Monday 25 May 2015

BFG: Battlefleet Valkyrie

I've got something a little bit different to show today.

Over the last few months I've gradually been picking up more and more Battlefleet Gothic ships via eBay and various trade groups. I've always enjoyed playing the game and was involved in a campaign a few years ago which was great fun but since moving to Bristol I haven't had anybody to play against. So I've just been buying ships on a whim without having the motivation to actually get them painted.

Until now.

Battlefleet Valkyrie

The paint jobs aren't beautiful on these, but they are functional and look acceptable on the tabletop. All the ships had a black undercoat followed by an uneven spray of Army Painter Wolf Grey. The engines and gun barrels were painted with Citadel Mithril Silver, the prows and spot colours with Bleached Bone and the figureheads with Balor Brown. The entire ship was then washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade. 

Highlighting was done with a Citadel Ice Blue drybrush on all the blue sections and Bleached Bone/Balor Brown mixed with white elsewhere. Where the blue needed touching up I used Vallejo Dark Grey. The ships are all gloriously detailed and take drybrushing very well.

The reason for the Dark Grey, and the uneven blue basecoat, is that I wanted the ships to look a bit worn, as if they hadn't been painted evenly and had been patched up over time. 

All the stems of the bases have been replaced by 32mm plastic rod and the ships have been magnetised to the bases. No broken stems for me.

My initial goal was to make up a thousand point fleet (actually five points over) using the models I already had available. This is the fleet list so far:
  • Fleet Admiral (LD 8)
  • Mars Class Battlecruiser
  • Dominator Class Cruiser
  • Gothic Class Cruiser
  • Dauntless Class Light Cruiser
  • 1 Sword Class Frigate
  • 2 Firestorm Class Frigates
  • 3 Cobra Class Destroyers

The cruisers Artemis (Gothic), Conqueror (Dominator) and Courageous (Mars).

I wanted a well rounded fleet with a good mix of Weapons Batteries, Lances and Assault Craft, so I made sure my Cruisers covered all these bases. The Artemis and Conqueror will often by squadroned together and should be able to perform devastating broadsides while the Courageous hangs back and supports with its longer range guns and Assault Craft.

As most of my ships only have short ranged weapons, the Conqueror and Courageous have been armed with devastating Nova Cannons which are excellent for punishing an opponent that tries to stay at a distance.

Vagabond (Dauntless) with her escorts - Boxer Squadron (Firestorms/Sword) and Eclipse Squadron (Cobras).

Because Imperial cruisers tend to be quite slow, especially compared to their Chaos counterparts, I wanted a decent selection of fast ships to round out my Battlefleet.

Vagabond and Boxer Squadron carry a good amount of firepower and can be used to quickly reinforce areas where my cruisers may be struggling. Eclipse Squadron is there to make up for the lack of Torpedoes in my list which would normally be a staple in an Imperial fleet.

None of these ships can stand up to an extended engagement however so I'm going to have to learn how to best utilise them.


I'm already planning my expansion to 1,500 points which will be an Exorcist Grand Cruiser with Assault Boats (240), an extra re-roll for my Admiral (25), a turret upgrade for the Courageous (10) and either a Dictator (220) or a second Dauntless (110) and 3 Swords (105).

This is going to come down to how my first few games pan out and will depend on whether I feel that I need more Ordnance or more manoeuvrability. I'm not sure how effective this fleet will be in practice but I'm looking forward to finding out!

4 comments:

  1. These are spectacular! Very subtle and understated, perfect for this scale. I really need to get into BFG!

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    1. Thank you very much. :)

      Do try the game out, it's a surprisingly good system and the rules are freely available online!
      https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0u0W0D0eEcRYl9Gd2NxQTlCUWc&usp=sharing

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  2. Very nice looking fleet! Battlefleet Gothic is such a great game! Hope you have a lot of fun with these ships.

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    Replies
    1. I'm sure I will, I've been looking forward to this project ever since I saw the reviews and battle reports in White Dwarf way back when!

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