Orbital Defenses

[afterimagedan]

Anyone have any insight on where to start with orbital defenses? Hopefully you guys can shed some light:

-The type of orbital defense that would work best has weapons complimentary to the fleet you chose. For example, a Chaos defending fleet may benefit more from torpedo silos instead of weapon battery ones because Chaos are usually low in torpedoes. True?
-Can anyone who is defending use the "Gothic Sector Planetary Defenses List" from the "Ships of the Gothic Sector" document?
-Any advice on how to deploy them? My assumption is to spread them out a little for coverage.
-The torpedo launcher platform seems like an awesome option though it must reload. I assume it gets the same pluses and minuses to leadership that regular vessels do?

[Jimmy Zimms]

-The type of orbital defense that would work best has weapons complimentary to the fleet you chose. For example, a Chaos defending fleet may benefit more from torpedo silos instead of weapon battery ones because Chaos are usually low in torpedoes. True?

IMO depends on what you're facing. For instance if you're up against eldar WB's all the way, baby

-Can anyone who is defending use the "Gothic Sector Planetary Defenses List" from the "Ships of the Gothic Sector" document?

I do. Don't know if it's official or kosher but in a friendly game, why not? I will admit though we REALLLLY try and only play out scenarios with very specific stories and victory conditions so YMMV.

-Any advice on how to deploy them? My assumption is to spread them out a little for coverage.

Again depends on what you're facing. Against IN, especially with novas and all those torps, not a bad idea. With the pointy ears their 360 fire arc makes them good for mutual support so that it's harder for them to strike and evade (less so if you're playing MMS however)

-The torpedo launcher platform seems like an awesome option though it must reload. I assume it gets the same pluses and minuses to leadership that regular vessels do?

You can squadron orbitals so that can help somewhat if you're worried.

[Dan_Lee]

It all depends on who you are facing, but I'd say in general range 60cm WB's is the winner of the orbital platforms. I'd always pay for the biggest orbital defense possible though. The platforms can often be avoided or die easily (they can't brace!).

Minefields can't be destroyed and can really scare off your opponent, so they're always a good bet if you have the extra 10 points.

Fire ships are also a bargain - their damage potential is so high they will either attract tonnes of shooting early in the game or they'll be ignored and possibly do lots of damage to your enemy. I've seen a fireship do some serious damage to a battlebarge, as their attack ignores armour and shields.

I'd say anyone who is defending a planet or similar can use defenses, possibly subject to them being appropriate to their race.

Deployment would depend on the scenario and who you are facing. Since they can only reload ordnance, there is no point squadroning them unless they have ordnance.

I don't see why defenses wouldn't benefit from Ld modifiers like everything else. They usually need it with Ld7.

[afterimagedan]

I'm making a few different things so try to make a decent amount of options. Here is what I am working on:

-2 torpedo platforms
-3 weapon battery platforms
 -1-2 orbital docks
-1 space station

Sound alright? Any suggestions of what to add? I am documenting my progress here.

[AndrewChristlieb]

Minefields, I've never seen any actually modeled. Some scratch system ships and fire ships probably wouldn't hurt.

[afterimagedan]

Actually, I was thinking an order from FW may help with that. Maybe down the line, I will pick some up.

[Dan_Lee]

Your list seems sensible. Any lance platforms for when the enemy get close? I'd definitely make some defense monitors and fire ships if you want to make a collection.

The defense platforms on your blog look really good.

[afterimagedan]

Thanks! I am actually done building the space station and 1 torpedo platform. I am close to done with the other 4 platforms. I will post a picture on the blog in a second.

I do think that defense monitors would be a good addition. I will have to try fire ships out before I am sold on them. It seems weird to have a self-destructing ship that moves 15cm. Hmm, I will have to ponder that.

Dan Lee, I sent you a PM.

[AndrewChristlieb]

What you have looks good so far. I just got done checking the updates to your blog and im impressed with what you have been doing. I'm especially looking forward to the prospect of a low orbit table. One of the big challenges I have seen in the past with the low orbit table is that gw never released any actual models for low orbit defenses and there was never any set base size.

[afterimagedan]

I actually have some ideas for low orbit defenses I am going to toy with. After I work with these, I may get to work on it.  What I was thinking was making something similar looking to the high orbit defenses I am working on now but make them more appropriate looking for being on the ground and put them on half of a regular sized base. I am also going to make a little rubber piece for the bottom of the base that will make it hard for it to fall off the edge of the table and make it wrap 90 degrees around the side of the table.  We shall see how it goes.

[AndrewChristlieb]

About the best attempts I've seen were here, some very nice pieces done using the small infantry bases also some orbitals.

[Dan_Lee]

One of the worst aspects of the low orbit table that I encountered was the fact that many ships really struggle to avoid crashing into the planet if they enter low orbit. I know that perhaps that makes sense fluff wise, but in the game it seemed to get silly.

[afterimagedan]

I am going to make the low orbit board 3ft by 3ft (around 90 by 90) so that the gravity well is half of the board. That should leave a (close to) 90cm by 45cm strip to fight in before getting pulled to the ground.

[Mallich]

I'd always pay for the biggest orbital defense possible though. The platforms can often be avoided or die easily (they can't brace!).

Stationary defenses and vessels used as planetary defenses such as Defense Monitors or system ships do not roll for leadership or have a leadership value just as other normal planetary defenses do not, with the exception that they reload ordnance (where applicable) on a nominal leadership of 7 unless specifically stated otherwise in their fleet lists or special rules. This means that they cannot take on any special orders except Reload Ordnance, though they may also attempt to Brace For Impact against this same leadership.

Silly you for thinking that just because the "Ships Of the Gothic Sector" and "Advanced Rules" PDFs repeated said "they can only use the Reload Ordnance special order" means that they can only use the Reload Ordnance special order.

-Can anyone who is defending use the "Gothic Sector Planetary Defenses List" from the "Ships of the Gothic Sector" document?

When desired, the defender in a scenario may spend up to one-third of his allocated point value on planetary defenses, in addition to any planetary defenses provided by the specific scenario. This allows for the use of larger planetary defenses such as major fleet bases and the like, for which the profile and point cost of an Imperial Blackstone Fortress on p.145 of the rulebook may be used. However, these additional defenses come directly from the points allowed against his or her fleet list.

Yes.
Tyranids can spend Planetary Defence points on additional ordnance (I'm guessing that this is instead of having access to proper defences) and Orks have access to the Rok (LD 7, not 6, in this case) in addition to the usual defences. Eldar/Dark Eldar have those pretty spires. Tau have those waystation thingies. I'm not sure how "official" those things are. Those are the only special cases that I know of.

[Dan_Lee]

I stand corrected. I hadn't used any defenses since the FAQ 2010 came out so I hadn't noticed the change. I'm pretty sure we allowed them to brace as a house rule anyway.