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Karl Valten
May 29th, 2009, 12:35:33 AM
First of all, I apologize for the monstrous post here. :p

Whether or not you're interested, I still though I'd share as I'm still antsy of the game I had today.

For those not in the know. Many table-top wargames use plastic and pewter figures to represent their armies. Games are played with a set point value (0-1000 being a small game, 1000-2000 being a medium game, 2000-3000 being a large game and 3000+ being an Epic-scale game)

Each model costs a certain amount of points depending on how 'good' it is (good being a relative term, especially in Battlefleet Gothic).

Battlefleet Gothic is a starship wargame based on the Warhammer 40000 universe and pits all the various races against each other in space. The game play is a lot like old naval combat with ships-of-the-line (cruisers mostly) slugging it out while escort vessels weave in and out of the big ships preying on damages and cripple cruisers. Battlecruisers, Grand Cruisers, Battleships also make their appearance in larger games (1500 points on up) and usually require concentrated firepower from multiple cruisers or escort squadrons to bring down.

Each race differs in how they function. IE Imperials field extremely hard-hitting, but close-ranged warships with heavily armored prows (good for closing with the enemy, firing a salvo of torpedoes, then moping up with broadsides up close). Chaos ships are fast and have long-range weapons compared to Imperials and field a lot of fighters/bombers, but they are much more fragile. Eldar fleet field many, many, escorts relative to cruisers and are EXTREMELY fast, manueverable, and hard to hit, but their hulls are like tissue paper.

Bit of a taste, thats only 3 of the races and most races can field different styles of fleets.

Anywho, here is a battle report I wrote up for a war-gaming forum with me as Imperial against my friend Dan as Chaos.

My ships:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a105/Hockeyman506/Picture006-1.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a105/Hockeyman506/Picture005-1.jpg

Dan's ships:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a105/Hockeyman506/Picture008-2.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a105/Hockeyman506/Picture007-1.jpg

Beware, the battle report is long.


Just got back from Chaos Games in Minneapolis playing a 1000 point game against a friend of mine. I took Imperial while he took damn, dirty, traitors. I don't have pics of the battlefield unfortunately.

This was one heck of an interesting game. Imperials where sent out to cleanse an Imperial world captured by Chaos forces. A Gothic-class cruiser was refitted with exterminatus weaponry to burn the heretical world to a crisp.

Imperial Fleet

1 Gothic-class Cruiser - Exterminatus Weapon, Fleet-Admiral w/ 2 rerolls (yeah I know this was a weird choice)
2 Lunar-class Cruisers
1 Lunar-class Cruiser - Prow Nova Cannon
1 Dominator-class Cruiser

Sub-Plot: Vendetta - The chaos warmaster leading the heretic fleet and his space marine crew are infamous for their slaughter of Imperial citizens on the captured world, only seeing their ship wreathed in the flames of vengeance would sate the Imperials cries for blood.


Chaos Fleet

1 Devastation-class Cruiser
1 Carnage-class Cruiser - Warmaster, Chaos Space Marine Crew, Mark of Tzeentch
1 Carnage-class Cruiser
2 Slaughter-class Cruisers

Chaos Planetary Defenses

1 Surface Airbase
1 Surface Missile Silo
3 Orbital Mines

Sub-Plot: Secret Intelligence - Little did the fool Imperials know that as they charged their way towards the fallen world, the cunning followers of Tzeentch kept maintained agent in hiding aboard the Dominator-class Cruiser ready to hand over security-keys for the orbital defense of the next Imperial world in the path of the Black Crusade. Now all that was needed was to somehow get the agent off the Imperial vessel.


Set-up

Games was played on a 6.5 ft by 4 ft Table. Planet was at a far end, 30 cm from the edge with one moon in an inconsequential position. 3 Asteriods fields lay were present, 1 of which was behind the target planet. However the other two were between the Imperials and the planet leaving only two routes that they could go through.

Deployment

Imperials Deployed into 2 sub groups.
1) Gothic and Dominator in one table corner aiming for the south pass through the asteroid fields
2) The three Lunar-class about 45-55 centimeters away aiming for the north pass through the asteriods.

My reasoning for this was that my opponent and I agreed that as I deployed first, I wouldn't have to reveal my Exterminatus ship until after all ships where deployed. I was hoping to draw in towards the 3 cruiser who had a direct line of site to the planet instead of the other 2 which would have to move around an asteroid field.

Chaos
1) The Devastation, one slaughter, and one carnage deployed hiding behind the nook of an asteroid field outside of direct line a fire from both nova cannons.
2) One slaughter and one carnage started in reserve as per the Exterminatus rules.

Turn 1

Imperials - No special orders, all ships except the nova cannon vessels advance at full speed. The nova cannons move forward at minimum speed. Both nova cannon vessels lob shots just around the corners of the asteroid field hoping that they scatter onto the enemy. 2 hits are scored against shields.

Chaos - One slaughter-class appears from behind the Imperial line from reserve (ugh, this ended up being a thorn in my side). This ship closes to within 10 cm of the Imperial Dominator. Dominator Braces for Impact as the chaos vessel opens up into its stern from point blank range. Shields are knocked down, a point of damage is scored, and a teleport attack is made putting starboard weaponry offline and extracting their agent. (I was dead surprised to find out he picked the dominator as his target.)

Other ships move around the asteriod field on the south pass (DAMN) and the devastation launches bombers, however two of them are force to move through blast markers and have their speed reduce slightly.

Turn 2

Imperials - Gothic changes course so can stay as far away from chaos cruisers as possible and manages to score 2 hits on enemy shields. 2 Lunars change course toward main chaos fleet. Both nova cannon ships plod on ahead (starboard weaponry was repaired on the dominator in the previous end phase)

One nova cannon shot goes wide of its target and the other scatters a bit, but manages to take out two bombers (barely).

Chaos - Carnage-class fails to appear from reserves again. The main fleet is forced goes on Come to New Heading so that they don't end up off the board and so they can track the gothic-class. Second slaughter classes moves into base contact with the dominator and declares a boarding action. Chaos loses the boarding action (I rolled a 5 and he rolled a 2(+2 modifier) so I score a point of damage. :soldier: No critical hits.

Turn 3 (NOVA CANNONS DO STUFF WOOOO)

Imperials - The two torpedo lunars book it into firing range and launch a strength 12 salvo straight in on the Chaos ships. Gothic wheels about to thread the gap on the chaos vessels and make a run through the south pass as originally intended.

Dominator manages to actually manuever so it can fire both the nova cannon and its weapons batteries on the annoying slaughter that snuck up from behind. Nova cannon lands dead center on a Chaos cruiser and rolls a 6 (HAHAHAHA). Second Nova cannon goes wide....again.

Torpedo salvo plows into the cruiser hit by the nova cannon and turn it into a drifting hulk, they continue on and hit a second cruiser and cause 2 more points of damage. :act-up:

At this point the a massive cluster of blast markers has formed near the south pass as we kept rolling 1s and 2s for blast marker removal.

Chaos - Carnage final shows up from reserves (behind the opposing planet) and goes on all ahead full

Slaughter moves to within 10 cm again and unloads on the dominator (Brace for Impact) and manages to score another point of damage. Chaos main fleet is forced to split up to avoid the remaining torpedoes from the original salvo (Carnage barely manages to avoid them) Carnage also manages to maul the dominator and score 2 points (I suck at rolling for Brace). Gothic loses one point of damage due to bombers, has starboard weapons put offline, and shields shrug off two hits.

Blazing hulk kept drifting forward and remained on fire.

Turn 4

Imperials - Gothic goes on All Ahead and books it for the pass Full, both torpedo Lunars Lock-On and close to base contact with the Warmaster's ship (we'll have our vengeance today, lads), Dominator Locks-On as well. Nova Lunar changes course and lobs a nova cannon shot at the carnage that just showed up, but misses.....yet again.


Poor Chaos Carnage-class (the one with the Warmaster and marines) Gets shot at from all sides by 2 Lunars and a Dominator that are Locked On. Brace for Impact saves a lot of hits, but the sucker is takes four damage. On critical hit further damages its thrusters and causes another point of damage and a second critical hit severely breaches its hull for 2 more points of damage (leaving it with 1 left)

Devastation Braces for Impact as well because both Lunars are in range with their starboard weaponry (remember the torpedoes force the Chaos ships to split and the two lunars threaded the gap between them) and takes some damage.

Chaos - The Warmaster manages to limp away and disengage (DAMN DAMN DAMN the Imperials couldn't get their revenge this battle). The last remaining slaughter closes into base contact with the Dominator yet again and the boarding action is a tie (Gods this was funny, I rolled a 6 and he rolled a 3(+3 modifiers for him).

Last Carnage starts angling towards the gothic which was just about to make it through the south pass. Devastation starts moving looping back around the asteroid field to link up with the carnage.

Blazing hulk EXPLODES, manages to fry all three of his orbital mines (these have slowly been crawling their way across the battlefield and their destruction mostly likely saved me a lunar). Both Lunars shields hold fast and shrug off the damage.

Now the entire area around the south pass is absolutely coated in blast markers.

Turn 5

Imperials - Gothic is force through blast markers and creeps forward keeping the asteroids between it and the Devastation. Lunars are forced to move through blast markers and end up trailing the gothic by a bit and Reload Ordnance.

Nova-Lunar takes a shot at the devastation and tickles its shields. Dominator moves forward full speed and angle itself, nova cannon can't draw line of sight past the asteroids, but the starboard batteries open fire on the damn slaughter-class tailing it causing very little damage.

Chaos - Slaughter is fed up with boarding and moves to within 10 cm again (damn their speed, damn it to hell) and brings down the dominators shields and lands another teleport attack which takes out the starboard weapons again. Devastation Reloads Ordnance and launches bombers. Carnage class opens fire on the gothic and brings down its shields.

Turn 6

Imperials - This is the point where I am crazy-scared as the bombers will be able to hit the Gothic in the next ordnance phase, but now there are only 2 chaos ships between my entire fleet and the planet.

I take a huge gamble and put both gothics and the lunar on Lock-On so I can try and bring down the bombers and beat up the last Carnage a bit. My gamble fails utterly as the bombers are out of the Gothic's firing arc by like half a degree, one Lunar has to shoot through the asteroid field (however it does manage to wail on the stupid tailing slaughter), and the last lunar misses with EVERYTHING even with rerolls to hit. End results......bombers still live.

Dominator lands a nova cannon shot right on the final carnage rolling another 6 (hee hee heeeee), the Nova-Lunar scatters but also hits the carnage, and a thrusters critical hit brings it down to 2 damage points left.

And here is the game ender. Bombers move into base contact with the Gothic. The Gothic utterly fails to go on Brace for Impact even with my last reroll. The turrets also fail to shoot down any bombers. Leaving chaos with 17 dice to roll against.

...........he gets 6 hits and destroys the Gothic. The Imperials have lost their Exterminatus weaponry and the Warmaster and his marines escaped.........with the security codes for a nearby Imperial world.




END

Imperials -

1 Ship lost
0 Ships crippled

Mission: FAILED
Sub-Plot: FAILED

Chaos -

1 Ship Lost
2 Ships Crippled (Warmaster disengaged)

Mission: Success
Sub-Plot: Succes

Result

The forces of the Imperium, despite devastating the chaos fleet with minimal damage to their own, suffer a humiliating defeat.

Tzeentch laughs at the foolish mortals and their pathetic attempts to disrupt his schemes.

Tear
May 29th, 2009, 10:48:41 AM
Pretty groovy man. Nice paint job by the way. Test of patience I'm sure. At my comic shop yesterday I walked past a table of people playing the ground version of warhammer. I think it was warhammer might have been something different. I didn't get to close for fear of being sucked into the nerd worm hole (o dis.):lol

Looked like they were having a blast though. They had a pretty fancy terrain setup.

Karl Valten
May 29th, 2009, 11:26:02 AM
[QUOTE=Tear;310949] I didn't get to close for fear of being sucked into the nerd worm hole (o dis.):lol
QUOTE]

Yeah...that tends to happen. And it's such a gods-awful expensive hobby too. This is why I mostly play battlefleet as all the rulebooks are online for free and you can field a 2000+ point fleet for under a $100. (less if you buy on ebay ;) )

Peter McCoy
May 29th, 2009, 06:46:40 PM
Very cool.

I've been perusing the Games Workshop site and have discovered an astonishing purchase opportunity:

Warhammer 40,000: Assault on Black Reach (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1300032&prodId=prod1570027&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k) - £39.15

In that box you get the following (along with the price they cost on their own)...

5-man Space Marine Terminator Squad: £24.45
Space Marine Dreadnought: £24.45
10-man Tactical Space Marine Squad: £17.60
Space Marine Captain: Anywhere from £5 to £10 depending on the model
1 Ork Warboss: £11.75
20 Ork Boyz: 2 x £11.75 = £23.50
5 Ork Nobz: £14.70
3 Ork Deffkoptas: 3 x £17.60 = £52.80

Now the difference is that all models in the boxset are plastic. I assume the boxed singular counterparts are metal and more details but even so - talk about bang for your buck! If you just go by what the units must be worth in points, separately it comes to £174.25 - making the boxed game £135 cheaper.

Karl Valten
May 29th, 2009, 09:26:11 PM
Assault of Black Reach is a damn good deal. Granted you are very limited and can't customize much, but just for the Terminators alone, its worth the cost.

Granted I don't play either of them, so the point is moot. But others are bound to get a good deal. :p

For the rest of us there is ebay.