Battlefleet gothic armada 2
Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II Tips: Fleets, Factions, Weapons & More

Fleets. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II features a total of 12 factions from the tabletop game it is based on, all with their own strengths and weaknesses and unique tactical abilities. As such, it can be a daunting task to face them, let alone play them in either one of the dynamic campaigns or in skirmish mode. Here are some Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II tips that will help you on your path to conquering the galaxy.

 

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II General Tips

Battlefleet Gothic Armada

Eyes on the objective
While destroying all enemy vessels on the map will grant you victory, it is not always advantageous or even possible to do so. Instead, check what objectives you need to fulfill and concentrate on those. Most often there are points to control so divide your armada in order to cover as much of those as possible while still being able to fend off potential threats.

Look to the distance
Many ships have special abilities and some of them allow you to project power further than your more conventional weaponry. Be it powerful Nova cannons, torpedoes or bomber squads, it can behoove you to fire away at least one salvo towards hostile radar blips before they come into full detection.

Maneuver, maneuver, maneuver
Speaking of abilities, make sure to use your afterburners or other abilities that can improve your maneuverability for a limited time. Not only do these allow you to move and traverse obstacles faster, but they can also allow you to turn your ship and allow weapons and special abilities to come to bear. For example: You have your massive torpedoes at the ready but the Chaos flagship just zoomed past you,s so order your vessel to do a power-turn and wait until that pesky ship comes into your sights. Beware, though: your captains will not automatically avoid debris or friendly ships so make sure the space around you is clear.

Prioritize
Most ships have a bunch of subsystems that can be targeted and destroyed. Before engaging with a ship, click on it to decide what part your cannons should target first. It can be the hull, engines, reactor or weaponry. If done properly, you may completely cripple an enemy before destroying it, which is much faster and reduces the damage it can inflict on your fleet.

Prepare to be boarded!
Don’t forget to send out boarding parties. They can strike at prioritized subsystems of a ship or even take out the crew to such a degree that the ship becomes inoperable and a drifting hulk. Each faction usually has a few different ways of boarding enemy vessels but what is important is to remember to use them when given opportunity as it really can turn the tide of an engagement.

 

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II Tips: The Factions & Fleets

Battlefleet Gothic Armada II

The Imperium of Man
The Imperium fields your most well-balanced fleets and is a good faction to start out with. They are generally best at medium range and are neither slow nor especially fast. Their macro cannons can deal a great deal of hull damage and they have access to a slew of special abilities. If you choose to play with the Adeptus Astartes Space Marines, you will gain a lot of bonuses to morale (they are immune to mutiny and insubordination) and boarding actions. However, this comes at the expense of some firepower and mobility. The other sub-faction, the Adeptus Mechanicus, instead favors longer range and more high tech weaponry but aren’t as good with boarding and have slightly weaker armor. When playing with imperial ships, it is important to keep track of your fields of fire and your special abilities to evade incoming fire and maximizing damage output.

Da Orks
The Orks are crude and unsophisticated. They slap together whatever they can find to make ships and then go on to fill them with rocket engines and guns. They are slow and practically useless when fighting at range. However, get them in close and the sheer volume of fire from their numerous cannons will overwhelm most enemies. The deadliest part of an Ork armada though is the “Big Red Button”. This ability fires all rockets and engines in an effort to ram and destroy their enemies. Since Ork ships are big and heavy, such a collision will deal massive amounts of damage to virtually any foe they face. If you fight them, shoot them at a distance, pepper them with bombs and torpedoes or attack squadrons but whatever you do, never, ever engage with them in close combat.

The Aeldari
Eldar fleets excel at hit and run tactics. This is not surprising as their vessels are fast and nimble with a good array of long-distance weaponry. However, this comes at the expense of the hull and survivability. They are your typical glass cannon army: supremely deadly and hard to handle when they are far away, but manage to close the distance and tie them down and their ships will soon become that much-floating debris. Playing as the Eldar, it is important to keep moving and doing intelligent maneuvering to avoid getting trapped by an enemy fleet. Keep an especially wide berth when facing Orks as even a single collision with one of their ships may knock out even your biggest ship. The Eldar faction has been split into three, which will each skew the speed vs armor values slightly this way or that. None of them will, however, be able to last in a close encounter for very long against basically any foe.

Necrons
The oldest and most technologically advanced of all the factions in the Warhammer 40,000 universe are the Necrons. Their expensive ships prohibit them from fielding a large armada and they will most often find themselves outnumbered. Their ships tend to be bigger and slower than the other factions, making them vulnerable to faster moving fleets. However, their living metal hulls are able to absorb a great deal of damage and even self-repair, given the time to do so. Necron fleets also have the ability to teleport short distances and make use of a recall ability which allows escort ships to instantly teleport to their line vessel. Their resilience and ability to teleport makes them formidable ambushers. Send your faster escort ships out to take some control points or other objectives while the lumbering line ships make their way towards the enemy base or capital ship. Once the battle is engaged, recall your escort ships back to their line ships, either to ambush an unsuspecting enemy or to keep them out of harm, should they get overwhelmed.

Tyranids
The Tyranid fleet is massive and largely expendable. They are a swarm that slowly but surely will pick apart and devour their enemies. Tyranid “tactics” largely depends upon overwhelming an enemy with their greater numbers to close the range and engage in close combat. There they can start devouring ships and crews whole. Their only real weakness is that they cannot take a punch at all and will often suffer horrendous casualties with their assaults. Depending on who you face, ambush might be the best course of action with the Tyranids. They are fast and can catch up to many other ships but if facing concentrated fire they tend to melt away rather quickly.

Tau Empire
The space communists that are the Tau have a high end, deadly navy at their disposal. Though slow and very fragile, they sport some of the most powerful weaponry in the entire game and they almost always have the longer range. The preferred tactic when playing as the Tau is to send probes or sacrificial ships in order to detect enemies far away and use their superior range and firepower to wipe out threats before they have a chance to even lay eyes on you. They lack manoeuvrability, speed, and health, however, so any prolonged brawl with the Empire of Man or other fleets that can soak damage will most likely end poorly for the Tau. The Tau has been split into two factions that skew this balance with firepower versus health slightly but it does not change the tactics you use overly much.

Chaos
The traitor legions were once part of the Astra Militarum and Adeptus Astartes(The Imperium of Man) so there is little wonder that they play very much like a modified version of those fleets. Chaos ships tend to be slightly faster and more fragile than their Emperor loving nemesis. Their weapons also tend to have greater range and can fire in any direction. Making them a bit of the Mongolian horde of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II. This allows them to fire from outside of detection range while circling their enemies, keeping up a constant bombardment. When the enemy gives chase you simply break off and allow them to chase you until you can encircle them again. Chaos fleets falter when they get bogged down and face an enemy that is able to soak damage well as they have slightly less armor than many other ships.

These tips will by no means make you an expert at Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II, only hours of exploring and prodding the strengths and weaknesses of the factions and your own strategies will do that. Hopefully, these Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II tips can get you on your way at least and feel a bit more confident when facing the numerous threats of the galaxy.

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