@Nate
First of all: thank you for your answer. It helps a little bit to know how someone comes to his conclusions.
The problem I see is, that some rules already in existence are taken as “holy†even if they are already flawed. Let's take the “long range weapons for imps†as an example.
The IN isn't intended to have a lot of longe range weaponary. That's fine. Each race needs specific traits.
So you could make (a) long range weapons a bit more expensive or (b) give them less of them per ship.
The mistake is that they did both. They made the weapons more expensive (OK, just 5 points, buts the idea), AND gave them less Firepower per hardpoint (most obvious at overlord and Ret). Add in the fact that batteries in general lose value in high ranges (rightshift) and these ships are strucked three times, when only one ne was intendend.
You often see this mistake in 40k codices or WhfB armybooks: some unit/equipment that was too strong that in the new book it get worse rules and becomes more expensive – an become useless in the end.
Good example are Eldar starcannons: in 3rd. Edition codex almost every heavy Eldar weapon was a starcannon - in the current rules you hardly see a single one as it not only lost 1/3 of its power (heavy3 → heavy2), but also became insanly expensive.
The “long range IN vessels†are, to some the degree, like the current starcannon: struck to hard by the negative aspects. Without doubt a tyrant would be a more popular vessel if there 45cm guns had S6 instead of S4 (even with a slight price increase of say 5points).
The reason I say this is simple: why should you repeat this mistake with “new†ships? It's always better to compare a design with popular and “working†designs instead with “broken†ones.
Never asked why almost everybody choose an Emperor over a Retribution, even after point swap?
OK, enough about this stuff back to some critic about V1.1
Please consider the following ideas as some kind of “brainstromingâ€-some suggestions may be completely opposed to each other. So this never intended as “change it in every aspect as I sayâ€, it's more a “do it this way or another butchange it as the current status is disapointingâ€.
Fleet Defence turrent
I think this rule requires to much bookkeeping if used (“Lunar A equipped with 1 FDT, Gothic B with two). Also this option is to expensive to consider it for more than filling point gaps. If I have the option to buy 6 ftd turret or an additional cobra I would always choose the later.
So if it should be used you should make FTDs a) compulsory and b) less expensive.
My suggestion would be that you increase the price of all ships with 2 or more turrets by 5 points. (all with only one turret get the ftd for free) an all ships are equipped with 2 FTDs (or one)
Another idea is a complete rule change: simply allow all Ships in Battlefleet Bakka to use massed turrets while 5cm away from each other...
Domius Astra
The wording in the list is abit weird (it still speaks of 0-1 Emperors while ships doesn't appears anymore in the list).
I would suggest to remove any connections toregular Emperor battleships and make the Dominus Astra a real character ship instead:
Dominus Astra 570 Points
Stats of an Emperor Battleship, LD 10, 2 rerolls, assault boats, +1 to defend against bording
2 (yes two!!) fixed refits: perhaps secondary reactors an either a targetting matrix or motion-tracking targeters (as the ship “ripped through the bioships†before getting swarmed) an some nasty rule that guarantees that if this ship is blown up, it explodes with a real big bang (like you never roll for catastrophic damage – it is always a warp drive implosion).
Use only in games oft 1500 points or more. And if you use it you can't have another Admiral of course.
Victory
It is sill inferior compared to an Retribution, which is already a substandard ship.
If you don't want to decrease points any further or up the weapons (dorsal battterys should be S9) how about increasing the speed to 25cm? The original idea of the victory was IIRC that of a “fast battleship� This speed can be justified with the lack of weapons. Also on a fleel-level comparision the mercury gets more interesting if there is something that can follow her...
OR you can allow CTNH – a Battleship that is able to turn twice if not under fire is a tactical advantage that can compensate the lack of sheer power. (But OK, it's hard to justifiy unless you goo deeper in the “fast battleship†explanation)
Also I still hold the opinion that the torpedo Version should not be cheaper: it is right that a Nc upgrade from S6 torps costs 20 points, but I always had the impression that the reason for this was simply to make it less appealing to players to avoid NC-Spam.
Also the NC rules have been altered since the bluebook that uses this 20 points. Today the Novacannon isn't nearly as fearsome as the “guess weapon†it was in the original rules.
Vanquisher
Undergunned, too slow for a gunship, overpriced and not even substandard range for a Battleship.
This beast has nothing to offer, so make it at least cheaper
Mercury
an 235P Armageddon with forced NC upgrade (+20P) that trades S6@45cm guns for S4@60cm an 5cm speed and some dangerous special rule. IMOa bad deal because on a fleet level the improved speed only has a very limited value. (the main advantage is it can CTNH while under fire).
IMO this ship should be more appealing because otherwise you'll hardly see one: the armageddon is the better Gunship in fleet context and in general the “battlecruiserâ€-category is used up by the Mars and the Jovian, simply because this is where the players get their ACs from.
If you don't want to change cost and/or weapon loadout, just an idea: allow it without limitations. So you don't need to have 2 regular cruisers to force one, so there is no competition with the necessary carriers. You can justify it with the “fact†that the mercury seems to be a quite common sight ( 5 mentioned ships in the text).
Jovian
Same here as for Dominus Astra: make it a real “character ship†instead a “regular†ship class.
The reason is simply: only Character ships have 0-1 limitations.
Regular classes were never limited even if there have been very few ( despoiler – 3 ships built) or even consisted only of a single ship (Acheron).
And add a S3@45cm Broadside – this will end the whining about “pure†carriers and all hardspoints are used up
light cruisers
I you don't do it for the whole list at least all light cruisers should get the FTD-upgrade for free.
List summary:
the entry about Assault boats can be removed as the Emperor is gone.
