Now that my buddy here in Albany has some cash flow, he's quickly amassing and painting up an Ork fleet, and trying to avoid going terror-spam. Unfortunately he's all about going brute-spam ... But as of yet he just has a handful of the other escorts, and wanted to take them out for a spin in his first game of BFG in years.
ORK SCOUTING FORCE
3 Ravager
3 Ravager
3 Onslaught
3 Savage
NOISE FLEET HEAVY RECON
Murder
Murder
3 Infidel
The two fleets clashed near a medium planet and two small asteroid fields, which played little part in the engagement. The orks took the initiative and moved forward cautiously, while chaos responded by sending the infidels after a ravager squadron to the east and the cruisers supporting each other in a move to the west. Their enormous broadside fire was less than thrilling early game, though double lock-on orders gutted the savage squadron. By keeping the murders tightly packed and within range of the ork weapons I managed to get one murder crippled (6 hits, with 1 turn of failed BFI off Ld9) over two turns of heavy onslaught gunz and brutal torpedo volleys. The orks doggedly tried to hulk that murder (down to 1 hit left end game), and I wasn't able to use my greater speed to get the hell away and bring some ranged guns to bear. Thankfully the infidels went to work and, mostly through torpedoes, wrecked the enemy escorts chasing the cruisers.
CHAOS WIN
Quite poor maneuvering from me this game, and it really came down to the infidels and their ability to turn 90 and catch the slower, 45-turning ork ships. I wasn't about to lose against his fleet, but it would have been ... embarrassing to lose that murder though my bungling and closing far too close. Frankly though shooting at all escorts with 6+ prows is rough, as firepower 10 quickly becomes 2 shots! This was also a game where torpedoes really shown, particularly maneuverable escort torpedoes.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
+ TIME FOR A NEW FLEET: XENOS SCUM +
I've wanted a second fleet for some time, less because I need a break from chaos and more so I can demo the game against people. I sold or traded my imperial stuff some time ago, as I have no desire to play or paint them, but looking at the other races available I'm kinda struck by how ... less good they are. Maybe simply less straight forward? Still many of them suffer in various ways:
Dark Eldar: weak, undergunned, poor & expensive model support
Eldar: weak, funky solar wind speed, don't like the models
Necron: neat models overall, but odd rules and either broken or flawed depending on who you talk to
Orks: meh models, tough but short-ranged and slow
Tau: beautiful FW models, interesting SG models, have almost done them in the past
Tyranids: very cheap fleet using 40k bitz + green stuff, but I'm not sure I can even play them with the way instinctive behavior works
I've been tempted by Tau in the past, but I want to do something really different ... So giving serious thought to Dark Eldar, of all things! I dig the models and don't mind if things look samey bar an extra spike here or there, and their plethora of special rules are pretty nifty. 0 turrets and 0 defense against batteries is a bit frightening, and the 30cm max range on ALL weapons is unfortunate, but it would certainly be different from my chaos fleet!
For now, my 1500 list looks like this, though it's regrettably quite repetitive:
Dread Archon
Torture - launch bays
Torture - launch bays
Torture - launch bays
4 Corsair - weapon batteries
3 Corsair - phantom lances
3 Corsair - phantom lances
3 Corsair - phantom lances
----
1500
DE ordnance is easily the most impressive thing they've got going on, at least in my mind, though I wonder at putting so many points into a tepid 12 bays worth. And then having to spend orders reloading continually. Given the other options though I'm not convinced that launchers aren't the best use of the tortures - 2 lance / 1 impaler / some torpedoes being the other ones. Also, no points sunk into mimic engines, even if they do seem to offer possibilities. I'd consider dropping a corsair to mimic up a torture for first turn ordnance strikes, but really I think that just puts that torture up into the enemy guns all the faster.
All the same a DE fleet would be fun to paint up, almost totally unique, and certainly take some time to get my head around.
- EDIT -
Here's a tweak of the above list, trying for some variety:
Dread Archon
Torture - launch bays
Torture - launch bays
Torture - impaler
3 Corsair - phantom lances, mimic engines
3 Corsair - phantom lances
3 Corsair - phantom lances
3 Corsair - weapon batteries
----
1490
A little more interesting this way, and mimic engines on those escorts could mean a mad dash lock on run with lances into something first turn.
Dark Eldar: weak, undergunned, poor & expensive model support
Eldar: weak, funky solar wind speed, don't like the models
Necron: neat models overall, but odd rules and either broken or flawed depending on who you talk to
Orks: meh models, tough but short-ranged and slow
Tau: beautiful FW models, interesting SG models, have almost done them in the past
Tyranids: very cheap fleet using 40k bitz + green stuff, but I'm not sure I can even play them with the way instinctive behavior works
I've been tempted by Tau in the past, but I want to do something really different ... So giving serious thought to Dark Eldar, of all things! I dig the models and don't mind if things look samey bar an extra spike here or there, and their plethora of special rules are pretty nifty. 0 turrets and 0 defense against batteries is a bit frightening, and the 30cm max range on ALL weapons is unfortunate, but it would certainly be different from my chaos fleet!
For now, my 1500 list looks like this, though it's regrettably quite repetitive:
Dread Archon
Torture - launch bays
Torture - launch bays
Torture - launch bays
4 Corsair - weapon batteries
3 Corsair - phantom lances
3 Corsair - phantom lances
3 Corsair - phantom lances
----
1500
DE ordnance is easily the most impressive thing they've got going on, at least in my mind, though I wonder at putting so many points into a tepid 12 bays worth. And then having to spend orders reloading continually. Given the other options though I'm not convinced that launchers aren't the best use of the tortures - 2 lance / 1 impaler / some torpedoes being the other ones. Also, no points sunk into mimic engines, even if they do seem to offer possibilities. I'd consider dropping a corsair to mimic up a torture for first turn ordnance strikes, but really I think that just puts that torture up into the enemy guns all the faster.
All the same a DE fleet would be fun to paint up, almost totally unique, and certainly take some time to get my head around.
- EDIT -
Here's a tweak of the above list, trying for some variety:
Dread Archon
Torture - launch bays
Torture - launch bays
Torture - impaler
3 Corsair - phantom lances, mimic engines
3 Corsair - phantom lances
3 Corsair - phantom lances
3 Corsair - weapon batteries
----
1490
A little more interesting this way, and mimic engines on those escorts could mean a mad dash lock on run with lances into something first turn.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
+ 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.
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.
Monday, July 27, 2009
++ NOISE FLEET TRANSLATING IN ++
+ COM-CHANNEL OPEN :
Hail fellow admirals! As I continue to tire of warhammer, I've found myself wishing I could get more BFG action in. So full of optimism, here's a blog dedicated to my Battlefleet Gothic antics - battle reports for ever engagement (4 for 2009 already!), modeling updates, list scheming, etc. I currently just have my CSM fleet, sitting at a cool 2k wit some extra ships in the bay. Though I'm feeling the need to expand once again - demonship, planetkiller - I'm also jonesing hard for a new fleet. I'm thinking Dark Eldar, and will post up later what I've got in mind ...
In the mean time, here's my fairly bloated 2000 point Noise Fleet:
Desolator "Distortius Maximus" - Warmaster Devour, MoS, CSM crew, reroll
Acheron "Bassgod" - Lord Pharron, MoS, CSM crew, reroll
Acheron "Noisex" - Lord Arcadis, MoS, CSM crew, reroll
Devastation "Ecstatic Seizures"
Carnage "Cacophonic"
Carnage "Reverbirator"
Slaughter "Noise Attak"
3 Infidel "Minions of Darkness"
2 Iconoclast "Slaves to Torment"
1 Idolator "The Gimp"
I much prefer to play 1500 (same list, no desolator or idolator) or 1000 (5 cruiser classic chaos fleet), but the dessy is pretty intense.
Coming Soon: Noise Fleet vs AdMech @ 1500
: COM-CHANNEL CLOSE +
Hail fellow admirals! As I continue to tire of warhammer, I've found myself wishing I could get more BFG action in. So full of optimism, here's a blog dedicated to my Battlefleet Gothic antics - battle reports for ever engagement (4 for 2009 already!), modeling updates, list scheming, etc. I currently just have my CSM fleet, sitting at a cool 2k wit some extra ships in the bay. Though I'm feeling the need to expand once again - demonship, planetkiller - I'm also jonesing hard for a new fleet. I'm thinking Dark Eldar, and will post up later what I've got in mind ...
In the mean time, here's my fairly bloated 2000 point Noise Fleet:
Desolator "Distortius Maximus" - Warmaster Devour, MoS, CSM crew, reroll
Acheron "Bassgod" - Lord Pharron, MoS, CSM crew, reroll
Acheron "Noisex" - Lord Arcadis, MoS, CSM crew, reroll
Devastation "Ecstatic Seizures"
Carnage "Cacophonic"
Carnage "Reverbirator"
Slaughter "Noise Attak"
3 Infidel "Minions of Darkness"
2 Iconoclast "Slaves to Torment"
1 Idolator "The Gimp"
I much prefer to play 1500 (same list, no desolator or idolator) or 1000 (5 cruiser classic chaos fleet), but the dessy is pretty intense.
Coming Soon: Noise Fleet vs AdMech @ 1500
: COM-CHANNEL CLOSE +
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