The Beard Bunker

Charlie: I've been running a campaign for Tom and Drew in which each of them plays a Space Marine officer with a strike cruiser and some escorts. Confrontations are fought in a mix of Battlefleet Gothic, Warhammer 40K, and Boarding Actions. Following on from Tom's previous post , we're now 5 months into the campaign (that's 10 sessions). When Tom and I were teenagers, my Eldar Corsair fleet single-handedly crushed his ability to enjoy Battlefleet Gothic. In today's post, we'll hear from Tom and Drew about how it's gone so far. Expect notes on the campaign format, repainting old minis, and most importantly, how Tom is finding this ancient system he remembers with such distaste?

Way back when in 1999, Games Workshop dropped Battlefleet Gothic on my tender teenage self.  I’d come to the hobby just too late to get into Epic, and didn’t know anyone playing Necromunda, so it was my first 40k spinoff.  I got pretty excited, started collecting two different fleets, joined the most epic narrative campaign of anything I’d ever played, and burned out on it so hard I’ve never touched it since. Whilst the reasoning is complex and nuanced the biggest factor was fighting Eldar.  They could dash forwards, blast you to smithereens, then retreat back out of gun range all in one turn, whilst everyone else was ponderously gliding about trying get enemies into their side arcs. They were fragile, so mistakes could be punished, but in the hands of a skilled opponent (which mine was) they were murderous.  I don’t think I won a single game against them.  Over the course of a long campaign I tried everything I could imagine, every tactic, every manoeuvre, and ...

They come with chainaxe, they come with bolters, they come with faith and with their neverborn allies, and now, the biggest assholes in all the galaxy [citation needed] come with far too many spaceships. Yep! It's time that the Word Bearers took to the stars. Being the narrative obsessives that we are, the Beard Bunker crew really, really like a lot of the "auxilliary" games to 40k. We like being able to play out all the story aspects, defending planets, establishing air superiority (if only Chaos had made it to Aeronautica Imperialis before it's demise, if only...), all that stuff we love. Were I a betting man, I'd put money on the most beloved auxilliary game being Battlefleet Gothic. The late lamented game of spaceship combat. Fortunately for us, even in these days of long gone miniatures, the rise of 3d printing and some seriously talented digital sculptors (in this case, the excellent ItalianMoose) give us the chance to continue playing this essential narra...

Today's post attempts to answer the question "what would it be like to be a junior officer in the strategium support staff of one of the Imperium's battleships... during a massive fleet engagement?" It's a question no-one asked me to answer, but I've answered it in prose form anyway, so nurr . I also appear to have illustrated it, because spaceships. The Battle of Hasmides Ensign Josselana Brannick was facing a test encountered by many Imperial citizens: keeping faith when confronted with mind-numbing dread. She glanced up from her work station and stared through the arched windows of the bridge. The spine of the battleship Dammerung stretched away for eleven kilometers. At regular intervals, lance turrets the size of hab-stacks protruded from the dorsal armour. Beyond that, the pinprick lights of the void. Those distant lights usually calmed her, but today, she knew that some of them were not stars. They were the flaring engines of an enemy fleet. Looking ba...

Charlie: Today we have a guest post from Tom, the other player in the Samalut IX campaign. I understand he will also be posting in the comments section with his out-of-character thoughts on the campaign. If you enjoyed Jeff's after-action report from the Blood Angels , this is a chance to see things from the perspective of the Raven Guard. Commencing inter-legion bants in 5... 4... 3... 2... +++INCOMING TRANSMISSION+++ +++TRANSMITTED: Salamut IX; Achernar Sector +++RECEIVED: Deliverance; Segmentum Tempestus. +++DATE: 4.942.117.M42 +++TELEPATHIC DUCT: Adept Mae Zerbe; Sable Sword +++REF: RGV/ 4e978830e745 +++AUTHOR: Captain of the 5th Aremis Yiraka; Master of the Marches. +++DESTINATION: Kayvaan Shrike; Master of Shadows; Chapter Master of the Raven Guard. +++SUBJECT: Summary of learnings, Salamut IX intervention. The Sable Sword is currently en-route to Deliverance for a major refit as we have taken heavy damage.  The hull damage is only a minor inconvenie...

Being a renowned glutton for punishment, I recently put myself in the position of having to freehand twelve names onto some Battlefleet Gothic ships. Why did I have so many at once? Because we're in the run-up to the finale of the Scyrian Expanse campaign , and the Imperial Navy's flotilla needed serious reinforcements. Such blank. Many base. The first hurdle, of course, was to come up with names for all twelve ships. Even the escorts. They might be puny so far as the game is concerned, but naming them makes it mildly harder for the players to get callous about casualties, and improves immersion. Bemoaning said lack of names to Curis , he suggested a few, including: Hepatitus Alpha Alphaherpes Aedidas Traksuet Aeileen Comon Feel free to use those gems for your own ships/tanks/three door hatchbacks. Personally I resisted the temptation, and chose... others . Having picked my names (most of them mercifully short) I got stuck in. Freehand...

Charlie: back in June, we had the first episode of the Captain's Log , Jon's journal of his travels in the Scyrian Expanse . In this episode, the flotilla takes its first leap out into the Expanse... I'll hand you over to Jon without further ado. The sub-sector map at the time of writing. EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF LAIUS ORTANO Captain's log, star date 3.151.999.M41 Journal Entry: 787 After some minor shifts in gravity during our stay in the warp, Azaryah has translated us back into real space, on the outskirts of a binary star system. Our first step into the unknown expanse of the Scyrian sub-sector. Curiously, against statistical odds, our long range scans indicate signs of life dotted across multiple moons and planets. There are also mining opportunities available. Most are not in hospitable environments. However, there is a small moon orbiting a gas giant that has a livable environment and is rich with minerals. Another moon close-...