I was lucky enough to have a week off last week, hence why this is a bit late in going up. But I haven’t been totally neglecting my hobby duties, as I managed to get in a game of Battlefleet Gothic!
For those of you who don’t remember, Gothic was Games Workshop’s answer to space warfare. Set in the 40k universe, you basically drive miles long space cathedrals into each other. Widely regarded as one of GWs best offerings, it was canned alongside a lot of the other Specialist Games in the early 2010s. I was lucky enough to be working for GW at the time, so managed to grab a few fleets before they disappeared from the website forever, but for a long time, Gothic was almost impossible to get into without converting or spending way over the odds for second hand minis.
However, wargamers being what they are managed to keep some sort of interest in the game alive. There have been a number of fan rules updates, new ships added as well as a number of third parties offer models and STLs. For a game that has had no official support for over a decade, its in a pretty healthy state.
Like all things set in the 40k universe, Gothic also has a 30k variant, the appropriately named Battlefleet Heresy. Stripping things back to the Chaos and Imperial factions, it offers a great platform to recreate some of the best bits of the Heres, the void battles!
My Ultramarines took on their sworn enemies, the Word Bearers in a brutal slug fest. We played a very basic line up and kill each other mission, as it had been years since any of us played. We used the alternate activation rules presented in the Battlefleet Heresy pack, and my goodness it was revolutionary. I remember Gothic being quite killy using the u-go-i-go systems, with ships being deleted when a a fleet brought all its broadsides to bear. The alternate activations slowed things down and offered a much more interactive experience.
The battle ended with a minor Loyalist victory, and has inspired me to get an Ork fleet up and running for my long planned Armageddon campaign.
The Guild has a bit of a reputation for being a hipster venue, and I was very happy to see our friens at Bottom of the Barrel are running a Gothic event with us in June. This post was in no way planned to overlap with that event, but there must just be something in the Void.
If you want to try out one of the best Games Workshop games, I’ve popped some links below to help you get started. Let me know how you get on Admirals!
Ships (there are a lot more out there than this)
Rules and Getting Started
Events in Bristol