Building Your Fleet
Game Size
Battlegroups in Dropfleet Commander are determined by the size of game chosen and the individual forces that players choose. There are three sizes of game; Skirmish, Clash and Battle. These indicate small, medium and large sized games, and give players restrictions on group numbers and ship types.
- Skirmish: 500-999 points
- Clash: 1000-1999 points
- Battle: 2000-3000 points
As the game size increases, the number of Battlegroups permitted is capped. This means that larger games will not have many more activations per turn than smaller ones, making it more practical to fight epic engagements. If you want to play a truly vast battle, you may use two or more Fleet Rosters split into these categories (although by using the lowest number of points possible). For example, if you want to play a 6000 point game. You can use two 'Battle' Fleet Rosters, but not six 'Skirmish' Fleet Rosters.
The Fleet Roster
Each ship has a Tonnage value as explained in the Ship Characteristics section. The Battlegroup Tables show how many of each group of that tonnage may be in each Battlegroup. The large table below (known as the Fleet Roster) will then show how many of each Battlegroup may be chosen for each game size. Unless otherwise stated, a single Battlegroup may not come to more than 33% of your army's total allowed points cost for Clashes and Battles, and 50% for skirmishes. This does not include the points cost of your Admiral.
All ships selected for your fleet must be from the same faction (so a Scourge fleet should comprise only Scourge ships), unless a special rule states that a ship can be included in specific factions.
Launch Capacity
Fighters, Bombers and Torpedoes are expensive resources and as such fleets only have a limited supply of them. This is represented in game by a Launch Capacity Cap and you may not have more total Launch Capacity for Fighters, Bombers and Torpedoes in your fleet than shown in the Fleet Roster above.
| Game Size | Battlegroup Type | Launch Capacity | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pathfinder | Line | Vanguard | Flag | Max | ||
| Skirmish (500-999 pts) | 0-2 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| Clash (1000-1999 pts) | 1-2 | 1-3 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 6 | 15 |
| Battle (2000-3000 pts) | 1-3 | 1-4 | 0-3 | 0-2 | 7 | 20 |
| Pathfinder Battlegroup | |
|---|---|
| Light | 1-3 |
| Medium | 0-1 |
| Max | 3 |
| Line Battlegroup | |
|---|---|
| Light | 0-2 |
| Medium | 1-3 |
| Max | 3 |
| Vanguard Battlegroup | |
|---|---|
| Light | 0-1 |
| Medium | 0-1 |
| Heavy | 1-2 |
| Max | 3 |
| Flag Battlegroup | |
|---|---|
| Light | 0-1 |
| Super Heavy | 1-2 |
| Max | 3 |
Strategy Rating
Once you have built your fleet, you will need to determine your Strategy Rating for each Battlegroup in your fleet. To determine the Strategy Rating of each Battlegroup, simply total up the Tonnage Value of each ship in the Battlegroup using the table below.
| Tonnage | Tonnage Value |
|---|---|
| Light | 1 |
| Light 2 (L2) | 2 |
| Medium | 5 |
| Heavy | 10 |
| Super Heavy | 15 |
| Super Heavy 2 (S2) | 30 |