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   GAME IS OUT! Battlefleet Gothic Armada is a real-time tactical combat and turn-based strategic fleet management game set in the Warhams 40k universe from Tindalos Interactive, a French developer established in 2010. According to the developer's twitter account, they are all "huge" Battlefleet Gothic fans. Here's hoping that translates into a fun game. Oh, it uses Unreal Engine 4, if that matters. Oh, and because this is a GW-licensed game, there will be no Steam Workshop support, because GW hates modding of all kinds. Take your dreams of Star Wars/Star Trek/Babylon 5/Firefly/Animes mods out back and shoot them, unless someone can figure out how to hack mods together some time after release. If your mod dreams happen to be Animes, you should take them out back and shoot them anyway, just to be sure. What games is this game like? Based on impressions by Alpha and Closed Technical Testers. EDIT: And multiplayer beta testers too.
 Campaign The campaign is set in the Warhams 40k universe during the 12th Black Crusade, in the Gothic Sector. It chronicles the Chaos invasion and Imperium response. While these two titans clash, they also are forced to deal with Eldar and Orc raiding fleets. The player character is an Admiral in the Imperium Fleet, tasked with defending the sector and repulsing the Chaos invasion. Like the first XCOM, everything starts just fine and then goes downhill from there. Your forces are persistent, too, so if you lose a ship in combat, or ignore an event that results in the destruction of one of your bases, it is gone for good and cannot be replaced. For example, if a planet is captured by the Orks/Eldar/Chaos, the Imperium might set a date for Exterminatus, destroying the entire planet, its population, and resources. You'll have a set number of strategic turns to reclaim it before then, so it's a race to get there before the Exterminatus fleet does.  Multiplayer There's custom 1v1, 2v2, and progression (ladder) multiplayer (also 1v1 and 2v2). In progression, you create an Admiral of a specific race and level him/it up to gain access to bigger and better ships, as well as leveling up your ships through combat. quote:While they won’t be playable during the campaign, multiplayer will support all four factions and just as in single player, your fleet can be customized and will be persistent from one battle to the next. Characters gain experience and skills, and ships can have new equipment added, including weapons and other subsystems. There’ll be around sixty possible upgrades for ships and, deliciously, Chaos vessels can use any Chaos Mark to alter the appearance and abilities of their vessels.  Combat
GOOOOOONNNNSSSSS! Stalkerr posted:
Links Official Site: http://www.battlefleetgothic-armada.com/ Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/363680/ RPS First Look: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/01/21/first-look-battlefleet-gothic-armada/ Videos! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw5V2O7jQJU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWteWul9cBE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl4hAD_xhn0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfBjZTm8IV4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63qOrP4WtFg  Free Smurf DLCIf you preorder or purchase within the first two months, you'll have access for free to the Space Marine fleet DLC, which is usable in multiplayer. Yes, this is Day 1 DLC garbage. Preorders got the multiplayer beta, the first DLC (Space Marines), and a 2nd, yet to be announced DLC race. Stalkerr fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Apr 22, 2016 |
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Feb 17, 2016 03:14
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Eh this is a much better OP than mine anyway.
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Feb 17, 2016 03:23
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On the one hand I am comically bad at strategy games, especially the realtime variety. On the other hand, I'm a wh40k nerd and a commissar slash hero of the imperium to boot, so I guess I don't have much of a choice but to buy in. Fingers crossed
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Feb 17, 2016 03:33
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Stalkerr posted:
I sincerely doubt this engine has anything to recommend it over Homeworld, or Sins of a Solar Empire when it comes to modding. Besides, the primary type of mod for these games is always a warhammer 40k space mod, so that's a big blow right away. 
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Feb 17, 2016 03:39
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I will admit that I'm really only excited because SPACESHIPS RTS. I have definitely heard of Battlefleet Gothic, and have browsed the wikis explaining all about the different types of space cathedrals, but I've only ever played the 40k ground game in tabletop. Also hoping the strategic layer makes decision-making as important and dynamic as what I've been experiencing in XCOM2. Star Citizen and MWO taught me not to hope... but maybe I can hope and love again! Probably not, and I will be sad in 2 months and regretting my purchase, but oh well.
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Feb 17, 2016 03:43
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I also look forward to my eventual regret with regard to pre-ordering this. I'm hoping Skirmish is a thing, so I can actually mess around with the alternate factions without getting immediately dunked on by screaming 14 year olds on the internet.
Derakarsis fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 17, 2016 03:58
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Derakarsis posted:I'm hoping Skirmish is a thing The developer confirmed Skirmish is in a few days ago on Facebook. Those of us that fear domination in multiplayer, rejoice!
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Feb 17, 2016 16:13
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the multiplayer aspect is new to me and seems like a super spectacular thing. can't wait until i'm disapointed!
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Feb 17, 2016 21:32
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I can't wait to execute someone for disobeying the suicidal and pointless orders I send them 
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Feb 19, 2016 23:23
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Gothic was literally my intro to the Warhams universe, so gently caress yes I am all over this, especially since it looks pretty competent.
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Feb 20, 2016 00:36
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I imagine this will end up like Dawn of War: a good game with a decent sized multiplayer community but constantly plagued by shifting imbalance despite the developer's best efforts to get it right.
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Feb 20, 2016 00:47
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sirtommygunn posted:I can't wait to execute someone for disobeying the suicidal and pointless orders I send them This, I believe, is the entire point of the game. Instead of "Papers, Please", it's "Commissar, Please".
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Feb 20, 2016 03:34
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I think it's really weird that we're a week away from the month of release and they still haven't announced a specific release date.
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Feb 22, 2016 22:13
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The developer seems to be the same one that made Stellar Impact- A spaceship moba game that seemed really cool until you tried to play it online with other people. Hopefully they've learned a lot about online matchmaking and such since then.
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Feb 23, 2016 02:59
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Klaus88 posted:I sincerely doubt this engine has anything to recommend it over Homeworld, or Sins of a Solar Empire when it comes to modding. About Sins.... That engine has about ten things very subtly screwing over any attempt to do BFG properly. The biggest is the way the weapons are defined on a per-arc basis, I couldn't for the life of me get an actually good way to get multi-arc weapons to work well, and without them it's hard to give chaos that nice big single broadside and dorsal weapon pair without giving them a close in firepower advantage as well. In the end the right thing would've been to just use the models and stuff for flavor because trying to get the battles right for crunch just wasn't happening. Yes, I want this bad enough I tried to make it in Sins.
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Feb 23, 2016 05:57
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This thread needs more hype-shitposting, I am here to provide.
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Feb 23, 2016 06:16
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There is no bad hype posting. Unless you imply the Dauntless and Repulsive aren't super sweet ships.
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Feb 23, 2016 06:23
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Derakarsis posted:The developer seems to be the same one that made Stellar Impact- A spaceship moba game that seemed really cool until you tried to play it online with other people. Hopefully they've learned a lot about online matchmaking and such since then. I had a lot of fun with Stellar Impact, but their official teamspeak server is down and has been for awhile, and I can't find people without it. Can't wait to laser peoples faces off with Chaos.
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Feb 23, 2016 06:43
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Speaking of hype posting, how about some information about the tabletop game this is based on. Those posts were pretty well-received in the Total Warhammer thread, so I figure I'd do something similar here as well. I'll start out with some general information and then move on to each faction in turn. Overview BFG takes quite a lot of inspiration from naval battles from the Age of Sail up to about World War 1. The most immediately obvious thing is that the ships have to deal with inertia and momentum. Ships can't just turn on a dime and move wherever they like. Particularly the heavier ships always have to move a minimum distance straight ahead, and can only turn in a limited arc each round. That makes it quite important to plan your moves and targets several turns ahead. A great battleship may have a fearsome armament to the front and broadsides, but if a few quick frigates manage to get into its rear arc it'll have a hell of a time getting rid of them. The general gameplay is pretty straightforward: First you move your ships, then you decide what they shoot at, then you roll a bunch of dice to see what happens. In addition to just moving and shooting, each ship can also use special orders to receive certain special effects. These orders can do things like improve the turn rate, make weapons more accurate, or allow a sudden stop, but usually come at the cost of reducing your firepower or maneuverability in exchange. So, for the beginning, let's look at all the ways you can make enemy ships go boom. First off, here are the three general weapon types that almost all factions have access to in one shape or another: Batteries  Batteries represent all kinds of unguided direct-fire weaponry, like giant cannons, railguns, plasma launchers, short-range rockets, the works. Usually, batteries offer the greatest potential raw damage of all weapon types, with a bit of luck they can cripple an enemy ship in a single salvo. However, for all their power, they're not very accurate. Against targets that are far away and/or moving at a bad angle, only a small fraction of the shots will actually hit. Battery shots may also be deflected by the armour of the target, which for example can be particularly tricky against the very well-armoured frontal ramming prows of imperial ships. Lances  Lances are basically giant laser beams on crack. Unlike batteries, they're very accurate and have a pretty good flat chance to hit no matter the distance or movement of the target. Even better, they completely ignore the armour of the target, striking directly at the vitals. The main downside is that lances don't have all that much raw power, meaning they're better suited to slowly wearing down and harassing targets than destroying them in one fell swoop. Torpedoes  Torpedoes generally function pretty much like their WW1 counterparts: You fire a salvo, and they'll slowly go in a straight line until they hit something. So generally you'll only have a good chance of hitting anything with them if you're either very close or if you can somehow force the enemy to move into their path. On the upside, torpedoes have effectively unlimited range and completely ignore enemy shields, so they can potentially inflict significant damage even at the very beginning of a battle before the sides start to wear each other down. There's also a subtype of torpedoes called boarding torpedoes. Instead of a warhead, they carry a group of suicidal warriors intent on causing mayhem aboard the enemy ship. Boarding torpedoes can actually alter their course somewhat, so hitting with them is something less of a gamble, particularly against large ships. If they do hit they'll breach the hull and spill out the boarders, who will try to destroy important systems inside the ship in a hit and run attack. Damage mostly works off a simple hitpoint system. Each hit that defeats the armour (or just a regular hit in case of lances) will cause one point of damage. Shields basically function as temporary hitpoints, preventing this damage until they're depleted, at which point they'll take a while to come back up. If a ship is reduced to half its initial hitpoints it is crippled, significantly lowering its capabilities in all aspects. Once they hit zero the ship is destroyed, which may involve it going up in a spectacular explosion that can damage other close-by ships. In addition to reducing hitpoints, each damaging hit also has the chance of causing a critical hit. These may involve temporarily losing certain weapons, causing an ongoing fire that will cause further damage until extinguished, or killing all the officers on the bridge. Boarding  Boarding is not something limited to just the boarding torpedoes. Ships that are in close proximity of each other can also just use their teleporters and small-scale shuttles to send boarders over to the enemy in similar hit and run attacks to cause critical damage. If they're feeling particularly daring, they can even go hull to hull with the enemy and attempt to seize the entire ship by force. With a bit of luck, that can take out even a mostly undamaged enemy ship in one fell swoop. But it's also very risky. Even if you do win the fight, enemy saboteurs may manage to sneak on your ship during the confusion and destroy critical components as a parting gift. Worse still, your own boarders may get a little overeager and accidentally cause the enemy ship's warp drive to overload, potentially dragging your own ship into certain doom along with it. Ramming For some reason there's no artwork of a successful ramming. Boo! Both the most  as well as hilarious way to kill enemy ships. If you manage to get things lined up just right, you can order your ships to slam right into the enemy, potentially dealing massive damage (possibly to both of you). The effect of ramming depends on the mass of the involved ships and their angle (i.e. hitting the side of an enemy ship is safer for the rammer than a head-to-head collision). A frigate slamming into a grand cruiser will probably be vaporised without even scratching the paint, whereas two battleships crashing headfirst into each other will make a whole lot of people on both ships very unhappy.Next up: A look at fleet makeups in general, and the Imperial Fleet in particular. Perestroika fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 14:12
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ramming:
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Feb 23, 2016 14:14
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Perestroika posted:A frigate slamming into a grand cruiser will probably be vaporised without even scratching the paint, Disclaimer: This does not count for the Ork Brute Ram Ship 
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Feb 23, 2016 14:18
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You forgot Nova Cannons in your weapons descriptions, which is a shame because they're the Best Cannons.
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Feb 23, 2016 18:18
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xthetenth posted:There is no bad hype posting. No all ships are super sweet ships because BFG has a rad aesthetic and kicks rear end. In regards to Skirmish, do we have any expectations for how this mode will work? I'll likely play the campaign once but I have no real interest in mutliplayer, so the real replayability will be in skirmish for me, assuming it's decent. It'd be especially nice if you could do co-op compstomps.
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Feb 23, 2016 18:32
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Asehujiko posted:You forgot Nova Cannons in your weapons descriptions, which is a shame because they're the Best Cannons. Oh, I'll get to those in the Imperial section, since they're the only faction that really uses them. Same with any other faction-specific weapons, such as they are. But yeah, they're great.
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Feb 23, 2016 18:38
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2 SPOOKY posted:No all ships are super sweet ships because BFG has a rad aesthetic and kicks rear end. Last I heard there was supposed to be some kind of multiplayer progression and I assume that includes skirmish as well.
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Feb 23, 2016 18:49
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Well poo poo, I was considering doing a tabletop overview. May as well fill in a few things. First off, movement. Without special orders ships have to move half their listed speed and no more than their full speed. Depending on the size, their turn can be earlier and earlier in their move. IIRC escorts can turn whenever, cruisers can turn after half their max move, and battleships can only turn at the end. So the bigger you are the more you need to plan your turns ahead. Second shields. They're worth another mention. Skimming over some fiddly crunch bits, each point of shields eats a single damaging hit. When a base cruiser has 2 shields and 8 hull that's a big deal. Better yet, they come back when your ship gets to move. Between movement and shields, a lot of the game is built around getting in a position to focus fire on the enemy and overwhelm its shields. What I've seen of the game makes me hopeful that it will actually work that way. Weapons batteries versus lances is also probably important. Batteries end up being swingy compared to lances. If you don't have the raw firepower to plow through shields each turn, swingy weapons are the next best thing. Lances' consistency isn't a good thing when you need to do better than average for a cruiser to cut through another cruiser's shields. When you get to fleets, a mix is great to have because consistency can be good and lance ships can go to where the good angles are for their firepower without worrying about enemy facing. No idea how that'll translate into the video game. Ordnance includes torpedoes but also fighters and bombers. Fighters can intercept bombers or torpedoes. Torpedoes and bombers are nasty because they get in under shields (and also do nasty damage) but need a certain amount of numbers to get past ships' point defense. Fighters knock each other out, and one fighter squad can take out an arbitrarily sized single group of torpedoes or bombers, after which the fighter is also removed. Overall ordnance is a numbers game. Whoever's got the ability to put more on the field has the upper hand, and the other side is probably best off trying to stop it. Deciding whether to use fighters to clear out maneuver lanes against torpedoes is interesting because that shifts the balance. There's of course special snowflakes that don't pay attention to some of these rules (eldaaaaar!). xthetenth fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 19:01
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xthetenth posted:There's of course special snowflakes that don't pay attention to some of these rules (eldaaaaar!). I was gonna ask and I may be getting ahead of myself, but Eldar are much more forward facing, right? Do they even have batteries?
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Feb 23, 2016 19:09
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Mordja posted:I was gonna ask and I may be getting ahead of myself, but Eldar are much more forward facing, right? Do they even have batteries? Eldar have special snowflake weapons batteries that get a slight boost on the lookup table for how many shots a given number of batteries get, special snowflake lances with exploding dice, forward centered weapons layouts, movement distances depending on the sun's direction, the special loving snowflake ability to move after shooting (and turn at the start of each move), shield replacements that make it harder to hit, fighters that get a save against getting pulled off the table when they do things, and I'm pretty sure something special for their torps and bombers. What I'm saying is that eldar are playing a very different but somehow compatible game. There's a reason a full set of fan rules more like bfg exist.
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Feb 23, 2016 19:25
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Mordja posted:I was gonna ask and I may be getting ahead of myself, but Eldar are much more forward facing, right? Do they even have batteries? Short answer: They do have weapon batteries, but they also use lots of lances. In both cases they're almost always forwards-mounted, neglecting the broadsides. On that note, next post: Ship Classes The ships in BFG are generally divided into three classes: Battleships, Cruisers, and Escorts. Battleships and Cruisers are also often just lumped together as Capital Ships, because they function pretty similar in most regards. There are also Attack Craft, but they're a bit weird. Battleships  Battleships are the biggest and baddest ships around. They carry as much firepower in one battery as smaller ships have in total, and can take incredible punishment. They're very rare, usually you find only a handful or even just one of them in any given fleet, serving as flagships. They're also usually incredibly cumbersome and slow, needing several rounds to even just make a 180° turn. They're very dangerous, but run the risk of being isolated and then swarmed if you're not careful. Cruisers  Cruisers are the true workhorses and usually make up the bulk of a fleet. Their role and loadout can vary significantly, from light cruisers intended to hunt down escorts to heavy battlecruisers with enough raw firepower to rival some battleships. They're faster and more maneuverable than battleships, but still have to deal with limited turning arcs and minimum movement. Escorts  Escorts include small, maneuverable frigates and destroyers that aren't really supposed to line up and trade fire with the enemy. Escorts are far, far more agile than capital ships. They can freely turn into any direction, and move much more quickly. In return, their firepower really isn't much to write home about, and they're also incredibly fragile. Usually a single damaging hit is enough to destroy them completely. They usually deploy in squadrons of several ships that work together and try to get into the blind spots of the enemy fleet to contribute their firepower without being targeted in return. Attack Craft  These include all kinds of small fighters, bombers, or assault shuttles that have to be carried into battle by a mothership. They're something of a special case, in that the game doesn't really treat them as ships but more as simple ordnance. They're "fired" from the carrier just like torpedoes, but they're able to move around the battlefield freely until they hit an eligible target. They all have distinct roles: Fighters destroy other attack craft and torpedoes, bombers attack big ships, and assault shuttles launch hit and run boarding attacks. Once a squadron reaches a target, they make their attack and afterwards more or less vanish from the battlefield, as they're assumed to only have enough range and ammo for a single engagement and automatically retreat to rearm. Next up: Imperial Ships (for real this time) Perestroika fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 19:51
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xthetenth posted:...movement distances depending on the sun's direction...  Eldar lol
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Feb 23, 2016 19:52
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Even a frigate is large and old enough to be stuffed with people who have lived onboard for literal generations and formed their own sub-societies, right? Or is that more of a Rogue Trader thing?
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Feb 23, 2016 19:59
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Mordja posted:Even a frigate is large and old enough to be stuffed with people who have lived onboard for literal generations and formed their own sub-societies, right? Or is that more of a Rogue Trader thing? It wouldn't be impossible, I suppose. Even just the frigates are usually between 1.5-2km in length, and carry anywhere between 20,000 to 35,000 crewmembers. However, escort class ships usually have a pretty high attrition rate and new ones are built fairly frequently. The thing where a single ship is in service for centuries at a time seems more reserved for cruisers and above.
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Feb 23, 2016 20:19
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Perestroika posted:Next up: Imperial Ships (for real this time) With that said, it's time for... Chaos (If I get beaten I'm blaming Abaddon)  Iconoclast class destroyers are the little guys without pods in the rear on the front left, Idolator class raiders with the skull thing, Infidel class raiders are the other small ones. The front cruiser is a Styx class, then a pair of Carnages and a pair of Devastations. The battleship is a Desolator class.  Left to right, a Devastation, Slaughter, Carnage and Repulsive. All cruisers, the Repulsive is a Grand Cruiser. Chaos is one of the two fleets that actually follow all the rules. They don't even get fancy schmancy armored prows that change things up. What they get is an overall quick and reasonably priced set of ships with a bias towards long range firepower and batteries (their lances mainly show up on bigger more expensive ships or in smaller numbers and there's no real lance boat like the Imperial Gothic), a good source of attack craft and not many torpedoes at all. They've also got a few options to mix things up for ship configurations which is neat. One of their big things is that their prow and dorsal batteries can often fire to the front, left or right. That's great because that means they can go fast with their broadside to the enemy and add in something like half again the firepower from those guns. Prow lances don't seem to do this, but dorsal ones do. There's a lot of ships here so I'll try to keep it relatively clear and overview-y. I'll add pictures as I find good ones. For those really interested in crunch, long range is 60 cm, medium 45, short 30, cruisers have 8 hull, 2 shields, usual chaos speed is 25 cm (imperials, slow battleships and grand cruisers are 20) and the Repulsive is a really good looking ship. Battleships  The Planet Killer Sure why not. It's a giant special ship from the expansion and only kind of fits in with the rest of the ships but I'm working from largest to smallest and there it is. Also it's in the narrative trailer. Abaddon has a problem with planets. So why not build a giant superweapon to destroy them! It's got big shields, an even tougher than usual battleship hull, and some very strong weapons batteries and lances that can combine to hit as hard as three average Imperial cruisers at twice the range, a battleship sized set of torpedo tubes (a bit of a rarity on Chaos ships), and an Armageddon gun. Basically what it does is shoots out to half again as long as the range of the rest of the ship's weapons in a straight line from the front of the ship with the Nova cannon template (the small blast from 40k). The middle hole is a thin region of 1D6 hits, and the template as a whole does 1 hit. It's dangerous at long range but a bit of a harassment weapon to encourage the enemy to close with its beefy anti-ship weapons. Despoiler class battleship The Despoiler is a big nasty battleship, the biggest and nastiest outside uniques and the Necrons (The Necrons have an interesting relationship with pricing). It's got about everything. It's got a standard battleship setup of half again the hull and twice the shields of a cruiser, 8 squadrons worth of hangars, a reasonable amount of weaponry that can hit out to long range by carrier battleship standards (light weapons batteries on port and starboard and a dorsal lance set), and if anyone lets it get close, it can combine its already reasonably potent dorsal lances with even stronger prow lances on the front for nearly twice the firepower of an Imperial cruiser's boadside. All that on a carrier. Desolator class battleship The Desolator is considerably less expensive and a good bit less potent than the Despoiler. It's a big long range gun boat that can run with the cruisers at full speed, is tough like a battleship, and packs a lance broadside the equivalent of an Imperial cruiser and dorsal batteries half that strength at long range as well as a good number of torpedo tubes. It's tough more than well armed overall. Cruisers Retaliator class grand cruiser The Retaliator is a weird ship. It's big, expensive and all that gets you is a tougher cruiser that's slower than the line and can match an Imperial cruiser's broadside firepower at the same range while carrying enough hangars for two squadrons. In a fleet with a really good and not conflicted carrier, it's a hard sell. Styx class heavy cruiser The Styx is a big carrier with a big price tag. It's on a regular cruiser hull but it's got 6 squadrons worth of hangars, with a mix of dorsal lances and prow batteries that can equal a cruiser from long range. It's kind of a small basket for those eggs but it can fight at a range that matches that. Repulsive class grand cruiser It's a cruiser with a slightly tougher hull (the only grand cruiser without half again the usual shields for a cruiser). Well that, broadside batteries capable of matching an Imperial cruiser at medium range, a dorsal lance battery that brings it up to twice the firepower at close range, and a group of torpedo tubes (I promise these things are rare in this fleet). Sure it's slower than the rest of the fleet, but it packs withering firepower to make up for it. You can also buy an upgrade for one of them to bring the lances out to medium range. Executor class grand cruiser The Executor is a very straightforward ship that does things differently from most of the rest of chaos. It's slower and tough like the other grand cruisers, but it's packing a whole bunch of lances split into left and right arcs. There's no dorsal weapon, it's just half a regular cruiser's worth of lances at medium range that adds in another cruiser's worth when it closes to short range. Hades class heavy cruiser The Hades class is one of the two gun based heavy cruisers, which are a bit more expensive than standard cruisers and the main place to find lances on cruiser hulls for Chaos. It's got dorsal lances and forward firing prow lances that can reach long range, and at medium range can shift to a broadside with batteries backed up by the dorsal lances for even more firepower. Acheron class heavy cruiser It's another cruiser hull, this time with broadside lances that can reach long range, and a dorsal/prow lance and battery mix at medium range that gives it a bit less firepower than the Hades at long range, but a similar amount at medium range and closer, with more lances in its close range mix. Devastation class cruiser It's a carrier. It's got bays for 4 squadrons, long range lances on the broadsides and a battery on the prow to add in up close. Like the Styx it's going to want to hang back even if it doesn't have quite as much firepower. What it does do is bring fighters to the battle with a minimum of fuss. Contribution past that is optional when the Imperial equivalent pays extra for the gear to get close and weapons for close range. Carnage class cruiser This is the best long range fighter of the straight up cruisers chaos has, with a real punch at long range between a prow battery and its ability to combine with a half strength broadside and a bit more once the fight closes to medium range from the rest of the broadside. It's pure batteries though. Murder class cruiser A weird ship overall. It's got long range lances on the prow but they only shoot forward, so they can't help boost their broadside like the carnage's batteries can. Slaughter class cruiser Chaos' things are fast and long range. The Slaughter trades in that range for more fast. It's half again the speed of Imperial cruisers and can keep pace with a lot of escorts. With its prow batteries added in, its already strong mixed battery/lance broadside becomes brutal. Escorts Idolator class raider A bit big and well armed by the standards of most escorts, the Idolator mixes some batteries covering all arcs but aft that don't suffer a penalty outside short range with a lance that fires only in the front arc and can't shoot past short range. Huh. I guess the idea is that you open up and get an advantage with the batteries before a knifefight with both? Still weird. Infidel class raider A mix of a few batteries with a reasonable sized torpedo launcher. Seems to be intended as a torpedo ship that can fight back a bit rather than a minimum cost torpedo dispenser. Iconoclast class destroyer Fragile, cheap, and has a good number of batteries. Knows what it wants to be and does it. Oddities Daemonships Yes Daemonships exist. For a not inconsiderable markup you can get some add-on bonuses and the right to cover your ship in crudely sculpted tentacles. You can summon it in on a capital ship, either friendly or enemy. It sits there spectral until you decide to translate fully into real space at which point it becomes solid and fights like a regular ship. However it can go spectral and re-enter play on any chaos turn after the one it disengages. For that it has a 50-50 chance of coming back with more health, with each turn adding to the chance. Oh and perestroika, here's a link to the painting competition the community runs if you want to find some models: http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?board=61.20 xthetenth fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 24, 2016 01:59
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In the spirit of things, Eldar   The Eldar are basically Special Exception: The Fleet. All their ships spin on a dime, they have different speeds depending on direction, they get to project holograms instead of shields, their lances can theoretically fire forever, their batteries are hyper accurate, their torpedoes largely ignore point defense. They move twice, the bastards, and will happily dance in and out of range all day. But on the other hand if they do get hit, their delicate systems will cry. How any of that is implemented is anyone's guess, I haven't seen any BFG:A mentions of the Eldar. There are fewer Eldar ship classes, if Tindalos want ship class parity they're going to have to invent some more. Cruisers Shadow The Shadow tosses an enormous amount of battery fire downrange, and backs it up with a respectable torpedo wave. Eclipse This cruiser brings 4 squadrons to the table, as well a flashlight of a lance armament. Per squadron this ship is overcosted, but Eldar fighters and bombers get ~special rules~. Frigates Hellebore The Hellebore wants to do almost everything. It brings lancefire, torpedoes, and batteries to the fray, and this is reflected in it's cost, well above any other frigate in the game. Aconite Dedicated entirely to batteries, this ship is possibly the most cost efficient way to smack someone with a bunch of dice. Nightshade The Nightshade puts out torpedoes, at cost. It also brings a token amount of battery fire, but who cares, cheap torpedoes. Hemlock The Hemlock is not the cheapest way you can shoot lasers at people, but it is the cheapest way to bring lasers that can potentially do infinite damage, and in the end, that's what's important. vorebane fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 24, 2016 07:15
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Someone do the objectively best fleet and least talked about ITT, the Orks
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Feb 24, 2016 08:05
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Ork fleet best fleet. Basically a party bus inside a rock and the rock just rolled over your house.
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Feb 24, 2016 09:13
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vorebane posted:Eldar There have been a few later splatbooks that expand their choices a bit. They have a few battleships as well, and can even bring the enormous Craftworlds in certain scenarios. They also get wraithships, which are basically uncrewed ghost ships controlled by the spirits embedded in them, making them surprisingly hardy since they just don't care about most types of damage. But anyways, here we go with the Imperial Fleet  The imperial fleet is pretty much the "baseline" that all other factions are compared to. All of their ships tend to be rather resilient and well-armed, though somewhat on the slower side. The heavily armoured front prow is a common sight on many of their ships, allowing them to charge right at the enemy and start exchanging broadsides from up close, where their firepower and defense will likely carry them to victory. Plus of course delicious ramming actions But that's not to say they're a one-trick pony. The armament of imperial ships tends to be quite balanced, usually with batteries as the mainstay, some lances to supplement them, and a few torpedoes to round things out. They also have a huge number of ship variants and refits to fill any possible role, to the point where I'm probably just going to list a few iconic or interesting examples. The Imperium's unique weapon is the Nova Cannon. The nova cannon is basically what happens when an imperial general-turned-admiral demands a long-range howitzer for his ships and doesn't take no for an answer. It has a huge range, longer than any other direct-fire weapon, but also a minimum range into which it can't fire at all. Instead of targeting only a single ship, it causes a giant explosion at the target point, which can easily damage several ships that are close together. It deals pretty significant damage, particularly on a direct hit, but it's also rather inaccurate with the point of impact potentially scattering into a random direction from where you aimed it. Still, it's a great tool for suppressing the enemy fleet early on or catching severely damaged fleeing enemies. Battleships Emperor Class  The Emperor class is probably the most iconic ship of the imperial fleet. One half of its firepower is made up of very powerful and long-ranged main batteries, many of them mounted on dorsal and prow mounts that can fire to either side and the front. The other half consists of a great many hangars stuffed to the brim with all kinds of assault craft. This is somewhat more of a flagship-type of battleship, the kind that would rather provide fire support from a bit of a distance, particularly because it carries an intricate communications array that improves its leadership rating but also lacks the extra armour of the usual armoured prow. Retribution Class  The Retribution class is not dissimilar to the Emperor class, except all the hangars have been torn out and replaced with more guns and a few lances. Similarly, instead of the comms equipment it features the classic armoured prow loaded with a number of torpedo launchers. All this, combined with its actually pretty decent speed, means that the Retribution is the kind of battleship that doesn't mind getting stuck in close with the enemy. Apocalypse Class  The Apocalypse class is a somewhat unique design that largely foregoes regular batteries in favour of an almost entirely energy-based armament. It carries a heavy nova cannon to the front and a heavy array of short-ranged lances in each broadside, with only a rather small dorsal battery to round things out. The Apocalypse class can choose to overcharge its lances to double their effective range, but doing so cripples its main drives. Cruisers Mercury Class Battlecruiser  in back The Mercury class battlecruisers are in concept actually quite close to our historical battlecruiser classes. Extremely fast for their size and with long-ranged powerful weaponry including a nova cannon, they're well-suited to bullying escorts and light cruisers, as well as pursuing crippled enemy ships that try to retreat. All this comes at a cost, as their overcharged drives are also very volatile and prone to going up in a great explosion that can damage other close-by ships. Since the Mercury class is still only as resilient as any other cruiser, this makes them tempting primary targets during the early stages of a fleet battle. Avenger Class Grand Cruiser  The Avenger class grand cruiser is the answer to the question "just how many guns can you strap on a cruiser hull?". The answer is "a shitload". The Avenger class has more firepower in its broadsides than even the Retribution class battleship, albeit at a much shorter range. It can cause incredible havoc if you can manage to get it into the enemy line, but getting there in one piece in the first place can be something of a challenge. Lunar Class Cruiser  The Lunar class is basically the bread and butter when it comes to imperial cruisers. They feature decent broadside batteries, some broadside lances, and a solid torpedo armament to round it out. When in doubt, you can't go far wrong by adding a few more Lunars to your fleet. They're also the lightest ship that can mount a nova cannon, exchanging their torpedoes for it. If you really want to make your opponent hate you, it's entirely possible to roll up with a fleet featuring more than half a dozen nova cannons. Dauntless Class Light Cruiser  The Dauntless class is a fast and maneuverable ship mostly used for scouting and dealing with enemy escort ships. Compared to a regular cruiser, it's undergunned and fragile. But when you're in an escort, it's an absolutely deadly enemy that you just can't outrun no matter what you try. Escorts Sword Class Frigate  The Sword class is one of the most-used designs around and can be found in almost every fleet. Its armament consists of a single small battery that can fire in all directions except backwards. They're excellently suited to intercepting enemy attack craft, torpedoes, and destroyers, but they generally do best to stay well away from enemy capital ships. Cobra Class Destroyer  The Cobra class is one of the very smallest independent ships used in the imperial fleets. Armed with two torpedo launchers and only a minimal self-defense battery, their aim is to outflank enemy capital ships and hit them with torpedoes from up close before retreating again. On their own they're not a great threat, but a squadron of three or four Cobra class ships can be a threat even to battleships if they're allowed to come too close. And even if all the destroyers die in the attempt, they're so cheap that it's still a decent trade-off for crippling a battleship. And that's that. There are still quite a bit more ship classes than that, but a number of them boils down to stuff like "like that other class, but with lances instead of batteries" that's not very interesting. Next up: Orkses (unless somebody else does them first) Perestroika fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 24, 2016 13:05
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I'm happy this is 2d plane. I've not yet played a Space RTS which did 3d movement well, yea I'm even talking about Homeworld, the movement controls sucked.
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Feb 24, 2016 13:47
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Go for orks, I'll do the eldar part two and maybe original tau. Also, the Mercury, I remember that ship but I don't have the book with it in it, which one has it? Also the usual pattern for imperial battlecruisers is a longer ranged ship, including the Armageddon which is just a lunar with a range boost and dorsal lances. They've got a very long range option in the Overlord, and a carrier/nova/long range option in the Mars. Also, the Lunar hull has 5 variants: Lunar: Mix of batteries and lances Tyrant: All batteries, can fire a weak salvo to medium range Dominator: All batteries, defaults with a nova cannon Gothic: All lances Dictator: Half batteries half carrier So you can get pretty much whatever you want as long as it has an armored prow and short range guns.
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Feb 24, 2016 15:09
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 11:06 |
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I have to admit, I'm pretty excited by this game coming out. I've loved BFG since the tabletop days, and always thought it would make a good RTS. Everything I see/read so far is making me more excited.
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Feb 24, 2016 16:23
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