I got to play another proper game tonight... sort of.
This time I played my Chaos against another fellow's Imperium. There were some hiccups in the beginning, based mostly on the fact that I am a new player who has extensively researched all the available (free) pdfs, including the more modern ones, like the 2010 FAQ, while my opponent bought into BFG when it first came out... and has only played once or twice. Luckily, he enjoyed our game, so I think I'll get to play again soon.
The other major hiccup: we played a scenario, and we played it totally wrong. We tried to do the convoy one, with my Chaos fleet escorting eight transports across the board. The trouble was, my opponent (who set up) misread the rules. Rather than him deploying, knowing that he would have to deal with the dice gods deciding which board edge I arrived on, he believed that my arrival was a given and deployed accordingly, with a planet (the place the convoy was headed) set up on one end and his entire fleet deployed on the other.
As a result, one of my main strengths as Chaos - my improved speed and maneuverability - was seriously hindered. My opponent was able to set up so that I ran right into him, with his bulldozer-like Imperial fleet set up to deliver punishing broadsides right away. The slow speed of the transport ships didn't help any, either.
In the end, however, I managed a minor victory, with two of the eight tranports making planetfall.
Highlights of the game include me destroying his dauntless, turn one. The dauntless became a flaming wreck, then drifted into base contact with one of my slaughters... and then the warp drive freaking exploded. You know when one of those awesome, but bad for you, but totally awesome things happens in a wargame? It was like that.
The lessons of this game:
• Attack craft are incredibly important. Do not leave home without at least one carrier. If your opponent dominates the ordinance phase, you can at least put fighters on CAP and mitigate the damage your opponent can do. Without any kind of fighter support, your opponent's bombers will tear you the shit apart. My next Chaos purchase (not a priority - I favor Imperium and really only own Chaos to teach the game with) will be another Chaos cruiser kit so I can make the Chaos cruiser carrier.
• The Imperial 6+ armored prows are boss. I'm looking forward to getting to play my Imperials and take advantage of them myself!
• It's possible for your fleet to pass entirely through your opponent with a sizeable portion of both fleets intact. At that point... my grasp of the tactics falters. I wasn't sure what to do, so I simply moved my cruisers in to surround the transports and raced for the planet. In the end, it worked out, but I can't help but think there was something better I could have done.
• Another tactical challenge I seemed to have was actually causing damage. By the end of the game, my opponent had all but wiped out my escorts, killed one of my cruisers, and crippled the other. I, in contrast, only killed his dauntless and crippled one of his cruisers. I managed a minor victory, but I feel like I must have done something wrong...
