Imperial Navy

**Imperial Navy** is one of the factions that is playable in Battlefleet Gothic Armada.

The Imperium is a faction composed of sturdy ships with standard capabilities and various offensive strengths. Their strong frontal armour and powerful prow weaponries make them efficient in closing in on the enemy fleet before unleashing the powers of their side macro-batteries, though most ships are a bit slow. Quite straightforward and versatile, they tend to be a good start.

## Description

The Imperial Navy is one of the armed forces employed by the Imperium. The Imperial Navy is responsible for the fleets of warships that soar between the stars and planets in the Imperium as well as engaging threats both insides and outside the Imperium's borders.

### Advantages

* The powerful Nova Cannon
* Strong prow armour
* Many ships can use torpedoes

### Disadvantages

* Not very effective at long range
* Slow ships

### Traits

* Imperial Accuracy
* Imperium Manoeuvres
* Loyal

## Ship List

Escort Ships:

* Sword Frigate
* Firestorm Frigate
* Transporter (Imperial Navy)
* Widowmaker Destroyer
* Cobra Destroyer

Light Cruisers:

* Dauntless
* Dauntless MK2

Cruisers:

* Dictator
* Gothic
* Tyrant
* Lunar
* Dominator (Imperial Navy)

Battle Cruisers:

* Overlord
* Mars

Battleships:

* Retribution
* Emperor

## Potential Builds

In the earlier releases of the game the Imperial Navy was more of a jack-of-all-trades faction that wasn't particularly good at any one area, primarily because they couldn't focus on a specific build through every ship class. However, as of March 2020 they have had multiple upgrades that now make them quite viable for a few builds:

### MECHANICUS TORPS AND GUNS

* All Light Cruisers are Dauntless mk2, with first skill Augur Probe, second (through Favor) Micro Warp Jump
* All Cruisers are Tyrant, with skill Augur Probe, Micro Warp Jump, Plasma Bomb
* All Battle Cruisers are Overlords, with skill Augur Probe, Micro Warp Jump, Plasma Bomb, Enhanced Induction Cells
* Battleship is Retribution, with skill Augur Probe, Micro Warp Jump, Plasma Bomb, Enhanced Induction Cells, and fifth of your choice
* Favor is Adeptus Mechanicus for an extra skill slot and upgrade slot

Quite similar to the Ork's Goff Torps n Guns build, this focuses on a closer range heavy brawling setup. It does require you to get skilled at aiming Torpedoes but if you can master this you will have a very lethal fleet.

The very first Upgrade, without exception for every ship class, is Short Burn Torpedoes. Not only does this make it easier to aim them, by getting more quickly through the firing area of Defence Turrets and Fighter squadrons they have a much lower chance of being intercepted.

The second upgrade for all ships above Light Cruiser size is Power Ram to make maximum use of the 75 frontal armor of all Imperial line ships and make them just as deadly as Ork ships at ramming (for the Light Cruiser skip ahead to the next upgrade in this list). This has been seen to make a Battlecruiser plow clean through and destroy 3 Escort ships in a single run while barely getting scratched, and unlike Orks make full use of the ability to multi-ram: aim at a ship, go All Ahead Full to ram, once you connect completely stop and let the ship get a tiny bit of distance, then immediately All Ahead Full again for another devastating ram. One possible exception to this is on the Battleship, Manoeuvring Thrusters is a viable alternate to let it turn literally twice as fast to aim Torpedoes, putting it on par with Battlecruisers.

The third upgrade should be Armour-Piercing Ammunition to let your extensive set of Macro cannons really punch through the armor of anything that gets close, which will happen quite frequently.

The fourth upgrade should be Improved Augur Array not only for improving the detection of ships that prefer to fight at longer range with Running Silent tactics, it most importantly increases the range of the Micro Warp Jump giving you much greater flexibility on positioning for rams, torpedo shots or general interceptions/escapes given the situation. Remember, you can set both the position AND angle of your ship with a Jump, press AND HOLD the mouse button on the desired position will not immediately trigger it but moving the mouse then lets you rotate the blue prediction image to determine what angle it shows up at.

The fifth upgrade (achievable only through the Adeptus Mechanicus favor and at the max ship level of 8) should be Targeting Matrix for anything above Light Cruiser size, so that the Plasma Macro batteries that frequently reach a range of 12000 have a much better chance of hitting something at that range. For the Light Cruiser take your pick.

For all ships the Crew upgrades should first max Servitors to make all skills and Torpedo shots cool down faster, then Gunners, then whatever else you see fit with Ratings for crew quantity being one of the best of what's left.

Ignore all upgrades on Escort class ships EXCEPT FOR Convoy ships for the times you have to defend them (maybe Armor Piercing Rounds on Sword Frigates could give them a nice power boost). Their first upgrade once available should be Emissions Dissipator so they can use All Ahead Full right from the start of the mission and not be Identified and targeted by long range weapons, followed by Efficient Plasma Thrusters to be able to use All Ahead Full more effectively. The third upgrade is not quite as important, but Voss Pattern Void Shield is among the best of the remaining choices to help keep them alive.

The above gives you a set of ships that can launch blistering torpedo volleys en masse as they approach enemy ships, then through a combination of rams, boarding, torpedoes and gunfire, hammer down the enemy. One of the best ways of effectively using Torpedoes at the moderate to short ranges is the following:

1. Select the launching ship, and the target
2. Activate the Cogitators (with Spacebar by default) and have your ship start a hard turn in the direction that will swing its nose towards the target, while hovering your mouse over the Torpedo launch button (don't use Melta Torpedoes, you need the better burst damage output and Critical chance of the normal ones). Aim the turn movement so that your ship will swing its nose well past the intended target so you close the angle quickly.
3. Watch the torpedo tracer lines (remember that torpedoes do not arm to cause damage within the Red line zone, at closer ranges you should put Retros on during the turn so your ship does not get too close) and also remember to lead the target to account for its movement, this will take practice as you get used to the flight speed of your torpedoes.
4. When you hit the key angle, FIRE!

With practice you should get quite good at putting multiple torpedoes of a salvo into the side of a ship, and you'll often be at a good angle to follow up with an immediate ram if you're fairly close. The above build and tactics works both for Skirmishes and the main campaign.