BFG on a Budget

[hendybadger]

I am just starting to get into BFG.
As in, I dont even have any ships built yet.
My fleets of choice are Marines that I will buy and Tyranids that I will make out of bits.
Both of these are to match my 40K forces.
Also going to get the BFG and Armada rule books.

I dont want to get the expensive BFG box set on ebay because I cant afford 2 fleets I wont use.
So the questions stands......

With the 2 fleets and 2 books, What else do I need? Dice? Missiles? ect
And remember I have never played so treat me as a total beginner.

Thanks in advance

[DycesKynes]

Check out the Warp Rift articles, the latest ones have Ordinance counters that you will need in the back.  You will need a measuring device that is in cm and not inches, and something to measure turns and fire arcs so a circle with 4 45degree marks.  The Special Order dice you can represent with something different like tokens with the same symbols.  If you look hard enough you may be able to find all the BFG books on .pdf as they were released at one point.

[trynerror]

The counters and rulebooks are on the GW homepage in form of PDF downloads. If you prefer the counters to be original try to get a boxed set and resell the ships you don´t need. The set contains six special order dice (the same are used for Epic and can be found in the GW shop as well).

[hendybadger]

Is six dice enough?

[trynerror]

In normal games (up to 1500 points) six per side should be enough. If nor you can use normal dice and assign a number to every order. Maybe you can get blanco dice and make up your own SO-dice.

[hendybadger]

What about in a 2000 point game. Thats the size most of our games are played.
6 per side enough for then?

[trynerror]

Maybe. If capital ships are squadroned - yes. If they are all on their own I don´t think six are enough. In the end it depends on the number of units/squadrons you field. More than six -> get more dice ...

[hendybadger]

I dont know what ships they are used for yet so im not sure how many i will need

[nkalakos]

Special order dice can be supplemented by counters printed from, for example, reference sheet available at specialist games forum.

[hendybadger]

What sizes are all of the counters?
Fighters , Assault boats and Torps?
I mant to make some for my Tyranids and Ive been told they arnt all on GW

Hope someone can help

[lordgoober]

Attack Craft counters are all 20mm squares.  Torpedoes are approximately 7mm wide per torpedo.  Torpedo markers do need to be the full length of the wave.

[hendybadger]

Why do they have to be the full lenght?

[CyberShadow]

I think that he means the full width, which is reduced as torpedoes are destroyed. A larger wave becomes easier to hit if it is wider.

[hendybadger]

Are the Torps you can print from GW the right size?