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My only problem with Spartan is their scale and rules Exploding d6's for me aren't fun and the models seem to always be bigger than my other games. Still, hopefully the rules for this might change my mind despite the exploding d6?

I highly doubt the exploding D6 and threshholds to hit things is going to change. That's been a constant in all of the Spartan Games.

A pity really, that they've been only doing minor modifications to the same game engine across what... 5 or so titles? There could be space for more maneuver-based gameplay than bucket-of-dice and modifiers play.

Not that such systems are bad, just that they're almost effectively reskins across several games.

@The_Real_Chris

I like the exploding 6's. One of the issues I have been having recently is the paper-rock-scissor nature of 40k. In Firestorm armada while frigates might not be the optimal unit to shoot at a battleship, with a couple of 6s you can do some damage.

But I can see why you don't like it.

The_Real_Chris wrote:
My only problem with Spartan is their scale and rules Exploding d6's for me aren't fun and the models seem to always be bigger than my other games. Still, hopefully the rules for this might change my mind despite the exploding d6?

I also understand people's dislike of the exploding D6 although I really like it.

I was a very statistics oriented Industrial Engineer, and I always find the very simple statistical distributions found with just rolling a couple of dice to reach a number or a single dice trying to get a set number to be much to predictable of an outcome to produce interesting games. I like that I have to plan my turns playing Spartan Games products with very robust flexible strategies because anything can happen.

When you have naval games then virtually anything DOES happen. There are uncountable instances within real world battles where the big ships are crippled by a single lucky attack. I find that the statistics behind the exploding d6 have the potential for big shocking events... But those things happen within war so I enjoy being able to represent them.

That said, I am very certain that Dystopian Legions is right in having only a very limited use of the actual exploding D6. The game uses a variety of dice colors where either the 6 only counts as one success, or it counts as 2 successes, or it rarely counts as 2 with the exploding additional dice. This means that there can be a very big flexibility and control over the actual potential number of hits and therefore damage while the average hits remains constant. This also makes it difficult to predict the effects of an attack and flexibility in thinking to accommodate bad luck.

roadkizzle wrote:
Those are actually the Directorate gunships that Ronin_ex first mentioned. They were used as allied units for the games at Claymore.

So they are. Oops!





On another note, Spartan Games has confirmed that the early order bonuses - i.e. the crashed shuttle model, and the art prints - will be available in all copies during the first month of the game's release, and not just copies purchased directly from SG.

Any pics of the "crashed shuttle"?

The terrain "ship" in the Battle for Valhalla box was pretty impressive, so it would be nice if its something "larger" like that.

Only pic of a crashed anything I can find is the objective marker in the Works Raptor box.

Do they have plans for creating campaigns which use both fleets and ground forces?

I actually have a bunch of guys buying fleets now so I wouldn't mind joining them so we can have galaxy conquests and so on.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Any pics of the "crashed shuttle"?

The terrain "ship" in the Battle for Valhalla box was pretty impressive, so it would be nice if its something "larger" like that.

Only pic of a crashed anything I can find is the objective marker in the Works Raptor box.

Sort of. There's a computerized render of it on the product page. It's the second picture.

http://shop.spartangames.co.uk/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=PFBB01

Swastakowey wrote:Do they have plans for creating campaigns which use both fleets and ground forces?

The game that was played at Claymore apparently involved linked Firestorm Armada and Planetfall games (as well as a planned but as yet otherwise unannounced 28mm skirmish game in the same setting). So yeah, I expect some linkage info to be available (either in the rules, or on the website).

Awesome I look forward to this.

Although I dont overly like the aquarian infantry. I love their ships though. But oh well.

Oh come on Spartan. I need new pictures!

This game is taking too long to come out.

Does anybody have any decent links to the background for the races etc. From what I have looked at I can find very little yet people seem to have lots of info I cannot seem to find.

 Swastakowey wrote:
This game is taking too long to come out.

Does anybody have any decent links to the background for the races etc. From what I have looked at I can find very little yet people seem to have lots of info I cannot seem to find.

Check here -

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/products/firestorm-galaxy/planetfall


For information on the specific empires, click the boxes on the right-hand side of the page.

Ahhh, cheers. Obviously I wasnt searching hard enough.

Thanks dude.

Well I purchased the starter set (went halves with a friend) and the two natural ally sets as well. I got my fleet separately and now the long wait to start playing. Its sheer luck that my chosen fleet and my friends chosen fleet had planet fall forces to match.

The thread linked in the OP has been closed, anybody know where the new one is?

There are a number of threads about the game in that same forum.

There haven't been any new con appearances, so there are no new photo-filled threads. And I doubt there will be before the game is released next month.

http://shop.spartangames.co.uk/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1997

Yay more stuff!

Getting the platnum one haha. With the terrain set too. Sigh.

I did as well, and I can't imagine what I would've spent if factions I actually intended to collect were involved. :-p

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
I did as well, and I can't imagine what I would've spent if factions I actually intended to collect were involved. :-p

Consider yourself lucky mate.

I happened to collect Aquans and one of my friends happened to collect the other guys involved.

Spent too much. Dont even know if it will be a good game, but I have a good feeling about it haha.

Well, can't say i'm lucky... I just spent $300-ish on Forces which I will, at best, end up ally-ing in to games down the road.

Still, I have high hopes for the system, LOVE the models, and always wanted a crack at 40k Epic while it was alive. This game checks a lot of boxes for me, and i'm really excited.

That said, the rest of the factions will have stuff, including their core helix, about a month later, so i'll have just enough time to mess with the system before deciding if I need to throw a wall of money at the game, "for real". :-p

On the bright side you can use those forces to get new people to join.

But seeing the armada then planet fall just made me realize how much I missed because i didnt get the chance to play BFG and epic.

But im quite liking the background in this game along with the cool allies system (its gonna be hard to be bored on one faction).

Just pulled the trigger on the Platinum Bundle myself:

http://shop.spartangames.co.uk/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=PFMB03

I'm really excited about the prospect of linked ground/space games and campaigns!

Same im hoping they bring out a campaign book for that. If not im sure it will be mere weeks before the community makes a good set

Platinum ordered, will order more later, but for now the Platinum deal will suffice...

 Swastakowey wrote:
Same im hoping they bring out a campaign book for that. If not im sure it will be mere weeks before the community makes a good set

I actually think we might see campaign rules right in the core rule-book. The designers said this game was built with linked campaign play from day-one, and it has integral hooks throughout scenarios, etc...

Is there a particular reason why people are preordering rules sight unseen? I daresay Spartan doesn't exactly have a stellar track record with rules.

Tempted by platinum, but If inevitably get frustrated with exploding d6s and certain faction balance, so I'll wait.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Is there a particular reason why people are preordering rules sight unseen? I daresay Spartan doesn't exactly have a stellar track record with rules.

Maybe those people like Spartan's other games? I'm not going to speak to rules quality, my only real experience with Spartan was browsing the Dystopian Wars 1.0 book, which was definitely not well written, but the game seemed pretty popular anyway.

I know gamers are notoriously incapable of understanding that other people might like a game they like, or not like a game they like, but come on.


EDIT: Perhaps they like the miniatures and want to use them for other things. Hell, perhaps the people pre-ordering are GW's much vaunted "collector" and just want to paint the miniatures for fun.

EDIT EDIT: Of course, if they really hate Spartan's other games especially due to specific things like exploding D6's and are pre-ordering this with the intention of playing it, hoping that "maybe things will be different this time!", well....

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
Same im hoping they bring out a campaign book for that. If not im sure it will be mere weeks before the community makes a good set

I actually think we might see campaign rules right in the core rule-book. The designers said this game was built with linked campaign play from day-one, and it has integral hooks throughout scenarios, etc...

The first game they had at the open day had 3 battles. A space one and a 28mm one (I think) and it all influences the planet fall battle at the end. So hopefuly you are right and its all in the main book.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Is there a particular reason why people are preordering rules sight unseen? I daresay Spartan doesn't exactly have a stellar track record with rules.

Because I have a fleet and have always wanted a ground force to match the fleet. This is the perfect opportunity.

To have real battles over star systems committing naval and ground assets to certain fronts and zones and so on.

The models really look good in my opinion.

Even if the rules suck, version 2.0 when it comes out for it will definitely kick but as their 2.0 versions usually do.

Their other games are pretty enjoyable.

And back to the first point I have a navy, with ground forces and its very possible to have them work together in vast campaigns with my friends.

Actually lots of people who have played Firestorm: Armada from the beginning have completely loved the new rulebook that has recently come out. It improves on the original game in a multitude of ways.

So if they have put that quality into the Planetfall book, it should be pretty good from the start.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Is there a particular reason why people are preordering rules sight unseen? I daresay Spartan doesn't exactly have a stellar track record with rules.

Well, this is a long-standing point of contention between the two of us; I never thought Spartan's rules going all the way back to FA 1.0 were all that bad! However, as the others have said I think by any objective standard Spartan has drastically improved their rules quality with FA 2.0 and especially DW 2.0, thanks to a combination of more robust playtesting and (it appears, anyway) bringing in some staff with actual rules/technical writing experience. If you haven't seen the new editions yet, it might be worth a look.