As the great Dindrenzi Invasion Armadas blasted their way into the Tarxon system, scattered amongst their number was a class of ship that was initially unrecognised by Terran scanners. However, within weeks it would become one of the most feared ships in the Dindrenzi fleet.

Despite its impressive size and fearsome appearance, the ship that would earn this reputation was no mere battleship. Whilst the greatest warship may clear the void of enemy presence, it can never win the war – that can only be achieved by taking the battle to the surface of the enemy’s worlds themselves.



The Syracusia Class, named after the great transport ship of ancient earth history, is a purpose built craft designed to carry the Dindrenzi Legions unscathed past a planet’s orbital defences and to deploy them straight into the fight.

To this end, the inner length of the ship is given over to a series of huge, armoured pods, each holding thousands of Dindrenzi soldiers and hundreds of vehicles ready and waiting for battle.

In stark contrast the entire bow of the ship is uninhabited, given over to a hugely thick series of armoured plates intended to take the brunt of all incoming fire to assure that the precious cargo makes it to the target. Buried deep in this solid shield, two torpedo rail guns, barely protrude, are ready to clear the way to the drop-zone.

The shadow of the Syracusia is the sight feared above all others by planetary defenders.

The Copernicus Class Ore Refinery Ship is a common sight in the asteroid fields and planetary belts of a thousand systems across the galactic sector.

The ship was designed by Hawker Industries more than seventy years ago, and has been in constant production and service ever since. In this time the design of the ship has gone virtually unchanged, just as has the job that it carries out. Small mining fleets of Copernicus Class ships arrive at a location, usually an asteroid or planetesimal, and begin the heavy industrial task of strip-mining it in its entirety.



The Copernicus mounts a powerful front array of torpedo tubes that it uses to systematically blast apart its target over a period of days, before sitting back and watching the dust settle. Once it is safe, the mining fleet can then move in amongst the debris, syphoning off any and all valuable ores and materials.

After they take their fill, the mining fleet sets course for a planet or trading hub to sell its hard earned bounty. En route the fully automated refinery plants on-board each ship conducts the complex process of extracting the valuable ores and elements from the debris that fill their holds, readying it for sale on arrival.

Such profitable enterprises will, of course, bring with them an extensive number of risks, as Corsairs, Raiders and Marauders are always looking for a free meal! Although these sorts have been known to strike terror into the hearts of the merchant armadas of the galaxy, it is often a different case for the hardy crews of the rugged Copernicus Refineries, who have long learnt that their mining torpedoes can make a mess of more than just space-rocks.

As the amassed Star-fleets and Armadas of the great powers of the Galaxy do battle over the Storm Zone, another war beckons in the illicit depths of an out-of-the-way Star System in Sorylian space.

For decades, the Rift has been the home and dominion of the ruthless Vylia’sal Syndicate. From the great ‘Serendipity Heights’ they have come to rule over a vast criminal empire, keeping a relative peace between the thousands of cutthroat Marauders, Traders and Corsairs that inhabit this dark corner of the Galaxy.

But this is about to change: as a new power enters the region it soon becomes apparent that the Rift isn’t big enough for the both of them.

The Rift stands at the dawn of war as the commercial fleets of Omni-Dynamics Systems attempt to carve out a new economic empire against the wishes of The Syndicate, shattering the fragile balance of power.

New alliances will be forged, bonds and promises broken, blood will run and planets will burn as The Marauders of the Rift choose their sides and prepare for war….

The ruthless Vylia’sal Syndicate has dominated the volatile and wild region of space known as the Rift for more than fifty years. Once it was simply another player in the turbulent underworld of the lawless area. But through guile, patience and merciless violence, it grew in size and power to such an extent that it is now the closest thing the Rift has to an actual government.

The Syndicate was founded by the devious Aquan former diplomat Tauris Vylia’sal and a handful of compatriots from the Sebrutan. Over time it has come to count a great many other races, most notably humans, amongst its membership. The Syndicate’s members are less concerned with species loyalty than they are with turning in a healthy profit by the easiest means.

The Syndicate either controls or at least has interests in almost every aspect of the Rift’s legal and illegal business. It runs protection rackets, smuggling operations, counterfeiting rings, gun-running agencies and illegal narcotics factories. It even holds the Rift Traders League in thrall, giving it effective control of most merchant traffic in the region.

Although it counts many corsair groups among its employees, the Syndicate also has powerful armed strength of its own. To protect the many profitable enterprises that sustain it, the Syndicate maintains a potent space fleet. Such is its size and wealth that many of the vessels it uses are purpose-built for the organisation’s needs.

Half a century of ruling the Rift virtually as their fiefdom has made the Syndicate somewhat complacent. However that is soon to change. Neither Tauris Vylia’sal nor his inner circle of trusted subordinates are willing to surrender any of their power or influence to upstart invaders, no matter who they are. And so the Syndicate mobilises its mighty fleet for war, eager to demonstrate exactly how and why they have dominated the Rift for so long.



The Syndicate’s nerve centre in the Rift is the huge Way Station known as ‘Serendipity Heights’. It is from here that Tauris Vylia’sal governs his underworld empire. The station itself is a centre for legal and illegal trade from across the Rift. It is also renowned as a ‘free port’ for marauders and corsairs of all stripes – as long as they do not cross the Syndicate, of course.



Serendipty Heights is typical of the many Way Stations scattered across nearly every part of known space. Huge in size, it is heavily defended with all manner of weapons systems, from huge turret-mounted massdrivers to scores of lesser energy and projectile weapons mounted in cupolas, casemates and embrasures all over its vast surface.



As well as its emplaced weaponry, the station also has enough hangar capacity to house large numbers of fighter craft to provide protection against attack by enemy strike craft. Large numbers of militia and heavily-armed guard details, together with numerous smaller point defence systems protect the station from direct assault by enemy boarding parties.

Even when totally isolated, a Way Station such as Serendipity Heights is a formidable opponent capable of holding off a fair-sized corsair flotilla. However, such installations are always extremely valuable to their owners and are never left unguarded.

This is certainly the case with the Syndicate’s headquarters, which always has a potent sentinel-fleet in attendance. When necessary the Way Station, like others of its kind, can function as an anvil against which the enemy can be smashed by the powerful hammer-blows of its attendant guardian ships.

The Way Station model we have created is highly modular and will continually evolve as a model as new pieces are released. As you can see from the renders provided in this article, you can represent Serendipity Heights as a small or gigantic entity. Watch out for new blog entries that specifically focus on the Way Station model, how all the different parts will be packaged and sold. For now enjoy the renders which show you how the various parts can be assembled to create a simple space platform or how hundreds of parts can assemble an entire city in space.

The Syndicate – Phantom Class Battleship

The most powerful warships in the Syndicate’s arsenal are Phantom Class Battleships. These potent giants of the void form the solid core of the cartel’s spaceborne military strength. They frequently serve as flagships for Syndicate fleet leaders and other notables. Tauris Vylia’sal himself favours a Phantom named the Chancemaker as his personal vessel when conducting business away from Serendipity Heights.



The Phantom is a product of Dindrenzi and Directorate shipbuilding expertise. It is built for longer-ranged engagements, employing heavy firepower to overwhelm the opposition.

Its strong, streamlined hull is studded with railguns and massdrivers, mounted in gun racks and turrets for heavy firepower in all directions. Its weaponry is completed by a potent forward plasma projector capable of ripping apart a cruiser.

Phantoms are status symbols as well as fighting ships, especially for cartels such as the Syndicate. As a result they are surprisingly ornate for warships, internally and externally.

Phantoms are built to order by several smaller corporations within the Directorate. True to form, the builders ask no questions of their clients and these mighty ships have turned up in the service of all kinds of organisations across known space.

The Syndicate – Spur Class Heavy Cruiser

Like the Phantom Class Battleship, the Spur is also designed first and foremost as a heavily armed gunship. Effectively a scaled-down Phantom, the Spur is also armed with large numbers of rapid-firing railguns in gun rack and turrets, and a powerful forward plasma launcher.



The Syndicate uses its Spurs as enforcement ships when a Phantom is unavailable or the assignment is not deemed important enough to warrant a battleship. A squadron of Spurs with their powerful weaponry and sleek, sinister profiles are usually more than enough to intimidate a rebellious asteroid colony or stubborn corsair commander.

Spurs also make very effective spy ships, another use to which the Syndicate has been quick to put them. Spurs can hack into enemy command and control networks, filtering valuable information back to their fleet’s commander.

Like Phantoms, Spurs are constructed mainly within the Directorate for all kinds of buyers. They have seen use in many areas of space, especially poorly-policed regions such as the Rift. The information provided by the Spur can often make the vital difference between victory and destruction.

The Syndicate are one of the factions that will be appearing in the upcoming Marauders of the Rift Campaign Guide.

The justice systems of the more settled parts of the Terran Alliance no longer practice capital punishment as a rule, even for the most heinous crimes. However, this is not out of some altruistic belief that nobody is completely beyond redemption. The Alliance government realised a long time ago that convicts were a plentiful source of labour for large projects, especially hazardous ones.

Every few years, worlds of the Terran Alliance are visited by one of the many transportation flotillas of the Terran Satellite Charter Penal Transit Authority (TSCPTA). The flotillas take away the worst inmates of the world’s prison systems, depositing them aboard huge maximum security transports.

These massive vessels are known officially as Roving Penal and Correctional Colony Ships, or ‘R-Pax’. Their crews and passengers know them as ‘dump-ships’ – scooping up the refuse of humanity and discarding it upon wild and faraway worlds.

But the inmates of Supermax-89 were destined for quite a different fate. A Ba’Kash Clan-Fleet attack on the understrength flotilla resulted in the destruction of the TSCPTA guard detail and the accidental release of the R-Pax’s inmates.

Under the brutal leadership of notorious criminal mastermind Saul Dysart, the convicts slaughtered many of their alien attackers and drove off the rest. They then took full control of the remains of the flotilla, converting huge amount of heavy mining equipment and other machinery onboard into crude but lethal weaponry.

Dysart sailed his fleet into the Rift, far away from Terran-ruled space. He and his people intended to carve out their own empire within the lawless region. But instead, they ran up against the Syndicate.

Unable to outfight the well-established cartel and threatened with exposure to the Terran authorities if they resisted, Dysart’s people were forced into the service of Tauris Vylia’sal, much to their disgust.

For five years Dysart has been biding his time, using the violent enforcement missions forced on him by the Syndicate to hone his people into a hard core of dedicated, disciplined killers and space-fighters. The day is coming soon when the convicts of Supermax-89 exact bloody vengeance on their arrogant ‘employers’.
 
Supermax-89 – Reformer Class Dreadnought

The huge Reformer Class penal barges are some of the largest ships in service in the Terran Alliance. However, they are not designed as warships but as vast reinforced transports. As designed, their role is to keep large numbers of dangerous occupants contained securely while requiring only a minimal crew.



However, when turned into outright offensive vessels as Dysart and his people did, the Reformer makes a terrifying warship. At range, salvos of crude explosive shells and hull-grinding torpedoes converted out of powerful boring machines tear apart ships and defence platforms alike.

Industrial gravity tractor-beams, normally employed to move large pieces of asteroids into favourable positions for mining, are instead used to drag enemy ships into range of the vessel’s
launch tubes.



The unfortunate craft are then beset by massed waves of savage convict boarding teams, to whom mercy and surrender are meaningless terms. This is Dysart’s preferred method of attack, taking advantage of the vast manpower at his disposal and the thirst of many of them for bloodshed at close quarters.

Other convicts take to the launch bays, hurling themselves into battle at the controls of fighter craft, preferring to hunt down individual enemies personally in the cold void of deep space.

Supermax-89 is one of the factions that will be appearing in the upcoming Marauders of the Rift Campaign Guide.

Although the Directorate is dominated by the trio of economic hyperpowers, beneath them are many smaller corporations jostling for position within the hierarchy of the corporate state. These many companies provide goods and services to the major powers of the Directorate and to outside buyers.

Competition between these smaller firms is utterly cut-throat in almost every sense of the term. A single technological or scientific breakthrough can easily secure the fortunes of a company for decades, but the results of failure are utterly devastating. The process of asset-stripping a fallen corporation invariably involves the purging of its managerial structure by contractual termination – the Directorate’s term for summary execution.

Omni-Dynamics Systems, or OmniDyne, stands upon a knife-edge between overwhelming success and utter devastation. A failed project left the company hugely in debt to Works Raptor, but if Chief Executive Officer Asger Nerivar can achieve a corporate takeover of the Rift’s economy by supplanting the Syndicate, the company stands to enjoy unprecedented prosperity.

Like so many of the smaller entities of the Directorate, OmniDyne’s assets are based around its small but formidable space fleet. Even its manufacturing facilities are mobile, enabling the company to fulfil orders for its wares directly on-site. The corporation sells weapons to interested buyers, no questions asked, as part of its campaign to restore its fortunes. It also uses its products to bribe others into its service as mercenaries.

Like so many Directorate corporations, OmniDyne thrives on creating conflict, which will inevitably generate new markets for its lethal products. However, Nerivar and his managerial board are not fools – OmniDyne keeps all of its most effective weapons and defensive technology very firmly to itself.

With several huge factory ships at its disposal, plus a substantial escorting fleet and many other allies, OmniDyne is well-placed for its attempt to overthrow the Syndicate and establish its own corporate empire in the wild Rift.
 
OmniDyne – Foundry Class Dreadnought

Like many smaller corporations within the Directorate, OmniDyne Systems maintained a substantial space fleet, even before its massive fiscal losses compelled it to sell up its planet-based assets. Mobile manufacturing facilities enable OmniDyne to take their means of production directly to their distant target markets.



Although not intended to be warships, the Foundry Class is a valuable asset to any corporate fleet. As such it is very heavily armed in order to defend itself from unwelcome visitors that find their way through its formidable defensive screen.

Like most Directorate vessels, the Foundry’s main armament is mostly composed of fearsome multi-barrelled plasma projectors, fed from the searing fury of its oversized powerplant.

The Foundry’s onboard production facilities also give many advantages in battle. Specialist weaponry, such as biological weaponry and torpedoes packed with purpose-built assault cyborgs can be constructed within the vessel and deployed instantly from its weapon systems.

The vessel also houses extensive repair facilities and maintenance craft for field repairs. A Foundry accompanied by a strong escort fleet is a mighty opponent for any enemy – not least any former customers who think they can renege on their contracts with the vessel’s corporation owners!

The OmniDyne are one of the factions that will be appearing in the upcoming Marauders of the Rift Campaign Guide.

REGARDING INFECTED SHIPS 08/14/2012

Captain Ivo Strecker of the Seagrove Conveyor stared at the scanners as the klaxons blared out around him. He cursed inwardly – he’d been greedy, he knew; greedy and stupid, travelling alone without Rift Trade League protection.

Now the trouble he’d hoped fervently to avoid was on them. He rubbed his eyes, trying to make sense of what the vid-stream and readouts were telling him. “Phipps, what the hell is that thing?”

Scanning Officer Phipps adjusted several controls on the glass touch-panel in front of him. Still the image on the screen remained blurred. “No idea, sir. Instruments are registering a Relthoza cruiser-class but…not. It keeps…changing, altering…as if the configuration is shifting somehow.”

Strecker glared at the fuzzed image. Through the enhanced feed he could make out the angular, vertical lines typical of a Relthoza craft. But it was distorted, almost twisted. Strecker saw strange lumps and bulges emerging from its fabric.

“Sir!” The urgency in Phipps’ voice snapped Strecker’s thoughts back to the present. “It’s altered course! Now on intercepting vector…they’re prepping to attack!”

Strecker grabbed his PA mike. “All crew to battle stations! Raise shields and shift power to weapons!”
“Target firing!” Phipps yelled. He’d barely said the words when Conveyor shuddered under multiple impacts. Strecker struggled to keep his feet, magna-soled boots engaging with the metal floor. The display screen lit us as the Conveyor’s laser batteries spat lethal incandescent beams in response.

“Damage report!” Strecker yelled into the mike. In response, the comm-net came alive with noise, but none of it was coherent. Terrible sounds assaulted the captain’s ears – screams, howls, the grinding of metal under some incredible stress.

Phipps was struggling with the controls. “Can’t get anything. The AI’s locked up….arrgh!”

The comms-officer recoiled from his desk. Or rather he tried to. Strecker watched in horror as the man’s arms were suddenly engulfed in glass, intercut with veins of metal and plastic. The control panel seemed to writhe and shudder, hungrily drawing in the living flesh.


Phipps screamed again, the sound distorted as his features were distorted, sinking into the liquefying mess that had been his control panel. Tendrils of metal and glass pushed into his skin, sending trails of bright blood across his coveralls.

Strecker looked about frantically. All around him, other bridge officers were undergoing the same horrifying process.

A glance at the still-functioning but rapidly distorting vid-screen showed the enemy craft now terrifying close. They were prepping to board. With sick horror, Strecker saw that the distortions on its hull were identical to the mounting horror about him, but gigantic in scale. The stricken Conveyor shuddered as salvo after salvo crashed into her.

A sharp pain in his ankle drew Strecker’s gaze to the deck. Fresh terror shot through him. His boots were sinking into the deck. Tendrils of plastic and metal, terrifyingly alive somehow, were creeping over the edges, creeping up his legs…

With a yell, Strecker yanked himself clear of the dissolving mess. The deck rippled horribly beneath him, and his legs were both bleeding, but he was free.

Phipps was simply gone, engulfed by his own station. The whole structure of the bridge itself seemed to be shifting, melting. The deck beneath Strecker’s feet lurched as it seemed to lose all integrity.

Strecker ran for his life, bolting for the bridge door. He wrenched aside the spongy metal, jerking his gloved hands away before they could sink in. Screams echoes through the corridors as the light-panels flickered on and off.

Strecker tore down the companionway he prayed would still lead to one of the dorsal life-preserver clusters. He had no idea if anyone else was alive, no idea if this was even a ship any more, let alone his ship…the pods…he had to get to the pods…this was no way to go..worse than death…

Strecker ran on, for the pods, for his life. He chanced a glance backwards and wished he hadn’t. The corridor itself writhed and folded up; metal, composites and glass twisting and pulsing like a living thing, a great throat intent on swallowing the him whole…

CONCERNING THE MARAUDER GUNSHIP 08/02/2012

The Brigand Class cruiser is the backbone attack craft of many corsair fleets. Based upon an ageing Terran ship hull, the Brigand was once a colony fleet defence craft. Thousands were constructed, and as such these vessels have ended up scattered all over the far corners of known space from Muishkin’s Rift to the Outer Reach.

But while once a reassuring sight for colony craft, the Brigand’s shark-like profile is now guaranteed to strike fear into any merchant Free Captain who sees one stalking his ship. Most Brigands are now in corsair hands, rebuilt as fast pursuit craft.

The ship’s main armament is a powerful array of high-velocity projectile cannons mounted forward, easily capable of smashing ragged holes in the hulls of enemy craft. Clusters of torpedo tubes on either beam lash out against enemy flanking attacks as the Brigand closes in for the kill.

Brigands are packed with heavily armed assault troops for overwhelming enemy crews in boarding actions. Corsairs prefer taking freighters and other craft with their hulls and cargo intact, but the fate of captured crews can be gruesome indeed.

Corsair Brigands are also studded with clusters of flechette launchers and electronic warfare systems to suppress enemy Point Defence networks. Opponents find their defensive systems paralysed, unable to react as the merciless marauder boarding teams hack and blast their way into their helpless victim’s hull.

Even when withdrawing the Brigand is a terror, scattering clusters of lethal mines in its wake to catch unwary pursuers with a nasty explosive surprise. Cunning captains will also use their mines to lay ambushes.

Every corsair commander either has, or wants, a Brigand squadron to add weight to their strike forces. The most successful leaders paint lurid icons or graffiti on the outer hulls of these sharks of the void, announcing to their victims exactly who is attacking them.

Some desperate commanders tempt corsairs into their service, for the marauder bands are formidable fighters and space farers. However, this action is risky, as corsairs care about little but their fortunes and bear no loyalty except to their own leaders and shipmates. Many a would-be conqueror has ended their days drifting lifeless amidst the wreckage of their flagship, stripped and plundered by their former allies.

sennacherib wrote:Would love to try this game. Uncharted seas was a lot of fun when i tried it (by the same people).

Avrik_Shasla wrote:

sennacherib wrote:Would love to try this game. Uncharted seas was a lot of fun when i tried it (by the same people).

I recently started playing it, also been doing a lot of research on the game. I enjoy it's simplicity and the fact that the game is based more off of tactics rather than what your army is...like some games we know... . This however does not mean that each fleet doesn't have it's most significant differences.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Aiight. I'll bite.

Tell us Shummy: What's wrong with Firestorm Armada?

...Everything can move and shoot through everything else at all times...

ShumaGorath wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:Aiight. I'll bite.

Tell us Shummy: What's wrong with Firestorm Armada?

Everything can move and shoot through everything else at all times. There are no "Maneuvers" to speak of beyond moving to range band two (the highest firepower range) and hoping to roll well. The game seriously incentivizes the alpha strike but doesn't provide every fleet with a method of doing so, instead opting to use things like "speed" to imply a factions advantage is in maneuverability. Problematically though having a high speed in the game is actually bad since using that speed means jumping into your opponents range band 3 on your first turn (thus allowing them to move to 2 on their second and get the alpha strike). If you don't use that speed but try and play ranges they just get an extra turn to shoot you while you do nothing back (both fast fleets have nothing for foreward ranged guns). You can counteract this by spreading all over the table, but the anti torpedo system in the game demands that you clump up or else you'll lose every ship turn 1 (torpedoes are most powerful at max ranges). The games ship design is also plainly unbalanced with things like destroyers being alternatively absolutely useless or extremely overpowered depending on which destroyer you have. There's basically no reason to take anything other than whatever has the highest point to firepower ratio and rolling forward in as dense a block as possible since the game is nothing but rolling lots of dice and hoping to get lucky.

I have played Firestorm Armada and found the game very simple to learn and play, and more importantly the game system lends itself to using naval tactics.

Anytime you have a game with varied weapon strengths and ranges as well as defensive capabilities you will of course have tactics to consider.

If there is an advantage gained by grouping your ships together to use overlapping point defense, is that using tactics? Seems The United States use to do a similar idea of having ships as escort for larger ships during WWII as well as currently. The choices each player makes in the deployment of the various ship types is "tactics".

Ship hit points are of course different and do well to demonstrate the varying defensive capabilities of the ships. And of course there are point defense, and shields to consider. All in all this provides a very varied defensive capabilities within the game. As in real life a Cruiser has strengths over a destroyer the game does a good job to demonstrate this. Hope this helps as well.

First due to the limitations of any miniature game it of course does not represent 3 dimensional space very well so each ship could of course be at different heights and quit able to target ships either over or under ships of their own fleet. If it helps mount your ships on varying base heights to grasp the concept. And during WWII the "magic bubble you would be referring to would be Anti-Aircraft artillery. The American fleet did provide mutual support using each ships AA guns and the fact that ships within Firestorm Armada can cover each other is a very realistic way to demonstrate mutual support.

As in real life varied weapons have an optimal range, so you insistence that range band 2 while important is just a part of the game system.

Again tactics should be used to achieve the optimal position for your fleet so you are the first able to have the advantage of range band 2.

Again the game system does a good job in making a game that follows a logical basis for weapon, and defensive capabilities. Here is a link to help you grasp the idea of modern naval tactics.

if I may suggest read up a bit and try the game again you may be surprised.

Every frigate and cruiser in the game have the same hit points, almost every carrier has the same hit points. Half the battleships have identical defensive stats. Half the destroyers are functionally useless.

Except in FA ships can turn into black holes and the american fleet has never run with the ships touching eachother. It's also a neat approximation of modern formations, except when everything can just move through and fire through everything else it doesn't actually open up strategies or resemble naval warfare. It's just the defacto tactic to avoid vanishing turn one. If you want an approximation of naval warfare play spartans actual ship game. Firestorm is an approximation of really slow moving aerial combat which isn't particularly strategic.

In real life different weapons have different optimal ranges. In FA every gun in the game is best at range band two (except destroyers, but you're not going to use those unless you're directorate) making it so that whoever can jump to 2 first usually wins.

Alright, seeing that you're here to just troll and sputter nonsense and try to make a good game look terrible, I'm going to educate those here interested in rumors for Firestorm Armada and actually playing the game.

Firstly, your battleship reference.

How about some destroyers? You claim they are all the same and functionally useless.

Now I know the stat card is not free for me to share, but the Aquan Prime Manta Carrier has an HP of 9.

Please, everything said here is just you taking the abstracts of a miniature game and blowing it way out of proportion. Think of space ship combat as sub-marines instead, and then perhaps it will start to make some sense to you.

The examples up above diss-prove this, and if you need more I will gladly post for information. Also, I am going to assume that you play a lot of 40k. Why are most weapons 24", or 48"? Why are all Rapid fire weapons regardless of range all benefit from rapid fire at the same range? But, I digress.

The examples up above diss-prove this, and if you need more I will gladly post for information. Also, I am going to assume that you play a lot of 40k. Why are most weapons 24", or 48"? Why are all Rapid fire weapons regardless of range all benefit from rapid fire at the same range? But, I digress.

Avrik_Shasla wrote:
The examples up above diss-prove this, and if you need more I will gladly post for information. Also, I am going to assume that you play a lot of 40k. Why are most weapons 24", or 48"? Why are all Rapid fire weapons regardless of range all benefit from rapid fire at the same range? But, I digress.

ShumaGorath wrote:Apparently you don't actually play the game..

Kedorians and the RSN aren't main factions and you aren't allowed to make an army out of them, merely supplement a primary army with them. Kedorians also don't have models.

AegisGrimm wrote:I need to get around to playing the game. I have the older rulebook, and for awhile I was really big into making 2D print-out fleets. I took the PDF files of the Terran, Directorate, and Dindrenzi fleets and used the Battleships and Frigates in MS paint to make my own versions to represent each faction's Carriers, Battlecruisers, destroyers and escorts.

Naysayers to the game should also be aware that a bunch of their arguments are made invalid with the new hardcover rules. Fleets no longer benefit from clumping together, as Ships PD "bubbles" only benefit the other ships in their squadron. Also, wings have been overhauled to make them easier to use on the field.

AegisGrimm wrote:I need to get around to playing the game. I have the older rulebook, and for awhile I was really big into making 2D print-out fleets. I took the PDF files of the Terran, Directorate, and Dindrenzi fleets and used the Battleships and Frigates in MS paint to make my own versions to represent each faction's Carriers, Battlecruisers, destroyers and escorts.

Naysayers to the game should also be aware that a bunch of their arguments are made invalid with the new hardcover rules. Fleets no longer benefit from clumping together, as Ships PD "bubbles" only benefit the other ships in their squadron. Also, wings have been overhauled to make them easier to use on the field.

Gen.Von Riech wrote:

AegisGrimm wrote:I need to get around to playing the game. I have the older rulebook, and for awhile I was really big into making 2D print-out fleets. I took the PDF files of the Terran, Directorate, and Dindrenzi fleets and used the Battleships and Frigates in MS paint to make my own versions to represent each faction's Carriers, Battlecruisers, destroyers and escorts.

Naysayers to the game should also be aware that a bunch of their arguments are made invalid with the new hardcover rules. Fleets no longer benefit from clumping together, as Ships PD "bubbles" only benefit the other ships in their squadron. Also, wings have been overhauled to make them easier to use on the field.

Well stated.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
"If I may suggest, please learn what you're talking about before talking down to me. In the very least don't use parade photos of ships to show "naval tactics". If you took that chicken that plays tic tac toe at carnivals and put him on one side of a firestorm table he could probably still win most of his games. If you go second, clump up, and your opponent doesn't score a lucky critical than you should win by "moving the max distance forward and shooting the guns". There's almost nothing to FA beyond that one tactic and being lucky. That fact actually really saddened me because I liked the core movement and shooting mechanics of the game. Spartan just couldn't be bothered to actually develop a system that functioned well since Dystopian Wars was buying them all sports cars. When I found out that the revised rulebook was the same game with cleaned up wording and fixed fighter rules I sold my fleet. The game needs a fundamental rewrite, not a patch."

Well I'll just leave this at you hate the game. As far as what I have done to try and help you see the game from another perspective, I realize its a lost cause. You came here to just hate the game,and nothing will change that. So I will wish you happy gaming and good luck.

Trasvi wrote:Firestorm Armada seems pretty par for the course in terms of Space games. I play BFG regularly, which seems to 'suffer' from many of the same rules abstractions as FSA. This is because in most 'soft' sci-fi, and nearly all 'fantasy' sci-fi and popular movies/tv shows:

Space is an Ocean
Most of what we 'expect' about space is taken from our knowledge of the sea. We call them 'Space Fleets' 'Armadas' 'Navies', and most importantly 'Space Ships'.
The 3D thing is just a necessary simplification of the rules. Attempting to play with 'heights' just becomes ridiculously confusing to look at and resolve, because our battlefield is by nature a tabletop.