Gothic Battle Report: Imperial Navy vs. Tyranids

Mission: Surprise Attack. An enemy fleet catches a planetary defense garrison unprepared.

Forces

Eric – Imperial Navy

Retribution Battleship with embarked Ld9 Admiral

Mars class battlecruiser with extra turret and upgraded batteries

Lunar class cruiser with Nova Cannon

Dauntless Light Cruiser (Lance)

Dauntless Light Cruiser (Lance)

6 Fire Ships

1 Orbital Defense Weapons Platform (Batteries)

1 Minefield

John – Tyranids

Hive Ship, Pyro Acid Batteries, Pyro Acid Batteries, 3 sets of port/starboard Launch Bays

Hive Ship, Massive Claws and Feeder Tentacles, Bio Plasma Spines, 3 sets of Bio Plasma Spines

Cruiser, Massive Claws, Pyro Acid Batteries

Cruiser, Massive Claws, Pyro Acid Batteries

12 Drone Escorts, Pyro Acid Batteries

4 Kraken Escorts

Deployment

Imperial Navy forces were arranged around the planet to cover all approaches.  Tyranids arrived from a Long board edge.

Turn 1 Tyranids

Cruiser moves up and catches Dauntless light cruiser, kills with boarding action.  Other Cruiser moves up and shoots the other Light Cruiser.  Escorts move up and shoot the Fire Ships, one dies.

Turn 1 Imperial Navy

Dauntless light cruiser fires on Tyranid cruiser, no damage.  Surviving Fire Ship kills one drone escort.

Turn 2 Tyranids

Fleet advances, Cruisers move over the planetary template, fire on another squadron of 2 fire ships.  Assault boats diable weapons on Dauntless

Turn 2 Imperial Navy

Fire ships advance on Cruisers, cause several Fire critical results and one Fire on the Lunar class cruiser.  Bombers from the Mars kill one Tyranid Cruiser.

Turn 3 Tyranids

More assault boats attack Dauntless, irrecoverably screwed.  Kraken advance and fire on Mars, roll poorly, do nothing but force a BFI.  Cruiser fires on Lunar, force BFI.

Turn 3 Imperial Navy

Last Fire Ship hits Hive Ships.  Causes 1 fire on Carrier Hive ship, three on Claw Hive Ship.  Also kills 3 drones.  Dauntless disengages.

Turn 4 Tyranids

Hive Ships advance, Kraken destroy Mars class.  Surviving cruiser hounds Lunar near minefield, then boards.  Lunar wins boarding action by a huge margin and Cruiser dies.  Carrier ship puts out fire, but Claw ship doesn’t and takes 3 damage.

Turn 4 Imperial Navy

Retribution moves around, pot-shots some drones.  Lunar moves around.

Turn 5 Tyranids

Krakens move toward Lunar, team up with Hive Ship and severely cripple it.  Surviving Drones move with Claw Hive Ship and destroy Orbital Defense.  Claw Hive Ship takes 3 more damage and does not put out fires.

Turn 5 Imperial Navy

Lunar disengages.  Retribution kills a Drone.  Solar Flare wreaks havoc across the board.

Turn 6 Tyranids

Kraken start to turn around.  Carrier hive ship enters large Gas and Dust Cloud.  Claw Hive Ship takes 3 more damage from fires.

Turn 6 Imperial Navy

Retribution locks on and kills last Drone Escorts.

Turn 7 Tyranids

Krakens and some Assault Boats move toward Retribution.  Claw Hive Ship disengages.

Turn 7 Imperial Navy

Retribution kills one Kraken.

Turn 8 Tyranids

Kraken disengage.  Assault Boats move toward Retribution.

Turn 8 Imperial Navy

Retribution fails to disengage, removes Assault Boat wave.

Turn 9 Tyranids

More assault boats.

Turn 9 Imperial Navy

Retribution disengages.

Final victory points

Tyranids: 586, Imperial Navy 542.

Analysis: I deployed WAY too close to the board edge.  Also, John had one REALLY good roll with the Krakens that killed the Mars class cruiser.  Had I set up a little better I could have fared better.  As it was the Fire Ships are the only thing that saved me.  I HIGHLY recommend them for defense.

Battlefleet Gothic Battle Report: Convoy

Mission

In convoy, a fleet is trying to protect a convoy of transports through an enemy blockade.  The enemy is spread out thin to catch the convoy, so there might be a chance to punch through the blockade.  In this scenario, the defender takes 100pts for every two free transports.  The attacker recieves random forces from a table, on which they get D3 + (transports/2) rolls.

Forces

Alan – Imperial Navy

Lunar class Cruiser

Dauntless Light Cruiser (Torpedoes)

Dauntless Light Cruiser (Torpedoes)

Four Transports

Four Transports

Eric – Chaos (Got 5 rolls on chart, rolled 6,5,5,5,1)

Carnage class cruiser

3 Idolater escorts (lance boats)

3 Infidel escorts (torpedo boats)

3 Infidel escorts (torpedo boats)

2 Dreadclaw Assault boats

Setup

Primary Biosphere, medium planet, 2 moons.  Planet was in lower left corner.  Moon 1 in upper left, moon 2 almost in exact center of board.  1 gas/dust cloud high center.  2 Asteroid belts lower right.

Deployment

I deployed my marker beacons in a “W” shaped pattern with the Carnage class cruiser in the middle and the Infidels on the ends.  Alan’s convoy came on from the left.

Turn 1 Imperial Navy

Alan brought in his 3 warships and no transports.  One was close enough to reveal the closest beacon, 3 Infidels.  2 were destroyed, the third on BFI.

Turn 1 Chaos

Revealed Assault Boats, which hid behind the medium planet.  Surviving Infidel moved behind main Imperial lines.

Turn 2 Imperial Navy

Alan brought on his transports.  He moved up and turned to get line of sight to shoot the last Infidel.  Infidel failed check to BFI, but amazingly survived.  Assault Boats and boarding torpedoes attack transports, with no effect.

Turn 2 Chaos

Farthest marker revealed as 2nd Infidel squadron.  Fails to All Ahead full.  Lone Infidel attempts to board transport.  Tie causes neither ship to be removed.

Turn 3 Imperial Navy

Fleet moves up to engage, fires at Infidel Squadron 2, no effect at extremem range.  Dauntless cruisers reload ordnance.

Turn 3 Chaos

All remaining markers revealed.  Chaos forces engage Imperial fleet, do minor damage.  Lone Infidel reloads ordnance, fires, kills one transport with Boarding  Torpedoes.

Turn 4 Imperial Navy

Dauntless cruisers lock on, fire on Idolaters and Infidels.  One Idolater destoyed.  Transports fire on lone Infidel, no effect.

Turn 4 Chaos

Carnage class cruiser moves throught imperial lines, draws bead on transports, destroys one.  Infidel squadron fires torpedoes, kills one transport.  Idolaters also kill one transport.

Turn 5 Imperial Navy

Imperials bring forces to bear on escorts.  BFI rolls make only one Infidel die.

Turn 5 Chaos

Further shooting reduces imperial transports to 2.  Game ceded.

Analysis

Convoy is HARD.  It is almost impossible for the convoy to make it if the enemy has rolled well, and the bigger the game the better they can be.  The defender is better off with smaller ships like the Dauntless or some escorts.  The attacker needs to essentially ignore the main lines and get through to the transports.  If the defender rushes ahead, this is actually easy.  The defender needs to slow it down and blast anything that comes close.

Space Marine Battlefleet Gothic Fleet

My Azure Flames Battlefleet Gothic fleet.  2 Battle Barges, 5 Strike Cruisers, 6 Nova Frigates, 6 Gladius Frigates and 10 Hunter Destroyers.

Battlefleet Gothic Modeling and Painting

So, if you’ve read some of the posts in this blog, you’ll know I got into Battlefleet Gothic because my friend Lexington did.  I started a Space Marine Fleet to accompany my 40K Space Marine Army, the Azure Flames.  You’ll see some of their ships in the gallery below.

But, since then, I have been on a bit of a Gothic kick.  I am a teacher (currently middle school, but I plan to move to a High School eventually) and I want to be able to start a wargaming club at that school.  I needed two fleets to teach someone how to play Gothic, and the best way to do that is with Imperial Navy and Chaos fleets.  So I have those now.

The Azure Flames fleet has custom flames sculpted on all the capital ships.  They are Azure Flames blue with Enchanted blue details and Ice blue highlights.  They have their bearing markers painted on the base, and their names in calligraphy with flame details.

The Chaos Fleet is a dark purple with lighter drybrush highlights.  The metal is bronze and the lighiting is Mechrite Red with Blood Red over the top of it.

The Imperial Navy fleet is Codex Gray with a wash of black and then highlighted with lighter grays twice.  The metal is gold and the front is Blood Red.  Lighting is white or Ice blue.

You’ll see some small black squares with stuff on it.  These are Low Orbit Table defenses.  The Airstrip has a putty-molded copy of an Imperial Fury Interceptor, a piece of blister plastic for a runway, and beads that look like a control tower and a hangar.  Once painted, I will scrape the sides of the top bead on the tower to make it clear blue.  The one with the 6 green hatches is a missile silo, putty moulded from the Epic scale Rhino.  The thing that looks like the power generator and Ion cannon from The Empire Strikes Back is a Lance battery.  Note that all of these are mounted with a half of an Epic base, so that when balanced on this they point “up” to the top of the low orbit table.

I also made Gas and Dust Clouds from pictures given to me by John.  These are of all possible sizes you can generate, and have been laminated 10 mil so that they will last forever.  There are also ring-shaped gas and dust clouds.  Not shown are asteroids, also laminated 10 mil.  The Gas and Dust Clouds have the dimensions printed on the back.

I made some custom markers for the Sunward Edge, and Solar Flares and Radiation Bursts.  These will make keeping track of these easier.

Finally are markers for Warp Rifts similar to the Gas and Dust clouds.  These also have the dimensions on the back and are laminated 10 mil.

With these, some unpainted transports and orbital defenses, and a few other props, I have everything I need to play any game of Gothic at anytime.  I have a piece of black felt 4’x6′ and a smaller piece of blue felt for a low orbit table.