AuthorJake Ball The second of our ship tactics and this time its an Imperial vessel. One that doesn't get much love actually. Well one of guest writers thinks there is a place for the Defiant class, a ship often seen as useless. Can Jake persuade you otherwise?? Now the Defiant class light cruiser is a much maligned ship. While I’m not going to say they are the best thing since sliced bread, they do have a role in the Imperial fleet and can work well in certain situations, particularly in small and medium sized battles. Where it shows it’s value is in really small battles of 500 points or less. In my gaming group we often have very little time so could be playing 300 points! In these games, the difference between no attack craft and “some” can often be quite large. “In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king”. A single Defiant is much better I would argue in a small convoy scenario than an escort carrier, which is your other cheap carrier. Whilst two escort carriers has twice the launch bays, with the -1 ld for being a merchant ship and the additional -1 on reload ordnance, it really struggles to reload. That’s before you consider that they only have one hit apiece. I see Defiants as ideal in these circumstances, in addition to the launch bays, they have most of the advantages of a dauntless light cruiser. They have a slightly weaker lance armament, but with better arcs. This is good for making sure there is no safe approach direction for escorts onto the transports. They have good manoeuvrability (actually slightly better than a Dauntless due to its slower speed). I also find it more survivable vs ordnance due to the 2 turrets. Role in mid-sized fleets 500-1250 People compare the cost of two Defiants (240 pts) to a single dictator, (220) and look at the torpedoes in addition to the 4 launch bays on the Dictator and say the Defiants are inefficient. This is to misunderstand its role. It is not meant to be all that efficient an attack craft carrier. In these kinds of battles it is meant, like it’s fellow Voss cruisers, to work in squadrons with other cruisers. In the cruiser squadron role you are more likely to use 6+ prow option (though if you don’t you can “sweep” just behind the tail of the squadron cruiser). If you squadron the Defiant with a Dictator, you can have 6 launch bays which in a smaller battle is not to be sniffed at. It’s hard to do this otherwise unless you’re an Armageddon sector fleet. Again, this can be important if your opponent has 4 launch bays or has resilient ordnance, like Eldar or space marines. In addition, the Lance gives the squadron the firepower of a lunar to one side, and you still get the synergy with the Dictator’s torpedoes. The other benefit of being squadroned with another carrier (even another Defiant) is that you get 2x leadership rolls-this is pretty useful. It is a bit frustrating if you only have one carrier and you roll ld6! Once you buy an admiral this is obviously less of a problem, but it still gives you the opportunity if you roll well on one of the carriers to put your admiral on a gunship if you want. In addition, it is a light cruiser, and counts as a cruiser for fleet composition, meaning that it makes it easier to fit in battlecruisers. If squadroned with another Defiant, it could in theory adopt more of an “abeam” role, taking advantage of its good lance fire arcs to try to reduce the vulnerability of these 1 shield ships. I also like using it with a sword squadron as it’s lances can fire after the sword’s weapons batteries and together they are pretty robust to attack craft. One last thing is to consider squadroning with a torpedo dauntless. Their torpedoes and attack craft complement each other in overwhelming turrets on cruisers, and the mix of batteries and lances to the sides give useful firepower against escorts. Role in larger fleets
In larger fleets it suffers a bit as there generally are enough ships around to mitigate a few poor leadership rolls, and you tend to have taken either multiple Dictators or an Emperor, which truly are more points efficient. A niche still exists when the fleet is led by an Inquisitor, which I personally like but it tends to force you to avoid having a carrier as your most expensive ship due to the rule on replacing the fighters and bombers with half as many thunderhawks. I sometimes then consider two Dictators and a Defiant, giving me a good chance of some decent leadership. I also find it useful if I have a few spare points at the end of fleet selection and I am looking for something to protect a big ships’ tail, and I want something a bit more defensive than a torpedo Dauntless, and more robust to ordnance than escorts. The lance is a nice bonus which means it can still contribute even if you don’t get to it with your special orders rolls. So in summary: Strengths: Cheap-good for getting launch bays in small fleets, good fire arcs, manoeuvrability, another leadership role, good in squadrons, counts as a cruiser, 2 turrets. Weaknesses: High cost per launch bay relative to anything else one shield and only 5+ armour
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AboutHere are some tactics that I have found useful for each of the fleets in BFG. The more I play the more I will update. Some of the community also have provided tactics for ships/fleets Archives
February 2022
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