History Characters / BattlefleetGothicArmada

* OutOfFocus: Due to the Tau Empire being on the opposite side of the known galaxy from both the Gothic Sector and the Eye of Terror, the Tau are the only major race with no presence in the story whatsoever, despite encompassing ''two'' playable factions.

* FateWorseThanDeath: In the Chaos Campaign, Malos captures Guilliman alive and delivers him to Abaddon, who describes with ''great relish'' [[ColdBloodedTorture what he plans to do to the Primarch].

* TradingBarsForStripes: Imperial Navy don't even cover up the fact that the crew, specifically [[RedShirts Ratings]], came from lowly scums of the Imperium from the [[http://www.bfgawiki.com/w/images/b/bc/BFG_GUI_Crew_Portrait_Imp_Ratling_01.png portrait's]] [[ExplosiveLeash Explosive Collar]] to the bonus given by Penal Colonies (with 3% Troop Value decrease per each one lost).

* MagnificentBastard: Just like in the tabletop's lore, Trazyn plays absolutely everyone in the game like a fiddle. Some of those he deals with profit from it, others pay horribly for it, but the one who always comes out on top is Trazyn.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: Has never had any interest in becoming phaeron. Zaa points out this is exactly what would make him a better one than vain, paranoid megalomaniac Kephrekh.

* DeadpanSnarker: Not usually, but the snark comes out in force when dealing with [[BloodKnight Jasul]] [[AxCrazy Barras]], Malos responding to Jasul's [[HotBlooded psychotic, bellicose screaming]] with barely-disguised irritation.

* CowboyCop: Should he work with the Aeldari. Yes, it was the smart thing to do with a Chaos invasion raging across the galaxy. Yes, the Lord Commander of the Imperium himself has forged an alliance with them. But to do so, he had to defy an Inquisitor. While Emil Darkhammer was declared Excommunicate Traitoris in [[AllThereInTheManual the game books by this point]] and would therefore be fair game, [[AlternateUniverse such a thing isn't given so much as a mention in the campaign]]: up until Spire [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight decided to defy Darkhammer]], the Lord High Admiral gave Darkhammer every bit the deference owed to an Inquisitor. The only possible explanation for why Spire wasn't made into a Servitor and the planets of his entire crew subjected to Exterminatus is that the Imperium is in such bad straits that they can't afford to lose him. That, or Guilliman vouched for him, considering that Darkhammer was the one who was way out of line in this case.

* CowboyCop: Should he work with the Aeldari. Yes, it was the smart thing to do with a Chaos invasion raging across the galaxy. Yes, the Lord Commander of the Imperium himself has forged an alliance with them. But to do so, he had to defy an Inquisitor. While Emil Darkhammer was declared Excommunicate Traitoris in [[AllThereInTheManual the game books by this point]] and would therefore be fair game, [[AlternateUniverse such a thing isn't given so much as a mention in the campaign]]: up until Spire [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight decided to defy Darkhammer]], the Lord High Admiral gave Darkhammer every bit the deference owed to an Inquisitor. The only possible explanation for why Spire wasn't made into a Servitor and the planets of his entire crew subjected to Exterminatus is that the Imperium is in such bad straits that they can't afford to lose him.

* OurElvesAreBetter: A species of highly advanced SpaceElves will highly developed psychic powers, the Eldar are few in numbers and low on armor or durability, and generally prefer to fight their battles from a long distance away, use other species as pawns instead, or -- once in a blue moon -- ally with the Empire to fight a mutual threat.

* AFatherToHisMen: Played with as only a Chaos Lord can. Malos will [[BadBoss sacrifice as many of his underlings]] as he needs to to get what he wants, but will not abide them dying senselessly. When Hellbreed's late arrival to the first battle against Spire leads to spiraling casualties on Malos's end, Malos is ''livid'' with him.
-->'''Malos:''' (speaking to [[DirtyCoward Hellbreed]]) [[TranquilFury You were to stand alongside me.]] Instead, ''my men have died'', in prosecution of a war [[SuddenlyShouting YOU ARE TOO CALLOW TO FIGHT!]]

* CowboyCop: Should he work with the Aeldari. Yes, it was the smart thing to do with a Chaos invasion raging across the galaxy. Yes, the Lord Commander of the Imperium himself has forged an alliance with them. But to do so, he had to defy an Inquisitor. The only reason that this didn’t backfire horribly on him was because Emil Darkhammer was already declared Excommunicate Traitoris by this point and, therefore, was, all in all, a fair game.

* WeaponOfChoice: The Nova Cannon, a powerful, long range, forward facing weapon that fires a massive shell at just below the speed of light, before detonating in a massive thousands of kilometres wide blast at a preset distance.
** The sequel moves the Nova Cannon preference to the Adeptus Mechanicus and lets the IN put much more emphasis on macro-cannons instead. As far as special weapons go, no other faction makes heavier use of torpedoes than the Navy.

* {{Pride}}: A famous trait of their race is their legendary pride and arrogance. During their debut trailer, the Eldar admiral has this to say after decisively destroying an Ork fleet:

** Well, they're [[AttackAttackAttack Orks]]. He's not exactly wrong, is he?

* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: The five featured chapters - the [[SpaceRomans Ultramarines]], [[TragicHero Blood Angels]], [[PraetorianGuard Imperial Fists]], [[TheAtoner Dark Angels]] and [[HornyVikings Space Wolves]], have no mechanical differences between each other. The differences lie only in colour schemes, iconography, dialogue and crew characters. Some would say a missed opportunity, others would say this allows every players' favourite chapters to be represented without feeling weaker than others.

* CripplingOverspecialization: They lack fighter capability and fast-attack units compared to Imperial Navy. Having fighters requires a special upgrade.
** Averted in the sequel where almost all SM ships have launch bays, although they tend to be on the weaker end of the spectrum.

* FactionCalculus: T'au ships also fall into the GlassCannon archetype, though to a greater extreme than the Eldar. Tau ships equipped with railgun batteries and missiles can send a frightening amount of firepower to bear in their forward and side firing arcs, often able to wipe out enemy ships from well outside their own detection range. Like the Space Marines, Tau do not have battlecruisers, but they have two ships from auxiliary races: the Demiurg and the Kroot. The massive firepower of the Tau fleet comes at a cost: Tau ships are slow on the move, vulnerable to both ramming and boarding actions and have not much more armour than Eldar ships. They also cannot make use of Lightning Strikes (but their auxiliary ships can).

* CowboyCop: Should he work with the Aeldari. Yes, it was the smart thing to do with a Chaos invasion raging across the galaxy. Yes, the Lord Commander of the Imperium himself has forged an alliance with them. Yes, it was the morally just decision besides. ''NO, YOU DO NOT'' '''EVER''' ''DEFY THE INQUISITION.'' '''''[[TooDumbToLive NEVER, EVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER, NEVER EVER, PERIOD.]]''''' The most likely reason Spire wasn't immediately captured, tortured and [[FateWorseThanDeath turned into a Servitor]] for killing him, and the home planets of his entire crew weren't Exterminatus'ed, repopulated, and then Exterminatus'ed again, was because Emil Darkhammer was already declared Excommunicate Traitoris by this point and, therefore, was, all in all, a fair game.

* CollectorOfTheStrange: His whole schtick as the Archivist of Solemnance is to add more to his "carefully curated collection".

* CowboyCop: Should he work with the Aeldari. Yes, it was the smart thing to do with a Chaos invasion raging across the galaxy. Yes, the Lord Commander of the Imperium himself has forged an alliance with them. Yes, it was the morally just decision besides. ''NO, YOU DO NOT'' '''EVER''' ''DEFY THE INQUISITION.'' '''''[[TooDumbToLive NEVER, EVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER, NEVER EVER, PERIOD.]]''''' Darkhammer may have been in the wrong, but for some inexplicable reason Spire wasn't immediately captured, tortured and [[FateWorseThanDeath turned into a Servitor]] for killing him, and the home planets of his entire crew weren't Exterminatus'ed, repopulated, and then Exterminatus'ed again.

* CowboyCop: Should he work with the Aeldari. Yes, it was the smart thing to do with a Chaos invasion raging across the galaxy. Yes, the Lord Commander of the Imperium himself has forged an alliance with them. Yes, it was the morally just decision besides. ''NO, YOU DO NOT'' '''EVER''' ''DEFY THE INQUISITION.'' '''''[[TooDumbToLive NEVER, EVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER, NEVER EVER, PERIOD.]]''''' Darkhammer may have been in the wrong, but for some inexplicable reason Spire wasn't immediately captured, tortured and [[FateWorseThanDeath turned into a Servitor]] for killing him, and the home planets of his entire crew weren't subjected to Exterminatus.

* YouCantThwartStageOne: Subverted in the first game, where you can diverge from canon and prevent Abbadon from capturing the Hand of Night and Eye of Darkness. Played straight in the second game, however, as Cadia is destroyed, the Eye of Terror expands into the Great Rift, and the 13th Black Crusade sweeps across the galaxy.