Last night Phil and I finished the first game of a 5-game Battle Fleet Gothic campaign using the Battle Over Kotol campaign rules. The Tyranids are bolstering their fleet in the Cophichi sector while the beleaguered Imperium fleet tries to hold them back. In this first game we have different sized fleets, 750pts for my Tyranids and 500pts for Phil’s Imperium.

Game 1

The victory condition for this game are the standard ones, although we forgot about the 6 turn limit! The initial moves were the Tyranids closing and the Imperium manoeuvring to try to Flank the Tyranid fleet. I was hoping to use my drones to harry Phil’s fleet.

The escorts on both sides were suffering and one of the Imperium Dauntless class light cruisers was destroyed. Another was crippled.

Things became scrappy from here with the ships using the planet’s gravitational well to turn and grapple with each other. Another Dauntless went down, while the Tyranid escorts were all destroyed. One of the Hive Ships was also crippled. The remaining Dauntlesses were also crippled and they decided to disengage.

One of the Dauntlesses failed its initial attempt to disengage, but managed to get out of there before it was destroyed.

Mistakes were made…

So, what did we get wrong? Here’s a list:

  • Fleet composition. We both missed things here (some of the BFG fleet descriptions are a little unclear). We’ve dipped into the FAQs and that has helped clarify things, e.g. the Tyranids must include (rather than may include) 6-12 Escorts for every Hive Ship.
  • Ordnance limits. Fleets can only have a limited amount of ordnance in play. The general rule seems to be as much ordnance as there are launch bays. Tyranids can have twice this amount.
  • Blast markers. We still have some confusion around Blast markers, particularly about when Shields/Spore Cysts ‘come back online’ if you’ve been in contact with them. We think you need to have cleared them at the end of a movement phase.
  • Tyranid drones impact the enemy leadership.

Okay – I’m off to give the FAQ a deep read.

Until next time,

Owen