BFG competetiveness

[Octavulg]

So you reckon I should use my Thunderhawks to attack the enemy Lance boats primarily? Makes sense, seeing as AC are so much faster than ships.

 

No, but I think you'll have more luck with Thunderhawks than with anything else. :P Strike Cruiser vs. Lance Boat is a loss for the Strike Cruiser.

[greatcrusade08]

i found that on its own a strike cruiser fails against most enemy cruisers... your really need to take two or more and have them run with a squadron of escorts close by for support.

The battle barge needs no help, i generally get it in close and broadside the bejeezus out of the enemy.. i love maneuvering between two ships and hitting them both at the same time ;).. the bombardment cannon is an awesome weapon.. its presence usually draws alot of attention meaning your smaller craft have a little more freedom

[Captain Idaho]

So you reckon I should use my Thunderhawks to attack the enemy Lance boats primarily? Makes sense, seeing as AC are so much faster than ships.

 

No, but I think you'll have more luck with Thunderhawks than with anything else. :) Strike Cruiser vs. Lance Boat is a loss for the Strike Cruiser.

 

Ha, indeed! Least in a paired squadrons I get 4 Thunderhawks (potentially in a wave) to even the odds a little.

 

The battle barge needs no help, i generally get it in close and broadside the bejeezus out of the enemy.. i love maneuvering between two ships and hitting them both at the same time .. the bombardment cannon is an awesome weapon.. its presence usually draws alot of attention meaning your smaller craft have a little more freedom

 

I'm tempted to take 2 Battle Barges in my lists, for that very reason. Plus the sheer brute force they have would be fun to use!

[Seahawk]

You use the Thunderhawks to put enough Critical Hits on wherever the enemy lances are so that they never recover. They can't use it, you're good.

 

Strike Cruisers in pairs are about equal of a single cruiser, making that not very spectacular. I'd go for three, or preferably four per group for enemy beat downs. That way they're more survivable. You could (like I do) produce a wave of 8 thunderhawks, and when they scream in on the attack, it really cripples a ship in being able to do anything.

 

Escorts are good for a couple things: keeping enemy speedsters from behind your BB and, when in very large groups (6 is max) blowing something away. I've had a couple games where my Gladius squadron sneaks around enough to lay in with a full FP 24.

 

Target lance batteries, torpedoes, and launch bays (ships with those) first, as they are the most damaging things to our ships. When they're only hitting you on 6's, and you have air superiority, things start to look rosy.

 

Fire your weapons batteries first to take down shields and produce a hit or two, then shoot lances at the same ship, as they are not affected by the blast markers.

[Vaaish]

just to clarify Seahawks post a bit, you won't be able to directly target those systems because you will roll on the critical table with the thunderhawks making it a bit random which critical you get. Don't rely on your thunderhawks to shut down enemy ships on que.

[Captain Idaho]

just to clarify Seahawks post a bit, you won't be able to directly target those systems because you will roll on the critical table with the thunderhawks making it a bit random which critical you get. Don't rely on your thunderhawks to shut down enemy ships on que.

 

Reading the BFG rulebook it is apparent that enough hit and run attacks (+1 for being Space Marines) will cause enough disruption to a ship at least to make life difficult. Maybe?

 

I can't wait, I'm going to a new gaming club in Basingstoke tomorrow, so will be poking around to see if I can find an opponent or 2! I know I have been banging on about the Space Marines fleet, as they are my preferred list in 40K after all, I actually own an Imperial Navy fleet to 1,500pts (unassembled), so I can get gaming soon enough.

 

Incidently, am I right in thinking playing an IN fleet is a good place for a novice to start, before moving onto the fleets of the more, how shall we say it, specilised fleets? I have a Bastion fleet list by the way, though it could fit into an Armaggeddon Fleet list (ideal to represent a Dominion fleet too actually). I bought the Apocolypse, which I'm kinda feeling the buyers remorse seeing as it really needs a speed of 20cm to be effective.

 

Oh yeah, what is all this I hear about a FAQ coming soon? Is it for Armada? Hopefully it will be like the last one that did make some differences like points costs differences. Maybe they will give the humble Strike Cruiser a 2nd shield it so desparately needs and should be for fluff reasons!

[Vaaish]

well, as marines you are at least guaranteed that you will do SOMETHING if you make it past the turrets and enemy AC intercepting you. Since it's pretty random, you shouldn't expect to get the weapons criticals in quantity to shut down a ship completely or expect that they won't repair enough that the ship can still be useful. It will be nice when it happens but don't base your strategy around it.

 

IN is a odd bird. It's more forgiving and easy to learn because there are no real special rules but it requires that you know your capabilities and what the enemy can do to them in order to do well with them. IN is a good starter fleet to learn the rules. Competitively you will do alright once you learn more about the game, but it's still pretty hard to get a good competitive list especially against Tau. For friendly games you shouldn't have a problem.

 

I wouldn't be too sad about the apocalypse model. Both my emperor and retribuition are based on that model. Just clip off the NC under the prow and add the appropriate weapons to make any of the IN variants. I like the look of the prow much better than the traditional IN one.

 

That FAQ will be around soon and covers both the original book and Armada. No chance for changes like that to the SC though, even game wise, the SC doesn't warrant such a change at its current point value. For all intents and purposes it is a light cruiser and all light cruisers get one shield and 6 hits.

[Seahawk]

Don't rely on your thunderhawks to shut down enemy ships on que.

I don't rely on it, but it happens often enough with big enough waves :P

[greatcrusade08]

Its been a while since i played but i do remember that thunderhawks rule.. i like the BB becuase it can do everything.. theres nothing i like more than to get in close range and fire all my torpedoes so they hit THAT turn.. cant avoid them if you do that.. and since they bypass shields :)

 

The best thing about escorts for me was moving around enemies flanks so that once your BB and SCs start pounding a ship they can get clear LOS away from those nuisance blast markers

[Marshal Wilhelm]

We have the BFG rules already ;)

 

I meant how do you do it, but how it was written makes my intentions not clear. :P

 

+++

 

When the previous space ship game came out, I understood it.

Man-o-War was understood and liked.

 

BFG was a bit obscure to me. I was young and used to playing the WW1 style of 40K ~ line up, advance whilst shooting at one another. Chop once contact was made. :cry:

 

+++

 

With the lack of 40K movement, positioning is important, as is movement.

 

How do I expose the baddies and not expose myself in terms of movement.

 

These are the pearls I want ^_^

[greatcrusade08]

With the lack of 40K movement, positioning is important, as is movement.

 

How do I expose the baddies and not expose myself in terms of movement.

 

These are the pearls I want :cry:

 

Im not that experienced with BFG... infact im soon to start playing again.. but from my experience there are two schools of thought with BFG.

the popular one was 40k PA/TDA train of thought and thats to load up juggernauts and storm forward blowing everything apart (IN an chaos are good at this), the second is as you say using movement and manuevering to win games (elder, necrons).. the weird thing about SMs is that you have to play a bit of both, which is difficult.

 

I have a friend who plays IN and uses strategically placed torpedoes in the early game to funnel the enemy as opposed to using his own movement, with the enemy now in clumps he can take the enemy down a bit at a time.

Its tough to keep it going, he has to use certain craft to launch torpedoes continuously and if yoru unlucky you can start failing your ordenance rolls, for ships with both launch bays and torpedoes it can cause problems, the IN is great for this because there are sooo amny different types of ship available