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How effective, in your opinions, would a an IN or Chaos all escort fleet be at say 750, 1000 and 1500 points???????

Pretty bad, really.

Escorts seem like a good idea, and they seem like you get more per point. But, the problem is that they erode easily. 2 hits per turn against an escort squad will kill one escort. 2 hits per turn against a cruiser won't do any damage at all. You'll find that your fleet firepower drops every turn whilst your opponent's doesn't.

The other major thing you'll notice is ordnance - with no fighter bays, fleets such Tau will walk all over you.

Trasvi wrote:The other major thing you'll notice is ordnance - with no fighter bays, fleets such Tau will walk all over you.

Well, I would be less worried about Tau than about a Chaos or SM fleet with all those assault boats .

I think an escort fleet could hold its own, although it depends on a lot of factors. For example, is there a lot of terrain around? Having cover for your escorts as they close with an enemy would allow them to close without losing as much firepower. Also, there is a question of your opponent; 30 Swords is going to be difficult for most Eldar builds to deal with (although I'm sure the 30 Nightshade fleet wouldn't' have much of a problem ). Bottom line, I think an all-escort IN fleet would be powerful in certain situations, but would have too many weaknesses to be considered a true "all comers" fleet.

Not to mention, it would be quite expensive compared to the standard cruiser build!

I think an opponent might be psychological impressed by the sheer amount of numbers. There is always a chance.

In any case, I bet you'd have fun fielding one.

I tried a fleet of 12 Sword, 10 Falcion, 10 Cobra and 7 Firestorm. It was fast and agile, but didn't quite have the firepower where it counted..I'm going to persevere as I think it will get better though.

I'd stick with the all escort orky fleet, random amount of torpedoes any one?

They hurt.

I've had much more luck with an all escort Eldar fleet...

1500pts of Corsair Eldar Nightshade Destroyers only = pure evil.

Especially with that whole "i can jump out of the way of any thing" shielding

I think the strength of Chaos in BFG is in its cruisers.

all-ram ship ork fleet?

How about a fleet with an Emperor and the rest escorts?

Well, as long as your opponent agrees, as that would an illegal composition by the rules. As for its strength, it would probably do OK; the Emperor is an excellent support ship, regardless of what it is supporting .

Woops, how about a Dictator or two.
Or with Amaggedon list, a Dictator and a Mars.

Two battle barges and the rest in escorts is pretty good.

Played yesterday against a space marine player with two squadrons of 8 gladius escorts, When they got into range it was pretty brutal.

Cruisers will win out most fights, but some escorts are good enough too field in a supporting role, but most of them will never match a cruiser point for point

It's the only thing I don't like about Gothic is that you don't need escorts to take cruisers,

I think two squadrons of escorts per cruiser or something as a restriction when building lists would have been right.

The game would have been very different, so I don't know how the balance would have been, but I think the battlefield would have look better, and more "right"

Around here we kinda have a "gentleman's agreement" to include at least a couple of escorts.

The power escalation of ships in BFG is reminiscent of WWI-WWII era warships. Bigger is better, becuase there is a certain point where a force of smaller ships just can't do enough damage to you to win.

An equal amount of points spent on escorts is not a match for a Cruiser, and again, a Battleship has the advantage if it were facing it's point equal in cruisers.

It doesn't matter how many escorts you bring, you will probably never be able to amass enough volume of firepower to put serious damage onto a battleship. In return, the battleship can wipe 1-2 entire squadrons off the board per turn, with ease.

Swordbreaker wrote:The power escalation of ships in BFG is reminiscent of WWI-WWII era warships. Bigger is better, becuase there is a certain point where a force of smaller ships just can't do enough damage to you to win.

An equal amount of points spent on escorts is not a match for a Cruiser, and again, a Battleship has the advantage if it were facing it's point equal in cruisers.

It doesn't matter how many escorts you bring, you will probably never be able to amass enough volume of firepower to put serious damage onto a battleship. In return, the battleship can wipe 1-2 entire squadrons off the board per turn, with ease.

Last BFG game I had, put a 'wolf pack' of swords on the tail of a Desolator and murdered it... then it's warp drives exploded and killed them all!

Tell this to my 3 Iconoclats who crippled a full health Emperor (3 shields down).

Or 3 gladii, bringing a full health slaughter down to 2 hits.


No, escorts do have a higher gun ratio. The trick is to keep them safe and apply them at the right moment.


6 Iconoclasts = 180pts (cruiser) = 18wb
No cruiser can apply 18wb.

5 Swords = 175pts = 20wb

All about tactics.

You gotta know how to fly your escorts. You don't have practice at it and you're in for a world of hurt. Squadroned crusiers will decimate and wipe out escort squadrons in one go.

Get on someone's ass and stay there so you're tappin that all day.

I think that the key to victory would be spamming Cobras. In 750pts you can field 25 cobras, each firing 2 torpedoes a turn (assuming you make your leaderships for orders) If you go as slow as possible and keep launching 50 torpedoes a turn, you should be good to go.

I would find this type of fleet almost impossible to face. Any ordnance capabilities in my fleet would be dedicated to stopping your torpedoes. The torpedoes that get through will force me to brace for impact or cripple and destroy my ships.

The biggest weaknesses to this type of fleet would be eldar fleets and other fast, manuverable fleets

Tactical considerations aside, I love the idea of an all escort fleet and find it very characterful and fun. (Even if spamming cobras takes some of the character away from the idea)

Goruss wrote:I think that the key to victory would be spamming Cobras. In 750pts you can field 25 cobras, each firing 2 torpedoes a turn (assuming you make your leaderships for orders) If you go as slow as possible and keep launching 50 torpedoes a turn, you should be good to go.

I would find this type of fleet almost impossible to face. Any ordnance capabilities in my fleet would be dedicated to stopping your torpedoes. The torpedoes that get through will force me to brace for impact or cripple and destroy my ships.

The biggest weaknesses to this type of fleet would be eldar fleets and other fast, manuverable fleets

Tactical considerations aside, I love the idea of an all escort fleet and find it very characterful and fun. (Even if spamming cobras takes some of the character away from the idea)

Thanks to their better maneuverabiilty, leadership, and fancy eldar torps, I would still give an all-Nightshade list the advantage in this case. Regardless, I think a more "conventional" (that is, cruiser-based) 750 pt list would have a decent chance. As you pointed out, this fleet is extremely reliant on RO checks, and with the IN's leadership this can be...problematic . Even 50 torps isn't all that scary. You will need to fire them in waves in order to get a good chance at getting through the average cruiser's defenses, but this will make them more vulnerable to fighters and enemy torps in the process. The other problem is that Cobras are quite fragile; there is nothing stopping an enemy going AAF to close the range and blast you with everything they have.

Ruckdog wrote:
Thanks to their better maneuverabiilty, leadership, and fancy eldar torps, I would still give an all-Nightshade list the advantage in this case. Regardless, I think a more "conventional" (that is, cruiser-based) 750 pt list would have a decent chance. As you pointed out, this fleet is extremely reliant on RO checks, and with the IN's leadership this can be...problematic . Even 50 torps isn't all that scary. You will need to fire them in waves in order to get a good chance at getting through the average cruiser's defenses, but this will make them more vulnerable to fighters and enemy torps in the process. The other problem is that Cobras are quite fragile; there is nothing stopping an enemy going AAF to close the range and blast you with everything they have.

I do agree that an all-Nightshade fleet would be more effective force to field, however Son_Of_Deddog asked for an opinon on the effectiveness of either an imperial or chaos escort fleet and I still belive that an all cobra or infidel fleet could be very effective in the right hands.

bd1085 wrote:You gotta know how to fly your escorts. You don't have practice at it and you're in for a world of hurt. Squadroned crusiers will decimate and wipe out escort squadrons in one go.

Get on someone's ass and stay there so you're tappin that all day.

Except that any ship that turns 45 degrees is going to bring your escorts into its broadside arc. There is really no way to keep a ship directly behind another ship such that it can't be fired upon.

I have found that escorts are very effective, because they can potentially draw fire from big capital ships, and bracing for impact makes them surviveable, and the loss of firepower isn't that bad. I'd rather brace my escorts so my cruisers can fire at full effect.

My escorts save my bacon against Eldar all the time, and always seem to outduel my enemy's escorts. I love them (and they're cool models too, at least the eldar and IN ones) :-)

Lot of capitals have a problem with 30cm range.

So park your escort 30cm in the rear of a capital ship, shoot.

Capital ship must first move 10cm forward before turn. Distance is now 40cm -> 30cm weapons are useless.

How about an IN Light Cruiser fleet!

that could work.

I think the only all escort fleet that does ok would be a Tyranid Vanguard fleet made of Krakens. being perpetually on Brace for Impact makes them fairly durable(6+ armor helps too)

I have heard good things about Brute Ram ships, but it would seem to be a litte one dimensional. a fleet with loads of Lances could rip it apart.

IN light cruiser fleet = more vulnerable to enemy attack craft.
Unless you field the Defiant which is poo anyway.

Have an Emperor or Exorcist lead them.

Like say:

1000
Fleet Admiral – 1 extra re-roll – 75
Exorcist Grand Cruiser - 230
Dauntless Light Cruiser –110
Dauntless Light Cruiser –110
Dauntless Light Cruiser –110
Dauntless Light Cruiser –110
Dauntless Light Cruiser –110
Sword Escort x4 – 140

995

Too bad assault boat cost 10 on the Exorcist.