Battlefleet Gothic: My Thoughts on BFG:XR

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?

With the completion of Gorbag's Revenge, I find myself having come to the end point of collecting an Ork fleet. I have a more than adequate selection of vessels, painted and built to a standard of "table-worthy" . I've even mastered techniques I didn't know before. The next logical step is to find someone to play against, something hampered as much by my own social awkwardness as pandemic restrictions. I miss gaming, and while this was meant to be a purely creative exercise, it would be nice to have a go. But you might say, "Dude, BFG is a dead game, nobody is playing. You say as much up top. ". Well, apparently not. There are various fan communities with their own rules, such as today's focus, BattlefleetGothic: XR. Now, as the XR ruleset is several hundred pages long, while play-testing is difficult, my observations will be somewhat shallow. I did try and write a full review of things, but decided against it due to inexperience. My general impression is that the rules have diverged so far from the source as to count as a new edition, although this shows an active community for it. This is particularly pronounced in the case of the Xenos Factions, especially Eldar. As I understand it, I'm broadly in favour of how they remodelled the Ork fleet. It seems the basic ideas of 2010 Clans list have been walked back a little, making the older material seem amateurish. So, on the one hand, you've got a convenient and actively-maintained living rulebook. On the other, by definition it's unofficial, and people can be funny about that. I will now discuss what this may mean for my fleet.

With both Gun Batteries and Heavy Gunz reworked, Ork Kroozers are now significantly more broadsidey. Randomised Gunz are now mainly a feature of prows, with flank examples having a standardised minimum of 6FP. I view this as more of a time saver than anything else, but at least you will have fewer RNG embarrassments and it stacks well with other weaponry. Heavy Gunz meanwhile are very different, have a 30cm range, no hit doubling, but a higher strength value within 15cm. The mathhammer comparison for this change is tedious, but you aren't really loosing anything, and gaining more in in the 30cm bracket. I admit that this is probably less interesting than the previous, but these revisions grant the common Ork capitals a basic competency they didn't have before. They also have Lance equivalents now. Zzaps are a little odd in that they damage on a 5+ and suffer infrequent misfires that cause blastmarkers on their parent ship. This makes them less useful than the basic Lance, although you are still looking at an answer to 6+ armour with consistent performance. If you're wondering what this means for the Slamblasta? Well, you get more shots into the bargain. Zzaps also turn up on the Onslaught as an upgrade. This plays into a general reworking of the escort category, a dense topic by itself, but the short version is that Onslaughts are more like Imperial frigates, while the Brutes focus on thier headbutting. So, there's new stuff to do, but its been done in a relatively clean way that feels in line with the original rules.

Does any of this actually count as "good" in the BFG:XR Meta? Maybe not, but is something. There is still a strong justification for aggressive movements towards enemy however. Weapon batteries of any flavour work best within 15cm, and almost everything gets a reinforced ram for happier ramming. But there's the thing; I can easily imagine people complaining because they feel Orks should be terrible, it happened a lot when I played regular 40k. Another example is the characteristic issue with Bombers, which remain, but come across as somewhat more fun. Orky turrets only hit on a 5+, but you have more, and get to fire at all tokens regardless of type. This means bomber tokens are still a worry, but it's not one-sided and boring. If anything, it presents the image of every Ork on board firing their pistols out of the airlocks as something gets close. This amusing mental picture is however swiftly followed by another of someone whinging that they can't destroy a Kroozer in a single pass any more. Given the extent attack craft rules seem to have been rebalanced over the years, this perhaps isn't a uniquely orkish topic, but if anything was gonna provoke a "Sorry, what?" from a foe, it would be the news that you've got 3 turrets. I never did like having to explain to an opponent something they should already have been aware of...

Wrapping thing up

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing next, on the BFG front. This may well be the last article on the subject for a while, assuming I don't feel the need to build some ships. That said, if I were to play, I'd probably play with the XR rules.

Blog: Spring/Summer 2021 Status Update

Well, as we enter the summer, and I begin to receive my Covid vaccination, it seems a good time to discuss the blog and where I am as a person.

 

The biggest thing that happened to me recently, excluding a recent wisdom tooth removal, was the closure of my toy selling business. I'll admit that this closure was a gut punch of thing, but it had been on the table for a while. The pandemic was just the last straw. It wasn't profitable, and my own interest in the Transformers brand had declined so it no-longer felt like a hobby. Its a shame, but I realise that I started the business for the wrong reasons. So, as I approach a big number, entering the realms of the old fart, I find myself pondering the big questions and having more free time. This isn't great, because, and I don't know if' you've noticed this lately, it's very easy to find an external factor to worry about instead, just by touching the news cycle. It's not all bad however, as this represents a chance for a fresh start, whatever the hell that may involve.

This blog is of course a distraction as much as it is a creative outlet. I'm usually running a month ahead, because depression and creativity tend to be on the same see-saw, so even if I'm feeling bad, I keep to the timetable. One thing I have noticed is a desire to get back into the wargaming scene, I'm an Ork at heart, while at the same time my Battlefleet Gothic fascination has largely ran its course. With the pandemic hopefully coming to an end, actually playing the game is possible, but it's not necessarily a step in the right direction, more of a relapse into an old habit. I also find my Mecha Hack writing to be reaching a natural pause. I have at this point published 6 articles of homebrew, including one personal best, and I find there's little more to say. This isn't a sad event however, as I will shortly be gamesmastering again, which will no-doubt be a source of inspiration. I will however need to find something to write about soonish, lest I fall behind. The blog will continue, one way or the other, until morale improves.

 

Here's a preview of what you might expect in coming weeks:

A dirty, dirty, dirty Leo.

An article on BFG:XR.

An article I've previously held back on, Orks in The Mecha Hack.

An article on how do Real Robots in The Mecha Hack, as opposed to “super” ones.

Possibly something on those new Beast Snaggas.

Something from the pile of unfinished kits.

Maybe an article on Transformers, as I no-longer have a conflict of interests there.

 

Plamo: Gorbag's Revenge (Battlefleet Gothic)

Well, technically not plamo. This is a white metal release. Metmo? Sounds like a Pokemon. Why do I scratch-build ork ships? Well, a lot of it is because I can, and I'd say quite well, thanks. But, honestly, there's a cost aspect to thing. Battlefleet Gothic is long since out of production, and Orks were a metal fleet. Well, obviously everything in 40k apart from the T'au is pretty METAL, I mean that Orks never got any ships in plastic or resin as far as I know. Humies and Spikey Boyz however got plastic cruisers in the box. This means its relatively easy to find those models, even as that number decreases through attrition, and if not? People do 3rd party options these days. With Orks it's somewhat harder, as while you can easily find the escorts, the capital ships are stupid money, and so you'll have to consider making your own. Maybe its time to play around with a 3D printer...

Today's subject is the Gorbag's Revenge, a metal model like those above. I got it as new around the time of release, and didn't actually finish until now. And it's good that I did save it, as these go for the aforementioned stupid money on ebay. I'm honestly surprised nobody has reversed engineered any of this.... the weapon bays look easily re-castable for bits. Did nobody but me care to? Or do I need to research more?

I don't have a huge amount to say about the creative process on this one. It's a straightforward assembly and paint job, using the techniques I favour. This is meant to be a specific vessel, so there's little room to go nuts. I will instead take the opportunity to point how metal is probably the worst material for models like this. The Revenge weighs more than my Space Hulk while being a quarter of the size, which makes it a liability on the standard GW flying base. I broke three bases before drilling into it to make a better mounting point, I remember having exactly the same issue with the smaller kroosers. As a medium, white metal is so tough you need serious tools and a vice to cut it up, but not so tough those tiny prow gun-barrels stay on.  Then I broke another flying stand when photographing it. I don't mean to be salty, but this was a right nuisance, and I've drawn a line under this whole project.

While significantly more annoying than it should have been. Gorbag's Revenge basically turned out OK. I just cannot get over this stand issue.

Battlefleet Gothic: The 2010 Ork Clans Review

 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?

Well, I've put this off for long enough. I still can't play this game, but as I've researched and written more on the topic of Ork fleets, I've kept coming back to the 2010 Compendium Clans List. It just adds a lot and was apparently tournament legal. Given that Ork ships have a “mixed” reputation, this has a certain appeal. What follows are my thoughts on the rules, such as they are.

Big Picture Stuff

Fleet composition is rather involved by BFG standards, based around a revamped Warlord system. Players take 2 Squadrons per reroll, one of which is always Tiddlers AKA Escorts. A Warlord and his ships are basically fleets in their own right, meaning these rerolls can't be shared around. This is a little unwieldy, but is compensated for by the fact a Warlord is free, and grants a one shot +2 bonus to boarding actions. A Warlord still does not offer a higher leadership value, but you can swap crews and get numerous inexpensive rerolls under this system, which is nice. Fortunately, while you are mandated to field Escorts, these have received a few buffs. These get +1 leadership if in high numbers, and you can get freebie scrubs if their leadership was terrible. Escorts also gain access, like your Kroozers, to a dramatically expanded selection of upgrades, affecting largely all aspects of ship performance. This does however tie into the Warlord thing, so you can't apply these freely. Finally, there's the titular Clans, and a few new ships, two of which I've already talked about. The overall approach is not to expand the number of ship classes, but to maximise the functions of what's that exist already. There is also a slight trade-off in Boarding Value in exchange for this greater utility,as you aren't gonna be rocking the 20 any more, but between the Goffs and other newness, its not really a compromise.

 

Gubbins

A direct expansion of the original Warlord upgrades, these are given a single price for individual capital ships and whole squadrons of escorts. In practice, Gubbins end up being applied to your 3 or 4 most important/only capital ships in much the same way as other Ork Fleets. You'd probably only see these applied to escorts if A: you've purposefully placed a Warlord there or B) its actually a Clan thing, more on that in a mo. You'll also find not all ships benefit equally from some gubbins, like in circumstances where Heavy Gunz get replaced. Basically, if the ship was pretty good in the first place, think for a moment, but if its unpopular, the only way is up. I'm not gonna list all of them, but my picks for most interesting and/or useful are as follows.

Assault Karrier: a freebie sidegrade for when you want to spam assault boats and boarding torpedoes. Does cut into your air cover however.

Extra Turrets: a reasonably pricey solution to a Kroozer's bomber issues, but also applicable to escorts. While the bonus is reduced, a Grunt or Ravager would have 3 turrets this way, which is hysterical. Maniak Turrets also exist as a cheapo version.

Looted Lances: Orks have always struggled with 6+ armour, and these present a solution. And a reason to try Savage Gunships again as those get a strength 2 Lance at 15cm. However, as these replace all of a ships Heavy Gunz with a flat bonus, probably the best fit is the Kill Kroozer.

Klaws: thanks, Tyranids. These are looking a lotta fun.

Ram Prow: makes a ship more likely to ram, and does a minimum of 1 damage if it connects. Good synergy with Goffs.

Shock-Attack Lance: another freebie sidegrade, with a few quirky limits on this use, but yes. This is a space use version of the infamous Shock-Attack Gun. This doesn't do actual damage, but it does inflict nasty leadership penalties. Pick a target with its Shields down, take moment to explain it to your foes, and enjoy. 

 

The New Ships

This list features the Grunt and the Lite Kroozer, two ships which I'm sure have a prior history, but I first encountered them here. I have also talked about both previously at some length, so I'm not gonna do so again in much detail here. Both benefit greatly from Gubbins like Klaws, although I'd be inclined to say the Lite is the weaker of the two. It's more a slot filler, while the Grunt brings something new to the table. It also presents the “ZUKOV'S KLAW ORK ASSAULT KROOZER", a heavily customised Terror Ship. Unless I'm misreading it, this is slightly undercosted, and serves as an example how to maximise boarding actions.

 

 

The Clans

Here we go, the main event. This system overlaps with the new ship upgrades, as two/three of them are those upgrades with an actual new coat of paint, and I'm not overly keen. You can have a clan bonus without interfering with your gubbins, which is nice, but the costs are usually the same, and it forces the ship into a particular play-style. The usefulness of the individual Clan gets very subjective very quickly. Goffs are impressive right out of the gate, as boarding better is good, as is easier rams. It is however outmoded by Holofields, but you can't have everything. Evil Sunz merely go faster, but it's cheaper than the Gubbins version, which it stacks with. Bad Moons is Maniac Gunners via another door, so a bit meh, but powerful on the right ships. Deathskullz is similarly looted stuff in greater abundance, but you end up paying more for torpedoes for SOME REASON. Snakebites get a free leadership bonus to Brace, but only use Roks or Hulks, so not much application there. Finally, Blood Axes get humie escorts and refits, rather than stealth. Freebooters don't exist. 

 

 

 

OK. Can you tell why I'm lukewarm on these? There's no reason to take certain ships for certain clans, because you are paying for a bonus you can't use. This puts me in mind of the original Ork codex, where you were expected to mix & match Clans according to their speciality, where more modern spins on the concept don't cost points and tend to be less rigid in applications. While this, and the painting requirements, is rather frustrating to me, its not all bad. In fact this is the simplest way to to improve your escorts en-mass, while your Warlords sit on the big ships. The cost of a Clan is roughly one gunship, so you may end up trading one model for a significant performance boost, only to get a bonus ship anyway due to poor leadership. I don't normally advise picking a clan purely on performance, but if that's how the list actually works, so be it.

Conclusion

Well, there's good and bad here, but this is probably worth a try. For all its apparent complexity, the Clans list is mainly an equipment based expansion with quality of life improvements. Discuss it with your foe, but I don't think people will mind.

 

 

Plamo: The Ork Space Hulk Scratchbuild

When it comes to the Ork fleet, the eventual end point for a player is usually the Space Hulk. Its most unique vessel Orks have, and one of the largest in the setting overall. Its also a scratch building project through and through. Space Hulks are a demonstration of the Hyperspace is a Scary Place trope, being distorted amalgamations of derelict spacecraft, each a chaotic assemblage of garbage and the damned. They tend to be filled with Genestealers and absurdly valuable salvage, so having one appear in orbit is very bad news as treasure hunters and other dickheads go aboard and comeback infested. Also, there can be Daemons, Necrons or indeed any amount of eldritch weirdness. The orkish response is however to board, spend a satisfying few weeks gleefully evicting what lurks there, and turning it into a colossal warship. Then a Waaaggghhh! happens, which is a different flavour of very bad news for the first planet they come across. 

 

The model was built and painted in much the same way as my Roks, just on a larger scale. You may well recognise various parts from earlier projects, mainly the big bag of spaceships, that 3D printed cruiser, and off-brand lego. It was preceded by a much smaller prototype, where I experimented with DIY filler as an alternative to polystyrene or modelling putty. I was heavily inspired by the various scratchbuilding videos I've been watching on youtube lately, specifically, this one, which had me doing Roks in the first place. This filler proved to be easy to work, and good for stone effects, but it's too squishy to make a whole model from. As a result, it ended up being a surface element and, well, a filler, on a polystyrene body. Aside from that, the only real hurdle was its base, Hulks being far too bulky for the GW standard, causing me to permanently install a plastic tube for stability. This isn't ideal from a gameplay perspective, but I'd rather it balance without worry. Mind you, it's a bit of a bodge. 

 

Speaking of gameplay, a Space Hulk is the rare Ork vessel considered intimidating by both players and the fluff. Its roughly the same weight class as the Planet Killer or a Blackstone Fortress, and will quite happily trade fire with them due to its extremely bullet-spongy nature. A Hulk can take on a fleet by itself, and if that fleet didn't bring the right tools for the job, it's gonna have a tough time. On the other hand? A Space Hulk has the same basic weaknesses as a Rok, ie very limited mobility which hampers its guns and vulnerability to weapon batteries. This means a foe can "kite" around it and wear it down. 

 

Overall, things turned out nicely, but I didn't quite capture what I was aiming for. It's clearly recognisable as a Space Hulk, but it's maybe too Rok-like. It may also have benefited from more recognisably BFG bits. That said, people seem to have really liked this one.

Up next? Well, I have a Gorbag's Revenge I never painted, but once that is done, there's nowt for me to do but actually play...

Plamo: Scratchbuilt Ork Rok (Battlefleet Gothic)

While I left them out of the original article, Roks do fit well into the Ork army/fleet metaphor. These are akin to Mek Gunz, an inexpensive glass cannon but with some fairly major quirks. With the Mek Gunz, these quirks arise from being a crew-served artillery piece. As built by a lunatic. Roks meanwhile are crude asteroid space stations with engines on them. As built by a lunatic. Another factor is the scratch built aspect, as much like the Hammer Class, no official model ever existed, with players encouraged to raid their bitz box and dress a lump of polystyrene. While this does not actually make a Rok free, it does make them something an experienced modeller can throw together without much trouble. As I am an experienced modeller, and I had some time off, I took a swing at it, as opposed to trying to do a Space Hulk.

TBH, getting the stone effect was something I had to experiment with, and I feel I should talk about it so you can avoid my mistake. For my first prototype I didn't use Stirland Mud technical paint and it ended up looking too smooth. Fortunately, polystyrene tends to be plentiful once you've found it, so you can take a few dry runs. I painted the rocky bitz with Stirland Mud, followed by a drybursh of Zandri Dust, washed with Seraphim Sepia, and then lighter drybrushes of Ushabti bone and Wraithbone. That said it came out very well, and I've started work on more. And as this already reads like a like a how-to, here's a how-to.

 

A rough guide to Rok Building

You will need

Polystyrene, in lumps about the size of an egg. Hobby/craft shops can help.

PVA glue *WARNING* regular glue and spraypaint contain solvents melt the polystyrene producing TOXIC FUMES. Don't be a moron.

A suitable flying base.

A bits box, featuring plastic tubing, sheet plastic and Orky parts.

Suitable toy spaceships and scale battleships.

Stuff you didn't use in your last BFG project.

Textured paint I. E Stirland Mud.

Your preferred colours for stone and metalwork.

Steps

1) Prepare weapons and other gubbins separately. If superglue or spraypaint is needed, do it now and far, far, FAR away from the polystyrene to avoid producing the aforementioned toxic fumes.

2) Rough up your polystyrene, before securing your bits with PVA glue. You may wish to cut indentations to help things set in place.

3) Leave things to dry for at least a hour.

4) Roks usually end up unbalanced, so take a moment to find it's centre of gravity. Then insert the base there so everything will stay standing up.

5) Paint the rocky bits with textured paint as a base coat.

6) Once this dries it should have a sandy appearance, and you can now paint the rest. Aim for a contrast between the asteroid bits and the other stuff.

Where next? Well, I suppose the Space Hulk...

3D-Print: The Hammer Class Battlekroozer Conversion (Battlefleet Gothic)

 

As I've alluded to previously, the Ork Fleet didn't really come into existence fully formed, more that it got expanded later on. Its a thing happens occasionally with GW product, a good example being Goblin teams in Bloodbowl, circa 1994. They were meant to be comically bad, but players ended up relying on star players, which were reworked into regular team members later on. In order for Goblin Teams to be enjoyable for most people, they needed their Roster expanded to include Trolls and chainsaws. And why not? It added such character. The Hammer Class has a similar feel to me. Given that a Hammer A) has less issue with Bombers, B) sidesteps leadership issues by moving crews around, C) has a Lance equivalent, and D) no official model, its easy to view it as a quick fix. A tacit admission they didn't get things right in the first place. That said, after this we did get the big 4 battleships.

So, about making one. Hammer Class ships are supposedly built off Looted Imperial battlecruisers, so many players have opted to orkify a spare humie ship, but aftermarket prices for those are rather high. So, the key component here is a 3d printed proxy from Scourge Scenics, which was then built up with gubbins ala the Lite Kroozer. I'd been wanting to play around with printed stuff for a while, and was pleasantly surprised with the resin material itself. It's not as good as the original plastics, but there's nothing to apologise for. The main creative challenge was striking a fine line between crudely refitted space cathedral and just crude. I think I pulled it off. 

 

 

I named it “Eminent Domain”.Where next? Well, I do have one of those aforementioned battleships, but that would be something I'd paint alongside another project. Like a Space Hulk, I dunno.

 

 

Battlefleet Gothic: The Point of Ork Kroozers

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?

I must have rewrote this one 3 or 4 times, as it topic you kind of have to address to you want to armchair-admiral some orks, but I was struggling for an angle. Capital ships are the bread and butter of Battlefleet Gothic, with your average fleet built around them. With Orkish Kroozers its a bit different. While there is some variation, Orks usually have a limitation on how many capitals they can field, often 6, with larger ships unlocking based on the number of the basic Kroozers. In practice, its not something you necessarily struggle against, but you will find that Ork Fleets tend towards Escorts, if only because Kroozers don't have the same immediate appeal. In fact, a well-known fleet build back in the day was to field 2 Terror Ships with Warlords on them, and then every single Ramship you could afford. I know this because that's how my fleet started, but by more modern standards its kinda reductionist. Later ships like the Hammer shifted the balance of power, while later rulesets did stuff to expand/modify the Warlord Upgrades you can give them. Overall, Kroozers have thick armour and lots of gun upfront, less on the side, and a weak back end vulnerable to Bomber tokens. There's some similarity to Imperial ships in overall characteristics, loosing a shield and turret in exchange for 10 hull points. Both the Kill Kroozer and Terrorship are relatively inexpensive for capital ships, but are characterised by both short-ranged/randomised weaponry and mediocre leadership. As all that makes them unwieldy & inconsistent when not going in a straight line, you may ask what the point is?

I'm gonna flip the format a little, and just tell you the point upfront: Kroozers are good at Ramming and Boarding. This is why I called them Battlewagons, what gunz they have are for supporting fire, before their passengers jump out and axe something, or you commit an act of vehicular murder. A Kill Kroozer aims to do this exclusively, while a Terror Ship holds off a bit to launch attack craft, before doing the same. If you aren't trying to have them reach out and touch the enemy, and you aren't dealing with something like holofields or an obviously suicidal match up, you are doing it wrong. Seriously, put a Warlord on it if you can, and then get in something's face. A case can be made for using them in paired Squadrons, as this maximises their dakka and minimises leadership problems, but you loose flexibility. But basically, you want to have in these situations where the high number of hull points are an asset and Ork faction bonuses are used. You have modifiers for boarding actions, and can go All Ahead Full automatically, use these abilities. We will now go through the lesser functions of a Kroozer, and in the process talk about the common Ork weaponry.

 

Secondary function: Gunz Batteries

On a Kroozer, Gunz batteries fluctuate between good and mundane given facing or dice roll, but otherwise function as generic weapon batteries. On the prow, these have 45cm range and average about strength 6, which is useful given how Ork ships like to charge at things. On the flanks, these perform like a solo Onslaught, but this ends up something quite forgettable by cruiser standards. Reliability can be increased via Maniak Gunners, bringing up the average by 1 point of FP, which can be worth the cost against some foes. That said, randomness can be just as frustrating to a foe as it is you, as BFG is often a game of careful planning and risk management. The above means that these weapons offer only modest covering fire at a distance, but have synergy with Heavy Gunz. One factor however easily overlooked however is that these weapons do not have overlapping arcs, so to fire at full effectiveness, you have to be surrounded by targets. I.e after a ram.

Secondary Function: Heavy Gunz

I find Heavy Gunz to be in an odd place, tactically speaking. It's not that they are actually bad, because if ya Kroozer is doing its job right, it's gonna make good use of them. It's just that if an option is present to swap them out, it's more gonna be immediately useful. There is something to be said here for the Kill Kroozer and its broadsides. If it gets into an enemy formation, it won't struggle to find good targets with its HGs but there's quirks. While Heavy Gunz function much like Gunz batteries, and weapon batteries too, but is not as simple as just doubling damage. Heavy Gunz operate only within 15cm, and without the left shift, meaning they don't fire often, and don't gain as much as you may think. It's also very easy to make the mistake of equating these to Lances, given their position in the armoury. No, these are far more general in application, and while they technically usable against 6+ due to the doubling, they work better versus escorts and Panzees than Lances do. Also, people forget that these are the rare ork weapon without random strength. 

 

Secondary Function: Launch Bays

I've already written at length about the Orky bomber issue, but to summarise: you do need Attack Craft to compensate for Ork weaknesses there. This makes the Terror Ship more immediately valuable than the Kill Kroozer, as while you pay more, you do swap the sometimes Heavy Gunz for the always Launch Bays. However, an issue here is that is you have to devote time to Reload orders, which can be a complication even if you pass. A Terror Ship has to do two jobs, but a Kill Kroozer has just one.

Secondary Function: Torpedoes

A huge part of Humie Fleet tactics, torpedoes are a rabbithole of a topic. At a basic level, their ability to ignore Shields and then just keep on going to hit the ship behind as well is a big thing. Entire fleets can be given second thoughts by a well-placed volley. Kroozer tubes have the same randomness as Gunz Batteries but have the rather useful option for Boarding Torpedoes. These are great for minimising enemy fire by breaking stuff. Opting for torpedoes over heavy Gunz then is very easy to justify, if only for the fact they can effect the game far sooner. But some foes are going to be much more resistant to this than others.

A Word On Warlord Upgrades

In the absence of bigger ships, Kroozers inevitably become the personal ships of Warlords, whom unlike other factions other a variety of performance improvements, and rerolls, but never improved Leadership. The main selling point here is the significant buff to Boarding Actions, and frequently, you see people going straight for the extra Shield, and maybe a few rerolls. If you are using the Clans list that I keep bloody mentioning though, you've got more interesting options available. There's several of direct application to boarding, ramming and so on, but plonking Looted Lances on a Kill Kroozer is appealing.

Wrapping things up

Kroozers are perhaps the least interesting aspect of the assorted Ork fleets, but are an important part of things. They take the hits your escorts cannot, and hit harder under specific circumstances. Like I said before, think of them as Battlewagons, ork delivery systems, and distractions.

Battlefleet Gothic: Why Orks HATE Bomber Tokens

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?

The Context

So, when I started working on these articles, I had a more traditional approach in mind. I'd start with a grand summary of how the Ork fleets work, and then break it down, ship-by-ship over a series of posts. I decided against this because I'm just not an authority on any of this, and I'm not in a position to playtest. So, I go for talking points and light entertainment instead. One subject that wouldn't go away during drafting though was the matter of bombers. Something Ork fleets struggle with, both in defence and offence. What follows is a discussion of the matter, where the dread implement known as a calculator was used.

Bombers v The Lunar class, or Average McBaseline

Let us run through how a typical wave of 4 bomber tokens might interact with your typical humie Lunar Class cruiser. Bombers generate 1d6 attacks per token, minus the turret value of 2. This gives a spread of 0 to 4 attacks, and an average of 1.66666 - it goes on. We then assume that the cruiser can both respond and does so without flair, killing the average single token, leaving three to break stuff. This means the surviving bombers generate between 0 and 12 attacks, averaging 5, and remember we only need 8 hits to total the ship. We then apply armour value by dividing by 3, and ignore the matter of critical hits just now. What all this boils down to is that 4 Bombers could reasonably expect to inflict 1.66666667 damage on the Lunar. Isn't math fun? The thing you should take away though is that most weapons in BFG are rigidly predictable, and Bomber tokens aren't that. There is a wide swing between the minimum, average, and maximum, ignoring shields and positioning of the target. And, importantly, your turrets have to choose between destroying torpedoes and attack craft, so these numbers can go up higher.

How it looks for Orks

Ork Kroozers have one less turret and a 4+ rear facing, and this snowballs. A single bomber token averages here at 2.5 attacks with 1.25 damage, and maximum of 5. If we make the favourable assumption only 3 tokens connect as with the scenario above, this equates to 3.75 damage, more than double what the Lunar might expect, with the maximum being 15. This is the main reason why Orks hate Bombers, even under a modestly favourable scenario, its gonna hurt. Its hard to argue an upside here, except that the thick fronts of Ork craft usually mean torpedoes are ignorable, and while the escorts die fast to Bombers, its not worse than escorts usually do. 

 

How do Ork Fighta-Bommas work?

In a jack of all trades kinda way. These move a little slower than Fighters, and their bombload is only D3. Later rulesets modify this in line with the “Turret Suppression” concept, which gives them a minimum output of 1 attack per token. The math for this is simple, anyway, assuming that the target has at least 2 turrets. Count up the number of tokens hitting a ship, deduct turrets, and then divide by armour, and you get your number. In the Lunar example above, again assuming average performance, 4 fighta-bommas would suffer one loss, inflict 1 damage, the maximum being 3. Meanwhile, Ork kroozers tend to have middling leadership so reloading the bays is often an issue. This would be reason 2 why Orks hate bombers, ours aren't brilliant. Now, the above means a Fighta-Bomba is unlikely to damage a capital ship that isn't already crippled, has only mediocre success against escorts, and you may not get to launch more. However, two things are easily overlooked. The first is that they always do at least one attack if they survive, and the second is that you aren't forced to choose between fighters and Bombers like other Factions are. This means that you can be opportunistic and adaptable, where others cannot. Also, Fighta-bommas are entirely functional in a Combat Air Patrol role.

Assault Boats, AKA Reason 3

Competing for launch space are Assault Boats, which are rulebook standard with no quirks. As such, these token move faster than your Fighta-Bommas, and reliably inflict annoying critical damage 5/6 of the time on cruisers, and fatal damage on escorts with the same ratio. This means that Assault Boats end up doing the anti-ship role more normally applied to bombers, and by extension demoting Fighta-Bommas to slow fighters with an ability people don't like.

Possible Solutions

The good news is that if Bombers are really getting ya down, the Clans list has two ways to increase turrets. Things look better for the larger Ork ships, as these bring more attack craft to the table, while lacking the 4+ butt, and frequently have 3 or more turrets. Its at this point where individual Bomber tokens start to have an even chance of doing either nothing or very little, so your opponent tries putting in a few Fighters for the purpose of Turret Suppression. How that can effect outcomes is tedious to work out, but it places a minimum number of attacks equal to the turret value of the victim. In such a situation, averages go up while maximums go down, assuming they don't just bludgeon a ship to death with a wing of 8 tokens. However, the most interesting solution to the Bomber issue I've come across is to simply feed them an escort. Bombers are tokens, not ships, which means their reactions are preset and MUST attack a ship when they contact one. Sending a Brute to its doom may well be worth it.

Wrapping Things Up

Orky issues with Bombers is something you just have the deal with. A weakness to be acknowledged, but not feared. There's ways around it, and if someone decided to go bomber heavy? Well, they are just gonna have less actual guns.

Battlefleet Gothic: Brute versus Grunt

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?

Appearing in the original BFG rulebook, the Brute Ramship was possibly the one thing people actually liked about the Ork Pirate Fleet. Why? We'll get into that shortly, but one reason was that it was simply a unique ship that lent itself well to minmaxing. Over time, new ships where created and things improved, but the Brute remained popular. Advance to the 2010 compendium, these end up being the basis of another ship, the Grunt. Its just matter of plopping a Brute onto a battleship base, and you're done. But is the Grunt any good? Is the Brute also any good? Why might either be good or bad? For my ill-informed answer to these and similar questions, read on.

 

 

The Brute Ramship and the Art of the Head-on Collision

Now seems a good time to talk about ramming actions in general, before going onto the merits of the Brute. Ramming is usually a matter of three things, lining up, going on All Ahead Full, and then passing a leadership test to connect. Hull type and armour is important, as both ships inflict damage based on their maximum hull points, with the rammer taking the impact on the prow, and the ramee on the facing being dented. Another layer of complication comes from the size and orientation of the target, as its easier to hit a big ship with a small one, and “t-boning” results in the most reward for the least risk. Finally, ramming will always result in your ship moving its maximum distance, so its tricky to go from a ram into a boarding action on the the same target. Orks are pretty good at all this, due to THE BIG RED BUTTON, 6+ Prows, lots of hull points, and most weapons being front facing. An Ork ship can be confident of being in a position to attempt this, do it well, and then suddenly find in the middle of one of those fancy Imperial formations where it can have fun. Brutes are all about that. As escorts, these will almost never fail to hit their target, then inflict 4 dice worth of damage as their defining feature. These somehow ended up as the closest Ork thing to a regular escort too, having 90 degree turns and a reasonable pace of 25cm. Its most directly comparable to the Chaos Iconoclast class,while still having a 6+ front and all the other ork traits. Its the best of both worlds, and while its multidirectional gunz are weedy, it is very cheap at 25 points each. That said, a lot of people get rather excited by the Brute, not unreasonably, but let's not oversell it. As a weapon platform, its significantly outperformed by the admittedly inconsistent Onslaught. Sure, its relatively agile, but it's not got too much dakka. Also, by nature of its job description, it's got a life expectancy of about 20 minutes. It only takes one hit in a ram to destroy a Brute, and while you can chance that with a 6+ Prow, trying to headbutt a battleship is asking for a comedic end. 

 

The Grunt Assault Ship and the Art of “Inspiration”

Designed for boarding Actions with a secondary ram function, the Grunt is similar to the Brute, but dakka is proportionately less, and handling is much worse. The 45 degree turns and inability to Come To New Heading means it can't do the agile stuff. The larger base obviously makes it a bigger target for ordnance too, although it does have two turrets to compensate. As for its primary function? Boarding Actions are much easier overall to connect with than rams, as you only need to touch the target with that bigger base, but present a greater amount of risk. As escorts have only a single Hull Point, can be destroyed by a Critical Hit, with the latter maybe happening even if you win, you have to be prepared for these to die. Against other escorts, the odds are likely in your favour, but you probably need to gang up on something. This is less than ideal, as boarding results get applied to all ships, so whole squadrons can disappear if they pile-on and loose. Your bigger Kroozers don't have this concern, as while boarding is still chancy for them, they have a lot of Hull Points and other bonuses to make them good at it. Meanwhile, the Grunt has half the Ramming ability of the Brute, but the turning radius and larger base muddies the space waters. Grunts have a harder time aiming, but don't need to be as precise. However, these ships can buy the Klaws upgrade and become significantly more compelling. The possibility to inflict 2 damage before boarding commences largely compensates for the concerns above, and presents the amusing possibility of latching on. As Klaws damage on a 4+, they also offer a Lance substitute, and compensate for the reduced raw ramming damage. All things considered, with or without Klaws, a Grunt feels like an Orky answer to Tyranid escorts. That was probably the idea. However, this means that you have to be right on top of the enemy to do anything though, and the cost comes to 35 points each with grabbers.

Conclusion: Apples & Oranges

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting the Grunt to have a such a clear distinction from the Brute, but neither being overtly superior to the other. It goes like this. The Brute is great at ramming, good as a conventional escort, and rather cheap. The Grunt is good/great at boarding, OK/good at ramming, but costs more and handles like a shopping cart. There is overlap, as both are based on high risk ploys that involve touching the enemy, but has its own unique selling point. That's a stark contrast to Ork Gunships, which tend to have only one function, as they have one defining weapon, and so are easily chosen. I feel actual playtesting is needed to decide a winner, but neither strikes me as a bad choice.

 

State of the blog post

OK, it's been roughly a year since I started doing gunpla as therapy, and blogging about it. I suppose some sort of retrospective is needed.

I'll admit that this blog is fundamentally a self-absorbed exercise. Many are, I suppose, but it's a realisation I only had recently. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy making things, and then writing about it, but I've begun to question why. Social media feedback was part of it, but I've found myself viewing it less of a treatment for stress so much as part of the issue. Even before I had to self-isolate, I found myself both a month ahead, more gunpla than I ever expected, and a return to ork-related projects like the Battlefleet Gothic stuff. And wondered whom/what it was for? Mainly for me, I think, I doubt I will ever be a "content creator" as such. Acknowledging that 2020 sucked balls, and any distraction was welcome, I suspect that there's an autistic component to this I wasn't fully conscious of previously. I'm starting wonder how much of my hobbies are things I actually enjoy for their own sake, or simply manifestations of the condition. Either that, or my tastes are merely fluctuating with the passage of time, and it wouldn't be the first time I ran headlong into a new hobby. I clearly have things to think about...

Anyways, while I intend to keep the blog going as a creative outlet, there's going to have to be variation and a clearing of a backlog. At time of writing, there's 11 weeks of articles pending, so I'll drop in several as bonus posts over the holiday period. Here's a brief list of what's in the pipeline.

Some more "remembering" of cartoons and anime.

A couple of video game mini-reviews.

Some articles on long-finished Gunpla.

More ork-adjacent BFG blogs.

Some Mecha Hack Stuff, as I backed the recent expansion on kickstarter.

Please check on Monday, for the first of the bonus articles.

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.

 

 

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.