History TabletopGame / BattlefleetGothic

In 2015 a video game adaptation was announced, titled Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. It is being developed by Tindalos Interactive, and published by Creator/FocusHomeInteractive.

* ApocalypseHow: From the main batteries of most cruisers, which can inflict regional catastrophes, to the combined efforts of three Blackstone fortresses, which can supernova a star, Gothic has one at every level.

* FanNickname: The game's name is often shortened to "BFG". This term will not be used here to avoid confusion with large guns.
** Although large guns do indeed feature prominently. Let's see - [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]], [[EnergyWeapon plasma cannons]], [[TractorBeam graviton pulsars]], [[MagneticWeapons macrocannon]], [[DeathRay fusion beamers]], [[MacrossMissileMassacre guided missile launchers]]...and that's just the ''standard batteries'' ("only" sufficient to level continents). The Lances are more like {{Wave Motion Gun}}s, and the Nova Cannons...[[EarthShatteringKaboom forget about the Nova Cannons]].

** Otherwise averted, because, y'know, you're ''literally [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace going through hell]].'' Except the Tau, they just skirt around it, with the result of being much slower than other sides (their drive speed is typically 1/5 of Imperium's), but being ''much'' safer.

** Otherwise averted, because, y'know, you're ''literally [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace going through hell]].''

* EnemyMine: Anybody siding with anybody against anybody, with the sole exception of an Adeptus Arbites ship (yes, they have one) siding with the Imperial Navy. Even the Astartes don't like working with the Navy.

'''''Battlefleet Gothic''''' takes everything [[RuleOfCool cool]] about [[StandardStarshipScuffle naval combat]] [[AnachronismStew throughout history]], and [[XMeetsY mixes it with]] the gothic aesthetic and unending, chaotic [[MemeticMutation grimdarkness]] of the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe. Joyfully embracing SpaceIsAnOcean in every way possible, the game throws together vast hypertech spaceships, Napoleonic line tactics and broadsides, torpedoes and torpedo boats, sailing, [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-splitting]] weapons, ramming and boarding actions, {{Old School Dogfight}}s, sea shanties and alien monsters.

* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace

As with all of Games Workshop's {{Gaiden Game}}s, ''Battlefleet Gothic'' enjoyed several months of publicity in stores and White Dwarf magazine before essentially dropping off the radar, new rules and models only occasionally being brought out. It is currently published by Games Workshop's Specialist Games division (and is, generally speaking, their most successful game). The various rulebooks and supplements can be downloaded for free, assuming you can find them on [[ScrappyMechanic Games Workshop's 2014-revamped web page]] (and if not, Google is your friend).

[[caption-width-right:293:There is no peace among the stars...]]

As with all of Games Workshop's {{Gaiden Game}}s, ''Battlefleet Gothic'' enjoyed several months of publicity in stores and White Dwarf magazine before essentially dropping off the radar, new rules and models only occasionally being brought out. It is currently published by Games Workshop's Specialist Games division (and is, generally speaking, their most successful game). The various rulebooks and supplements can be downloaded for free, assuming you can find them on [[ScrappyMechanic Games Workshop's 2014-ravamped web page]] (and if not, Google is your friend).

* BadBoss: Abaddon, per standard. Aside from the YouHaveFailedMeBelow, Chaos Lords can't be used on the same ship as him because they're too scared of him.

As with all of Games Workshop's {{Gaiden Game}}s, ''Battlefleet Gothic'' enjoyed several months of publicity in stores and White Dwarf magazine before essentially dropping off the radar, new rules and models only occasionally being brought out. It is currently published by Games Workshop's Specialist Games division (and is, generally speaking, their most successful game). The various rulebooks and supplements can be downloaded for free [[http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=cat1290343&aId=4300022 here]].

The rulebook focuses on one campaign in particular, the twenty-year Gothic War, one of [[BlackLegion Abaddon the Despoiler's]] [[GeneralFailure many, many]] diabolical attempts to take over the galaxy. This scheme involves the Gothic Sector being cut off from the rest of the Imperium by warp storms, a ''lot'' of spiky warships, and six ancient space stations known as the Blackstone Fortresses...

The Imperial Navy, the focus of much of the game's art and background, is the very definition of CoolButInefficient. Imperial capital ships are millennia-old vessels resembling kilometres-long Gothic cathedrals, with spikes and spires for sensor masts, covered with pointless bling in the form of giant skulls or mile-high statues of eagles made of solid gold. They are filled with millions of press-ganged ratlings and chanting priest-mechanics, loading gigantic shells by the back-breaking labour of thousands and unloading broadsides from gun decks the size of towns. Maintenance is ritualised, tech-adepts praying to machines they don't understand, anointing them with sacred unguents and beating them with holy wrenches. Warships are so old, so vast and so complex they develop their own cultures; entire societies of feral humans, the descendents of lost crewmen, lurk in forgotten decks.

* FragileSpeedster: Eldar ships go faster than anyone else's, but have next to no armour or damage resistance.

* GlassCannon: The Eldar can dish it out. They can't take it.

* LightningBruiser: Necron ships.

* SolarSail

* YouHaveFailedMe: An actual rule for Abaddon. If one of his vessels fails a command check, his ship will ''fire on it''.

* SpacePirates: Most Eldar, most Orks, and there are rules for the other factions to field a piratey force, excepting Space Marines.

* StrangeBedfellows: The Eldar siding with the Imperium against Chaos.
** Anybody siding with anybody against anybody, with the sole exception of an Adeptus Arbites ship (yes, they have one) siding with the Imperial Navy. Even the Astartes don't like working with the Navy.

* SnapBack: After the conflict, the Eldar go straight back to piracy and raiding Imperial systems.

'''''Battlefleet Gothic''''' takes everything [[RuleOfCool cool]] about [[StandardStarshipScuffle naval combat]] [[AnachronismStew throughout history]], and [[XMeetsY mixes it with]] the gothic aesthetic and unending, chaotic [[MemeticMutation grimdarkness]] of the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe. Joyfully embracing SpaceIsAnOcean in every way possible, the game throws together vast hypertech spaceships, Napoleonic line tactics and broadsides, torpedoes and torpedo boats, sailing, [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-splitting]] weapons, ramming and boarding actions, {{space dogfight}}s, sea shanties and alien monsters.

''Battlefleet Gothic'' takes everything [[RuleOfCool cool]] about [[StandardStarshipScuffle naval combat]] [[AnachronismStew throughout history]], and [[XMeetsY mixes it with]] the gothic aesthetic and unending, chaotic [[MemeticMutation grimdarkness]] of the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe. Joyfully embracing SpaceIsAnOcean in every way possible, the game throws together vast hypertech spaceships, Napoleonic line tactics and broadsides, torpedoes and torpedo boats, sailing, [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-splitting]] weapons, ramming and boarding actions, {{space dogfight}}s, sea shanties and alien monsters.

Being set in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe, the game features a large number of the tropes on that page, as well as employing setting and gameplay tropes of its own.

* {{Two-D Space}}: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], or at least [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality necessary]]; it's pretty damn hard to play a tabletop wargame in three dimensions. On top of this, the rulebook explains that the ships actually occupy an infinitesimally small dot at the exact center of their base stands and allows them to move 'through' each other to represent the fact that they are at differing 'altitudes'. It also mocks the need to represent 3D combat as 3D - as the book puts it, 3D is basically just a range modifier. Yeah, there's a bit more to it, but shut up and buy the plastic already.

* GlassCannon: The Eldar can dish it out. They can't take it.

''Battlefleet Gothic'' takes everything [[RuleOfCool cool]] about [[StandardStarshipScuffle naval combat]] [[AnachronismStew throughout history]], and [[XMeetsY mixes it with]] the gothic aesthetic and unending, chaotic {{grim dark}}ness of the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe. Joyfully embracing SpaceIsAnOcean in every way possible, the game throws together vast hypertech spaceships, Napoleonic line tactics and broadsides, torpedoes and torpedo boats, sailing, [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-splitting]] weapons, ramming and boarding actions, {{space dogfight}}s, sea shanties and alien monsters.

What happens when the people behind ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' decide to make a game about spaceships.

Being set in the ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe, the game features a large number of the tropes on that page, as well as employing setting and gameplay tropes of its own.

* GaidenGame: One of several "Specialist Games" in the ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe.

***

* {{Two-D Space}}: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], or at least [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality necessary]]; it's pretty damn hard to play a tabletop wargame in three dimensions. On top of this, the rulebook explains that the ships actually occupy an infinitesimally small dot at the exact center of their base stands and allows them to move 'through' each other to represent the fact that they are at differing 'altitudes'

** Although large guns do indeed feature prominently. Let's see - [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]], [[EnergyWeapon plasma cannons]], [[TractorBeam graviton pulsars]], [[MagneticWeapons macrocannon]], [[DeathRay fusion beamers]], [[MacrossMissileMassacre guided missile launchers]]...and that's just the ''standard batteries'' ("only" sufficient to level continents). The Lances are more like {{Wave Motion Gun}}s, and the Nova Cannons...[[EarthShatteringKaboom forget about the Nova Cannons]].

* MacrossMissileMassacre: Many ships can fire salvos of torpedos across the gulfs of space. While these can be devastating when they hit, they travel slowly compared to most weapons, and can be shot down by SpaceFighter squadrons and capital ship point defense while en route. The Tau, added in a later supplement, are especially good at these.

** Ramming is an Insane tactic as far as the other factions are concerned. Would you charge across ''tens of thousands'' of kilometers of empty space under enemy fire to hit the other guy, most probably after sustaining crippling damage? Insane. But as Imperium puts it, "Only the Insane have the strength to prosper, only those who prosper can judge what is Sane."

***

--> -''[[NineteenEightyFour Inscription across the ceiling of the Chapel Primus on the Divine Right]]''

* MacrossMissileMassacre: Many ships can fire salvos of torpedos across the gulfs of space. While theses can be devistating when they hit, they travel slowly compared to most weapons and can be shot down by SpaceFighter squadrens and ship point defense while en route. The Tau, who were added in a later suppliment, are especially good as these.

''Battlefleet Gothic'' takes everything [[RuleOfCool cool]] about naval combat [[AnachronismStew throughout history]], and [[XMeetsY mixes it with]] the gothic aesthetic and unending, chaotic {{grim dark}}ness of the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe. Joyfully embracing SpaceIsAnOcean in every way possible, the game throws together vast hypertech spaceships, Napoleonic line tactics and broadsides, torpedoes and torpedo boats, sailing, [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-splitting]] weapons, ramming and boarding actions, {{space dogfight}}s, sea shanties and alien monsters.

The Imperial Navy, the focus of much of the game's art and background, is the very definition of CoolButInefficient. Imperial capital ships are millennia-old vessels resembling kilometres-long Gothic cathedrals, with spikes and spires for sensor masts, covered with pointless bling in the form of giant skulls or mile-high statues of eagles made of solid gold. They are filled with millions of press-ganged ratings and chanting priest-mechanics, loading gigantic shells by the back-breaking labour of thousands and unloading broadsides from gun decks the size of towns. Maintenance is ritualised, tech-adepts praying to machines they don't understand, anointing them with sacred unguents and beating them with holy wrenches. Warships are so old, so vast and so complex they develop their own cultures; entire societies of feral humans, the descendents of lost crewmen, lurk in forgotten decks.

The rulebook focuses on one campaign in particular, the twenty-year Gothic War, one of [[GalacticConqueror Abaddon the Despoiler's]] [[GeneralFailure many, many]] diabolical attempts to take over the galaxy. This scheme involves the Gothic Sector being cut off from the rest of the Imperium by warp storms, a ''lot'' of spiky warships, and six ancient space stations known as the Blackstone Fortresses...