Anyone play Firestorm Armada?

[Razgriez]

Because I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I might possibly be interested in picking it up.

Some quick background on why I'm interested, and to help those who do play it tell me if it's something I would possibly like and worth spending money on.

In the early half of the 2000's, I got into WH40k at my local GW store (which has since gone out of business last year, but I digress). Few years latter, they had Battlefleet Gothic, a space navy combat game. I enjoyed it....or rather, I tried to. You see, this particular GW was at a open air strip mall, and because it was located in the same group as a 16 viewing rooms theater, so they had very limited storage and shelf space to spare. So Battlefleet Gothic was removed from that store, it became Mail Order only. Then as GW is infamous for (at least in my opinion), they basically dropped all support for the game. And when a game starts fading into obscurity like that, it becomes hard to find players that play, let alone the models and rules to play it.

So now I'm sorta interested in finding a new space naval combat game. One that's fun, but won't break my wallet. And well recently I heard about this particular game and want to know more. So a few questions:

1. How long is a turn? I've heard that rather than each player take a turn all at once, instead, it flips activation between each player to move one squadron.

1a. Speaking of Squadrons, how close does a squadron have stay to each other?

2. How does shooting work? Do you only pick one weapon per turn to fire, or as many as you want and have range/Line of Sight to?

3. How complicated are the rules/special abilities?

4. How long does a typical game take, and what's the average force size?

5. Tell me more about the fleets. What themes and major tricks do they have?

6. How popular is this game, particularly in the U.S.?

7. How much would it probably cost to get me into the game with a decent fleet?

[iyaerP]

Well, you're in luck because I am something of a Firestorm Fanatic and am more than happy to help. You're especially lucky in that version 2 just hit the shelves with new and updated rules, far better balance, gorgeous new sculpts, and a new 2-player starter box.


Because I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I might possibly be interested in picking it up. Some quick background on why I'm interested, and to help those who do play it tell me if it's something I would possibly like and worth spending money on.

If possible, Demo before you buy it. I love it to death as do several of my friends, but everyone has their own quirks about what they do and do not like. There is a roll call thread on the spartan games forums listing people and their location for setting up games.
http://community.spartangames.co.uk/index.php?/topic/5765-roll-call/



So now I'm sorta interested in finding a new space naval combat game. One that's fun, but won't break my wallet. And well recently I heard about this particular game and want to know more. So a few questions:

Easy and cheap to get into and play. The single fleet starter boxes are about 60 US dollars and field a respectable fleet of battleship, cruiser squadron and some frigates. Unlike some other games, this is a working fleet and enough to play with without having any "bad" or "trap" choices. Everything you buy will do its job, and anything you buy to add to this fleet will just be adding to the already solid core.

On the higher end of the scale, I have about 4000 points worth of ships from various factions, enough to field multiple Grand Fleets, and I have spent about 500 dollars on it all told. That may sound like a lot, but when you compare that to warhammer, where a similar point value can go into multiple thousands of dollars, it is safe to say you won't be breaking the bank here.


1. How long is a turn? I've heard that rather than each player take a turn all at once, instead, it flips activation between each player to move one squadron.

Exactly correct. It makes decision making far more tactical as you have to choose to move a squadron or ship first and get in shots before you have taken any more damage or delay and hope that by doing so, you can get into a more favorable position after your opponent has moved. Like any minis game, the turns take longer the more models you have on the field, but in a "normal" sized game, figure half an hour per turn. The game generally only goes 4 turns or so, and it gets quicker the further along you get as more models are dead and so aren't there to move any more.


1a. Speaking of Squadrons, how close does a squadron have stay to each other?

They don't have to maintain coherency at all, but if all ships in a squadron are within command distance of each other(usually 6"), then they can link fire to combine their attacks to be more effective.


2. How does shooting work? Do you only pick one weapon per turn to fire, or as many as you want and have range/Line of Sight to?

Each ship has a number of different weapons systems with different ranges and different arcs of fire. Let us say I play Terrans(I do), and I have a Hermes class Cruiser. I have fore-fixxed guns which only shoot in a direct line ahead, broadside arcs that can fire in a 90º arc to the left, and a 90º arc to the right, and a torpedo system that can fire in any arc. For each weapon system, I nominate a legal target that is within weapons range, and that I have line of sight to (planets and terrain block line of sight, other ships do not), and roll a number of attack dice equal to my firepower in that arc. If other ships in that same squadron can also legally fire at that target, they can fire independently, or multiple ships can link fire to add half their AD in that to the original attack. This means that if my squad of 3 Hermes have a 7 AD broadside in range band 2 (8"-16"), I can make 3 separate shots of 7 dice, or link fire for 14 dice. Linking is almost always worth it, as you are trying to exceed a target's Damage rating to deal a single point of hull damage, or exceed its critical rating to deal two points of damage and roll on the critical hit chart.


3. How complicated are the rules/special abilities?

Not very. Most are "Add a +1 to hit modifier on shield rolls" or "If this model has CUT ENGINES, it cannot be targeted by ranged attacks outside of 20". " Shield Projectors and Hidden Killer special rules respectively, and those are two of the more complicated ones.


4. How long does a typical game take, and what's the average force size?

At least 2 hours unless you are playing with tiny point values. Assume 2 hours for every 500 points you are fielding. I and my friends usually play 800 points when we are in a "rush", 1200 for a larger more relaxed game. We plan an all day 2000 point game this weekend actually.


5. Tell me more about the fleets. What themes and major tricks do they have?

--** The Alliance of Kurak **--

Terrans are heavily shielded but weak hulled close range brawlers that don't suffer as much weapons degradation as normal from enemy damage. They specialize in the heaviest shields in the game, omnidirectional torpedoes that get better the longer the range to the target is, omnidirectional turrets that get better the closer the target is, and nuclear fore-fixxed guns that when they crit, can take out a whole squadron of smalls, or threaten a squad of cruisers.

Aquans have exceptionally fast, highly manuverable capital ships with high damage ratings but middling critical ratings. They have very good arc coverage and can almost always line up multiple targets in multiple arcs. They have the best fighter-craft in the game and have a terrifying Battle Carrier to field them in. Many of their ships carry heavy mine payloads and all of their weapons are beams. Can upgrade to corrosive torpedoes. Currently the best fleet in the game due to their tactical cards being hilariously broken. Otherwise balanced.

Soryllians are a race of lizard people renowned for their engineering prowess. Known for having fast and cost efficient medium ships that are some of the best in the game, they can make devastating boarding assaults, and are best in their broadside arcs. Not many people in my area have Soryllians so I haven't played them first hand.

!!**-- The Zenian League --**!!

The Dindrenzi: Human outer colonies that rebelled against oppressive Terran rule. Think America rebelling against the Brits if America was a fascist dictatorship. They have the best long range firepower in the game with exceptionally well armoured ships that are offset by having poor broadside firepower and sluggish maneuverability. Will pound the hell out of anything as it closes, but if it survives to knife fighting range, they will have trouble with it. A very good and easy starter fleet as they are quite literally point and shoot. Their Gladius gunship was last version's best ship in the game in both raw effectiveness and points efficiency. While still highly potent, it is no longer the game breaker that it once was.

The Directorate: Evil corporate overlords of DOOM. Imagine if General Dynamics did for every government in the world what it does for the US government, and also that its board of directors was various clones of SATAN. They engineered the current conflict so that they could make profits on weapons sales to the Dindrenzi. With an emphasis on corrosive and biohazard weapons that chew away at hull or crew points respectively, the directorate ships win through attrition, a fact made easier by their reinforced fore arcs and heavy armour. Broadside torpedoes keep their flanks clear. They tend to have a grab bag of rules outside of the aforementioned themes.

The Ralthozans: Space spiders of DOOM, all their ships have a broadside emphasis, and come with cloaking devices. They can get the Corrosive ammo more than anyone else, and can make some of the best boarding assaults in the game. Very hard to whittle down at range due to the stealth fields and cloaking devices, and very devastating up close, the Ralthozans are a highly powerful fleet, but ARE NOT MADE FOR NEW PLAYERS. Incorrect usage of aforementioned cloaks will cripple yourself for little return. Correct usage will allow domination.


6. How popular is this game, particularly in the U.S.?

Not very popular sadly. In my FLGS, there are about 20 people who have fleets, about 3 of whom will show up on a weekly basis, myself included. However, I live in Vermont, so take that with a grain of salt.


7. How much would it probably cost to get me into the game with a decent fleet?

As mentioned, 60 dollars is your starter fleet. 20 gets you another squad of frigates, and 15-20 can get you second battleship or a carrier. That right there is almost 1000 points. The rules are available along with all ship stats as free PDFs from here:
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/resources/downloads

A good resource for starting out is the fan site The Black ocean, available here: http://theblackocean.com/

I hope that addressed any and all questions, and expect to see you in space!

[Razgriez]

Thanks for the info. By sheer luck/coincidence, someone I know just got the Battle for Valhalla Starter kit and is letting me read the rule book while he building the models. I'll be having my first battle in a week or two


By the way, another question for you. I've noticed on some of the example ship entries, the ships have two names listed. is there any difference between the two (I.e. different model designs in that particular faction), any special rules? Or are they all just one and the same, just offering two different names to call the ship's class?

[iyaerP]

Older models that get updated.

For example, the Terran cruisers have 3 seperate models. The original scuplt way back from the 1.0 starter box was called the Sentinel. The updated cruiser model from when they started redoing the old models for version 1.5, known as the Hermes, and then the newest cruiser model from the battle of Valhalla; the Teuton.

Of the three, my favorite is definitely the Hermes.