The Imperial Navy has Arrived!

MongooseMatt

MongooseMatt

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A mighty sourcebook covering the Imperium's senior service, The Imperial Navy is finally here and it is not only one of the most informative books we have ever published, but also one of the prettiest!

You can grab the PDF and pre-order the printed edition right here: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/the-imperial-navy

THE IMPERIAL NAVY EBOOK COVER.jpg

Without its senior service, the Third Imperium would not exist. The navy is entwined in the politics and economics of the Imperium, a training ground for the great nobility, and a route to social advancement for the general populace. The Imperial Navy details this massive force, from the great fleets down to a band of new recruits.

How are the sector and subsector fleets organised, commanded, and provided with warships? How would the Imperium would fight – and win – an interstellar war? How is a starship crew organised? What is the underlying design philosophy of Imperial warships? How do major ships and their escorts interact? How would the Old Expanses fleet respond to renewed conflict with the Solomani Confederation?

The Imperial Navy has the answers.
 
No mention of the Quarantine Service and the rivalry with the IN which would eventually have the QS absorbed into the IN.

No mention of the ship designations as explained in Agent of the Imperium.

Explicitly forbids the use of energy screens (page 112) despite them being included in The Third Imperium book.

Not a lot about Imperial Naval Intelligence (or INCIS :))

There is a lot of emphasis on the role of Archdukes.
Unless the MGT Third Imperium has a different history the position of Archduke was:
After the conclusion of the Imperial Civil War in 622, some of these titles were allowed to lapse as their title-holders lines became extinct. Further, the Domain-level in the Imperial bureaucracy was gradually phased out, relegating the title of Archduke to a largely honorific and ceremonial legacy title.
Click to expand...
This would not change until post 5FW when Strephon re-establishes the authority of the domains and Archdukes.

That all said I really like it :)
 
Sigtrygg said:
Explicitly forbids the use of energy screens (page 112) despite them being included in The Third Imperium book.
Click to expand...
All I remember from the Third Imperium book was the personal energy shield (which yeah, never mind... it got the thumbs up) but nothing about ship energy screens, which could be argued as different tech and not the same as the alternate tech in High Guard. Unless I missed something on a 3I ship.
 
Please explain how a personal energy screen can be TL15 and yet you can't make a ship or vehicle one?
I raised this point when the Third Imperium sourcebook came out - that a technology that has no precedent for inclusion in the setting was now canon and would have logical unintended consequence.
One such consequence is the IN should be able to build ships with energy screens and the IA and IM build energy screened vehicles.
A bit of consistency between sourcebooks...
 
I could probably imagine a situation where a form fitting energy shield capable of stopping bullets could be powered by an energy cell that fits comfortably in a belt, yet somehow can't be generated around a stationary building or a spaceship despite the vastly greater power generation capability and space for machinery. But it would be a strain. Maybe more plausibly, they can generate the field, but not strengthen it beyond the ability to resist small arms fire without causing sensor degradation or other problems?

Vastly easier, though, would have been just to not have a throwaway device in a sector book that dramatically alters the expected technology available in the setting.
 
Libris said:
It doesn’t seen unreasonable that the technology of personal energy screens is not easily scalable to the degree required to efficiently protect anything larger than a couple of cubic metres.
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Except the author already has stated it is.
And it is ludicrous to think that a personal energy screen - something that not even the Ancients had - can be made at TL15 and yet vehicle and ship scale systems are impossible. It goes against the setting in a pretty major way.

It's the unintended consequence of "kewel new tech" that has been introduced with little thought for wider implications.

No comment about the lack of Agent of the Imperium canon?
 
Vormaerin said:
I could probably imagine a situation where a form fitting energy shield capable of stopping bullets could be powered by an energy cell that fits comfortably in a belt, yet somehow can't be generated around a stationary building or a spaceship despite the vastly greater power generation capability and space for machinery. But it would be a strain. Maybe more plausibly, they can generate the field, but not strengthen it beyond the ability to resist small arms fire without causing sensor degradation or other problems?

Vastly easier, though, would have been just to not have a throwaway device in a sector book that dramatically alters the expected technology available in the setting.
Click to expand...
It's in the Third Imperium sourcebook, which defines the MgT Third Imperium. Like I said, it would be nice to see some consistency between books (perhaps a Dune like personal screen should have been cut by the inner circle as setting inappropriate - but it is now canon)

Let me also reiterate I think it is a really good book :)
 
I know where it is from. I tend to think of it as the Core sector book. Anyway, doesn't change that it was just tossed in there without any effort to integrate it to the setting or account for the implications of its existence in the wider universe. Also doesn't have anything to do with the topic of this thread, which is the generally quite good navy sourcebook. Which I also am pleased with.
 
I agree, it is a good book.

I would have liked to see more canon from Agent of the Imperium, and a bit less from the previous versions that doesn't fit with the 1105 setting.
 
The artwork is really nice. My players loved seeing the uniforms and the weapons are a big improvement over earlier efforts. The Aslan are a lot closer to how I understand them to actually look too. Not quite there, imho, but close enough I could actually use the art unlike the abundance of outright lion heads seen in some other products.
 
Alright, so first off I’ll just echo everyone else and say that the artwork throughout this book is absolutely fantastic! (Plus everything displays correctly on Apple devices!)

While I haven’t gone through the entire book yet, what I have seen is a great guide to how the navy operates, on the whole as well as the small details. The text flows well and is easy to absorb. Some I recognize from Element Cruisers, other parts are new/beyond the scope of Element.

Looking at the uniforms, I liked the blue/grey ones from the Element Cruiser book, and hoped for an in-depth look at them. What we got instead was… absolutely stellar! They look great, and are accompanied by detailed descriptions, that chapter made me very happy!

The shipboard duty suit has gotten a substantial facelift in the stats department, and is now on par with the Scout Field Dress. I liked the addition of body protection for both duty and vacc suits!



Question: am I reading it right that there are two tiers of addable protection, either the light and non-obtrusive body protector, or the (non-vacc compatible) body armor?

And the stats for body armor is for the protection itself, adding to the value of duty or vacc suit if worn underneath?

Additionally, has the artwork for body armor and engineering suit switched places?

The engineering suit was by the way a neat addition to the suits!



I do have a few questions/objections from the weapons department…

The navy versions of Gauss and snub pistols had superior range compared to “regular” versions in the Element book ( and possibly other sources?), probably due to their longer barrels (explicitly described in the case of the Gauss pistol, inferred due to magazine in the handgrip of the snub pistol). Any special reason for not giving them added range in this book? (I believe 10/30 m were the Element ranges)

In the same vein, I have never seen a snub carbine with such low range, and the CSC update gives carbines 75 m range, so their extremely limited range in this book kinda sticks out… for consistency, perhaps it should be raised in this book?

Very glad to see combat ammo for snub weapons though! And while I did like the clean snub weapon look in previous works, the new ones in this book look absolutely fantastic! (The carbine image might be mirror-flipped, judging by the caution sign, though).

More comments later, big fan so far though!
 
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