What space craft do the Space Marines use in Space Crusade?

[Vamper]

Hello guys,

I was wondering if anyone has some pictures of the kind of spaceship the space marines use in Space crusade that has the docking claw? I had look in the instruction book and on the 1st page it has a great picture of the Space hulk, but none of the space marines' ship, only the docking claw.





If someone could please post or link photos it would be fantastic as i'm planning something really cool in conjunction with something that I've been working on solidly for the past few weeks, heres a teaser:



Ren.

[BobbieTheDamned]

I don't think its ever really mentioned. I'd actually doubt they'd use a docking claw, way to risky given the small nature of Space Marine fleets and the unpredictable warp jumps that hulks make. Especially when space marines have several other options that'd work just as well (boarding torpedoes, teleporters, drop pods, thunderhawks, caestus assault ram ect). However I'd imagine all Space Marine craft are also equipped to dock directly with other ships.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

according to the Space Crusade Mission Book the marines in Space Crusade do indeed use Docking Claws (as pictured)



the above would seem to indicate that this ...

... is 'The Mothership'. It appears to be similar in design to the old Gothic Battleship and Firestorm Cruiser (from Space Fleet) but doesn't look 100% like either ship and is never named apart from being called 'The Mothership'




in the same manner the assault ships are never called anything but 'Assault Vessels' to indicate what class of ship they might be. My guess would be one of the following ...


 ^ Cobra Destroyers (seem small enough to be launched from another ship) 


 ^ Galaxy Troop Ship (it's a troop ship, which would indicate it's use in boarding actions)


 ^ Ironclad Battleship (could those front bits extend Docking Claws?)

another interesting candidate is ...

 ^ Dictator Battleship (but the little bit of text I have about this ship indicates those are 'Power Claws' for ripping apart other ships and not 'Docking Claws' for boarding actions)

please note there are other ships from the more recent Battle Fleet Gothic range which designed to be used in boarding action - tomorrow I will dig out my BFG rulebook and see what I can find (it's late now as I write) and I'll also get onto talking about Boarding Torpedoes, Thunder-Hawks, ect and boarding actions as described in Space Hulk

[MortiS-the-Lost]

With the advent of Battle Fleet Gothic GW re-designed all the spaceships in 40k and while some basics shapes were kept other designs of craft completely disappeared (it's a little off topic and would take to long to explain here so I'll cut to the chase)

The ships used by Space Marines now look like this


 ^ Battle Barge - this is probably the most likely to be 'The Mother Ship' in the newer range

There are also numerous similar looking smaller Strike Cruisers, Destroyers and Frigates

The BFG background and rules talk more about Space Marine ships assaulting planet than other ships, but do mention Boarding Torpedoes quite often (Boarding torpedoes are also mentioned in SpaceHulk and I'll talk more about that later)

"Boarding torpedoes are large, self-guiding missiles which appear to carry a significant number of troops and are used for ship-to-ship boarding actions"

 
There is no mention however of any of the ships having Docking Claws - but the Imperial Navy (note not the Space Marine Fleets) does have a class of small vessel listed called the 'Shark Assault Boat'

"Typically 55 metres in length the Shark consist primarily of a large engine and an armoured troop compartment that is studded with magnetic clamps and melta charges. When the Shark reaches an enemy ship, the clamps latch on to the enemy hull as the charges in concert with las-breachers blast a hole through which assault troops can storm the vessel"

Now that to me sounds pretty close the Assault Vessels mentioned in Space Crusade  - and it turns out Space Marines DO an equivalent ...


 ^ Caestus Assault Ram 

The Caestus Assault Ram, one of several assault rams in use in the Imperium, is the primary assault ram of the Space marines. It is mainly used to board enemy ships ...

Now it's not too hard to imagine either the Shark Assault Boat or Caestus Assault Ram with something like the Space Crusade Docking Claw board section on the front



So that just about neatly wrap it up ... BUT the text in the Space Crusade Mission book says "Once alongside, a number of Docking claws extend from the assault vessels" and also the the illustrations would seem to indicate the Docking Claws being on the end of an arm-like structure connected to a large ship rather than the front of a small attack ship ...

[Vamper]

Wow!!! what en epic write up, thank you so much! I'm only just getting into all the 40k lore and find this absolutely fascinating!

The reason I'm asking is I'm wanting to make a "mini board" to represent the marine ship, somewhere around 8"x 8" in size, but i had no idea what the said ship looks like and have no idea what to put into google since i don't know any ship names. Given this, would you say that the Caestus Assault Ram is the most suitable candidate? perhaps a slightly modified one: ie fitted with docking claws, specifically made for boarding space hulks?

Ren.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

I've got a little bit more for you now ...

I remembered another source of pictures of the ships from Space Crusade - in the TV advert there is a brief shot of a space ship flying past the camera at the begging and end. Here's a few screen-shots I managed to get ...





the picture quality isn't great due to it being a compressed video and there's also not much of a sense of scale about it, apart from the speed it appears to be moving at which to me would indicate a smaller vessel. For the most part it looks roughly the same shape as a Cobra Destroyer - but with a few 'artistic licence' changes made by the people who made the advert - the most striking difference is the swept down wings (which make me think of a Klingon 'Bird of Prey') and the pylons/nacelles sticking out of the back. Another difference (and it's quite hard to see) is that there appears to be an extra piece of 'super structure' sticking out of the top of the front of the ship (similar to the bit sticking out from the underneath of the Gothic Battleship)