Firestorm Armada 2-Player boxed set - What should we have got?

Someone (Daniel Jones) asked on Facebook what ships people think we should have got for the core race expansions, so I thought I would share my own opinion (together with stats) of what TheoryMachine think we should have had as a 2-Player boxed set. Now the obvious bit is - it has to be the two Core Races that haven't yet had a boxed set, right? The Sorylians and the Relthoza. Now, with Spartan's ability to create more complex, multi-part models, it should be possible to create a boxed set that actually give you Large and Medium models that can be built in one of two different ways. This would both extend flexibility and appeal to players, and give people a reason to either buy multiple boxed sets, or to buy the boxed set and still buy the separate models on individual release.

So given that, what do the Sorylians need?

The Sorylians - Tier 1

Well, first off, another Battleship would be a good start. From how the Falx fares in battle, the Sorylians would undoubtedly have been working to cover some of its shortcomings. Now, the Falx isn't a bad ship, it just isn't an equal counter to other Large ships (it's no dueller) - so enter the Cuirass:

The Cuirass class battleship is one of a new breed of designs that Sorylian Engineers started working on at the beginning of the Seccession Wars, based on predictions of how the conflict would escalate. These designs have been developed by the Sorylians over the past decades and are now finally ready to start field trials in the Outer Spheres – the standard method of deployment the Collective uses when producing new starships.

The Cuirass bears many similarities to the Falx and Swordbreaker that preceded it, but with several enhancements and design shifts. Firstly, the Cuirass has a much greater offensive bent that the Falx – it is built as a ship ready to duel with other battleships in open space one-to-one, and take them down. To further this point, the ship has an extensive number of defensive enhancements, notably a reinforced, strengthened fore, and shrouded scatter weapons - making the ship extremely tough on the approach into battle. Shield generators may also be fitted with Terran-derived sectoring technology, something unknown on Sorylian ships of the past, but garnered out of close cooperation with their Kurak allies.

Let's have a look at some stats:

Sector shielding gives the Cuirass a possible 7/12 DR/CR profile from the frontal arc with 2 Shields on it’s approach into battle, making it one of the best protected battleships in the Firestorm Galaxy. It retains the ability to use its Kinetic and Torpedo weapons even with this profile, so it is not a passive approach, meaning that when it arrives in optimum firing position it is likely to be doing so at full or close to full HP, making it a very potent early-game ship the enemy cannot afford to ignore, especially if also accompanied by Flechettes to further enhance its firepower. This would also make it ideal to pair with a reserved Falx entering by foldspace for a heavy-hitting one-two punch in the early or mid-point of the game.

Another more unique innovation on this second generation battleship is the ability to deploy Seeker-Class Drones. These do not form part of the Cuirass’ squadron, nor even have their own activation, but instead work as a force multiplier for the Sorylian Collective. These are developments of the Sorylians long-established wormhole network, re-imagined with Terran expertise of fold-space beacons from their Satellite Charter, to act as specific beacons for Sorylian ships – free from the Ba’kash infiltration and piracy that their wormhole network has been plagued by. Deployed by Hidden Setup or by the Cuirass, these drones allow pinpoint foldspace entry by Sorylian ships within their area of effect – making that 1-2 double Battleship setup even more deadly.

The Cuirass is no slouch either – with a native 8” move, it has the legs to get into that optimum firing position quickly, and at the cost of some manoeuvrability it can even become faster than many cruisers. With AP, movement and Assault Blitz upgrades, the Cuirass becomes a very credible boarding threat in addition to its native direct AD potential, especially paired with a Katar Assault Cruiser.

With a fast, hard-hitting battleship, what other class could a multi-part model make that would fit with Sorylian lore, and fill a role in their fleets? Well, the Sorylians are not SRS heavy, but they do board well - how about an Assault Cruiser? Let's take a look at the Serapis:

Utilising the same basic hull arrangement of the Cuirass, the Serapis dispenses with shrouded weapons for overall hull strengthening and the provision of extensive launch bays for its assault shuttles to carry the vast numbers of its boarding marines to the enemy. This results in a reduced broadside capability, and so Sorylian Engineers have focussed on providing a hard-hitting fore mounted scatter array to soften targets up on approach before launching their coup de grace hand-to-hand. The Serapis also retains some of the innovation and options that the Cuirass introduces, such as a reinforced fore and sector shielding:

Accompanied by a Katar Assault cruiser, the boarding potential of the Serapis becomes overwhelming - something the Sorylians have found necessary when combatting their martial galactic neighbours, the Relthoza. It is also possible to take a pair of Pauldron Escort Cruiser to further expand and add flexibility to its SRS complement.

Tier 2

We heard mention above of the Pauldron Escort Cruiser above, so let's start there. The Sorylians are not natural fliers, and they tend to field SRS principally in dedicated carrier vessels. The Grand Council have recognised that the tactics of other races, especially the Relthoza (who are capable of fielding large quantities of SRS at any engagement level) have exposed a potential weakness in the Collecxtive's Sphere defences, below where fleet carriers such as the Xiphos are deployed.

As such, the Pauldron has been devloped using the same manufacturing lines as produce the Skyhammer and Falcata Cruisers, adapting the hull to provide flexible launch bays for an array of different SRS. This enables SRS cover for smaller task forces, and boosts the abilities of larger vessels such as the Serapis - the latter is not configured for bomber operations, but coupled with 2 Pauldrons, it can field both bombers and assault shuttles, or provide interceptor cover etc. With typical Sorylian practicality, the Pauldron also retains offensive armaments to ensure it remains viable even on losing its complement of on-board craft.

The Sorylians have a pretty effective Tier 2 selection, with extremely effective Cruisers and Gunships - what more could they have that would be a viable selection? Well one area the Sorylians do lack is in the area of mines - they simply do not use them. Rather than give them a ship that did the same as other races, they would deal with this by countering this threat. As such, we have the Flagellant:

This is a tough cruiser, built on the same lines as the Kopis, shielded as standard and with the capability to increase that shield strength. It needs to be a tough ship too, since it's assigned duty is minesweeping, using the new Minsweeper MAR:

Once again, a single-purpose ship in this class is something Sorylian Engineers would wish to avoid, just minesweeping is not going to satisfy most Sorylian Commander's thirst for combat. As such, the Flagellant retains a decent - if short ranged - set of scatter weaponry, and coupled with its toughness it is often seen plunging ahead into enemy lines ahead of the rest of the fleet, weathering the fire of the enemy to unleash short-ranged hell into their foes. This type of assault often disrupts the carefully made plans of their opponents, allowing the Sorylians rapidly-closing fleet elements to mop up the scattered remnants. Flagellants have thus rapidly gained a reputation as line-breakers, and it is seen as one of the most honourable positions to hold in the Collective's Sphere Defence fleets.

As the Tier 3 would be a resin rework of an existing ship, no need to talk about that here, so let's move on.

The Relthoza - Tier 1

The Relthoza spiders were my first entry point into the FSA universe, so I'm used to them and I've never had a problem with how they play in terms of seeing them as "difficult". I've never really had too much of a problem with the Brood Battleship, it's a solid ship. The Relthoza have a good selection of options, and I love the feel of the faction. That being said, the Relthoza have some obvious gaps in their repertoire given their fluff - they're an SRS and boarding-heavy fleet, so why they don't have a Battlecarrier and Assault carrier seems odd - these are both obvious development directions for them. So let's have a look at some rationale:

The Relthoza Incursions into Sorylian territory have time and again been repulsed by the sphere defences the Sorylians have entrenched around their territory. Although the recent conflict in the Storm Zone has drained Sorylian forces and allowed the Relthoza to make gains, these are relatively minor and have not allowed for the large scale footholds the Twenty had hoped for. Without this bridgehead into Sorylian territory, the reformer fleets cannot operate with sufficient impunity to start thoroughly terraforming worlds - which is what the end-game is for the Relthoza: More inhabitable worlds to colonize.

This has led the Relthoza to technological solutions – the introduction of the new nanospatial lance weapon system in the Virulence gunship has proved successful and has been expanded to new ship types. Advanced shunt matrices and new cloaking systems are also being deployed, together with expanded suites of support ship types to disrupt the highly structured Sorylian defences. The Sorylians, like the Relthoza, are excellent martial opponents, so the need for more means of delivering more warriors into the field is highly desirable, hence the development of the Atrax:

The Atrax is a ship designed to prize other vessels through martial combat. Commonly fielding assault shuttles and packed with warriors, these ships are relatively cheap and fast to construct, relying on stealth and cloaks to get to their prey and seize them. Alternatively they can be outfitted with the next generation of Shunt drives, enabling them to leap forward and deliver a crippling blow where the enemy would never suspect it. As with much emergent Relthozan technology, it is meant to be highly disruptive to any enemies plans. It does pay for this rather single-purposed mentality somewhat - it can be vulnerable to short-ranged torpedo weapons, and should it's cloak be damaged its hull is not meant for front-line combat confrontations with similarly-sized vessels. The Twenty deem this a price worth paying for its potential rewards - after all, fresh young warriors are an easily replaced resource.

Now making a multi-piece model representing two ships here is easy, since all you need for an Assault Carrier is a bit more armour and some more weapons - the launch bays and general configuration can be much the same. Here we have the Dysdera:

The Dysdera employs the same nanospatial lance technology that was first implemented on the Virulence Gunship, in an up-armoured version of the same hull as the Atrax. The Broadsides are extensively expanded, and the aft weapons systems removed to accommodate the power generation requirements of the fore lances. This results in a slightly more delicate internal structure, simply because of the fine balance required for the new technology. It also reduces the range of any installed battle shunt drive generator - the power requirements for more would simply be impractical to accommodate without a major hull redesign and expansion.

Tier 2

Now Relthoza mediums are also an interesting design space, and there is plenty of scope here. One of the things the Relthoza lack is a stand-off destroyer (the Venom is very much an ambush predator), and surprisingly for a race which is quite torpedo-heavy, they have no dedicated Torpedo Cruiser. So, here they are:

The Bolas is a stand-off torpedo cruiser designed to provide long-range support to advancing fleets. It remains in the rear of the engagement, cloaked and often running silent to avoid detection as it unleashes nanotech-laced death from the depths of space. Should it be engaged, it has a moderate short-ranged broadside array to defend itself, and can either be rigged with non-detection systems or an advanced Shunt matrix to help it get out of trouble quickly should it be flanked. It's weapon systems make it a deadly late-game opponent, but even from the opening salvoes this is not a squadron that can be ignored, meaning the enemy needs to divert valuable resources to deal with them as the main Relthozan force closes.

Next we have the Cryptos Destroyer, one of the most daring and advanced ships Relthozan technology has produced to date. Employing an experimental advanced cloaking field, the Cryptos is almost impossible to target when cloaked, and chooses when to engage its prey using the same nanospatial lance system used in the Dysdera. Such is the power drain from this new cloak, however, that it cannot use weaponry whilst it is engaged (and even if it could, to do so would reveal it's location to targeting sensors).

It has, however, an advanced shunt matrix to allow itself to reposition whilst cloaked, meaning the enemy can never predict where the ship will suddenly appear, it's alien weaponry tearing ships apart from inside before fading away into blackness. It also maintains a standard broadside weaponry to protect itself from flanking attacks should its cloak or shunt matrix be damaged, though most Cryptos crews pray that these are never to be used, as it is not a ship designed for an honest, even fight.

Once again, Tier 3s would be reworked all-resin Nidus frigates, giving us a nice up-to-date offering for the Relthoza, with plenty of new dirty tricks up their sleeves.

Extras

Most Spartan 2-player sets come with extras, like the Valhalla station and the Overseers gate and probe. What I'd have loved to see from Spartan here would be an add-ons pack of Pathogen pieces for the included ships, to replace some of the ships parts. What do I mean? Take the Aquan Cruiser from the Taskforce Reinforcement boxes - you have a top and a bottom, plus another add-on for the Carrier version. In a similar manner with the construction of the ships in this set, you could have a pathogen bottom that would fit the Aquan top, giving you yet another iteration of the ships. This would have been super-cool and added more reasons to buy multiple boxed sets, and also another play element to the game - an AI deck.

This has been done elsewhere (like Deadzone) - you include a set of cards that allow you to play against an AI-Pathogen fleet. This way it doesn't even matter if you don't have someone to play the game against, you can still buy and play the set - how cool would that be?

I think a set like this would have far greater appeal than the Saurian/Pathogen set that SG have proposed with their Kickstarter - what do you think?

Building the 40k Dark Imperium 2-Player Boxed Set

Last time we took a first impressions unboxing look at the Dark Imperium 2-player boxed set for Games Workshop's new edition of Warhammer 40k. This time we will take a more detailed look at how the minis go together from the set. I'll be putting together the Death Guard, whilst Oscar will handle the Emperor's finest.

I started with the Foetid Bloat Drone, because it's the largest and nastiest model in the set! First step was to clip all the parts of the sprues:

After that, it was clean up. Other than removing the spurs from the cutting, this was extremely limited - testament to the crispness of the moulding I attested to in the last post. This can be seen by this weapon - you can see seaming on the part is extremely limited (consider the entire thing is just over 1" long!):

After this, I dry-fitted the main body together and the accuracy of fit is just staggering - with the three components together, the whole thing stays together completely - you can even drop it and it doesn't come apart (though I don't recommend this!). 

The way GW have engineered the components in this kit is absolutely first-class, and really very clever - points I'll return to several times over the course of this post. Here is the rear of the Bloat Drone, unglued:

You can see how the seam follows around components here. minimising where seams need cleaning up. So after the main body was glued together, I added the side pieces that the weapons attach to and fixed it to the base, but left off the fans and weapons to make it easier to paint. Once again, you can dry-fit components and the fit is so good that they remain where they are:

I left these pieces off for the time being, as I figured it would make painting of this model (which is going to be a centrepiece) easier.

So let's switch over to the Primaris marines. with one of the Lieutenants:

These are somewhat simpler than the Death Guard in the box, and as such I haven't covered them as much - they go together smoothly and flawlessly, and are really nice pieces

Positive registration on the pieces for arms and backpacks ensure good location and adhesion, plus stopping you putting the wrong arms in the wrong position. Here he is finished:

So far, so good. Next I tackled the Lord of Contagion. Here are the pieces for him:

Now GW has been very clever with this set - and I mean VERY clever. The precision and thought that has gone into the design and production of these sprues is staggering, something I'll be showing multiple different examples of. Here's the first on the Death Guard, with how the leg assembly (which has already had nurglings added to the foot) fits to the main body/leg section:

Simple, but specific registration, and when complete...

....no sign of the seam at all! Not impressed? Well, this is the least of the examples I'll give. The Lord finishes easily with the back piece and the weapon.arms:

Note the join on the arm. What? Can't/Can hardly see it? Exactly.The join follows the chain and the spike coming through the armour, making it all but invisible. Very clever, GW, very clever.

So back to the "good guys". Here's the Captain:

Quickly builds up:

Here are the leader models of both sides together side-by-side:

I still don't like the smoke on the Lord of Contagion...but worse sins to come on the Death Guard....

I put together the Noxious Blightbringer next - he's not wholly glued here, I just wanted to show him as intended:

I felt (as I mentioned in the podcast - if you've yet to check it out, click "The Hub Systems Podcast" in the link to the right) that the huge bell here looks ridiculous - I wasn't sold on the chained censers either, though at least they're not spewing moulded smoke! I think the bell belongs on a standard, not hanging form a sprouting horn on a marine's back. Time for some modification....

Removing the nurgling, bell and censers declutter the model a lot, especially at the rear.

I might still get rid of the foot bells - I'm reminded of the children's nursery rhyme "Ride a Cock Horse" which has the line "with bells on her fingers and bells on her toes...". As I said, the bells are dumb.

Let's swing back again to the marines, and the remaining Lieutenant:

Fairly standard construction with this guy, and no problems - he joins his comrades:

Going back to the Death Guard, we have the Malignant Plaguecaster. Here I'm going to show another example of GW being clever with joins. Here are the two pieces that come together for the legs and back of the Plaguecaster - see how there's a join down the chainmail loincloth?

Here's the glued model - the join almost invisible because of the way GW have engineered it. This is then further covered up, but this is just a very modeller-friendly construction - cleaning up joins on chainmail is a pig, and here its simply unnecessary.

Next is the hood/arm/staff and how it joins to the head/body. First, look how crisply this fine and intricate one-piece casting is done.

Then look how seamlessly it fits in place on the rest of the model:

The only visible join here will be covered up by the other pendant piece of cloth piece that fits on afterwards. I really can't think when I've ever seen such a well thought-out and executed set of pieces before. Ever. Period. 10/10 GW, this set is just engineering perfection!

Which makes it even more disappointing that this is what the Plaguecaster looks like when complete. Moulded smoke/corruption/flies....it just doesn't work!

I decided to put the model out of its misery, and cut it off:

Better. Unfortunately the hand has some "smoke" moulded on/over it, so I'll probably add a green-stuff tendril or two to blend it in.

Two of the Death Guard models are based on the same basic legs/back/left arm/backpack (being on the pox walker sprues), with different heads/bodies/weapons to make them different. I must say they've done a very good job of this, but I wanted to differentiate them a bit further by making the backpacks different. To that end I removed the plague knife and Nurgle symbol from one of them:

With this done, I made them as per the instructions:

Similar, but different enough that on the battlefield they'll look sufficiently distinct. In both cases too, the arms/weapons are not glued - I can remove them to aid painting.

The other Death Guard are all individuals. Here's one of them:

You'll see the division of the models is not what you might expect - here a body and leg is joined with it's back, awaiting a piece incorporating the other leg, arm and sword. When joined, these form most of the marine:

To which a piece with the head, other arm and bolter on is added:

This just needs the other piece of the backpack adding, and it's complete.

The other marines are similar - odd, but very clever, pieces coming together to create very stunning miniatures. One of the best-posed minis, however, is also one of the most ridiculous. Here is Bell-Boy:

Why, GW, why? The backpack is an even worse crime:

Now with hindsight, this would be more appropriate for the Blightbringer...but having very different fittings, it would have taken some work to fit it. Maybe for another set....

Anyway, I set about de-belling this chap, and I feel the resultant mini is much better for it. He'll need some GW tentacles under his arm to hide the worst offending bell, but at least he'll be able to move his arm - in the intended design the bell would have jammed against his backpack and he'd never be able to put his arm down!

(I got rid of the lower bell as well in the end - it wasn't hard). 

Now, back to the Space Marines and the Inceptors:

These are quite clever too - the arms have neat fixings allowing you to set them in specific positions but still have variation by way of a star on one side and a triangle on the other....very neat:

Again, these build up effortlessly into the much-more-impressive-than-the-web-site-photos models:

We left them off their flight stands until after painting.

The Ancient is another easy to put together but impressive model:

As are the Hellblasters - those weapons are huge!

Once more going back to the side of Chaos, we come to the pox walkers. These are mostly two or occasionally three-piece models, ad enormously impressive in terms of casting. They show a trace more mould lines than the marines, but that's because they're less multi-piece I think. Anyway, the fit of them is astonishingly good, just as for the other models. Here is an example - the trench coat wearing chap - the lapels are attached to the head and here they're not glued - I defy you to say you can see that...

Here's another example - the head here is attached to the gas mask and the weapon and lower forearm - a single piece. This is an incredibly fine and detailed part, which attaches to the main body in three places...faultlessly and without visible joins. Wow!

The last example is this one - the arms, back and weapon are one piece, the rest of the walker another. They join by slipping the weapon over the head and joining the back on. Unconventional, but very effective and the results are great.

So let's have another look at the completed Death Guard models. Here are the marines:

Here they are joined by their leaders:

And finally the hordes of poxwalkers:

This took a few hours of modelling over a couple of days, it would have ben less if I hadn't decided to make some major modifications of the Blightbringer, Plaguecaster and the Bell Boy marine. Oh, I also removed a big fly from one horn of a marine - it will look much better by itself! In total I removed at least 9 bells, 5 censers, a fly, a sword and a symbol of nurgle - not all shown below (and some were destroyed in taking them off!):

So what can we say of GWs plastic in this set? Well, for one, it's absolutely brilliantly engineered. The way the parts have been designed to fit together is pure genius, and the precision with which they've been transferred from design to execution is flawless. Detail is also fabulous - I can see why the "paint and wash" jobs I saw in demo games works so well - these should be easy to make look good, and I'm really looking forward to painting the Death Guard.

Of course, GW have some habits that die hard, and some of the flawless execution is let down by design trends that have been established over the past few years - moulded smoke, over-fetishing (what is it with those bells, FFS?!?) and some silly design aspects (items in places that would make the intended operation impossible). I'll probably still make some further amendments to my set (read: hacking), and it will only improve the minis - this shouldn't be the case with a brand new set!

Still, by recent trends, the design crimes are limited and can be dealt with, and the rest of the models look simply gorgeous, so I think most will forgive GW these dalliances. The minis are substantial and easily worth the price of the set, so I don't see why anyone wouldn't grab a copy and have some fun making these, painting them and then using them - for either 40k or for something else...they're gorgeous minis and the process of making them is a joy.