BFG Tactic: How to inflict damage

Before I get further into each fleet list, I want to go over how, in game terms, you inflict damage on your opponent ships. In each and every phase of the game there is an opportunity to inflict damage. How is that for a wargame!

Movement phase.
To inflict some hurt while moving, you have to ram. To ram a ship must first pass a special leadership test to go on “All Ahead Full.” Then if the movement takes into base to base contact, a leadership test is immediately required to actually hit the target ship. This leadership test is easier when ramming a larger ship and harder when ramming a smaller ship. The result of ramming is a number of dice used to inflict damage; the number being dependent on size of ship. Shields are ineffective against ramming. Both ships are at risk for being damaged but if rammed in the side or rear, the rammed ship will likely take more damage than the ramming ship. Once ramming attack is completed, the ramming ship must move forward and completes its remaining move. However, a ship can only make one ramming attack per phase. Note that since ramming requires base to base contact, cruisers may opt to be on a large flying base rather than small ones, and thus increase its ability to ram. Obviously doing so will make it more vulnerable to ordnance attacks.

To inflict some hurt while your opponent is moving, you must have deployed ordnance attacks (torpedoes or bombers) in the path of his ship. Once in contact, ordnance attack is immediate.


Tau Emissaries by Lord Chronos, heat winner from GothiComp 08.

Shooting phase.
Always start shooting with batteries rather than lances. Each hits (whether damages is inflicted or not) typically leaves a blast marker on your target. Battery weapon effectiveness will be degraded if it has to fire at or through any blast marker. Since shooting is by one ship or squadron at a time, batteries based ships should fire first, mixed battery-lance ships should be in squadrons, and lances should be used to finish the destruction.

To increase a ship’s shooting effectiveness, consider rolling for that ship to go on special order “Lock On.” This will allow the ship to re-roll all misses. However, all special orders, except for one, must be declared at the beginning of the movement phase, so a little forethought is required.

The one exception to when to check for special order test is the special order “Brace for Impact!” Bracing can be tested for against any attacks made by your opponent, thus this is typically during your opponent’s shooting phase but can also be tested for during his movement phase (against ramming) or the shared ordnance phase, or the shared end phase. Bracing gives your ship a 4+ save against each damage inflicted but must be declared and test for before the number of actual damages inflicted is determined. Note that a failure to brace against one ship’s attack does not prevent rechecking when another ship attacks whether it be against the ship that previously failed a Brace for Impact test or another ship that has not even tested. In general, if you estimate that there is a reasonable chance your ship will be crippled in the entirety of your opponent shooting phase, not just from this one ship currently attacking, you should consider going on Brace for Impact.

One amusing target for attack during shooting, as well as during the ordnance phase, is to attack your opponent’s hulks. A lucky roll may cause it to explode and engulf surrounding ships with equivalent of lance attacks (4+ to damage). Note though that any ships within range can be damaged by such a blast, yours and his. If your ships are more resilient against such attacks, say by having hollofields or with active saves, it might make tactical sense as well.


Eldritch Path Thousand Sons Acheron by Giulio DDM, final winner of GothiComp 08.

The Ordnance Phase.
The decision to launch ordnance must be made at the beginning of the movement phase. This is because other than the launching of ordnance is free the first time and does not require the special order “Reload Ordnance.” Every subsequent launches require the special order to be passed and this has to be declared at the beginning of the movement phase.

Since the ordnance phase is shared, once you are done with moving your ordnance, your opponent will get to move his. Thus the first thing I do is use my fighters to take out his ordnance. This will clear the board for my ordnance to move and attack. Note that bombers or assault boats can take out an equal number of enemy fighter. This might come into consideration because a) he cannot reload ordnance until his own movement phase, b) he might fail his reload test and thus his other planned special orders as well and c) you might want to sacrifice some attack craft so that others may reach their target.

Since most torpedoes cannot maneuver and must move directly forward, I typically attack with my torpedoes first. Defensive turrets can only defend against either torpedoes or attack crafts. If there are threatening bombers within reach, your opponent will have to decide whether to waste his turrets against less effective torpedoes or save them for against a more vicious bomber/assault boat attack that may never come! Next I direct the bombers to their target. Unlike torpedoes, bombers can attack any enemy ship within range. Assault boats are killer against escorts but are less likely to kill capital ships. The basic assault boat attack has a 5 in 6 chance of taking out an escort. I save them till the end to finish the kills I need as I usually prefer to kill capital ships before escorts.


Imperator Ex Machina Venerable Battle Barge by ehlijen, heat winner from GothiComp 08.

The End Phase.
There are two ways to inflict damages in the end phase: boarding and teleport attacks. Since boarding must be declared in the movement phase when a ship ends its movement in base to base with an enemy ship, it seems best to resolve boarding before teleport attacks. Larger ships are more effective against smaller ships but both ships can be damaged.

Teleport attacks are made by capital ships not crippled or on special orders against ships without active shields within 10 cm. Teleport attacks are resolved just as hit and run attacks conducted by assault boats.

Final Thought.
You really have to plan ahead with BFG, starting with what special orders you want for each ship/squadron, and prioritizing the order to test for because once failing one, you cannot test the remainder. In addition, knowing how to inflict damage and more importantly how you want to inflict damage will affect your fleet’s ship choice, as well as how to safeguard against them.

Table Top Tactical Thoughts: Mobility & Function

In my previous post on Table Top Tactical Thoughts, i expressed these considerations:

Force maneuverability means either out maneuvering your enemy to achieve and gain the objective, or limit the ability of the enemy to maneuver to achieve their own objective. Being maneuverable doesn't just mean moving further, faster, or even ignoring the effect of terrain. Being maneuverable means being able to move further, faster, and more effectively than your opponent. Always bear in mind that all movement has destinations, and the destination should be to acquire favorable terrain, achieve the objective, or limit your enemy maneuver. There are two ways to limit the ability of the enemy to maneuver. Firstly, use terrain defensively to channel the enemy to move down unfavorable pathways or slow them down from arriving at favorable destination. However, using the terrain favorably can be difficult as both sides will try to get the best terrain layout, and there is little control over the layout of terrain in general. A slow army can out maneuver the enemy by limiting a faster army effective movement.

My belief is that mobility is key to success on the table top regardless of unit types or function. Mobility allows strong units to engage their target of choice and allows weak unit to avoid being targeted.

Force neutralizing typically means either inflicting unacceptable losses to the enemy while limiting your own losses, or limit the enemy ability to inflict losses on your own forces as they strive to achieve and gain the objective. Typically there are two kinds of forces: melee and ranged. Melee does not necessarily means hand-to-hand but close eye to eye combat. Ranged forces is just as it appears, with missile weapons of some sort. While there are two kinds of forces, there are actually three ways to utilizing and neutralizing forces: take the fight to the enemy to destroy them with pure close up power (strong melee vs weak melee), stand and barrage the enemy into oblivion (ranged strong vs ranged weak), and deny the fight confrontation avoidance (weak vs strong). Most units are not capable of being strong melee and ranged strong, and if that does happen, they can potentially be neutralized by fight confrontation. In addition, we want to avoid similar match up of strong vs strong or even weak vs weak because this increases the chances of an uncertain outcome. We want to increase the odds toward victory, not leave things to chance alone, though chance is always a player.

The permutations are as follow:
Strong Melee and Strong Ranged = Alphas
Weak Melee and Strong Ranged = Betas
Strong Melee and Weak Ranged = Deltas
Weak Melee and Weak Ranged = Gammas
I used semi-generic designation because i want to applies the terms accross different game systems. When considering what is strong and what is weak, it doesn't apply to just what your forces can field alone but must also be referenced against what your opponent can field.

What are their roles on the table top?
The alphas should target either the enemy's betas or the deltas depending on which is the bigger threat to your forces. The alphas should not target other alphas as the chances of success are less in this regard. While conceptually the alphas can inflict great losses against the gammas, the time limitations of each battle/encounter/game means that what losses inflicted is unlikely to be the winning factor. To be selective, they need to be mobile.
The betas should target firstly the enemy's alphas or deltas. Targeting the enemy alphas first make better sense because a weakened alpha can be finished of with your own deltas or even gammas. Many gamers have an over reliance on their own alphas so weakening his game plan can provide you with a psychological edge. However, if your own force is light on deltas, then targeting them and ignoring the enemy's alpha might be preferable. Mobility is necessary only in so much as moving to get that shot.
The deltas should move forward and engage whoever is closest. Against alphas they will likely lose, against betas and gammas they should win, and against other deltas it will be a toss up. As they main strength will be close combat/melee it ultimately won't matter too much. Mobility is essential.
The gammas have two functions. First is to occupy objectives/terrain and let others fight the battle. The second is to sacrifice themselves as mobile terrain, sort to speak. Thus for both functions they should be mobile. More on this later.

Table Top Tactical Thoughts

Alliteration ally aside, I have been given some thoughts to the general nature of table top tactics. I have also considered how the table top tactic is different from actual battlefield tactics. The biggest difference is that with table tops, you get to choose your force whereas in real life, you must fight with what is available. This difference is what really sets wargames from real life (other than the whole death and destruction thing) so as gamers we have a unique opportunity to select our forces. What should go into the selection is contingent on what we must accomplish on the table top and here, the differences between real life and games do not differ that much. There are two essential goals in tactics centering on force neutralizing ability and force maneuverability.

Force neutralizing typically means either inflicting unacceptable losses to the enemy while limiting your own losses, or limit the enemy ability to inflict losses on your own forces as they strive to achieve and gain the objective. Typically there are two kinds of forces: melee and ranged. Melee does not necessarily means hand-to-hand but close eye to eye combat. Ranged forces is just as it appears, with missile weapons of some sort. While there are two kinds of forces, there are actually three ways to utilizing and neutralizing forces: take the fight to the enemy to destroy them with pure close up power (strong melee vs weak melee), stand and barrage the enemy into oblivion (ranged strong vs ranged weak), and deny the fight confrontation avoidance (weak vs strong). Most units are not capable of being strong melee and ranged strong, and if that does happen, they can potentially be neutralized by fight confrontation. In addition, we want to avoid similar match up of strong vs strong or even weak vs weak because this increases the chances of an uncertain outcome. We want to increase the odds toward victory, not leave things to chance alone, though chance is always a player.

Force maneuverability means either out maneuvering your enemy to achieve and gain the objective, or limit the ability of the enemy to maneuver to achieve their own objective. Being maneuverable doesn't just mean moving further, faster, or even ignoring the effect of terrain. Being maneuverable means being able to move further, faster, and more effectively than your opponent. Always bear in mind that all movement has destinations, and the destination should be to acquire favorable terrain, achieve the objective, or limit your enemy maneuver. There are two ways to limit the ability of the enemy to maneuver. Firstly, use terrain defensively to channel the enemy to move down unfavorable pathways or slow them down from arriving at favorable destination. However, using the terrain favorably can be difficult as both sides will try to get the best terrain layout, and there is little control over the layout of terrain in general. A slow army can out maneuver the enemy by limiting a faster army effective movement.

For future posts, I will explore how the above principles and thoughts apply to Battlefleet Gothic, 40k, Fantasy Battle, and LotR.

LotR Tactics 2

Some thoughts on army list composition and the Reinforcement rule. If this rule is in play, then your battle plan will be thrown in disarray if you are not prepared. Thus because of the chance that the reinforcement rule might be in play, the army list should compose of 2 parts of equal or near-equal number of models wise.

1. The first half, the half starting the game. When troops come on as reserve, they do so not as a unit but as individuals and thus will not be able to function as a unit. This must be kept in mind. Missile troops should be considered for this force faction. By starting the game together on the board, missile troops can be grouped as a unit to shoot volleys. There will also be more opportunity to shoot earlier in the game both directly and indirectly. Secondly named heroes should be considered for starting the game. Most named heroes have special abilities thus these ability should be available sooner rather than later. Thirdly, support troops may also be better off starting the game because support troops are best within a unit rather than on their own. Support troops include spearmen, pikemen, or standards.

2. The second half, the half arriving as reinforcement. Reinforcement models are hindered by their delay entry into the fray time wise as well as distance wise. Thus mounted troops, flyers, and faster models are better troops for the reinforcement faction. These models are also typically viewed as higher power troops and will frequently be targeted by missile weapons. Delaying their presence to the battle also delay the number of turns they may be targeted. Similarly, low defense troops, typically cheap troops taken for their sheer numbers, may be better off as part of the reinforcement faction for similar reasons. Some support troops are reasonable reinforcement as well, as the can be directed toward spots on the table that may need combat support rather than opening a new offensive front. Un-named heroes, with their single fate points, make good reinforcement heroes.

3. Rolling for reinforcement. Since the rule stipulates that you roll for one model at a time, it may matter which models are rolled for first and which last. Even if you roll for all similar models at a time, the order of what models are rolled for still matter. Because there is a one in 3 chance your opponent will get to place where your reinforcement enters, it would be better off if he places your least useful reinforcement first, to fill up the least useful reinforcement entry location. The order to roll for are bowmen (if there are any in your reinforcement faction), warriors, warriors with shield, warriors with spear/halberd/pikes, cavalry, infantry standard bearer, cavalry standard bearer, and lastly, heroes.

LotR Tactics 1

For the past 6 months I have been playing LotR Easterlings, mostly at 700 points in the local store. What I have learned is the following.

1. Force Composition. I believe a balanced force should consist of three parts. A mobile reactive part, typically cavalry. A battleline part consisting of warriors. Both the mobile and the battleline should be led by a hero (for heroic actions) and a standard bearer. The third force should be a relatively immobile force of archers (or war machines). A hero might be helpful to conduct heroic shooting, but a standard bearer is not necessary.

2. Battleline. The battle infantry should be lined up in three lines. The first line should consist of high armored fighters with shield. The models in the first line should be spaced out a bit in order to stretch the flanks further out, but not so far apart that it makes it easy to be ganged up and charged by two models. The second line should be their supporter, which would be spearmen. The third line should consist of the hero, the standard bearer, and a few additional warriors. Cavalry should be lined up in two lines. The first line should be the main, the second should be the hero and the standard bearer.

3. Movement. Frequently it is better for the battle infantry to get charged than to charge, especially if there are sufficient warriors in the third line to react and counter charge. The second line of supporters should be directed to where it is important to win the fight, the unsupported models should shield if outnumbered. Cavalry forces should always consider heroic move to avoid being charged.

4. Heroic Action. The best use of Might point is for heroic action. For Cavalry hero should reserve Might pts for heroic move to avoid being charged. Infantry hero should use Might pts for heroic move to charge and pin down enemy models, usually as support for Cavalry. Missile hero should use Might pts for heroic shooting. Heroic fight should only be used selectively to attempt "sacking the quarterback." By quarterback I mean either the standard bearer, a weak combat hero, or to act against an objective.

5. Magic. Still haven't figure this one out.