+ FLEET ENGAGEMENT: CHAOS v ADMECH 1500 +

Down in PA for a weekend of gaming recently, and that meant I'd get at least one game of BFG in. My friend rolled out his brand new AdMech fleet for a straight up bash. I took my standard 1500 fleet (no desolator, no idolator) and he had the Ark (upgraded shields / targeters), 2 gothics (nova cannons, 1 with upgraded lances, 1 with upgraded shields, both with extra 60cm lance), 1 dictator (upgraded targeters?, extra 60cm lance), 6 gladius & 2 novas in 3 squadrons. His leadership was excellent, with 9 across the board except for 1 gothic with 8. Mine was horrific, with the acherons at 10 & 9 but everyone else 7 or less - including a 6 on Reverbirator and on every escort except 1 iconoclast.

Terrain was pretty sparse, with an asteroid field and a small planet at opposite ends of his side and another small planet on the far end of mine. He deployed his escorts all together by the asteroids hard left, with the cruisers in the center waiting to dish nova cannon. The chaos fleet split into a light left flank of escorts and the slaughter Noise Attak, and a hard right flank of all the other cruisers. Despite having trash LD the chaos fleet nabbed first turn ...

TURN 1
Lord Pharron called for a general All Ahead Full, which saw both acheron and Cacophonic boost up the right flank, with Reverbirator and Seizures failing and cruising after them. Noise Attak and his escort approached the AdMech escorts more cautiously. Due to the long-ranged acherons putting all power to engines any lance snipes were foregone this turn.

The Adeptus however fully intended to engage at range, with the cruisers and battleship moving enough to put the chaos ships in their nova cannon arcs. Three blasts later saw a smattering of shield hits and perhaps a structure hit or two, but nothing serious with all the scattering. The dictator also let fly a torpedo salvo on an intercept course with the tightly packed chaos cruisers. Meanwhile, the chaos escorts received the starboard weapons from the ark, losing two of their number. The AdMech escorts also moved in on Noise Attak but could only knock down her shields.

TURN 2
With the right-most gothic in striking range, Bassgod, Noisex and Cacophonic all locked on and prepared to gut the red and gold ship. Taking a wall of battery and lance fire, the gothic took six hits, including a shield collapse. On the other flank, Noise Attak pushed into the cloud of AdMech escorts and vaporized a squadron of three with a broadside blast, while his remaining chaos escorts managed to do little to the gladius near them. Cleaning things up, Seizures launched a fighter wave to take out the torpedo salvo, then sent the rest of the fighters to CAP for the acherons.

With their closest ship crippled, the AdMech still lacked range for anything but nova cannons and the ark's port weapons, so turned to bring those guns to bear. The Cacophonic received the brunt of the enemy fire, taking four hits and being crippled, while shields and the stray hit were distributed amongst the other chaos cruisers. Over on the left flank, the chaos escorts were wiped out by ark & gladius fire, while the Noise Attak took a hit from the remaining escorts, losing her port guns for the time being - the very guns needed to hammer the escorts to port-side.

In the repair phase neither Noise Attak nor the crippled gothic could repair their damage ...

TURN 3
The Noise Fleet continued it's counter-clockwise orbit around the heavy AdMech fleet, with Seizures successfully reloading ordnance (with the help of a reroll). Lance and battery fire easily hulked the gothic, leaving it burning and on an intercept course with the dictator nearby ... who received some fire of her own, losing her three shields and a hit or two. With no guns to bring to bear, Noise Attak pushed away from the enemy escorts, planning to use her speed to round the asteroid field and meet the rest of the chaos fleet behind the enemy.

As the blazing hulk continued to burn, the AdMech stuck with slowly rotating to face the chaos fleet, keeping nova cannons and prow armor pointed towards them. Noisex was singled out this time, taking a direct nova cannon hit but bracing the six hits down to just 2 after shields. Fire also put two hits on Seizures, lagging at the tail end of the cruisers. On the left flank, a squadron of three escorts reoriented to chase the Noise Attak, while two gladius headed to cut her off at the end of the asteroid field.

Noise Attak repaired her port guns, though too late to trash escort.

TURN 4
With two of five ships braced from last turn, the chaos fleet moved a bit more conservatively this turn, heading down the enemy deployment zone and preparing to lock on next turn ... That said, fire slammed into the dictator and crippled her, locking her into a drift into the blazing hulk. Noise Attak slewed around the asteroids and prepared to boost next turn.

Dogged machine worshipers that they are, the Adeptus continued turning and tracking the renegades, though novas and long-range lance shots couldn't do anything very meaningful. The escorts continued to chase or head off the slaughter, and the blazing hulk's plasma reactor detonated ... but the pitiful 6cm explosion couldn't even touch the dictator nearly on top of it.

TURN 5
With the enemy battleship in range, Pharron gave the order for all ships to lock on and unload into the heavy prow armor ... Once again the acherons passed easily, but all others failed on their pathetic leadership. Noise Attak was able to boost though, blasting over to reconvene with the Noise Fleet in front of the ark. Despite needing 6's to hit, the two carnages (1 crippled) powered through all four shields and smashed a hit or two into the ship itself! Bassgod and Noisex used their rerolled lances to hammer the battleship, destroying the bridge, wrecking the engine room and starting a fire in the process. A smattering of other lucky 6's crippled the ark, and with that the AdMech conceded.

CHAOS VICTORY

While the novas bothered me early in the game, his inability to roll hits (ever) meant that scatters ensured my fleet was taking 1 shield hit most of the time, except for the Noisex receiving a scattered direct hit for the max 6 ... but bracing mitigated the damage. The AdMech cruisers are certainly tough with +1 shield and +1 turret, and the novas + extra 60cm dorsal lances everywhere made for something of a ranged stand off. The problem is his ships, besides the ark and the above weapons, have all these 30cm guns, so play a pretty reactionary game. Which could work against chaos like me, who wants to close and tear your face off, but doesn't match the stand-off game he was playing as well.