Adepticon Prep: Battlefleet Gothic List Building

As you have seen from the last couple of posts I’ve done on putting together my lists for the Firestorm Armada event at Adepticon, I’ve been working on getting my ducks in a row for the con. The other event I’m playing in at Adepticon is the Battlefleet Gothic tournament, which will be 1500 points plus 250 points of allies. I can swing up to 200 points of my main force to my allies, though, so it’s not too limiting.

Background

That being said, I find that making a list for BFG is an interesting sort of exercise for me at this point. Much of what I’m basing my decisions off of is my understanding of the BFG “meta” as it was when I was last actively playing the game (“actively” being defined as once or twice a month) and the experiences I had building fleets within that meta. Back then, the meta was skewing towards ordnance-heavy fleets; fleets that put out as many fighters, bombers, assault boats, and torpedoes as possible. In that train of thought, the “standard” Imperial Navy (IN) 1500 point list would be built around an Emperor-Class battleship, with some taking it to the extreme by relying on cheap Dauntless-class light cruisers to cram two Emperors into 150o points!

As it turns out, back then I found joy poking the prevailing meta and conventional wisdom in the eye, and so started playing with alternative builds for my IN fleets even then. One of my lists had no battleship at all, instead running a Grand Cruiser as the center of the fleet. The other lists I generated centered on the Retribution-class battleship, a model which I always thought was the best looking of all the Imperial battleships. Anyway, here is my list!

The List

This list is designed to be an all-comers list, with a focus on Weapons Batteries. Weapons Batteries, I find, are the “jack of all trades” weapon system in BFG; they are decent against just about everything (and Awesome against Eldar). On top of that, between the Retribution (whose WB’s can reach out to 60cm) and the Mars & upgraded Tyrant (which can reach out to 45cm) this fleet has a bit more reach than many other IN builds do.  The Mars also chips in a couple of long range lances and a Nova Cannon, which will allow me to hold things at risk from extreme range (120cm). Thought I find that the Nova Cannon is only of moderate effectiveness thanks to the scatter effect, it’s potential for massive damage output usually has a significant psychological effect on opponents.

I’m figuring that I will generally be “out-sticked” when it comes to Ordnance, so I plan on using mine defensively for the large part. That means that the Mars will be launching fighters at the start of the game, and the Thunderhawks from the Strike Cruisers will be used as heavy fighters as well. I will also have to look to use torpedo salvos, especially from the Cobras, to strategically interdict enemy attack craft as well.

All in all, this list is very much a slight evolution on those that I got comfortable running when BFG was the main game in my rotation. I figure I should do OK with it, as I’ve got enough tools and flexibility to at least make a decent accounting of myself in most situations!

Until next time…