User blog:RemosPendragon/To those who plan Battlefleets

I've been doing some small research about Imperial Navy battlefleet and -group sizes because they are... lot less than in other settings, it seems. Here is something I've gathered together, let it serve me and any other interested person in the future.

=Hierarchy= Imperial Navy has, for reasons unknown, rigid hierarchic structure. Unlike its ground-fighting counterpart, Imperial Guard, Navy has universal ranks and is possibly a lot more effective, in general too, when compared to Imperial Guard.

Navy hierarchy is as it is stated, and cannot be modified. Rogue Traders and Merchant and Civil fleets have possibly greatly varying ranks and most likely resemble more like Imperial Guard than Navy in hierarchy. Unlike Imperial Guard, the Navy does not have a single leader of the organisation.

High Command
Five Lord High Admirals exist at all times, each one of them governing one of the Imperial Segmentums. The Lexicanum tells us that Lord High Admirals are referred to as Lord Militant Commanders and Lord Commanders but, strong but, these are most likely just ignorant referances. Lord Commander Militant being the leader of Imperial Guard and Lord Commander being the leader of Segmentum troops of Imperial Guard. Most likely these references trace back to the glory days of RT-era, where Imperial Navy and Guard were collectively known as Imperial Army, just like in 30k now. Lord High Admiral Solar is primus inter pares.
 * Lord High Admiral

Rank of the leader of battlefleet (see below).
 * Lord Admiral

It seems to me, that this rank is somewhat unclear. First of all, it is published in the FFG stuff... so I don't really swallow it without biting. However, we can make use of this lack of further description of the rank and assume following. High Admiral is the rank of the Navy leader of crusade. Similar in nature to the rank of Warmaster, it might be granted by the High Lords of Terra (or possibly by Warmaster, for being subordinate of Warmaster anyway) and the rank ceases to exist when the Crusade is done. To be appointed as "High Admiral" one must hold admiral title before, so he (or she... possibly) may be Lord High Admiral, Lord Admiral or even Admiral. Undoubtly, Lord High Admiral wouldn't bother with such menial task as leading a crusade.
 * High Admiral

Leader of a battlegroup. What battlegroup exactly is, is not known.
 * Admiral

=Fleets=

Warfleet
Those fleets stationed in each of the five Segmentums are known as Warfleets. These are, respectively: One can suspect that due historical reasons the Warfleet Solar is the biggest or at least the best armed one, if due the vast size of Segmentum Ultima Warfleet Ultima would be more numerous. Exact size of these fleets remains unknown due lack of official sources.
 * Warfleet Solar
 * Warfleet Tempestus
 * Warfleet Pacificus
 * Warfleet Obscurus
 * Warfleet Ultima

Name
Imperial Navy is divided into fleets, battlefleets. These are named after their designated area of operations which are sectors and subsectors. For example, the Imperial Fleet of Iox sector would be Battlefleet Iox. Apparently (and reasonable enough, that is) they are never named after honorific members or vessels of Imperial Navy, but always after their designated area of operations.

As the fleets (of Segmentae) are divided into smaller fleets that safeguard particular areas, it can be assumed, that sector-fleets do not overcome sub-sector fleets. For example, on the right you see Iox sector, which has 7 sub-sectors. Now the main designated fleet, ruled respectively by Lord Admiral, would be Battlefleet Iox. However, the importance of the Saint's Rift sub-sector and Necareth system (within it) has given the sub-sector right to host its own "personal" battlefleet. Now this additional battlefleet would be Battlefleet Saint's Rift which is de jure independent organisation from the Battlefleet Iox. This way the Battlefleet Iox would have no jurisdiction over the area of Saint's Rift, nor over the battlefleet designated there, making the area to safeguard by Battlefleet Iox a lot smaller than originally.

Now then. We might get into speculations. Because this major fleet Battlefleet Iox is not exactly taking care of the whole Iox, should its name be something else? Considering the facts laid down earlier, I'd say no, but it could be adorned with 40k-ish style by Greek alphabets or numbers. The main battlefleet could be, in my oppinion be also called as Battlefleet Iox Majoris, for example, or Bf Iox Alpha or... something else maybe. Most likely battlefleets are identified by other means too and not only by their name, so calling the "main fleet within Iox" as Battlefleet Iox Major and the secondary fleet within it as Battlefleet Necareth seems plausible enough and doesn't even cross the line of stated fact. At least in my oppinion it doesn't, how about you? As is only appropriate for a leader of a battlefleet, both fleets would be led by Lord Admiral but the Lord Admiral of Battlefleet Iox Major could hold primus inter pares sort of arrangement with his colleague in Necareth.

Size
Lot of debate surrounds whenever one creates a battlefleet. Why? Because it is rather easy to make it way too oversized and overpowered. Unlike in other sci-fi settings, in 40k starships (also spaceships, space/star vessels or simply ships) are hard to produce and valuable beyond measurement. I do not doubt if the Imperium would rather sacrifice a whole world instead of a single ancient battleship.

Well now. There is little to no records of these Battlefleets' sizes, but we can draw some numbers from the "Codex: Eye of Terror", which was released in the Golden Rhino-Rush Edition.

Battlefleet Cadia
 * 12 Battleships
 * 12 Cruiser Squadrons
 * 21 Escort Squadrons

Battlefleet Corona
 * 7 Battleships
 * 13 Cruiser Squadrons
 * 17 Escort Squadrons

Battlefleet Scarus
 * 5 Battleships
 * 9 Cruiser Squadrons
 * 13 Escort Squadrons

Now. Battlefleets around Eye of Terror are noted to be bigger than those elsewhere. Save maybe Maelstrom region. Unlucky for us, none have yet told the size of Cruiser Squadron, but we might take a bold guess of 2-3 cruisers. Escort squadrons are of sizes 2-6. Because of the amount, which might change, there is really no way to tell exact sizes of these battlefleets, which is sad. So we need to improvise. Here are the possible numbers:

Battlefleet Cadia
 * 12 Battleships
 * 12-36 Cruiser
 * 42-126 Escorts

Battlefleet Corona
 * 7 Battleships
 * 26-39 Cruiser
 * 34-102 Escorts

Battlefleet Scarus
 * 5 Battleships
 * 18-27 Cruiser
 * 26-78 Escorts

So... what do you think? Could Battlefleet Cadia host as much as 126 Escort vessels? No, I don't think so. Absolute maximum of 6 vessels in a squadron won't happen but also other way around, minimum of 2 vessels won't happen either, except for very detailed battles perhaps, where squadrons require extended manouvrability. So what are the numbers? God forbid, but I have not a slightest idea, so let's improvise.

Battlefleet Cadia is, in my oppinion at least, possibly the biggest invidual fleet in the Navy... save for Battlefleet Sol. This is quite well presented in the three examply navies' sizes as they are also neighbours to the Eye of Terror and yet have significantly smaller sizes. So here are three fan-made Battlefleets:

Battlefleet Iox Major
 * 4 Battleships
 * 8 Cruiser Squadrons (16-24)
 * 14 Escort Squadrons (28-84)

Battlefleet Kjipr
 * 2 Battleships
 * 7 Cruiser Squadrons (14-21)
 * 10 Escort Squadrons (20-60)

Battlefleet Gregora
 * 3 Battleships
 * 10 Cruiser Squadrons (20-30)
 * 10 Escort Squadrons (20-60)

Further notes about these three fleets. Iox sector is rather large sector holding important east-west and up-down trade lanes through the Ultima Segmentum, minor Warp storm is located in the heart of Iox. Kjipr sector is significantly smaller sector in both area of space and population, but is heavy provider of troopers to the grinding machines of Astra Militarum. Gregora is war-torn and anarchistic sector that has been conquered and re-conquered time and time again.

There is, has to be, a limit how small a sector fleet is. For example, Iox here has significantly larger areas of uninhabited space compared to other two sectors. Therefore they need larger amount of smaller ships for patrolling only explaining high amount of Escort vessels. Supporting cruisers and few historically important battleships are tended by the sector but most likely at least 2/4 battleships are always away and the other two are being repared from the last assignment. Kjipr here is the most unimportant area, having two battleships (most likely Oberon classes, known to be jack-of-all-trades vessel) and only minimum amount of cruiser and escort squadrons. Possibly having no more than 14-18 cruisers and 25-30 Escorts to support them. Gregora fleet has to be capable of countering heavy pirate and renegade activities providing space-to-ground support for ground-assault troops. Battlefleet Gregora has to able to field as much small attack craft as possible and possibly its battleships are attack-craft carriers like Emperor or Nemesis classes.

With these given facts. The sizes of the Fleets seem reasonable enough... to me atleast. It is a vast area of space and the Navy's duty is to secure trade lanes. How could it be done if there would be just a dozen vessels? Smallest clusters or sectors enjoying of extremely stable warp routes, could have a lot smaller fleets.

Throw some ideas about these numbers, if you may.

=Notes=