Ok, so recently, I purchased a large quantity of space marine BFG ships, and two imperial cruisers from my older brother. I have one battle barge, two strike cruisers, six Gladius class escorts, and eleven Hunter class destoryers. I have no clue about the imperial cruisers though.

Now to my questions:

1) What would be your thoughts on the fleet make-up and what could be the best choice for my next BFG purchase?

2) How would the marines fare against other races like Chaos, Tau, and Eldar?

3) And my final question, what would be the recommended amount of ships for different point levels (500, 1000, 1500, etc)?

There are two general schools of thought when it comes to Space Marine fleets, the Battlebarge approach and the Strike Cruiser philosophy. Essentially these two fleets have either one or two Battlebarges and a flotilla of escorts, or a contingent of strike cruisers and escorts. They are of course not mutually exclusive, and you can quite easily use both a Battlebarge and Strike cruisers.

In any event my first suggestion is that you acquire additional Strike Cruisers. They work best in packs, and with the latest fleet list, which can be found here, they have become quite versatile, with a variety of different weapon configurations available to them.

My next suggestion would be to obtain some Thunderhawk pieces from Forgeworld. They can of course be represented by counters just fine, but I always find it nice to have some models for ordinance.

Of course, if you're planning on going with the Imperial navy (I noticed you also have a pair of Imperial cruisers), then of course your next purchase should be more Imperial cruisers, and possibly some escorts. Even if you don't wish to pursue the Imperial navy as your fleet of choice, this might be a good idea, as it will give other people a fleet to play against you.



Space Marines tend to be close range specialists in Battlefleet Gothic. Their main strengths are in their speed and boarding abilities, and their bombardment cannons tend to be more effective at close range. They should be fairly evenly matched against other factions, especially since their update in the aforementioned fleet list. Eldar may be more difficult, due to their superior speed and manoeuvrability as well as their powerful pulsar lances, which can deal large amounts of damage and ignore high armour values, which Space Marine ships tend to rely on for protection. Necrons will also be difficult, but they are widely regarded as an extremely powerful fleet to face with any faction. Their weaknesses are in boarding and ordinance though, so a Marine fleet should be able to inflict damage.



Unfortunately, list building is not my strength, and it is not generally ATT protocol to discuss them ('Build my list' topics tend to be frowned upon), though I have given suggestions on a starting point above.

I hope this helps.

Hello

BFG is really strange system. There is generally no best build or auto play lists. Generally speaking You need to find someone to play with and test which ships seams best working at Your purpose. Mast have is carrier which can lunch fighters/bombers for protection against torpedoes and fighters/bombers. Than You can spam escorts or build a fleet consisting only from cruisers.
You need to remember that in BFG your ships can disengage and negate VP to your opponent.

Second thing is that SM are Hit&Run specialists with assault boats and teleport attacks. Also Thunderhawks are resilient fighters.

Regards,
Leigabar

Thanks for the replies!

I am probably going to do space marine, imperial, and a rogue trader fleet all of my own. But I will let others play with my minis too. Makes for more players!

As for FW thunderhawks, I also got a set of them, specifically six bases with the hawks on them.

One final question, what good are Gladius escorts?

The Space Marine escorts are essentially Imperial escorts on steroids: they fulfil the same roles as their respective Imperial counterparts, but are faster (I think, I'm unable to check just now), better armed and have the advantages of a Space Marine crew.

The Gladius is no exception, and is effectively a bigger, better Sword class escort. As such they have largely the same tactics, and should be used to gun down enemy escorts or flank enemy capital ships and strike from behind. The amount of battery firepower a full Gladius squadron can put out is quite powerful indeed.

Edit: While on the subject of escorts, a tactic you should be aware of is the use of torpedo armed escorts to 'snipe' at enemy ordinance, picking off fighters and torpedo salvoes with their own low strength torpedoes. This ability makes torpedo armed escorts extremely useful, and consequently you should consider investing in a squadron of Hunter class escorts, especially considering the relatively low numbers of attack craft Space Marine fleets can deploy.

All right, well, eleven Hunters make for that.

And what about the deployment of squadrons? I have heard it is best to deploy them in pairs, but I am unsure.

Hello,

Debate about squadrons last from the beginning of the world. I play Eldar Craftworld fleet and Tau Commerce Protection fleet (since 3 months I have group of two other players so I'm quite happy to be able to play ) and generally I'm avoiding squadrons which are bigger than 3 (batteries and torpedoes) and 2 for lances. Bigger squadrons in my opinion are to big to hide and are to easy to hit by nova cannon for example.

Regards,
Leigabar

True, but remember that at the same time larger squadrons also deal much more damage, and can take more losses before they become ineffective. A full squadron of six is generally considered by more than a few to be quite powerful, and I have heard good things about odd numbers of escorts in a squadron. Ultimately it's up to you how many you wish to be in a squadron. Do you prefer the raw power of a large squadron, or the finesse of a smaller number of ships? There is no easy answer, and the best thing to do is play games and experiment with which size works best for you.

Hello,

I can agree that bigger squadrons last longer and are much powerful but combining "lancers" in 6 is point wasting in my opinion at least. Batteries can coop quite nicely but torpedoes are not so good anymore. Also, which is true especially with fleets which I play, diversification of targets are much better tactic.

That's my point of view and it's working at least for now. This style suits me but it might be not true for another admiral.

Regards,
Leigabar

All right, and I appreciate the information!

I think I am going to enjoy using regular escorts more than torpedo escorts. Not to say I would not use them, just not in such huge amounts that I have heard being used. Also, the Nova class frigate is something I am considering for their lance armament. After all, Space Marines sorely lack lances and it would help with that.