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Newbie to FA, and just wondering a couple of quick q's.
First of all, is Firestorm Armada about just rolling 6's or is it a duo game. What races do what essentially? because I don't want to buy one race, then get stuck with selling it because I thought it did something else.

Thirdly, are the rules more or less streamlined than battlefleet gothic, and would you recommend FA over DW.

I love space combat, but finding myself liking the look of DW, however based on what I am hearing, both DW and FA are quite hard to get into.

 Doctadeth wrote:
Newbie to FA, and just wondering a couple of quick q's.
First of all, is Firestorm Armada about just rolling 6's or is it a duo game. What races do what essentially? because I don't want to buy one race, then get stuck with selling it because I thought it did something else.

Thirdly, are the rules more or less streamlined than battlefleet gothic, and would you recommend FA over DW.

I love space combat, but finding myself liking the look of DW, however based on what I am hearing, both DW and FA are quite hard to get into.

More to it than just rolling 6s. It is a rather simple game wish there were more naval tactics involved. But facing and activations are important. Flyers play a key role throughout the game along with shields. MARs (Model Assigned Rules, basically fancy talk for special abilities) are not a requirement but give a whole new flavor to each race.


I've only played 3 races.

Aquan Prime are mine heavy and are a bit faster. They can shoot a lot of torpedoes from different angles. Defense and fire power is average.

Terrans are shield heavy, even their smaller ships have shields where other races only have shields on capital ships. There Battleship has a massive turret which can fire into any arc and can link fire with other guns.

Dindrenzi are all about brute force. High powered offense.

I've never played Battle Fleet Gothic so I cannot compare the 2. But comparing it to multiple WWII Naval game, the rules are very streamlined, there is not a lot of nuts and bolts to the mechanics. Don't need charts and a lot of marking off. Simple as placing a token for a damage penalty that is it.

Thanks Piston, I thought I'd go Terran initially, but then the Dindrenzi look awesome and go with my playstyle.

FA and DW are both fun games! I would say the real deciding factor would probably be which one you think you would end up playing more (based on local players, etc). Here are some key differences between BFG and FA to consider:

-FA does not incorporate a leadership mechanic in the same way that BFG does. There are some nods in that direction, with different command distances and bravery, but in general the fleet commander has much less impact on the game that he/she/it did in BFG.

-FA (and indeed, DW and US) do not care about the target's aspect; a ship is just as easy to hit regardless if it is closing, opening, or abeam. Likewise, a model only has one armor (well, DR) value, as opposed to different ratings for different quadrants of the ship.

- In general, ship speeds are about the same in FA ( by that I mean the distance actually moved on the table, not their fluff speed) but are much more maneuverable. A Terran cruiser, for example (one of the slower cruiser types in FA), can move 8"/20cm a turn, and can make up to 4 turns of 45 degrees each. Compare this to your average IN cruiser, which also moves 20cm, but has a max of 2 turns. This, combined with the lack of a target aspect mechanic, makes the movement phase much more forgiving.

-FA effective weapon ranges are actually a bit longer on average, I would hazard. In BFG, most of your really heavy shooting was done at 30cm or less, which is around 12". In FA, most weapons max out their AD in RB2, which starts at 16". Not to mention, there are a lot of RB4 weapons out there, which can shoot out to 32" where as 60cm is the standard for a long range weapon in BFG (the Nova Cannon and other such shenanigans aside). These longer weapons ranges, generally mean that you are going to be shooting earlier and with more effect than you would be in the average game of BFG.

When you get the new Firestorm book be sure to get the 13+ pages of errata, there's so many rules re-writes and fixes you will need them to play.

I just downloaded the Errata and FAQ's. By my count there are only 7.5 pages.

There are other downloads which can be used to update the previous edition of the rules to the current one. That shouldn't be included in your count though because it's just giving people an alternative to having to re-buy the book to get the new rules.

Edit: I'd like to point out. Everyone always puts Privateer Press on this pedestal saying they have perfectly written rules. Well I finally found the Warmachine Errata's (Which I couldn't find directly on their website... Possibly so they can keep their image?) This document IS actually 10 full pages with two columns each. The Firestorm Armada one is only one column, while the GW rulebook FAQ is only 7 pages in two columns, granted each codex then has their own FAQ's.

 Doctadeth wrote:
Newbie to FA, and just wondering a couple of quick q's.
First of all, is Firestorm Armada about just rolling 6's or is it a duo game. What races do what essentially? because I don't want to buy one race, then get stuck with selling it because I thought it did something else.

Thirdly, are the rules more or less streamlined than battlefleet gothic, and would you recommend FA over DW.

I love space combat, but finding myself liking the look of DW, however based on what I am hearing, both DW and FA are quite hard to get into.

If you are looking at this then you are here to see what resources are available to you to learn and improve and just figure out Firestorm Armada. Have no fear; contained within is all that I have compiled since I too had taken my first steps into the void.

I run the Black Ocean a resource site for Firestorm Armada. Please visit our site and take a moment to like us on Facebook. Below are some helpful documents for new players that are on our site:

Fleet Guide for New Players from The Black Ocean. This document contains a quick overview of how the Core fleets play in Firestorm Armada.

The Combined Ship Stat Cards - This is all of the currently released ships with their stats and Model Assigned Rules.

Fleet Construction - Alliance of Kurak - This is a compilation of all the rules from the various Spartan releases that you need to know to assemble a fleet for the Alliance of Kurak side of the conflict

Fleet Construction - Zenian League - This is a compilation of all the rules from the various Spartan releases that you need to know to assemble a fleet for the Zenian League side of the conflict

Fleet Construction - Marauders- This is a compilation of all the rules from the various Spartan releases that you need to know to assemble a Marauder Fleet

Look at our Fleet Recognition page if you would like to see all the currently released models

We have made Army Builder for Firestorm Armada. If you are unfamiliar with Army Builder it is a program that helps make fleet lists. It contains every rule necessary to make a fleet and is a great tool to learn what combinations of ships you can field. The program is made by Lone Wolf Development and the actual data files were made by the Black Ocean and Alexmann. You can get our data files after you purchase Army Builder by clicking the update file from within the program.

Note that these are updated as soon as information is available.


Firebase Delta does podcasts for Firestorm, frequently teaming up with Chris (a.k.a. veritechc here on the forums) who runs the Black Ocean. I'd like to add that Phil and Scott are veteran podcasters that you just might have heard on 40K Radio. Phil was one of the founders of that podcast. You will not find a finer group of East coast gamers to listen to.

In think that all of the above information should help. Good luck and welcome to Firestorm Armada.