Starting out Battlefleet Gothic

[RCgothic]

So to the planning board again: Imperial Navy is planned, so what do you suggest with chaos ? The composition would be: Battleship, 3x cruiser boxes, 2x frigate blisters (same as the imperial buying list ). All-round force would be nice ( so no overkill versus eldars, thank you).

Few quick words about chaos vs IN.

Chaos ships have generous fire arcs long range, and can bring more guns to bear in a particular direction than an IN ship and more speed. They can sit abeam at long range and have the firepower advantage.

IN ships have more total firepower than Chaos ships, but to use it they need to be firing at two seperate targets in opposite fire arcs. An IN fleet will attempt to close with the Chaos fleet using their prow torpedoes and nova cannon to put out some return fire. In addition their 6+ prows will make them just as hard to damage with weapons batteries when they are closing as when they are abeam.

An IN fleet will probably have taken more damage by the time it reaches the chaos fleet due to the long range firepower the chaos side can put out. However, at this point the balance usually swings back in favour of the IN Fleet. Each IN ship should now be able to fire at two targets, putting out more firepower than the chaos ships. In addition, the IN ships gain a strong advantage by firing at closing chaos ships that the chaos ships cannot get. If the chaos fleet has not done sufficient damage by this point, the IN will probably prevail.

[horizon]

Chaos;

Desolator BB
2x Archeron
2x Devastation
2x Carnage

allround,not anti-Eldar specified.

add two packs of Infidels.

[zombie89]

Thank you very much Horizon for Chaos Fleet example and RCgothic for tactical analyses ^^

Better to buy 6 more escorts instead of the Eclipse.

In Finnish forum I was said that eclipse would be better 'cause the list lacks capital ships , would someone provide why escorts or the eclipse would be better ?

I'm now playing myself a little testgame, and as RCgothic said, chaos shoots from long range (one ship cripled), but when things get close Imperial Navy can pay it all back

[Volandum]

Well, the escorts have 6 hits but are escorts so significantly tougher, and more agile, and in most cases hit harder. The Eclipse's bombers are pretty nasty though.

[horizon]

But since there is already 1 Void Stalker and 1 Eclipse present I think there are enough bombers in play.

Escorts are harder to hit as well (thus tougher as Volandum says).

[zombie89]

And now some questions after the first test game ( draw, I played cruiser clash, both sides scored 20pts )

If I fire with my carnage using both port weapon batteries and also the prow weapon battery is my strength really 16 ? ( I assume this is why chaos is said to be superior in ship vs ship fights)

And also it popped to my mind how long does 1000pt /1500pt / 2000pt game on average take ? Just thinking do we have time besides weekends to actually play games of that scale (though I like small scale battles pretty much, always liked border patrol in 40k).

[RCgothic]

It depends how fast you play. Obviously it speeds up as you get to know the rules better. I can get a 2000pt game done in about 3-4 hours.

[Volandum]

Carnages do dispense FP16 at 45cm to the side, correct.

[horizon]

Depends a bit on the fleets facing but a 1500pts games is about 3-4 hours for us. Can be shorter. Eldar tend to be either long or short.