Non-Rules Q&A
by Andy Chambers
Q: Well, it’s not exactly a rules query however I couldn’t resist to ask it: How is it possible that the chaos Carnage class cruiser has the same point value as the imperial Lunar or Gothic. The Carnage is faster than Imperial ships and can fire a 10FP salvo at 60 cm’s or even 16FP at 45 cm’s (!!!). Just imagine what will happen when you take a Lunar and a Carnage, place them 60 cm’s away and let them fight. The Imperial cruiser has to spend entire two turns of moving (target facing -"closing"!) just to get into the fire range…
A: Try it! to be honest under those conditions the Carnage would probably win because its a long range duellist rather than a short range brawler like the Lunar. The Lunar’s armoured prow and torpedoes are worth more than they appear at first glance. The armoured prow means that the Lunar is just as hard to hit from the front as the side, whereas the torps can cause crippling damage in one shot as well as having all sorts of clever tactical uses… trust me on this one
Q: BTW you’re absolutely right about the "imperial prow" it really makes a difference. However I’m still not very enthusiastic when it comes to the torpedoes (especially after the battle I had last sunday when a pack of 12 torpedoes – fired from a squadron of two Lunars in base contact – hit a target and then I didn’t manage to roll anything higher than 4!)
A: Should have been 3-4 hits at least though, persist with them and they repay patience eventually.
Q: I play a few more games of gothic and "Oh my lord, I love torpedoes!". My last opponent (who is fairly new to the game) had three murders and 2 three escort squadrons flying in a tight group, and I had two groups of cobras and a Cruiser fire Torpedoes in to that group. All most all the escorts died and I crippled one ship and almost cripple the other. It was so beautiful. I love this game.
A: Yep, lots of people underestimate torps because they get mesmerised by Nova cannons and such like, they’re actually more powerful than they look on paper.
Q: Could you give me any hints on the Chaos fleet? It’s for my friend. He likes them but keeps driving them into the imperial brick wall. I try to help but I’m inexperienced with chaos and he does not quite listen to me, either.
A: Two approaches, either go wide to circle round behind and pound with 60cm lances as you do so or just ‘clip’ the edge of the Imperial line to get some Chaos ships firing both ways, but rely on speed to pull through before things get too messy.
Q: Stupid question: why are weapons batteries good, you almost never get many dice and you need to beat someone’s armor. (I know they are good, but was hoping you could clarify my belief in there goodness).
A: Because batteries get better if you manoeuvre well, and improve at short range. Hence a battery armed ship will win out over a lancer in a close range engagement.
Q: Not a Question, I love the Gothic Class Cruiser, It’s so good. To think I did not like it at first. Bah.
A: Lacks kill-power though, but good in support.
Q: Why is it so hard to Broad side a ship, from the broad side. I keep thinking this will work great but firing at Abeam targets just ruins that plan. I’m I missing some thing. This really is weird when we are matching speed and direction.
A: Think of it like a flight-sim game where your firing has to lead the target because it’s moving. Deflection shooting (ie broadside/abeam) is very hard, hitting a target moving towards or away from you is much easier.
Q: Are you going to release any bigga eldar ships? ..(cause on p88 the picy of the divine right it mentions an eldar battleship).
A: Doubt it, it’s what we euphemistically call an ideal modelling and converting opportunity.
Q: I recently noticed that Chaos ships seem to have more bang for the Buck, being able to bring 14 or 16 firepower to bear on a side, this is far greater then the Imperial. Was this and attempt to make up for the Armored Prow, and torpedoes of the Imperium? They also have greater access to lances. I was just trying to figure out If I’m playing the Imperials wrong, or If I just underestimated the enemy.
A: Yeah the armoured prow and torps ain’t cheap, accounting for 10-20% of the ships cost. I suppose the lesson is get your nose on the enemy and make those points work for you.
Q: Do you plan on coming out with verriant rules for defence’s for Ork and Eldar for the home base.. like land and orbital defence?
A: Hopefully.
Q: Now just some general statements, I think you have done a great job with Gothic and really enjoy the web base rules you publish. Is there any news on any other armies or info you can hint at?
A: We’re working on some Tyranid fleet rules at the moment, although there won’t be any models made so it’ll be a convert-your-own-ships job.
Q: I’m just hungry for more info. I can barily wait for the space Marine fleet. On of my pet projects is I’m working on a system of card base upgrades that you pass out to each ship before the game. The cards detail subtle difference between different ships of the same class. Every ship is different, because they take so long to make, some where in the construction someone adds new communications or extra AA guns, or smaller weapons batteries whatever. When I first saw gothic with all the different classes This is what I thought was going on, but they where really different class. So this is my new labor. I was also thinking of possible adding the leadership roll to the cards to balance them out. A new ship with the best mars has to other would most likely have a inexperienced crew. Any how I’ll send you more on this as I generate it.
A: Sounds cool (not sure about linking in Ld tho’) I’ll beinterested to see it.
Q: What about the Kroots and Fra something, are they gonna get made or anything?
A: I doubt it, they’re what we call an ideal converting and painting opportunity, a bit like a car which is a ‘fixer upper’.
Q: I was looking a my new Eldar minatures. Assuming that GW’s ordering web page and the stickers on the blisters are right, I believe that the graphics for the two Eldar cruisers in the rulebook are switched (page 131).
A: Yes, that’s right
Q: If this is true, then in the replay battle in WD #233, pages 78-85, also shows the wrong cruiser minature in the photos.
A: ??? You could be right about this too.
Q: In the ship section, there is mention of Imperial Oberon-class battlecruisers and Apocalypse-class battleships. Were these cut from the registry to save room? Also, will these be making an appearance in a future issue of WD or possibly a supplement?
A: No we just wanted to give an impression of there being a greater number of ship classes and designs in the galaxy than were depicted in the book, particularly as Gothic sector is but one among thousands. Having said that we might well put some extra ship designs in WD at some point.
Q: Are there any plans to write up rules for space monsters and warp beasts/entities (like the one mentioned in the rulebook on pg 128)? I was thinking they could be randomly generated celestial phenomina-type thing (deep space only, roll a d6 each turn, on a 6 something unpleasant shows up from a random table edge). Maybe include a table with a variety of characteristics that would be rolled on d3 or so times to determine what kind of monster showed up.
A: Sounds good to me, though bear in mind that that the approach you give above would mean these things were more common than the silverfish in my bathroom. Check out the GW website for some examples of what the US guys did for their Gothic campaign.
Q: I’m sure you’ve been asked the one a lot, but are the Fra’al going to get their own fleet (and maybe the Kroot) since their mentioned several times in the rulebook?
A: See the replated question above and replace the word ‘ships’ with the word ‘races’ (We might well put some extra race designs in WD at some point.)
Q: Are there any plans to release a supplement to BFG? Maybe have a Hive Fleet Wars boxed set that would detail the battle between the various hive fleets and pretty much everyone else (with an emphasis on the Imperial Navy and Space Marines). Maybe have a few different ship types like the two mentioned in #3 since it would presumably take place in a different Segmentum.
A: Yep and yep.
Q: Will the new US ship being made for BFG (Eldar BB) be single or twin hulled?
A: Single hulled.
Q: For the expansion supplement or Wd could you please do an article(s) with stats on the following ships that have been mentioned in the fluff text?
Imperial Oberon BC: page 123 of rulebook
Ramilles class starfort: page 44 of Codex Space marines
Fortess Monastery: page 44 of Codex Space marines
Imperial Apocalypse Battleship: WD 233,page 10
Imperial Vengeance Battleship: WD 233,page 10
Imperial Judgement Battleship: WD 233,page 10
A: Hmm, we put these ships in really just to say ‘hey, theres more ships than just the ones in this book.