battlefleet gothic tactics cruiser squadron

8/9/2019 Battlefleet Gothic Tactics Cruiser Squadron

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STRENGTH IN NUMBERSCruiser Squadron Tactics

The use of squadrons is an advanced rule thatallows you to combine two to six ships of thesame type, either escort, cruiser or battleship.Here, Im presenting squadron ideas for themost common ship available, the cruiser. Notonly is the cruiser the most easily obtainedmodel, but it is the mainstay of Imperial andChaos Fleets, and Ork and Eldar fleets as wellunless they are only on a raid. A cruiser cantake a lot of punishment before it is crippled orhulked, and dish out a lot of punishment alongthe way. Most battles wil l be won or lost byyour cruisers, not your escorts and battleships.

The use of cruiser squadrons enables you toshoot more effectively, combine ordnance,make command checks more easily, and helpyour ships to stay ali ve under heavy fire. WhileI have only used these tactics with the cruisersof my Imperial Fleet, Orar Passage, I believethey will also work well with Chaos and Ork

cruisers. Eldar and Tyranid fleets are sodifferent, that I do not feel safe commenting onthem. The Tyranids seem like they would alsobenefit from the close support of a cruisersquadron, but until Ive faced them with thenew rules, I will only encourage those playersof the Hive Mind to try these out and writeback!

Remember that squadron rules are part of theadvanced rules section of the BFG rulebook(on p.37), so it is perfectly possible that youwill occasionally play games without using therules for squadrons. Even without the actualsquadron rules, these ideas will still help youto mentally organise your ships before youfight a battle. I do recommend that you use theadvanced rules as these give you a lot ofinteresting options for Battlefleet Gothic.

By Alex AimetteHalf of winning an engagement in Battlefleet Gothic is to know your ships and then translatethis knowledge into a game plan. In this article, Alex Aimette discusses one way of thinking ofyour fleet as organised groups of squadrons that can be structured ahead of the game forspecific tasks in any given scenario.

BombardmentSquadron

1 x D ominator C lassCruiser

1 x L unar C lass Cruiser

1 x Tyrant C lass Cruiser

O rdnanceSquadron

1 x D ictator Class Cruiser

1 x L unar C lass Cruiser

1 x Gothi c Class Cruiser

1 x Dauntless ClassLight Cruiser

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concentrating firepower on a single ship,overwhelming its shields, rather than takingweaker shots at multiple vessels that will beabsorbed by their various shields.

Third, you gain the option of combiningordnance together (BFG p.39). Squadronedships that are in base-to-base contact maycombine torpedo salvoes or bomber wavesinto larger salvoes and waves. This may aidyou in overwhelming the turrets of largercruisers, battleships or system defenses. Someships are tough nuts to crack, and this mighthelp you do it.

Finally, keeping your ships together in asquadron helps you to rescue ships that arecrippled or about to be crippled. I simplycross the weakened ship into the middle of theformation, and manoeuvre a fresh ship so thatit s now closest to the enemy. It sounds tr icky,but it isnt that difficult if you are thinking oneturn ahead. Besides, you already know thatwhichever vessel you have closest to theenemy ships is probably going to take apounding plan accordingly. If youropponent isnt using squadrons, then hellhave to pass a leadership test with each ship hewants to fire at your cripple and he wontpass them all. If he is using squadrons, at leastyoure making him take one test. Its mucheasier to force a test in this manner than to tryand manoeuvre a lone damaged cruiser awayfrom the enemy, or to get it behind escorts. If

he fails it and has no re-rolls, youve saved avaluable cruiser!

ADVANTAGES OF THE CRUISER SQUADRONPutting cruisers into squadrons gives themseveral important advantages. The first isenhanced control of all ships in the squadron,since a squadron uses the highest leadershipvalue of any ship in the squadron for all

Command Checks (BFG p.37). Since thesquadron attempts all Command Checks asone group, you pass or fail together. Byattempting Command Checks as a singlegroup, you also get greater uniformity of resultamong the three to five ships in the squadron.This makes it easier to control their movementdur ing the batt le. For example, passing orfailing a special order like All Ahead Fulltogether means tighter control of shipmovement. If you fail , you stay in formation. Ifyou pass, you make only a single 4D6 roll forthe entire squadron, meaning it moves inunison.

The second big advantage is with shooting(BFG p.38) . The vessels in the squadron get tocombine battery fire as though they were oneship. This has the very desirable effect ofpreventing blast markers from decreasing theeffect of fire from subsequent ships at thesame target. Furthermore, the squadron canconcentrate fire on one target ship or escortsquadron per fire arc (right/left flanks, andforward). This can be the closest enemy vessel,or you can attempt a single leadership test forthe squadron to pick on any other target in thefire arc. The great advantage to this is that the

games mechanics reward you for

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The Cru iser Squadron Formati onFirst, you need to visualise the formation. Setit up on the table or use the diagram below toorganise your thoughts.

I usually fight wi th ship A as the front ship and

ship D as the rear ship in a diamond formation,but you could also fight with a squareformation. As you manoeuvre, if youcontinually duplicate all ship movements, theformation will turn anyway and become asquare or diamond in relation to the enemy.Its still easier than trying to coordinate severalships on different courses! If you have a grandcruiser, I would put i t on the side closest to theenemy to take advantage of the larger numberof shields and hits, letting it soak up damageand spare the cruisers. Since victory points arealmost always based on ships crippled ordestroyed, this helps keep your point lossesdown. You could also put a battleship betweenthe squadron and the enemy to soak up enemyfirepower while the squadron unloads massiveamounts of broadsides or ordnance into theenemy ships!

The distances between each ship are marked asbeing greater than 3cm because 3cm is the sizeof a blast marker. Since any blast markertouching your ships base takes down a shield,you do not want blast markers to be placed sothey hit two ships. The distance should beabout 3.5cm between each ship. You want tobe close together so that ships have goodbattery and lance ranges to enemy vessels pastthe opposite flank ship of the formation.

You can have three ships or five ships in thesquadron instead. For three ships, simplyeliminate one ship; I recommend removing aflank ship when engaging enemy to flank, anda front or rear ship when fighting enemy to thefront or rear. This helps prevent just one vesselbeing on point and nearest the enemy. For five

ships, add one to the centre, being careful tokeep the more than 3cm distance between allfive ships.

The front, flank and rear spaces below are tomaximise the firepower of the entire squadron

in those fire arcs. This helps you to rememberwhat the squadrons capabilities are at anygiven moment and angle to the enemy. Clari tyof thought during the engagement can meanthe difference between victory and defeat, andthis will help you to remember what yoursquadrons are supposed to be doing, even inthe heat of battle. I always wri te down a smalldiagram of the ships on a flashcard, just likebelow, with the firepower totalled up. Thishelps me remember to fire all possibleweapons each turn.

Some important measurements to remember

on the table are:1) A blast marker or average ship

stand = + /-3cm

2) Short range for Batteries = 15cm

3) Bomber move = 20cm

4) Fighter and Torpedo move = 30cm

If you keep your ships at the same intervalthrough a battle, its easy to rememberdistances and guess for Nova Cannon range. Ifyour front cruiser fires a Nova Cannon forwardat 50cm, and your ships are at the properintervals, you know that the rear Nova Cannon

has a shot of about 59cm, measured from theships base. If your left flank cruiser firesbatteries at 5cm to the side, the right flankcruiser wil l have a range of about 14cm. It sthe same with ordnance. If you want to fireone torpedo salvo 30cm, you will need for thefront ship to be 21cm from the target, and thenthe rear cruiser wi ll be 30cm away.

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at least6cm

AA

B

C

D

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Squadron Leadership

Now that you have the formation you will use,lets try and plan effective squadronengagements. The rules state that squadronsmake Command checks based upon thehighest leadership value in the squadron(p.37). This means that if you have one shipwith leadership 9 and three with leadership 6,not uncommon in campaign games, thesquadron has an effective leadership of 9! Ifthey fail, they may use one re-roll for the wholesquadron. This really helps make thoseexpensive re-rolls count! So you shouldintentionally group one high leadership cruiserinto the squadron to give it a high leadership.

Squadron TypesI usually play two types of squadrons. One is adistant bombardment squadron, the other anordnance squadron. The first uses long-rangefire from Nova Cannons to damage criticalenemy vessels and to force the enemy to close.Once they are within 30cm, under the NovaCannons range, the squadron has adequatefirepower to handle a close engagement. Thesecond uses high leadership to reloadordnance and hit the enemy with tons oftorpedoes and bombers as they close,preferably in combined bomber/torpedoattacks (to overwhelm turret defenses), thenuse concentrated firepower to finish offcrippled ships and cripple other enemy vesselsat close range.

The Distant Bombardment SquadronThis one usually has three cruisers with NovaCannon and a light crui ser. I use oneDominator with one Lunar and one Tyrant,both upgraded with a Nova Cannon (p.110).This formation is very dangerous at long range,and stil l affordable at 705 points. The lightcruiser guards the rear, using its greater speedand 90 degree turn to help keep enemy escortsaway if necessary. I also keep another friendly

cruiser between it and the enemy at all times if

possible. Being furthest from the enemyenables the light cruiser to survive while stilladding decent firepower to the squadron.Note: My gaming group uses the newexperimental Nova Cannon rules (Annual,p.45). These decrease the effectiveness of theNova Cannon a little so this formation is notoverbearing.

Adding up that squadrons firepower accordingto the chart above, we get a forward firepowerof three Nova Cannon and one strength 3 lancebattery (from the light cruiser). To the flank,the formation has battery strength of 32 (!) and

strength 5 lances. To the rear, the formationhas no effective firepower. The only hope ifchallenged from the rear is to use specialorders such as Burn Retrosor Come to NewHeadingto manoeuvre the enemy off the rear,or to turn the light cruiser to engage theenemy. However, if you respect this formationsrole on the table, you will be engaging from adistance at the scenarios start. By the time theenemy closes with you, they should have lost akey ship or two, be a little spread out, andvulnerable to those 32 strength flank batteries.

Considering those batteries, this squadron has

a brutal amount of firepower. Typically, with a32 battery, youll at least score 11 dice for acapital ship abeam, 22 dice for a capital shipclosing, and 6 for escorts. This is followed upwith five lance shots. On average, thats 4-7points of damage on a Chaos capital ship andtwo points on an escort, with another 2-3points from the lances. Generally, you willcripple a capital ship a turn and destroy two tothree escorts. If you manoeuvre careful ly sothat you close at the optimum time and firewith squadron Lock Onorders, you will re-rollall the misses, gaining another three to fivebattery hits and one to tow lance hits, thusdestroying a cruiser or an escort squadron per

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turn.

The Ordnance SquadronThis usually has a Dictator or two, with anycombination of Lunar or Gothic class cruisers,and one light cruiser to guard the rear. I use

one Dictator, one Lunar and one Gothic,personally, since thats what I have available inmy fleet, Orar Passage. I back them up wi theither an Enforcer light cruiser (has 2 launchbays, Annual p.55) or a Dauntless class lightcruiser with the strength 6 torpedo option (myfleet happens to have one with Ld 9), thusmaximising the available ordnance.

Note: Since my BFG group uses the optionalOrdnance launch limits rule, (Annual, p.44),the effectiveness of launched fighter/bombersis greatly reduced, thus minimising theeffectiveness of Dictators. If you arent using

this rule, however, I recommend two Dictatorsfor a WWII-style carrier fleet. Be mindful thatHigh Lord Admiral Andy Chambers says that heenvisioned a WWI-style fleet with minimallaunched fighters/bombers, NOT a WWII stylefleet with tons of fighters and bombers on thetable in multiple waves. Because of this, wefigure this is going to be a definite rule in thefuture and are already using it. (Interestinglogic, is this what other players think?- Matt)

Anyway, going with one Dictator, one Lunar,one Gothic and one Dauntless with thetorpedo option, the squadron costs 690 points.

For this, you get a front firepower of 24torpedoes, flank firepower of 16 batteries andsix lances, and all-around firepower of fourlaunch bays. This is a tough squadron on thetable for the price. Even upgrading to a secondDictator for the Lunar only costs 40 morepoints at 730. With that you would get eightsquadrons at the expense of four lances. Youcould make it ten launch bays with an Enforcerlight cruiser replacing the Dauntless. It s easyto find the right blend of torpedoes andbombers for a given mission when you are

thinking of the squadrons firepower as awhole.

When I engage the enemy, I usually performtwo ordnance attacks. At about 60-80cm, Ilaunch a full round of torpedoes at the closest

concentration of enemy ships or into theirmovement path. This is to force the enemy tobreak formation and spread out. And if theyare busy shooting and moving because oftorpedoes, they probably arent attacking mycruisers. At the same time, I launch my bomberwaves but keep them close by the cruisers. Ithen reload ordnance on the next turn if Imiss the command check, I spend a re-roll.This isnt very likely since I have a cruiser withleadership of 9 or 10 in this squadron, butsince the timing is critical, I am certain to havea re-rol l up my sleeve. At this point, Improbably about 30cm from the enemy with myrear cruisers. I launch a combined torpedo andbomber assaul t against enemy cruisers in orderto overwhelm the turrets. Note that thebombers had to be launched a turn earlier toget a head start on the torpedoes since theyonly move 20cm compared to the torpedomove of 30cm. With this ordnance, twocruisers can be crippled or destroyed in suchan attack.

Simultaneously dropping 4-10 bombers alongwith 18-24 torpedoes onto an enemy cruiser ortwo will almost always cause serious problemsfor the enemy fleet. A strength 12 torpedo salvoalone against a 2-turret cruiser should cause 3-4 points of damage to the ship, maybe up to 5-6 if combined with a bomber wave. After theordnance attack, you close rapidly with yourbatteries and lances, Lock-On, finish off thecripples and cripple another. This depends onluck, enemy fighters, etc, but you are stillconcentrating your attacks and maximisingyour chances. Not to mention demoralisingyour opponent! As soon as the enemy beginsto disengage ships, your victory is almostsecured.

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Combing the above two squadrons on the table,you have a fleet worth 1395, in two groups. Ilead with the ordnance squadron as thebombardment squadron hangs back, cripplingor destroying a key enemy vessel or two (maybetheir only ship with launch bays, or a cruiserthats in the centre of his formation). As soonas the enemy fleet gets close, the bombardmentsquadron comes in to support the ordnancesquadron, using All Ahead Ful l if necessary. Sofar, this tactic has worked well, but there willcertainly be scenarios that demand greatervariety of ships, or less specialised, moreintegrated, cruiser squadrons. A good exampleof this is in scenarios with smaller fleets.

Squadron VariationsNaturally, you have to play with what you own you may not have eight cruisers to play with just yet. However, mixing a fleet of diversecruisers into a squadron can also be verydangerous to the enemy. I have used a mixed

squadron to good effect.

When I started, all I had available for a defenceagainst Chaos in scenario # 4, Surpr ise Attack,was one Mars battlecruiser, one each of Gothicand Dictator cruisers, and two Dauntless lightcruisers on standby in orbit. Grouped together,the squadron of three activated cruisers hadfront firepower of one Nova Cannon, astrength 2 lance battery, 12 torpedoes and abroadside firepower of 12 batteries and sixlances and four launch bays all around. Withthese three ships alone (and the light cruisersvirtually useless) I engaged the Chaosonslaught of five enemy cruisers and managedto destroy one cruiser with the Nova Cannonand cripple a second as the Chaos closed withme. Then I pushed into the middle of theenemy fleet, hulked the cripple and crippled athird. My opponents ships were spread outwith me in the centre, so he disengaged to fightanother day leaving two hulks on the table. Myfleet only disengaged one light cruiser that wascrippled in the init ial surprise attack. A huge

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O rdnanceSquadron

Suggested Variant

1 x M ars Cl assBattlecruiser

1 x Dictator Class Cruiser

1 x Gothic Cl ass Cruiser

2 x Dauntless ClassLight Cruiser

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victory for Fleet Orar Passage and the Emperor!

It would also be easy to replace the lightcruiser in either of the above squadrons withan escort squadron serving the same function.I havent used any escorts yet, but I think its agood option and plan to try it. I have twosquadrons of five that were just recentlycommissioned, with the first nearly ready fordeployment in our next campaign game.

Chaos Cruiser Squadrons

For Chaos cruisers, I would divide my shipsinto close attack ships for under 30cm andlong-range attack ships for 30-60cm. I wouldthen try and close with the 30cm squadron andkeep the other one shooting at longer range.Good ships to squadron for close rangefighting would be four Slaughters. At 30cm, thissquadron would have a frontal firepower of 24batteries, broadside firepower of 32 batteriesand eight lances with none to the rear. Andthis squadron would only cost 660 points!

If you substitute in two Devastation classcruisers, you would add fifty points but stillonly be at 710. For this you would get frontfirepower of 24 batteries, flank firepower of 16batteries and eight lances, and eight launchbays all-around.

For the long range squadron, I would grouptogether Murder and Carnage class cruisers.Two of each would give you front firepower of12 batteries and four lances at 60cm! Flank

firepower would be 20 batteries at 60cm, and52 batteries at 45cm. This squadron is theperfect raider fleet or fire-support fleet. Theyshould even be able to take care of NovaCannon-armed Imperial vessels, closing withthem in a turn or two of quick movement, andthis squadron only costs 700 points. Personally,I am planning to make a Chaos raidingsquadron dedicated to Tzeentch. This will havefour cruisers and six Idolator escorts.Its express function will be to engage at long

Chaos CruiserSquadron2 x M urder

Class Cruisers2 x Carnage

Class Cruisers

Chaos CruiserSquadron

Suggested Variant

4 x CarnageClass Cruisers

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range, then disengage if enemy ships get tooclose. The cruiser I would pick is the Carnage.Four Carnage cruisers have excellent rangedfire for only 720 points. The front firepowerwould be 24 batteries at 60cm, the flank wouldbe 40 batteries at 60cm and 64(!) batteries at45cm. With their excellent speed, this forceshould be a severe danger on the table in mostscenarios. If it works, Ill t ry and report i t in afuture article.

Ork Cruiser SquadronHaving recently purchased a small fleet of Orksto be pirates in the battle for the Bhein Morrsub-sector, I thought Id give an example oftheir cruiser capabilities. With their -1leadership modifier, they will need a cruisersquadron if they want to fight the Imperium!With four cruisers, you get four chances at theirhighest leadership, (an 8). If you combinethree Kill Kroozers with one Terror Ship, youend up with front firepower of 4 x D6+ 2 prowgunz, and 24 heavy gunz. Flank firepower is 4

x D6 gunz and 12 heavy gunz, with four launchbays for all-around attacks. Since the heavygunz do double hits, this is quite a bit ofdamage for only 650 points! Again, this willhave to wait for a future article since were justpreparing the Orkies for battle.

ConclusionI believe there is a strong reason to use cruisersquadrons. They help you organise yourthoughts and prepare for a mission. They take

advantage of rules that help you to controlthem with special orders more easily,concentrate firepower, combine ordnance, andkeep cripples alive. If you keep fixed distancesbetween your ships, it will be easier to guessmultiple Nova Cannon shots, torpedo andbomber ranges, and protect your ships withyour own fighters. In short , this is a tactic thatthe astute commander of Imperial, Chaos orOrk fleets should consider. Let me know howit works for you!

Chaos CruiserSquadron

Suggested Variant

4 x SlaughterClass Cruisers

Ork CruiserSquadron

3 x K il l K roozers

1 x Terror Ship

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