Other Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 Guides:
- Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 – Beginners Guide
- Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 – Tips and Tricks
- Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 – Ships Guide
How to Skip Campaign Prologue
-After launching the game once, head to your config folder of Battlefleet Gothic Armada II, in your appdata folder. You can copy/paste the following in the research tab to access it with this link: %LOCALAPPDATA%\BattlefleetGothic2\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
-Find the file game.ini
-Edit it with a file editor program such as wordpad or notepad
-Find the line “bHasPlayedPrologue=False”
-Change it to “bHasPlayedPrologue=True”
-Save the file
-Restart the game.
You can now access the campaign.
Beginners Tips and Tricks
– Even if you lose a battle, you’ll earn some renown and admiral experience.
– Assassination targets are always admiral ships.
– Data to be secured always originates from an admiral ship.
– Lances, Pulsars and Zzap always hit and ignore most of the armour.
– Losing a ship is expensive. Don’t hesitate to disengage through a Warp Jump.
– Repairs of destroyed and heavily damaged ships can be hastened using renown.
– A ship lost in the warp isn’t available for a given duration.
– Imperium and Chaos fleets are perfect for beginners.
– Level up your admiral to unlock more powerful ships for your fleet.
– Leveling up your captains unlocks more upgrade slots for his ship.
– Every ship has defence turrets that have a chance to destroy enemy torpedoes, attack craft and assault boats.
– Don’t hesitate to specialise your ships in precise roles via skills and upgrades.
– Special Orders are strong, temporary buffs to fit various situations.
– “Recharge!” is a Special Order that reduces cooldowns and replenishes the combustion gauge.
– “Lock On!” is a Special Order that enhances both precision and critical chances.
– “Brace for Impact” impairs enemy precision and hardens the ship’s armour.
– “Running Silent” conceals your ship’s presence to long range scanners for sneak attacks.
– Imperium and Chaos fleets are perfect for beginners.
– Escort Ships’ speed and low cost makes them fit for recon duty or for softening the enemy for Line Ships.
– Escort ships are clean losses: you can always take some in your fleets and they don’t need repairs.
– The behaviour panel has an auto-targeting system you can set up. Use it if micro managing your fleet is too difficult.
– A Right-Click on a skill sets it on Auto Launch. It will be used automatically under specific conditions.
– In single player, press [SpaceBar] to slow down the game. It’ll give you time to think, plan and order your ships.
– Click on an enemy ship to set its priority value. Priority 1 will be targeted first, priority 4 will be left for last.
– Access the more detailed version of certain tooltips and in-game infos by pressing ALT.
– ALT can be used ingame to see the sizes and effects of Gas and Asteroid fields.
– Armour gives you a chance to cancel damage by blocking hits.
– Use [SpaceBar] to slow down time in order to manage your fleet more efficiently.own time in order to manage your fleet more efficiently.
Advanced Tips and Tricks
– Execute an insubordinate captain to prevent his ship from disengaging.
– Low hull and ship losses may trigger insubordination.
– Speed and movements are vital for an Eldar fleet.
– Ork ships are really weak from afar. The closer they get, the better.
– Some skills work well in synergy. Try to use Taunt and Supercharged Void Shields!
– Critical damage cripple ships by disabling essential parts.
– Critical damage may trigger fires, which cause huge hull damage over time.
– Emergency repairs not only regenerate hull points, they also put out fires.
– Ramming lighter ships is a proven and efficient tactic.
– Bomber squads and Torpedoes bypass shields, which make them useful against ships with strong shields.
– Environmental elements can be used to gain the edge over enemies.
– Every 100 hull points lost, a ship loses a defence turret, weakening it even more.
– Some missions are easier with specific deployments. Try to split up your transport ships to increase their survival.
– Bombs are dangerous, but visible and easily avoidable if you use manoeuvres to escape their range of action.
– Set your ship’s automatic behaviour to make better use of its weapons and capacities.
– Micro-managing your fleet’s moves and targeting to react to the enemy greatly improves its efficiency.
– Emergency repairs not only regenerate hull points, they also put out fires.
– Ships don’t have weapons in the back, so be careful not to get surrounded.
– Using special manoeuvres reveals your ship… Use it to lure enemy into a trap!
– If you upgrade your weapon systems, don’t forget to set the fighting behaviour accordingly to get the best out of your ships.
– Using the behaviour panel, you can decide which side to show the enemy. If your weapons are disabled starboard, show them your port weaponry.
– Imperium ships are designed to face heavy enemy fire right before unleashing their side weaponry. As such, their frontal armour is thicker.
– Orks’…peculiar ship designs tend to leave thinner armour at the rear.
– If your weaponry is stronger in the front, or you’ve lost your Broadside weaponry, configure the ship’s behaviour to favour front-facing combat.
– Clicking on an enemy ship allows you to select the subsystem to focus fire on. Focusing fire on a subsystem increases the chances of critical damage.
– Ramming, All Ahead Full and Brace for Impact are a deadly combo.
– As they lack shields and are more prone to critical damage, Eldar are weak to Lightning strikes.
– Ork torpedoes might not be what they seem: they also use them as boarding devices!
– Micro warp jumps work with augur probes and recon beacons.
– Although tricky, it is possible to intercept enemy fire in order to protect valuable ships.
– Escort ships tactical value shouldn’t be overlooked, even in high level games.
– Eldar are immune to solar flares, making them deadlier when this event takes place.
– Boarding successes cancel warp jumps and often condemn ships to destruction.
– There’s always room for improvements! Most capacities are skillshots: Easy to use, hard to master!
– Enemy ordnances, such as torpedoes, bombers and boats can be stopped by fighter squadrons.
– Bombs work well together. Initiate with a Phase bomb, suppress shields with a Disruption Bomb, and wreak havoc with the Plasma Bomb.
– A blind enemy is an easy prey. Trying to combine the Running Silent order with the augur disruptor.
– Do not underestimate your crew’s Navigator. He might not be useful in combat, but being able to retreat without penalties is a precious advantage.
– Eldar rely on engines but are vulnerable to critical damage. To compensate, they have three different engines, each assuming a third of its power.
– Be keen against Orks. Unlike others, they do not have different ship models of each classes, but they are all customisable and different.
– Chaos favours are visible on theirs ships. Use them to guess the ships roles and counter them efficiently.
– The Saviour pod upgrade is best used on ships with dangerous but vital roles.
– Boarding successes cancel warp jumps and often condemn ships to destruction.
– Sometimes, it’s better to let the enemy flee to focus quicker on another target. Destruction is a means, not an end.
– A ship without weapons isn’t totally useless. It can retreat to avoid destruction, but you can also use it as a shield… Or as a Ram.
– Squadrons are weak on defence turrets. Therefore, prefer isolated targets with a clear access path rather than ships packed together.
Subfactions
Subfactions are a category that can be selected to provide your fleet with a different asthetic. I encourage all of you to simply make your own fleet of your favorite factions and filter through the subfactions category while in the ship-viewer. This will allow close inspection of details and pick out which one fits the theme of your fleet.
Please note: There is no statistical advantage when it comes to choosing a subfaction, so simply choose what you think looks best and what will intimidate your enemies. The four Chaos subfactions dedicated to the worship of the Chaos gods each recieve an additional skill and upgrade to choose from. Each of the Orc subfactions also recieve and additional skill and upgrade. Because this applies to all Orc factions, I will not list them but I will list the specific Chaos ones below.
- The Death Guard, the horrifying followers of the Plague-Father Nurgle
- The Emperor’s Children, the seekers of perfection who answer to Slaanesh
- The Thousand Sons, those who desire knowledge and favored servants of Tzeentch
- The World Eaters, the murderous and bloodthirsty agents of Khorne
“Embrace your hunger, your lust, your desire. The universe is ours for the taking!”
– Sanctifer LeVay, Cult of the Sacred Union
Skills
Skills are unique cooldowns exclusive to the flagship of your fleet. These abilities range drasticly between factions and can support a multitude of playstyles. The overall concept when picking these skills is to choose things that either augment your fleet in some capacity or make up for some inherent weakness. These abilities can be offensive in nature focusing on dealing direct damage to a area-of-effect within the battlezone to depleting the shields of all ships (friend or foe) within a large radius, to pulling micro-warp jumps. There is no skill that is inherently better than any other. All of these skills are subjective and there are far to many variables that go into situations and personal playstyles for me to recommend specfic ones. There are certain skills which may work for some factions better than others, but again players don’t always play to their factions strengths and can bring suprising compositions and strategies.
The best skills are the ones that you find to work best for you, the faction, your playstyle and fleet. If you like doing damage, take an offensive skill. Scared of your flagship being destroyed? Take skills that focus on defense and maneuverability. Need more vision of the battlezone? Look at getting probes or some sort or a secondary scouting skill related to your faction.
Please be aware that skills can only be used by the flagship of your fleet, meaning that in order to capitalize on getting the most of your abilities, you must keep your flagship alive. These skills are not available to you if your flagship is destroyed or incapacitated in any way. Play wisely.
“To gaze into the Warp is to look into the abyss. To understand insanity itself is to become insane. Worst of all is the knowledge that while you are gazing upon it, the Warp is looking back at you and laughing.”
– Kartr Hollis, Nobilite Emissary
Upgrades
Upgrades differ from skills both in their application but also in terms of use. While skills are single use abilities that operate on cooldowns, upgrades are passive abilities that enhance your fleet in unique ways. This is another layer of customization to further add to your fleet and is supposed to replace the upgrade system from the previous Gothic Armada where every ship could be customized from top to bottom with stat boosts, bonuses and passives. There is one last layer of differentiation between skills and upgrades, while one can easily argue that all skills are useful in their own ways, upgrades… not so much. Let me explain.
First we must understand that upgrades focus on different aspects of your fleet. They either apply to just the flagship, the fleet as a whole, or some specific category of ships. When comparing these upgrades to one another we must weigh the different values that come from boosting specific areas or singular ships of the fleet versus things that benefit every ship under our command. For new players I recommend that you look at fleet-wide bonuses as these don’t force you to play in a particular way (generally) and are easier to get effective use out of. When looking at upgrades that focus on the flagship, they had better be GOOD in order to justify boosting one ship up more than an entire fleet, espeically considering the flagship is a prime target for your adversary. Upgrades which focus on boosting specific categories of ships or something similiar usually lead people to building fleets which only consist of that specific category in order to maximize the bonuses that are to be had. This min-maxing strategy is common in gaming but can be jarring for new players who are simply looking to understand game mechanics first, this is not an easy game to learn. Gothic Armada 2 has a steep learning curve and is punishing for new players in the multiplayer environment, look at what is easy first then specialize.
Please experiment for your faction and see what you like and what works best for you, you are the master of your own strategy and the person whose enjoyment matters most.
“One cannot consider the fate of a single man, nor ten, nor a hundred, nor a thousand. Billions will live and die by our actions here, and we have not the luxury to count the cost.”
– Inquisitor Kryptman
Imperial Navy Summary
“If the Adeptus Astartes are the Emperor’s wrath, and the Imperial Guard His hammer, then His Holy Navy is His mighty shield.”
– Cardinal Kregory Hestor
The Imperial Navy is arguably the most iconic and most powerful navy in Warhammer 40k lore. It is the shield that defends Imperial worlds from alien and heretical incursion while also being the sword that strikes at the enemies of mankind. In game, the Imperial Navy functions as the games “balanced” faction, being that it does everything decently and is a good place for beginners to start. The reason for this is that while no strategy may be “optimal” when comparing the Imperial Navy to its counterparts, it also doesn’t fail at anything either. Want torpedos? Done. Want to use carriers? Sure. Wanna get in close to the enemy and blast them to pieces with broadsides? Easy.
Another benefit the Imperial Navy has is a filled out roster of ships to choose from in multiple tonnages. Featuring several ships across the classifications of cruisers (all variants), escorts and heavier vessels a fleet can be designed almost in any way. Weapons available to this faction vary as well as you will see more specialized vessels focusing on macro-batteries, to mixed weapons platforms featuring lances and hangar bays. A simple strategy for new players is to find what aspect of the Imperial Navy they like and what areas of gameplay they enjoy most, then transfer over to a faction that does that particular thing better.
One particular design of the Imperial Navy is that their ships are on the slower side. In order to compensate for this weakness, nearly all vessels are armed with torpedos or in some cases Nova Cannons. These weapons are to be used to encourage an opponent to either engage with you if they are trying to run away, or to disengage with you should you need to keep your distance. Mastering this aspect of Imperial strategy is essential to playing this faction effectively. Without these weapons most opponents will simply charge at you if they wish to close or kite you as you try to catch up to their faster ships. Even if you don’t cause any damage at all with these weapons, they can be used to cut off escape routes or force an opponent to manuever in a way that gives you an advantage. Going further you might even force your enemy to burn an activated ability that they may have wished to save for later, such as a displacement/movement ability or something to counter mass-ordinance volleys.