Imperial battlecruisers

[Demoulius]

hey guys,

 

looking into the IN ships for my own future fleet, and for my buddy who has a IN fleet and is looking to expand.

 

were kinda looking into the IN battlecruisers and something strikes me as odd.

 

to take 2 examples here:

 

A Armaggedon battlecruiser is basicly a Lunar with 2 dorsal lances and the range of its weaponry increased.

A Mars battlecruiser is basicly a Dictator with NC instead of torpedo's, he has dorsal lances and increased range on his batteries (oh and only 2 turrets)

 

all fine and dandy but then the point costs comes in. the Armageddon costs 65 points more then the Lunar. The Mars 50 pts more then the Dictator.

 

so 65 pts for 2 dorsal lances and more weapon range

and

50 pts more for an NC instead of torpedo's (costs 20 pts elsewhere) 2 dorsal lances, 45 cm batteries and an decrease in turrets?

 

now dont get me wrong, these sound like fine ships to me but i dont really understand the big point increase. if they were grand cruiser (or just have 10 hits for example) then i could totally see it. as it stands though theyre just as easily destroyed as their cheaper counterparts and their pointcost increase just doesent give THAT much of an firepower increase imho....

 

is it the range that justifies the point cost increase? am i overlooking something else?

 

cheers,

 

Demoulius

[mughi3]

Range is a huge factor in the game actually. as chaos will outrange the IN cruiser 90% of the time unless you upgrade them and eldar dart in and dart away so you need long range shots to hit them.

 

The big selling point for the IN is 2 fold

1.nova cannons, nobody else has them and they help negate the range deficiency.

2.escorts, the IN has loads of cheap escorts to offset their weaker cruisers.

 

 

With the IN i am more a fan of the grand cruisers and i personally would take the 2 upgraded optional lunars and tyrants over a battlecruiserevery time.

 

IIRC my version of an IN fleet at 1,500 had

 

fleet admiral with re-rolls

.X2 exorcist class grand cruisers(squadron)

.zealous (tyrant)with 45 cm batteries and a nova cannon

.dominion (tyrant) with 45cm batteries

.minotaur (lunar) with nova canon

.lord doros (lunar) with nova canon

[Demoulius]

reason why range has probably not played a factor yet in our games is because i play marines, one plays necrons and (so far) one plays IN. the IN player only has played with normal cruisers and 1 mars battlecruiser up to this point. the 60 cm lances are very nice. the 45 cms batteries though dont have that much of an extra impact due to the speed of our fleets.

 

thats my take on it at least :tu: SC's and escorts are very fast. moving 25cms easily each. my BB on the other hand only moves 20 at its maximum speed. if he were bombarding me with his range 60 lances (and lets say magicly got past its shields) then the BB would be in some serious trouble. as it would take a turn of 2 or 3 until it could even fire back (even ignoring the fact that blast markers reduce speed on it :P with only 45 cms broadsides and a 30 cm bombardment cannon i can see where the range factor comes in indeed.

 

that said i think the price-hike is huge. but if i understand you correctly its there so IN has an option against chaos who have longer range batteries?

[mughi3]

The thing is chaos fleets do just fine without escorts and unless you nova cannon spam IN fleets do poorly without them.

 

First off with chaos ships they are generally faster (25cm across the board) and pack weapons both lance and battery in at 45cm and 60cm in large numbers.

 

Some of the favored basic cruisers include the carnage with a strength 10 broadside at 60cm and it bumps up to 16 strength at 45cm. then there is the cheap carrier devestation class that also sports a pair of 60cm lances out each broadside.

 

The extra range really comes into play when you fight eldar and chaos. it also becomes important in some scenerios.

In BFG 30cm is basically spitting range. necrons and marines to a lesser extent are armored enough to be able to stand the pounding at close range and will generally(esp. necrons) be able to outmanuever an IN cruiser force.