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[Utari Onzo]

It's up. It's buggy (random crashes and difficulty setting up matches) but once in game it's pretty intuitive and fun

[Louella Dougans]

been fiddling with this today.

battles are pretty quick and hectic, seem to last no more than 20 minutes (there is a timer, unsure what it actually does), and can be over in just 2-3 minutes, depending on what the battle type is.

A range of different battle types, simple "cruiser clash" of destroy enemy forces, space station assault & defend missions, convoy attack/defend, some other special mission types with particular goals.

Interface is somewhat glitchy at times. Best played on a large resolution monitor, on my old monitors, the resolution is a bit wonky, with some stuff vanishing off the right-hand side of the screen. Text size is a bit wonky too. I'd expect that to be just because of small monitor size on my particular system.

Ships gain experience, and gain upgrades and skills that make them perform differently.

There is a single player campaign, but right now, there's no load/save function. lol.

[Silas Vitalia]

It's in a woeful state at current. But buggy betas are not the end of the world


You can't pick what type of multiplayer match you want to fight, it just randomly throws you into a scenario at a random point value that will escalate as you level up, weather you like it or not. 

When you lose a ship in multiplayer it is removed from your roster for x battles.  Then you get thrown into a battle with 1/3 of your upgraded ships and will most likely get rofmlstomped in your next fight, completing a virtuous circle of shittery.  Quit a match early? PERILS OF THE WARP you aren't using that ship for a few more battles.

Best you can do is spam matches and use one sacrificial ship you dont mind losing until the rest of your roster is back online.

This is terrible design.


Combat mechanics are ok but it suffers from too many buttons on too many ships imo. 

Imperium ships are on easy mode I won about 90% of my matches without much effort.

Chaos forces are a joke until you get them leveled up, but you still have to play kite boat all day not to die instantly. 

Anyway it could get better but I'm putting it at 50/50 for me.

[Elmund Egivand]

No Orks?

Also, I should stay away from this game for the time being, I take it.

[Utari Onzo]

No, no orls yet. It's just Imperium of Man and Chaos for the minute but orks/eldar are going to be part of base game

[Elmund Egivand]

No, no orls yet. It's just Imperium of Man and Chaos for the minute but orks/eldar are going to be part of base game

I will just keep watching and hope they fix the bugs issue.

[Aelisha]

Quite enjoying it so far. The bugs are usual beta fare and I am reporting every one I find. I am having issues on my end with multiplayer crashing a lot, and I agree with Silas that Chaos needs a little bit more love at lower level play. Selectable missions and points limits would also be good so that players with a crippled roster can still have fair games.

[Utari Onzo]

Yeah the random generation of points/missions is the bigger let down for me, but I assume they've done that to get as much testing in as possible for all the modes. Otherwise I can see endless 700 point cruiser clashes

[Silas Vitalia]

Another few days on it:

Definitely potential! They've got a laundry list of bugs and gameplay to look at but there are absolutely ways to improve. 

Once they start letting us choose the types of matches we want, and include our friends, and maybe get rid of some of the steep loss penalties it might be pretty fun.

I've leveled up my Chaos ships enough to get more out of them, and it seems almost the reverse that chaos at high level has some frankly overpowered tactics that are hard for Imperials to counter.


TLDR:

Imperium: tougher, slower, shoot less often but do more damage.
Choas: Faster, weaker, shoot more frequently for less damage.

Imperium Win Mode
Low Level: Run at the chaos people and smash them in close quarters where you will simply outlast them
High Level: Spamming Nova Cannon from multiple ships is ridiculous right now, if your opponent isn't properly timing temporary invulnerability buffs and 'silent running' cloaks or mark of zeentch(i think that's the one) cloaking clouds you can lose a lot of stuff quickly, especially if you are massed at the begining of a round. The Nova cannons shoot basically all the way across the maps sight-unseen.


Chaos Win Mode:
Low Level: Try not to die
High Level Win Mode 1: Kite and spam laser death from long range.  You are faster than the Imperials, you can use stasis bombs to keep anyone back who gets too close.
High Level Win Mode 2: Carriers are stupidly overpowered right now. If you run an all-carrier fleet with the right buffs for assault actions and launched fighter/bomber/assault boats, you can cripple damn near anything from super far range.  Target engines from afar, rip them to shreds, and then blast them at your leisure.

Current Testing Strategy:  I'm trying to put marks of Nurgle on all of my ships (damage cloud around your ships that ignores shields/armor and attacks hull directly, it stacks).   So I basically have a bunch of 'plague ships' with buffed assault abilities and I run straight into the enemy like ye olde fire ships.  They get in close, launch a ton of assaults and start fires/critical hits and deal death.  All the ships have auto-casting 'void transfer' which is this version's game of spider tanking.  One of my ships gets low the others dump shields onto it.   I don't have a proper nurgle stack yet but am saving up for it, but it's been super promising and often unexpected to see a Chaos player running -toward- you.  It's pretty nasty.

I think Orcs/Eldar will add some more fun strategies as well.   I'll be maining orks most likely soon as they are available. Waaagh!

[Aelisha]

In 600 point games I am currently running:

2 x Unmarked Acheron with overcharged lances and focus lens upgrades. (Probes and shield transfer skills a must)
2 x Hellbringer with appropriate hangar upgrades and mark of Khorne
1 x Escort (suicide scout)

Basically probe, kite and shear anything that so much as enters range in half. Lances auto hit and pretty much ignore armour - a combined broadside of 8 + heavy macros + boarding actions form the Hellbringers will bring down Battlecruisers swiftly, let alone anything smaller.

The rationale for Khorne over Nurgle is mostly kite - I will not really use my Nurgle plague AoE much and though the additional +20 troop is nice, the Khornate Daemonic lightening strikes and +10 troop stack up quickly. More dice rolls = higher potential successes (frenzy gives extra attacks in boarding/assault strikes), add an Aux Teleportarium and you have light cruisers that can repopulate most line ships with Bloodletters of Khorne and other Chaos nastiness before you can say 'Blood for the Blood God'.  Close in, however, Nurgle is resilient (as usual) and that AoE make short work of escorts if they stray too close.

I am finding that the long game is a good thing to bear in mind - much like the board game you have to think about the impact of losses on your roster, as well as the risks of early departure or crippling damage. For more immediate play, I assume the custom matches will open up at launch to give more ability to experiment with compositions (much like tabletop friendlies) and allow you to make better decisions in the fleet builder. Much whine on the official forums about 'the progression' but I am loving it. It faithfully captures the tabletop, i find.

Bugs a plenty, but deeply enjoyable. Spess Mahreen fleets should also be interesting... My Astartes laden Dominators are already the very definition of line breaker (nova from afar, broadside and board as you cross the T).

[Silas Vitalia]

In 600 point games I am currently running:

2 x Unmarked Acheron with overcharged lances and focus lens upgrades. (Probes and shield transfer skills a must)
2 x Hellbringer with appropriate hangar upgrades and mark of Khorne
1 x Escort (suicide scout)

Basically probe, kite and shear anything that so much as enters range in half. Lances auto hit and pretty much ignore armour - a combined broadside of 8 + heavy macros + boarding actions form the Hellbringers will bring down Battlecruisers swiftly, let alone anything smaller.

The rationale for Khorne over Nurgle is mostly kite - I will not really use my Nurgle plague AoE much and though the additional +20 troop is nice, the Khornate Daemonic lightening strikes and +10 troop stack up quickly. More dice rolls = higher potential successes (frenzy gives extra attacks in boarding/assault strikes), add an Aux Teleportarium and you have light cruisers that can repopulate most line ships with Bloodletters of Khorne and other Chaos nastiness before you can say 'Blood for the Blood God'.  Close in, however, Nurgle is resilient (as usual) and that AoE make short work of escorts if they stray too close.

I am finding that the long game is a good thing to bear in mind - much like the board game you have to think about the impact of losses on your roster, as well as the risks of early departure or crippling damage. For more immediate play, I assume the custom matches will open up at launch to give more ability to experiment with compositions (much like tabletop friendlies) and allow you to make better decisions in the fleet builder. Much whine on the official forums about 'the progression' but I am loving it. It faithfully captures the tabletop, i find.

Bugs a plenty, but deeply enjoyable. Spess Mahreen fleets should also be interesting... My Astartes laden Dominators are already the very definition of line breaker (nova from afar, broadside and board as you cross the T).

Yup!

I think the orks/eldar are going to throw some monkey wrenches into these chaos lineups we have been doing specifically to beat Imperials, aye?

I was also thinking about mixing in some Khorne marks to see how they rolled. I saved up for a Khorne on my battleship and WARNING DO NOT UNFIT. you don't get refunded the money. AT ALL. 

Laser pew-pew kiting is going to be interesting vs orks/eldar which both have faster ships.  I imagine with proper stasis bombing you can keep some of them back, but going to be a bloodbath when they get in yea?

hmmmmmmmmm

[Elmund Egivand]

Crash multiple Roks into an Imperial Battleship for great WAAAGH!

[Aelisha]

@Silas:

You're right that Eldar will change the game (Carnage class cruisers plz) but Orks not so much. if they get close, sure, but they're escort heavy if they're like tabletop and lances ignore their armour. The most interesting thing with Orks is that if they pick subsystems well (configurable ships) they can build rugged ships that can dish out lightening strikes from silly range - slowly knocking your lances off. Khorne vs basic Orks, should be in your favour, but Meganobz will be a pain and likely overwhelming.

Eldar are going to mess up strike/lance heavy builds - but Carnage class cruisers (Slaaneshi just to rub it in and reduce their otherwise impeccable morale) will mop them up pretty well.

To be honest, despite my focus on Chaos atm, I am very interested in trying all of the races. Let's just hope that once they start doping fleet dlc, they give the Tau, Necrons and Tyranids a proper balance pass! We can also expect AdMech fleets and similar in the future.

[Silas Vitalia]

And first over-nerf is out:

http://forum.battlefleetgothic-armada.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=929

They just gutted assault boats and gave every ship +10 troop count.    No Nova nerfs of course because lol spesh mareens

[Utari Onzo]

Been reading that just now and seems there was a stealth nerf to shield trans too? Can anyone confirm as I'm stuck in a hotel with just my iphone atm.

If so, I'll be a sad panda as I was one of those god awful people nova cannon/shield transfer spamming like a bastard. No regrets.