In the game of Firestorm Armada, there are lasers, masers, particle guns, mass drivers, photon accelerators, smart missiles, fission mines, energy torpedoes...etc. But those are just descriptions that don't give any advantages or disadvantages. For simplicity sake the game breaks weapons into four categories which are Primary, Point Defense, Torpedoes and Mines.
Primary Weapons are further divided into Broadsides, Turret, and Gun Racks. Broadsides fire into the arc described on the stat card for the ship. Turrets have a 360 degrees arc of fire. Gun racks fire into the starboard and port arc of fire but must split the dice it uses if it wishes to fire on both sides.
Point Defense is used to defend against torpedoes and attack flights within four inches of the ship stand peg, and is used against boarding assaults. Point Defense is always a 360 degree field of fire. It fires automatically when moving near flights and as a reaction against torpedoes and boarding assaults. Point Defense systems are also the only weapon that can target flights.
Torpedoes are used against targets that have limited point defense against them.
Mines are dropped out the aft arc of ships and only detonate when a foe comes near. Mines are dropped anytime during movement. No weapon can target mines...you just have to avoid them or sacrifice a ship to detonate them and take a chance. Ships that can drop mines have a number that is the number of dice that are rolled for damage. Mines explode when a ship or wing moves within four inches of the mine. Dice are rolled based on the mine rating and is applied against all ships within the four inch area. As well, the dice are rolled again and applied to all the flights. A value of four, five or six is required to score a damage point against any target. An exploding mine sets off another mine in the explosion area on a five or six.
For arcs of fire, weapon systems are either divided into a 90 degree arc (forward, starboard or right, aft, port or left), fixed arcs (the flight stand width extending straight out from the flight stand along one of the four arcs), and 360 degree.
In the Combat sequence, a squadron must announce all targets for all primary and torpedo weapon systems before any dice are rolled. The attacks can be resolved in any order. The range may be pre-measured to determine the ideal firing solutions. Ranges are broken into bands where range band one is zero to eight inches, range band two is eight to sixteen inches, range band three is sixteen to twenty-four inches and range band four is twenty-four to thirty-two inches. No weapon can fire beyond range band four. The distance is measured from flight peg to flight peg, as the ships are only up to a few millimeters long. The model on the peg just represents the look of the model.
Ships in a squadron may link fire (full value for the first ship and half rounded down for each of the same system that is firing on the same target) or split fire (dice for that system is split between targets). Squadrons cannot link and split fire for the same weapon system.
Once the number of dice to roll is determined, that number of d6 dice are rolled. A 4, 5 or 6 is required to hit. Exceptions are if it the line of sight is impeded or a capitol ship (medium or above) is targeting a small ship a 5 or 6 is required.
Any dice that are successful count as a hit. If a six is rolled, it counts as two hits and you get to roll another die. If that die is successful it also score a hit and if it is a six it also counts a two hits and another die is rolled. This is the “exploding dice” mechanic and it is possible for a small frigate to destroy a battleship.
Once the number of hits are know, it is compared to the DR and CR of the target. If it is equal or over the DR but not equal or over the CR it scores a point of hull damage. If the hits scored equals or exceeds the CR rating, a critical hits is scored and 2d6 is rolled on the critical chart. If the CR is exceeded by double or trebled or more, that many criticals are rolled. If crew or hull damage is taken, when that ship fires you subtract the number of hull or crew damage, whichever is higher, from your primary and point defense weapon systems (but not torpedoes or mines!). Ships with only two hull points can never have a critical hit on it, it is just removed from the game when this occurs. If multiple criticals are being rolled on a ship and the ship is destroyed due to damage, continue rolling criticals as there may be a catastrophic result. If a ship is reduced to zero hull points it is destroyed. If it has zero crew and/or assault points then it is destroyed when it is boarded.
That's the basics of the Firestorm Armada game. These principles also apply to Spartan Game's Dystopian Wars and Uncharted Seas lines so if you know one system you know them all.
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