A Tale of a Lone Admiral-Let's Play BattleFleet Gothic!

[Jakeman214]

I got around to building a few more Ork ships this arvo, just before I jumped on the server then got yelled at to mow the lawn.

Got 5 Savage Gunships built, a bit on the small side but eh. I also built a Kill Kroozer to give my fleet a bit of punch, and had a Tau drone lying around. What the hell I thought, and knocked up the NC-1701 Enterprize, looted of course. Thoughts for another frigate include a sprue bashed Halo UNSC Frigate and a Star Wars Corellian Corvette (Princess Leia's Blockade Runner), and a sprue bashed Star Wars Venator Class Star Destroyer. Should be fun to do

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l48 ... _12_11.jpg
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l48 ... prize1.jpg
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l48 ... prize2.jpg

[Jakeman214]

Hey all, I've just gotten 6 Sword Class Frigates to beef up Battlegroup Sapphira. It turns out having a cruiser gunline is great, until you make the first pass and then have to turn, and your enemies can pound your rear and flanks whilst you struggle to get your ships back into firing arcs and ranges. So with these new frigates I should be able to protect the rears of my cruisers and have a small agile flanking force.

Now I just need to paint them and name them. Infesord has named one of the ships as he was on IRC and actually replied with a name that wasn't too bad. So my challenge to you guys is to give me 4 names for the other frigates cos I just named another right now. I don't mind them being silly or serious, but they have to be good and not offensive (majorly).

So we have:
Maple Syrup
In Amber Clad

We need:
4 other names!

GO!

[Blackadder51]

Bogan Basher
Seaxy Beast
Pretty in Pink
Hot Fudge
Spotted Dick
Bearman 5

[Wildwill002]

Mortem Ferro - Iron Death
Morsus Mihi - Battleship
Vivamus Corde - Dark Heart

All latin

[Spyboticsguy]

The Starswirl.

[aflycon]

Spotted Dick

[Jakeman214]

Gday again all!

Its boxing day, I'm bored and waiting for work to start, so I made the last Terror Kroozer for my Ork Fleet. After making the Galactica and Enterprize clones/ripoffs and finding that fun, I decided to make another looks like ship. And if its gonna be a Fighter carrier, what better ship to represent that power than a US Navy Nimitz Class Supercarrier, with a few space conversions of course.

The basic shell, using a cut down piece of wing and the lower nosecone half of a F-18 model kit, the very same one that 'Donated' its main fuselage for the Galaktika, hur hur hur.


A side view of the almost completed Nimitz.


Looking at her refitted engines and flight deck.


A view from the prow. Of course it wouldn't be an Ork ship without a big prow gun!

I'm now painting her up, in actual USS Nimitz colours. From there I'll see if I want to add anymore gubbinz like raised blast shields, orky fighta-bommaz ready to launch or parked on the deck, etc.

Until next time. Stay Orky!

[Jakeman214]

Ok, so I'm in a campaign starting this Saturday (!) and I need another Sword Class Frigate and a Dauntless Light Cruiser. The problem is it's Thursday night and there is absolutely NO WAY I can get those two ships by Saturday. So, without further ado its Scratchbuilding time!

I hope to get the ships built tonight, and that'll give me most of tommorrow to paint them all up. SO far I'm gonna have 7 Frigates, the Dauntless, and a second Avenger Grand Cruiser that I bought the other day.

Wish me luck, this is no small feat!

[Jakeman214]

Aww yeah! Two hours later (or so) and I've got 2 new ships for my Imperial Navy Fleet!



On the left is the Dauntless Class Light Cruiser (Claw pattern) In Amber Clad, and on the right is the Sword Class Frigate (Talon Pattern) Sonic.



Here is a group shot with a Gothic Class Cruiser and a Sword Class Frigate standing in as well, just to show you the dimensions. As usual, my scratchbuilds are a tad on the small side, with my built frigate being about 1/3rd smaller and the Dauntless is about half the size of the Cruiser and not much bigger than the proper Sword Class Frigate.

I don't care though, they look great and I had fun building them! What do you guys think?

[vallorn]

damn fine Jake. i should probably post some images of my Chaos Space Marines on here at some point

[minnerthecat]

Those are some awesome pictures Jakeman! I didn't even know that there were models for large ships like that! I'm guessing they're used specifically for fleet battles? Please keep us posted, this is some wonderful work! I have an army of Space Marines myself, but I have to admit, they're not painted nearly as nicely as your ships! I've been thinking of repainting my army lately, any tips?

[Jakeman214]

@Vallorn-No, this is my Battlefleet Gothic thread! POST YOUR OWN if ya wanna show off

@Minnerthecat- Tips for painting? THIN YO PAINTS, BRO! Other than that, remember to paint in layers, don't be heavy handed, buy a colour wheel for comparisons and contrasts, and use good brushes. Painting is not a rush job, take your time! You've got Sphees Mehrines FOR THE EMPRAH! so you can afford to take some time for each model. I've got Orks and Imperial Guard, so I have hoards of models to paint, and I litteraly have to production line paint them. Its easier to paint 10 pairs of trousers, arms, heads, etc in 10 minute stages than it is to waste an hour per guardsman!

Woot, game on saturday! I shall take pics and post up a battle report!

[minnerthecat]

Thanks for the tips! I will definitely repaint them some time in the near future hopefully. Looking forward to the battle report, good luck at your game!

[Jakeman214]

G’day again all! I come back bearing updates and news! No pics sadly, the camera was left at home by accident!
Firstly, the Campaign started off and turned into an absolute disaster for the Fleet. Admiral Bundaberg led roughly half of his fleet towards the System Hive World to fight off the Chaos raiders. Little did the Admiral know that the ENTIRE Chaos Fleet lay in wait for him. His Flagship the Avenger Grand Cruiser ‘Spirit of Fire’ and the Firestorm Frigates ‘Hylia, Link and Zelda’ all perished in the opening salvoes of the enemy fleet. Trying valiantly to stabilize his ship and effect a fighting retreat, the Admiral ordered the Captain of ‘Jack Sparrow’ to disengage, the Dictator Carrier Cruiser the only ship to not be hit, shielded behind the rest of the flotilla. The Captain disobeyed, staying to support his Admiral with his Bomber wings. But it was to no avail as the Chaos Fleet poured yet more firepower into the heavily crippled Avenger Grand Cruiser and detonated her Plasma drives, obliterating the Admiral and the majestic old vessel. With great shock, sadness and anger, the lone Imperial Captain disengaged and retreated towards the remainder of the fleet over the Planet Boonhaven. He had to report that a full strength Chaos Battlefleet was on the prowl in the System.

I got hit hard. I split my fleet in half to secure the objectives presented to me, and the Chaos player hit one of those objectives in full force. I had a single Avenger Grand Cruiser, a Dictator Carrier Cruiser and 3 Firestorm Frigates, around 750-ish points. The Chaos fleet was a full 1500 points strong and consisted of: 1 Despoiler Battleship, 1 Devastation Carrier Cruiser, 2 Murder Cruisers, 1 Hades Heavy Cruiser, 3 Infidel Frigates, 3 Iconoclast Frigates and 3 Idolater Frigates. It was a Fleet engagement, and essentially I needed to break through and get off his table edge to get some Guard reinforcements onto the planet below. Alas, with the Flotilla broken in two turns the Transports scattered and the planet was lost. That sucks too, cause that was the planet with the local Navy base, my refit and repair facilities! The problem with Campaigns is that not every player knows everything... and the Chaos player did not know I had to split my fleet, and was expecting a fairly even fight. Oh well, I’m sure reinforcements will come sooner or later, along with Vengeance!

We played a casual game right after as we had everything set up. 1000pts, clash over a single medium planet.
I took:
1 Avenger Grand Cruiser
2 Gothic Cruisers
1 Dictator Carrier Cruiser
3 Sword Frigates
2 Sword Frigates

He took:
1 Hades Heavy Cruiser
1 Devastation Carrier Cruiser
2 Murder Cruisers
3 Iconoclast Frigates
3 Infidel Frigates

I won the first turn and moved directly towards the Chaos fleet, using the planet to cover my approach. I fired a single long range Torp salvo, just to give him something to think about. He split his fleet, taking the Hades, a Murder and the Infidels to my right and the Devastation, the other Murder and the Icono’s left. He peppered me with long range lances (Damned Chaos!), but scored no damaging hits. My torps missed and sailed off into the distance, but they had served his purpose, slowing his Murder down and cutting it off from the Hades and Infidels.

In my second turn I moved right up to the planet, slightly splitting my fleet around it/over it/on it just enough to entice him to keep splitting his fleet but not get to far away. My shooting was non-existent, just out of range! He took the bait though, with a giant gap up the middle for my fleet to drop into and open up with both port and starboard broadsides next turn! He did manage to focus his fire onto the Avenger though, dropping her shields and inflicting a single point of damage, which in turn started a fire that the crew couldn’t put out! In my turn three things heated right up. My 4 cruisers moved forward in front of the planet and into near perfect broadside ranges! Decent firing from the Gothics and Avenger saw good numbers of hits on the righthand Murder and the Devastation. The left Sword Squadron scored an Iconoclast kill, as did the right hand squadron of Swords of an Infidel. In his turn he tried to move all his ships closer in, foolishly within 20cms. He was up to something, but if I moved her just right, I could catch both the good Murder and the Devastation between the Avenger’s guns next turn! I saw his folly too late though, as in his shooting phase he failed miserably to any major damage, stripping each of my Gothics and the Dictator of a HP each. It was his ordnance Phase, and he dropped a 4 Bomber Squadron Wave on my Avenger! I got really bloody lucky though, and rolled 3 sixes with my turrets, shooting 3 squadrons down! The last remaining bomber squadron rolled a 2 for its attacks, and didn’t attack. The Infidels also fired 2 strength 2 torp salvoes, almost making contact with the two Gothics. Both my escort squadrons got shot at and shrugged off the single hits on a shield. In the end phase the Avenger’s crew finally got that blasted fire out, so that was good.

My turn four came around and I grinned evilly. The Avenger moved just as planned, right between the Good Murder and the Devastation, 10cm to each ship. The Dictator moved up on the starboard bow of the Avenger and the Gothics stood by on either side, with their outside lances aimed at the pesky little escort squadrons. The Avenger fired, and to port the Devastation took 6 hits from 11 dice, and to starboard the Good Murder took 5 hits from 11 dice. The Devastation was crippled! One of my Gothics continued to distract the enemy Hades, stripping it’s shields but nothing more. It then fired it’s port lances at the first Murder, scoring all four hits! The first Murder was crippled too! Then my Dictator wanted in on the action, finishing off the crippled Murder with her guns, turning her into a drifting hulk and launching a wave of 4 bombers for the ordnance phase. Her other broadside contributed 1 hit to the good Murder, bringing it to 5HP. The last Gothic fired her Port lances, missing all her shots at the Icono’s, but fired her Starboard lances and caused the last 3 hits to the enemy Devastation! The Devastation now hulked, we rolled on the catastrophic damage table, and lo and behold, she blew right up with a Plasma Drive Overload! The Iconoclast’s all took the brunt of the explosion, and all blew up. One of my Swords joined them in flames, and the shields on the Avenger and Gothic were dropped. The remaining Sword fired at the good Murder, causing a single hit and crippling it! The other Sword Squadron fired at the Infidels, doing nothing. In my ordnance phase, the bomber wave hit the now crippled remaining Murder. It failed to shoot any bombers down, and they proceeded to hit it for 6 damage! Another Chaos ship, reduced to a blazing hulk!

At this point my turn ended, and the Chaos player withdrew his (intact) Hades and the last two Infidels, calling his surrender. I had 4 Swords, 2 Gothic’s (1 @7HP the other full), 1 Dictator (Full HP) and the Avenger on 7HP. A friendly handshake was had, and we both expressed the desire to have another match soon, perhaps with different fleet layouts. I for one would love to try out a Retribution Battleship supported by Dauntless Light Cruisers rather than Sword Frigates.

Tactical review of the battle.
1) The Chaos player got sucked into a fleet brawl, which I won with superior fire-control. Turn 3 and 4, every single one of my cruisers fired both broadsides, only two of his cruisers could. He very nearly forced me to go after him but a single well placed early torp salvo from me cut one of his flanks in half, and he stalled. I stole the initiative from there and made him react to me.
2) I find that even the Chaos Fleet wants to close on the prow and speed through on the flanks to let their weapons batteries fire to full effect. The IN just wants to get close and into a full on broadside brawl, which suits me fine!
3) Escorts are good for holding flanks and protecting the vulnerable rear of the IN fleet. They also can pack a punch, but die rather easily. I must keep them further away from the brawl, not right in it!
4) Bombers are a bit hit and miss. I mean, they could do stupidly high amounts of rolls and damage, or they might do like 2 rolls. 40 extra points for a Dictator over a Gothic or Lunar Class? I’m not sure if the points would be better spent on an extra Sword/Firestorm/Cobra and any of the other cruiser variants. Fighters are ok, but the IN can never really hope to match the AC of the other fleets, so why bother at all?
5) REMEMBER TO BRACE FOR IMPACT! No-one at my local braces, but maybe that’s a good thing. We like seeing ships go BOOM! It makes things interesting!

Wow, that’s a fairly big write up! The next campaign turn is set for a few weeks time I think, so lots of strategy to mull over and I’ll try and get more casual games in for more experience and shenanigans!

Until next time, stay classy and FIRE ALL BROADSIDES!