Thinking about building a fleet- advice please

[Zhai_ Morenn]

Hello all, let me start by saying I am new to this website but a long time fan of both tabletop sci fi wargaming and of Babylon 5. I've been playing Battlefleet Gothic for a long time and am looking at expanding my gaming sphere to include this game.

I think that the fleets which interest me most are
-The Shadows (My favored race in BFG is essentially a bunch of ancient conflict loving evil bastards and the Shadows have a strong appeal to me)
-ISA (thinking whitestar heavy fleet)
-Drakh
or maybe the EA Crusade Era + psi corps.

Could anyone tell me the advantages and disadvantages of these fleets? What ships should I invest in from each? I tend to personally prefer high speed, high firepower and sneakiness/stealth/trickery as far as tactics go though I do occasionally engage in just bulldozing the enemy with overwhelming firepower. The Shadows seem like a good starter fleet also because I would need relatively few models to get started and thus it'd be safer for me to play with while learning the game and seeing if I like it (I already own a Shadow Ship just because I thought they were cool years back when there was a gaming shop near me that sold them.)

Any case, it's great to find this site and this game, since I originally got into BFG b/c I couldn't find any B5 games like this at the time.

 

[Da Boss]

Hi and welcome aboard if you liked BFG you'll like this.

Shadows - not an easy fleet to get the best of - they are extremely maneuverable and have good guns but only one gun and one arc so have to use them wisely. They thrive on cover and hit and un attacks and can suffer badly if there is none - especially against beam heavy fleets. They cna be vulnerable against fighters against which they have no real defence. They have trouble at low priroity a bit due to having no real legitimate chocie below Raid (although that one is good).

Also they are not evil - just different

If you want both fast and hard hitting - take a glance through the Centauri list - very nice.

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

Like charles I think you should be careful when using the ancient fleets like shadows, however that doesn't stop you building a fleet, and turning your hand to them once you have a little experience of the game. Alternatively you might you are a natural with the shadow fleet; and all that will be a load of wad.lol

The ISA, especially if you are going white star heavy, lends itself to wave hit and run tactics. You have the benefit of THE most agile ship and its best to use it.

The Drakh I don't much experience with, but I am building a fleet myself, and due to the Gravitic energy grids, which work a little bit like shields, they may prove to be more forgiving and someone brand new to the game.

Crusade era EA or Psi-Corps with Crusade EA allies may work well; I only have experience of Crusade EA and then not much.

My advice would be to get ahold of the rules and fleet books first; have a look and playtest, using counters or figure rep and see which fleet suits your style of play the most.

I prefere fast, slashing attacks, and so I use the Centauri and ISA well as they suit my style. The EA and Vorlons I have to think about a lot more; and I guess I'll be doing the same with drakh.

Anyway, welcome, and congratulations on seeing the light that is ACTA.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

I won't echo the pro-Centauri sentiments of my good and dear friends, since they've covered the issues fairly well. I will, however, echo the note of caution regarding the Shadows. I don't think either of the First Ones (the Vorlons being the others) are very good fleets for new players - they have special rules and do things differently. I'd suggest a more "normal" fleet, Earth Alliance, Centauri, Narn or perhaps the Brakiri from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. Or even the manly Dilgar. All of these are fairly uncomplicated to learn the basics, but have their own tactics and tricks to learn as you progress, have few special rules (although the Dilgar have a few you'd need to learn) and have good, broad selections of ships at most levels.

I'll also echo my learned colleague's welcome. ACtA is a great game and if you liked BFG you'll pick it up pretty easily.

 

[Zhai_ Morenn]

I think that I indeed shall have to get ahold of the rule book to truly find what will work for me. One of the things that had me leaning towards shadows is that my main race in BFG is Dark Eldar, another hard hitting and yet difficult to properly use fleet, but loads of fun when mastered.

Anyhoo, I'm gonna risk a bit of blasphemy and say that the Centauri are not really my interest, a tad on the gaudy side and quite akin to Rome. I may have to rustle up some white stars or perhaps one of the other suggested fleets.

In any case more opinions and recommendations are always welcome! At this point I'm flying blind still so a little light of reason is always welcome. :-D

 

[locarno24]

If you like the dark eldar then I'd agree that drakh are probably the best for you 'feel-wise'.

Neither they nore psi-corps are massively easy fleets to pick up from scratch, but they're both nasty as hell once you get used to them..


Drakh do simplify things a lot for a new player; the main advantage of the Gravetic Energy Grid (their main mode of defence) is that it makes you all but immune to 'pot shots' from lighter guns, but offers naff all protection from heavy weapons.

The upshot of this is that by and large it takes fighters out of the equation; you don't have any, and you're all but immune to the ones your opponent has.

As a result, the game tends to be dependant on how well you can manouvre your agile raiders to avoid the arcs of fire of graviton beams, heavy lasers, slicer beams, and other big guns that will smash them in one blow with a clean shot. If you're used to Dark Eldar I don't have to explain the basic tactics...




Psi Corps are the other end of the scale; they have one ship (the Hybrid Warship) which is very shadow-like, having a massive beam weapon and a degree of agility, but for the most part they play like EA with special abilities, better fighters, and worse raw durability. Shadowcloak scouts are superb for their cost, but so little of the fleet actually needs a scout that it rarely matters!

ISA play in a fairly similar manner to Drakh raider fleets, so it's a matter of taste. But do you really want to be the good guys?
In real terms, the White star is nastier than the raiders, but that's because it's a priority level higher. You do also have the white star gunship - so you can continue the agility theme in higher priorities where drakh no longer do, but then you lack a skirmish level ship that fits the theme, where the Drakh can field hunting packs of their raiders.

Drakh raid-level ships (note - in order not to confuse you, I point out that raiders are not raid level. Obviously.) and above - the 'vash' types - tend to play more like conventional ships than the white stars, and even the lighter ships - the 'riastor' types - aren't quite as manouvrable ('only' 90 degree turns).

The exception, of course, is the light raider - one of those ships that seems specifically designed to do unspeakable things to the white stars.


Oh - and the really heavy drakh ships come with free raider-class warships on board. So much for fighter bays!

 

[Zhai_ Morenn]

ISA play in a fairly similar manner to Drakh raider fleets, so it's a matter of taste. But do you really want to be the good guys?

Tough call. I'm torn between my love of the White Stars and my love of being a race that is not above war crimes for breakfast and terrifying small children... Speaking of which, I'm now facing down the imagined scene of a Drakh dropship or perhaps light raider hovering next to an orphanage with big sloppy painting on the side saying "Free Candy"

Is it just me or do most Drakh ship minis in this game system rely on good paint jobs rather than model detail to look good? No matter, black with red glowiness is perhaps the order of the day here.

 

[Admiral Phlop]

I presently have a Drakh fleet, which is probably going on ebay soon. It is not a fleet that I like to play. At raid level they are short ranged and with only two beam there is a real good chance that you will do minimal damage. Even with precise weapons the chances of doing a critical are not that great. As far as the GEG it is a good thing, but if fighting somebody with fighters it or raid level ships that have longer range, which is almost eveybody in the game; will put enough hits on the ships to take them out. The fighters manuever after all other movement which negates your lt. raiders accurate weapons. The only ships that are worth taking, in my opinion are the strike cruiser and the cruiser. These are battle and a war level ships. With the swarm fleets these ships are overwhelmed in short order. I am in a tournament that is a round robin and I have taken raid and skirmish level ships and have not done well at all. After 3 turns you can change your fleet, so I am going to try going with strike cruisers and light cruisers. At this point they are a gone fleet, so if any one is looking for a painted fleet you can see them in the painting section of this forum. In answer to your post, I would not recommend the Drakh. That is just my opinion.

 

[phoenixhawk]

I play Eldar in BFG and find that the White Stars and other ISA ships do a good job of mimicking that same sort of "fragile but powerful and fast" motiff. I've always felt that the EA and Imperials were a decent comparasion. I am not too familiar with the Dark Eldar, but ISA might be a good choice to start with. It's what I did. The unique benefit that the ISA has in terms of fleet building is that not only can you use the White Stars and such, but you can spend one point on allied fleets, so you can dabble in some of the other ISA allies, like the EA, Minbari, any of the League members, and the Narn. This, of course, can let you sample other race's lists without making a huge committment to them.

For example, get an ISA fleet box, learn how to use the White Stars and such in the box, then switch out a point for some EA ships. Don't like how they play, try some Narn (e-mine goodness - just be careful not to drop one on your own ships), that doesn't feel right, go for some Brakiri, Gaim, pak'mar'a, Drazi, Abbai. Heck, you can even split that point into any of the League stuff and mix and match a Brakiri ship with a pair of Drazi ones or some such. IMO, the ISA offers a good level of "trickiness" as well as a good introduction to the basics of the rules while offering enough of the special traits to get familiar with many of them without having a hundred ships to remember.

Of course, if you like fast ships, you can always go Drazi. Fast, single-minded, and straight to the point. No fancy tricks, just lots and lots of ships.

Another cool thing with starting with ISA is that after you get comfortable with it and the rules, you can go for the Shadows and re-create some of the battles from the show

Glad to have another ACTA player! Welcome!

Chris

I think that I indeed shall have to get ahold of the rule book to truly find what will work for me. One of the things that had me leaning towards shadows is that my main race in BFG is Dark Eldar, another hard hitting and yet difficult to properly use fleet, but loads of fun when mastered.

Anyhoo, I'm gonna risk a bit of blasphemy and say that the Centauri are not really my interest, a tad on the gaudy side and quite akin to Rome. I may have to rustle up some white stars or perhaps one of the other suggested fleets.

In any case more opinions and recommendations are always welcome! At this point I'm flying blind still so a little light of reason is always welcome. :-D

 

[Shadow Queen]

Welcome to the fun house!!!!!!!

Me I have Vree, EA, ISA and Shadows. not much time to paint my own stuff any more as im painting the orc's stuff (Da Boss).

 

[inq101]

Best advice I can give, get the rules, find an opponent and use your BFG ships as stand-ins. I was defiantly going to go for 3 different fleets before I tried to use them.

Tom