Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey all,

First time poster in the Other Games section. My group and I plan on branching off into BFG to boost our overall 40k experience. First off, what is the best advice for a group of new BFG gamers? Also, we are each tailoring a fleet to one of our WH40k armies. What is a good fleet build to represent a full Ultramarine company, or a Hive Fleet? And (most importantly to us) what are some ways to incorporate a BFG victory into a follow-up WH40k battle? We were considering playing BFG then WH40k back-to-back with a bonus in the second game based on who won the first. A free orbital strike? One scatter-free deep strike?

Any advice is appreciated! Mainly the basics.

1. Allow for an orbital bombardment for those that win the BFG scenario.

2. Allow for selected units to deep strike.

3. Give a point bonus/penalty.

4. Follow a campaign tree. If BFG scenario is lost, then play scenario A, if not scenario B.

5. Allow the winner choice of deployment type (Orbital intellegence).

Any of those would work.

Hive Fleet = nids. They do have rules, just gotta find them.

Ultramarines - really for Imperials, you can go with the "Space Marines" list, or just go with the Imperial Navy. In the battle over Macragge, it was an Emperor Class Battleship, not a Battlebarge, that self-destructed and blew up the hive ship, so there's plenty of background showing how the Imperial Navy works very closely with Space Marine chapters. Plus I believe there's rules for marine crews/boarding parties in Imperial Navy fleets somewhere for some extra points per ship, so look it up.

As for combining, I've seen on dakka a combined scenario where they decided that for each lance battery or 6-strength weapon battery you had within 5cm of the planet in the BFG game, you could send down an earthshaker round on the main table. With the Apocalypse rules now you could use the Apocalyptic Blast and alter it depending on the ship. Say each ship sends down an Orbital strike with Apocalyptic Barrage (?) with ? being equal to half the number of remaining hits on the ships firing. Escorts can either be declared unable to bombard or just shoot an ordnance template.

So if a full strength Battleship gets next to the planet and devotes all of that side's firepower towards the planet, they will get an Apocalyptic Barrage (6) template to land somewhere. A Cruiser would be Apocalyptic Barrage (4). That seems simpler, but people might complain about how a Retribution Class Battleship gets the same amount of firepower as an Emperor in that setup.

Ultramarines have a definate advantage in that they'll have their own (space marine list) fleet and access to the Ultramar Naval Sector fleets (imperial list) - so you can mix and match.

As for bonuses, you could do things like preventing the loser from being able to deep strike anything (although you could put an exception for things that tunnel/teleport as a fleet can't stop you)

Orbital strikes are good, using either the Inquisition rules or Apocalypse - just beware of apoc barrages in games less than 2000 pts or a couple of good rolls will make it a pointless game!


As for general BFG advice goes, I have one word. CRUISERS!!!!
BFG is a game of cruiser combat, do not get tempted by Battleships unless its a big game! Escorts can fill holes but that's it - don't take loads of them as they die too easily.

Good luck and happy gaming, whatever you decide

C_C

I find Battleships are great for long-range support, really. A few cruisers up close with a battleship in the rear lending long-range guns works well. You can also soften them up a bit with the battleship's long-range fire, though you're not often likely to get more than a couple points of damage on enemy ships before they get in closer.

But for the most part Chimera is right. Two cruisers, depending on type, will be only slightly more expensive than a battleship or about the same for more guns, more hits, and more options. All you sacrifice is range.

Get yourself a set of Space Hulk off eBay, and you can even play games of BFG and then play out the boarding actions with small games of 40K over the Space Hulk maps.

BYE

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen. Can I just keep rolling with questions or make new threads?

I'm sold on making an Ultramarine fleet, especially since what fleet lists I've read allow the use of Imperial somethings (Escorts/Cruisers?). I'm confused by what I've found on the GW site.

Their BFG pdfs are out of order (like some pages in the individual files) and I don't know if this is enoughof what I need to play, or if vets typically follow or use Fleet List restrictions. (Are they basically the Army Lists and FOCs of BFG?) Is purchasing the Rulebook necessary, or are the pdfs exactly whats needed for my group to build Eldar, Tau, Chaos, SM and Imperial fleets? Call me dumb if I missed something.

Lastly. Whats a good SM fleet build at 1000 - 1500? I assume the Battle Barge is a serious lure but as you said, Cruisers are better right? Thanks again.

Actually, the Battlebarge is an exception. Its front guns are awesome. I'd put one in at 1500 but probably leave it at 1000.

SM strike cruisers are great but are the only ones allowed in a straight up SM list. You can use SM escorts and Imperial escorts in a SM list, but the Imp ones cost 5pts more each than normal to represent the increased Ld.

I'd be tempted to go for 3 strike cruisers and a squadron of 4 cobra destroyers as an initial purchase. That will provide a solid core of ships and let you get an 8-strong torpedo volley. I don't have the books but that would be about 750pts which is a good size to play your first few games at.


P.S. If you're feeling rich, get the Forgeworld versions of any SM escort vessels you decide to include - they look much better than the metal GW ones.

I play Grey Knights as well as Ultramarines. They typically are seen taking the field together. Is it legal, or kosher, to have maybe one or two out of four or five cruisers be Grey Knights instead of Ultramarines? I'm not sure if its frowned upon like playing WH40k with red marines, blue marines, green marines, and primed marines and calling them Black Templars.

They've all got the same rules, having a GK Strike Cruiser amongst your Ultras doesn't make any difference rules wise and is perfectly fluffy in game (like having a squad of Grey Knights in your Ultras army)

If you look around the specialist games sites, they have unofficial rules for Grey Knights ships (nothing especially fancy, but some cool tricks) and for Inquisitorial Black Ships. (which I have one of, and they rock)

A white dwarf (a long time ago) had a game of WH40K where an objective was to control a massive space cannon. The winner of the game could use the gun in the game of BFG.

I find it cool

As part of a larger campaign, it certainly works well. At the start of the campaign, BFG can provide critical decisions through planetfall scenarios.

Later on, in the middle, the BFG games can be about supply routes (same as Aeronautica really)

And in the closing stages, evacuaction, or decimation, depending on who is winning!

There are rules some place for the Inquisition's Black Ships, so I don't see why Grey Knights wouldn't be kosher. I'd just make sure to take enhanced boarding parties or some such on that ship.

Our local gaming group had a campaign some time ago, it was both in space and on the ground, and it proved to be a very fun and diverse campaign. Sure you have a huge land army, but your navy has been nuked out of the sky...

It mentions in the rule book that ships in low orbit have "assault points" with marines and chaos marines getting 2, and most other ships being 1.

1 assault pt is roughly equal to 2000 pts of troops in 40k. So you could do a BFG mission to land troops, and use the APOC rules to fight out the initial landing with points based on how many assault points landed.

Chimera_Calvin wrote:As for general BFG advice goes, I have one word. CRUISERS!!!!
BFG is a game of cruiser combat, do not get tempted by Battleships unless its a big game! Escorts can fill holes but that's it - don't take loads of them as they die too easily.

Good luck and happy gaming, whatever you decide

C_C

This is good advice unless someone in the group is playing non-Craftworld Eldar(the Eldar fleet from the main book is the non-craftworld list), then escorts are the word of the day, plus the battleship and maybe 1 of the lance/fighter bay cruiser. The Forgeworld Lance/Torpedo Light Cruiser isn't a bad option, either.