Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all, I love naval combat games of all types and have heard good things about this one. I'd like to start with the imperial fleet; is it a decent list? What would a good starting point be for getting models? Basic tactics like most ship-based games or are there a bunch of sci-fi spceial rules? thanks

The easiest way to get into BFG is to find a friend and each get a copy of the boxed game. This gives you both a rulebook and set of counters - swap the cruisers and you each have a fleet of 8 ships to start with.

Imperials and Chaos play very differently, but are generally regarded as being fairly well balanced against each other:

- Imperials are designed to get in amongst an enemy fleet. To this end, they have armoured prows, and strong broadsides. They use a lot of torpedoes and nova cannon for softening people up and forcing them to break formation, and Imperial escorts are very good as well.

- Chaos are designed to circle the enemy and pound them to bits at long range. They are faster and have longer range weapons, and give up prow armour and torps in favour of extra guns. Chaos escorts are not as good as the Imperials' but Chaos have cheaper ordinance (fighters and bombers)

Overall, BFG is a very enjoyable game, especially if you're interested in naval warfare and tactics - definitely recommended!

Agreed in total with the spikey rodent ...
If you and a friend both buy boxes it also gaurantees you have someone to play (another favorable point)...

I would also suggest keeping it simple when you start...play cruiser clash a few times with only the basic rules before adding in things like terrain and Launch bays...

I would just like to chime in with that which has already been said.

Imperials and Chaos make great advisaries.

Keep in mind though that the game only has a few fleets. The Imperials and Chaos are perfectly balanced and the same goes for Eldar vs Imperials and Chaos. When you look at the 4th major fleet things go downhill however. Orks are in general weak but will look at a loss rate of about 100% vs Eldar because of being totally outmanouvered.

Then there are the fleets which I look at like additions but not fully fledged. Dark Eldar (only a few ship types and not really special compared to Eldar), Tyranids (Rather nice, use 40K bitz to make your own gribbly fleet on the cheap, forget about their cruiser types), Space Marines (for once they aren't the best of the best, prepare to struggle vs some opponents and in certaon scenarios). Then there's the Necrons (don't know if their rules have changed but the last thing I knew was that they had Monolith like rules; i.e. they are hard, probably too hard) and then there's Tau, don't really know about these guys.

So that's 4 main fleets of which one has serious balance issues, and a lot of sub-fleets)

And the game isn't really being supported anymore.

Which leads me to my closing remark. BFG can be great, but maybe you want to look into Babylon 5 a Call to Arms (like I'm doing atm). The same comments about there only being a few main fleets, and a lot of others that might be considered additional, holds true here but these fleets are far better balanced, furthermore the game itself is still being developed with new fleets and minis coming out.

orks vs eldar?

easy. the orks have a stupidly large amount of gunnery weapons in their fleet. the only lances are on a space hulk and one battlekroozer

simple tactic. have 2 waves. have a first wave of battle kroozers/kroozers for surviveability, and then have a second wave of escorts. then come to new heading with the first wave to bring broadside weaponry on the eldar rear.

orks are not outmanuvered. the only thing is the onslaught and savage are 45* turn. no big deal.

Downside: you have to get lucky on your gunz rolls, and you have to be close enough. Ork gunz are anything but long-ranged. The only RELIABLE cure for an Eldar fleet is another Eldar fleet... or a gun-heavy Chaos fleet.

Another Eldar Fleet? That's a mess...it generally comes down to who breaks first...Once the shooting starts the whole battle turns into a mess of blast markers...

True; it tends to become a game of who better figures out how the opponent will maneuver, and who avoids the blast markers best. Chaos doesn't have to get as close, since the guns have the reach to "touch" the Eldar even while being outmaneuvered.

Well, the times I've played Eldar vs. Eldar it's turned into a very ugly slugfest...If one player thought ahead (especially in the case of tournies) and brought a significant number of WB then it's more straightforward...Otherwise it just turns into two fleets dancing in, massing fire in hopes enough will get through then dancing back out again...It's like watching to welterweights fight...

"Float Like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

The Tau have gun for gun less fire power but make up for it with having all battries and Ion(Lance) cannons be able to fire forward. Most cap Batteries have a range of 45cm. Their escort have the be brought in by a Capital class ship since they don't have a small FTL yet. Their caps got three turrets standard for ordnance and varable speed torps. Here is their rules.
http://www.specialist-games.com/battlefleetgothic/assets/lrb/E_BFGTau.pdf

The trick to fighting Eldar is positioning. Eldar ships get to move twice a turn, once before their Shooting phase and once afterward. However, how far they move is dependent on where the sun is in relation to the ship. One of the table edges generally represents what direction the sun is in. Ideally, Eldar players are best off if they can move their ships laterally in respect to the sun - not getting their ships any closer or further from it. This gives the Eldar player a consistent amount of movement in both movement phases, so he can have his ships dart into weapon range, fire, then dart out again. In order to limit Eldar mobility, you want to position your fleet so that the Eldar fleet is between your fleet and the sunward edge of the table. That way, they won't be able to move very far away from your fleet in that second movement phase. This should enable you to close and put a hurt on them without too much trouble.

If you pull this positioning off, the thing to watch out for will be letting the Eldar ships get behind your fleet. If this happens, be prepared to have all your ships go on Come To A New Heading. Or, just keep something with a lot of gun batteries (like an Emperor class battleship) behind the rest of your ships to punish the Eldar for such shenanigans.