A New Era Begins

[MadDrB]

All right, just getting started here.  I have a lot of reading to do--I really know almost nothing about the 40K universe, but the promise of a campaign starting, even with just three of us to begin, has me pulling out the old PDFs I downloaded almost a year ago and getting some models painted.

Edit:
I like the style of the Eldar forces in 40K, and reading about Eldar pirate fleets had me wondering what their ships looked like... and then I found the BFG wiki:  http://battlefleet-gothic.wikia.com/wiki/Battlefleet_Gothic_Wiki

Anyway, now I'm thinking about trying to put together a fleet of Eldar ships.  It seems some of my Elven sailing ships from Uncharted Seas might suit the purpose on flight stands, etc.

[Technotemplar]

I actually really like that idea, I think those models suit the Eldar flavor well. Have a look at the MMS eldar, it's a better fleet list with more balanced rules than the original (from what I gather the GW eldar tend to get hammered unless the terrain heavily favors them). Plus they'd make an ideal opponent for my Emperor's Children SM (they are dedicated to Slaanesh, the chaos god of pleasure and indulgence who has a thing for drinking eldar souls and is their arch enemy). Do you ever make it down to the Game Vault by any chance? Ill be writing something up describing my core fleet list and characters as well as ordering ships over the next few weeks.

[MadDrB]

Yes, the Game Vault is my FLGS.  You've probably seen me there--I'm not there ALL the time (I live in Culpeper) but when I am I'm usually playing Dystopian Wars.  I'm not a big fan of buying things on Ebay, and I have a LOT of unpainted ship models--I've been trying to scratchbuild some, just for fun and I like the idea of trying to put together a fleet of model ships for this.  I like the theme of the ancient race which was once majestic but is now reduced to space pirates, so I think it's Eldar for me, and then we have a little variety here.  Of course, I have the feeling the Imperial fleet would be a bit more generic to invent names and backgrounds for characters, but I'm already getting a feel for the Eldar background.

Is there any reason we can't invent our own sub-sector here?  Looking at the maps in the campaign book, it seems the smallest has 11 systems in it.  When I was designing a DW campaign I had an idea of loosely linking real world gaming locations with areas on the campaign map so that players normally playing in Richmond, for example, would be fighting over domination of the southern half while players in NoVa would be fighting over the northern half.  The Game Vault seems to be a good central location, and each BFG sub-sector map seems to have a central system with 3-5 Warpzone Channels linking it to other star systems in all directions.  I don't know if it would work so well, but I'm thinking the Game Vault could be something like "Gauguin V" and other gaming locations around the region could actually represent other star systems.

[Technotemplar]

That's not a bad idea, although at first I think you should be able to battle over any sub section regardless of where you actually play. We will see about changing that depending on number of players we end up with.

[MadDrB]

Sure, we're talking about starships, after all.     The connection between real world and game locations doesn't matter so much as it provided a geographic template to use for the sub-sector map.  (And when I created a star system centered on Eagle & Empire, it was clearly a Penal system... based on my one unpleasant experience in the store.)

I have the day off work, so in addition to chores, voting, etc. I'm also doing a bit of reading and playing around with some model modifications.  Here is a Sorylian battleship from Firestorm with "sails" from some Dragonlord ships.



I'm not sure how much it works.  At the same time, I'm looking at scratchbuilding an Eldar cruiser around a pen cap fuselage....

[Technotemplar]

I really like it! I think it captures the Eldar look, maybe round off some of the hard edges on the FA part of the model to make it more "curvy".

Totally agree that EE is a penal colony...I didn't realize the joke till you mentioned it :p

Like I said I'll write up my preliminary fleet roster and a bit of fluff tonight, it will be a few weeks before I get my stuff ordered (between senior year of college and working for an insurance company in the aftermath of Sandy my free time is somewhat strained!)

[MadDrB]

No rush here.  The DW campaign I'm trying to get off the ground isn't going anywhere just yet, and this BFG project is a good side project.  I'm in this for the long haul.

In the campaign book, an Eldar fleet starts with 1500 points, so I'm putting the battleship on the back burner and focusing on creating a workhorse fleet of cruisers and escorts around 750 points size.  I'm definitely thinking in terms of a Pirate Prince leading a fast and light raiding fleet, so I'll focus on putting together smaller ship models and writing up a profile of the fleet.  Most of the scenarios which will fit for an early stage of the campaign will be around 750 points.

But these are the models I really have my eye on....



Maybe they fit with the Tau?  Not really.  But I'm getting these all the same, just to paint, etc.

[Technotemplar]

Nah they would work for eldar, sleek and elegant. How set are we on sticking to the cruiser requirement before taking b ships? The centerpiece of my fleet is a massive chaos space marine battle barge which with my warmaster on board comes to around 500 points, which obviously makes it difficult to use in small battles ;p but I like the idea of having one massive chaos ship with very limited support isolated against an eldar surgical strike, might make for a cool scenario will post my preliminary fleet registry once I get home from voting, looking at 1.5 hour wait times here in F-burg!

[Ruckdog]

Well, in the interest of trying to be inclusive, I'm willing to say anything goes. The biggest hurdle, as you mentioned, is making sure you have enough stuff to allow you to play smaller battles.

@MadDrB: I like the Eldarylian (Sordar?) conversion you have going there! The new retro-futurist designs from Spartan look more like something the Tau would use to me, but I'd be willing to play against them as Eldar ships . Your fleet list of choice is going to be important, though, as will your choice of rules (MMS vs. the MSM from the core rules). The Corsair MSM lists are at their strongest when they are escort-heavy; Hemlocks and Nightshades especially. I have all of these models if you want to borrow them to either use in games or just as references to base your own conversions off of.

[MadDrB]

I haven't seen anything concerning MMS or MSM in the reading I've done lately.  Can one of you spell it out for me?

Edit:  I want to at least get an approximation of Eldar ships, so I may be asking Ruckdog for some dimensions....

Also, I'm having trouble finding rules for squadrons of escorts and frigates.  Is there any sort of squadron cohesiveness rules?  Clearly nothing which involves LINKING FIRE between ships of the same squadron, right?  I recognize several elements of the rules, but I keep missing something here....

[Technotemplar]

I believe that the squadron view can be found in the PDF for Advanced Rules on the GW website, squadrons do indeed combine weapons batteries to fire (and command distance is 15cm)

[MadDrB]

Makes sense--I have only read the basic rules and campaign document (haven't touched the Advanced Rules section just yet).  Thanks.

[Ruckdog]

I haven't seen anything concerning MMS or MSM in the reading I've done lately.  Can one of you spell it out for me?

MSM=Move, Shoot, Move
MMS=Move, Move, Shoot

MSM is the default Eldar rules in the book, which allow the pointy eared gits a second move after they shoot. This allows for such shenanigans as moving out of cover, shooting, and then moving back into cover. To balance this ability, the official Eldar ships are very fragile; they are essentially a glass cannon. This also makes them very terrain dependant.

MMS is a set of house rules that are designed to make the Eldar behave more like the other fleets in the game, while still being distinctively Eldar. These rules completely replace the Eldar rules in the book; new movement, new ship stats, the works. I have never played with them, but they have been around for quite some time (they were out at least as far back as 2007, when I first encountered them) and have been refined to a decent degree through play testing and community feedback. Here is a link to the newest revision:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-aXA8fc5AQ8T0pOTmliYmIxR0U/preview?pli=1

Edit:  I want to at least get an approximation of Eldar ships, so I may be asking Ruckdog for some dimensions....

No problem! Let me know what you need. I can provide reference pics too, if desired.

[Technotemplar]

Fleet registry is up! I'm looking forward to painting these guys up in the livery of the pre-heresy Emperor's Children (I've always loved that look).