Re: [long!] Battlefleet Gothic: Demo at White Marsh

Nice review, Aaron!

Aaron Teske wrote:
> second demo... and bumped into a guy wearing a pin that said
"Winchell,"
> which I recalled as the given name of Nyrath the nearly wise. 
...snip...
> ...and it was good to meet another list member in the flesh...
> got a face to go with the name, now.	Nice guy, but he has lots of
eyes
> about his person.... ^_-

	Well, what can I say?  One of my hobbies is being eccentric.
	(Black shirt and pants, rainbow suspenders and an eyeball
	belt buckle, ring, and eye-in-a-triangle pendant.
	I did notice Aaron looking apprehensively at my attire
	out of the corner of his .... eyes..)

> (This from a little blurb sheet Nyrath
> and I both grabbed out of the box, after asking Robin if we could have
'em.)

	We both were admiring the blurb sheets while admitting that
	it would be nice to have one.  Aaron was the one who got
	up the courage to ask Robin.
	I think the box cover would make an excellent poster,
	the little picture at the GW web site does not do it justice.

> If you look for an historical
> context, I'd try the "Age of Sail" (no, I don't know that much about
it)
> for the emphasis on broadsides armament

	Yes.  I was standing next to a Midshipman from Annapolis who
	made a comment about "crossing the T".	Age of Sail, but
	also up to the era of the battle of Tsushima.

> reload ordinance is a special order, and if you roll well you have an
> infinite supply.  (You need to make a Leadership test to place special
> orders; if the Leadership check comes up with doubles, you've run out
of
> ordinance.)

	This makes sense given designer Andy Chamber's dislike
	of bookkeeping.  Speeds the game up a bit as well.

> (Okay, one special order -- "Brace for im-PACT!!!" (which should be
yelled
> loudly, which is kinda fun ^_^ )

	I jumped a bit when Andy demonstrated this, he's got quite
	a powerful voice.

> Alright, I think that's enough of the rules for now; I'm probably more
> rambling on them than anything else, and it's really pretty simple in
spite
> of what you may think. ^_^;

	On the whole, the rules are more streamlined than FT,	
	with the corresponding degradation in the "chrome" and
	available options.  Offhand I'd say that FT is more
	detailed, while BG plays quicker.

	My only uneasiness is the fact that FT is *already*
	known for being a fast playing game.  This would 
	make BG a game that you could teach to a bright
	eight year old in ten minutes.

> The Chaos
> ships all have somewhat curvy heads... kinda hard to explain, I'll try
and
> get the pictures up.	
	
	The heads almost looked like they were made of titanic wood
	laths, as if the ships were cathedrals made of wood with
	no dry-wall put on.  From the top, the heads looked like
	fat spear-points. They are curvy from the side.

> The Ork ships typically have jaws on the front, from what
> I could see, but manage to be fairly different.  Hopefully, there's
lots of
> bitz with the Ork ships so they're more customizable. ^_^

	Don't forget that small blocky Ork ship with the
	huge drill-bit for a nose...

> From what I can tell, all three of these cruisers are built
> from a standard "core" ship -- the plow at the front (with torpedo
tubes,
> all three have strength 6 torps), a neck, and the rear,
superstructure, &
> engines.  This core comes on a single plastic sprue, while other
plastic
> sprues hold weapons you can place on the "neck" part of the core,
which is
> a bare stretch of plastic.  Very nice, really, especially if you can
figure
> out a way to easily swap weapons sections. ^_^

	Use some of that magnetic tape they use to make refrigerator
	magnets out of.
	And remember that one of the "weapon sections" is 
	a fighter launch bay.
	(Fighters and bombers are considered "ordinance".
	I imagine this doesn't help the moral of the pilots)

> Andy's hoping to get Ork and Eldar
> battleships out fairly quickly, and is apparently working on rules
(and
> maybe minis) for Space Hulks.  ("Ooh!  Cooties!" said Nyrath.... ^_^ )

	Yep.  Imagine a pitched battle being suddenly put on
	hold as a Gene-Stealer infested Space Hulk drifts into the area.
	"RUN AWAY!! It's got Cooties!"