Saturday, June 15, 2013

BFG: After Specialist Games


BFG, as you know, is my favorite game as well (second is warmaster). So the challenge with the end of Specialist Games is whether to continue playing BFG or not. FOr the past few years a friend and I have been working on our own rules set for a spaceship battle game but we are not ready to release this yet. WHile there are other rules set out there, such as Firestorm Armada, none really appeals to me, so BFG it is for now still. Some of us are still hoping BFG will get a re-release as all plastic, that the reason for shutting down BFG is the move to all plastic and resin rather than metal. Maybe this is more wishing than hoping.

I have all the models for BFG I want, but how will others get it apart from eBay? GW is still selling the plastic cruisers for Imperial Navy (IN) and Chaos Navy (CN), the two main factions in the 40k Universe. I suspect these plastic cruiser kits will be available for a while. What is missing are battleships but with a little work, these can be customized by splicing together 2 cruiser hulls to have 6 weapon decks vs just 4 (the remaining shortened hull can be made into an IN light cruiser or with the chaos hull, a Space Marine strike cruiser?). So I think IN and Chaos will be ok for a while. AdMech can use IN cruisers with different prows and adjust the command deck some. The Tyranids ships can be customized via 40k nids warrior boxes. So IN, AM, CN, SM, and Tyranids might be ok for a while.

For the other fleets i think proxys will be needed. The BFG orks and necron model lines were weak and will likely be better served with proxys. The eldar model lines however are excellent and will be hardest to replace. Tau may be the easiest to proxy.

Here is a discussion of alternative models for BFG:
(this is a very active forum for BFG)


This guys make custom BFG models. they are superb. i bought some "Zeus" prows and converted my plastic IN cruisers to have them
search all his posts and contact him directly by email to buy

This company makes many spaceship models for its game FIrestorm Armada (i do not think the game is as good as BFG). 







at

4 comments:

  1. iemattiasJune 15, 2013 at 1:58:00 PM EDT

    I love BFG, but I have never seen any reason to tie myself to the models. I love scratch-building things, and there are so many cool things you can do very simply. And then just use the rules.

    It is a real shame to see those eldar ships go though. Those are impossible to rival.

    Also: Warmaster rocks. I play with Dominoes and 28 mm figs to represent abstracted commanders. Basically, Specialist Games are the tits.

    ReplyDelete
  2. fracasJune 15, 2013 at 4:42:00 PM EDT

    i agree

    ReplyDelete
  3. AerospikeDecember 14, 2013 at 9:07:00 AM EST

    I had been away from the hobby (tabletop/miniatures in general, not just BFG) for some time so I just found out a few days ago that the specialist games got the axe from GW. Hardly surprising after all those years in limbo but still a big disappointment for me.

    I first played a couple games of BFG back when the preview/test rules were published in White Dwarf but somehow missed the actual launch of the game and it never gained popularity with my friends anyway.

    I got the space battles fever again a few years ago and bought the first few ships of an IN fleet (a cruiser box, 2 armatus, cobras and firestorms) and wanted to expand on those later on. To find out the whole range of ships is now gone is really sad.

    Yes, there are now models from other companies available and I had planned to create one or two fleets from Firestorm Armada models anyway, but they just look too different to expand an existing fleet.

    Oh and I agree especially on the Eldar ships, that is a real shame that they are gone. But I thing the same can be said for IN and also Chaos. Those model lines have such an amazing amount of details and while I really like the synthetic and clean look of Spartan Games' CAD design process, they just don't fit to the intricate detail of the IN, Chaos and Eldar fleets. (imho).

    Sadly I'm not gifted with a talent for scratch building (except orks, anybody can scratchbuild ork stuff, that's the beauty of orks :D)

    ReplyDelete
  4. fracasDecember 14, 2013 at 9:57:00 PM EST

    There is still an active BFG group at http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com.

    BFG was aptly named for the models. Gothic space cathedrals and eldritch spaceships.

    ReplyDelete