FA: Directorate and Aquans

Kill everything in sight.

After creating a bunch of lists over the last couple of days, I think I've finally found something that I'm comfortable with.  I'm definitely going to be playing Directorate and Aquans as my primary fleets, as I'm a huge fan of having one good faction and one evil faction with completely different playstyles.

1200
Directorate

Persecution DN = 325
Improved Shields
Upgraded Engines I
Decreased Turn Limit
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

Eliminator BB = 220
Improved Shields
Upgraded Engines I
Decreased Turn Limit
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

Eliminator BB = 220
Improved Shields
Upgraded Engines I
Decreased Turn Limit
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

3x Abraxas CA = 195
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

4x Enforcer FF = 120
Biohazard Ammo

4x Enforcer FF = 120
Biohazard Ammo

This list is pretty straight forward:  Put Biohazard Ammo on everything that I can while maintaining a good amount of Special Forces on all my ships.  Three big ships allow me to put out a lot of damage and the -1 Turn Limit is absolutely mandatory on any ship that has a Fore Fixed weapon.  The extra speed allows me to cover a greater arc of fire and gives me a little more range to launch assaults.  Due the bigger ships packing unimpressive long range damage, the faster I can get close to the enemy the better.  Since most of my ships already have Reinforced Fore, adding a little bit more Shields really improves their durability on the battlefield.  I'm a pretty big fan of the Abraxas Cruiser's impressive cost to effectiveness ratio.  They have good speed, biohazard turrets and comes charging with Special Forces and 12 AP.

1200
Aquan Prime

Manta BCV = 270
Improved Shields
Decreased Turn Limit
Energy Transfer I
Quick Launch
Corrosive Torpedoes
6x Bombers

Poseidon BB = 235
Improved Shields
Decreased Turn Limit
Increased Wing Capacity
Energy Transfer II
Precision Strike
Corrosive Torpedoes
6x Bombers

Poseidon BB = 235
Improved Shields
Decreased Turn Limit
Increased Wing Capacity
Energy Transfer II
Precision Strike
Corrosive Torpedoes
6x Bombers

4x Storm CA = 260
Difficult Target
Energy Transfer I

4x Piranha FF = 100
Energy Transfer I

4x Piranha FF = 100
Energy Transfer I

This list is pretty similar to what I was rocking back in 1.5.  The Manta BCV and 2x Poseidons all reeling with 6x Bombers is something that looks really scary on paper.  Corrosive Torpedoes on everything so I can play a medium ranged game and deal damage from afar while extra Shields help for when I get close.  Once I weaken my enemy and open up a corridor of opportunity, I will charge in and let things rip with Energy Transfer.  With Beam Weapons all over the place, enemy units should be very wary when fighting the Aquan Fleet.  One of the biggest weaknesses to Aquans in general is their vulnerability to assaults.  Thankfully, most of their ships have relatively high PD and can now link their mine for deadlier payloads.

FA: Fleet manuals released!

Not sure if human or alien.

Spartan Games released their updated Fleet Manuals for 2.0 today and I'm loving every second of it.  As part of the release package, Alex and Chris from the SG forums have also created some user-made fleet material for us to use.  Thanks to them, we can pretty much see what all of the MARs and special rules do.

After seeing the fleets, I'm pretty determined to work on my Aquans and build up a Directorate force.  Although I'm not a huge fan of how the new Aquan ships look, I can at least use my old Poseidon BBs and them on the table with fresh, new upgrades.  As for the Directorate, I'm completely in love with the new ship models so picking some up will be no problem.

Let's just say it didn't take me long to whip out some lists with the new rules.

1200
Directorate

Persecution DN = 325
Improved Shields
Upgraded Engines I
Decreased Turn Limit
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

Eliminator BB = 220
Improved Shields
Upgraded Engines I
Decreased Turn Limit
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

Eliminator BB = 220
Improved Shields
Upgraded Engines I
Decreased Turn Limit
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

3x Abraxas CA = 195
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

4x Enforcer FF = 120
Biohazard Ammo

4x Enforcer FF = 120
Biohazard Ammo

1200
Aquan Prime

Manta BCV = 270
Improved Shields
Decreased Turn Limit
Energy Transfer I
Quick Launch
Corrosive Torpedoes
6x Bombers

Poseidon BB = 235
Improved Shields
Decreased Turn Limit
Increased Wing Capacity
Energy Transfer II
Precision Strike
Corrosive Torpedoes
6x Bombers

Poseidon BB = 235
Improved Shields
Decreased Turn Limit
Increased Wing Capacity
Energy Transfer II
Precision Strike
Corrosive Torpedoes
6x Bombers

4x Storm CA = 260
Difficult Target
Energy Transfer I

4x Piranha FF = 100
Energy Transfer I

4x Piranha FF = 100
Energy Transfer I

FA 2.0 Fleet Construction

That looks like a blast to play!

With Firestorm Armada 2.0 coming up in the next couple of days, we're starting to find out a little how fleets are going to be constructed.  On the individual ship level, the larger ships in the form of Cruisers onward will have options to customize how you want them to play.  There will be hard points and upgrade options on these ships that you can take for a few extra points.

The example here is from Alexmann on the SG forums.

Furthermore, you're allowed to use any Cruiser model that they currently have in the game.  It doesn't matter if you're using a MKI CA, MKII from the last batch of releases or MKIII from the new patrol set, you can basically build your own cruiser with the points allowed.  This is Spartan Games' way to allow you to build your fleet how you see fit; using the models that you enjoy rather than buying the new stuff every time.  While some question whether this will be good for business, I think they're missing the fact that SG puts out some ridiculous looking sculpts.  I know for a fact that I'll be picking up some new Patrol Fleets even though I have the older ships.

Personally, I really like how this system is done.  I've always wanted to customize my ships and one of the biggest turnoffs with version 1.0 and 1.5 of the game was that I couldn't.  As a big supporter of BFG, the lack of special rules and customization really bothered me.  With this new system, admirals can pretend that the older ships have been retrofitted to new specifications, giving his older models purpose and functionality on the battlefield.  Not only does this focus more on gameplay, but allows the player to try out some of the new features without having to commit to new models.  Frankly, it just makes sense, especially when you consider the fact that most of the models you're playing with is a mere spec on the flight stand anyway.

While I haven't received my copy of the rulebook yet, I did have a chance to get a few blurbs from some of the beta testers on the forum.  One of the best things I've heard today was that MARs and other special rules will be true to the fantasy.  Expect to see Bio-hazard Ammo to be on Directorate vessels and Energy Transfer to be pretty much an Aquan thing.  Star Cards are also gone, replaced by the Tactical Cards that can be found in the patrol boxes.

According to reddwarf on SG:
"Star Cards are gone, replaced by Tac cards.   There is a limited selection of Tac cards available (by limited I mean fewer but generally stronger, as well as some that are faction/alliance/league specific as well as general usage cards) but you get to choose the ones you want at the start of the game and play them on the turn you wish, *if* your Admiral is on the board.  So I guess they represent "Admiral Upgrades" in a way, as well as "action" orders.  Tac Cards are a standard rule, so unless the tournament decides differently I would think they would be included.  Technically the rule is worded "You may choose up to X TAC cards" (X varies a little), so I suppose X can be zero if you choose/don't like cards.  But each player makes that decision on their own by default (certainly you could both agree to skip taking them)."

Once again, really exciting.  Anything that gives the game more flexibility while allow for deeper gameplay is good for the longevity of the game.  After all, you just can't have players lining up their ships and rolling assloads of dice without any thought.  Just a couple of days left until I get the book in my hands, but I'm sure players all over the place are brainstorming like crazy what their list will be.  Until I know for sure what will be a good point range to play competitively, I'll still aim for 1000 points as my comfortable flying zone.  Now all Spartan Games needs to do is release their PDF ship stats so I can see what I want to field!

Revisiting Firestorm Armada

Check out this badass battleship!

In December, Spartan Games is going to release Firestorm Armada 2.0.

This is what has been advertised:

• Distinct play styles across the core races
• Greater tactical diversity, including new ‘Tactical Ability Cards’
• Targeted Strikes to take out key systems on an enemy ship
• Faster and deadlier rules for Carriers and their Short Range Spacecraft
• New Fleet Building systems, presenting you with more options and tactics
• Rules for dynamic moving Terrain
• Smoother Boarding Assaults
• Brand new Weapon Types to crush your enemies!

“It was very important to us to ensure that as we moved to version 2.0 of the rules we catered for the needs of our existing players. It was key to remain loyal to their gaming needs and the investment they had made in our models,” explains Chris Worth, lead designer of FA 2.0. “Gamers needed to feel like they were playing the same game, but at the same time we had to introduce all of the new concepts they wanted.”

Aquan Prime Patrol Box

Sorylian Collective Patrol Box

The Directorate Patrol Box

Well, what can I say:  The new ships look amazing and the proposed rules fixes are spot on.  This time around, I'm more excited about the Sorylian and Directorate ships than the Aquans.  I know a few guys in the club are looking at expanding their ships as well.  Hopefully the new rules fix everything that was lacking in the first ruleset.

You can read more about how I feel about the matter here.

Two games I'm looking at

Now that Diablo III is out the door (I hope you fellas are playing it!) and I'm back from Europe (it was amazing), let's get back into some minis!

To lead some stuff off, there's 2 games that's looking to be pretty promising.  Some of my friends are already looking into one of them and from what I hear, it sounds pretty damn good.  That game is Dust Warfare:

This game takes place in an alternate reality WWIII setting and it's pretty much Red Alert on the table-top.  There are 3 factions in the game; the Axis, Allies and SSU (Sino-Soviet Union).  It's pretty much one of my favorite settings in a game ever, but I haven't got my head around the rules yet.  From what I hear, it's really back and forth with players taking alternate/interactive turns like Infinity and Firestorm Armada.  I ordered the rulebook and its on its way!  I'll let you guys know one I read that thing in and out.


The next game I'm looking out isn't out yet.. but the minis alone is enough to get me into the game.  That game is called Dropzone Commander and it's about Sci-Fi alien races fighting against each other in a 10mm setting.  I guess 10mm is something smaller like Flames of War in terms of scale, but the setting reminds me of Aliens, Halo and the Scrin from CNC3.  The game is made by unheard of developer Hawk Wargames.  The minis and rules come on pre-order in the near future and that's something I'm pretty excited about.

Let me show you some of the minis:

From what I've seen from their latest interview, it seems like the game will be like Ground Control (RTS) on table-top.  Check it out here and here.

Hmm.. very tempting.  Does anyone know anything more about these games?  Which one should I get into?

Time for some Firestorm

Aquan Prime BB.

I'll be playing Firestorm next week hopefully.  Pretty damn excited.  My fishmans (Aquan Prime) haven't seen the light of day in forever.  Maybe they were hibernating?  Or maybe they're just waiting for SG to get out more ships and MARs!  Did you guys see some of the new Dreadnoughts and Destroyers Spartan put out for Firestorm?  They look quite bad ass.  I'm a huge sucker for space combat and I'm about to indulge myself in some casual, exploding dice fire frenzy.  I'll try my best not to rage quit and throw my models across the table if they blow up.

Here's what I plan on bringing at 1k points:

Poseidon BB (3x AP) = 215

Poseidon BB (3x AP) = 215

Manta BC (9x AP) = 275

4x Storm CL = 240

2x Pirahna FF = 40

+3x Interceptor Wings = 15

Also thinking about possibly dropping the Manta's AP for max Pirahna squads.. but realistically, they're probably just going to have to swim somewhere and hopefully not die.  Might also drop a CL for max FF, what do you guys think?

Oh, and here's some Wings rules I want to try.  I saw this on the Spartan Games forums and there's quite a bit of good feedback.  It's user-created so I have my doubts, but I think it can be for the betterment of the game.

These rules make three major changes: 
1.) Wings from Carriers activate as part of their Carrier's activation.
2.) Carriers may Link Fire with their Wings.  
3.) Wings receive specialization bonuses partially based on a suggestion by one of the Spartan Games team members in another thread (I forgot the link, so if someone has it lemme see so I can properly give credit).  

The following is the second revision of the suggested Variant Wing Rules.  The rules really aren't that long, I just write for maximum clarity.  Some of it may be repetitive.  

Wings:

• Interceptors deal 2 hits to enemy wings on a roll of 5 (destroying them, but still only get a bonus d6 on a result of 6).  See Clarifications for a reminder on standard Wing combat.
• Fighters that receive a destroyed result may roll a d6, and on a roll of 6 are instead Driven Off.  Fighters may make this roll for each destroyed result they receive.  This ability must be resolved immediately upon receiving the destroyed result.  This allows an opponent to assign bonus dice from rolling a 6 to the Fighter should it survive.
• Bombers receive +1 to AD rolls.
• AP from Assaulters receive +1 to the first roll in a Boarding action (AP from other sources receive no bonus even if they participate in the boarding action)

Carriers:

• Wings activate as part of a Carrier's combat action and may Link Fire with their Carrier (assuming the Wings can make a legal attack as per standard FS:A rules, see Clarifications regarding Command Distance).  When Linking Fire with Wings, the Flight receives its full AD and the Carrier links with 1/2 AD.
• All Wings from the same Carrier activate simultaneously.  In effect, this allows mixed Wing Flights.  However, Carriers are still restricted to only carrying two types of Wings.
• All Flights/Wings from a Carrier activate at the same time as the parent Carrier, even if they are working independently (choosing not to Link Fire).  Wings that are attached to a ship may detach as normal per the activation rules, but may choose to remain with the attached ship as normal.
• You do not receive an additional STAR card for your carrier-bound wings.  They are NOT an additional squadron, they do not have a separate activation from your Carrier.  They are a component of your Carrier's squadron, and only activate with your Carrier.
• Opponents who are able to roll PD against a Torpedo salvo and/or Wings must split their PD amongst all valid targets as normal per PD rules.  Boarding Actions exempt (see clarifications).
• PD against Assaulters & PD against Boarding Actions by ships are handled separately.  However, after PD resolves AP from both sources are pooled together for the Boarding roll.

Clarifications:
These are core rules which are relevant to the Variant Wing Rules.  

• In the standard rules, Wing v. Wing combat rolls of 3-5 result in Driven Off results and Destroyed only on a 6.  Rolls of 6 grant bonus dice which may be rolled against adjacent
• Wings do not have to obey Command Distance
• As per previous rules clarifications, Boarding Actions are a separate phase of combat.  Therefore, PD is not split between Boarding and other forms of attack (such as torpedoes).  The ship defending against a boarding action receives its full PD against a Boarding Action, but other ships may not participate in its defense (only the ship being boarded rolls PD against boarders).

FA Fleet Analysis

This post will highlight and analyze the pros and cons of each faction of Firestorm Armada.  There's currently 6 factions for FA and all of them play very differently.  I'll use some bullet points for each of these factions and talk about their strengths and weaknesses.  For anyone thinking about getting into FA, this article is for you!

Aquan Prime

• Their fighting style is like a pack of piranha.  Everything moves fast and like group up together to take advantage of their high PD.
• Aquans have weapons on all arcs and torpedoes that shoot in all directions.  This means they can charge into the heart of the enemy fleet and explode in all directions.
• Most of Aquan Prime's heavier ships are equipped with powerful mines.  This adds another layer of tactics for them as mines can do solid damage and provide area denial.
• AP ships generally have above average DR.  This allows him to take more small arms fire and allow them to drop mines comfortably.
• The damage output for each ship is really low compared to the other fleets.  AP really need to utilize their mines and stay together to get any real damage done.
• Aquans are also really vulnerable to anything that reduces crew.  Boarding assaults, decompression or ship fires are deadly for them.

Sorylian Collective

• SC ships are really fast.. except for the Battleship which is fine.  Their BBs like to stay behind with their Gunship so it can add AD and pour out ridiculous damage from extreme range.
• The Sorylians have the best cruiser in the game.  The Skyhammer have excellent stats all around and can pack tons of damage for a good price.  Not only is it fast (10" move), but it has great CP and AP stats.  It is the deadliest ship at RB2 and they can take 4 of them in a squadron.
• Since Sorylians have huge squadrons, they can launch really powerful boarding attacks because most of their ships have excellent AP stats.  The larger squadrons also makes Sorylian frigates surprisingly scary.
• The Sorylian Fleet prefers to fight on their broadsides.  Most of their ships pour out their strongest damage from the starboard and port sides of the ship.
• Sorylians typically have below average PD on all their ships.
• Most of the Sorylian ships are pretty fragile compared to those of other fleets.  This gives them a very aggressive playstyle with a slightly weaker defense.

Terran Alliance

• The Terrans focus heavily on their defensive shields:  Even their lightest ships are protected by shields and with good rolls, you can save a lot of damage.
• Terrans are a very balanced race.  They can do a lot of damage when they want from their linking turrets, or roll a ton of great shield saves to reduce crits to normal hull damage.
• The Terran BB is one of the most solid ships in the game.  With 3 Shields, 7 PD and a turret that can be linked for 16 PD in the front or sides of the ship, the BB is a beast.
• The Aegis R&D Cruiser can extend a invisible wall of shields in front of your fleet so enemy shots have to go through that before they can hit your ships.
• Another great thing about the Terran is their torpedo fire at every arc.  Not only can they constantly pour out torps, but the further they are the more damage they do.

Dindrenzi Federation

• No one in the game puts out as much frontal damage as the Dindrenzi ships.  Their railgun technology is unmatched from the front and can hit from extreme ranges.
• The Dindrenzi also has some of the sturdiest ships in the game; high CR on most of their ships means they'll be ticking for 1 damage most of the time.  Combine this with their above average HP and you've got yourself a winner.
• Dindrenzi hit hard but needs a smart admiral that can take advantage of his ships frontal weapons without getting outflanked.  With most of the fleet having pitiful or no aft weapons, the admiral must position his fleet in a way to optimize his frontal dominance and weaker rear side.
• Even though most of the DF ships have fixed frontal weapons, the Gladius Gunship has the strongest broadside in the game for a medium ship (10 AD at RB2).  It also has excellent frontal primaries and torpedoes making it one of the deadliest ships in Firestorm.

The Directorate

• Solid firepower all around from their ships.  The Judgement BB is very beastly with 17 AD fixed fore and powerful broadsides.
• The Directorate takes advantage of cloaking on some of their ships.  This gives their ships flexibility in whether they want to focus on being offense or defensive.
• The Tormentor R&D Cruiser can pull off some tricky on enemy vessels and force a roll on the critical damage chart.  No hull point damage, but a lot of bad things can happen if they get in range.
• Directorate cruisers are very flexible for their point cost.  Solid damage on fore and side arcs as well as torpedoes makes this ship quite capable in its own right.
• The cheaper price on escorts and frigates allows you to take more squadrons of other ships.
• A hard army to play, but has some of the best looking ship designs.
• This fleet is always reinforcements in forms of gunships and destroyers; supposedly being more powerful than its current ships.

The Relthoza

• The Relthoza has access to cloaking shields on almost all their ships.  This allows for some very powerful tactics as you decide whether to focus on offense or defense.
• The Brood Class BB has some of the strongest broadsides in the game.  Not only can it carry its own wings and have mines equipped, but its frontal torpedoes are no joke.
• The Hive Class Carrier is arguably the strongest carrier in the game.  Solid speed, movement and defense on top of its FW8 and 10PD RB2 broadsides, this carrier can put out amazing results for its points.
• If you think cloaking shields are tricky, the Bane R&D Cruiser can shunt (warp speed) on the map and continue fighting.  Normally shunting takes you off the board immediately, but this cruiser uses it to maneuver into advantageous positions to bring down the pain.
• Most of the ships are slightly slower than those of other fleets and there's a obvious lack of aft weaponry, but the Relthoza makes up for it with their defensive shields.

How to read FA ship stats

There's 6 distinct factions for Firestorm Armada and each one has its own unique playstyle.  Unlike GW-style games, there's no special rules that makes each and every unit play differently.  Stuff like Lance weapons, Melta weapons or Holofields doesn't exist in FA.  What's unique about the game system is that each ship's stats (including weapons) is what separates it from other another of its class.

This is probably best done through example:

Check out these two Cruisers.  One is from the Sorylian Collective and the other is from Aquan Prime.  Before we talk about each individual stat, let's look at what each stat stands for.

• DR - Damage Rating - How much damage a ship can take before it suffers hull damage.
• CR - Critical Rating - How much damage a ship can take before it suffers critical damage.
• MV - Movement - How fast a ship moves in inches.
• HP - Hull Points - How many "health points" a ship has before it's destroyed.
• CP - Crew Points - How many crew you have to pilot the ship.  If this reaches zero, your ship is derelict.
• AP - Assault Points - How many marines you have to defend your ship or attack other ships.
• PD - Point Defense - How many anti-aircraft/anti-torpedo guns you have.  These are your counter-measures.
• SH - Shields - If your ship has any shields, these are how many saves you get to make.
• MN - Mines - How strong the mines are on your ship.
• FW - Flight Wings - How many planes your ship can hold.
• Fleet Tactics Bonus - How much you get to add to your 2d6 roll at the start of each turn to signify who goes first.
• Command Distance - This is your unit coherency.  If one of the ships in the squad moves outside this range, it will lose the ability to link fire, assist in PD or benefit from squad-based cards..etc.
• **Both are Medium-sized Capital-class ships** - Medium ships means that you can be hit on 4+ whereas a smaller ship can only be hit on 5+.  Capital-class ship means that certain cards or abilities work on you, but it's not really utilized right now.
• Cost - How much each ships cost.
• Restrictions - Each faction is different; this shows how many you can have per squad and what its special conditions are when building a list.

Now let's look at the weapons before we start putting things together:

• Range Band 1-4 - RB1 is the weapon's power from 0-8" in range, RB2 is 8-16", RB3 is 16-24" and RB4 is 24-32".  This is the effective range of your weapons.
• Starboard - The weapons on the right side of your ship.  The Sorylian Cruiser has a 8 at RB2, which means at 8-16", you roll 8 dice to hit against enemy ships.  All arcs have 90 degree coverage.
• Port - The left side of your ship
• Fore - The front of your ship.
• Aft - The back of your ship.
• Fixed - You can only shoot with this weapon if the base of your ship covers your target's stand directly in front of you (if it's the Fore).  This applies to all other directions as well.  It's basically a 1.5" width straight line so your ship has to be lined up to its target basically.
• Torpedoes - How strong the torpedoes are on your ship.  Torpedoes at 4 means you get 4 dice to attack with at whatever RB range it's listed under.  If it says Forward, that means Torpedoes can only be fired from your Forward arc.  If it says Any Arc.. then well, it's from any arc.

From this, you can compare how each and every ship compares to each other:

• Both the AP and SC Cruiser move at the same speed, so they're both pretty speedy at MV10".
• The Aquan Cruiser is more durable than the Sorylian Cruiser from average damage dice, but the Soyrlian Cruiser is harder to crit.
• In terms of crew and assault capabilities; the AP Cruiser has less crew and less marines compared to the Sorylians.  If the ship catches on fire or gets decompressed, the Aquan Cruiser has a higher chance in going derelict because of the smaller crew.  In addition, the ship is also significantly weaker when launching assaults or receiving assaults.  Ship to ship assault is where Sorylians excel at.
• When it comes to PD, both ships are the same.  The big difference in the last 4 stats is that the Aquan Cruiser comes with a MN rating of 4 and the Sorylian Cruiser doesn't come with any.  This means that the Aquan Cruisers can literally fly by a group of ships and drop down mines that can explode and do damage.  This is another layer of tactics that the Sorylian Cruisers don't have access to.
• Where do the Sorylian Cruiser shine?  Look at its damage output compared to the Aquans.  The Sorylian Cruiser is hitting with 8 dice at RB2 compared to the Aquan's 4 from its Starboard and Port broadsides.  The big difference here is that the Aquan Cruiser can shoot in all directions with all its weapons with zero limitations to arcs or fixed directions.  This is to symbolize the faction's ability to wage war in 3-D space with guns and torpedoes blazing from all sides.
• Not only can Aquan Torpedoes shoot from all directions as opposed to the Sorylian's forward, but they're equally powerful at RB1 vs. RB2.  This means the ship is designed to run towards the enemy, fly into the midst of the enemy fleet while dropping mines and shooting in all directions.  That is how it's best used rather than the flying beatstick that is the Sorylian Cruiser.

Now that you guys can read ship stats, go ahead (scroll down to the faction FIGs) and look into the other factions and check out their ships.  You don't need to buy an army book, everything is available online because Spartan Games is cool like that.  That's what I did when it came to choosing a faction.  Not only is their stuff online for easy to read/easy to print availability, but active support means that they can be changed at any time depending on the metagame.  No more "sucks to be you" things like the CSM Chaos Spawn hanging around until the next codex.

Oh, and this place rocks for army stats and organized resources.  It's called Fathoms Reach.  That's where I go for all my ship stats and research.

Aquan Prime, I choose you!

For the last week or so, I've been doing some crazy research into Firestorm Armada.  I really enjoyed my first game with the starter sets and I can't wait to play more!  The most exciting thing about this fleet-based game is that it's different.  By different, I mean a different game system and balance design philosophy than GW.  Spartan Games actually shows off its timeline of what's to come and lets the community playtest their rules before finalizing them.  Even then the rules can change should the model become too imba because all the unit stats are online in .pdf files.  I have never played any fleet games before and this looks like the best game system I can get into right now.  Time, money and support is what I care about these days.

So what army did I eventually decide on?  I chose Aquan Prime out of the 6 factions currently available.  They have some of the fastest ships in the game (fastest Battleship), good defensive measures (high PD and DR) and they're one of the hardest factions to play.  Now maybe it's the elitist side in me thinking that I can handle the most tactically challenging factions, but I absolutely love a good challenge.  What makes Aquan Prime hard to play is their subpar ship damage.  Their main batteries are weak across the board except for the BB.  With 8" speed and 11/14 broadside lasers at RB1/2, the BB can put out a respectable amount of damage.  To nullify the weakness of the onboard weapons, the Aquans have retro-fitted all their ships with guns that can shoot in all directions.  Unlike the ships from other factions where they have torpedoes or guns on a fixed or specific arc, Aquan ships can deliver their payload (including torps) from all directions.  This, in combination with their ability to drop mines on the enemy, opens up another layer of stratagems.

In terms of tactics, the Aquan Fleet likes to engage fast and and deliver simultaneous damage from all directions. They do best when they stay together and fly straight up the middle of the enemy fleet.  If you have a BB and Cruisers swimming together into an enemy fleet, they can deliver powerful broadside and fore damage from all angles.  With torpedoes coming out of every direction as well, Aquan ships do the most damage up close and surrounded.  That's when they acquire the most targets to shoot at.  I think in terms of 40K, their playstyle is closest to Seer Council Eldar.  They like to get up close and personal with their opponents, but they have to use their tricks and maneuverability to survive prolonged engagement.

Addition to weapons on all arcs, most of the heavier Aquan ships come equipped with mines.  These are normally MN4 or 5 rating with the heavy cruisers and the battleships having MN5.  This means that when I fly over a batch of enemy Frigates or even Cruisers, each ship that flies over can drop a mine from their aft port up to 4" away.  If any enemy is within 4" of that mine on their next activation, they're taking 5 dice worth of damage.  Imagine the possibilities when 3 MN5 ships fly over and drop mines.  Awesome.

Finally, the last reason I went with Aquan Prime is because of their models.  I'm not a Star Trek fan, but I really like the look of the Enterprise and the AP BB reminds me a lot like it.  My friend tells me it looks more like the Mon Calamari cruisers from Star Wars, but who cares.. it's all good!  The rest of the ships are decent looking, but the capital ships (the BB, Manta and Triton) look fantastic.

BR: 500pt Terrans vs. Sorylians

I played a test game of Firestorm Armada today and I'm very satisfied with the game.  I'm going to keep this in note format so people can follow along a lot easier.  I played Sorylians and Dimitri played the Terrans.  We played with no wings and no game cards since this is our first learning game.

First, the army lists.  The starter boxes can produce the following lists:

Terran
"Razorthorn" Battleship
3x "Sentinel" Cruisers
3x "Pilgrim" Frigates
3x "Pilgrim" Frigates

Sorylian
"Swordbreaker" Battleship
3x "Skyhammer" Cruisers
3x "Scythe" Frigates
3x "Scythe" Frigates

As you can see, the two armies are very similar to eachother with 1 mainstay ship, 2 squads of smaller ships and 1 squad of medium ships.  Here comes the quick BR:

• The Terrans go first and push their stuff up.  Nothing really happens the first turn.  I keep the Sorylian Battlegroup relatively close so their PD can fend off enemy torpedo fire.
• His second turn sees some torpedoes being shot my way but my PD fend them off easily.  He moved a group of Frigates a little close to me and my Cruisers punished them hard with their broadsides firing.  My leftover Frigates finished the last Frigate in his squad.
• His Cruisers opened fire on my Cruisers but he was at RB3 and didn't manage to do anything.  He moves his BB closer to my forces and my BB does the same.  BB stands for Battleship btw.
• Now this turn gets really interesting.  I open fire on his Cruisers with my Cruisers and with linked fire, I score a critical and damage the movement on one of his Cruisers.  His return fire doesn't do as much as he'd like and I take 2 hull point damage on my first Cruiser.  I move my BB up to RB2 Broadsides and I beat on another Cruiser hard enough to disable his starport Broadsides.
• His BB moves up and his Frigates shoots a bunch of stuff at my Cruisers but nothing really happens.  I feel confident that I was in the lead so far.
• He takes the initiative next turn (and for the rest of the game) and his Cruisers open fire on mine.  The first one takes a heavy beating and is knocked out completely.  My return fire on the undamaged Cruiser sees 3 6s being rolled and 2 hits, along with 6 more consecutive 6s.  We couldn't believe our eyes.. but after 20 or some hits from the exploding dice, the unharmed Sentinel explodes in spectacular fashion.  He fails to repair anything on the other 2 Cruisers.
• After that, his BB came up and came within exactly 16" of my BB and unloaded a devastating Broadside.  He scores a massive amount of hits and scores a critical.  I don't really save anything with my shields and now my  BB loses 2 hull points and 1 of each crew and AD.
• The Frigates on both sides move around and fails to harm anything because of overlapping fields of PD.
• On my turn, my BB returns fire of his BB and does no damage at all to it.  Not good.. even with 12 dice thrown from my broadside, I fail to breach his hull.
• Here's where things go downhill for me.  He takes the initiative again and his BB pounds mine again for another 2 hull points after a crit.  My bays are jammed but without wings or whatever, I don't really care.  His torpedoes are also shot and catches some of my frigates.  My return fire from my BB again does nothing.  I am really sad.
• His Cruisers go and crits one of my Cruisers and a raging fire breaks out on board.  My return fire puts down another Cruiser and that's it for that.
• Our remaining Frigates dance around a bit and a few losses happen here and there.
• On his next turn, his BB rips my BB a new one.  He rolls something like 6 6s and a bunch of hits and then rolls a double 1 on the table for Reactor Overload (see screenshot).  My BB disappears in a vortex of swirling energy and I do 16 dice worth of damage on his BB.  Too bad he rolls his shields like a madman and after a 4 and 2 6s, followed by another 6, I only manage to do a hull points worth of damage.
• I finish his Cruiser sometime here and my Frigates fail to board his BB because of they all got shot down by AD7.  We call it after another turn of his BB raping more of my army.

So here's what I noticed:

• The PD thing might seem complicated at first, but it went by really quick once we played 2-3 turns worth.
• Getting the first jump with a good roll on someone's BB seems game changing; especially if I can't return fire correctly (cause of shields and rolling).  Given there was some amazing rolls from Dimitri, his BB completely decimated mine.
• This gives me another idea:  Maybe my Cruisers should of focused on his BB and ignored his Cruisers?  If I linked all my fire into his BB, I might have caused enough damage for some criticals or something.
• The Terran turret is strength 12 at RB2, has 360 degree coverage and can be linked into any of his guns.  This gives him a ton of flexibility to where he wants to shoot.  I thought closing in to his BB will save my BB some damage.. yeah right.  His turrets just turned around and shot the living crap out of me for Reactor Overload.
• My Cruisers are amazing.  They move 10", has strength 8 broadsides at RB2 and has 4 CP and 4 AP.  They're considered the best Cruisers in the game and I agree.
• Terran shields are amazing.  Saving any type of hit on a 4+ and can save 2 with 6s and has a exploding dice mechanic seems very.. erm, good.  I think this makes Terrans a very forgiving race to play since enough SH saves can nerf a ton of damage (turning Criticals into a mere hull point damage).  The most disgusting thing about this is that shields can never be degraded and works on 4+.  That might be a little too good.
• After my BB fell, I knew I had no chance to kill his battleship.  I concentrated on focus firing his smaller units and getting "victory points", but after the game went 8 turns, I was told there's no limit to how long the game goes.  This means that after 10 turns or whatever, his BB would have killed everything I have.  What's the point of VPs then?  The turn a game ends is actually "optional".  I wish I knew that before.
• I enjoyed the game a lot, but next time, I think game cards and fighter wings will be encouraged.  The cards adds a whole 'nother dimension to how the game is played and fighter wings can make up for a lot of a fleet's weaknesses.
• Good game, had a blast - literally.

Firestorm Armada

I'm really thinking about getting the game.  First of all, it reminds me of Battlestar Galactica.  Second, it's about epic-scale space battles where ships blow apart other ships.  Third, a starter set that plays at 500 pts is 50 bucks.  That's pretty freaking awesome.

For those that want to check out what the factions of the game are like, check out this short pdf file here.  It's a link to Spartan Games' website where they have a bunch of files up for the game.  The game itself is relatively new since it came out in November '09 and there seems to be a good amount of support for it.  I never played BFG before, but from what I hear: the game is massively imbalanced.  I'm going to be honest here:  I absolutely hate game imbalance.  Aside from terrible game design, nothing puts me off faster than a imbalanced game.  I don't care if your game is beautifully designed, if it's imbalanced to a point where I can't field a army because it face rapes everything it touches, there's no point playing it.  My friends tell me that Necrons in BFG is laughably overpowered.

Let's talk about Firestorm Armada really quick.  The game has 6 factions and each faction has like 6-7 ships.  Each ship does something different with the big Battleships being the mainstay of each force.  There's also Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Frigates and Escort ships for each faction.  What makes each faction different is that their ships are designed differently; from the looks to the stats of the ship themselves.  There's nothing crazy like in BFG with Holofields or Lance-type weaponry.  Instead, there's more subtle changes to the ships stats like their armor, weapon systems, crew rating or defense stats.


A quick look at the Aquan Prime Poseidon Battleship and the Dindrenzi Conqueror Battleship:

• The Aquan Prime Poseidon takes less damage from weaker attacks but has a smaller threshold for bigger attacks.  The Dindrenzi takes more damage from weaker attacks but has a larger threshold for bigger attacks.  What this threshold represents is how vulnerable a ship is to critical damage.
• The Poseidon moves faster than the Conqueror, but has less Hull Points (basically health).
• The Poseidon has more Point Defense (think AA guns) than the Conqueror but the Conqueror has more crew and offensive boarding power.  Yes, you can board other ships!
• The Poseidon has shields whereas the Conqueror does not and both ships are equipped with mines.

Now let's look at weapons really quick:

• The Conqueror uses huge railguns in its fore; which generates 16 dice worth of damage at the 8-16" mark (or RB2).  It has virtually no guns at its rear (aft).
• It also shoots 7 damage Torpedoes but only at the front and its broadside guns are at 6/9/4 at RB1/2/3.
• The Poseidon, on the other hand, has pitiful fore guns; doing a non-impressive 5/7/3 at RB1/2/3, but it's broadside guns do an impressive 11/14/7.
• Another thing to note is that the Poseidon's guns are capable of firing at all sides and its torpedoes can be launched at any arc, not just the front.

When comparing the two flagships, one can clearly see that they're designed radically different and thus, will play out differently in terms of strategy, tactics and player gameplan.  Even though there's only like 7 ships out for each faction, there's 6 factions and Spartan Games is going to put out 40 new ships for 2011.  That type of support is always good news.

As if this wasn't cool enough, you can play special cards during your game turns to do some crazy stuff.  There's a 52-card game deck that you draw cards from depending on how many squadrons you have (I think) and each card has special abilities that can be activated.  These cards can do things like make your ship's fire more accurate, do more damage, move faster and repair.  There's more exotic options out there as well such as summoning special operatives that can assist in your ability to board a enemy ship.  Sure, the cards are drawn randomly (or you and your friends can pick), but they add a layer of strategy that's often found in board games but in a table-top miniatures game.  That in itself is very cool.

There's some other stuff out there such as interceptors that comes from your Carriers, mines and rolls on the catastrophic explosion chart, but I'm going to hold off on that.  I'm still doing my research and so far, I'm liking what I see.  The game rules sound pretty sophisticated when you want to do combined shooting and linked shots, but all this is part of more advanced tactics.  Such things are hard to find in miniatures games these days since everyone's shooting for the easy-to-learn approach.  I like it when a game has a noticeable learning curve and a high ceiling to improve.

If you guys have any experience, feedback or comments about this game, let me know!