Battlefleet Gothic Armada
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Developed by Tindalos Studios and published by Focus Home Interactive (the same guys behind Blood Bowl, Mordheim, and Space Hulk Deathwing), this game recreates the old specialist tabletop, pitting the different factions of Warhammer 40,000 in brutal space warfare.
Plot
Basically the retelling of the Gothic War AKA Failbaddon's 12th Black Crusade, just a rookie admiral fighting Failbaddon's attempts to get the Blackstone fortresses. When you discover the plot unfolding and run to tell the Imperial Navy about the looming Chaos tsunami, the Inquisition immediately shocks your balls to be certain of Heresy-free before you're promoted to sector fleet command with more promises of continued balls-shocking if you feth up. Grimdark abounds.
Extra fluff was added apparently ported over from the Iron Warriors novella, like Abaddon got the information about the Blackstone fortresses from some old crone (according to the intro movie). But if you pay attention to the crone's shadow, it looks like the shape of the deceiver, which is bullshit since their meeting took place inside the warp and C'tan can't enter the immaterium. (Because it couldn't possibly be Cegorach, the Eldar Trickster God or anything, that has a similar silhouette) Skub aside, it is possible the meeting took place in some random planet despite the video showing it was zoomed in the warp for some reason (probably the old hag using her warp magic or something, despite being C'tan and all), on the other hand, the Eye of Terror still holds pockets of relatively stable real-space, besides, the Black Legion supplement talks about Abaddon's quest (the official one, not the one from the boards) where he finds some golden guy who gives him his sword, so all in all it may not be that non-canonical.
Oh, and it seems they got the same voice filter they used in Retribution to make Abby sound like himself, as well as Alfa Legion animation style combined with some beautiful 3D graphics which of course is gonna be highly exploitable for Youtube videos and whatnot. These campaign cutscenes provide bits of fanservice such aslesser and greater daemons of Slaanesh and colossal squigs making their first video game appearances.
Anyway. Rookie Spire quickly proves himself to be a highly capable Admiral running from flashpoint to flashpoint across the sub-sectors that make up the Gothic Sector in a giant game of whack-a-mole. Dealing with Heretics with extreme BLAM, Ork boyz eager to get in on the fights -up to and including taking on their space hulk and warboss- and of course those pointy eared xenos assholes known as the Eldar who seem to help and hinder you at the same time. With rarely enough resources to tackle all the problems each turn - so Tuesday for the Imperial Navy.
The main campaign is divided into three sub-campaigns.
First is the Prologue, which doubles as the tutorial. Based around the historical raids of the Chaos fleets looking for the 'Eye of Night' and 'Hand of Darkness'. Artifacts which in canon Failbaddon seized and was able to use eventually to turn on the Blackstone Fortresses because the Eldar are giant dicks leaving this stuff around. I mean this isn't a remote control you lost behind the couch for the TV here, but the keys to the ancient Eldars WMDs. Nice work fellas! Anyway, Spire CAN with some excellent work keep the artifacts safely out of the hands of Chaos and place them into the theoretically safer hands of the Inquisition, who get them out of the sector to safety. The game however defines them not as the remote controls, but as artifacts that would dramatically increase the power of warp storms and make warp travel harder. Which will have a very big multiplier effect when...
The second campaign is called, appropriately enough, the 12th Temper Tantrum Black Crusade. The Chaos attacks kick up in tempo and you're going to have to start making decisions on what missions to take and which ones to leave. Worlds can now be lost forever as Abby starts to nick those Blackstones and turn them against planets and eventually entire stars, something that isn't entirely clear to the Imperium at first, being distracted by his OTHER WMD; the aptly named Planet Killer. Which does give a sweet cutscene of it doing exactly what the name implies. Worlds that fall to the enemy strengthen them and weaken you in terms of keeping your fleet intact and supplied. Certain missions earn you 'favors' from factions within the Imperium consisting of the Navy, the Inquisistion, the Space Marines (Imperial Fists chapter), or the Cult Mechanicus which can be redeemed for bling for your battleships. Priority missions are tied to the fluff of the crusade and ignoring them can quickly lead to Bad Ends. The Ork threat reaches its peak here where, if you play your cards right, things will end with a typically hilarious showdown with the Ork Boss on a mobile Space Hulk in an asteroid field. Eliminate it and the Ork threat is neutralized.
The pointy eared annoyances can be turned to your side if you choose to do so and save them a few times which, at the least, free up resources and occasionally even bring them onto the field as an allied force (See image to know how advanced and resourceful is the AI player). Even as Failbaddon raises the stakes by blowing up star systems. OR you can wipe out the Xenos scum, destroy their webway gate and make sure that they know now and forever that the stars belong to the Imperium alone.
The final campaign, 'The Imperium Resurgent' has the Warp Storms as in canon dissipate and Imperial reinforcements start to arrive, leading to a final showdown. If you have done well, the space lanes should have mostly been cleaned at this point, with a few lost worlds that had to die by canon but otherwise a glut of resources to hammer down on any nails that stick up. If you have done poorly, then between Abbadon blasting planets, capturing planets and the Inquisition cheerfully burning worlds that remained captured too long, lose more of the Blackstones; in short, the Gothic sector will start to look increasingly empty if you fuck up that badly.
Either way, finally you will face down the Blackstones and Planet Killer at the historical Battle of Schindelgheist (with Eldar help if you chose to spare them). Where Captain Abridal on board the Flame of Purity (who had tagged along with you in a few battles as a support ship) makes his historical sacrifice in a cool cutscene and rams his ship into the convergence point of the three Blackstone warp cannons, causing the energy to feedback and shut them down. While you deal with the Planet Killer and blow it to all hell cripple it to the point that it escapes to show up a thousand years later in the 13th temper tantrum, along with two of the Blackstones that retreat.
One Blackstone is boarded, but Abbadon promptly hits the Self Destruct button causing it to shatter a short time later into a million pieces ... as the Deceivers silhouette looks on with no doubt a smug look on its face at the outcome. Just as planned!
Gameplay
So far it looks like a mix between Star Wars: Empire at War and Sins of a Solar Empire (Fitting, as there have been Battlefleet Gothic mods made for both). The game allows you to customize different ship classes with upgrades, which allows for limited personalization of fleets and specialization into different styles of naval warfare. With Tindalos announcing this has been quite a success support for the game and new features are ensured and while there are still some heavy concerns like the need to patch the eldar (the lead developer, AKA Admiral Ravensburg has recognized they need to be tuned) things look bright for the community, with the Space Marines coming in a first DLC (which is free for those of us who participated in the beta and gave our confidence to Tindalos) and then a second with the Tau, the possibility of adding later the Tyranids and the Necrons have been suggested.
Remember Chapter Master? Warp travel in the campaign is handled in much the same way as Chapter Master did it.
Tactics
Depending on the chosen faction, gameplay will encourage a certain tactical doctrine based on archetypal strengths and weaknesses, with the Imperial Navy being heavy tanks designed for medium to close combat brawls, Chaos having great long range attack capability, Orks being very assault oriented and Eldar favouring hit-and-run tactics and stealth.
Since changing ships and upgrade/skill loadouts consume limited in-game resources, players will most likely have to commit to a certain 'fleet build' in all game modes, with the leveling of new admirals and different builds within the same faction a likely time sink.
In the TT game, ship collision required a Ramming special order and was not automatic. In BFG: Armada ship collision is automatic and there is a maneuver resource that allows even very large (Imperial and Chaos, Orks and Eldar do not have this ability) capital ships to quickly turn and accelerate, making ramming a highly effective (albeit limited use) damage-dealer.
Point defense turrets are the default defense mechanism against torpedoes, bombers, and boarding craft. As ships take damage, they lose defense turrets in proportion to their health. This limits the effectiveness of the aforementioned tactics, especially at extreme ranges or against massed, undamaged ships. Late-game, however, when formations have likely broken up and as ships sustain damage, these become powerful offensives. While underestimated escorts can deal extremely heavy damage, with particular upgrades becoming highly effective against Eldar and Chaos harassers.
Most ships have a damage threshold which, when crossed, may force your ship to warp-out (or in the Eldar's case jump to the web-way, Tindalos thinks on everything), you can execute your captain to avoid the ship to flee, although you must be careful as sometimes running away is the best tactic and a ship heavily damage or destroyed won't be available for 1 or 2 turns respectively. Ships can also be lost in the warp, you can deny this by upgrading your navigator/equivalent.
Love Nova Cannons? Certain cruisers can be fit with these murder guns, allowing you to mass enough firepower from very far away to wreck minor ships with coordinated volleys, although being highly inaccurate you may need a few of them to land some decent damage. That aside, Imperial weaponry is high-alpha but low-medium ranged and heavily favors broadsides. Heavy armor but no special resistance to being boarded (aside from limited Ratings crew and Space Marines favour upgrades) means that Imperial ships prefer close-ranged shootouts but may struggle against dedicated assault fleets. Favours (specializations) include Imperial Navy (immune to insubordination and you can summon a Cobra), Inquisition (1 free bonus level for each crew member and you can reveal one enemy ship), Mechanicus (1 additional upgrade and skill slot), and Astartes(extra lighting action and boarding defense).
Your escorts can be effective in squadrons if you upgrade them properly. Sword-class Frigates benefit greatly from the armor-piercing macrocannon upgrade, while Firestorms can make good use of the lance range, anti-shield and crit upgrades. The turret upgrades also help in combating strike craft-based strategies. Cobras are fast and can be summoned as reinforcements with the Imperial Navy favour, making them pretty decent disposable firepower if you upgrade their macrocannons or engines, although their torpedos may feel a bit lack-luster.
Torpedoes should be fired right of the bat. Their spread makes them difficult to dodge at long range and can deal fairly significant damage/force the enemy to maneuver and thus be revealed. The skill reload lets you fire on average 3 full salvoes per ship before the engagement proper begins. Melta torpedoes are very good later in the game when emergency repairs are on cooldown.
Your light cruiser options are currently limited to Dauntless with Lances and Dauntless MkII with Torpedoes. Go for the lanceboat, although the case could be made for combining torpedos with micro warp jump (short range teleportation upgrade).
While Nova Cannons can be tempting they may be tricky to use, in previous versions they were quite broken, but Tindalos tuned them down, they are still fairly useful against incoming blobs of enemies but not that accurate as they may end up firing in empty areas and achieving pretty much nothing.
For those of you who like battleships, you may go for the Retribution Class, while this ship is terribly slow you could make an interesting build comboing maneuvering thrusters, fuel gauge, armour-piercing macro-cannons and a stasis bomb in order to get as close as possible to an enemy ship, keep it quiet, unleash a salvo of torpedoes and then finish them with your broadsides at close range, as with nearly other tactic in this game is not an automatic win but it may work decently for games such killing the transport ships or the Space Station where your victory conditions can't be sabotaged by a warp jump, you may also want to upgrade the Retribution with a power ram, while hard to pull this out, if you manage to get close enough for melee then you can throw a bunch of Consecutive Normal Punches by quickly turning on and off your thrusters to destroy anything short of another battleship in short order.
If you are feeling particularly manly today, get some Angry Marines favor on your light cruisers for extra effectiveness on boarding and lightning strikes as well as defense (they make your ships yellow as a free bonus), buy the light cruisers maneuvering thrusters, gauge, macro-cannon armor-piercing and then some hull upgrades, and send them in mass supported by yet another Angry Marine cruiser with the same configuration, be sure to write "FUUUUUUU---" when rushing as close as possible on the enemy for extra-lulz.
Chaos
What is this? Marks other than Khorne and Nurgle?! EXTRAHERESY! Ships aren't as tough as their Imperial counterparts but are faster, have longer range, and more powerful lances. Standard tactics basically involve playing keep-away and throwing out Deathclaws every 90 seconds to take advantage of the game's critical hit system, which can cripple an Imperial player with bad RNG, bombers are great too for dealing extensive damage, and against dedicated close combat factions such as the Orks and the Eldar refractor fields are life-savers. Alternatively, you'll want to really improve your lances and hit enemy ships from outside their sensor range, this can be tricky as you will need to get the enemy ships revealed, a work your escorts can do decently.
Don't forget to buy the micro-jump upgrade, as you need to stay away and be ready to maneuver yourself out of close combat heavy ordinance.
When it comes to marks, Nurgle is considered the best one as its area of effect means anyone who closes in with you will receive continuously damage, giving you a much needed buff against the other close-range oriented factions as well as additional resistance against boarding actions.
Khorne too gives some buffers to your boarding defenses and a bonus action when using lightning strikes, improving your chances of dealing critical damage to your opponents.
Slaanesh mark may be okayish when dealing with Orks as it breaks their morale, this being one of their weak points, it also has a power which blocks enemies from using special abilities, which may be helpful in order to shut some Eldar pulsar weaponry but that's it.
Tzeentch mark is situational too as it generates a very evident cloud which hides your ship an any close allies, you can also throw a false-signature beacon and switch place with it if you so want, but don't expect really much from it, with that said, it turns your ship into a magical flying castle which may be a fancy compensation.
Orks
Rest easy, because now your one stop shop for ramming and assault entertainment has arrived. All of your ships have a few "Kustom Points" that allow you to change out the basic build for something that is almost the same. Your options (at the time of this writing) are: 1) Lotz of Gunz, where you have, you know... a lot of small caliber gunz. Not that hard. This is the base option. 2) 'Evy Kannons, which are short range with a low RoF but pack a punch. If you take these, take the Macro-cannon range upgrade. 3) Hangars. What does it say on the god damn tin? Grab the extra teleporta upgrade to drop 3 assault actions at once on some poor squishy fool. Prow options: 1) Grot Prow Gunz. Not awful, but not world beating either. They're free if nothing else. 2) Mega Zzap gunz. They don't miss, but I never notice them actually doing damage either. Fore weapons: 1) Torps. Whats that bitching about torpedoes not being any good? Well, you're kinda right. BUT Orks get Boardin Torpz! Because cramming a bunch of Boyz into a tube and lobbing them at the enemy has never gone wrong in the history of ever, also, you can set them in auto with right-click, as the Boardin' torpedoz don't deal friendly damage. 2) Mega Kannonz. 90* forward arc lovin with good damage but Orky accuracy. Probably better than torpedoes if you having problems with manouvering your ships front on to the enemy.
For favors, half of the upgrades are crappy or just basic utility (extra upgrade slot and Grot Shokk attack gun for long range teleporation for the Bad Moons, a highly inaccurate Nova Kannon which can explode and Kommando training for running silent for the Blood Axes). For the more suicidal among us, you can choose some Goff action. It provides you with a flat boost to Troops (for and against assault actions) and then straps a giant can opener to the front of your ship to provide +50% ramming damage. If you can time your Big Red Button right, you can ram escorts to death in one shot, The downside is that you lose your fancy rust-and-red paint in favor of Black on black. The Red Sunz favor is actually great when combined with the Big Red Button as it gives your ship a traktor beam, use it to force enemies into the path of a bullrushing ship, extra-win if that ship has the Goff upgrade, accept no substitutes for catching scurry space elves.
Eldar
The last race to be implemented pre-release, and the archetypal glass-cannons, while eldar ships are extremely fragile (read, they can be easily killed by multiple simultaneous and devastating, offensive normal rams or boarding action) they are very difficult to catch as they move extremely fast, have great turning rates and holofields based on evasion, also their pulsar weapons are capable to destroy an enemy light cruiser in a couple of shots.
To further elaborate Eldar's shields decrease the accuracy of enemies weapons, which has make them more vulnerable at close range. Lance weapons always hit them so they act by giving a permanent negation percentage.
Tactics? Just keep moving, as the Aces High song says, run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die, fire your pulsars at convenient rates or get ships with launch bays so you don't have to maneuver your ships to target the enemy. Don't let yourself get caught or you are done. Remember to keep mashing the solar sails button, and that you don't have high energy turns or broadside weapons- so feel free to sail right past the enemy ships, and turn around in their rear arc before playing chicken over and over again. Don't get hit.
Eldar have their weaknesses and it will be good to consider them so you know what you have to deal with. Bombers and Lightning Strikes ignore holofields, so having a bunch of fighters escorting your ships may be a good upgrade, Nova Cannons and plasma bombs/stasis bombs, etc will pulverize you so avoid getting in their path. Make sure to target the generators since without it's holofields an Eldar ship will crumple with a few shots from any weapon. Eldar ships have an upgrade to give them a free fighter squadron to make up for their painful vulnerability to bombers, be careful of torpedoes which may draw those fighters. Eldar suffer crits at a much greater rate than other races, and sheer weight of fire can and will get through your holofields eventually. People will target your generators all times so you may do well to buy anti-critical upgrades. Eldar ships are paper and will just crumple up on the side of any colliding ships while barely scratching the paint so never ever ram.