History TabletopGame / BattlefleetGothic

What happens when the people behind ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' decide to make a game about spaceships.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: ''[[UpToEleven All over the place]]'' among the various fleets. ''Especially'' Chaos fleet.

* UnnecessarilyLargeInterior: The interiors of Imperial ships are the size of cathedrals, and adorned like such. {{Averted}} with the actual crew quarters, which are cramped and crowded, and crammed in any leftover pocket of space on the ship.

* CoolShip: Every ship. Because of 40K's love of huge scales, the implications of operating 5,000-meter-long cruisers and 9,000-meter-long battleships are taken seriously. (Unlike [[Franchise/StarWars other franchises]]) Each ship is built over decades or even generations and then operated for hundreds or thousands of years. A BFG ship is like a medieval cathedral, and is the focus of as much cultural activity. Ships invariably accumulate their own traditions, legends, mechanical quirks and even hereditary shipboard societies.

* CoolShip: Every ship. The Imperial Light Cruiser, by most estimates, is larger than just about anything else in science fiction, including ''[[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer]]''. And they just get bigger from there.

There are two video game adaptations- a RealTimeStrategy game for PC titled ''VideoGame/BattlefleetGothicArmada'', and a TurnBasedStrategy mobile game, ''VideoGame/BattlefleetGothicLeviathan''.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: ''[[UpToEleven All over the place]]'' among the various fleets:
** Imperial Navy: Ship classes like ''Tyrant'', ''Dominator'', and ''Firestorm'', and individual ship names like ''Bloodhawk'', ''Flame of Purity'', and ''[[KillItWithFire Incendrius]]''.
** Chaos Fleet: ''Despoiler'' Class Battleship, ''Repulsive'' Class Grand Cruiser, and ''Styx'' Class Heavy Cruiser, and ship names like ''Heartless Destroyer'', ''[[GratuitousLatin Malignus Maximus]]'', and ''Despicable Ecstasy.''

* EarthShatteringKaboom: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Planet Killer]] specializes in these.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Very carefully averted. The actual models are [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality completely out of scale with the rest of the game]], distances being measured being from the centre of the ships' bases so that you can have nice looking miniatures without also requiring a spare country to play the game in. Base-contact in the game is "close range", generally of the order of ''tens of thousands'' of kilometres. This is also the reason you need a command check to ram another ship - the captain not only has to order a potentially suicidal course of action and make it stick with the crew, he also has to hit a target equivalent to headbutting a pinhead from a mile away...

* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: Some ships have a nose mounted main cannon. Ork ships quite often have a large main gun, and the Imperium has the Nova Cannon, which is a massive mass driver that runs through most of the ship and fires building-sized projectiles at relativistic speeds. Many Imperial ships have a gigantic armoured prow (complete with gigantic spike) that they consider a weapon as much as they consider it armour.

* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: Some ships have a nose mounted main cannon. Ork ships quite often have a large main gun, and the Imperium has the Nova Cannon, which is a massive mass driver that runs through most of the ship and fires building-sized projectiles at relativistic speeds.

** {{ZigZagg|ingTrope}}ed in the core game's campaign rules where fleets are able to travel between planetary systems to attack opponents but only along the relatively safe established warp routs as travelling directly from system to system is far too unpredictable.

** In the background material for the Gothic War[[note]]the conflict in which the original game’s narrative is set[[/note]] the Eldar allowed allied Imperial fleets to use the [[PortalNetwork Webway]] so that they could redeploy far quicker and more reliably than if they had been using the [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace traditional form of interstellar travel]].

** In the background material for the Gothic War[[note]]the conflict in which the original game’s narrative is set[[/note]] the Eldar allowed allied Imperial fleets to use the [[Portalnetwork Webway]] so that they could redeploy far quicker and more reliably than if they had been using the [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace traditional form of interstellar travel]].

* TwoDSpace: The game's rulebook[[JustifiedTrope acnoladges this]] as a [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality necessity]] due to the difficulty of accurately representing three-dimensional space on the tabletop without immensely complicated rules. The book goes on to explain that the ships actually occupy an infinitesimally small point within their base's stem and allows ships to move and fire 'through' each other to represent the fact that they are at differing 'altitudes'.

* TwoDSpace: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], or at least [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality necessary]]; it's pretty damn hard to play a tabletop wargame in three dimensions. On top of this, the rulebook explains that the ships actually occupy an infinitesimally small dot at the exact center of their base stands and allows them to move 'through' each other to represent the fact that they are at differing 'altitudes'. It also mocks the need to represent 3D combat as 3D -- as the book puts it, 3D is basically just a range modifier. Yeah, there's a bit more to it, but shut up and buy the plastic already.

* CasualInterstellarTravel: The Eldar use the Webway to travel, rather than flying through hell, and during the Gothic War allow Imperial ships to use it. Necrons have inertialess drives to attain FTL speeds.
** Otherwise averted, because, y'know, you're ''literally [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace going through hell]].'' Except the Tau, they just skirt around it, with the result of being much slower than other sides (their drive speed is typically 1/5 of Imperium's), but being ''much'' safer, more reliable (speed is relatively constant), and doesn't need psychic on board to guide the ship (which Tau lacks).

* RuleOfCool: As with most 40k, this reigns supreme. The Chaos ships (read: old Imperial Ships) look ObviouslyEvil, even though they were designed by the Imperium, because Chaos ships just have to have SpikesOfVillainy in their design. It's baked into just about every layer of the game's design and fluff.

* SpaceOpera: As per 40k standard, focusing on the "space" part.

* SpikesOfVillainy: Chaos ships, much like Chaos everything else.

* StandardStarshipScuffle: The game is built around this trope, with its space combat firmly grounded in the SpaceIsAnOcean setting.

* GalacticConqueror: Abaddon the Despoiler, were he not a GeneralFailure. The game centers around his Twelfth Black Crusade, which was yet another of his failed attempt to conquer the Imperium in the name of Chaos (it's since been retconned that his main goal was deprive the Imperium of the Blackstone Fortresses, which he succeeded in doing, and even managed to keep one for himself).

%%* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace: "Scary" does not even ''begin'' to cover it...

%%* RuleOfCool: Reigns supreme.

%%* SpaceOpera

%%* StandardSciFiFleet

%%* TurnBasedStrategy