I found this post from a mate of mine on another forum, and thought some of the intrepid admirals on TacComs might have some sage advice to help the poor Imperial player out...

We played BFG in Melbourne for a while, building up to fleet actions with several battleships per side. The Planet Killer even made an occasional appearance.

Whilst its a good rules system, we found the game to be hopelessly, hopelessly unbalanced towards Chaos, at the expence of the Imperials. We played the game on a fairly large table and followed the rules to the letter - so torpedoes actually flew in a straight line.

Chaos ships seemed to be faster, better armed and better armoured for a lower points cost!

The so called Imperial strengths, torpedoes and the guess-the-range-gun (name escapes me) had a negligable effect when Chaos learned how to counter them (IE ignore them).

Whilst the chaos player had a good time, the Imperials dispaired of being able to gain a significant victory. In the end we gave up and moved onto other rules.

Perhaps we were missing something - what were other people's experiences???

the chaos and IN fleets are probably the best balanced in the game.

Chaos does seems cheaper for better weapons, speed, and carriers but IN can overcome and boasts the 6+ prow letting you close prow on with rough equivalency to being shot at abeam (key because closing is the worst position to be shot at with WB). Also IN has higher weapons strength, but split between port and starboard making it harder to use the weapons to full effect. IN has very good torpedo ordnance which can be used from long range to cause force chaos to maneuver (large amounts of torps into 5+ armor=VERY BAD).

NC are alright, but they are now scatter, not guess weapons meaning you need to take several to be effective.

IN must keep the fleet together if it wants to survive and either rely on squadrons or synergistic platforms like the dominator/gothic combo.

This is all just general info though, it's hard to tell what happened without seeing what ships the IN brought and how they played. I think I'd rate Chaos as easier to play than IN which can put some people off IN.

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-Vaaish

Thanks, Vaaish. Appreciate the response.  

Imperials generally have better armour than chaos due to the 6+ prow.

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Epic: Hive Development Thread

Got any tips for the aspiring Marines player? Say, for arguements sake, a dude packing one Battlebarge, three Strike Cruisers and two Gladius frigates?  

Strike cruisers go down fast, take as many battlebarges as you can and a good many escorts. So for 1500 points, take two BB and fill out the rest with escorts.

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-Vaaish

Marines are weaker then most other races in a pure naval engagement. Though a good player may scare the heck out of 'em all.

Chaos and IN are properly balanced.

I've already seen a lot of threads like this:
a) omg Imperials are much better then Chaos
b) omg Chaos crushes Imperial always.

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With a Marines fleet, is a strategy of just throwing your Strike Cruisers and Battlebarge into boarding actions viable?

Am I right, by the way, in thinking I must take at least three Strike Cruisers for each Battlebarge I want to field?

(Please note, I have yet to play a single game, so I have zero context other than having read the rules, so bear with me if I ask painfully stoopid questions.)  

Nope. one BB per 1k points or fraction there of, no strike cruisers required to take it.

_________________
-Vaaish

But yeah, boarding is very viable for Marines.

Do not squadron your strike cruisers.

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Awesome. Thanks, guys...that's good advice.  

Regarding squadroning, what are the advantages and disadvantages?

advantage
* when you roll ld 6 with one ship and ld 9 with another both may use Ld9 is squadroned. (For Marines it is 8-10, when enemies on special orders 9-10).
* adding firepower. Good for batteries (and bombardment cannons) as the 2nd ship will not suffer a column shift because of blastmarkers.
* as you cannot pick ships in a squadron but nearest is hit you can protect weaker/damaged vessels.

disadvantage
* when 1 ships goes on brace for impact the whole squadron goes on brace for impact (mega downfall)
* when 1 ships wants to disengage the whole squadron must.
* must stay within 15cm of eachother.


For Marines it is good to squadron offensively seen.
For Marines it is bad to squadron defensively seen.

More then any other race!

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Light at the Horizon.

Warp Rift
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http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19176