Relthoza Starter

This is the second starter that I bought for the Relthoza. I really like the ships and gameplay of this faction and with two other friends who play, it will make for good two-on-one games.

 This is the box they came in.

 They nicely package up the models in bubble wrap. In my first starter, the bottom of one of my frigates was missing and Spartan quickly mailed me one.

 You also get a combined stat card sheet, damage counters and a small ship and cloaking counter sheet.

I washed them in soapy water and made sure they fit before gluing together.

One piece had leftover flashing.

 I just used a bone saw to get this off.

In my next post I'll show how I painted the cloaking effect on them.

Terraforming

You've seen some of my planets so far.

They are from Corsec Engineering and they make 1.5, 2.5 and 3 and 4 inch acrylic planets. As you can see I painted the larger one as a Gas Giant and the smaller one as a moon. Planets are of variable size in Firestorm Armada however and this makes things difficult for giving a 3-D effect and having all the sizes.

I've been using the regular and apocalypse templates, from Games Workshop's Warhammer 40k, and they represent a good gravity well of the planet.

I recently saw this in the dollar store for $2.50. A nice rubber ball that has a great cloudy pattern on it. I cut it down the middle and...

...it did deflate a little but with a ring support inside it could look very good. The other half had the air input valve and would only look good if I modeled a Romulan mining ship above the hole.

Firestorm Armada - Cool Links

Still wondering if you'll like the game? Try these battle reports from Miniwargaming. They were done with the older edition of the rules but still an excellent introduction.

Introduction

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Here is a site, the Black Ocean, that has templates and paper fleets and loads of stuff that was on the Spartan website but are no longer plus more.

The Spartan Website has lots of background.

Fleet Stats, reviews and such are on Boardgamegeek.

Firebase Delta, a Firestorm Armada podcast.

Terran Alliance Starter Fleet

This is a Terran Starter fleet that I bought, assembled and painted the very start of last year. In it you get one Battleship, Three Cruisers and six Frigates. All starter fleets have the same number and types of ships but all have different stats.

You also get a large format stat card. You also get a sheet of wings, mines and such. Finally you get a sheet for damage tokens.

They are of a good size.

Remember though, the actual size of ships are the width of the peg on the base.

If you have the rulebook but don't know what fleet you want, why not print a fleet on cardstock with some templates and such and have a go. Here is where you can get them as they are no longer available on the Spartan website. The website is called the black ocean.

Firestorm Armada – Campaign Book – Marauders of the Rift

This little book, for under $20, is an excellent expansion for the Firestorm armada game. It centers around a region of space known as the rift (unlike the storm zone where most core fleet games take place). In it are neutral races, scenarios, expanded rules, and rules for combining ships to have either a core race dominated fleet or a neutral faction fleet with looted ships from the core races.

Neutral races include the Syndicate (sleek pirates with advanced technology), Corsairs (rough pirates who are geared for capturing enemy ships), Omnidyne (Corporation from the Directorate zone now downsized and expanding into the rift), Rift Traders (armed civilian ships defending their way of life), Supermax-89 (Space based prison ships that have been taken over and converted to deadly ships), Oroshan (Four-armed warriors who sell their services to the highest bidder), Pathogen X9-V (A deadly virus made by Omnidyne that turned on its makers and now travels in the rift seeking to consume and spread).

There are eight scenarios that are generic enough to use in any game but have slight flavors for play in the rift. They include Wagon Train, Blockade Runners, Wrecker's Harvest, Horrors of the Void, Gate Crash, The Chase, Vendetta, and Assault. Some of them are a little vague, like Horrors of the Void, so I'm going to send them an email to clarify.

Expanded rules are particular rules used in the scenarios such as: capturing models, escaping, inbound reinforcements, small planetoids, plunder markers, a rolling board, rewards and some new model assigned rules (MARs).

There are also new cards that are suggested to swap out with other cards to represent the rift. They add flavor to the game.

There are also a lot of pictures, both computer generated and painted models, that are scattered throughout the book.

Overall this is a very good book for the game, especially for the scenarios.

Firestorm Armada – Model Assigned Rules (MARs)

Another cool addition that is done in Firestorm Armada is the Model Assigned Ruled or MARs. This represents beneficial or detrimental qualities that a model has. For instance, all destroyers have the “Hidden Killer” rule where if the ship has cut engines, it cannot be targeted at range band three or four.

MARs are generally assigned to battleships and dreadnaughts in the six core races as well as the experimental ships. MARs are also liberally applied to the allied and neutral races. For instance with my larger fleet of the Relthoza, the experimental ship has “Shunt Matrix” enabling it to perform a shunt in battle and move to another point on the table and fire weapons as well as conduct boarding actions. The Relthoza dreadnaught, as all dreadnaughts, have a hockey-sock full off MARs such as Bigger Battries, Elite Crews, Impervious, Maneuverable, Point Defense Barrage and Pride of the Fleet.

Basically MARs add nice flavor to the ships in the Firestorm Armada game.

Firestorm Armada – Weapons and the Combat Segment

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.

Firestorm Armada – Movement

All ships have a movement value in inches and smaller ships have faster speeds and a better turn radius than larger ones. Ships have to move at least half their movement and a ship in a squadron must finish all of their movement before the next ship in the squadron moves. Ships can move different distances and can make a belly up action and have port face starboard and vice versa (very handy if your weapons systems on one side is taken out). The only way a ship can move less is if they declared a “cut engines” action in the previous turn, but this is not recommended. If a critical takes out the weapon systems in the arc towards the enemy , while your engines are cut, then you are in a world of hurt.

In order to turn, a ship has to move a distance ahead, determined by the size of ship, before it can turn up to 45 degrees and is moved an inch ahead.

Ship bases cannot be on top of one another after movement and, if this occurs, the ship that was moving must be placed so that they are not on top of one another (but not in a way that gives them an advantage nor changes their direction).

Ships can declare a shunt movement after moving the minimum distance. After the next time it activates, during the command segment of the following squadron activation, it is removed from the game board.

In the first edition of the game you could ram other ships but the procedures were complicated so they have removed it in the hardbound revised edition. However, you can collide with terrain features like planetoids or asteroid fields. You never survive a collision with a planetoid but an asteroid field is more survivable with larger ships. With the exploding dice mechanic anything is possible.

 

That's the basics of movement in 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.

Next is weapons and combat!

Firestorm Armada – Cards

This is where Firestorm Armada adds a small mechanic that adds a lot to the fun and mystery that should be in tabletop games. There is a deck of 52 cards that, although optional, should be used to add an element of fog of war to your games.

Hand sizes are the same as the number of squadrons, maximum of five. Models lost, flights, escort squadrons or installations do not count to the number of squadrons for cards. In the end phase of each turn you check for your maximum had size and may be required to discard down to your new hand size. As well, a gamecard that was played cannot be redacted unless it was played incorrectly.

 

Each card is marked with an S, T A or R (STAR...get it. Space game. Stars...nevermind). Some cards are also marked with a C or a picture of a wing (fighter). The following is what they are for:

S is for Squadron: These cards are played on squadrons. Squadrons of one are still a squadron. These cards are played at the start of a squadron's turn, only one S card can be played on a squadron a turn, and if a squadron is not in coherence it only applies to one of the sub groups that are.

T is for Turn: These are played at the start of the turn before initiative is rolled, only one per player can be played per turn, and are resolved in the initiative order of the previous turn but played face down and revealed simultaneously.

A is for Action: Is played at any time during a squadron's activation, only one A card can be played on a squadron per turn, and cannot be played if an S card was played on the squadron that turn.

R is for Reaction: These cards can be played in reaction to an enemy action against you. Only one R card can be played for a particular event but multiple R cards can be played for a squadron during a turn.

Counter Cards: These cards can be played to cancel an opponents card. Exceptions are that only a T card with a counter symbol can cancel another T card and a card with a counter symbol cannot be countered.

Wing Cards: These cards can only be played on a flight and cannot be used on any other squadron.

Next will be movement.

Firestorm Armada – Order of Play

There are four phases to each turn: Turn Card, Initiative, Squadron Activation and End.

Turn Card Phase: Players may play one turn card and apply the results.

Initiative Phase: Each side rolls 2d6 and adds their race's Fleet Tactic Bonus. The side with the highest has initiative for the current turn. This is used when determining who activates squadrons first and the order that game cards are played and/or resolved.

Squadron Activation Phase: Players alternate, starting with the player that has initiative that turn, activating squadrons. When a squadron activates it must do all of its actions with all of the ships in the squadron before play passes to your opponent. This includes the Command segment (determining who is in coherency), Movement segment, Combat segment including firing (either linked if you are in coherency or separately), and then the Boarding segment. You can also do things like laying mines, launching flights, emergency shunting, assaulting...etc. Don't be worried about all the things your squadrons can do. Myself and my friends have been adding another thing each game with good results.

End Phase: This is the time to clean the board up a little including checking for end game, perform any compulsory actions, make damage repairs, tidy game markers and draw new game cards.

Firestorm Armada – Stat Cards

Each ship in the game has a stat card. Damage done to a model in indicated with small chits placed beside the ship flight stand. The purpose of the card is to tell you what the ship can do.

Here are the older version of the stat cards...

...and the newer ones and the back of them...

Model Title: Describing faction, name and type of ship (Terran Alliance Sentinel class Cruiser).

Structure Stats: This is in the upper right and includes Damage Rating (DR), Critical Rating (CR), Movement (MV) and Hit Points (HP).

Points Cost: Self explanatory.

Crew Stats: Includes Crew Points (CP) and Assault Points (AP).

Point Defense: The number of dice used to defend from torpedoes and wings.

Mines: The mine dice value that can be dropped from the ship. If it is zero then it does not drop mines.

Shields: The wording and value here indicate what extra defenses the ship has. If shields, then it rolls that many dice and takes off the number of hits from the attackers number of hits to determine the final result. If it is Cloaking Device then when activated it always counts as impeded line of sight but rolls half the attack dice for primary weapon systems.

Weapon Stats: This is the attack dice rolled for the particular arc of fire and range band to the target. The Terran cruiser has a much better attack value with torpedoes (as well as a 360 degree arc) but is deadliest at range band two with a port or starboard broadsides.

Below the shields rating would be any MARs that the vessel has.