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Hey Dakka,

Ive just finished making my 2000 point Imperial fleet to go with my army, what do you think of this list?

Victory Class Battleship with Fleet-Admiral = 410

Overlord Class Battlecruiser x 2 = 470

Dominator Class Cruiser x 4 = 760

Cobra Class Destroyers x 12 (some have swapped weapons battery for the leadership bonus) = 360

Total = 2000 points on the nose

What does dakka think?

I can see what you're trying to do - 60cm lances and batteries on the battleship and cruisers backed up by nova cannon, and heavy firepower on the dominators when the enemy closes to short range.

You've certainly got a lot of firepower, but you also have one massive weakness - ordnance. If you run into an opponent who's taken a lot of launch bays, you could be in real trouble - you can't put out a single fighter to intercept bombers or assault boats, who will eat you alive. I'd consider at least one carrier - even four fighters is sometimes enough to at least blunt a large bomber wave.

Also, what are you planning on doing tactics-wise for your force? If you close head-on your nova cannon come into play to devastating effect, but then your long range guns are wasted unless your opponent divides his force. If you stay at long range to maximise your battleship and battlecruiser's firepower then your nova cannon go to waste. You could split your fleet into a support element (BB and BCs) and a linebreaker force (CAs) - this might be best, although it potentially leaves you open to a defeat in detail.

I do approve of the destroyers though - from a pure gameplay perspective they're not hugely effective, but I'm of the opinion that no fleet is complete without some aggressive escorts!

Yeah you read my mind and plan, its very WW1 fleet tactics, crossing the T and all that and using the destroyers to make a torpedo screen or to funnel enemy ships into positions where I can hit them with mass firepower.

My plan is to try and keep my fleet together with units supporting one another through overlapping range of fire.

My fleet will look like:

BB + 2 x C = group 1

BC + C = group 2

BC + C = group 3

2 x D = groups 4 - 9

Group one will hold the centre , 2 and 3 the flanks with groups 4 - 9 harrassing the enemy and providing leadership boost in some cases

I intened to play it based upon the tactical situation, over 60cm = nova cannons, at 60cm and under what I do will depend upon whatever will cause the most damage or give me the greatest advantage. I hope to cross the T at this range and fall back or advance to keep at the 60cm mark.

Alternatively I will keep the fleet together and fall back and make the enemy chase me, always keeping them at 60cm or so with destroyers to harass them or hit their flanks


Yeah I could definatly reduce the number of DD or take change some cruisers to dictators, I like them alot =)

How do you guys run your fleets at 2000 points and what tactics do you like to use?

You'll be gutted if you start playing the cool scenarios with various setups. Your plans will need to adapt and change.

Thinking of a fleet for a simple head on clash is easy, thinking of an allround fleet for every occassion is a lot more fun!

yeah the scenarios are where BFG comes alive. Its something that im going to have to get used to and more familiar with.

What are the most popular scenarios? This will help me to rebuild my fleet list and I can go back and re-read them more specifically

=)

I always try to do a random scenario, theres only 10 in the BBB so Id start there but until you actually play a bit its hard to really get a feel for what youll need.

That is a good point, it also explains some of the fleets I have been reading about on the forums (i didnt quite get why they took the ships they did).

Looks good, but as others have pointed out, carriers operating at stand-off range could wreak havok with your entire fleet. And be careful with the Nova Cannons; those are a bit clumsy, as you have to guess the range before firing.

Novas use the scatter die now so its not so bad.

Yeah, they got very very deadly with the guess range, some folks have excellent estimating abilities, especially when playing on an established size table or even, Emperor forbid, grid or hex starfields...

Back in the days my opponent always guessed range spot on. Changing the Nova Cannon to a scatter weapon, back in 2000, and adding the launch bay limit have been the best changes to the original set of rules they ever did.