New Ship (Imperial Ironclad)

Imperial Ironclad Class Cruiser (180 points)

The Ironclad is the brainchild of Planetary Governor Abel Stanten, of the mining world Agraxos II. Lacking any Battleship force in his surrounding area, and reasoning that the endurance of a lead ship in a cruiser squadron is more important than its offensive ability, he ordered two damaged Lunar class cruisers to be refitted with additional armour instead of reinstating the prow-mounted and some of the side-mounted weaponry. The result was a class able to take enormous punishment while acting as a lynchpin for the rest of a cruiser squadron to operate around.

After initial success against Ork pirates, the two Ironclads were overhauled from the inside out, and an additional ship was built from scratch by the mining world, and named for its governor. All compartments and bulkheads were reinforced with quadruple-concentrate rockcrete, additional spaced armour and ablative plating was added to the prow and sides. Additional failsafe systems were installed for the plasma drives, more efficient energy overflows for the weapons systems, and other features ensuring maximum durability against both artillery and boarding parties. Reduced weapon systems meant the number of crew required to man the ship was cut by nearly 30%. Although this results in fewer defenders against boarding actions, the additional defences and segmenting of the compartments which do contain crew balances this out.
 

Type/Hits	Speed		Turns	Shields	Armour		Turrets
Cruiser/8	20cm		45*	2	6+/5+ rear		2
Armament		Range/Speed		Firepower/Str.		Fire Arc
Port lance b.		30cm		2		Left
Starb. lance b.		30cm		2		Right
Port weapons b.		30cm		4		Left
Starb. weapons b.		30cm		4		Right

 

Famous Ships

Abel Stanten, Agraxos, Iron Fist

Notes

The Ironclad class is somewhat cumbersome, and cannot use Come To New Heading special orders. However, the ship gains +1 Leadership when attempting a Brace For Impact order, and all critical hits against the prow are ignored (instead of counting as the next result on the table).

The Abel Stanten may upgrade its turret array from 2 to 3 at a cost of +10 points.

The Ironclad class can be modelled by halving the width of the Weapons Batteries (a quarter off of each end) and filling the gaps with massive armour plating. The torpedo launchers on the prow should also be plated over.

Items for Sale

Items for Sale

Don’t worry, ‘for sale’ posts like these shouldn’t be coming up too often. As the only real source of original BFG models is eBay, it quite often occurs that one bids on a listing which contains more ships than one needs. (Not that it would ever occur that one bids on a listing which contains no ships that one needs at all – not ever! …), and so, the spare ships have to go somewhere. I run an eBay account (which also sells antique books and other things from time to time). An up-to-date listing can be found there (link), but here’s just one delicious piece to whet your appetite.

 

 Please note the above Lunar has been sold, and pretty quickly at that! Looks like other people still play BFG...

New Ship (Imperial Vanguard)

Imperial Vanguard Class Cruiser (170 points)

The Vanguard class is not a common sight, not due to unpopularity, expense, or difficulty of manufacture, but due to having a specialist role. The Vanguard is popular on the outer rims of the galaxy, in systems vulnerable to the dark sectors beyond known space. Increasingly, forces on the Eastern fringe are commissioning a single Vanguard class per fleet, especially by regions left empty by the Tyranid Hive Fleets.

Vanguards replace the traditional armoured torpedo prow with an advanced array of sensors, probes, and communication systems. They act as scouts and patrol ships for extended voyages and periods beyond the endurance of an escort or light cruiser.

Most of the Vanguard class swap raw firepower for additional range on their weapons batteries, in order to act more self-sufficiently without requiring fleet support. Some admirals argue that retaining the lance arrays is a waste on ostensibly an oversized scout vessel, but the dual array helps the Vanguard class engage enemy destroyers and raiders who would otherwise slip through the inaccurate weapon battery fire. Such was well-proven when the Beacon single-handedly engaged and disbanded a whole squadron of pirate frigates, forcing them to abandon a valuable hulk salvage on the edge of the Aoso system.

 

Type/Hits	Speed		Turns	Shields	Armour		Turrets
Cruiser/8	20cm		45*	2	5+		2
Armament		Range/Speed		Firepower/Str.		Fire Arc
Port lance b.		30cm		2		Left
Starb. lance b.		30cm		2		Right
Port weapons b.		45cm		4		Left
Starb. weapons b.		45cm		4		Right

Famous Ships

Hawkeye, Beacon

Notes

Vanguard class ships count their Leadership as +1 higher than usual after rolling.

Any Vanguard may remove all their Lances to increase the firepower of each Weapon Battery to 8.

Modelling a Vanguard can be done by taking a Lunar class cruiser and filling in the torpedo tubes. Then, add additional antennae and sensors, especially to the prow of the ship.