good starting size for battle fleet gothic

[Demoulius]

hello brothers, im looking to start an battle fleet gothic army to fly alongside my soon be full company of blood angels :)

 

as i have no idea what kind of fleetsize im looking to make (no idea how big games normally are) and i have absolutely 0 knowledge on how the game works but the local GW said they will soon start a table for it and introduce an evening during the week when lesser known games like epic and the like can be played.

 

what would be a good starting force? since i have to mail order the entire thing i wouldnt mind ordering a few more ships so i can switch some around abit but what kind of things should i look out for?

 

*edit* put the wrong gametype in the topic title ;) its BFG not epic...

[RADU LYKAN]

it depends on how you are fluffing out your battle company, is it operating with other companies? if not it might be good to consider a combined navy/marine fleet as a single company might only have the strike cruiser plus a few escorts, relying on nearby imperial forces to bolster them in fleet actions.

[Vaaish]

If you wish to play competitively, it would be best to go only marines rather than mix fleets using the armageddon list. A 1k point fleet would be a good place to start with plans to expand to 1500 points (standard game size). Much lower than that and you won't be fielding too much. In any event I'd suggest downloading the rulebook pdf's from the GW site and read through them.

[Loyalist]

I'm not very familiar with Blod Angels fluff but it might help to review it and see which ships are mentioned/named, particularly battlebarges, when planning your BFG fleet. I have 3 Space Marine fleets: Ultramarines, Dark Angels and a mixed Armageddon fleet.

 

All have at least 1 Battlebarge, 4 Strike Cruisers and 10 Escorts (mainly Hunter Class destroyers or Nova Class frigates). SM fleets can also field a Venerable Battlebarge. The VBB allows a wide variety of ship choices or conversions. My Dark Angels VBB is a modified Vengeance Class Grand Cruiser and the Ultramarines VBB is a greatly modified and enlarged battlebarge kit with the stats of a Chaos Desolator Class battleship (ie a pre-Heresy ship).

[Seahawk]

SM fleets can also field a Venerable Battlebarge. The VBB allows a wide variety of ship choices or conversions.

This is no longer official rules and thus is not allowed in tournaments, so you know.

 

Good forces for marines go three ways: battlebarges and escorts; one barge, some strike cruisers, escorts (my preference); and all strike cruisers.

 

1000 points is good to start out, with 1500 being the standard as Vaaish stated. My 1500 point Ultramarines fleet is as follows:

 

Battlebarge - master of the fleet, 2 rerolls (could be one, don't remember)

4 Strike Cruisers

3 Sword class Frigates

6 Gladius class Frigates

 

Everthing has speed ('cept the barge) and can beatstick other ships, even (some of my opponents would say "especially") Eldar. The cruisers form up into a single squadron for protection, shot enhancement, and special order assurance.

 

A full company of Blood Angels could be transported inside a single Strike Cruiser though, keeping costs down :wacko:

[Demoulius]

haha i know fluffwise 1 strike cruiser is enough ;) but i couldnt let the opportunity go to also get me a fleet along with it :) ive got a sweet conversion in mind for the battelbarge :(

 

i basicly came up with (after reading the rulebook a few times, no idea if its good or not) this:

battlebarge with master of the fleet and 2 rerolls

3 strike cruiser

4 hunter class destroyers

4 gladius class frigates

4 nova class frigates

 

1500 pts on the dot. like i said i have no idea if its any good, for 1000 pts i figured i just drop the battlebarge and 1 or 2 escorts, keeping the master with rerolls (think hes even mandatory if i read it right)

 

basic idea i had: take 2 strike cruisers and the nova cruisers and force my opponent to devide his army, whilst i bombard him with the hunters, battlebarge and strike cruiser. pretty basic tactic, and im sure people will have simular moves up their sleaves :) but i look forward to crunch my brain over such a highly tactical game ;)

 

is the list any good btw? or did i just order the totally wrong things? :)

[Loyalist]

Last weekend I played my first BFG games in almost two years. A friend I game with in 40K wanted to try BFG with intent to incorporate linked BFG and 40K battles in future campaigns. We played Cruiser Clash, the first BFG scenario, using 4 Chaos and 4 Imperial cruisers, then switched sides and played the second scenario: The Bait. It was great fun and took only 3 hours.

 

My friend was hooked and is buying some of my (too) large BFG collection to make an Armageddon Fleet. For SM ships he's starting with a Battlebarge, 3 Strike Cruisers, 4 Swords and 6 Hunters. This is similar to what I use for 1500 point games though I prefer the very fast Hunters and Novas as escorts. In larger games I'll field 12 of each type and run 2 squadrons of 6 Novas and 6 Hunters down each flank for massed lance and torpedo attacks.

 

I know the VBB rules are experimental and was fortunate enough to download them as part of a large article on experimental SM rules before GW 'disappeared' them. Local BFG players have no qualms about using unoffical rules like those, which were written by BFG authors. The VBB types can add a lot of variety and offer lots of modelling/conversion opportunities. We use Bob Henderson's 'Black Ship' Inquisition battlecruiser conversion too. unfortunately it was also 'disappeared' with the old GW BFG site.

 

Like Seahawk I've tried fleets composed entirely of Strike Cruisers. The last time I did 10 SCs were defeated by 3 Necron Scythes and smaller vessels. Darn sentient metal! Against Imperial and Chaos fleets massed SCs don't fare as badly.