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chaos0xomega wrote:

Re: the $100 fleet packs, do they contain anything new in them? I mean it was bad enough before when it was a 2 player starter, plus a core and large fleet pack for each faction, plus a commander pack for each faction, but if you're adding an extra $100 on to that (per faction) to buy a fleet pack to get an exclusive commander card or battlegroup type or whatever, then I think Spartan is about to price themselves out of the hobby.

The usual... new commanders for sure and I'd guess new squadron options as well. The names of the new commanders for the fleet boxes have been announced IIRC but not their actual rules. You get one more of the biggest ship and one stand more of the tiny ships (at least for the covenant.. didn't look at the UNSC) compared to half the starter.

So... what you're saying is, that in order for me to have access to all the rules of the game for both factions, I would have to buy:

$140 Starter Box
$52.50 Covenant Core Box
$43.75 Covenant Large Box
$52.50 Covenant Commander Box
$100 Covenant Fleet Box
$52.50 UNSC Core Box
$43.75 UNSC Large Box
$52.50 UNSC Commander Box
$100 UNSC Fleet Box

???

Thats a $400 investment to get all the battlegroup types, commanders, etc. for just one faction, and about $700 for both factions... and it doesn't even include a single model that you didn't already get in the starter set, its just 2 massive fleets of the same 3 models for each faction.

Sidenote: does it seem doubly absurd to anyone else that they're charging $52.50 for commander packs which are essentially just a box of paper/cardboard and some die (from what I understand) to get access to just ONE new character??? ANd why the hell are they included a 128 page rulebook in every one of their friggin boxes? You're not going to be able to use the rules if all you've purchased is the commander box...

Or you can just print out your own from online pics that will inevitably be posted similar to xwing cards for $0.25.

without having seen any of this stuff in person, I wasnt sure if they would be printable stuff, i know a lot of the stuff requires specialty dice, or are thicker tokens, and in the case of the ship bases requires holes in specific places or whatever

chaos0xomega wrote:
without having seen any of this stuff in person, I wasnt sure if they would be printable stuff, i know a lot of the stuff requires specialty dice, or are thicker tokens, and in the case of the ship bases requires holes in specific places or whatever

After all these years of hobby, you haven't mastered the art of making a hole in a piece of cardstock that is preprinted with the hole markings?

Don't get me wrong... I'm NOT a fan of the mechanic of including squadrons and commanders with $50+ purchases of the gak you already have but there is a potential alternative that is alot cheaper. I wasn't a fan of it with x-wing and put up with it back when I was buying 1-2 of every ship in every wave (both to get the cards and the ships that I was interested in) but now that I don't plan on buying a ship in a wave for 2-3 waves in a row, the alternative of just printing a single sheet with some cards and laminating it myself for friendly games is viable.

The dice IIRC are the same and so are the tokens so you'd only need the commanders and squadron base inserts. I plan on buying more ships and supporting the game and company but I don't plan on buying more ships that I don't want just for the paper products that are packaged with them. YMMV.

I thought the base insert things were thicker cardboard pieces, kinda like the X-Wing bases?

As for X-Wing, I buy almost every ship released in 3s (except for the large based and huge based ships), not for the cards, but for the ships.

They are thinner than xwing but still thicker than normal cardstock...but I see reason you can't print them out on normal cardstock (greeting card thickness) on your home printer and use them. You may not be able to use them in official tourneys and leagues but it doesn't sound like either of us have to worry about that.

look man, Im just trying to complain about Spartans gakky pricing strategy, stop trying to offer me solutions XD

I hope the Commander boxes don't come with alternate inserts - I'm up for getting all of the others, but the Commander boxes also come with rulebooks. So, I think they're offered in case people don't want to buy the starter set and get both factions - not as something you'll have to buy in addition to the starter set.

That's my hope, at least! Would love to see it confirmed one way or the other.

 RiTides wrote:
I hope the Commander boxes don't come with alternate inserts - I'm up for getting all of the others, but the Commander boxes also come with rulebooks. So, I think they're offered in case people don't want to buy the starter set and get both factions - not as something you'll have to buy in addition to the starter set.

That's my hope, at least! Would love to see it confirmed one way or the other.

No alternate inserts that I saw. I was at my FLGS this past weekend and they had these for sale.

Contents are:

128-page Rulebook

1 Reference Sheet

2 Token Sheets

1 Bag of 5 Command Dice

2 Six-Sided Dice

1 Fleet Commander Card

1 Statistics Sheet

I think you're right on with this being for people who don't want the starter set and only want to focus on one faction.

But isnt the commander pack an all new commander from the ones in the starter?

Even if it isn't, you're still looking at $200 per fleet plus a $140 starter to get 'everything'.

chaos0xomega wrote:
But isnt the commander pack an all new commander from the ones in the starter?

The one that was just released is not. It's the same commanders as in the starter box.

So Still a $540 investment (retail) to get "current" for two fleets, with discount about $430 (or $215 ea). Still pretty steep IMO, but a bit more reasonable. I guess my interest would depend on what happens going forward. If its a new $50 box per faction every 2-3 months its one thing, if its a 3 new $50 boxes per faction every month, Im out.

The next wave of releases I think is closer to the holidays, so I wouldn't expect any faster than a 3 month cycle. I do agree the price isn't as low as I had hoped, but it's not outlandish imo.

I had an unrelated question - I had thought games would be on 6'x4' but the local Spartan guy was saying most will be 4'x4'. What have folks been playing on / for what point level?

 RiTides wrote:
The next wave of releases I think is closer to the holidays, so I wouldn't expect any faster than a 3 month cycle. I do agree the price isn't as low as I had hoped, but it's not outlandish imo.

I had an unrelated question - I had thought games would be on 6'x4' but the local Spartan guy was saying most will be 4'x4'. What have folks been playing on / for what point level?

If i'm remembering the rulebook right, i think they recommend up to 1000 points or under on 4'x4'. Anything over that is supposed to be on 6'x4'. I haven't played anything over 1000 points, so all my games have been on 4'x4' so far.

Just in case anyone is curious what buying "1 of everything" (except the commander packs) gets you, ship wise:

UNSC
5 Epoch-class Heavy Carrier
12 Marathon-class Heavy Cruisers
87 Paris-class Frigates

Covenant
5 ORS Class Heavy Cruiser
6 CCS Class Battlecruisers
46 SDV Class Heavy Corvettes

Spartan has solved the current problem by putting up fleet upgrade packs on their online store (direct only). 12£ (per side) gets you the new commanders, more command dice and two sets of the formations from the core upgrade boxes. All you need now is a starter box and both upgrades and you'll have everything so far (although I would recommend more base dice).

http://shop.spartangames.co.uk/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=HFCV50

Oh, sweet! This just mentions the Core upgrade boxes, do the Large upgrade boxes also have new formations or is this everything?

If this is everything I'll definitely pick it up, very nice of them to offer it!

Here's an article describing / showing the formations from the core upgrade boxes:
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/new-formations-for-halo-fleet-battles

yeah, if that pack includes everything from the core/largw boxes then Ill be more willing to invest in the game.

It's kind of weird that Spartan is going full-blown on the "DLC" strategy for this game when a lot of their other games have the full rules and unit stats available for free on their site.

I dont begrudge them for going the DLC route. I get it, its a good business model, and in this case they probably have licensing fees and legal requirements they need to cover, so it makes sense that theyre tryong to increase sales and profits... what doesnt make sense is doing a DLC strategy when the DLC products are $50 each.

@RiTides- that's everything. There weren't any new formations in the large ship boxes.

I was also worried when it seemed that they were looking at going with the DLC route. Fortunately, it looks like they've decided otherwise now. Paying a small amount to get the new commanders and formations is a much more customer friendly plan then the "buy lots of the same ships you already have" plan.

I just realized my gf gets 25% off at our FLGS (former employee)

Lucky you! And free shipping to boot.

Well, here are my paint scheme test models. If I post more, I'll do it over in p&m in a dedicated thread. I don't have an airbrush so the tron-esque Covie scheme I planned on didn't work out great and was a pain to do. The UNSC one is just a two grey ton with wash and highlights. Both use my left over Robotech decals.



Any ideas?

Duskland - Thanks! Do you plan to order the fleet upgrade pack direct from Spartan, or will it make it out to distribution just like the ships? I'm definitely going to spring for that

I picked up two starters and feel like I have so many of the small ships already, I wish the large and medium sized ships both came in the "large" pack so I could just get more of those. I'm really looking forward to the next wave of releases though to add more variety (MAC guns and those new small Covenant ships).

Warboss - I think the yellow might need a little something - maybe just another coat on top of what's there. Are you painting the yellow on top of the black, and if so could you try doing it the opposite way, painting it yellow first then adding the black? If you go that route I would actually be tempted to reverse the scheme entirely - a yellow Covenant ship with black lining

 RiTides wrote:


Warboss - I think the yellow might need a little something - maybe just another coat on top of what's there. Are you painting the yellow on top of the black, and if so could you try doing it the opposite way, painting it yellow first then adding the black? If you go that route I would actually be tempted to reverse the scheme entirely - a yellow Covenant ship with black lining

The yellow is more vibrant than the lighting and my cell phone are making it out to be... but, yeah, it's yellow over black. I primed black and then added successive very thinned out washes of yellow to give it a glow effect like in Tron but it just ended up looking dirty spilled yellow without an airbrush. I covered up the "glow" with a touch up coat of black. I might try a lighter primer like grey instead with the next frigate and see how it goes. One of the issues that made the scheme a pain in the ass was that it took a half dozen coats of thinned yellow to get enough in the crevasses.

BTW, if you do the reverse scheme, post pics of it. I will of course have to call it the Michael Bay Bumblebee scheme though...

Just to clarify, to get at least one of everything in HFB right now, you'll need:

Starter set

Core Upgrade box (one or both factions) for new overlays

Commander Upgrade set (one or both factions, direct from Spartan) for the new commanders and heroic characters in the Fleet Boxes

That's it. The Large Upgrade box only has more of the large ships from the starter, if you want more of them, but nothing new. The ships in the Fleet Boxes are basically the ships from the starter broken out to individual boxes. Oh, and the Commander Packs (not to be confused with the aforementioned Commander Upgrade sets) contain the commanders from the starter along with some order dice and the rulebook.

@Cannor- Nope, you don't need the core upgrade boxes either. The direct from Spartan Commander upgrade set has two full sets of the new formations from the core upgrade boxes.

I feel like Spartan is shooting themselves in the foot by not being more clear as to what is contained where, at this point IM confused.

 Duskland wrote:
@Cannor- Nope, you don't need the core upgrade boxes either. The direct from Spartan Commander upgrade set has two full sets of the new formations from the core upgrade boxes.

You're right! I forgot that they have the overlays, too. So all you need for at least one of everything right now is the starter set and one or both of the Commander Upgrade sets.