odinsspear45 wrote:
1,000 Raiding Fleet
330 Warmaster Repulsive
190 Devastation
190 Devastation
165 Slaughter
45 Idolator
40 Infidel
40 Infidel
First for all your ecorts and some of your cruisers you will be forming squadrons. You dont get two Infidels at 40 each but as squadron of 2 Infidels for 80. The lone idolator is no use, get a third Infidel instead, dont worry about the lost 5pts.
Other than that your list is not bad. Devastations give you good carrier support, however you have a slow Repulsive, a good choice in itself but not so useful here as it slows down your fleet, especuially a its partner big gun ship is very fast indeed, and even shorter ranged. Upgrade the Slaughter to as Murder, it will provide good long range firepower to support the Repulsive as it closes.
odinsspear45 wrote:
2,000 SKirmishing Fleet
400 Warmaster Desolator
190 Devastation
190 Devastation
165 Slaughter
255 Chaos Lord Repulsive
190 Devastation
190 Devastation
165 Slaughter
45 Idolator
45 Idolator
45 Idolator
40 Infidel
40 Infidel
40 Infidel
At this points level I would ber thinking about adding a Mark to the Warmaster. Also never preallocate the Chaos Lord, give him to an important ship with low leadership.
Desolator is not popular with many but I like it. You dont get the best firepower for your points, but you get resileince and keep speed. However your support is all over the place. Devastations are good, wuith similar firepower to the battleship. But your fleet Murder and Hades support too, the chase guns on the prow really help and you get more rounded battery firepower for facing Eldar. Otherwise you are replying on the Repulsive for this, whichi s an anchor to your important speed asset.
Your escort squadrons are ok, and two Salughters are far better than one, you can detach them to make a good flanking force.
odinsspear45 wrote:
3,000 Battle Fleet
605 Warmaster Planet Killer
190 Devastation
165 Slaughter
165 Slaughter
300 Desolator
190 Devastation
190 Devastation
165 Slaughter
230 Repulsive
190 Devastation
190 Devastation
165 Slaughter
45 Idolator
45 Idolator
45 Idolator
40 Infidel
40 Infidel
40 Infidel
At this points level you dont need to tailor your fleet as you can seperate slow and fast elements, and those which favour different arcs of fire and ranges. As this appears to be your main fleet I would advise you to swap out two Slaughters ansd one Devastation for the Agheron and two Murder/Hades if you can.
Now some general points.
Rule One. Combine your fire assets, use vessels that support each other at the same arc, range and speed. In
Bfg you need to overcome shields, this is a non-linear drain on your firepower, that is to say you need enough firepower to totally dominate the shields and wrechk the target, not to penetrate the shields and do a little damage, as you would have to do the same again each turn. best eample of this is hit hits is four times as good as three not twice as good because you do four damage past two shields rather than one. The is best expressed in Lanchesters Law, strength is equal to the square of the firepower, so 3 ships vs 2 ships is not 3:2 odds but 9:4. What matters is not the number of ships fielded by where they support each other at points of engagement.
Rule Two. Manoeuver by design, fire by opportunity. You should plan ahead where your ships will be, but use the fire arcs for opportunistic fire depending on what the opponent ends up doing. It is important not to change course or position just to get a good shot in, as normally the manoeuver cost will offsert the benefits. Go where you intend to go and let the gunners do the rest. But also plan ahead to see where your fire arcs will be, plan ahead to keep more of theneemy in the projected fire arcs.
Chaos Specific points.
1. The Planet Killers biggest asset is not the
BFG but the six wide arc long ranged lances. It does well when supported by just about any chaos cruisers because it is so versatile.
2. The best companion for a Desolator battleship is the Acheron. the two vessels complement each other well. remerber rule one.
3. The Repulsive works best when supporting the Despoiler. The Despoiler is a potent ship and well worth the points in fleet the size shown above. I recommend you get one.
4. Infidel work. The reason they work is by an often overlooked line in the Chaod Fleet list, the last line in the list. Infidel can take boarsding torpedos. This means that you can lurk at the back with Infidel and launch torpedoes in modest numbers, I usually let the torpedoes go off in pairs, s they can turn they are far better for stand off than regular torpedoes, ajnd just as deadly against escorts. Your semi-manoeuverable torps also help becauseyou can time your bomber to hit a target at the same time, so turret firepower is split. The big salvoes of torps on some capital ships are best used like the Imperials do, with standard warherads and at short range. Other than Tau and boarding torps do not be fooled into thinking torps are stand off weapons, you should normally be hitting the intended target on the turn they launch.
5. Dont get a Styx, its nice to see you havent fallen into that trap. Devastations and Despoilers are a far better buy.
6. Idolators are expensive and dont do anything you cant do with something more cost efficient and survivable. Iconoclasts are better because they have value against Eldar as agile battery boats. Infidel are better still, because of the boardig torps, they also get reasonable battery strength too. This doesnt mean dont take any Idolators, I have three myself in a 3k fleet, but only for a bit of variety.
in general though you are light on escorts. I would be taking three or four Infidel per thousand points of fleet, more is no disadvantage.
