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Russ’s Thoughts on Firestorm after devouring the book last night.

(Note: I haven’t actually played a single game yet. I’ve just read the book, looked through the cards, and checked out the sheets that come with the ships I bought)

After reading through the rulebook last night and sleeping on it I have to say as someone who has been a fan of space combat games since Starfleet Battles, this one has REAL potential to be one of the best. It definitely stands on the shoulders of giants, borrowing ideas from those who came before, but it also innovates in very clever ways, taking the simple exploding dice mechanic and using it throughout the game to handle everything from fighters, guns, shields, torpedoes and more!!

As the folks who had a chance to glance at the book already know, this game is more than just Uncharted Seas with a space wrapper. In fact Firestorm Armada (FSA) is as different from Uncharted Seas as Warhammer Fantasy battles is from Warhammer 40k. Yes they share the same core shooting mechanics, but that’s about where it ends.

I’m just going to brain dump my thoughts here in a bullet list.

1) Weapon Systems: BFG and B5 both did a great job making space combat games play faster than older games like Full Thrust or Starfleet Battles, but they did it at the expense of feeling like you TRULY had access to different kinds of weapons. I think FSA will really have players feeling the tactical differences between using gun batteries, torpedoes, mines, point defense, and small craft.

2) Shields and Point Defense: Having access to different kinds of defensive systems really reminds me of days of old with the more complex games and greater depth of strategy. The brilliance here is that Shields and Point Defense share the same mechanics as shooting. It’s almost like an opposed shooting test, or a saving throw, if you will. The tricky bit is that Point Defense only works against torpedoes and small craft, while shields can block almost any weapons fire.

3) Main ship guns: These work just like Uncharted Seas, no real surprise here. The big thing to remember is that the main guns can’t be stopped by point defense, but they can be stopped by shields. The other thing to remember is that main guns loose effectiveness as you take damage and/or loose crew. What is interesting to note is that most ships have the best dice at range band 2, not 1. So cap ships like to be in the 8-16” range band usually when using main guns.

4) Torpedoes: When this rumor started floating around I thought of the old flights of BFG torpedoes or the drone markers from SFB. But no, Torpedoes are direct fire weapons, just like the main guns. You don’t need markers or anything to track movement. Just check range and shoot. So what makes them different? First, torpedoes don’t loose dice if your ship is damaged. As long as you ship is alive, it can fire it’s torps at full power. Second, if you look at the ship cards you’ll notice that torps don’t get lower dice at longer ranges. In many fleets they keep the same power regardless of range, and in some fleets they get more powerful at longer ranges! What is the down side? Torps are the only weapon that can be repelled by BOTH point defense and shields. Worse, when you draw your LOS line to your target, any enemy ship that your pass within 4” of can add their point defense to the attack. And even after they make it through the Point defense they still have to deal with shields. So although they are long range, a cagy opponent can deploy his fleet with many overlapping 4” Point defense arcs to make it difficult to get torps through. In my head these torps might work like photon torpedoes in Star Trek. They’re really good near the end of a battle, when shields are down, point defense is spread out, and both ships are damaged. But in the early game it sounds like it’s a pretty good idea to bunch up your fleet in this game right?

5) Mines: BRILLIANT and my favorite addition! The mine mechanics are very simple, each time a ship moves, it can drop one mine. The mines have a value equal to the mine rating of the ship, this number will be show on the mine token you drop behind your ship as you move. If an enemy (not friend) passes within 4” of a mine, it will detonate with the number of dice equal to it’s rating. ALL ships within 4” of the mine take that damage. Fighter point defense can repel the mine shrapnel, but cap ships can’t. So just think. Your cagy opponent has bunched his whole fleet up so you can’t get your torps in past his overlapping point defense systems. But if you get close enough you could fly right through his formation each ship dropping mines in the middle of his fleet. When he moves next turn… BOOM!! Sounds like it might be a good idea to spread your fleets out. But wait! Then the Torps will get you? I doubt it is a coincidence that both mines and point defense are 4”.

6) Aux Craft: Fighters, Interceptors, Bombers, and Assault craft. What is brilliant is by just adjusting the core mechanics stats of each aux craft, you change its role. Interceptors just have a higher PD. Bombers have higher AD (can attack cap ships) and Fighters have a mix. They have to be grouped in flights, so they function in units (love this, don’t know why this wasn’t done before in other games) and they limit the number of flights to 2 per carrier. So while different carriers carry more fighter tokens, none can field more than two ‘squads’ (flights) of them. Whenever a wing (single token) passes within 4” of a cap ship it can be attacked by point defense, so wings have to watch out for that. But because wings have their own point defense systems, they are useful for clearing mines.

7) Boarding: A huge part of the game is boarding actions. Assault craft can do it and your ships can come in close, float alongside the enemy, and board. I have to re-read this section again, but it looks solid and a welcome addition.

8) The cards! The cards add a lot of depth to the game. There are two that I absolutely love. The first is “Afterburn” which allows you to actually roast an enemy ship that is too close to your rear engines!! How cool is that?!? The second is the BINGO card. You can play this card on an enemy aux craft flight and they must immediately return to their home carrier and land. If their home carrier is destroyed, they will fly off the table. I LOVE THIS. As I was reading the book, I noticed there was no reason to ever land back on your carrier in the core rules, but they handled it with a card. (If you are wondering, BINGO is pilot slang for “we’re at minimum fuel for a safe trip back.”)

9) Fleets: After reviewing the fleets, they all look like they will play VERY different. They did a great job with this in Uncharted Seas, and I think Spartan has done it again here without the need for ‘fleet codex books’ or anything.

10) Belly Up!! I love this maneuver as well. It simply means that your ship has gone inverted, and starboard is now port, and port is starboard. Lose your port battery due to a crit hit? No problem, just roll your ship over, and fire your starboard guns while upside down. It’s nice to see a little nod to the fact you are in space and it is 3-D.

11) Worries: While I love the point defense mechanic, it does have me worried that it might be fiddly in practice. Trying to draw a line from the attacking ship to the target and figuring out how many times it passes within 4” of another ship might get tricky. Perhaps 90% of the time it will be obvious, but we’ll have to see one we play. Also it looks like the book isn’t clear on pre-measuring, unless I missed that. So I’m not sure how that is supposed to work.

Any whoo, there are my initial thoughts. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!!

Great review, Russ. Best summary I've seen so far. Any pics of the ships?

RussWakelin wrote:While I love the point defense mechanic, it does have me worried that it might be fiddly in practice. Trying to draw a line from the attacking ship to the target and figuring out how many times it passes within 4” of another ship might get tricky.

Get a 4" wide piece of styrene or plastic and then place it on the centre line of the fire. Check to see if any ships are within 4" and then flip it over to check the other side

Maybe BFG 2E can steal some of this... I'd like that!

John wrote:Great review, Russ. Best summary I've seen so far. Any pics of the ships?

Thanks for the kind words. There are some pics out there:

Twitter feed pic of the pile of stuff on sale at my FLGS:

http://twitpic.com/rv6b9

I've also attached a pick of the mega bundle which has shots of the fleets...

There are also a bunch of pics here if you check out the wallpaper downloads:

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/firestorm_downloads.html

Hey Russ
Another nice thing I noticed was how nice the resin was cast how well the parts fit and the care taken in preping the models before shipping. My Sorylian Fleets and Carriers took just under a hour to set up.
I LOVE the cards and plan on using my star war minis for my flights .
Cheers Gordon


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Anyone looking for more info on the races and some free downloads can check out this thread
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/264778.page

Darn, I was somewhat selfishly hoping the reviews would be mediocre. I needed a valid excuse to wait for a while until I purchased some FSA stuff.

Oh well.

It looks like Spartan will be getting more of my money and model time.

Thanks for that!
I love space ship combat games, and have been curious about this game. But I've waited, to see what reviews would indicate and because I don't know which of the fleets I would want, if any... which brings me to my main point of curiosity:

What is the role of the ship model in the game?
Are they like BFG, where the ship is eye candy, and the real presence in the game is the stem of the stand?
or is it the base, or the whole ship itself?

I just recently bought a large fleet of GZG ships which I am loving, and wonder if I could use those ships in Firestorm Armada or not. I could run them in BFG, Full Thrust, Bab5, but if Firestorm Armada uses the whole ship model, it could be a problem- the capital ships sound like they are quite a bit bigger than most other spaceship models aren't they? and the bases are square- also making them different than any other company. Just wondering about cross-over potentials.

Man, and here I was going skip this one... but... it's space ships.... and it sounds cool to play.....

Thanks for the review Russ. How long do you think it will be before a review of actual game play will be on the Podcast?

Careful, Russ. Spartan my be sending you a C&D letter . . .

Seriously though, thanks for the review. It looks like a game with a lot of potential, as you've stated.

How does ship movement work in Firestorm: Armada? That was one thing about Uncharted Seas that I wasn't too crazy about: the way (imho) the ships could spin on a dime compared to similar Age of Sail games.

I like the movement in BFG with limited turning arcs, etc. Is this game similarly restricted or more squirrely?

Thanks for the early thoughts on the game!

Curse you Russ. I was hoping the D6G skepticism would bear out and I could avoid this game. I assume you are footing the bill for my mega bundle?

Got a chunk of stuff in at my shop, and it's blowing out fast. Re-orders on the way. Looks like this is something folks have really been waiting for.

What are the name of the 2 factions on the -> side of the mega bundle photo?

Blast it Russ! Here I had finally sewn up what I was going to buy with my Christmas money.

*clutches communicator and shakes violently with red-faced rage* WAAAKEELLIINNN!!

Wooohoo, posted a link to your review on my blog and also commented that 2010
is a fitting year to start a spaceship game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Russ, can you go into how the different fleets play?

Great review Russ, thanks. I was in the camp that was interested-but-had-quasi-written-it-off (and spent his money elsewhere), but looks like I'm back to the edge

Could you give a quick blurb about the various fleets in-game? I had mostly decided on Terran because nobody was playing them here and I can paint them like hunter-killers (), but I have no idea what the fleets do besides look different.

- Salvage

Good stuff Russ. I guess I'll have to pick up a fleet now. Time to point the girlfriend in the right direction for Christmas.

-Mike Kiser

Awesome review and Im already looking forward to the D6 discussion on this now that its actually out!

ANy interesting backgound or artwork? What about modelling/painting guides?

Nice summary Russ, I popped in to Maelstrom this week and purchased the rulebook, my mini budget went elsewhere but if I get any interest from others in my clubs I'll be investing in the ships as well.

Nice job Russ. I'm jonesin' for a game. So jealous you got your copy of the rules over the pond and mine is still stuck in the distribution chain somewhere on the M6... :(

Still, I'll be paitent.

Thanks for making the wait even more intolerable


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Malika2 wrote:ANy interesting backgound or artwork? What about modelling/painting guides?

Loads of stuff on Spartan Games' website: http://www.spartangames.co.uk/firestorm_armada.htm

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. We are going to do a full review in Ep 46, and I'm looking forward to playing our first games this Tuesday. Several of my friends have already started assembly and painting of the ships. All have reported they are happy with the models. In our play group we already have folks who own all the different fleets, so I should get a good feel for how they work differently when we start playing next week.

To answer some questions:

Models in the game: Similar to most other space combat games, the actual size of the model is not relevant. All measurements are done from the center pin. I think the only time the model size matters is when you ram, but I could be wrong about that. I'll have to double check.


Movement: How easy it is to turn in Uncharted Seas is another topic. But I'd disagree that the turning system in Uncharted is broken. However if you don't like the way turning works in Uncharted fear not! It is different in FSA. In Uncharted you use different size turning templates depending on the size of the ship. In FSA you just make 45 degree turns, but depending on the ship you have to move a certain number of inches straight before you can make a 45 degree turn. This turning rate is on the ship stat card. So a big battle ship might have to move 2" before it makes a 45 degree turn. Smaller ships only need to move 1" per 45 degree turn. Aux craft just move in any direction without worry.

Book: Fluff and painting stuff in the book... This is a bout the same as Uncharted Seas. There actually is a bit more background material. No stories or anything, but enough background on each race to give you flavor. Similar to the Uncharted book, the 'artwork' is mostly photos of painted ships. There is no painting guide or intro to miniature war gaming type sections that you'd find in a PP, GW, Battelfront book. But it is a nice looking book. It is better edited than Uncharted Seas, but not a LOT better edited. You will find typos and other such stuff in there, which is a shame. I'd say Spartan books are improving, and look good for a new company, but they still have a ways to go to get to the level of the big boys.

RussWakelin wrote:

John wrote:Great review, Russ. Best summary I've seen so far. Any pics of the ships?

Thanks for the kind words. There are some pics out there:

Twitter feed pic of the pile of stuff on sale at my FLGS:

Those are a few nice pics on twitpic. I've seen most of the compay's pics, but I'm really looking for close-ups of actual models, painted and unpainted, with size comparisions. Haven't seen any of those yet (deservedly - they haven't been out long!). The sorylians are making me drool, and the terrans aren't far behind, I'd like to get a few ganders of them up close, since I'm nowhere near any FLGS that carry them.

I was on the edge, but it looks like this clenches it. The problem for me is now i have to convince my gaming group to jump on board with me. I'm very happy to see that they are all resin models and no metal.

Folks asked for details about the different fleets. Spartan already has a PDF out there with the basics:

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/downloads/firestorm/Firestorm_Armada_Fleet_Tactics.pdf


Better Ship Picks...

I'll have more next week when we get togeather and play, and I'll try get some pics into the twitter feed over the weekend when I work on my models.

One of our local guys already painted his up, I've attached that pic.

Spartacusbob wrote:I was on the edge, but it looks like this clenches it. The problem for me is now i have to convince my gaming group to jump on board with me. I'm very happy to see that they are all resin models and no metal.

They are not all metal, the bulk of the models are resin but they do have some metal parts.

If you look here at the assembly guides they label which parts are resin and which have metal components.

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/firestorm_downloads.html

I hate you so much, Russ god.

JohnHwangDD wrote:Maybe BFG 2E can steal some of this... I'd like that!

Or you could just buy this game and build some stats for your BFG fleets?

Why hold out hope that GW will toss you a scrap with a new version of a game they've basically abandoned when you could spend some money rewarding a company that comes out with new games.

I was almost totally convinced already.

After the overwelming welcome I've seen many places online...looks like my next 40k army is going to be put on hold.

Starship Combat is my absolute Fav!

Thanx Russ!