The Renegade Hobbyist: 2023

Ahoy!

Once more I set sail the weekend of Adepticon, though not upon an ocean but in the merciless cold and dark of space. Battlefleet Gothic will probably always be my favorite Games Workshop game to play, for basically every reason. It's solid, unchanging, and just hits the right notes with gameplay. I could wax on and on, but I'll save it for another time. Today we are to talk about the tournament at Adepticon!

Once again it was a super awesome event. What was really cool was that there were originally 18 slots but it was sold out in under two hours! Eventually it was bumped up to 20 then 22 slots, and we were still sold out and with a waitlist, how ridiculously awesome is that! We definitely were not expecting these numbers but the excitement was real and people wanted to play, so hopefully we can keep the momentum for next year.

As it turned out, we ended up with 2 drops before the convention, then another 5 pulled a no-show, though to be fair since it happens on the Sunday of a long con, many will be addled or hungover because of poor choices, so I still think we had a good number of people for a total of 16 including the ringer.

So what did I use? Well, I was That Guy™ this year (but not the only one!) and returned to the event ready to win with my Space Marines crusade of Strike Cruisers.

My list (Space Marine Crusade Fleet List)

[50] Master of the Fleet

[160] Strike Cruiser - extra shield, prow bombardment cannon

[160] Strike Cruiser - extra shield

[145] Strike Cruiser

I know...I know. <Jaws music starts playing>

While I did choose the boomy bombardment option, I was wrestling with the choice all the way up til the day I submitted my list. In the recent past I'd played some games with all Thunderhawk variants and some including the torpedo variants, and doing a combo with either of those seemed pretty fun and interesting in their own ways (look for a tactica article in an upcoming issue of Warp Rift!). In the end I settled on the old standby of bombardment cannon because I like it, I'm known for it, and, well...

So anyhoo, we got everyone rounded up and after some leisurely chatter, we got on with it!

Round 1: Pitched Battle

I was paired with Mike Hagerty and his nicely painted Necron fleet:

His list:

1 reroll

Scythe Class Cruiser

Shroud Class Cruiser

3 Jackal Class Raiders

6 Dirge Class Raiders

I split my fleet into three squadrons, with the four bombardment cruisers together, the two double shield cruisers together, and lastly the two unupgraded cruisers together. These all deployed fairly centrally since I wasn't quite sure where he'd go. He decided to put all his Dirges on my right flank and the rest of his fleet on my left.

Turn 1

I took the first turn and cautiously moved forward in the vicinity of the dirges hoping to catch them off guard and destroy them before the rest of the Necrons showed up. I launched some thunderhawks to cover my flank and rear just in case he decided to All Ahead Full the Dirges and get behind me early on. One wave went toward the main group though for disruption.

People playing! Also, my table right in front.

He then went to hug the planet instead and hide where he could. The main thrust on the left flank moved forward but didn't push too hard.

Turn 2

He ended up being a little too exposed with the group behind the planet (well, more accurately the cruisers were just too fast and maneuverable to avoid), and they were wiped out in a storm of gunnery and bad saves. The thunderhawks moved to block off the avenue to sneak past me, hopefully forcing the remaining Dirges closer to me.

*dunnnn dun*

His dirges swept in and put a little bit of hurt on one of my carrier cruisers, while the left flank Necrons just plowed through my thunderhawks without issue.

Turn 3

I a-spied an opportunity! Since one of the secondary conditions was to win a boarding action, I figured I'd see about guaranteeing it happened, just it case. I parked one strike cruiser on each of the Dirges that was real close and initiated three boarding actions! The large squadron pulled a Come to New Heading and came about nicely to face head-on the incoming Necron menace. In the end phase, the three strike cruisers predictably boarded and destroyed all three to score me some kills and tournament points.

On his turn he kept to the plan of similarly sticking together; unfortunately, due to a movement error one of the Shrouds ended up going through asteroids and failing the leadership test to navigate it, crippling itself with 2 damage. Dang!

Turn 4

Time for a Lock On! The shooty squadron prepared for bombardment while the other cruisers came about and reloaded again. In a devastating volley, and despite bracing, the nearest Shroud was pummeled into a drifting hulk.

In return, the main fleet pushed right on close in to deliver the pain, and the space marines Braced for Impact! I then went on to fail nearly all of them, d'oh!

The good news is his dice were similarly repeatedly bad, so he crippled a strike cruiser and it was basically a waste they even went on the order in the first place. Oh well!

Turn 5

I disengaged the stricken Dark Angels cruiser, leaving 3 bombardment cruisers to...go boarding? I figured since they were half strength guns this turn then I may as well move in for a full strength boarding against his flagship. I'd say it was mostly a mistake in hindsight. Elsewhere, the remaining Shroud tanked all incoming fire like a champ.

The cruiser bottom center right is actually where the compass is, was just too fiddly to try and place it on there.

The boarding action was lackluster, resulting in just two damage on the flagship Scythe. Yep, shoulda shot it instead.

On his turn, both Scythes occupied the same spot right in between all four carrier cruisers, which was fun to try and deal with. They caused just some hits on the shields between them, with maybe a couple hits on the hulls but nothing to worry about. The shroud tried being sneaky but just ended up being too close, so it simply faded out.

Turn 6

Didn't take a picture here, too messy. I wasn't positioned well enough to deal much pain to the Scythes this turn, so I set to come back in the next turn. Thunderhawks kept running sortie after sortie, with little gains.

As he had mostly zipped past me now, there was not much incoming fire on my end either this turn.

Turn 7

I completed all my turns and reached some optimal positions, as you can see. This is the end result of the game, where he critically failed a Brace for Impact on his flagship. 21 bombardment cannon solidified the game for me, as it does.

With that, the VP totals were 1758 to 80...a massacre!

Round 2: The World

This scenario is always fun, and we made it a wee bit better for play this time around (I think!). Both players can touch the planet once and have the effects be cumulative. Fun stuff! I played against the Ringer/TO Alex Kasper, because apparently he did too well round 1 against a new player...sigh Alex. That's okay, I was fixin' to give a whoopin' to his themed "Mothballed reserve fleet."

His list:

Admiral - 1 reroll

Retribution Class Battleship

Vengeance Class Grand Cruiser

Exorcist Class Grand Cruiser

Endeavour Class Light Cruiser

Endurance Class Light Cruiser

Talk about top heavy! That's okay it looked fun. I considered spreading out my deployment, but opted instead for a tighter wedge pointed right at the planet to best make use of cover. He did similar, and we predicted this would be a short game...

Turn 1

I tucked in right behind the planet but made sure to touch it of course, getting result number 3. Interesting indeed...I put a combined wave of Thunderhawks into the void, and they were sitting roughly where my cruisers were.

He decided to get what points he could, and sent an Endeavour/Endurance squadron up to touch it at AAF, causing everyone to gain +1 Ld, neat! This brought them over the horizon and to basically right in front of my two lead cruisers. Again, difficult to model appropriately so we made concessions.

The fun part was sending in a wave of 8 Thunderhawks to one of them...just because. Here are the results:

So with at least one shut down completely, it was time to begin turn 2...

Turn 2

I sent up the bombardment squadron to go make a mess, and kept the carrier squadron behind to deal with the opposing light cruisers. Messes were made! The bombardiers poured it onto the battleship and grand cruisers, stripping shields and shooting away hull points from both, causing criticals along the way on the battleship, mostly guns out.

The four carrier cruisers opened up at the light cruisers and were WAY more effective than expected. This is definitely a mothballs fleet, because apparently safety standards were lax in maintenance and upkeep. Critical hits caused a bunch more damage, and the Endurance exploded violently. Between that and the additional spillover damage, the Endeavour also exploded something fierce. With my four ships right next to both.

All told I suffered some damage, with one cruiser in particular somehow taking all the damage and getting crippled. Still, it was alarming!

The aftermath:

He returned fire and I immediately braced the bombardiers. Pretty much all damage was blocked! I did suffer a port critical, but as it wasn't really needed for the upcoming turns. The thunderhawks swept in and took down weapons all over the Retribution, though he repaired a couple.

Turn 3

On this turn, the bombardiers got in even closer and behind his lines, firing in multiple directions again and really laying waste to good ships. One grand cruiser was crippled and the battleship sustained some light damage. I also started pecking away at the next set of light cruisers from my carrier cruisers in a move of crossing the T.

At this point, he saw the writing on the wall. His fleet was built mostly with gunnery in mind, and with me disabling most of the lances, plus lots of criticals and the losses, it was best to run away. The Retribution, Endeavour, and Exorcist managed to disengage, but the Vengeance and Endurance failed to slink away.

Turn 4

Surrounded and venting atmosphere, the two limping Navy ships were easy pickings for the Space Marine gunnery, and were used as target practice while I also had ships get into his deployment zone for the objectives.

End result: 720 to 40, victory!

Round 3: Battle Around the Neutron Star

The final draw was against Matt Adami and his Chaos.

His list:

Warmaster

Despoiler Class Battleship

Murder Class Cruiser

Carnage Class Cruiser

Slaughter Class Cruiser

4 Infidel Class Raiders

I set up to go left around the star while he went right, thinking I'd be able to swing around the rear, but definitely spaced (get it?? 😉) and forgot he has the same speed and, with the gravity well, similar maneuverability. It almost was my undoing.

Turn 1

He took the first turn and moved to my right, but farther than expected. He launched fighters to provide cover from my Thunderhawks.

I went All Ahead Full to try and gain the rear-ward advantage. I was able to fire off a couple shots and caused a damage. Nothing exciting yet!

Turn 2

He pushed farther up and loosed some shots and torpedoes, plinking off some damage from my carrier cruiser.

Likewise, I kept pushing my flank, hoping to do more. My shooting was very poor though, adding another damage to the total.

Turn 3

He continued to take advantage of the massive gravity well here, coming around behind me just as I was coming around behind him. He launched more torpedoes and caused some more light damage on other ships unfortunately.

Seeing as circling the toilet bowl ad nauseum like this would end more in his favor than mine, I decided to pull another u-turn maneuver (hey I live in Wisconsin, it's legal here) and came about to face them head-on. And by head-on I mean allowing him to cross the T, but I still needed it to happen. I tasked two carriers with going to his deployment zone for the points.

Turn 4

So that's exactly what he started doing. He came in to point blank range and raked my prows in a very good position. One bombardier cruiser was crippled and another took two damage. Unfortunately he also targeted my carrier cruisers with a pile of lances, resulting in a destroyed cruiser, nooo!

In return I passed through his fleet and turned to starboard, bringing me alongside for some shooting. It wasn't entirely effective, but I was tallying up some damage on his ships. Between guns and Thunderhawks, two Infidels were destroyed.

Turn 5

We were coming down to the wire on time, so it was getting intense! He maneuvered to get more shots on me while his remaining Infidels continued to flee. I was able to tank what he threw out because I had maneuvered my cruisers to protect the hurt ones, putting fresh ones on the frontline.

I was down in points now, it was looking kinda bleak. However, I spotted a hail mary opportunity: his battleship. I put my bombardier cruisers right off the bow of the Despoiler at close range. Counting it up, I had 25 dice to roll. Critically, he rolled box cars for his Brace check!

I rolled and up came 16 hits, exactly enough to status change a Despoiler from full health to destroyed! Not only that, but it exploded and destroyed another chaos cruiser on the way out, and crippled another!

The Despoiler was like, directly in front of the shoal of strike cruisers. We didn't put down blast markers because it was the end anyway.

Our reactions to the situation.

Phew, that last turn really was the game by itself. I was down until then, but we finished 660 VP to 185 VP for the victory!

3 games and 3 victories! The good news is they were all strong victories, so it pushed me to the top and 1st place wooo! What a fun day, playing 3 games of battlefleet gothic with some cool people. I always look forward to this event above all, and can't wait to try out something new next year!

There will be follow up posts about the fleets and discussion about the scenarios, so thanks for reading and stay tuned. Til next time!