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Anyone else excited or interested in this game?

For those of you who don't know, Firestorm Invasion (FSI) is a ground-combat wargame from Spartan Games, set in the same universe as their Firestrom Armada (FSA) space combat game. The game is supposed to be unveiled at Gen Con in Indianapolis here in a few weeks. Information is pretty thin right now, but the rumors right now point to a 6mm or 15mm scale, with vehilce-heavy armies.

I for one am looking forward to this game because I'm having a great time with FSA and would love to have a ground game that ties in with it. What I'm really keeping my fingers crossed for is a set of coherent rules that allow for space and land battles to be integrated. I have yet to see a set of rules that does it well!

I hear Spartan Games have finally unraveled the secrets of double-sided molds, so I'm hopeful for the models. The rules... let's just say they need an editor.

Ruckdog wrote: I have yet to see a set of rules that does it well!

Which rulesets have you already looked at for this? Any particular scale?

Well, mainly I'm speaking of BFG/40k/Epic, as they are the only rules I've seen that even make an attempt to integrate space and land combat. However, those systems seem to be half-hearted and incomplete in this regard; the Planetary Assualt mission for BFG, for example, basically just sets up an Apoc game for 40k (years before that even existed!), and has no provision for orbital support.

If you have any suggestions for rules that have that sort of coordination, I would definitely be interested!

The only other systems I'm aware of that have that type of mechanism are both FASA games: Renegade Legion and Battletech. Both mechanisms were clunky to an even greater degree than GW's attempt to merely set up a linked games sort of event (which is just a mini campaign tbh). I guess I'm now also interested in what spartan works up. I think the biggest challenge is time scale: a turn of ship to ship combat probably represents the time needed for the ground forces to fight a complete battle from start to finish. another challenge probably also stems from the fact that space navies would most likely act like water navies in the fact that you typically don't stard landing troops until you've secured the surrounding area. That means that naval assets typically just become another source of artillery for the attackers.

Totally looking forward to it. Spartan is going to be giving previews at GenCon and with any luck I might get a look at the product early.

Link: http://www.spartangames.co.uk/firestorm_invasion_sampler.html

Spartan just sent out an email news letter with the first images of FSI minis. There is a Dindrenzi hover tank, a Terran heavy tank, and Terran & Dindrenzi mech designs. In the newsletter, it mentions that the minis pictured will be 6mm, but that it will be possible to play the game in other scales as well.