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Was thinking of getting into battlefleet gothic, but saw that the line was discontinued. After some digging, I found Firestorm Armada. The miniatures seem solid enough for me, Has anyone played it? If so, are the rules any good? Any other recommended space combat games of a similar scale? Thanks in advance.

FSA is awesome. I'm fairly new to it, but it is a solid rules set, easy to learn and elegant to master. The miniatures are good, and the price is extremely good. Its definitely a better game and more dynamic and fun than Gothic IMO.

I would highly recommend the game and the starter set is a phenomenal buy. You get two starter fleets, ~500pts of Terran and Dindrenzi, a bonus space station, a rulebook, and counters dice etc all for ~$110. To put it in persepctive, a prettty large game is 1200pts and can easily be achieved for ~$150-200 for all factions and for far less for some.

Rulebook is only $32 and the rules for the individual armies are free online pdfs.


I honestly have been blown away by the game even though I've only recently started playing. We also have a solid following starting.


I would definitely recommend FSA. I had looked into it in its previous edition and wasn't sold, but with their 2nd edition it got me hook line and sinker.


Edit: Here is a link to a player finder and forum dedicated to FSA.

A few of us in my gaming club have started playing Firestorm. The new 2.0 rules have streamlined and clarified some things that used to be a bit cumbersome like boarding and fighter craft so the rules are pretty straight forward to pick up. So far we've also found that everything seems to be pretty balanced between all the factions power levels too (Spartan also maintain a living rule book for the unit stats and have already amended some things that needed reigning in a bit).

You also don't need many models to build up a decent sized fleet for starting. All of the starter fleet patrol boxes are fairly balanced (i think they all come in around 450ish points before adding on options).

If you're just starting a couple of our members picked up the battle for valhalla starter set and said that was great for learning the rules as it features an escalating campaign that focusses on new rules each mission e.g. one of the scenarios is to take out an enemy ship with boarding.

I played V1.0 back in 2010 and dropped for a while as life took over. Picked it up again and ran a few intro games with friends and people interested in wargaming. Feels like the same simple core with some added layers of detail that add the right amount of depth for minimal added complication.

The rules are easy to learn, the fleets pretty well balanced, and the models all just got a reboot too, and they look and assemble like a dream.

What appeals to my about the game is the combination of simple rules, attention to balance and fixing issues from Spartan, cheap to get into, and cool looking models with distinct play styles.

Real men play Sorylians.

The Spartan forums are a little quiet, but its nice there. You'll find me there as TwoToneWyvern, pop in and say hi there.

Alright! Thanks everyone for the replies, are there any overplayed factions? Just want to be sure that I don't buy a faction that has too many players before purchasing a fleet

Dindrezi and Terran are the most played according to the Battle Log on the forums. Next would be Aquans and Directorate not far behind. Then Relthoza and Sorylians collectively bring up the rear with the least number of games played by almost a quarter of the Terran and Dindrezi.

Alliance/League fleets aren't overly represented, but that's due to most of the sub factions not having 'complete' fleets. RSN is probably the most played of the sub factions, as it has the most options (Dread, Battleship, Carrier, Heavy cruiser, Cruiser, Destroyer, Frigate, Escort), while most struggle to field the basic three (Battleship, Cruiser, Frigate).

There's a good reason the Terran and Dindrezi are the most played; they're both in the starter set (which is great value and a great intro to the game) and they both have fairly straightforward/simple play styles. The Dindrezi sit back and shoot at range while chucking mines out the back to hurt anyone going around for ass shots, and the Terran have great torps while they close to get into knife fighting range with versatile broadsides and turrets and beam weapons, which excel in close range fighting.

I used to play FSA a while back. The game was fun and they have fixed a lot of the problems that the game (and models) initially had. That being said, my LGS no longer carries it for lack of interest. This is a big problem in general with Spartan Games. If you have a player base in your area, then by all means, go for it! It is also very cheap to get into. If you are the only one in your area that you can find, you may be buying models to just paint.

I was pretty impressed by V2 (never played V1), and I liked a lot of the ships. A few of us started playing it too, so I started.

I play Zenian league, mostly RSN (because I like that style of Gundam ship), but am extending into Works Raptor and Ba'Kash as well.

I like Hawker the most on the other side, so it seem like I like the alliance factions more than the main ones for ship style.

Played a couple of games today, man what a blast, my VS Sorylians then terrains at 1200.

Does FA have ship condtruction rules ?

If I could repurpose my extentsive BFG fleets to a new game, I'd be all over it.

 adamsouza wrote:
Does FA have ship condtruction rules ?

If I could repurpose my extentsive BFG fleets to a new game, I'd be all over it.

I remember some for the earlier edition of the game, but to my knowledge there aren't any for 2.0.

It's definitely a good counts as for your BFG models and IMO FSA is a way better game than BFG, and I really enjoyed BFG before GW let it die.

Is there a big difference between FSA 1.0 and 2.0 ?

Could I buy both editions, convert my models using the 1.0 formula and play the game using the updated 2.0 rules ?

 adamsouza wrote:
Is there a big difference between FSA 1.0 and 2.0 ?

Could I buy both editions, convert my models using the 1.0 formula and play the game using the updated 2.0 rules ?

It's my understanding you can use it as a starting point. There are some notable differences between the editions, a big one is weapon types, but it wouldn't be terribly difficult to convert many BFG ships to FSA rules. Balancing could be tricky, but it certainly wouldn't be difficult to equal BFGs level of "balance". Heck, it'd be a blast of a project.

The rules are sound, it'd be a fun and enjoyable conversion. Start with a similar FSA ship and begin converting there. You've got lots of weapon types to work with including Primary, Scatter, Kinetic, Beams, Gravitational, and indirect weapons like torpedoes although they work differently. You've got access to mines, fighters, interceptors, bombers etc.

The core mechanics between the editions are very similar, I know the free 1.5 PDF is still floating around the internet.

Here is a link to a ton of resources, the 1.5 PDF rulebook included. http://theblackocean.com

Tried it.
Ship models are nice.

Rules are a tad too simplistic for me.

I preferred Full Thrust with vector movement. Made you think more - but were were science nerds.

 chromedog wrote:
Tried it.
Ship models are nice.

Rules are a tad too simplistic for me.

I preferred Full Thrust with vector movement. Made you think more - but were were science nerds.

Have you played 2.0! Or was is 1.0/1.5?

Played 1.0 AND 2.0.

Roll a bunch of d6 and hope for 6s is rather less than I want from a game. It's like playing "spacefleet" (GW precursor to BFG).

Love the ship models I have though.

 chromedog wrote:
Played 1.0 AND 2.0.

Roll a bunch of d6 and hope for 6s is rather less than I want from a game. It's like playing "spacefleet" (GW precursor to BFG).

Love the ship models I have though.

To each their own I guess. I find it subtly complex. Relatively simple mechanics that interact in novel ways to create an enriching and deep game.

I can't say I agree with your summation of the game.

I have found it far superior to BFG. I've heard some good things about Full Thrust, but as no one plays it anymore I never picked it up. Out of the Fleet games I have played, I have found fSA the best by a considerable margin and a breath of fresh air in comparison to 40k.

I got into spaceship gaming with Full Thrust, and then custom variations afterwards of increasing complexity and depth.

I enjoy FSA because it is so straightforward and simple, yet offers the right amount of depth and player control over the outcome of the battle. I think Spartan did an excellent job updating V1.0 models and rules. All that's left is to develop the fluff more.

 Zagman wrote:


To each their own I guess. I find it subtly complex. Relatively simple mechanics that interact in novel ways to create an enriching and deep game.

I can't say I agree with your summation of the game.

I have found it far superior to BFG. I've heard some good things about Full Thrust, but as no one plays it anymore I never picked it up. Out of the Fleet games I have played, I have found fSA the best by a considerable margin and a breath of fresh air in comparison to 40k.

It's the simplicity that I don't like. It's TOO simplistic for me. Like playing 40k when I want something deeper.

 chromedog wrote:

 Zagman wrote:


To each their own I guess. I find it subtly complex. Relatively simple mechanics that interact in novel ways to create an enriching and deep game.

I can't say I agree with your summation of the game.

I have found it far superior to BFG. I've heard some good things about Full Thrust, but as no one plays it anymore I never picked it up. Out of the Fleet games I have played, I have found fSA the best by a considerable margin and a breath of fresh air in comparison to 40k.

It's the simplicity that I don't like. It's TOO simplistic for me. Like playing 40k when I want something deeper.

I'm seriously considering playing Aquans - anyone have any experience running them? Fighter craft are pretty appealing to me, and lasers as well...

I don't play them myself, but I know someone who does. They are good, based around all-round fire with beams and work well with fighters/bombers.

They make good use of mines too.

I play aquans.

The fighter craft are great. I run mine as either bombers or interceptors and the interceptors are great if you come up against the RSN and the torpedo spook cruisers.

Beams are good though I find the cohency effect doesn't kick in that often compared to some of the others like the kinetic one but it has turned a terrible roll into a bunch of 6s for me before now.

Their arcs and manouverability compared to other factions is great too as torperdos in any arc is quite handy especially when considering some factions only have fixed fore.

On the downside I've found they can by slightly less durable than others sometimes as their higher DR but average CR I've found tends to mean if something hits you and scores the DR chances are it's getting the CR too. Some of their attack dice are slightly lower too than comparable ships of other factions although they tend to get energy transfer to compensate for this giving them a bit of flexilbity if you just need to concentrate on one arc.