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As some here noticed, I bought into Firestorm Armada pretty enthusiastically as I was looking for a space-combat game for my collection. While reading up though I found frequent mentions of the seemingly oft-delayed Firestorm: Planetfall?

Is much info available on this one? I can't help but hope that this would be a 40k Epic-alike, and it seems like Spartan is a pretty responsive and prolific company, meaning the game would probably at least be supported long enough to flesh out an affordable mini line in that scale.

Has anything much been said? I can't even seem to find images of models, meaning presumably, the game is still far, far, out?

I don't know how far out it is since I haven't been paying much attention to Spartan lately, but it's definitely going to have some kick-ass models, as seen in this thread:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/609707.page

Definitely looks like it's quite similar to Epic.

Planetfall started off as basically a modelling project for Studio Sparta (an offshoot of Spartan created to enforce the illusion that they weren't spreading themselves too thin back when they were juggling Uncharted Seas, Firestorm, Dystopian Wars, and Dystopian Legions).

The original version was supposed to be dual-scale (10mm and 15mm) but it never seemed to take off and only the Terrans and Dindrenzi seemed to ever get released.

But around the time Spartan finally started pruning the less successful legacy lines/rule sets they decided to bring Planetfall in to the fold as an official line instead of being a niche offshoot.

In doing so they seem to have decided on a scale (10mm it looks like) and appear to be giving it the same level of care as their last two releases (which is a good sign).

All in all it appears to be a mass ground combat game in the same style as Epic or Dropzone Commander. I think there is definitely a place for this game in the line and I think it slots in well as an analogue to the multi-theatre approach of Dystopian wars. Hopefully they capitalize on that a bit and allow for some method of linking games between orbital and planetary theatres. As for delays, once it was incepted as a core game, I believe the plan was always a fall release after they had brought out the V2 revisions of their two biggest core games.

Hopefully this isn't putting too much on their plate since I've been looking for a nice 6-10mm ground combat game for a while (DZC never appealed to me sadly). Either way, I'm fairly certain my group will jump for this since FSA has lit a big fire with them in a way not even DWars managed to. Having an excuse to get them all in to a sci-fi ground-war game is just too good to pass up (never had the heart to sell 'em on Epic Armageddon because of the exorbitant cost of the minis).

Ronin covered it quite nicely.

Hopefully with the success of DW 2.0, FSA 2.0, and now the excitement around Planetfall, they can grow the company to adequately handle their lines. I've noticed they're getting better at previewing and releasing things in a more timely manner.

Always something to look forward to, and I haven't been disappointed since I started paying attention to them again late last year.

Really digging for info on this one, and it just sounds like the perfect storm of a game, and something to put Epic to bed once and for all.

Just today a Spartan member essentially said, for $70ish USD a starter set would include one very-large base, four medium bases, three small bases, ten infantry bases, plus a resin terrain/objective piece, and two card-stock and plastic buildings.

The goal is a cheap core army, highly flexible and unique list-building mechanic, and you'll never need to spend a dime on terrain unless you want to (as all future army boxes, units/squadrons, etc... will come with further terrain).

Plus, as others have said, the models just look INCREDIBLE.

The rules for fan-beta testers are going out tomorrow as well, with October seeing the launch of a big-box two-player starter with other factions/models following a month later.

Plus, every single comment from people who got to play demo games at Claymore have just been GLOWING.

Oh... and the designer confirmed the rules have official hooks for campaigns with Firestorm Armada.

Yeah, the Spartan boards have confirmed there'll be links between FSA and PF.

I imagine the rules will work similar to the rest of their games, which has the advantage of translating well for players moving back and forth between the games. That and the current rules for FSA (can't speak to DW, but from I hear its similar) are pretty clean and straightforward.

Definitely a game I'll be buying for multiple reasons.

No company, not even GW, was able to keep that many game lines active and supported. Especially not a company like Spartan.

Just giving you guys a proper warning. After the initial wow factor like there was for DW, be prepared for a wait as you watch SG jump ship to the next game.

I, too, like the miniatures, but SG is too tainted at this point for anyone in my area.

Call me crazy, but doesn't Dystopian Wars have a relatively well received rule set and about a million different models available?

Sounds well supported to me.

If you mean releases have an ebb and flow... well, if I am a Warmachine player, i'm essentially on vacation while the Hordes releases are focused on, etc... It doesn't mean the other system isn't fully supported.

As much as I disagree with the general pessimism of Vertrucio post, there's a solid point there based on historical examples. When they were trying to Uncharted Seas, Firestorm Armada, and Dystopian Wars, some things started falling behind, namely US and FSA at first. US is still largely ignored by them, but FSA and DW just got a complete overhaul in the last 6 months at a very solid pace. The issue is that for many years, their release schedule and general previewing ability was a lot bigger than they could chew. Case in point, we're still waiting for Leviathans which were previewed a few years back if memory serves.

As to their future ability to support two big games with off shoots (DW and FSA, plus their respective ground games and skirmish games) is a big job, but certainly not impossible. There'll be growing pains, but they've recently shown how they're progressing, and it looks a lot more promising than their past.

I'm not blindly going to say they're an amazing company who will have no problems supporting half a dozen games of various sizes and commitment levels, but I'm also not going to let their past failures cloud my judgement when their current success is very promising.

Yeah, Spartan could very easily end up overcommitting themselves on this. I'm hopeful that their ability to roll out three new starters in a relatively short period of time is a good sign. But we'll have to wait and see on that. Of the three starters, this is the first one that didn't already have a huge mass of figures available to support the game. Everything that gets released for Planetfall is going to need to be brand new (there are some existing figures, but they haven't been available for a long time and it appears that Spartan won't be reissuing them).

In the meantime, if you're a Dystopian Legion fan, or (to a lesser extent, since it uses DW figures) an Armored Clash fan, you're going to be stuck cooling your heels for the time being.


I'm looking forward to this, and hoping that everything rolls out smoothly.

Hmm...

Spartan Games has released the list of new products for September, and a Dystopian Legions Two Player Starter is on the list.

While good news for Dystopian Legions fans, I'm not sure what this means for Planetfall. To the best of my knowledge, Spartan hasn't provided any authoritative statements about when Planetfall will hit store shelves. And if Spartan is planning to provide additional support for Dystopian Legions beyond the new starter, then that would mean the new stuff would likely hit in October. October has been the month that people have been pointing to for the Planetfall release. I doubt that Spartan would release new DL product in the same month that they rolled out Planetfall (which has been confirmed to have its own new releases beyond just the Starter).

Last inkling we heard a while back was fall 2014 I believe. So my guess is probably a November release at the latest to have it at retail before the holidays.