Firestorm Armada Ships

 If anyone's interested, I've got 40 Firestorm Armada ships in need of a new home.

There's the lot

And some close ups.

Auction on ebay or email me at stardustgame at outlook.com if you're interested.

Lost In Space

It's been some time (a month or so) since I put the big table up in my dining room for a proper game. Ziggy brought his Firestorm Armada ships over yesterday afternoon. It's been since last summer since FSA got any play in my house so it was way over due.I wanted to use as much Ryushi stuff as I could - they were the last FSA models I purchased and painted when Spartan announced they were closing up shop. This would be a bit of a "new paint curse" test since technically they have fresh paint job (from last September).

We set the points at 1000 and selected "Escalating Engagement" as the scenario. This would force us to leave our big ships off the table at the outset and wait for them to arrive as reinforcements.

The force deployment zones are in opposite corners, with the red and blue edges indicating where the reinforcements can arrive.

My Ryushi (white) and Xelocians deployed. In the distance is a combined Terran and Hawker force.

I was quite fortunate that my Battle Carrier, the RSS Frank Sulkowski, showed up on turn 2.

By the time it arrived, I was already one cruiser and one Xelocian frigate down. The long-ranged torpedo power of the human ships is nothing to sneeze at.

Not to be outdone, the close-range firepower also makes quite an impression. Two more Ryushi cruisers gone.

At least my little buddies were now out and on the loose. A fighter group catches a Hawker cruiser and does more than just scratch the paint.

It was cold comfort though, my fleet was in tatters, with just the Battle Carrier, a single weak cruiser, and two frigate squadrons still active. The frigates are fast and close-ranged, they had been "nipping the Terran cruisers' heels" and were doing a pretty decent job at it.

The Hawker carrier has now arrived and locks in on The Big Guy. You can see that the humies finally gave my frigates some attention and that last cruiser is now in pieces.

Artist's impression

Yay! The cavalry showed up. Late as hell, but whatever... I'll take it at this point. The RSS Manga Pop Extreme immediately sets upon the Hawker space blight.

I managed to kill off a second Hawker cruiser, finally scoring some points! I continue to play the "Power to Shields" card, giving Frank 4 shield dice and frustrating the hell out of the Terran commander.

At the end of six turns, Zig still hadn't managed to kill my Battle Carrier, so if nothing else, that was a bit of a win. It absorbed at least 12 attacks on the last turn and still had one hull point left. The Hawker carrier however was losing atmosphere at a terrific rate after being set upon by the remnants of the Ryushi battle group.

We called the game there. Ziggy had won handily and completely. It was still a lot of fun after I got past the initial frustration of watching my ships explode and my dice be terrible. The final score was Ziggy 12, me -1. Womp womp. We'll get 'em next time!

Ryushi - Firestorm Armada Winds Down

I am disappointed about Firestorm Armada going out of production. The models were/are top-notch. I mentioned a month ago that I'd ordered a starter box of Ryushi ships the day Spartan announced they'd closed up shop. I finished them today.

A carrier, four cruisers and six corvettes. 

A different angle of the smaller ships.

And the carrier.

It's a color scheme to be proud of - a little bit Joker-mobile for sure but I like it. I'll have to let them get out and take a spin using the Firestorm Taskforce rules.

Minor Painting Update and an Unearthly Announcement

They sat for months, but yesterday I finished off a couple of Firestorm Armada ships. The models went OOP well over a year ago when Spartan revamped the Terquai line. Since I already had a couple, when I found another blister for sale I couldn't pass it up. These are Terquai Torpedo Cruisers.

I like how the different patterns on the side bits turned out. I've always wondered if the side bits are supposed to be retractable because on the finished models it appears that they are extended away from the ship's body. The massive rear engine and pipes just begged to be done up like a car engine.

These two join their two sister ships in my Alliance of Kurak fleet:

It looks like we're going to be spared the major part of Irma's wrath here in Savannah. Although we're expecting some trouble, it'll be nothing like we expected two days ago. David and I may get in a game today, not sure what though. Be well and good gaming!

 Oh... yesterday the Visitor of the Beast hit my blog. 

In honor of that...

Cheesy video, awesome song.

Well Dang!

Apparently Spartan Games is closing up shop. I've enjoyed Dystopian Wars for many years and Firestorm Armada / Planetfall more recently. Announcement Here.

It's sad, but this sort of thing happens. The original WarZone suffered a similar fate and really stung for me. FASA's Crimson Skies was a terrific airplane shoot-em-up that had a short run.

I'm sure Zig, Mike, David and I will continue to play. The games fit good niches and we've got enough stuff for a lifetime. That said, I did just order a Firestorm Armada box from Amazon - some ships I've had my eye on and just never picked up.

I'm feeling GREAT about having downloaded Firestorm Taskforce and Dystopian Wars Fleet Action, both faster-play rules for the flagship games, within the last few days. Having perused the rulebooks and Orbats, they're solid and will certainly get table time.

Farewell, Spartan. Your games were a blast, your models terrific and your customer service exemplary.

Firestorm Armada AAR: Ambush!

Ziggy and I dug out our Firestorm Armada ships Saturday afternoon for a return to the Storm Zone. I used my Relthoza, while Zig commanded his Terrans (with Hawker allies). We set the points at 1000, but both came in around 950 or so. I really need to pick up some reinforcements for the Relthoza.

We played the sixth scenario in the MRB - Ambush! I won the roll and chose to be the attacker - ambushing the Terran fleet as they transited across the map.

Our deployments. This is what happens when you don't play often and aren't super-familiar with your army list. Those Light Frigates should have swapped positions with the other Drone frigates in the upper right behind the asteroids, given their weapons. The Lights are long-range snipers, whereas the Drones are close-range brawlers... oh well..

Some newly-painted Gilas, to be used as Heavy Cruisers.

Things started pretty well, snapping up a couple of Terran frigates from a long way off with torpedoes.

The debt starts to be repaid with one of the Hive's escorts being destroyed and another damaged.

Turn two - my Nidus frigates reveal themselves and unleash a barrage at the unlucky squadron, but miss terribly. I should have also attacked with that fighter squadron they deployed. I was saving it for a bigger target though.

Some filthy Terran ship saw fit to fire nuclear weapons at the Nidus squadron. Ziggy rolls a natural Yahtzee on the shot.

Yeah.

Hidden squadrons have to clump up a lot when they reveal, making them juicy nuke targets. 

Starting turn 3, things were looking pretty blah for the spiders. I was holding the Gunships tight, hoping to shunt behind the battleship can catch it from behind.

The carrier's fighters finish off the last frigate of unpainted epoxy squadron.

On the far edge, the other Terran frigate group located my light frigates.

That's evil back there behind the glass.

I had to move my gunship squadron before the Apollo. They performed very poorly. The battleship punished them. The first of many "PD Disabled" crit effect markers is placed on one of my ships.

I didn't take any pics, but I got vengeance for all sorts of past wrongs with the new Heavy Cruisers. The slid forward, following the red lines, then pasted two Herpes, I mean Hermes-class cruisers. Double crit one. Double crit two. TWO DOUBLE CRITS! Two dead cruisers. The Heavies just made Ziggy's list.

My Gunships however continue to suffer shame and humiliation as the Apollo blasts one and a fighter group kills another. Interesting how this other one ALSO has a "PD Disabled" crit marker. I swear, Z rolled a "5" on the crit chart at least six times.

Bombers gonna bomb.The carrier and it's little buddies combine to finish off the cruiser squadron.

The big ships start to converge.

Fighters and firepower kill off one of my Heavies. Note the "PD Disabled" marker.

The Hive puts a world-class broadside into the Hawker carrier. The remaining Heavy also pastes it. Four damage and it's rocking two corrosion markers! Hehehe.

After five turns, we called it a day. We were tired and ready for dinner. The final battle log was at 8-6, in favor of the Terrans. They did get a frigate into my deployment zone at the very end.

My second game with the Relthoza was very enjoyable. We need to play more often because there are a lot of little things we both forget about simply because it's like 4 months between games of FSA. These two fleets fought to a similar draw the last time we played and appear to be very well-matched against each other. One of these days I'll get another Tier 1 unit for the spiders - right now it's a toss up - Battlecruisers, Base Station or Assault Carrier (group). Those Heavy Cruisers are ridiculous. They'll certainly be a regular.