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Hey I'm thinking of starting BFG and was wondering if someone could just give me an overview of the game's fleets. I know most of the core rules but would like to know things such as:

Which are the best fleets? (I hear Necrons are overpowered cheeze, this true?)
Worst/Underpowered?

What are the strengths/weaknesses of each fleet?

How does every fleet play out (as in main strategy)(ex: "Fleet Name" uses many torpedoes until the enemy closes, then "does this" before killing them with many "weapon name" or "Fleet" uses all ahead until able to ram and board.)

If anyone can give me an overview or link me to one t'would be appreciated.

In particlular I'm wondering about the weaknesses of chaos, seems like ill be playing against them the most

I just started BFG, but so far I have gathered that most fleets play like their 40k counterparts.

Necrons are very resilient and sometimes considered overpowered, but I have also heard their victory conditions balance this out somewhat.

The top 2 strong fleets seem to be Imperial Navy and Chaos. Imperial Navy, like their guard counterparts, can put down some devestating firepower with Nova cannons, lance batteries and weapons batteries. Their leadership suffers though and they are not good with boarding.

Chaos has some great cruisers, and they can pretty much operate on their own. They have very strong fleets, and marine bonuses to boarding combats and hit and run. Also some super units like Planet killer and abbadon the desploiler to play with.

Some consider Space Marines underpowered, but they have resilient ships (Battlebarge, 6+ armor on ships) and the Strike cruiser that is a great all-around ship, but needs to work in groups to be effective. They also have thunderhawks which can basically replace escorts, and act as fighters and assault boats. Very good at boarding, hit and run, and planetary assaults/exterimitus.

Eldar is a fast and finess fleet, don't know much about them, I assume they play like their 40k brothers.

Don't know anythign about Orks, Tau, Nids.

You can't go wrong with starting Navy or Chaos though.

scubasteve04 wrote:

Eldar is a fast and finess fleet, don't know much about them, I assume they play like their 40k brothers.

Don't know anythign about Orks, Tau, Nids

Eldar are difficult to hit but once hit can break easy, they are the glass canon. They have rules on movement dependant on where on the map the sun is and how they are positioned to it.

Orks do well with massed escorts, cheap ships and so on. Ask Deadshane about them, I hear he's a wiz.

Tau have guided missiles, two different fleets, the forgeworld one and the GW one, the forgeworld one is far prettier but the GW one has better rules I think (something about a hero ship and another ship working in tandem is supposed to be lethal).

Nids are terrifying when they close, have a complicated series of command chains to operate with and can be difficult to take down.

MGS, I think you are talking about the Hero and Explorer for the GW Tau fleet; my 1,500 fleet Tau lists consists of 2 Heros, 2 Explorers, 6 Orcas, and a Demiurg Stronghold. That kicks out 20 fighters and a lot of torps/guided missiles!

As for the Eldar, the biggest thing with them is that they are very vulnerable if they get caught in the open. Thus, they are very terrain dependent. If the table is wide-open, they are pretty much toast.

Eldar can move up to twice as fast as other fleets, firing midway through their move. This makes them tough to catch, especially for a new player with a short ranged fleet like Orks or Imperium. They also have shields that shrug off most everything but weapons batteries.

Orks are poorly shielded, poorly turreted, randomly armed, and everything has 6 armor in the front. They want to head straight at the opponent and make a mess of them when they get there. They are geared towards ramming and boarding actions, although their torpedo salvos can be very frightening- when they can reload! They also sport the absurdly tough Space Hulk.

The Imperium will fire many torpedos and Nova Cannons at you as they close, then attempt to clean up the remainder with well organized broadsides. They have limited access to long range weaponry on their cruisers, and rely on Battleships to take care of any threats that are not being suppressed or redirected by the torpedo salvos until the cruisers are in range.

Chaos is more lightly armored than the Imperium but are longer ranged and faster. This allows them to play a game of maneuver against their usual opponents, and makes them a bit more of a finesse fleet than the Imperium in the Chaos vs Imperium match up. They are actually better equipped to deal with Eldar because they can reach their ships.

Necrons are too powerful for their points, and will destroy some fleets outright- like Eldar. Be a good person- don't play Necron.

Dark Eldar are slower than Eldar, more heavily armored, and share their funky shields. They also have quite a few dirty tricks.

Tau come in two flavors. One is short ranged, obsolsecent cargo ships, the othe are gorgeous FW wings and a deadly fleet. Both can be fun, but be aware that they are dramatically different.

Space Marines power depends entirely on how many lances your opponent brings. 6+ armor all around and maneuverable light cruisers are their main strengths. They are a planetary assault army, and are not well suited to fleet engagement. That isn't to say that they can't win, but they were designed to have a hard time.

Tyranid, as mentioned previously, are at the beck and call of an instinctual behavior chart. You herd the fleet toward your opponent, you don't really control it.

Without celestial phenomena Eldar die. With celestial phenomena Corsair Eldar should kill everyone except Necrons because the Eldar rules in BFG are plain stupid to be honest in all respects.


Tyranids: the uber Hive Ships and claw escorts en masse are pretty strong.


Space Marines Armada: weak Strike Cruisers. Below average fleet. Board & H&R attacks are they key to do something.


Imperial Navy good allround fleet with lots of choices.

Chaos: really easy to use and good allround fleet.

Tau GW: Explorer/Hero is totally awesome combo and very strong.

Tau FW: old rules: okay but nothing special
Tau FW: new draft: cool fleet. Average on scale I think. Needs a good admiral.


Orks: use Terrors and be happy.


DE: one trick pony.