minis for BFG

[jdripley]

Hey there

 

I've become overwhelmed by the desire to try out a space fleet battle game. I have the rules for Full Thrust and Battlefleet Gothic, but don't care for the whole "write down your orders" part of Full Thrust, so I'm gonna give BFG a try. I'm not going to pay GW prices for minis though! $35 for a battleship?? Seriously... I made an attempt at kitbashing some models......... and we'll leave that right where it is.

 

So! Where can I purchase starship models that would do the trick? In my searching I found various galleries and a few UK retailers, but nothing in the US.

[CyberShadow]

The Star Ranger is your friend:

 

http://www.star-ranger.com/Minis.htm

 

I have a load of BFG and FT ships. The FT stuff is very nice indeed. Space Dreadnought stuff is also great, if a little lacking in detail on some vessels.

[Nanite]

Do you want something like the science-fantasy style of BFG? That might be harder to come by.

 

Brigade games makes a line called Iron Stars that could fit the bill, but I would look on ebay first.

 

I've been toying around with doing my own Science-Fantasy ships, in a Wells or Vern style. If I ever get something done I'll post.

[Lars Porsenna]

While BFG is a fun game, the only real draw for me is the figures. I really can't understand why someone would play a game and use some other minis.

 

And to be fair, while a BB is $35 it contains a lot of parts and a lot of metal. Worth $35 IMHO.

 

Damon.

[robertsjf]

and then there's the plastic cruiser boxes. worth every penny....

[anvil]

My Imperial BFG force has 2 BB's, 8 CA's, 4 CL's and 36+ DD's. The only thing I sometimes feel short of is the plastic cruisers, but that is probably due to the way I built them. (1ea. of the various classes) I would add more Nova cannon ships if I had more to build. Since I average 1 game every 2 years, it's not high on my priorities list.

Currently I'm working on the Starmada ships from Brigade. They are very nice, I'll post pics when I finish.

[Nanite]

If anyone has old Citadel Space fleet minis to part with I would be all over them! I love the flying cathedral look.

[warlordgarou]

If anyone has old Citadel Space fleet minis to part with I would be all over them! I love the flying cathedral look.

I might have the figs that came with the original Space Fleet box. I can't check right now, since I am busy repainting (and waterproofing) the basement, so I can't get to my gaming stuff for another couple of weeks.

[jdripley]

I do really like the style that BFG minis are sculpted in. I'm a big fan of the "high tech with an early Industrial Revolution" style. I'm embarrassed that I can't think of a better example than the animated movie Atlantis where they take the big old submarine, all the digging equipment and all of that... You get the idea.

 

I'd take a more ... modern? .... look though, so long as the line had sufficient variety to have at least one representative for each class.

 

While we're on the topic of BFG - Fighters..... How exactly does that work? I get the rules on how they interact with other fighters, ordinance, ships, and so forth. All of which ends in "remove it from the table" (well, mostly..). Is that it? Can't use them ever again? I really like the idea of a "carrier" type ship, that has its power in sending out many waves of fighters and bombers. But if you only get your one or two waves of fighters and then that's it, that's alot less exciting to me. Especially when they do similar things as Torpedoes and you can fire them until kingdom come.

 

Thanks for the links and ideas on minis that would work!

 

Jim

[anvil]

Fighters are treated like torpedoes when it comes to reloading. Somewhere in an errata or supplement there is a rule that you can't have more fighters on the table than you have launch bays. Once they are used up through dogfights or attacks, you simply give the carrier the "reload" order. Don't roll doubles on the command check, and you can load fighters all day. You are correct (mostly) that they are one use only items though. Eldar fighters and Space Marine Thunderhawks get a 50% chance to survive a dogfight to be used again without relaunching.

[Froggy the Great]

I don't know how canonical it is any more, but there was a formula published in one of the BFG Magazines a few years back (stopped paying attention about the time CAV1 was in full swing) that had build costs for BFG ships of the time. Search for "Fleetmaster" and you might be able to find the Visual Basic app that did the work for you.

 

Just widening your options here.

[CyberShadow]

BFG is a game that I actually know a little about...

 

The rules for fighters (and, to a certain extent, torpedoes) was altered.

 

First edition had the carrier vessels able to throw out almost unlimited numbers of fighters, until a double was rolled for the reload order check. When a fighter encountered a torpedo salvo, or another attack craft counter, or a bomber conducted a bomb run, the counter is removed. It is simply assumed that the wing returns to the barn for reloading and refueling.

 

Second edition (or, more properly, version 1.5) changed this. Now, there can never be more attack craft wings/counters in play than the total launch capacity of the fleet. However, the same rules apply to 'recycling' wings/counters.

 

The problem with attack craft is that they are inherently powerful. Restricting them to a one shot would have reduced them to a side show, while the initial rules turned the game into a later WWII naval game, where swarms of fighters circled and built up in protection until they stormed towards the enemy.

 

Certain attack wing types, such as Thunderhawks and Eldar, remain in play on a 4+ rather than automatically returning to base ship, but otherwise behave in the same way.

 

As for Space Fleet, the minis were really cool - particularly the Eldar models.

 

The ship design formula is properly called the Smotherman Formula, and is available on Port Maw, here:

http://www.portmaw.com/download.php?list.8

 

It is an excellent tool, as long as it is treated as a guide, a place to start playtesting from.

 

OK, now I feel duty bound to advertise my own site...

 

Some battle reports are here:

http://www.epic40k.co.uk/force/index.html#report

 

Every BFG player should certainly read Warp Rift:

http://www.epic40k.co.uk/bfgmag/index.html

 

And new rules are here (including a complete index of every BFG printed GW magazine listing where to find the rules):

http://www.epic40k.co.uk/rules/index.html#gothic

 

Hope that this helps.

[sethohman]

BFG is, IMO, one of the best games GW ever put out. Complex, but not overly so. Awesome minis, and you can play for pretty cheap, compared to most other games.

 

My Chaos has no escorts, but with the Planet Killer, who needs them. And Necron just rock, and look cool.

 

For $35, you get a large chunck of metal, with very high detail. Better buy than some other compaines $20 battleships, anyway, IMO. They are about the biggest space models I have seen (granted, I haven't seen too many).

 

My $0.04 (taking into account the low US Dollar)

 

Mike

[Lars Porsenna]

I agree you get your moneys-worth in metal, though as an aside, I kind of wish they were Resin main components. I was looking at one of my BFG battletships the other night, and forgot how heavy they can be...

 

Damon.

[jdripley]

How many ships are you looking at for a "typical" sized force? What is the build total that most players end up settling on as "big enough to have fun, but small enough so that it doesn't take forever?"

 

Of course you could play a tiny game with a cruiser and just a few escorts. And then you can play a game where you have the max number of battleships and all of the required cruisers, plus a wasps nest of escorts. But do most players end up liking Battleship and necessary cruisers and then 4-8ish escorts? Or 2 cruisers and 3-6 escorts?