Gravitic Launchers, which function as torpedo tubes and could have just been named “torpedoes” since the special rule just refers you to the Tau ordnance section. There you find out that Tau have torpedoes missiles that function exactly like torpedoes but can alter course 45-degrees each ordnance phase and can vary speed between 20 and 40cm – which is actually pretty cool. Tyranid cruisers are not particularly fast or heavily armed, and they frankly have a low hull value for a cruiser, but they are cheap coming in between 90 and 130 points each and can easily swarm a board and overwhelm your ability to fend them off as they close to board and gut your ships from within. Notably the Necrons do not bring Ordnance to the table. They have a number of special abilities and capabilities that are different from the rest of the fleets out there, but they do not rely on any type of squadrons or torpedoes to bully opposing fleets – just brute force and speed. Special rules Basically all Tyranid ships are all customizable with the aforementioned weapon options and they can be squadroned expansively at anywhere between 0 and 12 vessels. Tyranids also do not use shields or turrets, but rather use spore clouds that act similarly but with some minor differences. When squadroned, Tyranid vessels can combine their spore clouds similar to turrets but won’t gain any benefits to shielding. By comparison, Ork Roks are miniature versions of Hulks that ignore critical damage penalties but instead take additional damage. They carry a fairly small but comprehensive set of all-around weapons and can be a relatively cheap escort to a Hulk that serves to augment its already formidable capabilities while maintaining orbit around it. On their own, their movement is rather restrictive and slow and an Ork fleet may find them lagging the rest of the formation or maneuvering erratically. They are however super easy to make with a trip to Michael’s and a couple of spare Ork gunz.

Necron Dice - Etsy UK Metal Necron Dice - Etsy UK

Planetary assaults & exterminatus. Astartes vessels are literally twice as good in planetary assaults, earning 2 assault points per turn rather than the usual 1 when they spend their turn landing troops or bombarding the planet. In the Exterminatus mission, a battle barge can take the role of the exterminator without having to sacrifice its prow weapons and gains a +1 for its roll to exterminate the planet.

While fairly primitive, the Kroot have a Tyranid-like tendency to evolve by eating their victims and selecting for genetic material they want to evolve towards. Their presence in BFG is via the totally-not-an-egg, egg-like Kroot Warsphere which is also the only Tau vessel that has a Warp Drive. Despite their primitive nature, the Kroot likely developed the know-how for a battleship-sized vessel by eating enough Orks to gain the capability to slap metal plates together in a semi-coherent form to create a spaceship. In addition to the Impaler, the Dark Eldar launch bays grant access to regular assault boats but with the typical Eldar difficulty of removal by enemy turrets. The torpedo tubes may be equipped with an alternate torpedo type called Leech torpedoes but these torpedoes do not cause any damage- instead a single hit reduces enemy movement by 10cm – and while it’s not cumulative, each additional hit must be cleared before the speed penalty is lifted. The remaining Dark Eldar weapon batteries, fighters, bombers, and torpedoes are otherwise similar to the Eldar Corsairs.

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A unique weapon option is the Impaler module – a modified, much heavier version of a short-ranged assault boat. However, unlike a typical assault boat, if it makes a successful run on an enemy ship it rolls 2d6 for the result and applies the potentially much more damaging critical hit. It does gain some additional defense, as it gains a 4+ save from the first fighter squadron to intercept it, and can only be removed by ship turrets on a 6 – however, it is shorter ranged as it must be removed if it has not made a successful run by the Dark Eldar players next turn. You could of course use the Armageddon Sector list for any other narrative where the Navy are working closely with Marines, and it’s very much a ‘best of both worlds’ situation where you can have the Marines doing what they do best while the bulk of the work is handled by the Navy. That said, if you want to double down on a pure Codex Astartes fleet, there’s more to be said. I do want to take a moment and thank some of our dedicated readers for pointing errors in our previous article – we did not account for the BFG FAQ (which I neglected out of sheer laziness) that does apply some changes to things like Nova Cannons and max ordnance among other things. I make note of this now and state simply that for detailed rule breakdowns, please refer to the actual rulebooks and FAQs that were linked in the original article. Meanwhile, we are just overjoyed that people are reading these articles and have hopefully renewed interest in this fantastically fun game. Core Fleet Expansion Ships Sigh– I’m not going to lie to you, I do not have the energy or will to talk about the Tau Merchant fleets. Instead I’m going to 100% phone this in since GW did the same thing when they wrote these rules. I promise that I will make it up to you by instead reviewing the far cooler Tau Protector fleets in the final, expanded play article. There is one exception to this – and that is the awesomeness that is the Kroot Warsphere which we will discuss based solely on said sheer awesomeness. These are essentially Cobra class escorts but with a larger weapon battery and slightly more armor. Not a big ship who cares. The Traitor FleetsChaos ships may also now choose to add Chaos Space Marine crews which provides the vessels with a leadership bonus as well as boarding and hit-and-run bonuses at no additional costs – however, it limits the types of marks a ship can take, and additionally limits the fleet to a specific Marine legion unless you pay for additional Chaos Lords to lead alternate legion vessels – and even then certain legions may be not be taken in the same fleet. Classic GW fluff focused roster building. It’s a somewhat tedious way of playing and will feel like you’re constantly chasing, but it’s kind of fun in a “Man I hope this plan works” sort of way and carries some real schadenfruede potential if you ever hit on the bulk of the opponent’s fleet. Special rules Now, weapon systems. You get broadside batteries with a respectable firepower of 12, and an equally respectable range of 45cm. You also have two systems in the prow: the capacity to launch 3 Thunderhawk gunships, and 6 torpedo tubes. The big draw with this vessel, though, is its dorsal battery of bombardment cannons. These chonkers weigh in at firepower 8, can fire left/front/right, and will dispense serious punishment to enemy capital ships. Make sure your target is within 15cm and closing or moving away for maximum effect, or you’ll be wasting a lot of your damage potential. Similar to the Eldar, the Armada expansion brings a number of items to the Ork Roster that establishes it as an actual battle fleet vs just a raiding fleet. This includes massive Ork-infested asteroids, a series of battleships, and a BattleKroozer. The result is an Ork list that suddenly has a great deal of both character and depth. Space Marines get a whole pile of special rules, pretty much all of which can also be applied to Chaos fleet vessels crewed by Heretic Astartes: