Editing Imperial Navy Light Cruiser (section)

== In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2 ==

Just like on the Tabletop, the Light Cruisers in the video games are an economical way of filling out one's fleet, gaining a fast-moving unit without losing out on formidable firepower. In the first game your only options are the Dauntless variants, though in the second game your options are greatly expanded, with only the Siluria, Defender and Enforcer classes missing. For the latter two this doesn't really matter anyway, as the Dauntless and Defiance fill the same roles respectively.

'''Dauntless''' hulls are significantly faster than other types, and combined with the prow armour bonus, makes them surprisingly effective rams. Said prow armour also synergises nicely with the MK-I's heavy prow lance artillery, giving them a potent sting while allowing them to actually make use of the armour bonus by keeping it between the ship and the enemy. However, this does come at a notable increase in cost, to the point where if you have the points it's normally better to just take a cruiser instead, and if what you really want are lances that shoot forward you'd likely be better served by a trio of Firestorm escorts.

The '''Endurance''' and '''Endeavour''' are introduced in BFGA2. Though slower than Dauntless-style hulls, and lacking the prow armour, they make up for this with stronger broadsides and being noticeably cheaper. However, they tend to be overlooked as taking two is pricier than buying a full cruiser and individually they're quite a bit more fragile even without the lack of prow armour. Their torpedo capabilities are also quite limited, firing just two projectiles compared to four on the MK-II Dauntless and six on the true cruisers; a close-range torpedo barrage can be devastating, and they just don't have the staying power or damage output to justify it (and you'll need to micro two vessels instead of one to actually land all the torps).

The Endeavour holds the surprising distinction of THE highest per-point broadside DPS in the entire Imperial Navy roster, narrowly beating out the [[Avenger-class Grand Cruiser|Avenger grand cruiser]]. It's also, point-for-point, one of the toughest vessels you have. This means that spamming packs of Endeavours is actually a valid tactic, giving you a deceptively potent punch which needs very little micro to be effective and allows you to spend your clicks elsewhere. However, unlike the Avenger it mounts just one gun per flank, making it much more vulnerable to critical hits on its weaponry; it also has an appreciably smaller crew size and lacks the ramming spur, as well as suffering from the mass of a light cruiser hull, meaning less opportunities to trade efficiently with ramming and more boarding vulnerability.

Also, you can rely on this ship in conjunction with Firestorms to clear out enemy escorts for the sake of your torpedo attacks and attack craft.

The class that tends to see the most use here is the '''Defiant'''. This is your absolute cheapest option for getting strike craft in your fleet, and if you all you want is something to deploy interceptors defensively (which is much more important in BFGA2 due to bombers' increased lethality), this is the best way of doing it. This does come at a cost though; while it's your cheapest carrier, for just 10% more you could take a Gothic cruiser and even the Dictator isn't really ''that'' much more expensive, while being far more survivable and actually having weapons capable of fighting back.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Battlefleet Gothic]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Imperial Navy]]

[[Category: Vehicles]]

[[Category: Ships]]

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