Battlefleet Gothic Armada

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Developed by Tindalos Studios and published by Focus Home Interactive (the same guys behind Blood Bowl, Mordhiem, and Space Hulk Deathwing), this game recreates the old specialist tabletop, pitting the different factions of Warhammer 40,000 in brutal space warfare.

Plot

This is you, Captain Spire, a rookie admiral who is about to go though unimaginable pain just to go fistcuff with a demonic possessed super human......in a spaceship battle!

Basically the retelling of Gothic war AKA Failbaddon's 12th black crusade, just a rookie admiral fighting Failbaddon's attempts to get the Blackstone fortresses. When you discover the plot unfolding and run to tell the Imperial Navy about the looming Chaos tsunami, the Inquisition immediately shocks your balls to be certain of Heresy-free before you're promoted to sector fleet command with more promises of continued balls-shocking if you feth up. Grimdark abounds.

not even the champion of chaos is safe....

Extra fluff was added apparently ported over from the Iron Warriors novella, like Abaddon got the informations about the blackstone fortresses from some old crone (according to the intro movie). But if you pay attention to the crone's shadow, it looks like the shape of the deceiver, which is bullshit since their meeting took place inside the warp and C'tan can't entire the immaterium. (Because it couldn't possibly be Cegorach, the Eldar Trickster God or anything, that has a similar silhouette) Skub aside, it is possible the meeting took place in some random planet despite the video showing it was zoomed in the warp for some reason (probably the old hag using her warp magic or something, despite being C'tan and all), on the other hand, the Eye of Terror still holds pockets of relatively stable real-space, besides, the Black Legion supplement talks about Abaddon's quest (the official one, not the one from the boards) where he finds some golden guy who gives him his sword, so all in all it may not be that non-canonical.

Oh, and it seems they got the same voice filter they used in Retribution to make Abby sound like himself, as well as Alfa Legion animation style which of course is gonna be highly exploitable for Youtube videos and whatnot.

Anyway. Rookie Spire quickly proves himself to be a highly capable Admiral running from flashpoint to flashpoint across the sub-sectors that make up the Gothic Sector in a giant game of whack-a-mole. Dealing with Heretics with extreme BLAM, Ork boyz eager to get in on the fights -up to and including taking on their space hulk and warboss- and of course those pointy eared xenos assholes known as the Eldar who seem to help and hinder you at the same time. With rarely enough resources to tackle all the problems each turn - so Tuesday for the Imperial Navy.

The main campaign is divided into three sub-campaigns.

First is the Prologue, which doubles as the tutorial. Based around the historical raids of the Chaos fleets looking for the 'Eye of Night' and 'Hand of Darkness'. Artifacts which in canon Failbaddon seized and was able to use eventually to turn on the Blackstone Fortresses because the Eldar are giant dicks leaving this stuff around. I mean this isn't a remote control you lost behind the couch for the TV here, but the keys to the ancient Eldars WMDs. Nice work fellas! Anyway, Spire CAN with some excellent work keep the artifacts safely out of the hands of Chaos and place them into the theoretically safer hands of the Inquisition, who get them out of the sector to safety. The game however defines them not as the remote controls, but as artifacts that would dramatically increase the power of warp storms and make warp travel harder. Which will have a very big multiplier effect when...

The second campaign is called, appropriately enough, the 12th Temper Tantrum Black Crusade. The Chaos attacks kick up in tempo and you're going to have to start making decisions on what missions to take and which ones to leave. Worlds can now be lost forever as Abby starts to nick those Blackstones and turn them against planets and eventually entire stars, something that isn't entirely clear to the Imperium at first, being distracted by his OTHER WMD; the aptly named Planet Killer. Which does give a sweet cutscene of it doing exactly what the name implies. Worlds that fall to the enemy strengthen them and weaken you in terms of keeping your fleet intact and supplied. Certian missions earn you 'favors' from factions in the Imperium (the Navy, the Inquisistion, the Space Marines or the Cult Mechanicus) which can be redeemed for bling for your battleships. Priority missions are tied to the fluff of the crusade and ignoring them can quickly lead to Bad Ends. The Ork threat reaches its peak here where, if you play your cards right, things will end with a typically hilarious showdown with the Ork Boss on a mobile Space Hulk in an asteroid field. Eliminate it and the Ork threat is neutralized. The pointy eared annoyances can be turned to your side if you choose to do so and save them a few times which, at the least, free up resources and occasionally even bring them onto the field as an allied force. Even as Failbaddon raises the stakes by blowing up star systems.

The final campaign, 'The Imperium Resurgent' has the Warp Storms as in canon dissipate and Imperial reinforcements start to arrive, leading to a final showdown. If you have done well, the space lanes should have mostly been cleaned at this point, with a few lost worlds that had to die by canon but otherwise a glut of resources to hammer down on any nails that stick up. If you have done poorly, then between Abbadon blasting planets, capturing planets and the Inquisition cheerfully burning worlds that remained captured too long, loose more of the Blackstones; in short, the Gothic sector will start to look increasingly empty if you fuck up that badly. Either way, finally you will face down the Blackstones and Planet Killer at the historical Battle of Schindelgheist. Where Captain Abridal on board the Flame of Purity (who had tagged along with you in a few battles as a support ship) makes his historical sacrifice in a cool cutscene and rams his ship into the convergence point of the three Blackstone warp cannons, causing the energy to feedback and shut them down. While you deal with the Planet Killer and blow it to all hell cripple it to the point that it escapes to show up a thousand years later in the 13th temper tantrum, along with two of the Blackstones that retreat.

One Blackstone is boarded, but Abbadon promptly hits the Self Destruct button causing it to shatter a short time later into a million pieces ... as the Deceivers silhouette looks on with no doubt a smug look on its face at the outcome. Just as planned!

Gameplay

So far it looks like a mix between Star Wars: Empire at War and Sins of a Solar Empire (Fitting, as there have been Battlefleet Gothic mods made for both). The game allows you to customize different ship classes with upgrades, which allows for limited personalization of fleets and specialization into different styles of naval warfare. As it's still in beta there may be balance changes and bug fixes pending that will change how the game and different factions play by release.

Remember Chapter Master? Warp travel in the campaign is handled in much the same way as Chapter Master did it.

Tactics

Depending on the chosen faction, gameplay will encourage a certain tactical doctrine based on archetypal strengths and weaknesses but given that customization is limited and ships have mixed loadouts, [Imperial and Chaos] fleets will have some viability at all engagement ranges and mission types. As things stand now, Chaos is better suited to sniping at range and the Imperial Navy is better suited to brawling. Introduction of Ork (assumed assault specialists) and Eldar (assumed ranged/hit and run specialists) fleets at a later date may force Chaos and Imperial Navy both to build as less specialized, hybrid take-all-comers types to avoid bad matchups, but that is pure speculation.

Since changing ships and upgrade/skill loadouts consume limited in-game resources, players will most likely have to commit to a certain 'fleet build' in all game modes, with the leveling of new admirals and different builds within the same faction a likely time sink.

In the TT game, ship collision required a Ramming special order and was not automatic. In BFG: Armada ship collision is automatic and there is a maneuver resource that allows even very large (Imperial and Chaos, Orks and Eldar do not have this ability) capital ships to quickly turn and accelerate, making ramming a highly effective (albeit limited use) damage-dealer.

Point defense turrets are the default defense mechanism against torpedoes, bombers, and boarding craft. As ships take damage, they lose defense turrets in proportion to their health. This limits the effectiveness of the aforementioned tactics, especially at extreme ranges or against massed, undamaged ships. Late-game, however, when formations have likely broken up and as ships sustain damage, these become powerful offensives.

Imperial Navy

Love Nova Cannons? Certain cruisers can be fit with these murder guns, allowing you to mass enough firepower from very far away to wreck minor ships with coordinated volleys. That aside, Imperial weaponry is high-alpha but low-medium ranged and heavily favors broadsides. Heavy armor but no special resistance to being boarded (aside from limited crew and favour upgrades) means that Imperial ships prefer close-ranged shootouts but may struggle against dedicated assault fleets. Favours (specializations) include Imperial Navy, Inquisition, Mechanicus, and Astartes.

Your escorts can be effective in squadrons if you upgrade them properly. Sword-class Frigates benefit greatly from the armor-piercing macrocannon upgrade, while Firestorms can make good use of the lance range and crit upgrades. The turret upgrades also help in combating strike craft-based strategies. Cobras are fast and can be summoned as reinforcements with the imperial Navy favour, making them pretty decent disposable firepower if you upgrade their macrocannons or engines.

Torpedoes should be fired right of the bat. Their spread makes them difficult to dodge at long range and can deal fairly significant damage/force the enemy to maneuver and thus be revealed. The skill reload lets you fire on average 3 full salvoes per ship before the engagement proper begins. Melta torpedoes are very good later in the game when emergency repairs are on cooldown.

Your light cruiser options are currently limited to Dauntless with Lances and Dauntless MkII with Torpedoes. Go for the lanceboat, although the case could be made for combining torpedos with micro warp jump (short range teleportation upgrade).

The most important thing about the Imperial Navy is that Nova Cannons are bad and you should not take more than a couple of them, in previous versions they were quite broke, but Tindalos tuned them down, they are still useful but not that reliable. They end up firing in empty sections of the battlefield and end up achieving pretty much nothing.

For those of you who like battleships, maybe you may go for the Retribution Class, while this ship is terribly slow and their torpedos lacklusting you could make an interesting build comboing micro-jump, fuel gauge, armour-piercing macro-cannons and an stasis bomb in order to get as close as possible to an enemy ship, keep it quiet, unleash a salvo of torpedos and then finish them with your broadsides at close range, just don't expect a high rate of success but it may work decently for games such killing the transport ships or the Space Station where your victory conditions can't be sabotaged by a warp jump.

If you are feeling particularly manly today, get some Angry Marines favor on your light cruisers for extra effectiveness on boarding and lightning strikes as well as defense (they make your ships yellow as a free bonus), buy the light cruisers micro-jump, gauge, all macro-cannon upgrades and then some hull upgrades, and send them in mass supported by yet another Angry Marine cruiser with the same configuration, be sure to write "FUUUUUUU---" when rushing as close as possible on the enemy for extra-lulz.

Chaos

What is this? Marks other than Khorne and Nurgle?! EXTRAHERESY! Ships aren't as tough as their Imperial counterparts but are faster, have longer range, and more powerful lances. Standard tactics basically involve playing keep-away and throwing out Deathclaws every 90 seconds to take advantage of the game's critical hit system, which can cripple an Imperial player with bad RNG, bombers are great too. Alternatively, you'll want to really improve your lances and hit Imperial ship's from outside their sensor range, this can be tricky as you will need to get the enemy ships revealed, a work your escorts can do decently.

Don't forget to buy the micro-jump upgrade and gauge for the opposite reasons the corpse worshipers need it, as you need to stay away and be ready to maneuver yourself out of heavy ordinance.

When it comes to marks, Nurgle is considered the best one as its area of effect means anyone who closes in with you will receive continuously damage, giving you a much needed buff against the other close-range oriented factions.

Orks

Rest easy, because now your one stop shop for ramming and assault entertainment has arrived. All of your ships have a few "Kustom Points" that allow you to change out the basic build for something that is almost the same. Your options (at the time of this writing) are: 1) Lotz of Gunz, where you have, you know... a lot of small caliber gunz. Not that hard. This is the base option. 2) 'Evy Kannons, which are short range with a low RoF but pack a punch. If you take these, take the Macro-cannon range upgrade. 3) Hangars. What does it say on the god damn tin? Grab the extra teleporta upgrade to drop 3 assault actions at once on some poor squishy fool. Prow options: 1) Grot Prow Gunz. Not awful, but not world beating either. They're free if nothing else. 2) Mega Zzap gunz. They don't miss, but I never notice them actually doing damage either. Fore weapons: 1) Torps. Whats that bitching about torpedoes not being any good? Well, you're kinda right. BUT Orks get Boardin Torpz! Because cramming a bunch of Boyz into a tube and lobbing them at the enemy has never gone wrong in the history of ever. 2) Mega Kannonz. 90* forward arc lovin with good damage but Orky accuracy. Probably better than torpedoes.

For favors, a lot of what you get is sort of crap or just basic utility (extra upgrade slots and the like. Hooray for the chance to spend more resources). For the more suicidal among us, you can choose some Goff action. It provides you with a flat boost to Troops (for and against assault actions) and then straps a giant can opener to the front of your ship to provide +50% ramming damage. If you can time your Big Red Button right, you can ram escorts to death in one shot. Combine with Micro Warp Jump for extra style points. The downside is that you lose your fancy rust-and-red paint in favor of Black on black.

Eldar

The last race to be implemented pre-release, and a very dangerous one, while eldar ships are extremely fragile (read, they can be easily killed by consecutive normal rams) they are very difficult to catch as they move extremely fast, add to that the fact their shields get 80 percent evasion chance and their pulsar weapons being capable to destroy an enemy light cruiser in a couple of shots and you have a very powerful force, as things are now it seems like the Dawn of Eldar/7th edition syndrome is popping up again on this game, we just hope Tindalos Studios avoid this and get them correctly balanced, a fair expectation as they managed to tune down the OP Nova Cannon, which right now is actually an excellent weapon for dealing with the space elves.

Tactics? Just keep moving and you will have nothing to worry about, fire your pulsars at convenient rates or get ships with launch bays so you don't have to maneuver your ships to target the enemy. Don't let yourself get caught or you are done. Remember to keep mashing the solar sails button, and that you don't have high energy turns or broadside weapons- so feel free to sail right past the enemy ships, and turn around in their rear arc before playing chicken over and over again. Don't get hit.

Countertactics? Eldar aren't really as nasty as the discussion groups make them out to be. Bombers and Lightning Strikes ignore holofields, as do Nova Cannons (and plasma bombs/stasis bombs etc, but good luck hitting with them). Make sure to target the generators since without it's holofields an Eldar ship will crumple with a few shots from any weapon. Since Eldar have an upgrade to give them a free fighter squadron to make up for their painful vulnerability to bombers, make sure and fire some torpedoes first to draw out the fighters. Also remember that Eldar suffer crits at a much greater rate than other races, and sheer weight of fire can and will get though the holofield eventually. Make sure and have the generators targeted at all times. Your final tactic is to just micro warp jump right in front of them. Eldar ships are paper and will just crumple up on the side of your ships while barely scratching the paint.

Links

• The wiki, currently under construction, help is welcome!
• The official forums, feel free to fill it with complains about how your fav faction needs insane buffs.