I have always wanted to get into BFG.

[Canadian_F_H]

maybe not today or tomorrow, but i feel like i need to get started sooner rather than later.

 

I spotted a ton of awesome models from 3d printers on shapeways. I fiddled with battlescribe and its a bit much to take in that way. How are folks getting into this old relic these days?

[Mazer Rackham]

If you don't have the rulebooks, GW Specialist games made them available for free and they are easily picked up by a google search and downloads.

 

I must stress that this is completely Ok to do and almost exclusively the means to access the books as they have been OOP for ages.

 

You want the Main BFG Rulebook and the follow-up book BFG Armada.  There are also issues of the BFG magazine which expand on them to cover the Mechanicus etc.  This will give you all the rules for all factions, but you can easily ignore anything else.  One website has updates all the way to 2010, but these are fan updates only and not issued by the GW team.

 

After this, you need Special Order dice or templates matching them.  If you really want dice, from what I can tell, they are damn near identical (95%) to Titanicus order dice.  The game plays well and packs plenty of options - in fact if I was pushed, I'd say it was one of the best GW rulesets I've used.

 

You will also need explosion templates to mimic the terrible damage you are going to wreak and remember to measure in centimetres!

 

MR.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Mazer Rackham
Blimmin' Typo! Zap!

[Marshal Loss]

Mazer gives great info. There is a BFG Facebook group as well, which is a fantastic resource for pretty much everything.

[Exilyth]

Given the small scale, some sprue cut into shapes and glued together can do wonders, e.g. I've scratchbuild a custom battleship out of sprue and random bits back in the day, using f.e. the small figure from the top of a space marine banner pole as a gigantic statue on the bow of the ship.

[Canadian_F_H]

Appreciate the response folks. Ive found the pdfs. Lke you said, GW diatributed those for free themselves after they shut it down.

 

I dont think i am in a hurry to build any massive fleets. Probabl would start with some very small fleets that could just be used as campaign tie-ins. Most wars waged only involve a company of marines, or a few regiments of guard. Fighting over some back water worlds wouldnt require battleships and battle cruisers or massed capital ships.

 

Most 40k fiction seams to revolve around a lone marine strike cruiser anyways.

 

I have a lot to think about.

 

Im thinking for now, just a hand full of cruisers, destroyers and frigates for both imperium and chaos. Equivelent for orks. And then a representative fleet for my black templar crusade. I think narratively, a battle barge with 1 or 2 strike cruisers and a forge ship would do for the BTs for now.

[Fajita Fan]

Given the small scale, some sprue cut into shapes and glued together can do wonders, e.g. I've scratchbuild a custom battleship out of sprue and random bits back in the day, using f.e. the small figure from the top of a space marine banner pole as a gigantic statue on the bow of the ship.

I'm kicking myself for not buying a whole box of BFG cruiser sprues to make my own plastic battleship. :(

[Exilyth]

Rummaging around in storage, I found some spacestations I made from wooden disks and random bits. I'll have to go take some pictures - could take a while though.
 

I'm kicking myself for not buying a whole box of BFG cruiser sprues to make my own plastic battleship.

Me too. I didn't even manage to grab any for building cruisers for my fleet before the game got shut down.

 

 

edit:

If anyone is interested, I uploaded pictures of my fleet: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/gallery/album/15892-bfg-fleet/

Edited October 13, 2019 by Exilyth

[Klod]

Judging by how GW brought back Aeronautica, Kill Team, Necromunda and Titanicus, which are old games redone, I wouldn't be surprised if BFG is in the works. I would love to get into it.

[Ficinus]

You can find pdfs of the templates too. Just print them out on a durable card stock and you'll be set.

[Canadian_F_H]

Judging by how GW brought back Aeronautica, Kill Team, Necromunda and Titanicus, which are old games redone, I wouldn't be surprised if BFG is in the works. I would love to get into it.

I have been thinking the same thing. It isnt a certainty, but if its going to happen then its more likely now than it has been for a while.

 

Picked up the 2002 BFG annual for 20ish bucks in good shape.

Edited October 14, 2019 by Canadian_F_H

[Exilyth]

If we get a new version of BFG, it will probably use a different scale too.

[noigrim]

Ali express is your best option for the big ships, vanguard games makes great escorts and cruisers

[DeRome90]

Judging by how GW brought back Aeronautica, Kill Team, Necromunda and Titanicus, which are old games redone, I wouldn't be surprised if BFG is in the works. I would love to get into it.

 

There have been several instances where people asked GW when they bring back BFG. The answer was always that they plan to get back to BFG, but if the work on it, it will be a multi year project and they do not have the ressources ATM.

 

I use scratchbuilds, 3rd party (Vanguard Miniatures ) and the ships I got from a veeeery generous friend of mine. I have my 3rd game this sunday, and I can only recommend this game!

[noigrim]

Check out specialist arms for rules

[Brother Captain Alberic]

Well with any luck now Blackstone done maybe they could re purpose some of those resources. Not sure why it should take years they don’t necessarily need new rules just new kits for it.

[Canadian_F_H]

Well with any luck now Blackstone done maybe they could re purpose some of those resources. Not sure why it should take years they don’t necessarily need new rules just new kits for it.

 

that may well be possible.  or they will move on to a whole other aspect of Warhammer:Quest as BSF is really just one expansive adventure within such a system.

[Fajita Fan]

Unearthed my BFG fleet and started soaking 4 painted cruisers, my frigates and three other cruisers will go in alcohol next. I still need to assemble three Falchion destroyers and a pair of Dauntless cruisers before priming. I had a cruiser I started cutting down into some kind of smaller stealth cruiser conversion but I still have the prow so I’ll try to fix it and get it looking normal again.

 

My Dark Angels battle barge, pair of strike cruisers, and smaller escorts look okay but I think they need a brighter green highlight; I hit them with the old Thrakka Green and put them away before highlighting. There was a revival of BFG at my GW 10 years ago but people stopped playing so I stopped painting.

 

Once my Imperial fleet is done I think they’ll get sprayed white this time with black prows and gold trim.

[Fajita Fan]

This is the paint scheme I’m stripping, it ended up looking like Space Wolves 

This is the goofy looking cruiser I’m trying to fix, I have a bunch of carrier bays and one set of lance batteries left. I remember Lunars with nova cannons being really popular so maybe try to make that or keep it smaller like this and just count it as an up-armored Dauntless? I’m so glad I kept the prow   Thoughts?

[Arendious]

Looks like you were going for an upgraded strike cruiser. Or maybe a heavy System Defense Boat?

[Fajita Fan]

Dunno but I managed to make a halfway passable battlecruiser with some 3d printed bits and a bunch of cutting.  I realized afterwards with like 8 plastic cruisers I could've just turned it into a wreck and not wasted my evening.  

 

The Dark Angels look okay but definitely needs some brighter highlights and engine glows. Again, I wish I had bought more when I had the chance, a couple of more strike cruisers would get me to about 1500.  The Armageddon list was kinda designed to have SM fleets be small additions to an Imperial fleet, there's fluff in there that post-heresy the Codex Astartes dictated that marine ships were meant to be troop assault ships and not battle fleets.  

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[blackbabyjesus]

I've recently rediscovered my love of BFG, I played LOADS when it was first released back in the 90s and again about 10 years ago but sold my fleet for some quick cash in 2014.

 

3D printing is your friend for getting ships, the legitimate GW ones change hands for mega money these days and the proxies you can buy from companies like Vanguard miniatures are good but not as diverse as the GW kits.

 

Find a friend with a resin printer and get some files from a user on thingiverse called Italianmoose, there's a file on there for every imperial/chaos/space marine ship and most Eldar too.

[Fajita Fan]

How close in scale do y’all think the new tau AI aircraft are to their BFG ships? Could they make reasonable proxies? I found some shapes to 3D print but my printer misbehaves and doesn’t do fine detail well.

[klisof]

Barracudas are 6 to a box so I would guess they will be a similar size to an ork dakka jet.

I think that would put them around light cruiser size?

 

They should work fine for BFG.

[Fajita Fan]

I primed some cruisers but didn’t bother painting anything today. Once the Tau ships come out I’ll take a look at their size. 

[Fajita Fan]

My other cruisers are primed and the escorts are in the dunk tank being stripped.  I'll need to 3d print some destroyer proxies at some point when our printer at work isn't being a pain the ass.    With a few touchups on my Dark Angels I'll have a respectable Armageddon fleet.

 

So in retrospect I wish I'd kept that cut down cruiser the way it was, I tried to fix it and I botched it up worse than before.  It looks pretty hideous so I cut the nose off again.  Digging through an old binder with my printed PDF of the BFG rules I found the notes of what I was going for originally - an Inquisitor's personal cruiser meant to drop a legion of stormtroopers! I even found the cut down =][= bits I had to glue on there to make it really ostentatious and over the top but that's kinda out the window.  I may see if the back half is salvageable to turn into a titan conveyor painted in the scheme of my AT legio, it wouldn't be armed like a cruiser but have a Mechanicus feel.