Can anyone give me a brief summary on how torpedoes worked in Battle Fleet Gothic?

I'm wanting to recreate a space battle from previously in my DH campaign that was just narrated at the time using the RT space combat rules, just to see how it would turn out. The problem is, in the original adventure, torpedoes played a integral role.

So I'd like to come up with some temporary patch for torpedoes to use until the real rules come out. I figured I couldn't go too far wrong converting from BFG, but am unfamiliar with those rules.

Otherwise I had no problem whatsoever accurately building two very specific and characterful ships that have already appeared in my game using the RT ship creation rules.

Sounds pretty good, hopefully we will get to see an expanison that will let you get a few Xenos toys (Eldar Pulse lances anyone)

The battle engine sounds pretty good and the customization rolls mean that you should end up with some very unique ships.

Is it possible at creation to get a Crusier hull?

In Battlefleet Gothic, torpedoes were launched and moved as markers in both players Ordnance phases. When the marker cones into contact with a ship, friend or foe, they would zero in and detonate. Defensive turrets can take a shot to try and take down some of the incoming torpedoes. Torpedoes could fail to achieve a target lock and miss, in which case they carried on moving as normal

It is possible to start with a cruiser, but it will be a really stripped down cruiser. You would have to roll max ship points (70) then spend 60 on the hull and then have only 10 SP left for weapons and other components

Tullio said:

How fast did they move compared to ships? (I assume faster)

So they just moved in a straight line until close enough to lock onto a target?

DocIII said:

Torpedoes move 30cm per round, and as a comparison, a cobra class destroyer moves 30cm.

They only move in a straight line yes, but there are variant rules for other torpedoes, like homing torpedoes and vortex torpedoes. Otherwise normal torpedoes can not turn. But things are so abstract in BFG that you may allow some turning, since RT starship combat is more detailed.

One other note is that Torpedoes ignore shields.

Not sure if they should have a seeker type warhead at least in BFG where some of the insperation is drawn that the domain of the Eldar and Tau.

Torps in BFG are more about movement constraint and formation breaking than a killing weapon (which they can do very well),

Did the Nova cannon make it? I seem to remember it did not, Any spoilers on other cool toys you can fit to your ship? (other than the already mentioned murder servitors that is).

Oh and not quite so serious is their a cost for gold plating your ship? (Was always one of my fav. bits of random fluff that)

In BFG you basically had 3 types of torps:

1)Basic which maintained their course, and attacked anything in their path. Chaos, Orks and Imperial.

2)Seeking which could generally chase everyone around the board. Mostly this was Eldar, and Tau. (The Tau don't have torps, but use small ones in large volleys with the same effect.)

3)Boarding torps which could also chase everyone around the board. This was Space Marines, and Orks.

I've really liked what I've read so far about ships and ship combat. Hopefully tomarrow I'll be running my first game to put them to use.

I have added one new house rule however. Already there is a rule for crew moral and crew population, both of them with scales numbering 100 thru 0. As crew is reduced or moral is reduced, certain effects happen (like crew having a mutiny if moral gets too low). My new rule I added is something called Supplies, which covers anything from food, ammo, and fuel. It is a scale of 100 to 0 as well. It is stated in the book that a ship usually can go for about 6 months without supplies, so every point of the Supply scale equals 2 days of travel. This gives a visible reduction of resources as the ship plies the void, with bad things happening if the ships not resupplied. If supplies are reduced too much, then the ship can run out of ammo, food is stretched, moral drops, sickness can strike and some other stuff. The worst would be running out of supplies, the ship is set a drift, and starvation strikes. Of course the crew can go on rations and reduce resource loss, but with a hit to moral. Also, anytime the ship is in anchorage, they can make aquisitions to gain new supplies, but the type of world or anchorage puts a cap on the amount of supplies that can be gained over a certain amount of time. For example if they are in a uncivilized world, they can only gain 10 points back over a couple of weeks.

Thanks, exactly what I needed.

Last question re BFG and torpedoes. I've looked at the numbers, but without having played its hard to tell; how nasty were torpedoes compared to other weapons?

DocIII said:

Without getting into the technical aspects of BFG, a single standard torpedo equals 1 standard gun worth of damage more or less. The potency is really what DrFaustus83 explained, it's more of a formation breaker because while 1 torpedo may not do much, 6-8 in a volley and if they all hit would do quite a bit of damage. But in BFG as many have explained, torpedoes are marker weapons, which means whatever the marker touches is what it hits. So therefore, it's quite possible that when a 6 torpedo volley is fired at your ship, you will only get hit with 2 torpedoes in the volley while the other 4 sails past you. But don't forget the ignore shield ability of torpedoes, because that is a big advantage unto itself, and one of the things that differentiates standard guns to torpedoes more so than just their raw damage in BFG.

One of the things that haven't really been touched upon is reloading of said torpedoes. In BFG, you need to pass a 'command check' to successfully reload torpedoes. I assume there is something in RT book regarding the expertise or experience of your crew, so maybe a roll to see how many tubes they are able to reload, maybe some bonuses for autoloaders and more experienced crews. I'll be doing something like that for my house rules.

Dalnor Surloc said:

A clarification on this: All BFG torpedoes have seeking characteristics- after all, even once you've used up 90% of the hull for plasma drive/warhead, 10% of something the size of a Saturn V rocket is still quite a lot of room for sensors - but normally these are "final approach" only and only start guiding the torp once it's within sensor range of the ship (Base contact in BFG or 500-1000km) and are pretty useless at the sort of ranges from which torpedoes are initially launched (many tens of thousands of km)...

A couple points about torpedoes:

1) they're actually nastier than batteries than a 1 for 1 point basis because you almost never get full value for the batteries (favorable circumstances will almost allow it, which is one of the reasons maneuvering is so important).

2) Torpedoes are most commonly used as formation breakers or as a short ranged ordinance volley when another ship crossed the firer's T.

3) Common torpedoes use sensors that only guide torps over the last part of their approach and allow for fairly minor course changes (covering thousand of kilometers) but there are variants with better guidance systems and alternative warheads like melta, barrage, and vortex warheads.

I am working on my own Torpedo rules, as my success in making accurate Eldar vessels leads me to believe I understand the system fairly well. I'll let you know when they're done.

I threw together some quick and dirty torpedo rules (just as a temporary measure til we get the official ones) but I'd be interested on seeing your take on it as well. I'd also be interested in taking a look at your eldar ship conversions.

The essentials of my torpedo rules are here. To get the full set, including a table I don't know how to put in a post and don't like retyping in a different format, PM me. Similarly, PM me for my Eldar ship rules.

• Torpedoes are fired in salvoes equal to their Strength. They travel a number of VUs equal to their Range every round on the Initiative of the ship that fired them.
• When they arrive within one VU of any ship at any point in the movement (barring the ship that fired them on the turn of the launch), make a BS test based on (Crew Quality + Detection-10xenemy Turret rating) to represent the auto-targeting systems of the Torpedoes.*
• One torpedo hits on a basic success, with one additional hit per degree of success, up to a maximum of the torpedoes currently in the salvo. On a roll of 91-00, the turrets destroy d5 torpedoes in the salvo.
• The torpedoes apply damage directly to the Armor and Hull Integrity of the opposing vessel, ignoring Void Shields.
• Any torpedoes that did not hit continue moving past the ship.

*Ghost Fields subtract 30 from this roll, as if it was Lance fire. Double any bonuses from the Lock On action in the round of the launch, but do not apply them at all in future rounds.