New Ship (Eldar Nova)

Nova Class Light Cruiser (150 points)

The Nova class is a frightening new encounter among Eldar fleets. Originally mistaken for the Aurora class (indeed, it may simply be a modification of the same hull), the Nova is a fleet support ship which fights at an unusually long range for an Eldar vessel, one matched only by the Void Stalker battleship. Its fearsome lances outrange Imperial weapons short of a Battlecruiser, although its torpedo armament is good for little more than harassment.

Type/Hits	Speed		Turns	Shields	Armour		Turrets
Cruiser/4	15/20/30		Special	Holofields	4+		0
Armament		Range/Speed		Firepower/Str.		Fire Arc
Keel torpedoes		30cm		2		Front
Prow pulsar lance		45cm		2		Front

Famous Ships
Whelm, Lightfall

New Ship (Necron Exodus)

Exodus Class Harvest Ship (280 points)

Seemingly a variant of the Scythe Class ship, these newly encountered Harvest Ships sacrifice range and versatility for increased close-range assault power. Imperial forces have so far only had four or five encounters with an Exodus, but this distinctive vessel has certainly left an impression on its victims. Charging into point-blank range and unloading a particle whip array rivalling that of a battleship, the Exodus then disgorges cadres of warriors in numbers closer to those of a Tomb Ship than a cruiser. Most Exodus attacks are launched at single cruisers or small escort squadrons, situations where the lack of a mass-firing lightning arc is compensated for by the precision of the particle whip.

Type/Hits	Speed		Turns	Shields	Armour		Turrets
Cruiser/8	35cm Intertialess		45*	(5+ save)	6+		2
Armament		Range/Speed		Firepower/Str.		Fire Arc
Gauss particle whip		30cm		6		Left/front/right
Star pulse generator		20cm		(1 per enemy)		All around
Portal		10cm		2		Left/front/right

 

Notes

The Exodus class gains a +1 Leadership bonus when attempting the All Ahead Full special order.

 

Due to the intense power consumed by the oversized portal matrix, the Exodus is slower to regenerate from damage, so must re-roll any successful damage control repair results.

New Ship (Eldar Dawn)

Eldar Dawn Class Cruiser (225 points)

The Dawn Class cruiser seems to be a new development, although many previous sightings may have been misidentified as the Shadow class. The Dawn class seems to be reserved for brief but heavy assaults or delivering the killing blow to an already crippled vessel. It differs from the Shadow in the construction of its solar sails, and in the use of lances instead of torpedoes.

The most complete data on this ship was first retrieved from the burnt-out computers of the hulk of the Heroic Anomaly, but an Imperial ship has yet to both report a confirmed sighting in any detail and survive. Only one individual Eldar vessel has been tentatively identified, by a distinctive pattern of scarring across the prow, codenamed the Emergent Sun and feared for its merciless pulsars.

Type/Hits	Speed		Turns	Shields	Armour		Turrets
Cruiser/6	10/20/25		Special	Holofields	4+		0
Armament		Range/Speed		Firepower/Str.		Fire Arc
Prow weapons b.		30cm		8		Front
Keel pulsar lance		30cm		3		Left/front/right

Famous Ships

Emergent Sun

Comment
This marks the first Eldar vessel on Dark Sector Armada. The Eldar are one of the most unique and complex fleets in BFG and I was very hesitant to mess around with them. The Eldar are the only unbalanced core fleet in the game, able to slaughter Orks, but in turn slaughtered by Necrons. I myself have a 100% defeat rate while fighting Necrons with Eldar. Although not the only reason for creating the Dawn Class, I am hoping it will fill a gap in the Eldar fleet list - a gap sorely needed against Necrons. I know this is somewhat 'putting lipstick on a pig', in that there will always be an imbalance at the core; but it may even the playing field a little bit.

The ships of Dark Sector are not primarily designed to fix imbalances - generally they just make fleets slightly more versatile or give them new options, but if I can help with some imbalances too, that can't be a bad thing! I have plans for many Ork vessels too, some of which will be gap-filling enough to give them slightly more hope against Eldar.

The Skaven Fleet

The Skaven Fleet

I hinted at this all those months ago with the Skricket's Tails (part one here). In fact, most of the fleet was finished before I relocated and took my break from Dark Sector. Well anyway, here it is.

I always thought the Skaven were perfect to be put into 40K: what's not to love about teeming millions of rats infesting the sewers of hive worlds or the guts of warships and then bursting forth to slaughter the surface world? Or, even better, their talent for building insane technological marvels out of rubbish? Add into WHFB's existing warp-based technology theme, and mad rats on crapscrap ships with big warp-ripping cannons just comes naturally...

Rather than posting each ship individually, the fleet is available as a PDF download here (safe link to Dropbox).

The Skaven have been tested in battle, the battle report will be appearing shortly.

New Ship (Tyranid Seedership)

Tyranid Seedership (55 points)

Type/Hits	Speed		Turns	Shields	Armour		Spores
Cruiser/4	20cm		45*	-	5+		2
Armament		Range/Speed		Firepower/Str.		Fire Arc
Seed		See below		1 orbital mine		-

0-1 Thorax Weapon

Armament	Range/Speed	Firepower/Str.	Fire Arc
Pyro-Acid	30cm	6	Front/left/right
Feeder tentacles	Contact	Special	-

Thorax Weapon: The Tyranid Seedership may choose to take one of the thorax weapons above at a cost of +10 points.

Notes

In the shooting phase, a Seedership can place one Orbital Mine in base contact with itself instead of shooting in the phase. It may have a number of Orbital Mines on the battlefield at a time equal to its remaining hitpoints. If it has less hitpoints than mines, the mines are not removed from play, but the Seedership may not spawn any more.

New Ship (Chaos Resurgent)

Resurgent Class Grand Cruiser (220 points)

The Resurgent class is an ambitious project designed to restore the formerly prestigious chaos flagships. In practice, no shipyard under chaos control is capable of building a brand new battleship, but a few are capable of assembling something resembling the old Grand Cruiser type of ship, supplementing the dozen or so Repulsive classes still in chaos service. None of the new Grand Cruiser patterns are capable of fully matching the technological marvel of the old Repulsive class, but are still deadly combatants and are popular as flagships for the new generation of warmasters.

The Resurgent class generally resembles the Repulsive, but sacrifices the range of the old model’s weaponry so that its weaker, scratch-built engines may still retain a useful combat speed, and it can still afford to power the iconic dorsal lances. The side-mounted weapons lack the reach of the elder patterns but are more potent in a close-range brawl.

In some ways it is a down-grade from the Repulsive, but can be built anew, and created a nasty surprise for Port Noxa, who had been expecting an attack from Murder or Carnage class ships and instead received a pair of never-seen-before grand cruisers. Their surprise was short-lived…

 

Type/Hits	Speed		Turns	Shields	Armour		Turrets
Cruiser/10	20cm		45*	2	5+		3
Armament		Range/Speed		Firepower/Str.		Fire Arc
Port weapons b.		30cm		18		Left
Starb. weapons b.		30cm		18		Right
Dorsal lance b.		30cm		3		Left/front/right
Prow torpedoes		30cm		6		Front

Famous Ships
Dark Hope, Denunciation, Purge

Notes

The Dark Hope is equipped with advanced communication and control equipment salvaged from a ruined battleship, increasing its Leadership rating by 1. This upgrade costs +25 points.

The Denunciation may exchange its weapon batteries to the heresy pattern of Firepower 14, 45cm range, at the cost of reducing its speed from 20cm to 15cm. This exchange does not affect points.

The Resurgent class can be modelled by using a Repulsive class model, possibly shortening the barrels of its weapon batteries.

Dark Sector is back!

So... the last 8 months have been something of a real-life adventure.

Since I last posted here, I got married, immigrated from the UK to the USA, and Dark Sector has been on the back-burner in favour ('favor'?) of real-life projects and my Assembled Worlds series (upcoming RPG games and supplements which I won't plug any further).

I have a collection of material I've written over these 8 months (and before that) which will be being posted over the coming weeks and months, so keep checking back!!