Spartan Games recently unveiled the second edition rule set
for their space battles game Firestorm Armada and having read the book I can
tell you it’s a rather spiffy game.
Being familiar with Dystopian Wars it was easy enough to pick up the
basics. Spartan Games have been
criticised in the past for making rule books that were difficult to follow with
no real logic to the layout of their rules but it seems with this new book they
have heard that criticism and worked to fix the issues people had.
With that being the case now is a good time to get involved
with Firestorm Armada particularly as the main fleets of the range are being
re-sculpted and re-released. The first
wave of these releases comes in the form of Patrol Fleets which in the Spartan
Games tradition gives you a starter fleet in one box that is balanced against
any of the other patrol fleets in the range.
I already have a small Rense Systems Navy fleet so when struck down with
shiny model syndrome I managed to stay lucid enough to pick a fleet that could
ally with them as a fellow member of the Zenian League. I went for The Directorate.
The Directorate are a nation who originated when following
the turmoil of the First Secessionist War various mega-corporations bought
their independence of Terra and settled on worlds that had the greatest
potential for exploitation. The
Directorate are power brokers and arms dealers playing all sides against each
other in the name of profit. If you are
an executive in the Directorate then you live a luxurious pampered life, if not
then you are an overworked drone stripped of rights and privileges working one
day to the next for little reward. Their
ships are the most technologically advanced human ships as the Directorate is
sure to always keep the best technology for themselves in case anyone wants a
refund someone mentions ‘trade unions’.
In the box are eight ships, an Eliminator battleship, three Abraxas
class cruisers with parts to upgrade one to a Subjugator heavy cruiser, four
Liquidator frigates and two SRS tokens, one large and one small. All are made of resin which appears to be the
way that Spartan is going with Firestorm Armada models. There is a distinct lack of the metal drop on
parts that were common with past ship releases.
My RSN fleet has cruisers with resin hulls and metal engines for example
while all the small ships are completely metal.
The resin is good quality.
It is tough and comes with very little flack. The only real cleaning I had to do was to
remove the flack left over from the injection port and a quick rinse in warm
soapy water to remove any lingering release agent.
The only ships that came with multiple parts were the
cruisers. I have handled a few of the
other patrol fleets and they are similar in that there at e very few parts to
even the larger ships. The majority of
Directorate designs lend them self to single piece castings.
With The Directorate a lot of the detail is on the bottom
where it may not be seen. It’s up to you
if this will affect your painting style with these miniatures. The detail is clear and crisp so they would
come out well if you were to dry brush them though I have painted them as I
would any other miniature though their small size has meant I have not done
much highlighting. I will share with you
an issue that came up with army painter spays.
We had a Terran fleet in the store undercoated in an Army Painter grey
that reacted poorly with the resin and as a result flaked off during painting. I advise avoiding Army Painter sprays as a
basecoat but if you prime them with another type of paint then you should be
okay with using Army Painter sprays over that coat.
Of note are the two smaller items in the set. The first are the SRS tokens which represent
wings of smaller craft. In Dystopian
Wars tiny flyers were complicated and each wing was represented by a separate
token which with larger wings on a terrain board could get awkward. The Firestorm Armada SRS rules simplify this
system and are attractive to boot! Each
fleet’s SRS tokens are different with a design that matches their fleet.
The second are the peg plugs. Though a lot of the ships in the set have peg
holes for their flight stands worked into the main model the larger ships, the
cruisers and battleship make use of these separate plugs which are glued to the
underside of the model. They are all the same design regardless of which ship
they belong to. Each patrol fleet has these plugs in a style that fits their
ships. Be sure to check your box has
enough when you get it!
If you have picked up Spartan Wars models in the past you
would have noticed the stat cards and counters included with them. Spartan has stopped producing stat cards as
they found updating rules meant the hassle of updating the cards. Currently you
can download all the fleet’s army lists, or fleet registries, from the Spartan
Games download section for free though I do not know if these will remain once
the fleet registry books are released in late February. What you do still get in the box are the
tokens each of which are much easier to understand now they have what they
represent written on them. You also get
a turning template and a battle log.
Each patrol fleet also comes with a deck of Tactical Ability
Cards (T.A.C.). These are playable
during the game and give you boosts and benefits when needed. There are several generic cards playable by
any fleet a some which are tailored to a specific race.
All in all I think the patrol fleets are good value. You get
everything you need to start in one box and you can build from there. I’m very happy with my Directorate and have
already forked out for some more stuff with eyes on the new releases coming
soon. Spartan is moving to simplify
their range so their current and future releases are presented in box sets
rather than blisters. Carrier and
Cruiser groups have already been released as box sets and Battle Cruiser Groups
are incoming. Though this restricts the
ease with which you can get hold of specific types of ship it does mean that
stores with pre-existing stock of the older ships may be running sales in the
future to clear, allowing you to bolster your fleet at a fraction of the cost.
The older ships are fully useable in the new games straight
away. Rather than do rules for all the
various types of frigate or cruiser Spartan has made each ship generic in the
fleet registry with plenty of options for upgrades so you can tailor your ships
rules to match what they have on the model.
This means that your fleets can be tailored for which ever style of
warfare available to them.
At the time of writing this article I have already painted
my Frigates! Choosing a paint scheme is
the hardest part of getting a project going but thankfully Transformers came to
my rescue and I have modelled the ships after the fallen Prime, the tyrannical
Nova Prime so lots of greys with some bright orange as a spot colour. Check the Facebook group out for in progress
photos!
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