Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Seeing as I'm giving GW my 2 fingered salute after their latest method to reduce their customers the last few weeks, I'm looking to start playing a new non GW game. Firestorm Armada got the vote. I've read a few posts here on the game and seen its got mainly +ve reviews. What I'm intersted in is a quick summary of how the factions play. E.g. An Ork Evil Sunz Army is a fast close combat army, Tau is a shooty at range army etc.

I'm more attracted to the models first, rules second so initially I'm looking at the Terran Fleet as it sort of has that Battlestar Galactica look to it. One post I read described this fleet as big on shields, good close range. Is this right? What about the other Factions????

Rule books on Order from Maelstrom, models will be as soon as I decide, and then my 4 other gaming buddies decide what faction.

Ok, let's see what I can remember:

Terran: Shields, and torpedoes that get better as they go farther

Sorylian: Massive broadsides, and large amounts of crew for boarding actions

Aquan: Knife fighters. Get in close, fire in all arcs, and maneuver away

Dindrenzi: Tanks. Heaviest armored ships in the game, massive railguns in front, weak broadsides

Relthoza: Broadsides, and cloaking fields

Directorate: Neither as good at knife fighting as Aquans, or as durable as Dindrenzi, but a mixture of the two. Also has (or will have) a mixture of technologies from different races

Dindrenzi are the only race to not have access to shield, Rethloza are the only ones with cloaking. And their R&D Crusier is kinda nuts. The starter fleets are in the rule book but if you want rules for Pirates, Civilans and the Heavy and R&D Cruisers they are available online at the spartan games website. Directorate have the nifty ability on their battleship of having 2 fore arcs weapons which can link, their general downside is that they have small elite crews. If you want an army like Tau go terrans. They sit back with torpeadoes which are best at longest range and have shields on very ship, even frigates which mans with some lucky dice rolling a lone frigate can survive multiple ship bombardments.

Each Starter set gives you a 500 point Fleet, 1 Capital Ship, 3 Cruisers and 6 Frigates.

And fluffwise the Good guys are Terrans, Sorylians and Aquans. and Evil is the remainng three, but directorate are basically sided with dindrenzi but supply all sides and steal/scanvange/reverse eguneer all kinds of tech.

I've ordered the Rules, Terran Starter set and another Terran cruiser. See how I get on.

Can't wait to hear how your first games go! You will want another Terran battleship eventually .

Could be waiting a while. Due to high demand, Spartan games are out of stock of all the ships. The rule book is on its way though.

The rules for Alliance look fun (60%+ or one fleet rest from another on the same side)
Rethloza R&D Cruisrers with Dindrenzi support

Not to mention, the Rense System Navy ships look sweet! I just picked up a blister of the destroyers today.

Is the RSN Dread out? that reminds me of some of the anime ships that I quite like.

No, the dreadnought hasn't hit yet. I haven't seen it on the list of releases for July, so it looks like it will be another couple of months.

I am really looking in to this game as well. I have some ships that I will be using as proxy. I just need to buy the rules the cards and one starter fleet so I can get a buddy in to it.

Proxies work really well for this game! Which fleet are you thinking of getting to use for your demos?