Battlefleet Gothic
Dave Nower
Battlefleet Gothic is a tabletop miniatures game based in Games Workshop's fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe, and is sold by Games Workshop.
Battlefleet Gothic is a starship combat game, and focuses around the incursion of the "Gothic Sector" by fleets under the command of Abaddon the Despoiler, and the subsequent campaign by the Imperium to restore order, also known in the mythos as the Gothic War. Battlefleet Gothic is also the Imperial Naval formation after which the game is named and which is a major protagonist in much of the supporting fiction.
Battlefleet Gothic is an extension to the Warhammer 40,000 universe, providing the ability for players to stage space battles between fleets of spacefaring ships. Players select spaceships from a variety of fleets representative of the various Warhammer 40,000 races. The game as packaged includes rules and background for space fleets of the following factions:
- Imperial Navy (representing Battlefleet Gothic)
- Chaos (representing Abaddon and his allies' fleets)
- Ork Pirates
- Eldar pirates
Subsequent additions and expansions published in numerous Games Workshop sources expanded the game to include fleets for:
- Space Marines
- Ork Waaagh! fleets
- Craftworld Eldar
- Dark Eldar Raiders
- Tau Empire (including Demiurg, Nicassar and Kroot ships as well as Tau vessels)
- Tyranid Hive Fleets
- Necron Raiders
Players take turns moving their ships and shooting, as well as undertaking more advanced manoeuvres such as ramming, boarding, or disengaging. Each player may perform actions with all of his ships before the turn ends. The turns are divided into 4 phases, the Movement Phase, Shooting Phase, Ordnance Phase, and End Phase.
To play you need a fleet – like all games the size of fleet determines length of game . A good starting point is 600 points . Fleets generally have rules determining how many of each ship type can be used .
Rules can be downloaded from Games Workshop as can some counters.
You need a number of d6 dice and rulers or measuring sticks in centimetres .
Cheapest way to start is with imperial or chaos cruisers as these are plastic and have a number of options of type .
Playing is either a black decorated board or black cloth , 4ft square is a minimum , 6ft x 4 ft is better 
This is a large imperial fleet owned by James Saunders
The game is easy to learn but can be complex in terms of strategies with larger fleets . Personally I would rate it as one of the best games ever produced by Games Workshop
Updated 07/05/09
