I have just started playing gothic and marines. I am having a very tough time with marines. What is some of your best options for new players that are playing marines. I have only played against nids and imperium. I got lucky with imperium but I am having no luck against nids. What do I do? There is also a necron player and eldar player which I havent played against yet.

thanks

well thank you for your fast response.

I have at the momment 4 stike cruisers, 1 battlebarge, 5 novas, 5 gladius, and 6 hunters.

My last list was 3x 2 stike cruisers and 4 gladius in a formation. I proxed it. I played against nids and they had 2 hive ships a couple of cruisers and 2 big squads of escorts, ones with lances and then one with batteries. I was doing ok until in got to close to the hive ships. when they brought 24 lances to bare on 2 of my squads. Needless to say that I didnt fare to well after that. I am unsure why the nids have so much firepower, it pretty dumb if you ask me. I can useally out maneuver them, but there fire power is just to much to deal with.

We are also having a tough time figureing out the turn order how does that work?

well thanks again.

Twenty Four Bio-Plasma Spines!? You must have come in awfully close, as those are some of the shortest weapons in existence I believe. That's probably the reason they have so many of them, as 15cm's of range isn't much, especially when 30cm is a more common reach. And on the slow Hive Ships, you should be more than able to keep out of the reach of those with Strike Cruisers. You also might want to take a peek through the FAQs as well to make sure things are going by the correct rules.

As for turn order. One person issues special orders, then moves all ships, then shoots all of his ships, then moves and resolves all of his ordnance, after which the other player moves and resolves their ordnance, and then both players go through the end phase, with the player who's turn it is removes blast markers. And then the turns switch and it happens all over again.

Well I dont see why they need that many or have a chance to take that many first of all but. Yeah I know they are short range now, I didn't know he had that many until I got that close. lol I was moving past to move around the back of his escorts to light them up but needless to say he blew me away. well we were doing turns wrong then any ways. we thought it was one person moves the other moves, then the first person shoots then the other shoots, and so on and so on. the book is not very clear on it.

This might help alittle bit.

I have found that it is better to be close anyways. Those batteries are pretty useless from long range. Not to mention the cannon too. Am I wrong?

Nah, you're not wrong for batteries. The closer you are, the better,and relative movement helps a lot too. I don't play SM OR Tyranids in BFG, but looking over both of your rules, it looks like one of the best things you can do is ram Thunderhawks into his ships to pull off H&R attacks repeatedly. He makes you roll 2d6 and pick the worst as a Tyranid, but as an SM, you always add 1 to each role, which makes H&R attacks worthwhile. At the very least, you blow his spores away, and everything else wrecks up his weaponry. I'm sure others can give you more valid tactics though, ones that are more familiar with this match-up.

You also might want to make sure he's following the rules for his synaptic control.

yeah i understand about the thunderhawks, but my problem is I dont like that you have to reload ordnance with a order. I am not sure why the crew are so dumb that they don't know to reload ordnace once it fires. I just think it kinda slows down the game a bit, but I am new so i guess its for game balance.

Oh yeah he follows that thing to a T. I think its kinda silly though. I dont think nids are that dumb either, again probably for game balance.

I am just trying to figure out the best load out for ships. I guess the strike cruisers are the main stay of the force? So if I run them I shouldn't worry about the barges I should just use escorts with them. How would you group up? Or woukld you just run each cruiser by it self and the escorts by them selves. I really lilked my 2 strike crusier and 4 gladius squadron. Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing? Its a lot of batteries coming and alot of turrets too. Just dont know?

Well thanks again. keep the ideas coming.

Like I said, I don't play SM, but it looks like Angel of Caliban wrote out what you need to do. Throw in all Strike Cruisers, with escorts to fill in whatever points deficit you have. I recommend something that has torpedoes or lances, as they're both something SM lack. Tactics wise, and this is a shot in the dark, use your superior range to play keep-away from his hive ships as you pound out Thunderhawk after Thunderhawk. Remember that you can only have as many on the board as your launch bay capacity, but that's a lot of little ships flying out to cripple his. If he keeps his escorts in close, then I think your best bet would be to either cripple the lot and close for the kill with up the kilt shots. If he sends his escorts chasing after you, weaken them with Thunderhawks before going to Lock On and tearing them a new one with your Bombardment guns.

Sounds good but what superior range. I have max 30 cm range on all ships except for the barge. Is 30 cm good? I will try what you say not sure if I can do it but will give it a go.

thanks

It's better than the range of his Bio-Plasma, that's for sure! Though I have to admit that even if you're at the outer edge of your range, he can still move up and ping you at the edge of his range on his turn. It's why you want up the kilt shots. It's one of the reasons why you want an escort with torps to fill out the rest of your points, to give you some longer-ranged ordnance that will actually do a few points of damage. If you're lucky, they'll impact a ship that has it's spores gone.

well like I said earlier, not a big fan of ordance as the rules dont make sense for them. I wish they were alittle bit better. I hate having to give up moving options to reload something that should be reloaded automaticly. In my opinion anyways. I do agree that torpedos are mean and nice to use I just wish I had some on cruisers too. Thats my biggest grip about the marine fleet, lack of options for a fleet. Oh well...lol

Yeah. You may want to proxy as the Imperial Navy or Chaos until you really get the hang of playing the game, and then switch back to SM. I beleive the orders thing is for balance though, and to force you to choose what it is you want to do every turn. It also captures the chance of you running out of ordnance on a 12, and prevents easy torpedo spam and the like.

Edit: Completely forgot. Check out this site for more BFG related stuff, you should get ALOT more help over there.
http://portmaw.com/

Thanks Caliban. This will help greatly. So I shouldn't mix escorts with strike cruisers in one squadron. I should just use squadron of escorts and then 2 cruisers together. Its funny the game I did win was againt Imperium and I used squadrons of escorts and 2 squadrons of 3 cruisers. It was pretty powerful when I brought those batteries to bare on his ships. I do bellieve it is going to be a tough road to really get the Marines going. but with you help I think it will work. Nids really scare me though. I just dont have any luck against them I guess. lol Well back to the drawing board on list writing. Wish me luck. lol

Shows what I know about SM! Aren't Thunderhawks resilient though? And Don't forget that Tyranid evolution upgrades are refits too, not all-inclusive upgrades.