4 v 5 - Imperial v Chaos Tactical Advice?

[Facialmatters]

Hey there, I'm wondering how to tackle this Chaos fleet:

2 x Murders
2 x Devastations
1 x Hades

With my current fleet of:

2 x Armageddons w/ Nova
2 x Dictators

at 1000pts. I admit, I don't feel confident that this gonna be easy to pull off. But that's what I've got. The lance fire from 60cm is gonna be frightful while closing, and then what? Any advice other than to cross fingers that my Novas hit well?

Should I close and turn early to cross the T and unmask my broadsides quickly at their prows or; keep pointing ahead in the 30-45cm Nova/torp sweet spot, weather another turn of fire, and then engage my broadsides from abeam, where their firepower is weaker than mine?

[Gothmog Lord of Balrogs]

The nc's should at least cripple a ship as you close. Try and take out one of the devs with them. Then you have the upper hand in ordnance and it can primarily be launched as bombers. If you can take out the other dev all the better. Plus his long range will likely be focused on your armageddons to get rid of those cannons

[ehlijen]

Keep your ships together, don't get split up and destroyed piecemeal.

Remember that you also have some 60cm lances. Odds are, between those and the NCs, he'll want to close quickly, negating his range advantage over you.

It's going to be about timing it right so that you'll get a NC salvo of at perfect range and land your dicator's torp salvoes at a good time. If you let him close the range on his terms, he'll rob you of those opportunities. You'll have to judge relative speeds and ranges well.

[FistusMaximus]

umm... not to spoil the fun, but  isnt the armageddon a battlecruiser?
and as such only one per two cruisers?

that would make your fleet impossible since you have two battlecruisers and only two cruisers (you'd need four) 

[Mallich]

umm... not to spoil the fun, but  isnt the armageddon a battlecruiser?
and as such only one per two cruisers?

The Armageddon Sector list is different as it allows 1 battlecruiser for each regular cruiser. I'm assuming that this is the list used.

[horizon]

Can't you ditch the NC?
Have all with torpedoes, close the lines quickly so you can negate all the long range weapons of chaos. Eg, deny him his long range gunnery.

[fracas]

Keep the nova cannon. Squadron the dictators, keep them in front or flanked by the armageddons. ( keep the torpedoes line of fire open)

[Facialmatters]

Yep, this fleet is made with the Armageddon Sector list. We play with the vanilla/FAQ2010 rules.

I think I'll keep the NCs. The temptation of being able to cripple or destroy at least one ship before we close is too much, and should even the odds.

I'll squadron the Dictators, and am thinking about doing the same for the Armageddons for Lock On.

[Gothmog Lord of Balrogs]

Yep, this fleet is made with the Armageddon Sector list. We play with the vanilla/FAQ2010 rules.

I think I'll keep the NCs. The temptation of being able to cripple or destroy at least one ship before we close is too much, and should even the odds.

I'll squadron the Dictators, and am thinking about doing the same for the Armageddons for Lock On.

Remember if they are squadroned that if you go to bfi, burn retros, aaf or come to new heading that niether ship could fire its nc.

[AndrewChristlieb]

I think I would target the Hades first. You already have the advantage with your carriers and if you can eliminate their only heavy hitter early you'll have a significant advantage all around. From there I would focus the Armageddons on the Devis and try to mass the Dictators against one of the Murders. 12 torps and 8 bombers should do some wonderful things .

[Facialmatters]

I think I would target the Hades first. You already have the advantage with your carriers and if you can eliminate their only heavy hitter early you'll have a significant advantage all around.

Was thinking the same. The Hades is contributing two Murders' worth of prow firepower while closing which will hurt, but its only in a single cruiser hull. The ACs from the Devastations are dangerous point blank, but hopefully I can force him into defensive ordnance spawn by spawning my bombers to let him know what's coming, but holding them back till we close.