Additional Rules
Battlelfleet Gothic - General
Questions and Answers
(Warp Storm)
Leadership
Celestial Phenomena
Special Orders
Ramming
Firing
Blast Markers
Ordnance
Eldar
Scenarios
Miscellaneous
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Notes
These are the questions and answers which were compiled towards the front of Warp Storm. They clear up a few
issues which have risen since the release of the game and cover more of the common gaps or comflicts in the
rules.
I have reprinted them here without permission, on the grounds that they are available by emailing Games Workshop
or Fanatic and asking for clarification, and the fact that they are not new rules or ships and do not expand the game
in any meaningful way.
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Leadership
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Escorts are always fielded in squadrons, so should Leadership be rolled seperately for every
ship in the squadron or is a single roll made to determine Leadership for the entire squadron?
In the case of escort squadrons, just one roll is made for the squadrons Leadership. Capital
ship Leadership is always rolled individually and in a capital ship squadron the highest leadership
present is used for the squadron's command and Leadership checks.
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When do you make the decision to place ships in squadrons - when the fleet is chosen,
the leaderships rolled for, the table set up or what?
Escorts must be placed in squadrons when they are chosen from the fleet list. Capital
ships are placed in squadrons after Leadership has been rolled for individual ships but
before they are deployed on the tabletop.
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Celestial Phenomena
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Solar Flares/Radiation Bursts: Do you roll the D6 at the start of each player's turn, or just at the start
of "Player A's" turn?
Each players turn.
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Can more than one solar flare/radiation burst appear in a turn? If yes, what are the effects?
No, multiple results on the phenomena tables just increase the chances of one occuring (because you're
rolling multiple dice). The effects remain the same.
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Can ships remain stationary on top of a planet template (as long as it's 2D)?
Can they be hit by ordnance?
Yes, but stationary ships count as defences for gunnery purposes. Ordnance would still hit the planet.
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Special Orders
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Can a ship have more than one special order at a time?
No.
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Does the player have to declare all his special orders intentions before rolling for any of them?
(Or can I pick a ship, try to give it orders, move it, then go to the next ship, try to give it orders, move
it and so on...?)
You can do them one at a time - as in the bracketed example you give.
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If a ship fails a Brace For Impact command check, are no other ships allowed to Brace For Impact
that turn, even though it is the other player's turn?
No, other ships can try to Brace For Impact.
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Can a ship Brace For Impact during its own movement phase if it's about to strike torpedoes or
asteroids for example?
The rules for Brace For Impact specify that it may be attempted in the shooting and ordnance
phases, but I allow ships to (try to) brace at any time - it's also relevant vs ships ramming, exploding
and so on. This won't upset game balance at all - the braced ship will always have to 'pay later' by
reducing its firepower and not using special orders in its next turn.
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Can a ship try to Brace For Impact against each separate attack that comes against it (for example
different ships firing against it), even if it fails the first attempt?
Yes, a ship can keep trying to brace against each new attack, regardless of whether it or other ships
have failed to pass command checks earlier in the turn.
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Ramming
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Does a ship stop moving if it rams something?
No, the ship continues to move whether it hits or not. This avoids the whole 'battleship being brought to a halt
by an escort' thing and, for the velocities and momentums involved, prevents anything too outrageous
happening - most rams are going to be pretty much 'glancing' hits which do a few points of damage.
Also note that a ship may not attempt to ram more than one target per turn.
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Firing
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Can lances split their strength between multiple targets?
Yes, although remember that the target priority rules mean a Leadership test will need to be passed in
order to target anything other than the closest enemy ship or squadron.
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Do the target priority rules apply to Nova cannon shots?
Yes, although targets which are within 24cm (30cm minimum range -6cm for the width if the template)
can be ignored. If you're in doubt as to what may be within 24cm, get your opponent to check this for you
while you look the other way.
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Blast Markers
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My ship is fired upon from another ship directly ahead of it, leaving two blast markers to my
front, in contact with the base. When it comes time to move my ship, I have no shields and must
move through the blast markers. Do I take potential hits for an unshielded ship moving through
blast markers? To put it another way, does a ship with no shields take hits when moving through
blast markers the ship began in contact with?
No, only ships with a shield strength of 0 (ie due to suffering a shields collapse critical result or being
Eldar) can take damage from moving through blast markers.
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A ship is moving through an asteroid field and fails its Leadership test. It has 2 shields, which help
against the impacts. The ships ends its movement on the other side of the asteroid field. Where do you
place the blast markers?
Place them in the front arc of the ship.
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Blast markers are placed along a line from the firing ship to the target ship, post to post. If a ship is struck
4 times in the side and takes 4 blast markers, are the four layered on top of each other, as the rules would
seem to indicate, or spread in some manner?
Spread so that they touch on an edge and envelop the ship's base. Don't stack 'em.
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Ordnance
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If a ship moves into contact with ordnance in the movement phase when does the
ordnance attack, immediately or in the ordnance phase?
Interrupt the ship's movement and conduct the attack immediately, apply any damage
and then complete the ship's movement.
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Can you use a command re-roll if you roll a double for reloading ordnance?
Yes, even if the double rolled would normally be a success against the ship's leadership.
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Exactly what special orders cause a ship's ordnance armament to be at half effect?
Just the 'Brace for Impact' special order. 'All Ahead Full', 'Come To New Heading'
and 'Burn Retros' do not halve ordnance (however note that being crippled does halve ordnance too).
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When are ordnance attacks resolved within the ordnance phase?
Once a player has moved all of his ordnance, conduct any attacks for markers which
make base contact with enemy ships. (Note that it is often convenient to interrupt the
movement of torpedoes in order to calculate their effects so you know the resulting
salvo size that carries through to potentially attack other ships.) Once the phasing
player completes his ordnance moves and attacks, the other player then makes their
ordnance moves and attacks.
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When do hit and run attacks from boarding torpedoes or assault boats take effect?
Hit and run attacks from boarding torpedoes and assault boats are conducted in the ordnance
phase but do not take effect until the end phase.
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What happens when a wave of attack craft is hit by long range fire, does it simply
lose a single marker or is the whole wave removed?
The entire wave is removed.
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If enemy ordnance moves into my fighter markers, can I choose not to intercept that
ordnance in favour of waiting for a juicier target later on? For that matter, could ordnance
choose not to attack a ship which moved into contact with it during the movement phase?
No in both cases. I imagine ordnance to have exceedingly short range detection systems
which mean that they are normally guided towards their target by other ships, inspired
navigation, and so on. This, along with their limited fuel and ammunition, means that
they will seize on 'targets of opportunity' as soon as they are available. If this seems
inefficient, read up on some World War 2 aircraft carrier battles and you'll soon see what I mean!
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Given the previous question, am I allowed to move my ordnance into opposing fighters
to clear them out of the way before continuing my ordnance moves and then making attacks?
Yes, the fighter intercepts are executed immediately with both markers being removed.
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If a ship moves into contact with ordnance during its movement phase what happens? Does the
ordnance attack the ship or is it simply ignored?
The ordnance attacks the ship just as if it had moved into contact with it in the ordnance phase..
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Does target priority for direct firing weapons apply to ordnance? For example if a ship has a wave
of bombers closer to it than enemy ships does it have to fire at the bombers unless it can pass a
Leadership test?
No, ordnance may be ignored for the purposes of target priority.
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Fighters and Bombers can move in any direction, but can they change direction mid-flight in one
turn (5cm forward, turn 30 degrees, 5cm forward, 90 degrees right, 10cm more forward...)?
Yep, they can wiggle their course as much as they like.
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Can attack craft enter/leave low orbit?
If launched from ships or stations in high orbit yes, if launched by airfields, no.
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Eldar
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Do holofields give a saving throw against Nova cannon hits? If so, do you just make one saving throw
against all D6 hits, or a saving throw against each hit individually?
Make one saving throw against the D6 hits - either the Nova cannon gunners were fooled by the Eldar
holofield and dropped the round in the wrong place, or they weren't.
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Do Eldar receive a holofield save against exploding ships, solar flares and other 'natural' damage?
Nope, a good rule of thumb to use with holofield saving throws is that they will work against attacks which must be
targeted at the Eldar ship (including boarding, hit and run attacks, ramming for example) but not against 'natural
events' like ships exploding.
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Can Eldar ships attempt to ram?
No, they cannot use All Ahead Full orders and would find such an inelegant tactic horribly primitive in any case.
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Does an Eldar ship on Lock On orders get to re-roll to hit with Pulsars on just the first shot, or on every shot
(presuming the one before scored a hit)?
It may re-roll to hit with each shot, but remember that if you miss, re-roll for the shot and miss again, no
further shots are fired.
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Can Eldar turn in the Ordnance phase if they are using Lock On orders?
Nope.
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Do Eldar get a holofield save against attacks by assault boats?
Yep.
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The Eldar Shadow and Eclipse cruiser illustrations shown on P131 of the Gothic rulebook aren't
the same as the models; are the models wrong?
No, it's just that the illustrations were put in the wrong way round! Level three excruciation has been
ordered for the perpetrator of this heinous act.
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Scenarios
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In the Exterminatus scenario (Scenario 9) is the Exterminator ship a free extra vessel or modified
from one of the ships in the attacker's fleet?
It is modified from one (or more) of the ships in the attacker's fleet.
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Miscellaneous
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If column shifts take the shot off the edge of the table, just stop at the furthest
left or right coumn, right?
Yep.
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If a ship rams a defence unit (such as a space station or Blackstone fortress), does the
defence roll half its damage in return as if it were a ship rammed in the side, or all of its
damage as if it were a ship rammed in the front, since defences have no front or sides to speak of?
I imagine defences to be more solidly built than ships, so they always roll their full damage
against ships which ram them.
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A ship is 5cm from the table edge, facing the edge. A ship in the fleet has failed a command check
earlier so it cannot attempt to Burn Retros. This means the ship will hit the table edge. When does it
return? What happens? Is it just gone?
This counts as disengaging. It is also a good way of disengaging during a game - it just feels right
if ships can flee off the tabletop.
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Are Victory Points (if they are being used) given up for ships which move off the table? If so,
how many (what percentage)?
Use standard VPs for disengaging vessels.
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Under catastrophic damage, if a ship started as a Blazing Hulk, then rolled and got Drifting Hulk,
would the Blazing Hulk rule of rolling each turn for more damage cease to apply? (Does the Blazing
Hulk 'go out' in essence?)
Yes it would 'go out'..
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Date: 23/03/2002
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