If you have any questions for Andy Chambers, you can e-mail them to me or join the BFG List and ask him directly on the list.
Had a battle in which I was using fighter and bomber ordnance. Was using the counters with the game and had them in one tall stack of eight counters. Are you supposed to spread them out so they are touching, or is the stacking alright to do?
A: You should spread them, though this was a convention we only introduced to make sure that people using models on stands weren't at a disadvantage.
The other area I was wondering about was boarding torpedoes. They move into contact with a ships base. You make the ships turret rolls then the torp. to hit rolls etc. But what happens with the torps. that dont hit? Do they keep moving like normal torps?,
A: Yep, treat like normal torps
or are they just removed?
We know that if you are dense eneough to be hit by your own torpedo marker you get hit by it, but how would this effect boarding torpedoes. Would they still strike a friendly craft (I hope so, it would serve them right for maneuvering like drunk monkeys on crack!).
A: No, not in the case of boarding torps
If you have a ship with torpedoes and launch bays and it fires its attack craft in turn one but not its torpedoes. In the second turn will it have to re-load ordanance to be able to fire the torpedoes, or may they be fired normally. The rules on page 27 were kind of confusing (at least to us) so any clarification would be welcome.
A: No, they way we play it you could fire your torps later (sometimes this can be hard to keep track of in large games, but not that hard)
May a vessel move through torpedoes without their attacking the vessel? It seems so. The rules a) specify that the torps must move onto the base of the ship and b) torp attacks are contemplated only during the ordnance phase, when the *torpedoes* move. We had an Imperial cruiser launch a spread that ended up 1cm away from down-the-neck of a Chaos cruiser, which then failed its retro morale check. As a result, it steamed right through the torpedoes, but we could not find any reason for the torpedoes to attack the lucky ship!
If we were mistaken, and this is one of those "do us a favor" moments, please elaborate on how "brace for impact" may be employed in this case, as it is allowed only during the enemy's shooting phase and the ordnance phase.
A: The way I play (which isn't the way the rule is written unfortunately) When a ship contacts Ordnance the ordnance attacks it, who moved into who is not important, otherwise it is completely illogical.
Again the rules for brace for impacrt specify the shooting and ordnance phases but I allow ships to (try to) brace at any time - it's also relevant vs asteroid fields, ships exploding and so on. There's no game balance issues here -the braced ship will always have to pay later by reducing its fp and not using special orders in its next turn.
Also, can squadrons of ordnance from different bays be combined at launch into one large wave? Your Despoiler fires ordnance from the port and starboard launch bays, wondering if I can make an 8 counter wave.
A: Ooooh yes!
I think I understood this one, but I wanted to ask anyway - I have 4 escorts with Strength 2 torpedoes launch a combined volly of Strength 8. The enemy fires a Strength 2 torpedo at them. The two hit and both "markers" are removed? Is that right or is the S2 marker removed and the S8 goes down to S6?
A: The S8 marker is removed
On this topic, what determines the size of a torpedo marker? Is there a "regulation" size marker that corresponds to a certain strength? It's easy enough to use the markers in the box, but what about combined salvoes or markers made by hand? Could one make a Stregth 10 marker only 1/2" wide (or, for that matter 6" or more wide)? Any guidelines even?
A: The markers in the box are the right size, they should be treated as the equivalent of a template size in 40K /WFB etc
Fighter and Bombers can move in any direction, but can they change direction mid-flight in one turn (5cm forward, turn 30 degrees, 5 cm forward, 90 degrees right, 10 more cm forward...)?
A: Yep, they can wiggle as much as they like
Do the ordnance markers need to be oriented in any particular way? Can a player position them so that they present the slim edge of the marker , making them more difficult to hit with other ordnance or more able to avoid blast markers?
A: No, a spread of torps must be placed with widest edge in the direction of travel for example.
Also, when rolling for Torpedos that have flown through blast markers, do you roll for every blast marker they touch, or just once if hey fly through any blast markers. It seemed if you roll for every one, they tended to die quickly, but it did not make sense if it didn't get harder for several disturbances to not effect the torpedos. One thing I thought was that a group of blast markers that are all touching would be considered 1 blast marker for this, and any subsequent groups would have to be rolled again.
Diagram:
T
T B B B
SHIP
T B B
T B
T
Would the torpedos check 6 times, two times or one time?
A: One time.
A weapon battery is firing at ordnance at long range and through blast markers (okay, this doesn't happen to often, but at least one of these modifiers could very well take place), meaning two column shifts to the right (the same could happen for escorts abeam). What happens?
A: Column shifts can never take you off the table in either direction. 'Excess' column shifts are ignored.
As most ships have turrets, the number of attacks of most bombing runs will be reduced. Can they be reduced below 1? Can they be reduced below Zero?
A: They can be reduced to a minimum of 0
When launching torps. Must they be launched straight ahead in the direction that the launching ship is firing or may they be angled of as long as the entire template rests with in the front firing arc? (The question came up when we had three Cobras, all in base on contact, but one was facing in a slightly different direction from the rest. Their front arcs did overlap.)
A: Front arc
Is the ordnance resolved as they come into contact with a target or after all ordnance has been moved? (Question arose when a torp spread made contact with a cruiser which was contacted in the same phase by an bomber wave).
A: My approach is to do all ordnance moves and then resolve attacks, who gets there first isn't terribly relevant really
We had the ordnance all move first before resolving. The concern is that if they are resolved as they are moved, then we could have the blast markers from the first ordnance attack wiping out subsequent attacks in the same phase. We thought about pro-rating the movement to see which got there first. Personally I think that prorating would be better.
Also since both sides move ordnance during the movement phase, do we go simultanously or what? With the manueverability of the attack craft, we found that if one side moves first before the other side, then a CAP of fighters is useless.
A: As stated in the rules, the phasing player moves his ord first (p27)
Do you reload ordnance immediatley after you fire it, or do you have to spend a turn reloading before you can use it again? I.e., does 'reload ordnance' work exactly like other special orders?
A: Assuming your ordnance is unloaded at the beginning of the turn, if you use reload ordnance you will be able to launch it that turn, ships are always considered as starting the game with ordnance loaded.
How to resolve the fighters vs. figters and/or bombers combat?
If I attack with a lone fighter counter against a wave containing e.g. 2 fighter
sqds and 3 bombers, do I:
a/ remove my fighters and one enemy fighers counter
b/ my fighters and all enemy fighters
c/my fighters and all enemy counters
A: a/
If I attack with a lone fighers counter a wave containing only several bomber
counters do I:
a/ remove all bombers
b/ remove one counter as I attacked with only one
A: b/
In general: is it correct to resolve the "flyers" combat on 'one on one' basis? ie. one attacker can kill/fend off only one defender. The rules are not very clear about that there is only said that when you place fighters in a wave together with bombers the enemy has to kill fighters first but I' not quite sure how to understnd that.
A: Basically each fighter squadron (ie each marker) can destroy one fighter/bomber/assault boat squadron or torpedo salvo (ie one other marker)
If my opponent has a wing of 3 fighters and 3 bombers, and I send in one Fighter what happens? Does he lose one fighter or all fighters?
A: One fighter
Is ordnance movement measured base to base? I launched 4 assault boats, in a wave facing Eldar ships. When they moved, one could just come into contact with one of the Eldar, but he thought it should be measured stem to stem. How is it?
A: Stem of the launching ship to base of the target.
Do attack Craft turn at the start of there move or can they turn as much as they want when ever they want.
A: They can manoeuvre whenever they want.
7) Can you drive ships through fighter/assault boat/bombers and use your turrets to clean them up? This is mostly used on fighters, but can you suicide an escort in to a stack of bombers?
A: According to the rules ordnance only attacks if it moves into you but in our group we resolve attacks from ordnance markers if the ship moves into them during its movement - including turrets etc.
Do torps have to roll for detonation for each blast marker they pass through or just once and also asteroid fields
A: Just once, torps detonate if they hit asteroids
Can a Boarding torpedo turn the phase it is lanched in (i.e. giving it a 180' fire arc)?
A: No, they can only start turning when it's in 'free flight'
The question concerns ord and low orbit. I am an eldar player and I was wondering if it is possible for me to hide in low orbit and "pop" out to shoot at ships and then return to low orbit.
A: Well, you may not enter low orbit and leave it again in the same turn (p48) so I would rule that the reverse is true, you can't leave low orbit and return to it in the same turn.
Also, is it possible for my bombers and fighters to go to low orbit to hide?
A: Subject to not enter and leaving low orbit in the same turn I see no reason why not
My last question is if I am in low orbit and launch fighters or bombers, can they leave low orbit?
A: Provided they are not launched by ground defences, yes
Ordance - Help!
Is there a maximum amount of Ordance that can be in play at one time. In large battles 3000+ I can forsee large amounts of ordance in play for both sides if they have it?
A: There is no limit intended, although you could always impose one if it was a problem in playing the game (not enough markers available etc).
Just out of curiousity, since fighters can hurt ships at all, why would the turrets fire at them and instead concentrate on assault boats and bombers instead?
Optional rule?: Allow fighters to strafe a ship and on a 5 or 6 let them knock out 1 turret. Could be repaired as a crit at end of turn. 1 roll to repair them all. If hit enough times, would count as multiple crits. Emperor turrets hit 1-5 times=1 cdrit, 6-10 =2 crits. Normal escort(1 turret) hit 1 time=1 crit. hit 3 times=3 crits.
A: Seems a cool house rule, I've been considering something similar so that each fighter squadron included in a bomber wave reduces the turret value by one when the bombers roll their number of attacks to represent the fighters suppressing the turrets.
We had a 4000 point battle and a very interesting situation came up. We had a flight of bombers and torpedoes approaching a chaos ship at the same time. The rules say you can fire at either torpedoes or bombers, but not both. Simple enough. He chose to shoot at the torpedoes. The bombers came in for their attack. The bombers could not be shot at because the turrets were shot at the torpedoes. When the bombers attack, would they get 1d6 or 1d6-2 attacks per squad?
A: It's still D6-2, it represents the sheer volume of flak spoiling the bombers aim (even if it isn't aimed right at them)
Can you split your fire of turrets againt different targets? IE: With an Emperor (5 turrets), could you fire 3 of them against torpedoes and 2 of them against attack craft?
A: No, I always imagined the turrets cover different areas so splitting fire would leave gaping holes in the defences
First, let me quote from the BFG Q&A on Ordnance:
> Q: May a vessel move through torpedoes without their attacking the
> vessel? It seems so. The rules a) specify that the torps must move onto
> the base of the ship and b) torp attacks are contemplated only during the
> ordnance phase, when the *torpedoes* move. We had an Imperial cruiser
> launch a spread that ended up 1cm away from down-the-neck of a Chaos
> cruiser, which then failed its retro morale check. As a result, it steamed
> right through the torpedoes, but we could not find any reason for the
> torpedoes to attack the lucky ship!
>
> A: The way I play (which isn't the way the rule is written unfortunately)
> When a ship contacts Ordnance the ordnance attacks it, who moved into who
> is not important, otherwise it is completely illogical.
When would one resolve the Ordnance attack in this situation, assuming it is allowed to attack per the Answer above? The below example with attack craft ordnance can up in gameplay (which adds a different twist vs. torpedoes as the torps can't turn around):
The Boneslinger, (Devastation cruiser) launches a bomber wave at an Imperial Dauntless cruiser 30cm away approaching from astern. The bombers move 20cm, so are only 10cm away directly in front of the Dauntless. In the Imperials turn, the Dauntless fails retros check, and must move 12.5 cm before turning. At 10cm the Dauntless passes into the bomber wave during the Imperials movement phase. How should this be resolved?
>
B
>
B
> Chaos
B Impy
> Carrier
B Cruiser
>
--->
<-------
a) According the the Official Rules, the Dauntless shoots past the bombers with no harm done and can shoot lances at the Boneslinger. The bombers turn in their Ordnance move to attack the Dauntless (15cm away at this point), but the damage to the carrier has already been done (potentially);
b) The Dauntless must stop its move at the bombers and the Ordnance attack is resolved then and there before the Dauntless continues it's movement and shooting phase;
c) The Dauntless stops movement at the bombers, may commence shooting in the shooting phase, and the Ordnance is resolved in the Ordnance phase. If this is the case, does the Dauntless get to shoot direct fire at the bomber wave if it so chooses?;
d) The Dauntless stops movement at the bombers and may NOT commence shooting that round, and must wait for the Chaos Ordnance phase (not a likely ruling, I know)
I guess the issue is whether Andy C. envisioned that the bombers are
"alert" enough to intercept a ship rushing past them in the non-Ordnance move
phase (ie. would the bombers be caught "off-guard" and not prepared to attack at
that point?). As well, there is the issue of whether the Dauntless can choose to ignore
the bomber wave and focus on the capital ship, or, must it solve the bomber problem first
(I do not mean this as a "target priority" question, more of a hypothetical
strategy question: What should the Captain do?).
The Q&A to the Torpedo question would seem to favour answer b) but I don't want any
Imperials complaining about disrupting the Turn order. As well, if the answer favours
scenario b), should the Dauntless be allowed to continue it's movement, or did it use up
its move dodging bombers?
A: OK , I've left all the answers in place so that Tim H knows what we're on about. 'By the book' the bombers don't attack at all because they haven't moved into contact, but if i had a time machine I'd change that. However, for the way I play normally the answer to the question is b), stop the ships's move while the ordnance attack is worked out and then carry on moving again. No movement is lost (ships are way too sluggish to try and dodge attack craft) but damage applies immediately. Hope that helps.