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We've been playing a bunch of BFG lately, and I had some questions, two rules related, and one tactics.

Rules question first:
How do you play the rules for Planets?

In the rulebook, is says you can move across planets (across the top of the template - which is what we use), and that LOS is blocked across the planet, and ordinance is destroyed if it hits the planet. All well and good. But here is the question: Can you park a ship "on" the planet template? Or do you play that you can or cannot, and why?

We have had instances where a ship sitting on the template doesn't have to move (counting as defenses if shot), but is completely immune to ordinance as well. Is this on solid rules footing?


Second Rules Question: Novacannon. Do they ignore shields? Do they need to 're-load ordinance' to fire? References in the rulebook if the answers are yes are appreciated.


And now Tactics. We have one player who never leaves home without his Space Hulk (sigh). With the new FAQ for BFG, which allows Space Hulks to have double their potential ordinance in play, that's a lot of fighta bommas and boarding torpedoes on the board. How do you combat Hulks?

I've seen some say that reloading ordinance is a problem for orks, but that hasn't panned out. Even with a Ld6 for the hulk, if the enemy are on special orders, that bumps it up to 7 (average on two dice), and ork re-rolls help to mitigate it further. I've also heard about just using novacannon, massed weapons batteries, massed ordinance, etc. Doesn't seem to consistently work. We're also not talking about being able to take all chaos ships with 60cm range, we're talking about fighting them with Imperials.

I'd be interested to hear how Hulks are tackled if anyone has any experience.

Thanks!

Hi,
on planets, yes the cheesy hiding on a planet tactic. I need to dig it up but I believed it was rules out somewhere... goes to FAQ2010...

Nova Cannon do not ignore shields. Nova Cannon does not need to be Reloaded.


Space Hulks, well, if they have them just kill the rest of his fleet and disengage. The ship is also slow and hard to turn. Get behind it.
Do not waste ordnance on it. Torps could still do something. It has low armour thus shooting has effect.... in time.

Thanks for the reply.

I don't think that the on the planet bit is necessarily cheesy, just not clearly spelled out in the rules. I wonder what happens if you use a ball for a planet, or model a half-ball planet, which prevents you from sitting on the template? I think that would work since you can't actually place the model there without it falling off?

Hmm. Disengaging. Since the hulk is somewhere in the vicinity of 500-600 points, in a game of 1000 points or slightly higher, there isn't much else of a fleet.

I know that weapons batteries work against them, and ordinance is wasted, it just ends up being tough to get behind it without running the gauntlet of guns.

Any other input from anyone?

Well, I've never faced one, but the Hulk definitely strikes me as a tough opponent, especially as IN. If it were me, I would be trying to use a BB with 60 cm gun batteries (the Retribution or the Emperor would be my choice) and try pounding it from afar. The Nova Cannon seems like it should work OK as well, since the thing is a pretty big target. How big is the table you are playing on? Also, what terrain to you usually have? This can make a big difference.

We usually play on a 4x8 table. Terrain is set up using the random method in the rulebook. We usually break the playing area up into 4 squares per side of the table - on a d6 roll of 4+ there is terrain there. The particular terrain is randomly rolled from the zone the battle is being fought in (also randomly determined, i.e. flare zone). The terrain is centered in the square and scattered 4d6cm.

The gun batteries work, if you can outrange it, and stay that way. The novacannon are like throwing eggs at a wall - they do d6 damage, but the hulk's shields absorb some, and the rest comes off the 40 hits it can take. Even 3 novacannon don't seem to help. I've had success using Space Marine/IN lists (I forget which list that was), but it feels cheap

Also, we're usually playing a campaign, so we have limited fleet lists, so can't 'cherry pick' the best ships for the job often.

The thing that ends up being the killer is the ordinance, between boarding torpedoes, and fighta-bommas, he can put so many ordinance markers in play that its impossible to fend them off. So that makes the 'standoff' method tough too.

So far I've seen it waxed in short order by two Necron Tomb Ships, and I've handled it once with the aforementioned Marine/IN, which included a battlebarge.