, using its Nova cannon to cripple any large enemy vessels attempting to break the line, and moving in to plug gaps and hunt stragglers with its massive macro batteries. On the offensive, a pack of Dominators would use their nova cannons to cause mass confusion and destruction as they close on enemy battle groups, get inside their formation, and tear it open with salvoes from their Heavy Macro Cannons. A handful of these Line cruisers able to rip apart fleets of ships much larger than themselves.
The cruiser wasn't unstoppable though; she was vulnerable to Ordnance and lacked strike craft or Lance batteries to defend herself effectively against smaller vessels. The Nova Cannon and Heavy Macro batteries also had a slow rate of fire, so anything that could withstand the first salvo was likely to be able to destroy the warship.
Regardless, the ship was very successful, and adored by both her crews and admirals for her reliability and flexibility on the battlefield. However, the ship came into her own in the Gothic War. One Dominator, the Hammer of Justice, found herself in an ambush where she was flanked by a pair of Chaos Carnage class cruisers: The Dominator proceeded to reduce both cruisers to floating hulks in seconds under a full barrage from both broadsides. Another, the Depth of Fury, desperately defended the shine world of Kathur against a fleet lead by the dreaded Death Guard legion flagship: Terminus Est. The Depth of Fury destroyed scores of escorts, a Styx Class Heavy Cruiser, and vaporised several decks on the Terminus Est with a Neutronium shell shot from her Nova Cannon (coming very close to destroying the massive warship), before succumbing to catastrophic damage done across 90% stricken cruiser's decks. No Imperial survivors were found on board.
Dictator Class Cruiser
Size: 5.1 KM long, 0.8 KM abeam at the wings (Lunar conversion 5 KM long)
Crew: 100,000
Max Acceleration: 2.5 g (lunar conversation), 2.8 g (purpose-built)
Defences: Tripple-armoured adamantium prow, faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 cruiser class Void shield.
Standard Main Armament: 8 Macro Cannons (4 cannons per broadside), 2 Hangar decks (1 per broadside), 6 torpedo launchers
Standard secondary Armament: Turbo lasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)
Auxiliary craft: 2 Arvus lighters, 1 Aquila lander, 50 Furies, 24 Star Hawks
Lore: This warship was originally built as a stopgap measure to address Battlefleet Gothic's desperate need for carriers during the early stages of the 12th Black Crusade in early M41. The first Dictators were built from the wrecks of damaged or destroyed Lunar-class cruisers. Collapsed interior spaces were gutted and converted into hangar space, and lance batteries were traded for launch bays. For a ship built out of shipwrecks, the Dictator served its role as a cruiser/light carrier hybrid admirably well. They would escort convoys, flagship long-range patrols and spearhead pirate interdiction operations. During actions against pirates, packs of Dictators would flush Ork and human raiders out of asteroid fields with swarms of bombers so that they and the rest of the fleet could blow them apart under massed macro cannon fire.
The Dictator class quickly came into high demand during the Gothic War. Shipyards began producing purpose-built Dictator hulls with improved auspex sensors and engines for greater long-range strike potential. The Dictator class rapidly replaced the Lunar class and ineffective escort carriers as the primary escort cruiser. It was the Dictator class that proved instrumental in the destruction of Pirate's Haven, the primary base of operations for Ork and human pirates. Such was the ships success that by the end of the Gothic War, the Dictator class outnumbered the Lunar class and had largely replaced them as the primary fleet cruiser in battlefleet Gothic.
One Dictator, the Lord Solar Macharius, gained great fame under the command of Flag-Captain Leoten Semper. Flag-Captain Semper distinguished himself and his ship by delivering the first detailed auspex scans of the Planet Killer to Battlefleet command, routing a Chaos armada besieging Helia IV and securing cooperation between Eldar and Imperial forces in the final stages of the war.
Tyrant Class Cruiser
Size: 5 KM long, 0.8 KM abeam at the wings
Crew: 92,000
Max Acceleration: 2.2 g
Defences: tipple-armoured adamantium prow, faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 cruiser class Void shield.
Standard Main Armament: 8 Plasma-Macro Cannons (4 per broadside), 8 Macro Cannons (4 per broadside) and either 6 torpedo launchers or a Nova Cannon
Standard secondary Armament: Turbo lasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)
Auxiliary craft: 2 Arvus lighters, 1 Aquila lander
Lore: The Tyrant's defining feature is its plasma-based main armament. Plasma Macro weapons being conceived in early M38 as part of an Imperial effort to extend the range of Macro weaponry. It was discovered that shells of fusing Plasma had double the range of the projectiles fired by conventional Imperial Macro cannons and where simpler and quicker to build than the heavier Laser-Macro cannons. At short range, the effects of these weapons were grisly: at the area of impact, molecules literally fused together and chunks of the ship's hull were vaporised. The intense heat generated by short-range plasma hits would render heat-sensitive enemy Lances temporarily inoperable. But there was a catch: The Plasma began to fade and fizzle out at standard Imperial engagement ranges, meaning that Plasma macro cannons could only damage unshielded escorts at the edge of their 'effective' double range.
The Tyrant was the first warship to be equipped with these weapons. She is also characterized by her slower speed and strong armour for a cruiser. The speed handicap is a result of the power-hungry cooling system required for the Tyrant's Plasma weapons, even with the restriction to just one plasma battery. Extra armour was added to increase survivability during her lumbering attack runs, giving the Cruiser a better chance of surviving and winning exchanged where she was out manoeuvred.
The experimental nature of the Tyrant's weapons meant that initial production runs were limited to specialized forge worlds. During this time, a fielded Tyrant was a rare sight. It was not until M39 that the new cruiser saw widespread production on general-purpose industrial worlds. The Tyrant experienced a sudden boom in popularity at that time, rapidly replacing the Lunar class as the preferred line-cruiser in several high profile battlefleets. Heavy armour and powerful, extended range, Macro weaponry made the Tyrant an ideal cruiser to accompany battleships and battlecruisers in the line of battle. Lord Admirals giving glowing first impressions of the new Line-Cruiser. However, as her limited stopping power at range became better known, she fell from favour with many admirals, and her low speed meant that she was ill-suited for a chase and couldn't react quickly to changing battle situations.
Despite her fall from her earlier popularity in M39, a sizable number of Tyrant class vessels are still in service across the Imperium, with dozens of new ships of this class built daily. The Tyrant proving her worth in various major battles, adding solidarity to cruiser formations and making excellent escorts for battleships: The Plasma batteries on the Tyrant being superior for taking down smaller targets, allowing the battleships to focus on larger targets unmolested. The Tyrant also having massive potential for damage in a close-range brawl.