Battlefleet Gothic Tactics Imperium

8/9/2019 Battlefleet Gothic Tactics Imperium

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LO RD RH A M IREZS

M A STERCLA SSFleet Tactics

byLiam (who never sent us his second name!)Welcome back to Masterclass al l you budding admi rals and ship captains out there. OK, so

John Lambshead did a similar tactics article not long ago, but I think some of the tactics thathe gave us are good in principle, but a little rigid. The tactics I prefer are those which make for

fluid moves and dramatic encounters not rigid lines of ships moving on a steady heading.

I've tr ied to put down t ri ed and tested t ri cks and hints, which have worked well for me.Hopeful ly theyll work for you as well .

Assembling the Fleet

Contrary to what you may have been told, afleet will do well no matter who is incommand, provided its component vessels arethe ri ght ones for the job.

Here is a common enough mistake amongst

fleet admirals taking a fleet with theminimum number of cheap cruisers he can,taking a small number of escorts to fill a fewspare points, and then depend upon thebiggest battleship he can get his hands on. (NBChaos players have been really going to townwith this strategy, since the Planet Killer wasreleased.) Then the player using this horrorwonders how he lost. He thinks: I've got thisawesome battleship, loads of guns, and I totall ysmashed what I shot so what happened?'

What would Rhamirez say about this?Probablysomething along the lines of:

It is vital to have a balance of power andspeed, combined with strength of numbers.

Fairly obvious I think youll agree, but it stillsurprises me that so many players are makingthis mistake.

Also remember who youll be fighting againstEldar, go for massed batteries rather thanlances or torpedoes, and max out on thecarriers. Against Orks, nova cannons (if you can

hit with them) might be a good idea. AgainstChaos, anything goes... up to a point.

OK, I'm going to go through each section of thefleet list, and tell you my method of selecting afleet. Oh, and if anyone's wondering, Ipersonally use a fleet of 1,000 1,500 points inmy games, depending upon my opponent, soyou will need to adapt these pointers if youplay with 3000 points a side!

Escorts - Fast and Deadly

The smaller the ship, the easier it is ignored

Escorts are the bane of every commander whodoes so.

Greetings, recruits. I am Lord Admiral Rhamirez,commander of Battlegroup Retributor. You mayhave heard tales about my... unorthodox methods.But then, you have probably also heard stories ofmy success. You've already met Lord Rethmon andheard his opinions upon the tactics uti lised by thesector Battlefleet. I will state now that I do notagree with them. This lecture will concern themanoeuvres which i have developed in realcombat situations. Some have called me a

dangerous free thinker, but my record speakslouder than any critic!

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I use as many escorts as I can particularlyCobras. All escorts can be quite useful, evenagainst larger foes, if used in medium or largersized squadrons and in the right way. Cobrasare, quite frankly, the best escort class availableto you fast and very deadly indeed. I use

squadrons of four: bunched together andlaunching torpedo salveos off as often aspossible. The Firestorm is also good in force use them with a Dauntless and youve gotenough lances to rip through just aboutanything. The Swords I favour less, but used insupport of larger vessels, they can still earnsome respect. Plus, Firepower 4 batteries for 35points cant be all that bad, especially againstEldar whose holofields make the other escortsweapons look like a bad joke!

Never ever forget escorts die like mayflies especially if they go off alone. Escorts shouldkeep together, and stay out of trouble.

Cruisers - Workhorses of the Fleet

The noble cruiser, the most versatile vessel acommander will ever attain.

I never go into battle without plenty ofcruisers. At bare minimum, half of your fleet'spoints value should comprise of cruisers.

The next thing to think about is 'which one'?There are eight different classes of cruiser,battlecruiser and light cruiser open to you -each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Everyone has his or her own likes and dislikesso just choose whichever ships you love themost. So what if theyre not the most powerfulyou can have? Mind you, for defensivepurposes its always worth getting one shipwith launch bays. Leave them at the orbital

docks and youll see what I mean. Those wholike the idea of having their fleets ripped apartby assault boats can feel free to ignore thiswarning.

My own fleet has my two clear favourites the

Lunar class and the Dominator class, but I alsohave a Dauntless, a Mars and a Dictator. Thisway, I've got some attack craft, plenty of gunbatteries and a good few torpedoes and lances.As a bonus, these also happen to be the modelsthat I like the most.

There is one cruiser in particular thats worth aspecial mention the Gothic class. These arefleet support ships, surely designed to backup other ships? Four lances per flank i s fine,but on average only 50% of those will hit that's only two points of damage, which acruiser sized vessel will shrug off with its

shields. If you take a Gothic class, thinkcarefully about its role within the fleet. I wouldattach i t to another ship as direct support.

Batt leshi ps Hand of t he Emperor

The batt leships are the naval equivalent to theartillery gun slow and cumbersome, butwi th terri ble firepower.

In my opinion these really arent as good aseveryone seems to think. Theyre tooexpensive to be worthwhile in small fleets, andin larger fleets theyll probably end up inflames with a flotilla of enemy vessels at their

tail. Having said that, I have found them usefulon occasion. I mean, all those guns! Just thinkwhat damage you can do to the scum yourefighting... ahem!

Do not use a battleship just because you likethe model I would recommend them only for

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larger fleets, ie no smaller than 1,500 points,and ideally 2000 points plus. If you do usethem, do it properly and get at least two escortsfor them. If you can, two squadrons might be agood idea one deployed ahead, one behind.

I own a Retribut ion class, but it s only ever seenabout a dozen outings. Its done OK in theengagements its been deployed in, yet it stilldoesnt quite live up to the hype aboutbattleships. Cool model though, and all thoseguns...

Thinking Tactically

If you want to win, you need to use the righttactics. Any questi ons?

(Now tell us something we dont know!)

What, exactl y, are the ri ght tacti cs?Of course,

that comes down to who i s in command!All right. This bit is really simple andpatronising, but it has to be said. Theres nopoint in watching your friend play and thenjust copying his style. More than likely (unlessyou're clones or something) his favouredtactics will just not feel comfortable. Itsdifficult to explain, but all I can say is that youmust play the way you want to play. And, ofcourse, gut feeling is always a winner (providedits not just wind youre feeling!).

Tactical Advice for Novices

Your fir st voyage into the star s should beconsidered an extension of your study thesubject being your own mind.

Basically, if youre new to BattleFleet Gothic,how do you know your style of play?Easy trya few dif ferent ideas and tactics, then see whichyou liked the most (as an aside, someexperienced players might also benefit fromthis). After a few games, you should begin tobuild up a picture of what are the best tacticsyou can use.

Scatter Technique

Put your faith in your prow to protect youfrom harm, and d ive deep in to the enemy l inein force, firing both broadsides at the closest

enemy vessels. Torpedoes will break upformat ion as you advance, and a Sheer turnwill bring you about once your attack run isover. Take care that the return fire issignificantly less than your own. Remember,fortune favours the bold!

A single (suicidal) vessel could try this on itsown - no-one will ever be prepared for thatand maybe the surprise will give you the edgeyou need. Clump your ships fairly closetogether to get the most out of massed fire.

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If you can break up the enemy formation in thisway, you'll find it considerably easier to get inclose without your prized vessels having newventilation ducts installed in their hulls.

Line Formation

This is difficult to sustain, and often you willfind yourself i n di fficult si tuat ions as a resul t.However, the line does give every ship mutualsupport; most useful against the EldarCorsairs where the small loss ofmanoeuvrability is outweighed by the weightof fire which can be brought to bear. Alas,beware of torpedo strikes which move downyour li ne!

Tricky, that last bit. Having all that massedfirepower is very good against Eldar, but havingships so close together makes them easy

pickings for torpedoes. Not a tactic Idrecommend against anyone, despite what JohnLambshead said in his Masterclass.

Mind you, I reckon that if youre playing with3000 points a side, you could use two,mutually supporting lines of vessels after all,youve got the numbers. I have to admit Ivenot tried this, so beware.

Torpedo Run

Successive waves of torpedoes can decimate afleet, leaving the survivors scattered and

surrounded. The downfall of manycommanders has been failure to reloadordnance after a strike a mistake for whichyou will pay dearly.

An idea I had given to me recently: this isreally good in some ways - just cruise up asclose as you can (ignore incoming fire - that'swhat armour 6 prows are for) and let off allyour torpedoes as soon as you get within30cm. The damage that doesnt slowem down,then you can reload and manoeuvre foranother try.' Oh yes, very good that is untilhalf your torps miss, half of those that attack

are shot down and the enemy fleet starts firingat you...

To be fair though, this tactic is actually prettygood if your opponent goes for the PackHunters strategy (see opposite) or if you cancatch the end of a line formation. But, as theAdmiral points out, fail to reload your torps,and you're asking for a pasting. Oh and don'tbother against Eldar dont ask why, just don't.

Pack Hunters

Allocate the ships under your command to aspecific role, such as pursui t and hunting, andallow them enough autonomy to fulfil thesetasks. The enemy commander will be forced to

spli t hi s att ent ions between each group, or r iskbeing surrounded. However, if the enemy canbring force of arms to bear on each group intur n, destruction is a much more tangible risk

Lots of small groups of ships can be a good idea I use three Firestorms and a Dauntless. Theirmatching speeds and manoeuvrability meanthey can operate together to hunt down enemycruisers with their prow lances (Strength 6 alltold - ouch). And of course this way of thinkingrequires little effort you havent got aformation as such to stick to.

A word of warning here! Put your carrierstogether l ike this and you can come unstuck, asthe attack craft wont be ideally placed to dealwith everything the enemy throws up theyllall be in one place, not the most flexible ofsituations. And, as Rhamirez says, if too manyenemy vessels catch a group on its own, itscurtains.

Engines of Destr uction

'How to use your weapons to the best of theircapabitities will always be the thought at thefront of any commander's mind. There is noset answer, it is simply something you mustlearn for yourself.'

Okay, to summerize Lord RethmonsMasterclass, he says torpedoes arent all thatspectacular, and that carr iers are the best thingsince the invention of warp drives. Well, I comefrom a different school of thought.

Torpedoes are great, provided they are usedcorrectly. Get in close before you launch,ideally within 30cm so your torps will hitbefore your opponent can get away. If you can,get two or three ships (the more the merrier

really) to go for it at once. In a best casescenario, youd also have a few waves ofbombers to attack first to overwhelm histurrets.

Carriers have their place, but with an Imperialfleet theyre best used to give you fighter coverfor defence rather than offensive hitt ing power.Of course, it is a valid tactic to take three ormore carriers and let fly with waves ofbombers, but you need aerial protection fromthe hordes of Traitor assault boats (which allChaos carr iers have!) and Eldar bombers (more

annoying than a swarm of gnats, and infinitelymore destructive).

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On Ramm ing

How many of you Imperial commanders thinkof ramming as a Chaos or Ork trick? Most,probably. I agree with you. Ramming is greatfun every now and again, and I enjoy the oddRAMMING SPEED! bellowed at the top of my

voice. But dont ever think itll win you battles.The thing about ramming is that its horriblydestructive to the enemy, but tends to rip agaping hole in the side of the attacking ship.Plus, a canny opponent will Brace, makingyour head-on collision more damaging to youthan your opponent. A ram is best used by acrippled vessel, facing overwhelming odds, as afinal of show of defiance and to take with it asmany enemy as it can!

Oh, and I think the rulebook should state thefollowing: When preparing to ram, you mustdeclare your intentions by shouting All ahead

full! ramming speed! or Perhaps it is a goodday to die... just before rolling for theCommand check.

Formati on Break

Unlike Admiral Rethmon, I, amongst manyothers, believe that formation is mere theory.Breaking formation should be done wheneverthe si tuat ion war rants i t. Staying on a head-on course for a more powerful or numerousfoe merely to main tain format ion makes li ttl esense.

All I want to say is don't let your formation

restrain you. If you want, need, or simply feellike breaking up your carefully planned

arrowhead, do i t. Go on, just do i t. After all thisisn't the Olympics, and you wont win anyvictory points for artistic interpretation.

Also break if the celestial phenomena aroundyou make it advantageous to do so. That is, ifthere is a handy planet (probably a medium

sized, bl ue-green planet orbi ti ng a di sregardedyellow sun somewhere in the western spiralarm of the galaxy!) off to starboard and youwant to make a nice sharp turn to lose yourpursuers, go for i t!

Having said that, its really obvious to me thatno-one in their right mind wouldnt break inthese circumstances. But there we go.

Final Shots

In final, I would like to remind you that inorder to win a naval engagement, it is notnecessary to destroy the most ships, but out-

fight the opponent on every level. You mustout-gun, out-manoeuvre, out-run and out-think your opponent. Dont ever forget that.Class di smi ssed.

Well thats that, a few snippets of my tacticalknowledge put down on paper. Hopefully, youwil l find some of it useful. Anyway Im off, timeto take Battlegroup Retributor out of dock andinto war. Ho hum! Another twenty-four monthtour of duty with no leave, here I come...

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Battlefleet Gothic Tactics Imperium