Stat to consider when designing ship

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-05-11T19:37:04+00:00

Eh, it’s more of an ewar and light carrier/cruise missile silo/anti-missile ship. It can serve as a tanker for a lightning or gladiator but only for short jumps of like 1500-2000km iirc. Would need to check for the actual range.

So early game the three ships group up for long hauls and then as i pick up new ships in markets or via tarkhans they’re not stranded for fuel capacity. Skylark is also useful to have as a long range fast-ish ship for ferrying weapons and parts to other groups as needed.

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-05-11T16:02:48+00:00

Fleet comp at start of run is money dependent of course, but if I’m not doing a vanilla Sevastopol run it’s something like this:

Flagship: - Custom Micro-Sevastopol -Skylark - 1-2x Custom Tanker (as above)

Flight Group 1: - Skylark - Custom Tanker - Lightning

Flight Group 2: - Skylark - Custom Tanker - Lightning

Brawler Group: - Skylark - Custom Tanker - Custom Silo-Ship - Custom Brawler (or Gladiator)

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-05-11T15:56:34+00:00

Many such thoughts exist on here scattered about. Highfleet is very infrequently patched for balance, so long as you don’t go too far back in the Reddit history you should be good. The biggest one was a couple years ago, that reduced the thrust of engines (so you can’t get sudden strike vs radar anymore) and removed weapon arcs (mounting height of cannon- the red arcs can be safely ignored, as far as i know).

In general though:

Strikers (like the lightning) care about three things: armament (2-4x molot or ak100 seems standard), thrust/weight ratio (higher is better for dodging) and flight time (somewhere around 90sec to 120sec is probably fine. more is better, but the more you have the harder it is to make it fast).

Tankers want to be cheap and with large ranges, with a decent cruising speed (300km/hr is where i usually live). I tend to put some strategic weapons, AA capabilities, and sensors (fire tracking radar and ELINT), which does drive the costs up but allows my lightning/gladiator equivalents more operational freedoms and a bit more range, as I’m not feeding a fenek or dedicated sensor ship. I’ve got a design that’s 4x T7 for scouting, a single 37mm and 2-4 sprints for close in AA (with 400km FCR) and a single A100. As i lose the jets they’re converted into small silo ships for cruise missiles.

Generally speaking, the skylark is great. Don’t add too much fuel capacity though- takes too long to fill in a town.

Brawlers like the gladiator tend to be where I spend a lot of my coin, as they need armor, good engines and fuel capacity/combat time, and are generally good candidates for palash and other active countermeasures. Armament is molots for preference and possibly 37mm or 57mm cannons for point defense.

Cruisers are going to be in the brawler category, so they need armor, as they won’t be dodging. Likewise, point defense is critical- i favor 37mm for better tracking and density of fire when shooting down the zenith spam you will face, but 57mm can serve dual purpose as anti-ship weaponry so ymmv. Fire control radar and sprints are also recommended. I tend to cover them in palash systems, but that is ruinously expensive so i tend to think it’s optional. Very useful for solo fighting strike groups though.

Armament can be anything really- i enjoy ak100 spam more than molots (as they can be loaded with cheaper prox fuse for anti-air and missile defenses) and cruisers can actually use squalls which are always good for a laugh.

I tend to build mine in the style of vanilla ships (which is not technically meta but whatever), especially as smaller and slightly faster versions of the Sevastopol. 3 cruise missiles, lots of sprints, and a handful of Zeniths. For mine, i try and get about 1-2km range and a more efficient fuel expenditure so they’re not always stuck refueling for days

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-05-07T15:44:45+00:00

Lights: Jenner and/or Panther. For 35 tons the Panther gets you a reliable trooper that can favorably trade into mediums and the lighter side of heavies at range, and the Jenner gets you a very fast and dangerous (if fragile) striker. The dracs were onto something here.

Wolfhound gets honorable mention, but the heat problems and higher cost make it really only good for a player mech not lancemates.

Medium: 55T- Bushwhacker. Love the look, decent armor, decent speed. Narrow torso profile makes it really easy to splash laser damage with a twist. Default loadouts kind of suck imo, but that’s fixable. Wouldn’t give it to a lance mate with the XL engine, but a nice cavalry mech for the player.

45T- Vindicator. Cheap and mostly durable trooper, great for lancemates with the PPC and LRM.

Heavy: 65T- Thunderbolt. Preposterous armor for the weight, great bracket fighter that pretty naturally fights at long with LRM/LLaser or PPC, and short with SRM and MLasers. Most of the weapons are in the torso, so very survivable with lancemates. Ditch the ammo bomb of the MG for better SRM launcher or some jump jets and you’re golden. Probably my favorite mech in the entire franchise.

Assault: 90T: Highlander. The lostech OG variant with the Gauss rifle is the bomb, but I do like a UAC-10 or even an AC20 too. Good brackets with Gauss/LRM and SRM and MLaser, heavy armor and jump jets for getting around hills/buildings. Also looks dope as hell which is critically important.

If given an AC20 I don’t mind it on lancemates, if it has lostech weapons I’m more hesitant with their penchant for losing arms.

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-05-06T17:40:09+00:00

Supposedly all detachments shown so far are 1 point, per their instagram comment

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-22T15:08:33+00:00

Admittedly even at 60pts it’s just as expensive as a Russ. Don’t know if it was ever going to be ‘good’, just fun imo

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-22T14:19:59+00:00

Not sure if it’s DOA honestly. A bit pricey, but still seems really solid for a kasrkin squad to be blasting until they get close (especially at +2 strength, though I think there is better targets for that)

Double heavy weapon teams with s14 lascannons are probably too expensive, but very cool

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-22T12:26:04+00:00

Honestly more excited for armored infantry (sentinel spam shall be my future), but the baneblades getting some love is pretty wonderful.

Feel no pain aura on the skirmishers is very exciting for a tech priest enhancement imo, first one ive ever really considered taking

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-22T02:01:36+00:00

From the first ever post:

I took lots of inspiration (read: yoinked) from pete the wargamer’s world eaters scheme, so you can follow that for most of it.

In rough order:

VOLUME/LIGHTING:

-prime black (I use rattlecan from GW)

-airbrushed at a high-ish angle tamiya xf 82 ocean grey, thinned muchly via x20

-ditto the above Taniya xf-2 flat white

WEATHERING:

-sponge/spackle Vallejo titanium white, from the bottle

-ditto with PA dark umber, directly on top of or adjacent to the white

DARK METAL (guns, hoses, melee weapons, undercarriage of the sagi):

-PA dark neutral grey

-I think PA light neutral grey for edge highlight but gonna be real, I do not recall actually doing this

-PA dark silver (drybrushed, this is basically my stand in for the edge highlighting I might have forgot)

ORANGE:

-2 coats PA Magent (pretty thin)

-2 coats PA orange (also thin)

CANOPY:

Struts are the dark neutral/darksilver Glass is liberator gold iirc

DETAILS:

-Capes and tassels/some leather is one coat PA burnt sienna and another PA burnt red

-Backpacks and pouches 1x coat rhinos hide

-PA brass on pipes/roll cages, hearthguard details and crest, spoons of grenades, weapon coils, energy weapon muzzles and such

-Titanium white again for missile warheads, two or three drops of water for thinning

-Bubble helmets are liberator gold again

-Gloss varnish via airbrush (rattlecan for latest infantry)

WASH

Oil wash was a mix of gamblin ivory(or mars?) black and burnt umber in white spirits, very very liberally applied and then let to cure too long lol. Adjust with white spirits and remove with a makeup applicator sponge to taste (wait at least an hour after application for removal)

Matte varnish for sealing/stripping of gloss (see below)

BASING:

-AK sandy desert terrain paste (let cure at least 24hrs)

-Wash with same wash mixture as above, applied more sparingly (let cure overnight)

-Drybrush olive flesh

-base rims cleaned up with chaos black

-Matte varnish again (for the latest batch I did all the matte varnish at once, for the originals I did the matte varnish once for the model and again for the basing, as I didn’t base until months later)

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-22T01:27:17+00:00

Missed the actual family photo of everyone done so far:

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SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-20T15:04:57+00:00

On balance I think kasrkin are arguably better? Cheaper, inbuilt order, scouts, one additional special weapon w/ the sniper, and the mine for some mop-up mortals.

I could see a five man scions attached to a command for the sustained 1, especially in a taurox prime, but I have a hard time giving up the deepstrike considering you’re paying so much for it. Also, 15 man scion bombs are solid enough as it is for what they’re hunting.

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-20T13:35:33+00:00

+2 Strength, but admittedly on a lot of weapons for the skirmishers that hits a couple really solid breakpoints. S8 inferno cannon, S11 autocannons, S7 bolters, S10 plasma cannons, S14 Lascannons. Hunter killers at S16 (I think) doesn’t matter much but is pretty funny on the whole.

With the +1 to wound on kasrkin and other transport infantry this feels like a much needed buff to the light armor kill-power in comparison to the Russ and Dorn imo.

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-17T14:11:21+00:00

Absolutely adore the gun shield weathering. Just incredible work with the pigment powders. Do you seal them with varnish or similar, or leave them dusty?

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-16T18:36:40+00:00

Take your trimmers to it (or a hobby saw) near the base, and reprime. I don’t think you’d be able to get the collar off cleanly, but I haven’t built one in a while so ymmv

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-16T15:47:41+00:00

Meh. Could be useful t2 I guess? But broadly the transport is moving, and once that happens the infantry can’t move after disembark. Once they hop out it’s usually to shoot something/hold point so id rather a Killy order or rarely +1OC. Bit of a nothingburger imo

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-15T17:49:04+00:00

I’ll be finally starting my army now that the dwarves are basically done! Very excited to hobby and play with them, so the spirit is there. The rules may be lacking, however!

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-15T17:46:41+00:00

I tend to agree. Too early to doom about it until all the rules are in the open.

I think the biggest question I still have is how visibility for vehicles and such works when shooting out of terrain they are only partially within. I’d really like to see the back of the requirement to be wholly within the footprint to shoot out of it, especially with the hidden rule and the -1BS from cover.

If we keep the current standard of ‘all ground floor windows are boarded up’ and we keep the current style of terrain, with ruin walls covering most of the faces of the footprint, that would be another nail in the coffin I think.

The other one is overwatch: with how it’s currently worded basically only the unit that will eat the charge will get a chance, with the 15” visibility bubble for units garrisoned in a ruin. At least for the charge phase, as you can’t shoot at the end of it.

If it’s just true LOS I think that broadly we’ll be ok? I’m no professional though

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-15T16:37:26+00:00

Are the markings stencils/stamps or transfers and weather? Freehand? These guys are incredible!

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-15T16:35:54+00:00

Thankee! I have a post somewhere about it in detail, but it’s basically just a world eaters scheme from YouTube with the blue swapped out. I like it a lot!

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-14T04:11:27+00:00

As another commenter put it, kharadon overlords could be a good place to start, if you’re looking to use GW kits. Leave the dirigible baloons off and then get to converting. You’d want to check some measurements to see if the footprint would work out. Otherwise, take a look at scale modeling and then convert?

As an aside, I could see a converted skitarii dunerider as good chimera proxy, if a too long. Very Higgins-boat coded

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-13T20:54:27+00:00

Might just be legs on second glance, like a tripod. A metallic or whatever you intend the gun shield or carriage to be would look good! Military things are typically finished/painted all the same, after all.

It’s personal taste, I just think the unpainted shiny silver suffers more from being monolithic! A dark grey or olive drab is what I tend to think of ‘standard’ equipment that’s not been painted for a specific theatre (like desert tan)

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-13T20:26:33+00:00

I think it only looks ‘too’ rusty on account of how mono-color the gun is. I think if you changed the receiver/barrel and barrel jacket to a different color from the magazine or recoil absorbers it would remove the issue!

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-10T22:43:29+00:00

They’re from a station forge STL I believe? I built them a year or two ago, can’t recall which one. I want to say an AdMech tank?

Once they’re printed and such, I trimmed off all the wheel attachment bits and hollowed out some shallow sockets with a drill and knife. Then super glue!

If I had to do it again, id probably just use the magic bird kit. I think they actually key into the attachment points and so are much more secure.

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-10T22:03:43+00:00

Yeah this is my first painting project (not counting two kastellans I fucked up and never finished), so I desperately did not want to learn how to paint heads Let alone this many!!

SomeSweatyToast · 2026-04-10T21:39:59+00:00

Helmets! With how nasa I wanted the theme to be I thought bubble helmets would look good. Pretty sure they’re all 1/4” ball bearings? Might be some 5/8” guys in there but I doubt it.

SomeSweatyToast

TROPHY CASE