Plamo: Ork Lite Kroozer (Battlefleet Gothic)

 So, following on from that attempted tactics article, here's the end result, the Lite Kroozer Thermidor. 

 

 

This was painted and constructed in the same manner as the Orktober Terror Ship, although things went better. The main body is another cheapo starship, a skinnier one as befits its stats. As its meant to be an incomplete ship, its asymmetrical, and only has five engines. One of these is from a metal Kill Kroozer, and yes I know that's sacrilege, but it helps with balance. The base mount is not at the centre, and those new Klaws shift its centre of gravity even further forwards, so a chunky metal bit solves that problem. 

 

 

 

Said Klaws should be immediately recognisable to Ork players, but the joints shouldn't be. These are taken from a Neko Busou kit, lit. “Cat Weapon”, which is incidentally where the cats I use in photography come from. Google that sometime, its a blast. The Klaws are secured in pose, but not permanently attached for ease of transport, and possibly alternate weaponry if its needed.

While I don't have too much interesting to say here, I'm very pleased with how this turned out. It makes me feel more confident about converting bigger ships. As to why I've named this Thermidor? Well, its a blue lobster with a pirate's demeanour.

 

 

Gunpla: The V08Re-0526 Helmwige Reincar (IBO HG)

When I do a write-up for one of these, I like to check the lore for some context, and to help with the introductory paragraph. Here's what I found out: the Helmwige Reincar is a centuries old, but recently refitted, Mobile Suit based off the Grimgerde. Its named for German opera and Nordic mythology. Its service record is somewhat obscure, the design lineage being overshadowed by the assorted Gundams, and seemingly produced in very limited numbers. Its on screen performance from what I've read isn't that impressive either, and can be summarised as: "holds a sword, pilot killed in a notably violent manner while defending another". None of that really matters however, as it has an obscenely large sword. A sword in fact, so stupidly large, that its longer than the robot is tall, and makes photography a nuisance.

 

Yes, I know it's childish to fixate on that, especially as really big swords are a common anime thing. But the thing stores on a pop-out codpiece mount, I think I am only responding in kind. And, the thing is, it's rather impractical. I don't mean the obvious way, I mean in the "how can I balance this, the joints can't take it" way. The Astaroth I did a while back had a similar problem, in that the internal frame gimmick and disproportionate weapons don't mix due to polycaps, but at least they tried to compensate here. The oversized hands and handles have a tabbing system, and there's optional/mandatory wider feet to help. Then again, none of this is especially unexpected. Iron Blooded Orphans kits tend to have their waist joints based around an unrestricted balljoint, and you've got a problem once the friction is lost. That will probably ruin this guy, as the right elbow is already suffering, and the Astaroth isn't ageing well on the shelf.

 

OK, so about 270 words in, and I've only talked about the sword, the phallic imagery it presents, and how it demonstrates that there is such a thing as too much sword. What else can I say? There is a mace? Part of the sword detaches for what I presume is a back up weapon. For wildly impractical dual welding.

Sorry. Seriously now. The embodies what I consider to be both the virtues and sins of the Iron Blooded Orphans line. You build each body part bones first, before applying armour atop. Toro here has a lot of armour, but it's designed so as not to interfere with mobility. That's both a positive and a negative, due to the aforementioned joint issues. This being the third time I've built one like this, the process offered few surprises but no annoyance. There is a sticker sheet, which is extremely minimal by IBO standards, covering, although I've handled better stickers. Purists may also not that this kit deviates from the show I'd that it was a monoeye, rather than a visor, but no biggie. Visually its pretty good, and I like the Minotaur motif it has going on. This does look like a machine that would charge right at you, especially with the face mask up, and the horns down. It's orky, and I like that.

When you get right down it, the Helmwige Reincar is very typical of the IBO design philosophy, and my taste for the absurd. And the colour blue. But it's inevitable balance issues prevent me from giving it a glowing endorsement, even though I found it a nicely relaxing project.

Battlefleet Gothic: Da Lite Krooser Konumdrem

So, I had this idea to write a series of tactical analysis articles about a dead game I've hardly played, and am not likely to play for the foreseeable future. Why? Well, its something to do. I'm building some Ork Ships, so why not use the creative energy that's there?

This article started with a question.
 

Why is the Lite Kroozer? Seriously, why?

Appearing in the 2010 Compendium, the Lite Kroozer is part of the expanded Ork Clans list. As the name implies, its a smaller class of Kroozer, presumably to fill a gap between the full sized versions and Escorts. And, though it pains me to say: its a bit crap on first impression. This is mainly due to their underwhelming selection of weapons, equivalent to a single Gunship upfront, and half of one on a broadside. While tougher than an equivalent weight of escorts,its going to have less dakka, it doesn't look to work well in a squadron either. Furthermore, it doesn't bring anything new or distinctive to the table. Yes, it's cheap and durable at 90 points, but what's it for? Why would I take this over a full Kroozer, or an Escort Squadron? Then there's this extract, which suggests a vaguely confused concept.

By their very nature, Ork Lite Kroozers come in a wide array of forms. They may represent a captured or salvaged Imperial light cruiser hull instead of the larger Imperial or Chaos cruisers Orks more typically build their Kill Kroozers and Terror Ships from. Conversely, they may have originated from an enterprising Ork Kaptain that cut apart and bolted together several escorts he captured, salvaged or even re-appropriated from his own skwadron!

 

So is this a salvaged light cruiser , 60% of a Kill Krooser, or 3 Gunships welded together?

It's kinda all three at once. There's some similarities to the Endeavour family of ships. There's a lot of overlap with Gunships, as you get what amounts to having one of the big 3 as the main prow armament. However, the greatest similarity is to the Kill Kroozer, as the Lite has largely identical mobility and defensive qualities, just with 4 less Hull Points. In practical terms, this boils down to a single Gunship lengthened, sprinkled with some Gunz, and made a more desirable target for bomber tokens.

Crowdsourced Answers

As I'm not really in a position to actually playtest just now, I posed my concerns to a BFG facebook group, and got a largely helpful selection of responses. Putting aside negative viewpoints, these fell into two broad arguments. The first was to view the Lite Kroozer as a low cost slot filler. 90 points is definitely on the cheap side, and this leads to some rather mundane applications in smaller games and fleet building. The second was to view the Lite Kroozer as a Ramming and Boarding platform, in the same way as their larger kin. I've not got around to writing much about these abilities yet, but the short version: Ork faction bonuses and ship design reward both. Lesser represented opinions included the Lite Kroozer being a distraction, a support to escorts, and a bully of escorts.

My take

Both of the main arguments above have merit, although neither leap out as compelling or unique. With respects to the seat filling aspects first :the Clan list enforces a roughly 50% Escort requirement, based on the presence of Warlords and their rerolls. As such, sliding one or two Lite Kroozers into your list may be necessary, although your mileage may vary. I drew up some provisional lists based on what I have painted, and found a few places where this could help me support my swarms of Ramships, as opposed to the Terror Ship. It's very easy to get blocks of a single Lite and escorts of about 210 points. That's not exciting, and you can always put a Warlord on a Brute or something, but that's a use. The whole Boarding/Ramming argument does also hold water, but mainly due to stuff like the (kinda awesome) Klaw Gubbins and the Warlord bonus. A mere six hull points does not equate to a high Boarding Value by itself, and those same upgrades could probably be better applied to something bigger. Meanwhile Ramming ability does not degrade in the same way as boarding value, although the comparison with Ramships and larger Kroozers is mixed. Brutes are basically perfect at the job, and a Kill Kroozer rams harder, but a Lite is more survivable than the former, and more disposable than the latter.

While I'm not expecting such a ship to be great, or even OK, I'd be lying if I said the idea of a 100 point ship with grabbing arms didn't appeal. It reminds me of summat else.....

 

Wrapping Things Up

Well, I got an answer, and short of playtesting, I'll take it. Plus, I'm building one.

 

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Gunpla: The RMS-117 Galbaldy β (HGUC)

As you are likely to have noticed, Bandai is fond of merchandising its Gundam Franchise on a scale worthy of Star Wars. Big names come first, and there is a tendency to skip villains, but everything gets done sooner or later. The Galbaldy Beta is an example of this. Its part of the highly regarded series Zeta Gundam, and appeared in a fairly important early scene. However, its screen time otherwise was short, and Zeta had a glut of designs, and it seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. This 2018 kit is probably the most attention it's ever gotten. 

 

 

As a project, I was initially bemused by its large number of sprues. The Galbaldy is not an especially big or complex suit, its basically a Zeon-looking chap with a sword/gun/saber combo, so this puzzled me. The excessive sprue count seems to have been in aid of a double-dip on the mould, namely the Build Divers Galbaldy Rebake. This is actually great for colour separation, but he kit feels more complex than it needs to be. The ab joint is good example, as it adds maybe 5 degrees of movement before popping out, which is a real shame as there's a second balljoint in there for this purpose. Similarly, you do get opening beam saber storage in the shoulders, but its purely decorative, with the actual weapons being too long to fit. There's also a removable chest panel for the cockpit, but there's nowt underneath. Finally, you only get 3 stickers for this, 2 being perfectly acceptable, but then there's the monoeye. If it had just gone on a flat piece, it would have been fine, but some bright spark moulded the monoeye in too, so it doesn't sit right. Basically, they could have gone simpler for any/all of those areas and ended up with a better kit. Or tried harder and maybe increase the price by 15%.

None of this to suggest its bad kit, mind you. The Galbaldy Beta has that "good grunt" vibe, and went together with no issue at all. Take care with the ab joint, and you've got a perfectly posable dude. Its got a nice gun, a couple of beam sabres, and a collapsing shield. Aside from the somewhat Char colours, its the platonic idea of a grunt, or possibly an elite mook. The story behind the design is interesting too, essentially being a link between the Gelgoog, Gyan and Rick Dias, which makes sense when you look at the details.

 

 

If I'm honest, this was ever so slightly unsatisfying to me as a project. Its not that its bad, far from it. Its that its good, but could so easily have been great. And there's not much finishing it needs, other than fixing the monoeye, which looks more trouble than its worth. I think I'd rather have a kit with obvious but understandable flaws, rather than one that was 90% good, and 10% questionable design choice. Its like a film that's good apart from one or two scenes that could have so easily have been cut. Maybe the Rebake is more up my alley?

Battlefleet Gothic: Ork Tactics, Sort-of

So, I had this idea to write a series of tactical analysis articles about a dead game I've hardly played, and am not likely to play for the foreseeable future. Why? Well, its something to do. I'm building some Ork Ships, so why not use the creative energy that's there? Plus its ORKTOBER! Well, it was yesterday.

 

The Ork Fleet Concept

Orks start from a position of being the comic relief faction explicitly and repeated stated as being bad at this whole space navy stuff. Its easy to think the rules for them back this up, because there's pretty some obvious flaws. They also suffer from comparisons with the Panzee list, which had a similar but opposite approach to its ships. But this is not the whole story.

Now, I ended up drafting and redrafting this article repeatedly, creating pages of notes as I read around, researched, and mathammered at this game. I was trying to understand how the Ork Fleet was meant to work, and as an Ork player I'll admit to a vested interest in proving the common perception of the fleet wrong. I.e. I'd be able to live with the ships being held together with duct-tape, nails, and prayer if there was an Orky way to play. Its not like I have the inclination to play often, anyway, but given time and money investments, I like to know what I'm dealing with. Its core concept in other words. The humie fleet is flexible, but mainly about forming nice lines and torpedoing things to death. Those Chaos boyz like to keep their distance, and/or go for a selection pack of god-based bonuses. The Panzees, are, well, Panzees. The obvious answer was to say that the Ork Fleet is about frontal assaults, and then spend a bit of time listing the ways their weaknesses and strengths select for that. Or I could have talked about how Orks started as a smaller list mainly intended for Raid missions, which is where certain ships shine brighter. Or I could talk about how Ork Kroozers resembled knock-off Imperial cruisers, while their escorts are more immediately appealing. But no. 

The metaphor that makes the most sense to me, and the most interesting to write about, is tell to you how the original Ork ships, i.e. the ones in the rulebook, resemble Ork infantry and models from Warhammer 40K. Buckle up.

Brute Ramships = Choppa Boyz

Every faction needs its one bread & butter choice, and this is the Brute. It is highly regarded for its notably low cost, solid all round stats, and its talent for head-on collisions. Can be spammed, but also is the most agile Ork ship by some margin. Of course, you can build a fleet without Brutes, in much the same way you could build an army without Choppa Boyz. You'd just need a proper reason not to.

Onslaught Attack Ships = Shoota Boyz

Orks don't do long range combat well, an issue and a half in space, but do a ship that does no-nonsense dakka in the Onslaught. It offers enthusiasm rather than consistency, a big trend in Ork naval design, but dakka is dakka. Here we also note the general format of the Ork vessels; lotta guns and armour upfront, fast in a straight line, but with bad handling and no ability to broadside. Its a ATTACK SHIP, a SHIP that ATTACKS. Not a frigate or destroyer.

Savage Gunships = Burnaboyz

Like Burnaboyz, Savages are great, but in only quite specific and fiddly circumstances. Technically a threat to most targets and nippier than most of its kin, the minimal range makes them unpopular outside of scenarios where you deploy close to the enemy. Also oddly notable for having consistent damage output, but don't treat them like Lance boats, they don't work like that.

Ravager Gunships = Rokkit Launcha Boyz

Probably the most random and least reliable of the Ork escorts, Ravagers are also the one with the most specific niche: coating the board with rokkits that your foe should dodge. If you roll well, these things can output more torpedoes than any other ship of its size, buuuut ork discipline and/or enemy revenge will make reloading tricky. Also somewhat multi-functional due to its back-up guns and turrets. These will often end up in mixed squadrons as "that one dude with the rokkits" or alternatively in dedicated squadrons. Either way, consider yourself lucky if you get to fire twice.

Kill Kroozer = Battlewagon

These have guns, but are more about running people over, (AKA Ramming,) or having the Orks riding therein jump out and punch things (AKA Boarding Actions). Cheap & customizable to an extent, especially if a Warlord is on-board, which is rather like having a Nobz mob as boozed-up passengers. These are tough, obvious targets to distract from your Gunships, but not as tough as you may think, and need to be mindful of bombers. Can actually do broadsides, but only really within 15cms.

Terror Ship = a different Battlewagon

99% similar to the unit above, but with one gimmick that encourages you to keep your distance. Actually about as mandatory as the Ramships, as it provides a vital answer to enemy bombers. However, once bigger ships are available Terror Ships loose a bit of appeal.

How is the Ork fleet unlike their 40k Army?

Well, the fleet is one that must aggressively close with the enemy, firing the whole time, and ideally create a mess of confusion in their lines where Orks can break heads like Gork and Mork intended. Oh wait. No. That sounds exactly like the 40k army. But that's sorta the point. Battlefleet Gothic is played on large tables with often minimal scenery, where movement is mandatory. Fire arcs are also a huge thing, as Ork guns usually fire forwards, where their armour is thickest, but not necessarily on the sides, where the armour is weak. This combined with the modest effective range of their ships mean that Orks often have to hurry to meet the enemy, whereas the most recent Ork Codex allows for greater freedom in how you kill things. Part of that's simply the march of time, and there's later additions I haven't talked about above, but you're gonna have to deal with a short range, a limited pool of ships to choose from, and taking a lot of damage on the way in. You'll also find a lack of modern amenities like a clan system, unless you use the 2010 compendium rules. These documents are unusual in that they are fan-made, but GW approved, and tournament legal. While I'm in favour of the compendium on balance grounds, I remain personally undecided if I actually like those ork rules as these add a lot of complications. And obviously don't line up with how the clans are done these days. On the plus side? The Clan list has more Lances, and some newer ships. In practical terms, you have three lists to choose from, the original Pirate list, the expanded Waaagh list, and the 2010 Clan list. These get progressively more powerful and “complete” as you go along, but I stand by the metaphor I use above.

Wrapping things up

I don't have the arrogance to call this a tactics article, this is all theory, but I hope it was of some use or entertainment to you. Sequel articles may appear as and when I have something funny or interesting to say.