Hello Admirals!

We’re really happy that you’ve chosen to join us for the Pre-Order Beta stages of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2! This first beta introduces two modes from BFGA2: Prologue and the Battle mode.

In Prologue, you will be able to learn how to play the game, as well as discover the story setup for the game.

In Battle, you’ll be able to play one of three modes: Skirmish, which allows you to play any of the twelve races in the game against AI players. Here, you can play against fleet sizes of a default of 1200 points, but are able to modify them to make it easier or harder by size of the fleet they can deploy.

You’ll also find Multiplayer here, where you can play against other players in 1v1 or 2v2 battles, with fleets of up to 1200 points. In 2v2, this will be 600 points for each player.

While playing these modes, please keep in mind that this is still a beta, and that we are still actively collecting feedback on the way that the game plays. If you have any issues with faction balance, bugs or performance, please ensure that you let us know on the official Focus Forums.

Otherwise, please read the post below to learn some important information about how the game plays.

Enjoy!

Main menu

Continue Campaign [Unavailable in the first Pre-Order beta]

Load your Latest Save

New Campaign

Start the Prologue or one of the Campaigns (The campaigns are unavailable in the first Pre-Order Beta) Prologue

Launch the Prologue to the Imperium campaign, which stands as the tutorial of the game battle-wise. Imperium [Unavailable in the first Pre-Order beta]

Launch the Imperium campaign Necron [Unavailable in the first Pre-Order beta]

Launch the Necron campaign Tyranids [Unavailable in the first Pre-Order beta]

Launch the Tyranids campaign

Load Campaign [Unavailable in the first Pre-Order beta]

Load a specific Campaign Save

Battle

Play against other players with a persistent profile or train against the AI.

Leaderboard [Unavailable in the first Pre-Order beta]

See who is at the top of the ranked matches.

Options [A work-in-progress in the first Pre-Order beta]

Change the game’s options

Credits [Unavailable in the first Pre-Order beta]

Consult the in-game credits

Quit

Quit the game and return to Windows

Battle Mode

To access to this mode, clic on the "Battle" button of the main menu.

Once you have selected it, you will have to pick the Faction and Admiral Profile you want to play with.

Interface

Here’s a screenshot of the menu:



A - Player Profile

You can see here all information related to your profile

Nickname.

Current multiplayer rank.

Current selected fleet, skills and upgrades.

B - Faction selection

Choose one of the available factions (All the 12 factions are available).

Each faction comes with its own set of sub-factions, pick the one you prefer.

Sub-factions have their own story and color, they can also influence the skills available

C - Select your Skills and Upgrades

Each faction comes with different skills and upgrade available, you will be able to select 2 of each before launching the game.

The selected skills will only be set on your admiral ship, while the upgrades can apply to several ships on your fleet.

D - Select your Fleet

The Battle in Battlefleet Gothic II puts all players on equal footing.

Several premade fleets are available with an equal amount of fleet points (1200FP), choose the one to your liking.

You can see the ships constituting the fleets by hovering each different fleet.

You can also create a custom 1200 fleet points (1vs1) or 600 fleet points (2vs2) by clicking the “Custom Fleet” button.

E - Invite a Friend

You can invite a friend that is also playing the BFG2 open beta through Steam.

Each player can setup his fleet, skills and upgrades.

Once both players are ready, they can battle in a friendly 1vs1 or train 2vsAI .

F - Game Setting

Within the menu, you can launch either with "Skirmish 1v1” or "Ranked 1v1" or "2v2"

The “Skirmish” will set you against an AI opponent, you can choose which faction the AI will play.

The “Ranked 1v1” will match you against another player.

The “Ranked 2v2” will match you with an ally and against 2 other players. (Disabled if you have invited a friend).

The gear wheel button will allow you to custom your skirmish map settings. Here is what you can set: Game options Victory by Domination: Allow or not the Domination mode (victory by reaching the required number of points). If not, the only one victory condition remains the total destruction of the enemy fleet. Domination score setting Environment event Map generation Sector background: Select a specific background between different sectors. On map gameplay elements probabilities (gaz clouds, asteroïds, celestial bodies and wreackage fields)



G - Launch the game

If all needed settings are defined, you can then launch the game.

Launching the game as a Skirmish 1v1, you will be invited to select your opponent's faction either between the 12 available factions or randomly.

You can at this step select the difficulty of the game either through a range of 5 difficulty presets or a custom difficulty by manually choosing the opponent fleet points.

Custom fleet builder

While selecting your fleet, you can create your own custom fleet with the ships you prefer.

The first line ship you choose will be your admiral ship.

The number of escort ships authorized in your fleet is based on the number of line ships you have in your fleet and on their tonnage.

Stats and attributes of the selected ship are displayed at the bottom of the screen.

You are limited to a maximum of fleet points, depending on the game mode you want to play in:

1200 FP for 1vs1

600 FP for 2vs2

In-Game

Deploy Phase

Your ships and your opponent’s will be deployed by default.

To change the deployment place of a ship, select a ship by left-clicking on it or on its ship card in the right panel and right-click on the position where you want it to be.

Hold and drag the right-click to rotate your ship.

Click on “Ready” once you’re happy with the deployment position of all your ships. Both players must be ready for the battle to start.

Reminder: if you want to quickly re-deploy your ships through keybinding, you quick-skip ships in the ship cards list by pressing Shift.

UI

Here’s a screenshot of the in-game interface of Battlefleet Gothic II:



A - Currently selected ship

Also applies for the main ship of a multi-selection

B - Currently selected ship scanning range

C - Currently selected ship identification range

D - Currently selected ship detailed information:

Ship name

Shield bar

Hull points bar

Morale bar

Ship profile and tonnage

Upgrades

Attributes

Weapons

Ship stats

Note: You can reduce this panel using the “v” button ( d )

E - Currently selected ship(s) behaviours panel:

Auto-attack

Engagement direction (front or sides)

Engagement distance (automatically and dynamically set on your ship’s weaponry range)

Engagement side

Stop current order

Lock target

Note: when selecting an enemy ship, you can set a level of priority and target specific parts of this ship.

F - Maneuvers panel

Maneuvers are different depending on the selected faction

G - Currently selected ship status

Shows ship’s visibility

Critical damage (light and heavy)

Troop status This status highlights the current step and number of defense troops. There are 3 steps: green / yellow / red. Each step has the same number of troops, so your total troop number corresponds to:

displayed troops number x 3

Ongoing boarding

H - Currently selected ship(s) active skills sorted by categories and shared cooldown

A selection of multiple ships will display the available skills for the whole selection.

Stances, you may activate only one stance at the time per ship

Orders, you may use only one order at the time per ship

Boarding, you may use only one boarding skill at the time. Each boarding skill has a limit of 3 uses.

Weapons, all kind of Torpedoes, as well as all kind of Ordonnance, have a shared cooldown. Each weapon skill has a limit of 3 uses.

Technical, the skills you’ve selected in the Battle menu, only your Admiral ship can use those.

Management, to disengage your ship or do a line formation.

Note: the keybind shortcuts displayed are outdated

I - Minimap

J - Shipcards of your whole fleet

You can select a ship from this panel. The currently selected ship or main ship of a multi-selection is highlighted and framed in white

K - Speed management

Only available in solo games against the AI

New in BFG II

This section is aimed at the player returning from BFG1 and want more info on some new features in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II.

Movement

In BFG II, you can change the spacing of the ships in a multi-selection.

To do so, select multiple ships and hold your right click and drag to change the spacing.

It will look roughly like this:

Detection

Each ship now has two detection ranges: the scanning range, and the identification range.

The scanning range is a short-range scan that allows any ship to reveal stealth enemy ships.

The identification range is wider and will reveal undetected ships. The identification range does not reveal stealth enemies.

Game Speed

If you are playing against an AI, there are different speeds that you can set.

You can change the speed with the buttons at the bottom of the minimap. The speed varies from slomo, to a full pause, to accelerated speed. Pressing Spacebar still triggers the Tactical Cogitator.

Please note that these speed options are not available in any multiplayer mode (PVP or coop against AI).

Skill Launching

In BFGII, you will be able to use all the skills of your current multi selection.

When you click on a skill while selecting multiple ships, it launches it on all the ships that can do it.

In case of Weaponry, that means, for example, that you can launch all your torpedoes at once.

For targeting skills such as boarding, you’ll have to select a target for each skill launched (imagine they are stacked in your mouse cursor).

You can hover a skill to see the simultaneous range and/or direction of each ship as below:

IMPORTANT: Skill auto-launch is no longer available, the players will have to be careful about correctly using its skills.

Weapon Stacks



The weaponry and boarding skills are now limited to a maximum amount of charges, in order to prevent infinite cannon nova and torpedo spam while not moving in the map. Each weaponry skill has x3 charges.

Each charge of the same weaponry is independent, torpedoes and melta-torpedoes have 3 charges each. A ship with both types of torpedoes can use them up to 6 times (3 times each) before running out of charges. You do not replenish charges inside a battle, but the charges are recovered between each fight. Please note that the cooldown for the same skill are linked however.

Ordnance



Ordnance have been improved quite heavily. Each ordnance is also limited by a stack, with each different ordnance having its own stack. Ordnance is no longer limited in range.

Fighters are now a target skill. Player may target a friendly ship, an enemy ship or a location in space. The fighters will go to the destination, and intercept all ordnance and torpedoes coming their way. The fighters can also be used to scout, as they have a detection radius. At last, fighters can destroy defence turrets that protect line ships.

Assault boat and Bombers can be launched without restriction of range but can only target enemy ships. Assault boats trigger boarding actions, while Bombers deal hull damage.

One last thing, if your ordnance finish its mission and comes back to its line ship, you regain the used charge. If you lose it, the charge will be consumed the same way as a torpedo or boarding skill.

Stances

Special orders “Lock on Target”, “Brace for Impact”, “Running Silent” and “Reloading” are now stances that retain their gameplay effect till the player changes it.

The “Running Silent” stance is cancelled when the ship is detected, therefore it is cancelled when using Maneuvers. Resetting your ship to Cruising Speed or stopping it will reinitialize the stealth mode when possible.

The available stances are different based on the faction and ship’s tonnage – for example, a battleship cannot do a “Running Silent”.

Orders



New emergency orders have been added to help you in dire situations such as “Call to Arm” or Emergency Repair”.

Please note that orders effects might have been modified and you should carefully read the orders and skills description (e.g.: Emergency Repair no longer recovers a small amount of Hull Points).

Boarding



Boarding actions have been heavily modified in BFG II. They no longer are instant and do not cause critical damage anymore.

Each ship has a given number of troops as seen in the ships stats:

Once a boarding is done, the troops will fight inside a ship and the results will be made after a delay.

If the attacker wins, the number of troops inside the ship goes down by 1 and the ship suffers a permanent debuff on its cooldown and weaponry reloading rate.

If the defender wins, the boarding troops assaulting a ship are destroyed.

Likeliness of winning a boarding action is based on the troop efficiency, this allows us to reflect more accurately the different factions in Warhammer (for example, Adeptus Astartes are better in combat but fewer in number).

Besides, troops number works with some steps, as you can see on the previous screen. Each step has the same exact troop number. When the current troop number drops to 0, the step switch to another one, and add a light critic to the ship.

The different steps are the following: green (1st step) ; yellow (2nd step) ; red (3rd and last step).

So when you read "18/18" on a brand new ship (green step), there are actually 18x3=54 total troops remaining before a drifting hulk.

If the troop number of a ship drops to zero on the 3rd step (the red one), the ship will no longer have any crew member left to manoeuvre it and will become a Drifting Hulk (see next screen).

Drifting Hulk

If a ship has 0 troop left, it becomes a drifting hulk. A drifting hulk has its skills, weapons and movement disabled.

The player can take control back over his drifting ship with a boarding action from another of his ships, granting it 1 troop.

The player owning the drifting hulk can also scuttle his ships to make it explode.

Formation

You can set your ships in a column formation.

To do so, select multiple ships and click the Group Order skill in the management tab.



Click then on the ship that will be acting as the leader. The other ships will follow its path.

Morale

Morale is no longer a hidden stat, each ship has a base morale of 1000. The morale value is modified by multiple elements such as damage taken, ships tonnage, an allied ship being destroyed, specific skills and more.

Each ship slowly regenerates its morale at the rate of 0.5 every second.

You can follow the morale value of your ship on the orange bar in the UI.



Once the morale reaches zero, a mutiny occurs. The ships tries to escape the battlefield.

The player can execute to regain control the ship but will lose half of its troop if he does so.

He can also use a rally order from his admiral ship to stop the mutiny.



Multiplayer Game Mode

The rules of the multiplayer game mode are now as follow:

The game is now a domination match.

You win either by scoring points, or by destroying all the ships of your opponent

Each time an enemy ship is destroyed, you gain points based on its hull and initial fleet power.

You score points by securing control zone in the map. There are 5 control zones on the map

Once a ship enters a control zone, it starts capturing it.

If you fill the bar entirely, you control the zone. You retain control of the zone even if no allied ship is on it.

You gain points for each controlled zone. The more zones you control the faster you gain points.

You also gain points for each destroyed enemy ship (100% of its fleet points)

You also gain points for each enemy ship that disengage (50% of its fleet points)

To capture an enemy control zone, you must place a ship on it. If an enemy ship (or defence system) is defending it, you must destroy it before securing it.

Capture zone :



Note: UI feedback and balancing are still in progress. Do not hesitate to share your feelings on these matters.

Thanks,

Tindalos Interactive and Focus Home Interactive