Battlefleet Gothic: Difference between revisions

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As with all of Games Workshop's [[Gaiden Game]]s, ''Battlefleet Gothic'' enjoyed several months of publicity in stores and White Dwarf magazine before essentially dropping off the radar, new rules and models only occasionally being brought out. It is currently published by Games Workshop's Specialist Games division (and is, generally speaking, their most successful game). The various rulebooks and supplements can be downloaded for free [http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=cat1290343&aId=4300022 here].

There's also RTS adaptation, ''[http://www.battlefleetgothic-armada.com/ Battlefleet Gothic: Armada]''.

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Being set in the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' universe, the game features a large number of the tropes on that page, as well as employing setting and gameplay tropes of its own.

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* [[Cool Ship]]: Every ship.

* [[Cool but Inefficient]]" ''Everything.''

** Chaos warships are essentially Imperial vessels ten thousand years past their use-by date, with added mutations, daemons and an internal culture of insanity, backstabbing, blood sacrifices, torture and random slaughter.

** Chaos warships are essentially Imperial vessels, mostly ten thousand years past their use-by date (though sometimes they steal something new, as with Infidel/Falchion), with added mutations, daemons and an internal culture of insanity, backstabbing, blood sacrifices, torture and random slaughter.

** Eldar ships are fragile vessels with solar sails, needing to be angled to the nearest sun to work most efficiently. Yes, ''tacking'' in ''space.''

** Eldar ships are fragile vessels with solar sails, needing to be angled to the nearest sun to work most efficiently. Yes, ''tacking'' in ''space''. Those are very "magic" solar sails, however - they can be very fast, if they are moving in the right direction, so it's a game of positioning.

*** Solar sails can [http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~diedrich/solarsails/intro/tacking.html 'tack' towards a star], in much the same way a sailing ship can tack against the wind.

** Ork ships are essentially improvised weapons (that work because the Orks ''[[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|think they can work]]''), bolted together out of scrap by lunatics.

** Tyranid "vessels" are living organisms, with much of their armament being claws, blades, teeth and tentacles on a ridiculous scale. ''Even in space'', they try to jump on you and bite your face off.

** Tyranid "vessels" are living organisms, with much of their armament being claws, blades, teeth and tentacles on a ridiculous scale. They can spit acid or plasma, however their strength is in lots of swarming bugs and boarding. ''Even in space'', they try to jump on you and bite your face off.

* [[Combat Tentacles]]: Tyranids mount these on ''spaceships''.

* [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]: The [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Planet Killer]] specializes in these.

* [[Fan Nickname]]: The game's name is often shortened to "BFG". This term will not be used here to avoid confusion with large guns.

** Although large guns do indeed feature prominently. Let's see - [[Frickin' Laser Beams|lasers]], [[Energy Weapon|plasma cannons]], [[Tractor Beam|graviton pulsars]], [[Magnetic Weapons|macrocannon]], [[Death Ray|fusion beamers]], [[Macross Missile Massacre|guided missile launchers]]...and that's just the ''standard batteries'' ("only" sufficient to level continents). The Lances are more like [[Wave Motion Gun]]s, and the Nova Cannons...[[Earthshattering Kaboom|forget about the Nova Cannons]].

* [[Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon]]: Some ships have a nose mounted main cannon. Ork ships quite often have a large main gun, and the Imperium has the Nova Cannon, which is a massive mass driver that runs through most of the ship and fires building-sized ~~projectiles~~ at relativistic speeds.

* [[Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon]]: Some ships have a nose mounted main cannon. Ork ships quite often have a large main gun, and the Imperium has the Nova Cannon, which is a massive mass driver that runs through most of the ship and fires building-sized bombs at relativistic speeds.

* [[Fragile Speedster]]: Eldar ships go faster than anyone else's, but have next to no armour or damage resistance.

* [[Fragile Speedster]]: Eldar ships go faster than anyone else's, but have next to no armour or damage resistance. And no shields, they have [[Doppelganger Spin|decoy holo-fields]] instead.

* [[Gaiden Game]]: One of several "Specialist Games" in the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' universe.

* [[Galactic Conqueror]]: Abaddon the Despoiler, were he not a...

* [[General Failure]]: Abaddon has managed to lead thirteen Black Crusades, attacks by nine legions of daemonically superpowered space marines and hundreds of millions of cultists, to failure.

* [[General Failure]]: Abaddon has managed to lead thirteen Black Crusades, attacks by nine legions of daemonically superpowered space marines and hundreds of millions of cultists, to failure. Presumably he retains his position because no one else could even keep all these loons pointed toward the enemy rather than fighting each other most of the time.

* [[Glass Cannon]]: The Eldar can dish it out. They can't take it.

* [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place]]

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: Necron ships.

* [[Living Ship]]: Tyranid ships.

* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: Many ships can fire ~~salvos of torpedos~~ across the gulfs of space. While ~~theses~~ can be ~~devistating~~ when they hit, they travel slowly compared to most weapons and can be shot down by [[Space Fighter]] ~~squadrens and ship point defense~~ while en route. The Tau, who were added ~~in a~~ later ~~suppliment~~, are especially good as these.

* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: Many ships can fire torpedoes across the gulfs of space. While these can be devastating when they hit, they travel slowly compared to most weapons and can be shot down by ship point defences before impact or [[Space Fighter|interceptors]] while en route. The Tau, who were added later, are especially good as these.

* [[Madness Mantra]]: The Chaos warship Killfrenzy, so named because it continually broadcasts an endless loop of "KILLFRENZY KILLFRENZY KILLFRENZY" on all channels.

* [[Negative Space Wedgie]]: The Eye of Terror, through which Abaddon and the Chaos fleets attack the Materium; rules for a number of other "celestial phenomena" are featured, few of them pleasant.

* [[Obvious Rule Patch]]: Replacing the "guess the range" mechanics with scatter (along with the rest of 40k on change from 4th to 5th edition). Even more so, changing the Infinite Bomber Works to fixed hangar capacity.

* [[Ramming Always Works]]: Many Imperial and all Ork vessels have heavily armoured prows, designed with intimately connecting with other warships in mind. The Ork "Brute" ram ship is designed ''specifically for ramming'', consisting of a gigantic armoured prow, a powerful engine and minimal weaponry, they are perhaps the least subtle device in the entire 40k universe.

** They are a spaceship sized woodchipper on a giant set of engines with some guns. No frills, just a solid metallic mass of "get over there and make holes where no spaceship should have holes, one of which is the rough size and shape of ''this ship''." Screw kroozers, those things are the avatars of Mork (or was it Gork?).

** Ramming is an Insane tactic as far as the other factions are concerned. Would you charge across ''tens of thousands'' of kilometers of empty space under enemy fire to hit the other guy, most probably after sustaining crippling damage? Insane. But as Imperium puts it, "Only the Insane have the strength to prosper, only those who prosper can judge what is Sane."

*** Plus they have faith in the Emperor and armored prows to see them through it. Ramming from an Imperial or Ork ship can be brutally effective and is a great last hurrah for a crippled ship.

***

*** And of course,

{{quote|"The prow is armoured because the stern never faces the enemy."}}

* [[Rule of Cool]]: Reigns supreme.

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* [[Standard Starship Scuffle]]: The game is built around this trope, with its space combat firmly grounded in the [[Space Is an Ocean]] setting.

* [[Strange Bedfellows]]: The Eldar siding with the Imperium against Chaos.

** Anybody siding with anybody against anybody, with the sole exception of an Adeptus Arbites ship (yes, they have one) siding with the Imperial Navy. Even the Astartes don't like working with the Navy.

** Anybody siding with anybody against anybody, with the sole exception of an Adeptus Arbites ship (yes, they have one, mostly to patrol against pirates and keep local governors from having disloyal ideas) siding with the Imperial Navy. Even the Astartes don't like working with the Navy.

* [[Turn-Based Strategy]]

* [[2-D Space]]: [[Justified Trope|Justified]], or at least [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality|necessary]]; it's pretty damn hard to play a tabletop wargame in three dimensions. On top of this, the rulebook explains that the ships actually occupy an infinitesimally small dot at the exact center of their base stands and allows them to move 'through' each other to represent the fact that they are at differing 'altitudes'