Introduction¶
What You Will Need¶
As well as the Battlefleet Gothic rulebook, there are a number of other things you’ll require to be able to play. For a start, you will need two or more players, with models to represent their ships. You will also need a battlefield to fight over. Any firm, level surface will do, such as a tabletop or an area of floor – most kitchen tables will do fine! It’s a good idea to use an old sheet or blanket to protect the table from scratches and chips. Some players make a special gaming board from chipboard or other similar material, which they can place on top of a table to extend their playing area. Onto this surface, you can then place the celestial objects around which the battle is fought, such as planets, moons, asteroid fields and dust clouds. You can find out more about fleets and the battlefield later on.
As well as players, ships and a battlefield there are a few other things you will need. At least one measuring device marked in centimetres (such as a retractable tape measure or ruler). All distances in this book are given in centimetres. You will also need some ordinary six-sided dice and a pen and some paper for noting down damage to ships and other details.
First Principles¶
At this early stage in the book it’s worth establishing some initial principles about the Battlefleet Gothic game.
Scale¶
First of all – space is big! Very, very big. Take your conception of a long way (i.e. down to the shops when it’s raining hard) and multiply it by a million, then by another million ... and then by another million and you’re still not even close to how far apart things are in space. In order to include interesting and exciting features such as planets and moons on the battlefield and have ship models which are not the size of molecules, Battlefleet Gothic takes some liberties with scale. In short, the ship models are designed to look good and be nice to paint, but they are not intended to be in scale with planets. To prevent this becoming a problem in the game it is assumed that the ships actually occupy the point in space shown by the stem of their base.
In keeping with this principle, movement distances are measured from the stem on the ship’s base and distances for firing are measured from the stem of the ship’s base to the stem of the target model.
The actual base of a ship model represents very close range around the ship, no more than a few thousand kilometres. At this distance all kinds of dangers can affect the ship itself such as torpedoes, deep space bomber squadrons, other ships exploding or asteroids striking. Hence, for the purposes of the game, if something affects an area of the battlefield, like the markers used to represent torpedo salvoes or the boundaries of an asteroid field, a ship is affected if its base is touched, or if a ship moves so that its base comes into contact with the hazard.
3D or not 3D?¶
As well as being very big, space is also infinitely wide, high, deep etc. Despite this, Battlefleet Gothic is played on a flat tabletop. To allow for the vagaries of three dimensions and the vast distances involved, ships can move and fire past each other without any risks. It’s easy to imagine that individual ships are just a few hundred kilometres higher or lower than each other and so have plenty of clear space to manoeuvre in.
The reason for the lack of 3D movement is twofold. Firstly, making the game work in three dimensions would add little to the tactics of it, because unlike aircraft combat, where the force of gravity means whoever is highest has an advantage, combat in the zero gravity of space would turn fighting in three dimensions into little more than a range modifier. Secondly, for the practical mechanics of the game, working in 3D would complicate the rules immensely.
Dice Rolls¶
There are lots of occasions in a battle when you have to roll dice to see how a ship’s actions turn out – how effective shooting is, what damage is done to an enemy ship, how well captains and their crews react to the stress of battle and so on.
All dice rolls in Battlefleet Gothic use a standard six-sided dice (usually shortened to D6). Sometimes you will need to modify the result of the dice roll. This is noted as D6 plus or minus a number, such as D6+1 or D6-2. Roll the dice and add or subtract the number indicated to get the final result.
For example, D6+ 2 means roll a dice and add 2 to the score, giving a total between 3 and 8.
You may also be told to roll a number of dice together, which is written as 2D6, 3D6 and so on. Roll the indicated number of dice and add the scores together, so that with a 2D6 roll, two dice are rolled and added together for a score between 2-12, 3D6 adds together the scores of three dice for a total between 3 and 18 and so on.
For example, a 2D6 roll of a 5 and a 3 are added together to score 8.
Another method used is to multiply a dice by a certain amount. Thus, D6×5 means the result of a D6 roll multiplied by 5, giving a total between 5 and 30.
Sometimes a combination of these methods may be used, such as 2D6+5 giving a score between 7 and 17, or 3D6-3 which will total 0-15.
In a few rare circumstances you may be told to roll a D3. Since there’s no such thing as a three-sided dice, use the following method for determining a score between 1 and 3. Roll a D6 and halve the score, rounding up. Thus a 1 or 2 equals 1, a 3 or 4 equals 2 and a 5 or 6 equals 3.
Re-rolls¶
In some situations the rules allow you a re-roll of the dice. This is exactly as it sounds – pick up the dice you wish to re-roll and roll it/them again. The second score counts with a re-roll, even if it means a worse result than the first. No single Special Order or other leadership test can be re-rolled more than once, regardless of the source of the re-roll.
The Bearing Compass¶
A vital instrument in the game is the bearing compass, a circular card template with a hole punched through the middle. It is used for two purposes. Firstly to check the fire arcs of your own ships to see which weapons they can bring to bear against the enemy. Doing so is simple: place the template over your ship so that the hole in the centre is above the centre of the flying stand and the two arrows are pointing along the length of the ship: This places the 90° quadrants so that one is in front, one is behind and one is to each side of the ship. Fire arcs and ship’s gunnery are explained in more detail in the Shooting Phase section.
Secondly, it is used to find out what aspect a target is presenting to a ship firing at it. In this case the bearing compass is placed over the target in the same way as described above. The aspect of the target is shown by which quadrant faces the firer.
Set-up¶
Definition of Game Turns: A game turn is both player turns, so a game that lasts eight turns has sixteen player turns.
Pre-measurement: You may pre-measure movement and range unless all players agree not to. Note: To aid in pre-measuring, use a couple of empty flying bases with bearing compasses dropped over the stems.
Secrecy of Fleet Lists: Fleet lists are not normally secret. However, to add a degree of subtlety to a campaign, fleet lists may be kept secret until the end of the game (or campaign) if both players agree. However, it must be written down, complete with all refits and point totals. If at any time your opponent wishes to see your fleet list, both players must then immediately reveal their fleet lists to each other.
Secrecy of Sub-plots: Sub-plots are normally rolled for in front of both players at the beginning of the game. However, sub-plots may be kept secret in the same manner as described previously for fleet lists if both players agree. However, they must be written down at the beginning of the game, and if at any time your opponent wishes to see your sub-plot(s), both players must then immediately reveal them to each other. If kept secret, they must nonetheless be revealed at the end of the game.
Ship Types¶
Battlefleet Gothic allows you to fight space battles amidst the cold, bright stars of the Gothic Sector during the period of raging war and unbridled destruction heralded by the ninth Black Crusade of Abaddon early in the 41st millennium. At this time Imperial, Chaos, Ork and Eldar ships of all sizes clashed in deadly conflict. Massive beweaponed battlecruisers joust with lances of fusion fire, lumbering battleships duel with coruscating salvoes of destruction while their agile escort ships dart through the fray to slash at the battling leviathans.
The Citadel miniatures used to play Battlefleet Gothic are referred to as ships (or sometimes vessels) in the rules that follow. Each ship is an individual playing piece with its own capabilities.
Different ships can have very different capabilities, so they are separated into the following types: battleships, cruisers and escorts.
Battleships are the largest fighting ships in space. They can absorb a tremendous amount of damage and mount weapon batteries capable of laying waste to entire continents. These vessels are so huge that they are comparatively slow and ponderous to manoeuvre, so they need support from other vessels to bring the enemy to battle.
Escort Ships are the commonest warships in any fleet. They are fast, lightly armed and capable of running rings around heavier ships, which they accompany to protect them against torpedo attacks and to fight off enemy escorts. They are also used for independent actions such as scouting, raiding, protecting transport ships, and chasing pirates.
Cruisers are the workhorses of any fleet. They are manoeuvrable, well-armed ships, capable of operating away from a base for extended periods. This means that cruisers are used for extended patrols, blockades and raiding deep into enemy held space. In a major battle, cruisers screen the approach of the fleet in support of the escorts and form the gun line once battle begins.
Note that for reasons of brevity, battleships and cruisers are often grouped together under the general heading of capital ships, a term which applies to all ships of both types.
Ship Data Sheets¶
Each vessel available in Battlefleet Gothic has a complete set of characteristics. These characteristics will tell you how fast, manoeuvrable, well-armoured and hideously armed they are.
The table above represents the characteristics for an Imperial Lunar class cruiser and a Murder class Chaos cruiser.
Name: All ships deserve a name! Well, except escorts maybe. Ship entries often have a list of some of the most famous ships that fought in the Gothic War, so feel free to use those or make up your own.
Class: Ships are not all the same, so they are listed as belonging to a particular class. Different classes may be approximately the same in terms of size and weight but vary a lot in details. What is basically the same hull may carry different weapons, bigger engines, more or less armour, etc. Ships may even be converted from one class to another in the course of a major refit. The two ships shown on the previous page are a Lunar class Imperial cruiser and a Murder class Chaos cruiser. You will notice that while they are the same type their actual characteristics are different.
Leadership: A ship’s Leadership value indicates how experienced and well trained its crew are and/or how clever and decisive its captain is in combat. In a one-off game of Battlefleet Gothic the Leadership value of ships is randomly generated. If the ship fights in an ongoing campaign its Leadership can improve or worsen depending on how well the ship performs.
Type/Hits: A ship’s Type tells you if it is a battleship, cruiser or escort. Its number of Hits indicates how big and strongly built its hull is and how large a crew it has. In Battlefleet Gothic, a ship’s Hits represents how many times it can be hit and damaged before it is reduced to a floating wreck (note that Hits are also referred to as damage points: don’t be confused – both mean the same thing). Both cruisers in our example have 8 Hits, which is average for a cruiser.
Speed: The Speed characteristic tells you how far a ship moves in one turn. Vessels can potentially move faster than this but the additional power output needed will divert energy from weapon systems. The Chaos cruiser has a slight edge over the Imperial one in terms of speed, which gives it an important advantage in combat.
Turns: Ships can usually turn just once during their move. This characteristic shows how sharply it can turn. In this case both ships can turn up to 45°, which is again about average for cruisers.
Shields: Nearly all ships are protected by powerful force field generators that can absorb or shunt aside incoming hits. Shields are rated according to how many hits they can absorb in a turn before they temporarily collapse. Both the ships shown have shields capable of absorbing two hits.
Armour: The ship’s Armour rating shows how well protected it is and/or how difficult it is to damage. When the ship is fired upon, the attacker needs to roll equal to or over its Armour rating on a D6 in order to score a hit. The Chaos cruiser has Armour of 5+ all round, but the Imperial cruiser has a heavily armoured prow which makes its Armour 6+ against shots from its front.
Turrets: In addition to their main armament, most ships carry numerous small, quick-firing turrets. These are mounted over the length of their hull to shoot down incoming torpedoes and fighters. Both cruisers mount enough of these lighter weapons to have a Turrets value of 2.
Armament: This section lists the ship’s main armament and its location.
Range/Speed: The maximum range of weapons is shown in centimetres. In the case of ordnance weapons which move towards their target, such as torpedoes or fighters, the speed of the weapon is shown rather than its maximum range. As you can see, the Lunar class cruiser mounts more weapon systems than the Murder class but they all have a shorter range.
Firepower/Strength: This number represents how effective a weapons system is when it shoots – the higher the number the better. Special weapons systems like torpedoes and lances have a Strength rating instead of a Firepower value. In this case the greater firepower of the Murder class cruiser is counter-balanced by the lances and torpedoes of the Imperial ship.
Fire Arc: Weapon systems may only fire in particular directions depending on where they are mounted on the ship. Both the cruisers shown mount most of their weaponry in broadsides on either side of the ship. Few vessels mount any rear facing weapons – their engines are too massive and the thermal ‘backwash’ they create makes targeting almost impossible.
Base Size¶
There are two base sizes: small (32 mm diameter) and large (60 mm diameter). Any ship or defence with either 3 or more shields OR greater than 10 Hits must use a large size base. However, any capital ship can elect to use a large base and is considered to have Tractor Fields for free. Tractor fields have no effect except making it easier for the ship to ram and/or board due to its larger base size, in exchange for being a larger ordnance target.
Leadership¶
Even the smallest stellar craft is a marvel of engineering, packed with machinery and technology of the highest sophistication. The truly massive stellar warships are almost impossible to comprehend in their complexity, with thousands of crew members performing millions of tasks to keep the whole vessel in working order. It is said that no single man could fully understand all of the machinery and systems that work together to make such a vessel function. Nonetheless, it is ultimately the captain and crew who will determine how well a ship performs in combat. A ship under the command of an inspiring captain with a dedicated, well-trained crew can consistently outrun or outgun enemy vessels.
In Battlefleet Gothic, the expertise of a captain and his crew is shown by the ship’s Leadership value: the higher it is, the better the captain and crew. Leadership is very important, because ships must test against it if they wish to use special orders.
Starting Leadership Values¶
As mentioned earlier, in one-off games you roll a D6 to determine each ship’s Leadership value before the start of the game. Look up the result of the dice roll on the table below to see what Leadership value the ship has. Escorts roll once per squadron, with the whole squadron sharing the leadership value rolled. Each capital ship rolls individually for leadership, even if it is in a squadron. Squadrons are explained fully later in the rules.
| D6 ROLL | LEADERSHIP |
|---|---|
| 1 | Untried (Ld 6) |
| 2-3 | Experienced (Ld 7) |
| 4-5 | Veteran (Ld 8) |
| 6 | Crack (Ld 9) |
Special Orders¶
There are six different special orders and each one allows a vessel to perform better at something, such as gunnery or navigation, during its turn. A ship or squadron can only ever be on one special order at a time. Special orders are declared during the Movement Phase by choosing a vessel or squadron, declaring the order and rolling leadership, then moving it.
All Ahead Full¶
A ship going All Ahead Full directs more power to its engines to produce an extra burst of speed.
Effect: Increased speed, but must move the full movement distance. Requirement for attempting to ram.
Speed: Cruising speed +4D6 cm (make one roll for the whole squadron).
Turns: None.
Armament: Half effect. No Nova Cannon.
Ordnance: Full effect.
Come to New Heading¶
The ship sacrifices opportunities to fire its weapons in order to turn more sharply.
Effect: Extra turn. All the normal restrictions for turning apply to the second turn. This means a cruiser that moves 10 cm before turning must move at least 10 cm more before turning again. Speed: Half to full cruising speed.
Turns: Up to two.
Armament: Half effect. No Nova Cannon.
Ordnance: Full effect.
Burn Retros¶
The ship directs additional energy to its retro thrusters in order to kill some of its forward momentum and hold position.
Effect: Decreased speed. Can make a single turn without having to move forward first.
Speed: Zero to half cruising speed.
Turns: Up to one.
Armament: Half effect. No Nova Cannon.
Ordnance: Full effect.
Lock On¶
The ship maintains a steady course and draws additional energy from its engines to fire its armament in multiple salvoes.
Effect: Re-roll hit rolls for lances and weapon batteries during the Shooting Phase.
Speed: Half to full cruising speed.
Turns: None.
Armament: Full effect.
Ordnance: Full effect.
Reload Ordnance¶
Ships start the game with their ordnance, such as torpedoes and attack craft, fully loaded and armed. However, once the ordnance has been fired or launched the vessel must reload before it can use its ordnance again.
Effect: All ordnance is reloaded.
Speed: Half to full cruising speed.
Turns: Up to one.
Armament: Full effect.
Ordnance: Full effect.
Brace For Impact!¶
The captain of the vessel orders his crew to brace for impact; power is redirected to the shields, blast doors are slammed shut and the crew hang onto something secure.
Brace For Impact! special orders can be undertaken ANY time a ship faces taking damage before the actual to-hit result is rolled, including when ramming or being rammed or against damage from asteroid fields.
It may be used to protect against critical damage from any kind of Hit & Run attack. Brace For Impact! DOES NOT protect against critical damage caused by hits that were not saved against normally, nor any damage caused during a boarding action (including critical damage). A ship is placed on Brace For Impact! orders until the end of its next turn, replacing any other special orders it may be on currently.
Effect: The ship gains a saving throw of 4+ on a D6 against any damage. Can’t use any special orders at all in its next turn.
Speed: Half to full cruising speed.
Turns: Up to one.
Armament: Half effect. No Nova Cannon.
Ordnance: Half effect.
If a ship fails to take Brace For Impact! orders, it cannot attempt to take them again until the ship, squadron or ordnance wave currently attacking has completed its attacks.
Taking Command Checks¶
In the midst of battle a captain may order his ships to perform special manoeuvres or direct more of his ship’s power to weapons or engines. However, in order to do this the ship undertaking special orders must first pass a Command check.
To make a Command check, roll 2D6 and compare it to the ship’s Leadership value (Ld). If the roll is equal to or under the ship’s Ld value it has passed the check and goes onto special orders. Then move the ship or squadron as appropriate before moving on to place your next special order. Place a special order dice next to the model with the appropriate symbol face uppermost as a reminder. A ship or defence can never be on more than one special order at a time unless specifically described otherwise in its special rules, such as a Ramilies Star Fort.
With all of the orders except Brace For Impact! you must make the check in the Movement Phase before moving the ship. Each ship or squadron may make a Special Order until all are under Special Orders or a Command Check fails.
If the roll is higher than the ship’s Ld value, it fails the test and may not go onto special orders. Furthermore, once you have failed a Command check for one ship in your fleet you may not make any further Command checks to use special orders in the same turn. It can be imagined that the delays and confusion in trying to get that particular ship to perform special orders means that the opportunity has passed for any further special orders to be issued.
When rolling special orders, a decision to use free command checks (such as with an Elite Command Crew or when Orks use All Ahead Full special orders) must be taken before a special order is failed. Once special orders are failed, no more special orders can be declared except Brace For Impact!
Only one re-roll can be spent on a vessel or squadron per leadership check. In other words, if a vessel or squadron fails a leadership check and then fails a re-roll, another reroll cannot be expended on it for the same leadership check or special orders on that vessel, even if more re-rolls are available.
Command check modifiers¶
Some circumstances will make it easier or harder for a vessel to use special orders. To represent this, there are two modifiers that can apply to Command checks, one positive and one negative. Under no circumstance can a ship’s Leadership be modified higher than Leadership 10. A leadership check roll of 11 or 12 always fails unless SPECIFICALLY stated otherwise.
Under Fire -1¶
If a ship has Blast Markers in contact with its base, it is under fire and suffers a -1 modifier to its Leadership. Blast Markers are described more fully in the Shooting section of the rules. For now it’s simply worth knowing that they represent weapon impacts, debris clouds, and other impediments to calm and orderly ship operation.
Enemy Contacts + 1¶
Enemy ships on special orders create anomalous energy emissions which make it much easier for the ship to detect them and react quickly. For this reason the ship gains a +1 modifier to its Leadership value if any enemy ships are on special orders.
For example, the Imperial cruiser Agrippa (Leadership 7) wants to use All Ahead Full orders to catch up with the Chaos cruiser Unclean. The Chaos cruiser used Lock On orders last turn so the Agrippa gets a +1 modifier to its Leadership value. Rolling 2D6 the Imperial player gets a 2 and 6 for a total of 8 and passes its Command check by equalling its modified Leadership value.
Other Leadership Tests¶
Sometimes a ship will have to test against its Leadership value for something other than using special orders. In these cases the test is for the captain and his crew to pull off a courageous or difficult undertaking.
For example, a successful test against Leadership is required for a ship to ram an enemy, safely navigate an asteroid field or target a specific vessel. These tests are taken like Command checks by rolling a number of dice and comparing the total score to the ship’s Leadership value. If the score is equal to or less than the ship’s Leadership, the test is passed.
Leadership tests can be undertaken even if a Command check for special orders has been failed earlier in the turn. No modifiers apply to leadership tests – such modifiers are unique to command checks for special orders.