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OrkDeadnotBGA2

An Ork battleship or "deadnot" on the hunt.

An Ork Battleship, also sometimes called a "Deadnot" by the Greenskins, is the Ork equivalent of other starfaring species' battleships, the voidships that are the most powerful ships of the line in other species' battle fleets.

While Ork battleships as defined by the Imperium of Man as a dedicated class of warship do not truly exist, Ork voidships do tend to grow over time through the accumulation of salvage, additions, and technological "improvements."

In this way, during the Third War for Armageddon, several Hammer-class Battlekroozers grew to a size and power that could only be accurately described by the Imperial Navy's definition of the term "battleship."

These massive vessels bristled with countless Gunz, Heavy Gunz, Missile Launchers, Zzap Turrets and Bombardment Cannons as well as hangers for attack craft. The ship itself was also a weapon, as the Orks heavily favored ramming tactics; with the battleship's extreme mass and heavily armored prow, a ramming assault from one of these vessels could inflict catastrophic damage on an enemy vessel while not taking very much damage in return. Battleship-class Ork vessels could thus lay waste to entire Navis Imperialis squadrons.

Slamblasta

The Ork battleship Slamblasta

Thankfully for the Orks' enemies, there were only a few such Greenskin starships in existence, and each is unique, not part of a wider, standardised class.

Orks often refer to those vessels that have achieved the scale of a true battleship as a "deadnot."

Notable Ork Battleships

  • Dethdeala - Originally the flagship of the Ork Warlord Urgutz Dregrak, the Dethdeala was later captured by the rival Deathskulls who were allied with Herman von Strab, the traitorous former Imperial planetary governor of Armageddon and it soon faded from prominence in that conflict. The Dethdeala was notable for the Bombardment Cannon it was armed with, as well as the bursts of speed of which it was capable.
  • Slamblasta - The Slamblasta was built on the hulk of the Imperial Gothic-class Cruiser Pallas Imperious. It was armed with a pair of forward lances salvaged from the original batteries of the Pallas Imperious. Unable to properly repair the hulk's broadside lances, the Orks stripped them out and attempted to combine the parts into two larger lance-type weapons. In typical Ork fashion, the result looked more dangerous than it actually was, but it nonetheless gave the Slamblasta a lance capability that was unheard-of for Ork vessels. The Slamblasta played a crucial role in the Third Armageddon War as part of the raiding groups sent ahead of the main invasion fleet. There, its prow lances proved invaluable to the Orks' efforts to cripple the system's outmost defenses.
  • Starkrusha - The Starkrusha was a titantic Ork battleship and the flagship of Warboss Godstompa. Godstompa put the warship at the head of his WAAAGH! in 739.M41, encountering an intercepting Space Wolves fleet under Wolf Lord Finn Goresson. Finn was victorious in his early engagements, at one point driving his strike cruiser straight into the weakpoint of the Kroozer Longtoof and out the other side, breaking the Ork ship in two. However the Starkrusha still dwarfed the Space Wolf ships and inflicted heavy damage to them with its superior firepower. However this did not deter Goresson, who slammed his strike cruiser into the maw-like launch bays of the Starkrusha and led his Great Company in a sustained boarding action. The resultant war inside the bowels of the Starkrusha lasted for six solar months, but the Space Wolves eventually emerged victorious.
  • Gorbag's Revenge - The Gorbag's Revenge was originally an Imperial Dominator-class Cruiser that was boarded and captured by the Ork Warlord Gorbag who enslaved its crew. The Gorbag's Revenge was noted for the vast swarms of attack craft, usually Fighta-Bommers, that its gigantic launch bays could send forth. It participated in the invasion of Chosin as well as in the second greenskin invasion of Armageddon. It bombed Armageddon throughout the Third War for Armageddon and remains a powerful asset to the Ork fleet.
  • Kroolboy - The Kroolboy had a long history of piracy before the start of the Third War for Armageddon, a history which led it to being overlooked by the Imperial monitoring station Mannheim at the very start of the war when it formed the vanguard of Ghazghkull's armada. When that conflict ended, the Kroolboy went back to raiding throughout the Armageddon Sector as well as becoming involved in a civil war on the world of Monglor.
  • Urd Unki

Sources

  • Battlefleet Gothic Armada (PC Game)
  • Battlefleet Gothic Armada II (PC Game)
  • Battlefleet Gothic Resources: Xenos Fleets, pp. 64-67
  • Codex: Space Wolves (5th Edition), pg. 18

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