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Which faction has the best navy in your opinion?

Personal Assessment of some factions' navies:

Imperial Navy
- ships are solid and sturdy
- excels with Torpedoes and Nova Cannons

Chaos
- superior weapon batteries
- largest complement of vessels among the factions

Eldar
- excels at defense with their holo-fields
- very accurate weapons
- glass cannons (relatively weak armor and unreliable construction)

Orks
- excels at boarding and ramming actions
- unreliable weapons

Note: I did not include the Tyranids, the Dark Eldar, the Tau, or the Necrons, in my assessment since these are based on BFG fluff, and the rulebook only has fluff and stats for the above. Feel free to vote for them, but please share why their navies are the best in your opinions. If you find something wrong with my assessments, please share, and I will edit accordingly.

Oh like as in space navy, was kind of confused

 blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:
Oh like as in space navy, was kind of confused

I would have thought it obvious

 Admiral Valerian wrote:

 blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:
Oh like as in space navy, was kind of confused

I would have thought it obvious

Considering the recent thread about naval (ocean) warfare......

I voted Necron, see World Engine.... That and they're basic scout ships wreck face... erm lexicanum as source

are we talking BFG..or fluff, cause in fluff it will always be either Imperial (due to numbers) or Necrons (due to tech and potential numbers), and maybe Tyranids, but not too many examples of brilliant naval actions by the nids..just lots of them.

I use to play BFG religiously and found the necrons and eldar the hardest to deal with when commanded by even a semi-decent commander..but conversly they were great agaisnt each other.

the Tau have actually made the greatest improvements to their fleets in both fluff and BFG..the initial ones were underwhelming, but the later ones such as the Custodian carrier are excellent, and a drastic departure from the inital Tau naval doctrine.

and there is nothing quite so terrifying in BFG as a Voidstalker on a lock on run...

To add to your evaluations on the other races.

Necrons
-Incredible manuverability
-Solid defences
-Very resistant to ord.

Tau
-Excellent attack craft and launched ord.
-good turrets.

so I would give it on ship to ship basis to Eldar or necrons..its hard to call it between them.

 blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

 Admiral Valerian wrote:

 blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:
Oh like as in space navy, was kind of confused

I would have thought it obvious

Considering the recent thread about naval (ocean) warfare......

I voted Necron, see World Engine.... That and they're basic scout ships wreck face... erm lexicanum as source

Right now, I'm divided between the Imperial Navy and the Eldar navy - the former has good, sturdy vessels with good armor, nasty Torpedo capabilities, and balanced armaments...while the latter has a very impressive defense and offense with holo-fields, Pulsar Lances, and very accurate weapon batteries and Torpedoes, though I can't help but wince at their relatively weak armor and unreliable constructions. Still, I'll take a look at the Necron fleet pages on Lexicanum.

EDIT: This discussion will be fluff-wise, BTW. However, I am using the fluff from the BFG rulebook since that appears to be the most accurate description of naval forces in the setting. With that in mind, does BFG have rules/fluff for the other factions?

I reckon dark eldar, due to them being the same as the eldar ones, but faster.

 nomsheep wrote:
I reckon dark eldar, due to them being the same as the eldar ones, but faster.

Faster? You've got to be kidding me. The Eldar already move so fast that together with their other capabilities its all but outrageous.

Eldar. Their ships aren't just battleships, but their homes. Everyone defends their home better than a fortress. The homeless space elves wouldn't surrender if they wanted to.

Eldar are only fast when moving with the sun astern..necrons are crazy manuverable and fast..so much so, when we first played against them the Eldar players were crying CHEESE!

Dark eldar have very few ships (designs) but they are comparable in nastiness to eldar..with a slight edge in manuver if I recall, cannot remeber if they use the solar wind for speed though..been a long time since I fought them.

One other thing to take into consideration for the Orks is their Hulks....makes a battleship look puny by comparison..moves like a rock (go figure) but its firepower and hull is obscene, have witnessed one scatter a battlegroup by itself.

Roks are pretty nast aswell.

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
Eldar. Their ships aren't just battleships, but their homes. Everyone defends their home better than a fortress. The homeless space elves wouldn't surrender if they wanted to.

Craftworlds aren't warships, the last I looked. And I don't recall seeing an Eldar Battleship in the rulebook either (guess its time to go looking for the expansions ) though an interesting thought just came to mind - who would win if a Chaos Fleet including an Activated Blackstone engaged an Eldar Craftworld and its fleet?

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Eldar are only fast when moving with the sun astern..necrons are crazy manuverable and fast..so much so, when we first played against them the Eldar players were crying CHEESE!

In other words, together with their weak armor and unreliable construction, glass cannons. They move fast, loaded with a painful load of weapons, but when it comes to an endurance match, they melt like little plastic soldiers under a magnifying glass.

One other thing to take into consideration for the Orks is their Hulks....makes a battleship look puny by comparison..moves like a rock (go figure) but its firepower and hull is obscene, have witnessed one scatter a battlegroup by itself.

Roks are pretty nast aswell.

I have got to find those expansions, I look like a country yokel on his first visit to the big city...

the eldar battleship is a Voidstalker

and they at one point actually printed the stats on a craftworld for a senario..basically it was a assault on it and the eldar fleet had to buy time for the craftworld to escape.

IIRC it was pretty nasty 90cm pulsar lances and 20-30 strength launch strength...but it was slow..it is a giant space city afterall

Yeah there is all kinds of expansions to BFG past the basic rules FW and port MAW did alot with them as did the Journel, Like I said I loved BFG..may one day get back into it.

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:


IIRC it was pretty nasty 90cm pulsar lances and 20-30 strength launch strength...but it was slow..it is a giant space city afterall

Now comparing with an Activated Blackstone's stats

 Admiral Valerian wrote:

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
Eldar. Their ships aren't just battleships, but their homes. Everyone defends their home better than a fortress. The homeless space elves wouldn't surrender if they wanted to.

Craftworlds aren't warships, the last I looked. And I don't recall seeing an Eldar Battleship in the rulebook either (guess its time to go looking for the expansions ) though an interesting thought just came to mind - who would win if a Chaos Fleet including an Activated Blackstone engaged an Eldar Craftworld and its fleet?

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Eldar are only fast when moving with the sun astern..necrons are crazy manuverable and fast..so much so, when we first played against them the Eldar players were crying CHEESE!

In other words, together with their weak armor and unreliable construction, glass cannons. They move fast, loaded with a painful load of weapons, but when it comes to an endurance match, they melt like little plastic soldiers under a magnifying glass.

One other thing to take into consideration for the Orks is their Hulks....makes a battleship look puny by comparison..moves like a rock (go figure) but its firepower and hull is obscene, have witnessed one scatter a battlegroup by itself.

Roks are pretty nast aswell.

I have got to find those expansions, I look like a country yokel on his first visit to the big city...

Naw no prob, but dont get me wrong the eldar when used well are horrifying..if you let one get on your stern..you will never shake it, when I fought them in BFG I had to use almost age of sail tactics against them, and when I used them against imperial..I got to act like Errol flynn..the Eldar are pretty awesome in space..I think in fluff thats where they level the playing field.

Blackstones are nasty.but ord tends to do them in..bombers can overwhelm their defences pretty easily in a big fight..not many players used Bstones though..guess they liked the manuver and shoot stuff, plus we played alot of campaigns.

Damn...even an Activated Blackstone doesn't match up to a Craftworld, except in an Exterminatus scenario - just get the Activated Blackstone within 45cm of the target, roll a 4+, and victory.

I'm going to have to say the Necrons. The World Engine,and their BFG fluff puts them ahead.

It's not really surprising though, When it comes to Technology, the Necrons will generally edge out the other races, fluffwise.

 Sasori wrote:


It's not really surprising though, When it comes to Technology, the Necrons will generally edge out the other races, fluffwise.

It helps when one is millions of years older than everyone else is, after all

yeah the Blackstone is basically the 40k deathstar..but it gets nastier with more of them together if memory serves, like 1 can destroy a planet and 2 can destroy a star..they always reminded me of some Necron tech..even looked like one.

 Admiral Valerian wrote:

 Sasori wrote:


It's not really surprising though, When it comes to Technology, the Necrons will generally edge out the other races, fluffwise.

It helps when one is millions of years older than everyone else is, after all

Yeah, having a billion years on everyone tends to give them a slight edge.

An Activated Blackstone does horribly against Eldar in terms of rules as the Blackstone's weapons are basically lances that ignore void shields. Problem is Eldar have no void shields to ignore, and they still get their holofield save of 2+.

Iracundus wrote:
An Activated Blackstone does horribly against Eldar in terms of rules as the Blackstone's weapons are basically lances that ignore void shields. Problem is Eldar have no void shields to ignore, and they still get their holofield save of 2+.

Yes, I know. However, in an Exterminatus scenario (which was the one I posted earlier) an Activated Blackstone would crack a Craftworld like a hammer striking an egg. In other scenarios, an Activated Blackstone would be horrible - not just against Eldar - and a waste of points IMHO...though defensively speaking, an 'ordinary' Blackstone seems to be a tough nut to crack.

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
yeah the Blackstone is basically the 40k deathstar..but it gets nastier with more of them together if memory serves, like 1 can destroy a planet and 2 can destroy a star..they always reminded me of some Necron tech..even looked like one.

Weren't they made to fight necrons? It's more insulting to kill your opponents with something that looks like them right?

 blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
yeah the Blackstone is basically the 40k deathstar..but it gets nastier with more of them together if memory serves, like 1 can destroy a planet and 2 can destroy a star..they always reminded me of some Necron tech..even looked like one.

Weren't they made to fight necrons? It's more insulting to kill your opponents with something that looks like them right?

Hasn't anyone noticed, those things look like an eight-pointed star?

Dont be to quick to count out Eladr against the Necrons..necrons weakness was lances..and eldar have the best lances (pulsar), and both can manuver like alley cats, it was always a good fight, and terrain was always a factor, eldar and Necrons could make great use of planest and asteroids to block and redeploy..I guess thats why they are the classic foes of each other.

Kinda like the Vorlons and Shadows in bab5.

BFG was a very well designed game..I guess thats why GW stopped supporting it

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:

BFG was a very well designed game..I guess thats why GW stopped supporting it

Wait, its not supported? Does that mean I won't find anymore models?

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Dont be to quick to count out Eladr against the Necrons..necrons weakness was lances..and eldar have the best lances (pulsar), and both can manuver like alley cats, it was always a good fight, and terrain was always a factor, eldar and Necrons could make great use of planest and asteroids to block and redeploy..I guess thats why they are the classic foes of each other.

Kinda like the Vorlons and Shadows in bab5.

BFG was a very well designed game..I guess thats why GW stopped supporting it

More anti necron fluff! It would make sense considering the theory that the eldar were created along with a multitude of races by the Old Ones to fight the C'tan.

But then wouldn't that bring the navies to rock paper scissors stand off? Or is there more

 blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Dont be to quick to count out Eladr against the Necrons..necrons weakness was lances..and eldar have the best lances (pulsar), and both can manuver like alley cats, it was always a good fight, and terrain was always a factor, eldar and Necrons could make great use of planest and asteroids to block and redeploy..I guess thats why they are the classic foes of each other.

Kinda like the Vorlons and Shadows in bab5.

BFG was a very well designed game..I guess thats why GW stopped supporting it

More anti necron fluff! It would make sense considering the theory that the eldar were created along with a multitude of races by the Old Ones to fight the C'tan.

But then wouldn't that bring the navies to rock paper scissors stand off? Or is there more

Eldar are weak against weapon batteries (glass cannons, remember), so I doubt it would result in 'rock paper scissor' stand-offs. And the Imperial Navy and the Forces of Chaos have nasty weapon batteries (especially the latter).

 Admiral Valerian wrote:

 blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Dont be to quick to count out Eladr against the Necrons..necrons weakness was lances..and eldar have the best lances (pulsar), and both can manuver like alley cats, it was always a good fight, and terrain was always a factor, eldar and Necrons could make great use of planest and asteroids to block and redeploy..I guess thats why they are the classic foes of each other.

Kinda like the Vorlons and Shadows in bab5.

BFG was a very well designed game..I guess thats why GW stopped supporting it

More anti necron fluff! It would make sense considering the theory that the eldar were created along with a multitude of races by the Old Ones to fight the C'tan.

But then wouldn't that bring the navies to rock paper scissors stand off? Or is there more

Eldar are weak against weapon batteries (glass cannons, remember), so I doubt it would result in 'rock paper scissor' stand-offs.

But who employs said batteries? Imperium and Orks? They're pretty slow aren't they? And are they not affective against necrons?

 blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

 Admiral Valerian wrote:

 blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Dont be to quick to count out Eladr against the Necrons..necrons weakness was lances..and eldar have the best lances (pulsar), and both can manuver like alley cats, it was always a good fight, and terrain was always a factor, eldar and Necrons could make great use of planest and asteroids to block and redeploy..I guess thats why they are the classic foes of each other.

Kinda like the Vorlons and Shadows in bab5.

BFG was a very well designed game..I guess thats why GW stopped supporting it

More anti necron fluff! It would make sense considering the theory that the eldar were created along with a multitude of races by the Old Ones to fight the C'tan.

But then wouldn't that bring the navies to rock paper scissors stand off? Or is there more

Eldar are weak against weapon batteries (glass cannons, remember), so I doubt it would result in 'rock paper scissor' stand-offs.

But who employs said batteries? Imperium and Orks? They're pretty slow aren't they? And are they not affective against necrons?

The Imperials and especially the Forces of Chaos make heavy use of weapon batteries. Orks are unreliable - their weapon batteries have random combat strength. But when it comes to ramming...

actually from my experiance with BFG the Eldar / Necron matchup was one of the best fights, like a battle of titans.

Imperial vs. Chaos was another great match..since thats what the game was built around.

All the other various matchups had some strange outcomes..most of the Eldar players hated fighting Orks.since there was so many of them, and they were tough..and fairly fast, specially the Brute ram ships..its hard to get a ram in but when you do..its bye bye pointy ears.

Yeah we noticed the chaos symbol motif on the bstones also had a big pyramid in the middle..i guess GW wanted to keep it mysterious..