A little time off.

So for the last month or so I have done nothing concerning this hobby of ours.  I played maybe 2 games, and spent the last two weeks in southern Florida mostly doing some sport fishing and visiting family and friends. 

Now, my gaming group is planning a campaign for the summer.  We are going to try out a combines 40k and Battlefleet Gothic campaign.  We've never done anything like this so it will be interesting to see how it goes.  Couple that with the fact that one of my friends will be playing Eldar and another will be using his new Ork forces.  I have never played against either of these fleets in BFG and seldom play them in 40k, and I am looking forward to both.  I will be using my Imperial Guard and the Standard Imperial fleet.  My brother is going to add some Space Marine ships to his Imperial fleet list for his Blood Angels. 

Our campaigns usually go really well for a month or so and then usually die out rather quickly after that.  I think that playing 2 different systems will help the campaign last longer, or I am wrong and it will kill it faster.  They don't usually last long because one player usually becomes dominant rather quickly(usually because we have 5 players and not 4) and because we get sick of playing the same thing every week. 

I spent a little time over the last few days reviewing the Ork, Space Marine, and Eldar fleets.  They all have some interesting features. Orks are unpredictable in firepower, but their better weapons hit with 2 damage.  They have 6/5/4 for armor and mostly only 1 shield, but the cruisers seem to have 10 hit points each.  Space Marines are better at boarding than the standard Imperials, but the SM specific ships are expensive.  The one thing they really have going for them is their bombardment cannons which hit like a lance (4+) and critical on a 4+ instead of only on a 6.  Eldar also seem a bit quirky to play or face.  They move based on the sun, and move twice per turn, move, shoot, move again.  They have really good weapons, but with short range, and much better torpedoes and strike craft.  They do not however have shields, instead having holo fields.  These cause a negative shift for gunnery and everything else needs to get past a 2+ save.  Barring that their ships have only 6 points of damage. 

For Orks I think that ordnance and lances will do well, since they have few shields and turrets but for the Eldar weapons batteries will be key as well as corralling the enemy ships.  The player using Eldar has a love of carriers and strike craft, and will probably hang back quite a bit.  This could work to my advantage.  I will need to take carriers of my own to counter his bombers, but that seems almost a waste.  I will have to see.

Anyone familiar with playing against anything other than Imperial or Chaos fleets could help me out by letting my know if some of my assumptions are correct.

Sorry, no pictures today.  I am painting up my last 2 unpainted BFG cruisers though, and I have ordered 2 more plastic cruisers to magnetize and a squadron of Sword frigates to paint up and I still have to paint my Ramilles.  So, you can expect some BFG related posts for the first half of the summer.  After that I will in all likelihood go back to painting my guardsmen once I get more magnets and finish building my latest vet squad.