BoLS forum thread

This is troubling news to me. I've always wanted to get into Battlefleet and/or Aeronautica, but ... well, it looks like that won't be an option shortly. Do you folks think this is for real, or more of GW being difficult/preparation for new models and stuff (doubtful, I know)?

Thing is, I can't really afford to get into either one right now. Very expensive. But if I were to get a small fleet... would you recommend AI or BFG? Which ships would be best for either? Alternatively, are there any good non-GW games that are similar? Flames of War I know has a dogfighting expansion/version/whatever, but I'm not really into WWII. Firestorm Armada was mentioned on BoLS, but I don't know anything about it, though it honestly doesn't look that great (ship aesthetics wise). I could do without GW's prices (and soon to be discontinued nature), but I do love the Tau look, and it would be nice to have something matching my [nonexistant] cadre.

So, general BFG/AI/alternate systems discussion thread, I guess.

Also, since I haven't been around much I just want to take this opportunity to say that the new mecha thing is incredibly stupid.

EDIT: It looks like this thread may be too late. On Forge World (and I don't like GW's default Tau BFG ships), almost everything is out of stock. For AI, there's only AX-1-0 Tiger Sharks (the Railgun model) and aerial mines. For BFG, only Castellans, Orbital Cities, and Mantas. Damn it.

After seeing the AI availability, I would suggest if you're going to pursue either one then go for BFG. It has a slightly bigger player-base (there's even a few members on here with BFG fleets, including yours truly), and a force of Castellans can be reasonably effective in games. Get some Castellans, and an Orbital city and mantas and you can put together a very fluffy raiding force.

Or use the GW ships. There seems to be a few of them still (except for Defenders ).

(actually, on second thought, DON'T use the GW ships. That means there'll be more left for me. )

I'm pretty glad to have a full BFG force. Actually, it's not FW. But the GW ships are nice too, and FW was a way too far for me. It seems, that the GW ships are more available than the FW ships. It seems, that a lot of FW ships are out of stock atm.

I wanted to have a FW fleet, too. But that plan was crossed a few times... and now, it seems, it's too late.

Just as my friends and I were thinking of making a plunge into BFG, damn. Also, everything BFG Tau is out except Mantas.

Part of me is hoping that they're actually prepping Tau ships for the re-release of IA3, but I'm not holding my breath.

They do seem to be recasting them each morning - I was after a Orbital city on Friday but they were out of stock, as were the mantas which I've just been able to pick up.

I would not normally suggest that people go over GWs head and use alternative ways to play, but in this case I have to make an exception. Many specialists games are absolutely loads of fun to play. For anyone interested in still playing BFG, I highly suggest you grab the rule pdfs off of the GW site; it's an absolutely fantastic game with or without the official models. It would actually play very well with cardboard cut outs (Vassal has skins for every ship, so it's easy enough to do), or if you want a 3d model, then the Firestorm Armada range is of roughly equivalent size.

You could actually add some quite cool modifications if you were using cardboard tokens - have them the size of a flying base with a ship on one side, and a 'blip' on the other. So they're just showing up as 'contacts' on your scanners until they use special orders or fire on you.

There's also quite a few FW Tau ships up on ebay.co.uk at the moment, at fairly reasonable prices (they're not mine!), most of them end tomorrow.

I really want to try cardboard BFG now Might make up some test models and post them up.

You know it's a shame, but there used to be on Port Maw (a BFG forum that was destroyed some time ago, in case you were wondering) an excellent pair of threads detailing people's cardboard/paper fleets. One of them had copied the ship illustrations from their sections in the rulebooks (or rules PDFs since they include them as well) and then stuck them on to either side of a card silhouette, while the other had, if I remember correctly, traced or drawn the ships onto paper by hand (colouring with different pen inks) before re-enforcing with card. I always thought both of these ideas were quite clever.

EDIT: I wouldn't hold my breath for a re-release of the Forgeworld BFG models. The reply I received to my inquiry about the lack of stock stated that production was being wound down and that the models would not be restocked. It's more likely that the revised IA:3 will not feature much on the Tau fleet at all.

This unfortunately is in line with GW's purging of their metal models; I would hope, after they suddenly see sales spike in this rush, that perhaps they'll re-release things like the BFG line in finecast or whatever, but I accept that's not likely. In fairness, though, most folk got their BFG stuff from eBay from what I can tell, or used conversions for stuff like Necromuda, and with everything considered this wasn't unexpected.

Still, I know people who play the likes of Gorkamorka after all these years even after GW stopped caring about that, so as long as people play, it lives!

The issue with a hope for a resin future is that the molds would cost millions (literally millions when you think about all the models in the specialist games range); it's just not economically viable for GW, and at the end of the day, they will go with what is most profitable for the shareholder (as a corporation it is their legal responsibility to do so).

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.


I guess I could pick up what models I can, when I can, but I don't want to get stuck with two AI Tiger Sharks and a random BFG orbital city or anything like that, and with no guarantee of restocking, that's a pretty big risk - so probably won't take that route.

As for the discussion on printed 'models', while I am no fan of GW's habit of making things difficult or even impossible for their players (like they are now) and then taking legal action when said players create workarounds, remember that that is copyright infringement and could bring some unwanted attention to ATT. So be careful. I'll definitely be downloading the PDFs while they're still up on GW, though.