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A linebreaker: what could be less
Imperial than this? And, for an admiral like me, who
dislikes all this torpedo nonsense, what could be more
satisfying than racing up close and battering the enemy.
Broadsides! That's what makes me all bfg happy!
So: the call goes out and the admiral
is given a list of ships totally inadequate for his needs.
What does he do? Head for the nearest starport,
where a host of dull shapes drift at anchor, where they
have rested for the past 35,000 years. The systems
spring to life, testament to engineering skills long since
lost. The air hatches open, and they walk echoing
corridor which no one has seen for generations.
'Do you think they can fly?' one of the
administratum scribes asks, his face concerned.
'I don't care about flying,' the
admiral says, 'can they still fight?'
Three days later the guns are put to
the test, the lights flicker and the starboard batteries
fire in unison, the ship shudders and a target asteroid,
ten thousand meters away, explodes into fragments.
The Avenger Battlecruiser is as blunt
and crude an instrument as a hammer. It's role is to
get up close and personal and blast away, giving full
broadsides to the enemy. It also has to get close to
be effective, its guns only having a 30cm range.
Now I have one of these, I want
another, and think two of these in a squadron, with maybe
a light cruiser to go first and soak up some of the damage
with its armoured prow will be the way to go. Just
imagine a squadron who's salvos number over 32. And
the plan is that they'll distract the enemy long enough
for the rest of the fleet to come up and mop up what;s
left, while the Avengers have taken all the punishment.
Very much what Nelson's flagship did at
Trafalga, in fact.
Ordering
The first major challenge I faced was
getting the parts. I was in China at the time and
had none of the bits I needed with me. So I emailed
GW. All the parts for all the varients were
included, I was told, in writing. Four weeks later the box arrived,
without the parts. I had anticipated this; having
experienced GW mail order many times before, and emailed
again, and explained the problem. GW sent me half
the parts I needed, in a boxed set of two chaos cruisers.
I emailed back and explained that I also needed Imperial
cruiser parts.
GW apologised again and sent me two
more chaos cruisers and two imperial cruisers.
So I ended up with four chaos plastic cruisers and two
Imperial cruisers entirely free. Hmm, thanks GW, but there have to be easier ways of doing this.
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