Sunday 1 November 2015

More spaceships...? More spaceships!

Hello again Battlefleet Gothic fans. I've still got the painting bug so there has been a decent turnaround on new ships including my take on the Enforcer Class light cruiser from the Additional Ships Compendium.

A friend and I are demoing BFG as part of a store open day next weekend so I want to make sure we're going to have lots of interesting stuff to play with and this update is a big part of that. On a related note; if anybody has a cool scenario system, missions cards or a multi-player format to share then please do let me know.

An Enforcer guards a convoy of transport ships.

I'm actually quite proud of the Enforcer especially as she was done completely on a whim. She started taking shape one evening as I found myself between projects and I realised I had a lot of launch bays left on sprues. This is a situation that I'm sure other Imperial players can sympathise with!

Each side is made of a complete launch bay and a half. The central divide was cut out with a jeweller's saw and the depth of the launch bay was cut down by a couple of millimetres as well to stop it sticking out so much. A bit of filing and green stuff later and it was actually a pretty decent fit.

The cruiser takes shape...

Having said that, on the port side the launch bays don't line up quite as well as they should. It's a bit of a shame but unless you are actively looking for it up close it is pretty hard to tell.

I'm definitely pleased with it overall and it will be a useful ship to have in my arsenal. Extra fighter cover is always worthwhile and three points of lances is plenty dangerous if supported by another ship or two - such as some dauntlesses.

The finished product - The Enforcer Class light cruiser Eternal Pilgrim.

The three transports were picked up from the BFG group recently and got a coat of paint straight away. This brings me up to seven, plus a heavy transport, which is plenty for scenario play and for distracting Chaos players.

Again, each one is painted differently so they retain their individuality well despite there being only two sculpts available.

In this wave I've started adding the orange spot colours as 'lights' and to add a bit of colour to the ships. I originally avoided doing this as I wanted to avoid the 'Christmas tree' look but I think it's growing on me and I might go back and add them to the rest of my fleet soon.

The three transports - Lucinda May, Devout Servant and Oryx.
One thing I had realised is that I'd been working on big ships and non-military vessels exclusively lately. This meant I didn't have enough escorts to properly support all the capital ships I had and it seemed a shame because Imperial escorts are pretty darn good!

In order to quickly rectify the situation I sprayed up a couple of squadrons of Cobras so that I now have three of each design in my fleet. Nine is probably going to be enough for all my torpedoing needs in the immediate future and I'll look to add some more Swords/Firestorms next.

The Cobra Destroyer squadrons Dagger and Vulture.

Last up for today's update is an Orbital that I mentioned a while back. I picked it up from eBay ready assembled and primed (it had even been pinned and everything!) but it sat unpainted for a long time because I couldn't decide on which colours to use. In the end I decided to go with the same scheme as my military ships to show that the orbital belongs to the Imperial Navy,

You'll have to forgive me for not drilling out all the guns though, there are just so many! Please assume that the gun ports are all closed, okay?

The military Orbital Kappa-Sigma-9.

I really like the idea of static defences in BFG games as it makes the battlefield look a lot more interesting and they are great for scenarios and ongoing stories.

In particular the Orbital is really useful for Imperial fleets as it adds a further four launch bays at a fairly cheap cost. That's a lot of extra bomber support for a faction that typically finds assault craft hard to come by.

Eternal Pilgrim being refuelled before heading back out-system.

Well that's it for another update. Up next on the painting table are some Forge World weapon platforms, a couple of Strike Cruisers and maybe a squadron of Falchions. I might squeeze in another cruiser as well, possibly a second Dictator or even my first Lunar.

If you've got any suggestions for which chapter I should go paint my Strike Cruisers as then I'd love to hear it, but I'm currently leaning towards Imperial Fists - so a nice, bright yellow with red trim. It should stand out nicely compared to the more drab Navy vessels. What do you think?

4 comments:

  1. I really like the idea for a multiplayer team on each side each player commands a capital ship of cruiser and above or a squadron of light cruisers and escorts, which should help give the game an extral tactical feel especially if the team's have a chance to make a plan before the first turn.

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    1. I think we're going to try something along those lines. A GM'd game where people can drop in and be given a mission and a a couple of cruisers plus three escorts. We'll just have space marines or transports showing up to shake things up as and when.

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  2. Your BFG posts are pure love. Your take on this stuff is daring and refreshing, highly inspirational. I'll be taking your work as a reference whenever I get back to my poor ships in oblivion. And of course I'm looking forward for whatever you may bring next. Yellow strike cruisers sound like a challenge...

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    1. Thank you so much for the kind comment. I'd been wanting to pull together a BFG fleet for so long and it's been an absolute pleasure doing it. My next conversion projects are likely to be a Long Serpent Class battlecruiser and maybe a Furious Class grand cruiser. :)

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