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The scale difference is definitely a problem if you plan to mix them with existing BFG models. It wont look right at all if you try to pass these things off as cruisers or battleships.

I plan on using the plastic battle barges to represent strike cruisers that have replaced their prow launch bays with bombardment cannons. That way you can tell which strike cruisers are which just by looking at them.

Unfortunately the other ships are way too small to be anything more than escorts... and escorts tend to suck really really bad in BFG (they get ripped apart way too easily by strikecraft and in general are inferior to strikecraft, youre better off putting the points into carriers ). Only one or two factions actually have escorts worth using.

But you definitely have a solid core for a Space Marine fleet here. All you need is a venerable battle barge as a flagship which can be virtually any Imperial/Chaos/Space Marine battleship.

Khobai wrote:

Unfortunately the other ships are way too small to be anything more than escorts... and escorts tend to suck really bad in BFG. Only one or two factions actually have escorts worth using.

Luckily orks, and eldar love their escorts. And I doubt you play against eldar if you find marine escorts useless. I think that for the eldar void stalker pieces it might be worth cutting them up to convert up their light cruisers with the fins.

the problem with escorts is that strikecraft largely fill the same role and are infinitely replenishable where if an escort dies it doesnt come back. plus assault boats destroy escorts on a 2+ which is just stupid.

I find that spamming strikecraft is a far more effective strategy than using escorts.

Eldar are one of the two races I was referring to that have escorts worth using though. Space Marines were the other.

Ork escorts are pretty bad though. Theyre slow and cant turn at all. And they have limited fire arcs and bad range. Theyre basically the opposite of everything an escort should be.

With faq2010 escorts no longer are destroyed on a 2+ due assault boats.

This has been changed to a 4+. And marine thunderhawks achieve this on a 3+.

Khobai wrote:
The scale difference is definitely a problem if you plan to mix them with existing BFG models. It wont look right at all if you try to pass these things off as cruisers or battleships.

It's a personal taste issue, not a game mechanic one.

In BFG your ship effectively is the flying base it's mounted on, not the model on top of it.

The model on top is a cool looking reminder of what type of ship it's supposed to represent.

Also the escorts are escort sized and the larger ships are cruiser sized. Maybe not grand cruiser or battleship sized, but they are definitely larger than escorts. Large enough that if someone is going to make an issue out not being able to tell them apart from escorts they are being TFG

In any case, vote with your dollar.

I have a full fleet of everything BFG, except TAU, my interest is mostly for new players.

Khobai wrote:
Ork escorts are pretty bad though. Theyre slow and cant turn at all. And they have limited fire arcs and bad range. Theyre basically the opposite of everything an escort should be.

Except ork escorts are the only real way for orks to get torpedos, and mixing ordnance is always good. one of the ork players I game against uses a squadron of 6 ravagers and they are are the hardest thing to deal with. d6 torpedoes each for 40 points that will saturate a decent chunk of the board, or force me to spam fighters to destroy them. I will agree that the brute and savage are garbage though.

And escorts don't fill the same role as attack craft, escorts tend to be the best Firepower to point ratio ships in a fleet, and the only reason to take anything bigger is for launch bays (or torpedoes). As for attack craft, they are useful, but when everyone is playing ordnance heavy they tend to just be fighters stopping the enemy weapons, with your guns and lances doing the real work.