BFG Basics

[Evilzealot]

Well, I dont know if this is in the right area as it is related strongly to 40K and doesnt have it's own forum...

Anyways, I'm new to BFG and have recently aquired a large Eldar warhost for relatively cheap. As I know next to nothing about army composition and strategies I am looking for some advice (any advice would be great, in addition to these questions).

1) How valubles are the rerolls on the Lord's ship? I was considering 2 rerolls for the times I really need to make the shield's 2+ save. I could almost afford another Hemlock corvette for this price, so when does it become worth twinking out your lord? (I was considering having him cruise in a Void Stalker, as I have the model)

2) Concerning army composition: can larger capital ships perform well alone, or should I support them with a few corvette classes for each larger ship? How well does an army work with a large amount of smaller ships?

3) Squadron sizes tend to confuse me. I'm not sure if its worth joining my larger ships into a hammer-type unit to benifit from the LD boost of the Lord, along with the rerolls. Are capital ships worth grouping together, and if so in what size units? Same questions with smaller ships?

4) Where does the strength in the Eldar fleet lie? In numbers, mobility, weaponry, leadership, large ships or smaller ships?

5) With picking targets is it a good idea to take down the supporting ships early in order to really crack down on the larger ships, or are the larger ships too deadly to ignore for long?

6) Is there any type of army comp I should avoid so I don't create a broken or WAACy list by accident?

[Arquinsiel]

From what I remember of BFG:

Your escorts are good, but not as good as imperial escorts. Don't make the mistake of going toe to toe with them.

Your fighters are good, take at least one escort ship (although with the new fighter rules you won't be able to have more than one squadron per bay out at a time it'll mean your fighters are usually closer to where you want them to be).

Put your admiral on whatever ship needs leadership the most. Usually this will be either a carrier, a torpedo carrier or a squadron of important/low leadership ships that all rely on leadership.

Get as many pulsar lances as possible. Lances in general ignore shields and hit on a 4+ but eldar lances also get d3 shots per lance (if I remember correctly).

That's about all I remember. The forums over on the BFG main site are probably your best bet.

[Avatarofslaanesh]

Ok basics for BFG, I dont know too much about eldar cause I've only played them once at a tournament.

they are a very hit and run type army, do not get trapped within close range of Imperials

as for rerolls they do not work for holofield saves, only for command checks, these are not so important for eldar unless ordanance is important to you, more than likely you wont be using command checks too much, because all the movement ones are useless as your ships use sails, lock on prevents you from turning thus negating the hit and run idea and brace is a little pointless witha 2+ save anyway

so the rerolls and leadership things are a little redundant unless you plan on staying close with the other fleet

oh and about your strengths, they are mobility and insanely powerfull offensive weapons

what are your usual opponents?

[Asperon thorn]

I too have recently started Eldar and Gothic. Although my advice disagrees with the last two.

1) Leader Rerolls are a matter of taste. We pretty much only use two special orders (reload, and brace), but both are pretty important. Personally I use them, but I also Brace for Impact a lot. With 4+ armor, and then a 4+ critical, I find I need the extra saves. Not against lances, attack craft, or torpedoe's, mind you, but Gun Batteries (especcially Chaos and Necrons) really tear us to pieces. Especcially our capital ships in which a crippling blow can send us straight off the table, or worse, with simply one hit. Occasionally if the Sun is in the right place, and you have manuevered well you can get away with using Lock On orders as you zoom through and out the back of thier fleet.

2) Our escorts are the best in the game. Super Fast, armed to the teeth. And important. Our horrible habit of taking critical damage after every hit means that capital ships can be brought down to near usless, while escorts simply blow up, and you don't have to worry about it.

3) Our capital ships work best independantly. Although I haven't used any Shadow, or the Forgeworld Light cruisers, they may work better in squads of two. Our escorts should be in groups of 3 to 5. Lance Escorts in 3, torpedo and battery Escorts in Larger groups.

4) All of our weapons are great. Pulsar lances are awesome, but our Gun batteries fired en masse are effective as well, and our torpedoes and bombers are not to be ignored. Two squadrons of Torpedo Escorts firing mass Torpedoes straight down the middle of the table, can split up an opposing fleet, and allow for the rest of your fleet to pick them off pretty good.

The basic strategy is similar to playing DE. Spread your forces around the table, and than use your superior mobility to annihilate one aspect of your opponent. For example, spread your forces around and then zero in on that cruiser squadron on the flank, and then zoom out.

5) I pick off the edges of thier formation. It doesn't matter to me if they have escorts or cruisers or Battleships on the edges I just focus on widdling them down. If I try to fire at things too deep inside thier formation I end up unable to break away far enough and I get shot at. By hitting the edges I decrease thier overall firing distance.

6) All Carrier fleets. Of course if you print off the experimental rules, and play with the new rules for carriers (a carrier can only have out as many strike craft as he has launch bays) it isn't as bothersome. But, in the official rules, people really dislike it when you just launch attack craft until your loaders jam, and then send 400 little ships at them.

You also might try Port Maw. I lurked there for a while, but it is low traffic, and doesn't seem very friendly so I haven't joined. But I can't deny thier knowledge of the game.

The largest problem I find about eldar is that people don't like to play against them. It is such a different game than the typical fleets just pounding on each other. They are extremely fun to play and either lose big or win big, but you are pretty much dictating the entire flow of the game, and the other guy is simply rolling dice, if you accidently let him get within range.

Asperon Thorn

[Pmpn8ez]

I'm relatively new to BFG as well, if only because I don't get to play much for lack of willing opponents (though I've technically been collecting for about a year). I also started with Eldar (soon to be joined by Tyranids), so I may be of some help.

1. I don't like them that much, if only because of the absurd cost. I usually take 1 or 2, but never 3. Some people swear by them, but for the most part I don't think having a lot is too necessary.

2. BFG is the one unique GW system I've played where army comp is worth next to nil in most cases. It's not about who can buy the most expensive capital ships, or the coolest guns. All-escort armies can compete with all-capital armies and mixed just the same. I suggest a mixed force; I tend to limit myself to a couple light cruisers, some escorts, and I love the Void Stalker so I usually take that too.

3. With smaller ships, grouping is good. They're weak individually, so I like to have 2-3 escorts in a group. Cruisers and battleships and all that I tend to leave in squads of 1 for mobility. Eldar want the mobility and to be spread out; having all those ships clustered together is a bad thing, especially for things like Nova Cannon (be careful of those...)

4. Mobility. The fact that we turn in any direction we want at the start of our movement and then can move faster than almost any other ship of the same class (depending on which way the sun is) makes mobility key. You need to limit the amount of ships that can shoot you as much as possible or else you will begin to feel the hurt on your very fragile hulls. This is why Necrons are almost impossible to beat with Eldar; they have escorts that move 40 and 50 cm per turn, which completely negates the one advantage we have.

5. This is a matter of opinion. I prefer to shoot down carriers first, then escorts, then battleships and powerful cruisers. Carriers I just don't like and escorts rival my mobility, so they're always of priority.

6. There's really no such thing, since again army comp means very little in this game (a fact I adore).

[Evilzealot]

Thanks for the heads up! Looks like I'm playing woodelves in space . Nearly all of the ships in the fleet I purchased are loaded to the teeth with Pulse Lances so I better get used to rolling 4's! Since the Void stalker is a slick model I bet Ill use that alot, aided by a large amount of escorts to zoom around the board (I like the idea of that playstyle). I suppose I will play them like DE, killing their smaller support ships until I am ready to go all-in against their larger ships. On the bright side no one plays Necrons around here for tabletop games so I will never encounter a Necron fleet.

Thanks again for the advice, if you have any other gems I'd be grateful.

[anglais]

it seems I am a little bit late , but nevertheless

1) How valubles are the rerolls on the Lord's ship? I was considering 2 rerolls for the times I really need to make the shield's 2+ save. I could almost afford another Hemlock corvette for this price, so when does it become worth twinking out your lord? (I was considering having him cruise in a Void Stalker, as I have the model)

in case we are talking of 1000 points fleet, I would not advice to field void stalker, she is too expensive.
I usually play with 2 rerolls, as BFI/Reload check failure can cost a game.

2) Concerning army composition: can larger capital ships perform well alone, or should I support them with a few corvette classes for each larger ship? How well does an army work with a large amount of smaller ships?

at 1000 points I use one eclipse, for anti-ordnance purposes mostly.
I would consider 2 eclipses at 1200, as chaos players tend to field a lot of carriers for this game size.
Anyway, I play with a lot of escort class ships.

3) Squadron sizes tend to confuse me. I'm not sure if its worth joining my larger ships into a hammer-type unit to benifit from the LD boost of the Lord, along with the rerolls. Are capital ships worth grouping together, and if so in what size units? Same questions with smaller ships?

I squadron aurora/solaris class cruisers, if I field any. I prefer to use other capital ships at their own.
I squadron escorts by 2, espesally hemlocks. the reason for it is to give my opponent a lot of targets - he cannot shoot down more than 2 ships with one volley.

4) Where does the strength in the Eldar fleet lie? In numbers, mobility, weaponry, leadership, large ships or smaller ships?

mobility at the first place, ordnance at the second.
pulsars are fine, however, they are useless against other eldar/dark eldar fleets.

5) With picking targets is it a good idea to take down the supporting ships early in order to really crack down on the larger ships, or are the larger ships too deadly to ignore for long?

it depends at situation.
In my opinion the first task is to force the opponent to issue BFI for ships with long range batteries and carriers.
Then I prefer to kill targets of opportunity (isolated capital ships and squadrons) with combined firepower of all my ships, then I kill my opponent's ships one by one.

6) Is there any type of army comp I should avoid so I don't create a broken or WAACy list by accident?

all eclipse fleet, all nightshade fleet and all hemplock fleet are treated as WAACy and|or broken.