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Blacksails wrote:I often use my FA models with the Full Thrust rule set too, though the scale is significantly larger than the actual Full Thrust models (my Sorylian BB dwarfs my NSL Superdreadnought). The exploding dice thing is...interesting to say the least. I like the randomness and the crazy things that can happen because of it, but I enjoy randomness (I don't subscribe to mathhammer). Its a fun, fast, brutal game once you get the rules all sorted out.

I really like Full Thrust. Its very simple, yet still quite tactical. Im planning to get the Directorate fleet for me and the Aquan fleet for my wife.

Had another game last Friday, the first one since my last post. More exploding dice shenanigans. How does one-shotting an entire cruiser squadron with a trio of frigates sound? It's fun to see, sure, but it makes for a hollow victory.

How many cruisers were in the squadron? What factions were they? Seems a little far fetched even for FA's exploiding dice shenanigans. I just played a Sorylian vs. Directorate game and had a lot of fun. First time using the cards which added an interesting element. Repair cards are crucial. I attempted to dispel the notion of the BB being the end-all be-all of FA by bringing a carrier (with assaulters), four cruisers, and five frigates for 500pts. My opponent brought the started set.

The game went to me, with my losses being the entire frigate squadron, and one cruiser. There were some lucky dice rolling but I found that list building and tactics were more crucial than hoping for your frigate to crit that battleship with a flurry of sixes. Every ship was destroyed using sound tactics, manoeuvring around to present the best arcs while minimizing the opponents arcs, and playing off fleet strenghts. I took my opponent's battleship through three successive boarding waves, while using my frigates against his cruisers, and my cruisers against his frigates.

The models are great, the price reasonable, and the cards provide some added fun. The game will only get better with more ship variants to allow for more tactical options and fleet building options.

The odds of really smiting someone with lots of 6s are so low its not really worth worrying about. Every d6 has a 16% of exploding, so a double explosion only happens 2.7% of the time. Given that you need 12 to 16 hits to double crit a cruiser (required to one volley most, but not all, cruisers) you should never really see it happen unless you have a BB in RB2. Over multiple games the most hits I've ever rolled at once were 22, and that was with an undamaged Terran BB in RB2 using a card (+1 to hit)

I don't think I've rolled over 18 damage, and that was with 4 Sorylian cruisers at RB 2 (20AD!). Even Full Thrust has exploding dice, just that the effects aren't as noticeable due to the hull point mechanics. To each their own I guess, but I think this game has great potential, I'm just waiting for a rulebook from Spartan that doesn't have terrible, often contradictory fluff.

3 Dindrenzi frigates fired on an undamaged Sorylian Heavy Cruiser. Got the explosion critical which took out a crippled Heavy and undamaged regular Cruiser (and 2-3 Escorts.)

Everybody here regularly gets more hits than there were dice in the roll. That's on a wide variety of perfectly normal dice, before anyone asks.

Well, it is possible, but it could just be the impression that such events are happening more infrequently than they should. To me, it seems to even out over time, but I have heard several people that I've introduced the game to at the FLGS that they are not a fan of the exploding dice mechanic.

BTW, it was recently announce over at the spartan forums that 40 new models will be released for FSA over 2011...that is almost doubling the size of the range! These models will include space stations, two new races, and additional expansion ships for the existing fleets. Can't wait!