Space Fleet (1991) - Codex Compliant

Let's check out the precursor to Battlefleet Gothic: Space Fleet.
Lead Plague website:
leadplague.blogspot.com/
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[@jamesstudholme3161]

Part of me would enjoy an Ordo Xenos Star Trek spoof where they seek out new life and civilisations ,before wiping them all out.

[@imperialfist2304]

*Retinue lands on planet* Hello there! Do you know where the humans are on the planet? Xeno: Hu-mans? *Shuttle immediately closes the ramp and flies back into orbit before an above fleet cleanses the planet of all life*

[@IainCiplinski]

That's the Great Crusade.

[@Nico745]

hold my frag

[@MrLodgik]

Srsly that would be AWESOME like the anti-startrek lol

[@jamesstudholme3161]

@WhomItMayConcern Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the the HMS Enterprise to meet new worlds ,cultures and civilisations ,exploit ,conquering and enslaving them along the way. To find tea and trade drugs where no man had gone before.

[@GreatgoatonFire]

The quest for GorkaMorka - Codex Compliant continues.

[@beardwierd2783]

GreatgoatonFire yes I want this in my life.

[@littlemisspipebomb4723]

I believe Snipe has states they're probably not going to, specifically because the comments would 90% digganob

[@GreatgoatonFire]

@@littlemisspipebomb4723 Do it's all Alfa-buss' fault? =P

[@Salixhartlepool]

They will probably do digganob first just to f with us

[@benkerby4827]

Dark Millennium first!!

[@mrbearbear83]

Wow, a protractor, if only we owned a pro farm

[@Rainlights13]

we could harvest some pro-duce

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

AGH! BANK HOLIDAY PUNDAY!

[@Greatdictator]

Starting it off with a Bucky O Hare reference: nice Realizing Righteous Indignation sounds 40 k as fuck: Nice

[@grahamcarpenter5135]

You beat me to that, I didn't realize anyone else remembered Bucky O'Hare

[@argokarrus2731]

I like how the opening ship is a Furious Abyss-Class Kingship, something exclusive to the post-heresy Word Bearers.

[@Grendelnz]

no, in the original game that was a Gothic battleship. the only plastic option you had. all the designs changed for Battlefleet gothic.

[@argokarrus2731]

@@Grendelnz I know, but in modern times that's rather ironic

[@Grendelnz]

@@argokarrus2731 True, its fun how they keep reusing old stuff, and repurposing it.

[@JennFaeAge]

That ending is why people either love Snipe and Wib or are just...wrong, on every level lol

[@jean-baptistegaridel8787]

Hey there, Thanks for crediting my blog in your video, glad it proved useful to some ! We actually had a three way game with about 3000 puts per side with all 3 available races, tyrannies do play entirely differently and require a few games not to kill the pace but the Tyranid player was great and managed that wonderfully. I love how easy it complex it can be but the core mechanics are fun. I am planning on a chaos force (count as imperials). Nice video guys 🙂

[@SnipeandWib]

Thank you! And you are most welcome, your blog was insanely helpful with putting this together, it was only right to credit you :) And someone showed us some pictures of what I assume was that game on Twitter, looked ridiculous and a lot of fun!

[@Ellendil12]

Who now wants a Space Fleet Battle report? Quickly searching through YT yielded only BF Gothic reports xD

[@jean-baptistegaridel8787]

@@Ellendil12 We actually played a 3 way game, not exactly a battle report but you can see what a 3*3000pts (complete guess) game would look like, we actually managed to bag it in a reasonable time ! leadplague.blogspot.com/2017/08/third-boyl-for-bloody-lucky-french.html

[@rodneykelly8768]

The profiles of the imperial ships in “Space Fleet,” are almost identical to the profiles of the weapons carried by the Tyranid warriors in the game “Advanced Space Crusade.”

[@samualwatkins]

The chances of Wib showing up to your house to make sure you're playing by the rules are low... but never zero.

[@stalker1983]

Honestly......i make sure all measurements i make are in accordance with the rules.......just in case of Wib

[@Fellknauel]

I like that the imperial battleships from space fleet ended up being used as the base for the "archaic" chaos battleships in BFG

[@MassEvans]

Bucky O’Hare reference at the beginning Lol I’m getting old 😆

[@azariahkyras7736]

I'm not a toad! I am TOADBORG!

[@adampriestley7732]

That was a great reference

[@R0ssMM]

I was so happy to hear it! (And ashamedly proud that I got it ;-) )

[@Slev00]

I still have this, with all the WD volumes, and my Tyranid fleet! And also Kerrunch!, Mighty Warriors, and Ultramarines. Playing 'Nids was unusual, but it was sooooo long ago I forget. Will try & get you some pics of my fleet if I can find where it is!

[@Joetime90]

Please divulge your treasures to us less fortunate.

[@Slev00]

@@Joetime90 That's just the tip of the iceberg comrade!

[@mr.pavone9719]

I have a number of disjointed things to say about this! By the time this came out all my friends and I had come to a few conclusions: -GW was daring enough to try new things with its games, like the boxtop hit/miss chart. -GW was going to constantly release unfinished but playable games to get us to buy the next issue of WD -GW is a money grabbing monster that helps you say no to drugs but YES YES YES to plastic crack. Not long ago I managed to download the rules for SF and hand build my own game. My boys and I built little space ships from Lego. We used the MegaConstrux Halo mini-ships as a pattern cuz they're about the right size. My boys loved making their own ships. The best part was literally smashing your opponent's ships when they were destroyed. We made a house rule to treat it as a debris field that you might collide with if your ship passed through and it also screened, thus reducing, potential damage. They picked it up pretty quick for 8 year olds. -We redesigned the hit/miss box by making it 4x4 instead of 3x3 and we checkered the hit/miss spaces -We tried fixing the hit/miss box by requiring players to do one of two throw options, either the dice had to bounce off a side or you had to drop them from 2 feet over the tray. Both worked ok but skill still played a part It's a fun, silly and simple game you can have a lot of fun with.

[@proto303]

now that outro was just adorable

[@TheBradleyClarke]

Snipe: "Okay this is way too many Star Trek references isnt it" Wib: "Cheeky/menacing grin" Also I actually applaude every time I finish a new video. Just me? Ok..

[@weldonwin]

Its not just Star Trek references, they called their ship The Righteous Indignation, so its a Bucky O'Hare reference too

[@nataliereed4238]

* stares pleadingly in the direction of GW's boxed games department *

[@Outcast115]

@WhomItMayConcern in my opinion you should probably stick with Star Wars Armada even though it is a pain to find the minis at the moment

[@voidimperatrix406]

The Red Tear kind of survived hitting a planet in Fear to Tread

[@martincann5052]

And one of the Ciaphas Cain novels has a Guard troopship crash into a planet and more or less survive in one piece.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

A Marine chapter once threw a Battle Barge at a planet during the Badab War. The planet was completely speared, but apparently everyone the Barge was fine.

[@jamescousins9216]

0:47 And given that prominent red "Gothic-Class Battleship" model is what got turned into Lorgar's three Abyss-class super-battleships in the Horus Heresy novels, neither is Chaos. Maybe that's why GW loves them so much...

[@imperialfist2304]

So I guess the quote is “FOR THE EMPEROR AND SPACE FLEEEEET!”?

[@umok2127]

Because I'm here 5 mins after this was uploaded no one has watched the full video yet Don't know why that's important but I think it's neat

[@doorstopper674]

C

[@doorstopper674]

U

[@Trisaart]

@@doorstopper674 M?

[@doorstopper674]

@@Trisaart you completed the ritual

[@Trisaart]

@@doorstopper674 i did

[@owaindavies2407]

That sign with no discernible use is to put on the spine of a folder where you’d keep supplemental material and game files.

[@Outcast115]

In the heady days before modern internet and computing, huh

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Considering Jervis Johnson basically just made Battlefleet Gothic in his spare time in 1998, at his house, I'm surprised I never knew about this.

[@dmeep]

The space fleet sign was for when you took polaroid selfies playing the game and posted them on the corkboard at your local tescos showing all the other kids that your parents really loved you

[@randombencounter263]

I think this might be the oldest game I've heard of that uses the secret orders -> simultaneous movement turns formula. I thought this was a much much more modern invention.

[@AndorianBlues]

Diplomacy uses this and it first came out in 1954

[@randombencounter263]

@@AndorianBlues Huh. For some reason in my mind Diplomacy came out much much later. I guess I just don't know my board games.

[@ratspike8017]

I own a Space Fleet Tyranid fleet. As well as a fair number of Imperials and Eldar, I bought all of the Tyranids back in the day as they are my chosen main faction (even in 1991, which gives you an idea of how obtuse I can be). Playing with them completely changed the game due to the action cards, etc. I seem to recall the Tyranid fleet would slowly move forward like a mass, and suddenly an individual ship would get a great card and go completely mental. Tbh I mostly use them in Battlefleet Gothic; I bought all the Tyranid models for that as well. Fear the size of my Tyranid hive fleet! It runs to literally hundreds of small ships swarming round four Hive Queens. Well, I think its neat!

[@Grendelnz]

-Talks about how you drop the dice from 30cm up, all scenes show rolling the dice really close to the base lid. You had to really drop the dice in a clump, especially if you were using a dominator with its massive gun, as the hits were based on if your model was in the square represented on the box (ie you picked a target point and the 9 squares around that square were repped by the squares of the box to represent the blast of the gun). I played this game for years, i actually strung up a 6x4 table so it was all grids for SF, allowing for massive games. I had 30-40 imperial ships and my friend had lots of nids. the problem with large games with the nids is they could cycle the action cards so fast and just swarm you and if you were unlucky the hive ship could spawn a hive ship!. what i liked was that if you did a ram (ie two ships in the same square), at least one of them was dead. the dominator was goofy but fun to grab things with and the fuel ship was great for rushing your opponent and hoping it exploded in their lines. so lots of fun, and in some ways better than the modern game, as the simultaneous nature got rid of some of the goofyness of modern BFG. sadly i was a kid back then and so have none of it left, it all fell apart or got lost moving flat too many times. but good memories of spaceship games.

[@BVargas78]

Ooh! Was not aware this one existed! I do remember hearing of Kerrunch though!

[@TheDudiest3Dude]

I had all four of those advertised box games when I was a kid, glorious times. nothing remains of them in my life anymore... except maybe a few plastic shields with holes in the middle...

[@markreynolds1436]

The Space Fleet sign is I believe intended to be the spine for an A4 ring-binder. Space Hulk 1st edition had them - possibly also Adeptus Titanicus. Rulebooks even had printed hole markers back then.

[@lancealot4943]

I wish I could remember what I did with my set. I remember playing it back at high school and knew I'd painted all the miniatures.

[@gafrers]

Great video but it get's overshadowed by 14:15 on, that is pure gold

[@hoebread7584]

Not even gonna pretend I didn't giggle audibly at seeing the squishmallow on the couch. Great Video. Those models hold up surprisingly well

[@BlizzardofKnives]

13:10 Imperial birthday cards would be chastising the recipient for having not yet died for the Emperor.

[@youdontneedtoseehisidentif4939]

And now I'm imagining a little boy running around with a purity seal that reads "I AM VI TODAY!"

[@youdontneedtoseehisidentif4939]

Less than fourteen seconds into the video, and already not only a _Star Trek_ parody but a _Bucky O'Hare_ reference - this is going to be good :)

[@mattcrossley7699]

Thankyou for the trip down memory lane... I had the standard 2 wraiths and a fleet of scouts... 😃

[@DaiMongar]

Y'know, I have a few of the small phallic-looking Tyranid ships. They came in a big lot of Epic armies I picked up about 10-15 years ago, took me ages to figure out what the hell they were.

[@flippingchips7343]

The intro reminded me of that one short story about the Rogue Trader whose ship was named "Most Profitable Enterprise".

[@daedalus6796]

Legends say that if anyone was to roll a dice under 30cm away from the box, Wib will emerge from his slumber in the warp and slap you silly with a wobbly measuring stick

[@relC0R3]

I just found your channel and i'm binging the whole backlog now.

[@thanhool]

Praise be to cannoness snipe and commisar wib!

[@walt_man]

This is one of your BEST Codex Compliants!

[@landotucker]

You guys are producing some top tier content. This series is fantastic. I've also been voraciously consuming your podcasts. Keep up the good work! 👍

[@kglguy]

I love this series. I have nothing more to add. I just love it.

[@RocketHarry865]

the thing about warp travel 13:01 that only applies if everything works normally because the warp can get really weird to what it does to ships. Chances is that a ship could travel to one place and ends ups several centuries later than what they would be expected or more rarely end up travelling to their destination before they even left in the first place. And that is if a ship ever gets out of the warp.

[@jarrakul]

The rolling mechanism for this game is absolutely wild. O_o

[@pavarottiaardvark3431]

So the birthday card at 13:12 is actually pretty close to how it used to work. The first digit in the old dating system represents how accurate you know the date to be; with 0 being an event that happened on Terra to 9 being only an approximate date due to warp travel and isolation.

[@pierrebach6161]

I bought the troop ship 30 years ago for his millenium falcon look, still got it on my desk, sometimes straffing orks on endor

[@LostHavenGames]

Big props for that Streetlight Manifesto picture!!! :D

[@MrEllahrairah]

I remember this game and how fun it was with the white dwarf articles to expand the rules. My friends and I made a custom rolling table with small grid spaces and a back piece that your dice had to hit to count... so it was essentially 40k craps. We didnt go all in and only had a few imperial and eldar ships... but had a great time.

[@CBfrmcardiff]

I have one of those old White Dwarfs! They were amazing.

[@Frankenmuppet]

Bloody hell, i swear... Everytime I watch one of your videos I find out something new I never knew. Last time it was that Ian Livingstone was one of the founders of GW (I used to love his chosen your own adventure books)... This time it's that Hero Quest has connections to GW (i always thought it was a Milton Bradley game).

[@RaptorShadow]

Milton Bradley published 2 board games based on GW Properties: HeroQuest and Space Crusade. And then GW did the 'Advanced' versions of each themselves.

[@daviddalglish9430]

While sitting my phone down on the worktop to watch this I preemptively hit the like button. Turns out the video is entertaining and informative do thanks for living up to my like.

[@penguinsentinel8508]

Love the intro and this series as a whole. Keep up the good work. :)

[@Lex-Cypher]

Wow. That last line was perfect! Great work on the video.

[@raspberrymage]

Wonderful video and I loved the little Bucky O'Hare nod. :)

[@jasonrhome710]

There's an older Sci-Fi book I found, then lost, then bought again called A Law For The Stars that dealt with the time dilation stuff as a subplot. They bring it in at first by people referring to their ages as chronological or biological. It comes in to play as the main character is basically super space cop and gets sent out a lot, and basically has been part of the policing force from a chronologically early time. But, while he's off hunting the pirates and what not who are using their superior tech to subjugate less developed planets, the bureaucracy on the hub planet is generationally accelerating towards intergalactic fascism. One of his former partners, who had ended up biologically out-aging him due to some injuries, ends up being the one to bring it to his attention. It's one of my favorite books and I definitely recommend hunting down a copy.

[@MasterShake9000]

The Forever War also uses it as part of the plot. The book is basically Vietnam War in space, and the time dilation serves as the stand in for Vietnam vets who went over in from 60s America and came back to 70s America with all the changes that occurred during the war.

[@jasonrhome710]

@@MasterShake9000 Adding to list of books to read...

[@GazpachoTabletop]

Great video as always! Love Battlefleet Gothic and am looking forward to that video

[@christopheraaron1255]

The combat cards worked man... that's how I got hooked.

[@moleculeman27]

Massive nostalgia trip! Thanks guys. I'm pretty sure I have all those White Dwarfs somewhere in my parents' loft!

[@yalelingoz6346]

I've enjoyed all your videos, and even though I was across the history of most of 40k related stuff the retrospectives have been interesting (even the cringe moments of Rogue Trader background) and I've learnt a bit more. Especially with the Forgeworld/Armorcast video. This video had me scrutinising every moment though. Because I love BattleFleet Gothic but other than the model range, and the fact it existed, I knew nothing at all about Space Fleet before now. Thank you (more than usual) for this dive into GW and 40k history.

[@Lightman0359]

Although I don't play BFG or Space Fleet, I love ship minis and I grabbed a Space Fleet and BFG version of the Emperor Battleship as well as a mechanicus Ark Mechanicus, a system monitor, bulk freighter and an Astartes Strike Cruiser and Battle barge. I also got a multi-pack of spare weapons [everything but the emperors are resin from a 3rd party]. I'm in the process of magnetizing the BFG Emperor and Ark Mechanicus, both have different challenges: the emperor is close to 1 kg of pewter, the spine being 50mm thick at places [a literal pain to drill with a pin vise], the Ark has dinky 25mm struts that break if you breathe... and I need to secure 2 magnets in reverse polarity to make universal weapon mounts. I already did the hauler and monitor. The Astartes vessels don't have variants so can't swap weapons

[@Farglator]

Fantastic intro! Never even knew this game had existed, thanks for educating me! :-)

[@warpjediAK]

Ah starting with a Bucky o'hare reference, this is going to be a good one!

[@sandragruber4596]

I like the old ships. They look to me like citys are build onto their decks :-D

[@vanquishvanquish4801]

Space Fleet had a very funny and strange Dictator-cruiser

[@robertmahiques6218]

This made me want a new Battle Fleet Gothic even more

[@youdontneedtoseehisidentif4939]

I remember this being advertised in the last few pages of the (red, if I remember correctly..?) _Citadel Miniatures Catalogue_ , and I so wanted a copy :)

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

Lovely stuff. I remember reading the articles in White Dwarf for games I never had. Like the Mighty Empires Necropolis rules!

[@cianwalsh9137]

Awesome video as always

[@animeator]

I needed this today. Made me want more minis though which... GW really should hire you two.

[@aleopardstail]

had this, loved it, way better than what followed, love it

[@maxbrandt6]

I remember when this game came out, really wanted it but didn't have the money and I loved all those Jes Goodwin concept sketches for Space Fleet only briefly seen '91 but apparently there were way more in WD issue 119, damn! Really wish I'd gotten into this hobby sooner!

[@ErikWarhammer]

The intro is gold!

[@jessebowen2651]

That intro is fucking hilarious

[@Joetime90]

Nice to know some of my Aeldari model line is about as old as this game, despite cries of Necron and Tyranids complaining they haven't had an update in ten years.. Looking at you Warp Spiders.... Salt aside I'm glad you guys covered this one, I didn't even know it existed.

[@Rob-nq6br]

WD 141 was my first ever issue! Loved all the Space Fleet content despite it being totally baffling.

[@Ellendil12]

Another great episode :D

[@chrishopkins209]

This is from the period when I was getting into Warhammer 40k and buying White Dwarf for the first time! Love it!

[@MrHughtube99]

Yo dunno if you heard but apparently Streetlight Manifesto are finally recording a new album this year, so that's pretty cool

[@jonm3915]

The tyranid ships remind me of the space monsters from Gunbuster. The way time gets fucked up in the warp is similar to Gunbuster too.

[@theapostatejack8648]

Played this for ages. I had a crazy Imperial fleet with weird Cypra Mundi cruisers.

[@WanderlustZero]

That Myth music fits so well

[@JamesHuxford]

There are so many gate keepers freaking out following that intro

[@chabot5257]

Nice Intro haha! I have just started rewatching The Next Generation this week.

[@AndorianBlues]

good luck getting through season 1

[@maxbubba66]

Loved that game when I was a kid. My (heretic?) mother recycled it in about 1998 however. Dangers of going to university right there. Cheers for the memories and yes, I had all five issues of WD too. Hope all is well your end and much love. xx

[@anotherzingbo]

I remember reading the White Dwarf articles about Space Fleet back when they were published. I quite liked the sound of a starship combat game but the models were expensive and once I inferred the to-hit mechanic from the articles (they didn't initially explain it as they assumed their readers were familiar with the rules in the box set) I was a bit unconvinced by it. Plus as was the case with a lot of GW's non-core games the models seemed pretty expensive to teenage me.

[@beardwierd2783]

Yes snipe and wib! Whoop whoop!

[@UnkleKlumsy1353]

I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna track down a boxed copy of Battlefleet gothic. That old Blanche boxart during the end credits is forcing me via my nostalgia

[@lukewebb1597]

3:44 that's a nice little touch.

[@columbatiberius2176]

*Hears Bucky O'Hare reference* Good on ya! *Hits Like*

[@jaredking380]

get some perspex cut for the inside of the box to give a nice flat surface to roll on

[@FezFindie]

Much thanks for pointing out Mighty Warriors; Always wondered where that artwork was from given it had elements not native to Warhammer Fantasy anything like mixed race group (well, more likely than 40k) and a technogizmo on that one guy's hand. Originally saw it on the cover of one of the paint sets in the early 90's.

[@chrishopkins209]

I had Ultramarines - it was a simplified version of Space Hulk with plastic Scout Marines as I remember it.

[@cbpoppet1288]

I just blanked out faces 7-12 on D12s to replace the hit/miss mechanic back in the day.

[@D1-Games]

Also, there was artwork in the Space Crusade booklets that showed this Imperial ship design. Back in the day, I could not match this to any other GW publication or game at the time or later (SC was my gateway into 40K). That realisation came much later, when I learned of this game's existence, although it took many more years before I got my hands on an actual copy...

[@pva]

Ok but can we all agree that the soundtrack for BFG should be Initial D - Déjà Vu?

[@natetwehues2428]

I'd never even heard of this game before now! Amazing piece of 40K (the game) lore.

[@keepcalmandre-roll5480]

I could never figure out what was the front of the Eldar ship in this game :) great vid

[@SimonProctor]

I remember I got a box of Spacefleet but it had a hole in the box lid... Which made the dice rolling mechanic a bit of a pain.

[@michaelday8459]

I think WD 119 was the last one I got in my subscription, I remember being excited by the idea of BattleFleet Gothic, protractors and all, it's a shame to hear that it never got made :/