Gothic Demo at AFK – Stephen’s first game!

Before I begin with the battle report, I must show off a painting technique I saw at AFK.  A player there had a fantastic pre-heresy mostly Forgeworld Imperial Fist army.  He has a painting technique for the right-angled grooves in Space Marine vehicles that I found intriguing.  Here it is:

I had always thought to highlight the edges, but here you see that the edges are DARKENED.  I think it looks neat, and may try that on a future project…

But now, a BATTLE REPORT!

Recently, I’ve been cross-posting on the Battlefleet Gothic facebook group page.  (for those here from that, hi everyone!)  Stephen has long been a fan of Battlefleet Gothic, collecting a massive Imperial Navy fleet with a smaller Chaos fleet alongside it.  He’s even painted it all!  However, for twelve years, NO ONE HAS PLAYED BATTLEFLEET GOTHIC WITH HIM!

That changed last night.  Stephen came prepared with a nice 1500 point list, but having never played, I convinced him to play my (all too familiar) training scenario.  Luckily for him, he had the ships to play the Imperial Navy without borrowing any of mine!

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Battlefleet Gothic training scenario – Modified Cruiser Clash

Bozeman – Chaos

-Slaughter class cruiser Swiftboat of Truth

-Slaughter class cruiser Traitor’s Blade

-Carnage class cruiser Overkill, Chaos Lord (+2 Ld), re-roll.

-Murder class cruiser Domination

Stephen – Imperial Navy

-Lunar class cruiser, Commander (Ld 8), re-roll

-Lunar class cruiser

-Tyrant class cruiser

-Gothic class cruiser

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Setup:

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Turn 1 – Chaos

The Traitor’s Blade (left side pictured) goes on Come to a New Heading to maneuver around a gas cloud.  Other ships fire at the Gothic class and take down its shields.

Turn 1 – Imperial Navy

The two Lunar class ships fire torpedoes at the Traitor’s Blade.  Poor brace save rolls cripple it.  The Gothic and Tyrant fire torpedoes at the Carnage, but good brace saves protect against all but one damage.

Turn 2 – Chaos

Murder class and the Swiftboat of Truth go on Lock on, and damage the Tyrant class once, collapsing its shields with a lucky crit!  The Murder also turns its guns on the Lunar with the Imperial Commander, while the crippled Traitor’s Blade attempts a boarding action.  A poor roll gives the Traitor’s Blade two more damage.

Turn 2 – Imperial Navy

Tyrant class disengages.  The Gothic goes on Lock on.  Good brace saves protect the Carnage with the Chaos Lord and the Murder class.  The two Lunars gang up on the wounded Traitor’s Blade, with one going on Lock on.  Ironically, the Locked On ship does nothing, while the braced Commander’s ship does one more damage!

Turn 3 – Chaos

The Traitor’s Blade disengages (whew!) while the other Slaughter class, the Swiftboat of Truth goes on Come to a New Heading to get behind the Gothic.  Other ships maneuver.

Turn 3 – Imperial Navy

Lunar without the Commander goes on Come to a New Heading, however the Commander’s ship fails a Command Check, even with a re-roll!  The fleet wheels to face the remaining threats.

Turn 4 – Chaos

Slaughter class goes on Lock On while the rest go on Come to a New Heading to come about.  Fire gives the Gothic class FOUR damage, even through Brace!  Critical causes another Shields Collapsed result.

Turn 4 – Imperial Navy

Gothic disengages.  Commander’s Lunar goes on Come to a New Heading while the other Lunar Reloads Ordnance and fires, leaving the wave just shy of the Slaughter.

Turn 5 – Chaos

Slaughter takes one damage by flying through Torpedoes without bracing, and gets up close and personal with the Lunar that fired them.  Brace saves all but one damage but it it critical and damages the Port side weapons!  This is TERRIBLE.  Other Chaos ships Come to a New Heading again.

Turn 5 – Imperial Navy

Commander’s ship Reloads Ordnance, and the other Lunar repairs its Port weapons, too late to put them to use…

Turn 6 – Chaos

Murder goes on All Ahead Full to clear a gas cloud, but the Carnage fails a Command check, making it unable to Lock On!  Fire does no damage to the Lunar, despite three ships giving it everything.

Turn 6 – Imperial Navy

Commander’s ship fires Torpedoes at the Chaos Lord’s Carnage class, crippling it!  Despite having functional weapons, the other Lunar, being on Brace, holds fire to prevent the Torpedoes from having blast marker problems.

Turn 7 – Chaos

The fleet uses Come to a New Heading to wheel around.  The Murder class can’t hit the Lunar that doesn’t have the Commander.

Turn 7 – Imperial Navy

Commander’s ship Reloads Ordnance while the other Lunar Comes to a New Heading.  Commander fires torpedoes at the Chaos Lord’s crippled Carnage, but fails to hit.

Turn 8 – Chaos

Carnage with the Chaos Lord disengages.  Slaughter Comes to a New Heading.  Murder fires on the Lunar without the Commander aboard, but can’t do much but lower shields.

Turn 8 – Imperial Navy

Imperial Fleet disengages.

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Final Score

Bozeman – 104.5

Stephen – 111.25

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WOW!  What a nail biter!  It came close at the end.  Stephen is super excited to really play this game, as he’s wanted to for ages.  I’m glad I could oblige.  Hopefully next week I’m not working so we can play a different mission.

Next: a super secret project, some Epic Orks, and more Rules Compendium updates!

Necrons vs. Dark Eldar – 510 pt. modified Cruiser Clash at Highland

Highland had their monthly meeting, but few showed.  Rob wanted more Gothic (will he catch the Gothic bug?) so he tried out my Dark Eldar, and asked that I play…

…Necrons.

Yes, THOSE Necrons.  How did he fare?  Let’s find out!

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Bozeman – Necron Harvest Fleet, 510 pts

-Scythe class cruiser Awakener.

-Shroud class light cruiser Desert Whisper.

-Dirge class raider x2, Khopesh Squadron.

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Rob – Chosen of Shadow Dark Eldar, 500 pts

-Torture class cruiser Gift of Discord, Launch Bays

-Corsair class escort x3, Banes of Joy, Phantom Lances

-Corsair class escort x2, The Jesters, Impaler Assault Modules

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Mission: Cruiser Clash

Modifications: 510 point limit, added celestial phenomena, no restrictions other than those in fleet list, victory points.

Location: Inner Biosphere (one Solar Flare)

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Setup:

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Turn 1 – Necron Harvest Fleet

Before turn 1 begins, A SOLAR FLARE OCCURS!

All ships go on All Ahead Full.  Thanks to Inertialess Drives, the Scythe makes it all the way across the board and surprises the Dark Eldar.  One lance Corsair is destroyed.  The rest of the fleet moves up.

The Scythe surges ahead.

Necrons can be surprisingly fast.

Turn 1 – Chosen of Shadow Dark Eldar

Dark Eldar bombers bounce off of the Scythe, but Impaler Assault Modules disable the Lightning Arcs and prevent the Scythe from turning!  So close to the edge, the Scythe is in danger of disengaging involuntarily.  The entire Dark Eldar fleet goes on Come to a New Heading and turns fire on the Dirges, who brace to avoid damage.

Ancient enemy?  Hardly.

Turn 2 – Necron Harvest Fleet

Scythe goes on Burn Retros to avoid going off the board edge.  Dirges take out one more lance Corsair.  Shroud continues to advance.

HIT THE BRAKES!

Turn 2 – Chosen of Shadow Dark Eldar

Reloads give the Dark Eldar enough ordnance to put 2 damage on the Scythe, re-applying the repaired critical effect preventing it from turning.  Battery fire kills a Dirge despite Brace for Impact.

Turn 3 – Necron Harvest Fleet

Damaged, and unable to Burn Retros again, the Scythe chooses to move its full distance off the board to automatically disengage.  The surviving Dirge also disengages.  The Shroud goes on All Ahead Full to surprise the Torture cruiser Gift of Discord, causing 2 damage.

Turn 3 – Chosen of Shadow Dark Eldar

The Dark Eldar turn to face the Shroud.  Necrons choose to trust their armor, and lucky battery fire causes 2 damage, crippling the Shroud.

Ouch!

Turn 4 – Necron Harvest Fleet

Lightning arcs from the Shroud do little to the Torture.

Turn 4 – Chosen of Shadow Dark Eldar

Brace for Imapct saves the Shroud from more damage.

Turn 5 – Necron Harvest Fleet

Amazing battery fire despite being crippled and on Brace causes the Torture to take 2 more damage, crippling it and applying a Prow critical result.

Turn 5 – Chosen of Shadow Dark Eldar

Phantom lance causes 2 damage to the Shroud, reducing it to a drifting hulk.

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Final score:

Bozeman – 100

Rob – 554

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…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I haven’t had a loss this bad since I first got into 40k.  That’s a 454% margin of loss.  Plus, Rob scored more victory points than the game was worth.

Necrons can’t split up or they get picked off.  Plus, charging forward was stupid as it left me in a position to get forced off the board.  I also set up weird, splitting my forces so that Rob could refuse the flank.  Rob got screwed by the Solar Flare, but recovered nicely.

Next: a game at AFK!

A piece of history: Battlefleet Gothic promo board decoration

Behold.

I’ve got some battle reports for the past few days to write up, expect them later tonight.  However, this bore no further waiting.  Pictured above is Dan, one of the owners of the fine establishment AFK Games in Holt, MI.  In his hands is a piece of gaming history.  Back in the 90’s when Battlefleet Gothic was new, GW gave out plexiglass table decorations that had been airbrushed with artistic starscapes, as a promo for Rogue Traders to get people into Gothic.  I had no idea these existed until yesterday when Dan showed me the one he had hidden in his store room.  This is part of a game I dearly love.

Perhaps one will go on ebay one day… probably not though…

Enough self pity.  To writing!  Expect not one but TWO Battlefleet Gothic reports, one from fabled Highland and one from our hometown folks at AFK!  Stay tuned!  To the website.  You can’t really tune a website.

T’au Il’porrui Eir O’ran light cruiser

That’s the last of my Tau capital ships!  Big thanks to Joshua who borrowed this fleet for my Tau campaign and graciously did all the legwork to name the ships.  Well, now his names will live forever.  Coming up next: Tau Escorts, a visit to my peeps in Highland, and HOPEFULLY I can get a Friday off so I can visit AFK and get some 40K on a regular basis.  Stay tuned!

Battlefleet Gothic – Marines vs. Tyranids – A Long Time Coming

I’ve been on a Gothic kick, and just coincidentally my good friend John who got me into Gothic came into town.  We weren’t going to play anything due to a delayed start from inclement death weather, but John sort of pulled a huge guilt trip and I set up my old dusty table I bought from the closing Games Workshop Novi.

John decided to play his new Tyranid fleet, but they were packed in the same case as his home made Ork Roks, so I snapped this pic:

John’s Tyranid fleet is only half complete, so he used some paper cutout proxies.  As much as I like models, I have to admit they look good.

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Scenario – The Raiders

Battlezone – Deep Space

Tyranid defenders are at -1Ld for the first 4 turns

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John – Tyranid Hive Fleet 2501 – 1500 points (Defender)

-Two Hive Mind Re-rolls

-Hive Ship, upgrade to Ld 9, Prow Feeder Tentacles, Thorax Bio Plasma, 3x Port/Starboard Bio Plasma

-Hive Ship, upgrade to Ld 9, Prow Feeder Tentacles, Thorax Launch Bays, 3x Port/Starboard Launch Bays

-Cruiser, Prow Massive Claws, Thorax Massive Claws, 2x Port/Starboard Bio Plasma

-Cruiser, Prow Massive Claws, Thorax Massive Claws, 2x Port/Starboard Bio Plasma

-Cruiser, Prow Massive Claws, Thorax Massive Claws, 2x Port/Starboard Bio Plasma

-Kraken x6, Massive Claws

-Escort Drone x7, 6x Bio Plasma, 1x Fire Ship

-Escort Drone x7, 7x Bio Plasma

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Bozeman – Azure Flames Space Marines – 750 points (Attacker)

-Zeraf Antonius, Master of the Fleet (Ld 10), 2 Re-Rolls, Honour Guard (aboard the Honor)

-Strike Cruiser Honor, Extra Shield

-Strike Cruiser Duty, Extra Shield

-Strike Cruiser Courage, Extra Shield

-Strike Cruiser Vigilance, Extra Shield

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Setup:

Turn 1 – Azure Flames

Two squadrons, the Honor with the Duty and the Courage with the Vigilance come in from the right side, both squadrons going on Lock On.  Fantastic battery fire and poor Kraken brace saves destroy the entire Kraken squadron.  Bombardment cannons and twenty four torpedoes destroy the paper Cruiser.

The Hive Fleet, massing to attack this system, is surprised by Space Marines!

Four Strike Cruisers do some serious damage.

Turn 1 – Hive Fleet 2501

Dead cruiser drifts forward, other cruisers and escorts go on Come to a New Heading to respond to the Space Marine threat.  Carrier Hive Ship launches 8 fighters, and they perform various CAPs.  Thunderhawk Gunships move out.

The Tyranids, caught napping, begin the lengthy process of turning around.

Thunderhawk flights away.

Turn 2 – Azure Flames

Both squadrons Reload Ordnance.  One Escort Drone is destroyed by Thunderhawks, causing a Brace.

Turn 2 – Hive Fleet 2501

Escort Drones with the Fire Ship go on All Ahead Full.  Thunderhawks hit the Hive Ship, causing a Brace and disabling the Feeder Tentacles.  Woo.  Carrier launches 8 more fighters.

Thunderhawks sow confusion in the Tyranid fleet.

Turn 3 – Azure Flames

Fleet moves up.  Poor bombardment cannon rolls do nothing to the Escort Drones, but scare them into a Brace.  Torpedoes cause three damage to the Hive Ship and one damage to the Cruiser.  Thunderhawks cause three more effects to disable the Feeder Tentacles on the Hive Ship.  During the Ordnance Phase, some Tyranid Fighters arrive a bit late.

It’s time for… MORE TORPEDOES!

Turn 3 – Hive Fleet 2501

Cruiser pulls up and fires, doing one damage to the Honor.  Rest of fleet continues to wheel.  Several fighters are voluntarily removed so that the Carrier Hive Ship can launch 8 Assault Boats.

Turn 4 – Azure Flames

Both squadrons go on Lock on.  Fire removes four Escort Drones from one squadron (including the Fire Ship) and one from the other.

Turn 4 – Hive Fleet 2501

Close enough to fire, the fleet pulls off major manuevers to fire every gun they can.  The Honor is crippled.

Turn 5 – Azure Flames

Fleet disenages.  The squadron with the Honor almost fails, but a re-roll gets them safely away.  Game over.

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Final Score

Azure Flames: 366

Hive Fleet 2501: 149

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Post Game: I could have won on turn 2 by disengaging.  However, that would have been boring.  This result had a smaller margin of victory, but was much more in-keeping with the fluff.  After all, the Space Marines would try to hurt the Tyranids as much as possible before they got too far in-system.  John had all of his ships facing towards the left of the setup picture above, so I came in from the right.  My nimble Strike Cruisers outmaneuvered his Tyranid space cows.  Escort Drones and Cruisers have a 45 degree turn.  Ugh.  The Raiders is a tough one for the Defender.  You need to be facing every direction, and you need fast maneuverable things to respond to any threat.

Coming up next, more Gothic and perhaps some 40K from Highland!  I also hope to go back to AFK this coming Friday, unless something happens.  Stay tuned!

Battlefleet Gothic Compendium 4.0

http://fourstrandshobby.com/battlefleet-gothic-compendium-2010-update/

The link above (and the handy one in the sidebar to the right) links to my Battlefleet Gothic Compendium.  I have updated it in a major way for a third time, making this the fourth iteration of the compendium.  In truth, this was done months ago, but I couldn’t upload the front cover until now due to file size shenanigans.

Here it is, in all it’s glory:

The new 4.0 version has the following features:

-Full bleed front cover, for aesthetics.

-Table of contents inside front cover for organization.

-All files now updated to 2010 Compendium, including rules updates and lists such as Eldar Iyanden Fleet.

-Fixes for all files for spelling, rules accuracy, and readability, especially for tables.

-Scenarios, Campaign Rules, and Planetary Defences split into separate sections, and printed on different color paper to differentiate.

-Imperial Navy and Space Marines are now two different sections with different colors, as they are different “races” in Gothic.

-Chaos Daemonship rules are now 1/2 of a page rather than one paragraph for ease of explanation and accuracy.

-Several minor fleet lists added, for completeness sake, such as Ork Pirates of the Cyclops Cluster and Eldar Gothic Sector Corsairs.

-Major update for Tau including special character Kor’O’Mesme and 2010 rules for modified Kroot Warspheres.

-Expanded Tyranids due to page count purposes.  Vanguard fleet list now completely pointed out, and Evolution of the Hive Mind is a well organized table rather than paragraph form.

-Moved Leadership table to inside cover, and Boarding table and modifiers to back cover.  Now, all resources neccesary for setup are on the inside back cover, and all tables for play are on the outside back cover.  This allows easy access to tables without page flipping.

As with all my home made compendia, the following goes: I did not create any of this content.  It all came from the Battlefleet Gothic Main Rulebook, Armada Rulebook, and 2010 update.  This compendium merely condenses approximately 450 pages of rules and fluff into approximately 80 pages of rules in outline, bullet point, or table format.  If you want to print this for yourself, you are welcome to do so.  HOWEVER, PLEASE DO NOT SELL THESE FILES OR ANY PRINTS MADE FROM THESE FILES FOR ANY REASON.  Thank you, and have fun!