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.

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.

New Ship (Chaos Agony)

Agony Class Light Cruiser (130 points)

 

The Agony class is a variant of the newly popular Torment class, and account for a quarter to a third of all the newly built Chaos light cruisers. Agonies typically use their speed to intercept or pursue a convoy of transports, then release their deadly nest of attack craft. Only one Agony has ever been hulked by Imperial forces, the majority use their speed and manoeuvrability to escape and disengage if threatened by serious military force.

The Wrathbringer was hulked by the Dauntless class Exemplar of Perth after being hounded by the Inem Via squadron of escorts. Imperial fleets in sectors with increased sightings of Chaos Light Cruisers are bringing more and more escorts and light cruisers of their own in response to this threat.

A few Warmasters use light cruisers to bulk out their fleets of large cruisers, rather than to enact skirmishes and pursuits, particularly they are more easily constructed at poorly-resourced worlds. Such light cruisers are usually of the Agony pattern, increasing the attack craft capacity of the fleet at a reasonably low cost. The Fallen Pains squadron which ravaged the Decate system was comprised of one ancient Devastation-class cruiser and two newly built Agonies, a lethal combination of carriers.

 

Type/Hits	Speed		Turns	Shields	Armour		Turrets
Cruiser/6	30cm		90*	1	5+		1
Armament		Range/Speed		Firepower/Str.		Fire Arc
Prow weapons b.		30cm		2		Front/left/right
Dorsal launch bay		Swiftdeath: 30cm Doomfire: 20cm		2		-

 

Famous Ships

Wrathbringer, Scourge of Andrias

 

Notes

Agonies have advanced thrusters which provide +5d6 to movement when on All Ahead Full orders instead of +4d6. They also possess advanced sensor and communication arrays and adds +1 to its Leadership value after rolling.

The Wrathbringer can remove this sensor array, losing the Leadership bonus, to increase its prow weapons battery to Firepower 6 at no extra cost.

Any Agony class may take Dreadclaw Assault Boats for +10 points.


Comment
Well, there we have the third of the Chaos Light Cruisers. I've tried to differentiate them in construction and tactics from any existing vessel while making them interesting and useful in game. Let me know what you think!