 | Main - Tactics - Fiction - Rumours - Army Features |
Tactica: Gothica Chaotica - Mordax Tenebrae | |
| Ok then, in writing this short guide to the chaos fleet I will be assuming you have read the core rules of the game, maybe even had a look at the various ship stats also included in the rulebook. If not you can download the rulebook here.
Right then, since you now know roughly what I mean when I talk about arcs of fire, special orders, weapons batteries, lances etc, I will continue. To my mind the Chaos fleet has 3 core strengths: Speed, range and massed weapons batteries. For this section I will mostly be using the Imperial fleet for comparison purposes. SpeedOverall, chaos ships tend to be 5-10cm faster than their Imperial counterparts. If you are looking for extreme examples consider this; a Chaos Desolator class battleship is faster than almost any Imperial cruiser, also, a chaos Slaughter class cruiser is faster than all but 1 Imperial escort. This great speed provides the chaos fleet with the means to close with the enemy very quickly to use their massed weapons batteries to even deadlier effect.RangeIts no secret, if you look at the numbers you will immediately notice that the Chaos fleet has the longest ranged guns. 60cm range WB’s and lances are very common and provide a huge advantage. The ability to cause serious damage to enemy ships whilst suffering little or no retaliation in the first and maybe even second turns is a big plus without question.Massed FirepowerThis is perhaps what distinguishes the Chaos fleet from the Imperial fleet the most. Where Imperial ships tend to rely upon large torpedo salvos and short ranged lance/WB fire to cause damage, the Chaos fleet places its trust in massive broadsides (and they are massive). For example, a Chaos Carnage class cruiser (a fairly standard line ship), by combining one side and its dorsal WB’s can deliver a crippling FP16 broadside at 45cm or FP10 at 60cm. Big deal you may ask, well at 45cm that’s more weapons batteries than an Imperial Retribution class battleship. Happy now?Despite this you have to remember that the Chaos fleet does not have very many ships that can fire torpedoes (only 4 spring to mind and one of those can only do it by purchasing the ability). So do not rely on torpedo's, they are not the fleets strength. Also, the Chaos fleet lacks any so-called 'wonder weapons' like nova cannons on its standard ships. In addition they lack the 6+ prow armour that most Imperial ships are equipped with (which I suppose is designed to make up for their lack of speed). Despite this the 5+ save of the chaos ships is nothing to sniff at, its not brilliant but its not bad either. So it would seem that the Chaos fleet has no obvious disadvantages. This is true up to a point. The fleet is capable and versatile enough to be as accessible to a novice as it is interesting and powerful to a veteran. Good stuff then. Ok, lets look at the fleet itself. There are two Chaos fleet lists to pick your forces from. They are almost identical, but the second is the Black Crusade fleet list which you will find in BFG Armada or here. Do not worry, the list is exactly the same as the ‘official’ version that appears in Armada. The Black Crusade list is, in my opinion the better one. Go for it. Ok then, when picking your fleet it is important to remember the restrictions placed upon ship selection (such as needing 3 cruisers or heavy cruisers per battleship). I’m not going to go into detail on this point as you can read the rules yourselves. Next: The Ships | |
Want to discuss this? Or anything else? | |
Main - Tactics - Fiction - Rumours - Army Features | |