Q When Ordnance passes through a blast marker, there is a chance that it will be destroyed. If spores are on a Ship's base (acting as shields), and the ship passes through the blast marker , do you have to roll to see if the spores are destroyed?

A No, unlike most other ordnance like fighters, 'spores' are actually dense clouds containing millions of, erm, spores! Blast markers would have little effect on such clouds. So, for this reason, Blast Markers do not effect spores in any situation.

Q In the rules, when fighter markers are placed on the base of a ship as an escort, and the parent ship takes a hit, you have to roll to see if the fighters were caught in the blast. Do you also have to make this roll for spores in base contact? As an example, I have three spores in base contact with a parent ship. The parent ship takes a hit and one spore counter is removed as part of its shield function. Do I then have to roll for the two remaining spores to see if they are destroyed as well? This would seem silly, but it is the standing rule for ordnance in base contact with a ship.

A No, when in base contact with Tyranid ships spores act just like shields and are treated as such.

Q If spores are drawn away from the fleet and then return later, do they all have to group around the closest friendly ship, or can they be split between those ships in range?

A The spores will home in on the closest friendly ship in the ordnance phase. (Providing there are no enemy ordnance or enemy vessels about, see page 13 of BFG mag 1 for further details.)

Q The Tyranid rules state that spores in base contact with a parent ship will intercept ordnance attempting to attack the ship. Does this mean that the incoming ordnance and attached spores would be removed on a onefor- one basis just as though they'd encountered each other in open space?

A Yes, see my commentary on ordnance at the end of this section.

Q How exactly do spores go after ordnance? Can an opponent send one fighter marker to within 30cm of your fleet and draw off all of your spore markers, or is it intended as a one - for - one reaction?

A One-for-one, again see my commentary on ordnance at the end of this section.

Q When spores are attached to a parent ship and acting as shields, do the spores move with the ship?

A Yes, unless drawn off by instinctual behaviour, spores will travel with their parent ship in its movement phase.

Q I'm getting ready to begin playtesting the bug list from Issue 1 and I've got a question about the fleet composition rules. On page 14 it specifies, "Each hiveship allows the Tyranid player to purchase up to 500pts from the hive fleet list." Does this mean that you get 500pts plus the total cost of the hiveship? Also, the fleet list given on page 21 seems to contradict this since you have 430pts worth of cruisers and 175pts worth of droneships giving a total of 605pts from the hive fleet list for 1 hiveship. There is a note on page 14 that says "If no hiveships are chosen, only drones may be used." Did you intend the rule to work as:"For every 1 hiveship purchased, you may buy up to 500pts worth of cruisers, heavy escorts, and medium escorts from the hive fleet list. The 500pts includes the base cost of the ship as well as all optional purchases. As many Droneships as desired may be purchased without restriction."

A Interesting one, I believe that there are two kinds of fleet possible - the first being a scout fleet with nothing but scout drones, the other being a hive fleet based around one or more hiveships, each with up to 500 points of fleet (which may include scout drones). So to recap you get the hiveship plus 500pts to spend on cruisers, escorts and drones. In the battle report Andy obviously thought that drones could be bought separately, but since he lost so badly it didn't really matter, Ha! (Cheers Pete, let's see how well you do against them - Andy H.)

Q Pg.10, Instinctive Orders Chart: Condition 6 says "If a capital ship fails to reload then it loses a hit instead (this damage does not cause criticals, and the ship will not lose its last hit)." So what happens when a capital ship fails and has only one hit left? Further, how are we supposed to be reading this? Does failing to reload cause a point of damage INSTEAD of reloading ordnance, or do you take a point of damage INSTEAD of failing so you actually end up reloaded even on a "fail"?

A OK, calm down and I'll explain. You lose one hit on a reload failure and your cysts will remain empty. If your capital ship is on its last wound, and you fail the roll then it simply will not reload this turn and no further action is taken.

Q Pg.10, Instinctive Orders Chart: Condition 7 requires the ship to "end its movement closer to (the planet) than at the start of their move." There are circumstances where this is physically impossible under standard movement rules (e.g. a cruiser facing directly away from the planet). How should this be resolved?

A Try your best to comply within the rules given. In the above example I would suggest allowing the cruiser to come to a new heading.

Q Pg.11, Feeder Tentacles: If these trigger a boarding action and that action results in a draw result, are the two ships locked together as per normal boarding rules or not? If so, can the Tyranid ship be damaged in subsequent rounds of the ongoing melee? If multiple ships start boarding actions with Feeder Tentacles vs the same target, are their strengths added normally?

A No, the feeder tentacles are more of an assault boat type attack. The tentacles will punch a hole through the ship's hull deliver its payload of nasties and then withdraw and as such will not be locked together as in normal boarding actions. A Tyranid ship can only be damaged in melee if a normal boarding action was initiated.

Q What about a case of mixed boarding actions where some ships are using feeder tentacles and some are boarding normally, are their boarding strengths cumulative?

A No.

Q Pg.11-12, Feeder Tentacles & Massive Claws: Are either of these weapons negatively affected by special orders that halve firepower, or by crippling, and if so how? Do they derive any benefit from Lock On orders? Specifics, please.

A No, the negative modifiers from failed special orders have no effect on feeder tentacles or massive claws.

Q Pg.12, Under Ordnance: The description of spore cysts states that "They count as blast markers for the purposes of shooting through them". Does this include spores that are actually on, or in contact with a Tyranid ship's base? Can you stack Spore counters? If not, can a ship launch spores and other ordnance if its base is already buried in spores?

A For the purposes of shooting spores count as blast markers even if they are on the base of a ship. Spores cannot be stacked, but you can launch spores even if there is no room on the ships base - just place them as close as you can.

Q Pg.14, Ordnance: When purchasing ordnance, can it be formed into waves? How should it be treated in scenarios with alternating squadron deployment, or split deployment like Escalating or Fleet Engagement? In a campaign game is it part of your permanent fleet list?

A If ordnance is purchased it may be formed into waves. Treat ordnance as escort squadrons for special scenarios, they are not part of your permanent fleet list.

Q Pg.15 & pg.16, Hiveship & Cruiser port/starboard weapons: Can multiple weapons of the same type be carried (e.g. Cruiser with twin broadside Pyro-Acid)?

A Good question, yes.

Q Pg.16, Cruiser Broadside Weapons: Is the Bio-Plasma Discharge actually front-firing when mounted broadside?

A No, this can only be fired from port or starboard with a strength of 4 either side.

Q Pg.17, Tyranid Droneship: Is this actually the "scout-drone" referred to on pgs 11 and 14? Can it be deployed in squadrons or is this the "drone ship" referred to on pg.14 under Squadrons?

A The droneship and scout-drone refer to the same thing.

Q.Pg.19, Heavy Wound Critical: This says "Roll to regenerate...in the End Phase." Does regenerate mean repair, per the normal repair rules?

A Yes.

Q Pg.19, Massive Haemorrhage: Does the Bio-Plasma attack only affect ships or should that read "any target within 2d6 cm" putting ordnance at some risk? Further, do holofields work against this or is it a "ship explosion" type of attack?

A Yes, it should read "any Target". Holofields do not work as it is the Tyranid version of a "ship explosion".

Q Pg.20, Catastrophic Damage: Do spores ignore Tyranid hulks (from results 2-9) or will they cluster around them as normal?

A No, spores ignore hulks (should that be carcasses?).

Q With the spores, they count as ordnance, and shields both at the same time. So, what would happen if some crazy Chaos commander using the Planet Killer as his flagship were to fire the Armageddon Gun at some Tyranid ships with spores in base contact? According to the rules, the Armageddon Gun has to take down shields like other weapons, but is also says that all Ordnance in the Armageddon Gun's path is destroyed. So how would this be resolved? Also, the Activated Blackstone's Warp Cannons ignore shields, but would this apply to the "spore shields" of the Tyranids?

A Oh my, if the Armageddon gun fired on a Tyranid ship the general consensus here is that the spores would have no effect. The same for the Warp cannon.