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Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




When you play a game of Battlefleet Gothic, how much Celestial Phenomena do you use on a 4x6 gaming table?

My local gaming group is of the opinion that 40k is basically broken unless a 4x6 gaming table has at least two terrain features per table quadrant. Some players want the same level of "terrain features" for BFG games, but others (myself included) feel that's out of character for a game that's supposed to be about space combat.

One player insists that without a lot of LOS blocking Celestial Phenomena then you are just handing victory to the guy with the longest range weapons. Others point out that lots of LOS blocking Celestial Phenomena hands victory to the guy who can spam the most attack craft, something that's already close to being OP.

I just think it's uncharacterful for the genera.

How do you guys address this?
   
Made in at
Second Story Man





Austria

as soon as there are Eldar players the amount of terrain determins who wins

more terrain and they win, less terrain, and they lose

for the other factions, more terrain does not make a big difference

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Made in us
Willing Inquisitorial Excruciator





Philadelphia

If I remember correctly, we used the recommended rules from the rule book - break the board up into 12x12 sections, roll a d6, 4+ means a random celestial phenomena, roll, place, scatter randomly.

That usually gave enough for our purposes. And with the scenarios, you had to engage in many instances to try to win, so you couldn’t just play keep away the whole time.

Long range shooting doesn’t really matter much in terms of the terrain, most Lance fire out to 60” is going to be absorbed by shields, or deflected by holofields. Most WB diminish that far out, and only scare Eldar where a 1 die can down an escort.

We used the above for scenarios and campaigns, always worked great. None of us (Imp, Chaos, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Necron) seemed to care or notice terrain.

If you’re using the recommended Attack Craft variant where you can only have a number of Attack Craft on the board equal to your launch bays, that does the most to keep them in check.

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Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




So a 6'x4' game board will have twenty-four 12"x12" sections. Doling out celestial phenomena on a 4+ should litter the board with twelve phenomena.

Is this how others have played it?
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Annandale, VA

I always found that BFG was a lot less reliant on terrain than 40K, given that its design as an 'Age of Sail meets Jutland' game strongly emphasizes fleet maneuver and fleet tactics. Historical naval wargames are typically fought on a completely bare map; in BFG you really only need a few pieces of celestial phenomena to break up the board and add some additional maneuver considerations. I don't think I've ever done 12 discrete terrain areas on a 6x4 board, that seems excessively cluttered.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/05/12 03:33:09


   
Made in gb
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Yvan eht nioj






In my Austin Ambassador Y Reg

I only have a limited amount of terrain for BFG so my games are by design limited. I use 1 planet, 1 moon and an asteroid field. That seems to be enough but then again, I only play casually and not to take advantage of or bend rules regarding terrain.

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Made in au
Axis & Allies Player




phydaux wrote:
So a 6'x4' game board will have twenty-four 12"x12" sections. Doling out celestial phenomena on a 4+ should litter the board with twelve phenomena.

Is this how others have played it?


IIRC it's 24" x 24" sections, not 12" x 12". Basically, a 6'x4' board has six 2'x2' sections. Roll for each using the rules in the book.

I've had great games of BFG on a completely bare table. (Although if you're using the celestial phenomena rules in the book to decide where you're fighitng, you tend to see empty tables more when you're fighting close to the local star, so watch out for flares!)

As others have said, it's more about positioning your ships and planning ahead to concentrate fire from the best angle.

At the other extreme, I recall one game on a weird pre-set table with two thick asteroid belts dividing the board into thirds, and only one narrow gap per belt to let ships through. It was like playing Frogger. Fun game, though.

One of the BFG Magazines included rules for rare celestial phenomena, like wreckage fields, comets and black holes (!) Probably my favourite article out of everything those magazines ever did.
   
Made in us
Master Engineer with a Brace of Pistols





washington state USA

We use a full 4X8 table and we liberally scatter gas clouds and asteroid fields around the table to make people maneuver.

It does not help or hurt any fleet any more than any other. i have seen terrain screw over eldar just as much as any other faction.





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