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I have a vey large space marine fleet purchased with the intent to play battlefleet armageddon, I was hoping that someone might share with me any build advice, I purchased a couple of cruisers and built them as lunars for not only the nova cannons but also the lances, which it seems to me is what the marines lack.
Anyone have any comments? disagree? agree? let me hear it people. :cool:
Well, if you're looking for general advice, I'll give you what I can. The way I play the Armageddon fleet is with the IN's Cruisers as the backbone, the Strike Cruisers as all purpose interceptors, and the Battle barge as one heck of an anvil.
A couple of good tricks I've found are as such:
-The Mars Battlecruiser is your friend. It has everything the Marines lack: Dedicated Fighters and bombers, long ranged lances, and a Nova cannon. Don't leave home without it, but keep it at range as best as possible. Armegeddons are also good, just treat them as beefed up Lunars.
-Your IN cruisers should be basically providing cover for the Marine Vessels to get into boarding actions (unless you're fighting a Khorne/ Nurgle fleet, in which case you're screwed anyway). Once that duty is fullfilled, just use 'em to concentrate fire on targets of oppurtunity. Thus, Lunars are a good choice, or a Lunar/Gotic pair.
-A side note, always run cruisers and battlecruisers in pairs of two (NOT squadroned tho). Alone, their fire power is not impressive enough to take on Chaos cruisers, or most other cruisers, for that matter, but in a team, they can lay down some whup-***. Try to keep Nova Cannons togther and Torpedoes together, don't mix unless you have to, just because otherwise you're wasting the combined fire aspect. Having one carrier and one non-carrier is not a bad idea, though, as the carrier can provide CAP fighters for both. Good pairs are: Lunar/Gothic, Lunar/Lunar, Dictator/Lunar, Lunar/Mars (if lunar has NC), Armeggedon/Mars, Gothic/Armegeddon.
-You probably want more Nova Cannons than torpedoes on you IN cruisers, but not all of one or the other. Nova Cannons are good for forcing people to close, which is what you want with SM in your fleet. Torpedoes are good for finishing blows and such, but if you load up, it's just one more reason for the enemy to stay away from you.
-A Strike Cruiser backed up by three Falchions = DEAD ESCORTS. Unless they get a lucky turret roll, a wave of Thunderhawks automatically downs an escort, and the Falc's combination of a small torpedoe wave and back-up fire power can clean up what the strike cruiser leaves behind. Send 'em up the sides to flank/kill enemy flankers, then board away. I once took down 9 Necron Escorts and a Scythe in three turns with two Strike Cruiser/ Falchion teams
-If you're going to spring for a battleship, you probably want to forgoe the IN versions for a battlebarge. Cheaper better admiral and re-rolls, better armor, and the sheer fact that the Battlebarge beats anything short of a Khorne Battleship or Ork Hulk in boarding capailities more than makes up for the added cost. Sure, you get slightly less fire power and less range, but it doesn't really matter, as the guns are just to soften 'em up before you go in for the kill.
The fleet I generally Run has two Strike Cruiser/Falc teams on the flanks, a Battlebarge in the middle with 3 more falcs as backup, and two IN Cruiser pairs on either side of the Barge, all in an inverted V. Funnels the enemy straight into the Battlebarge's kill zone.
Lunar/Lunar pairs should be squadroned to prevent blast markers from affecting WBs. I've heard that Tyrant/Gothic and Dominator/Gothic work just as well.
I've found that the Armageddon fleet is a very impressive hammer/anvil list for beginners. You can use your Imperial cruisers to strip a target of its shields whilst the SM strike cruisers can maneuver to a position to make full effect of their bombardment cannons and weapons batteries without having to fire through blast markers.
Also, a Battlebarge/Retribution-class double team does wonders against Chaos fleets :)