New Firestorm Backgrounds

Warcradle is pushing out a fair amount of content on FSA of late (hey, it's what has got me to post again!), and a fair bit of it has been mixed concept art/background pieces. I'll cover the concept art on another post (I think it deserves it) but I'll go through the background pieces that have been put out so far as they foreshadow more than pretty pictures.

Terran Directorate

Yep, Warcradle led with this one out of the dock on their new Black Ocean Facebook page, and here's the first of the bigger departures from pre-existing fluff (let's call it "Spartan Lore"). The new Terran faction are a melding of the old Terran Alliance, Directorate, Works Raptor and Hawker. I kinda get why Warcradle did this, but as a former Directorate player, I can't say this fills me with joy. Now, without a Spartan Lore historical perspective, this is fine - it makes the Terrans a much wider faction with a LOT more ship options (as a core faction), and the Directorate were, at one time, part of the Alliance anyway, so you could almost view it as an "alternate timeline" evolution of the game. Again, as a former Directorate/Zenian player as my first choice, I'm unsure about how this will play out in terms of the game, so I will have to wait until we see some beta rules until I make further judgements.

Dindrenzi Federation

The Dindrenzi still mourn Dramos, they still use big electromagnetic rail guns and they still have big armour plates. There is some detail in here about their society and so on, but overall the flavour has not changed much as far as I can see.

Sorylian Congress

The Sorylians were always clever military tacticians, and this wasn't terribly well reflected in their gameplay on the board. Their ships were fast, in order to bring their scatter cannon into range as soon as possible, and their squadron sizes were larger due to their superior tactics. Sorylian small and medium ships were their strength, with their battleship seen as a bit of a lumberer. They weren't good at the more personal three-dimensional experience, so didn't use SRS as much as other races (consider they were waging war against the Aquans and Relthoza, who both were good at that - why confront an enemy on their strong fronts?). They were also the race that first set up a wormhole network (or at least, utilised an existing one and expanded on it), with this tech being integral to their society.

The recent fluff has them controlling drone fighters which are able to pivot about their axis and launching salvos of kinetic weapons, both as they drop from lightspeed. Their three subspecies are engineered, as they are now master geneticists (a slot previously held by the Aquans - but more on them later). They are still measured, superb scientists, and they still hail from Kerendar. Overall, I don't think the fluff changes so far for the Sorylians are much beyond trivial. Sorylians have always had long-range kinetics, though they were really something designed to harass the enemy either into closing or to strike whilst the fast frigates and cruisers closed with the enemy fleet.

Veydreth Authority

The Veydreth are now one of the eight factions of the new Warcradle FSA, and they now hail from Oroshan (which I guess means that particular faction are no more in their own right). Their ship aesthetic is VERY different from before, incorporation elements of the original Oroshan designs but they are really 100% Warcradle otherwise. Veydreth used to be fearsome centauroid creatures - now they are gangly bipedals, and the Terran moniker of "Star Dragons" comes from the look of their ships, not the creatures themselves. I think this is the only piece I am a bit disappointed with here, centauroid star dragons were interesting...gangly bipedals just seem a bit "meh" by comparison. The Veydreth fluff in Spartan Lore was "spartan", which is I suppose why Warcradle used them as the basis of creating another faction where they could run amok without annoying too many people! Much of the background is a fusion of SL Veydreth and SL Oroshan with Warcradle overlay and reimagining. Overall, I can't say that this version is particularly disruptive or upsetting to too many people.

Ryushi (part of the Storm Zone Coalition)

The Ryushi were always wanderers, and they remain so in Warcradle's iteration of FSA. Warcradle have built up the narrative in a bit more of a joined-up way (never a strong point of Spartan), and expanded it with some nice detail. The Ryushi are one of the races in the Storm Zone Coalition, which also includes the Xelocians, Sauran Guild, Rangers of Terquai, Jowrion Disciples, Illosi, Shevaka and Kedorians. I wonder if all these races will be represented by Warcradle, or we'll just get those races which already have ships....I personally would love to see the Illosians finally - the one last project at SG which was never realised before I ceased association with them.

A'quan Sebrutan

So you'll notice that the Aquans are now the A'quan, a change which I'm not really understanding - it almost seems like the GW penchant for making names they can trademark (like Orruks instead of Orks), and that may well be the case here - I don't know. Anyway, the fishy dudes are a BIG departure from prior fluff - essentially you can scrap all the fish jokes guys, because THEY'RE NO LONGER FISH. No, instead of hailing from a water world, A'quan are now sentient bi-mechanical space-dwellers, each one being located within - and one with - the ship around it.

A'quans have a very different "feel" in this new iteration - before they were somewhat benign, expert geneticists and a little "Tau" in their kind of philosophy. Now they are disruptive star-eating individuals that are kind of a galactic pain in the ass and pretty aggressive. They're space-hornets.

I'm a bit on the fence on this one. It's kind of cool, but I can imagine it's not going to sit well with a lot of existing Aquan (no " ' " intended) players. There are some other interesting snippets in the fluff here too which indicate departures in their gameplay too - gravity shears are mentioned, along with their "unique" ability to manipulate gravity...not sure what that means for you, Tarakian players... and you thought Aquans were too powerful before.... lol. another interesting thing is the mention of the "Vo'nar Holotype" - the Vo'nar being a long-mentioned but never realised Spartan race that was around Relthozan space....seems Warcradle have dusted that one off and incorporated it into A'quans now -which does make sense given their new directions.

Relthoza Unity

OK, my favourite faction, what I started Firestorm Armada out with, the spiders. Again, another BIG departure from SL here, and I must say, one I'm not really feeling. Essentially you can bin all of the Dindrenzi first contact, misunderstood cultural concepts and uneasy alliance of SL, the Relthoza never met another species before becoming the Unity. This AI cloud consciousness was once a way for the Relthoza to prevent internal wars, but became out of control, and subsumed the Relthoza into itself, becoming the Unity. It learned exponentially, and developed space travel fast etc etc - now it must bring peace to all life.

In effect, the Relthoza are now a kind of "Pathogen with a Purpose", and in fact it seems Pathogen are now merely unity ships seeking independence. Hmmm.

Now I know Stuart from Warcradle is a Rick & Morty fan, and Unity is exactly this in that series....does this make a good direction for the Relthoza? Well, for me, no. If I'd wanted to play that kind of consuming plague, I'd play Pathogen (and I have). The Relthoza, however, appealed to me both for the look of their ships, and their arachnid klingon-esque militarism. Whilst the new Warcradle concept art for the Relthoza looks fantastic, I'm just not excited by their fluff. The "Hive Mind" thing is a common, and a little tired, trope in Sci-Fi, and I think it makes the Relthoza much more bland than they were before.

Overall Takeaways

So I said before, Stuart has stated and the fluff released thus far emphasises it, Warcradle's FSA is a new game. It's NOT the SL FSA we knew, and it's probably best to come at it from that PoV. At the moment I will hold judgement until I see beta rules before I decide if it's a game that I want to learn...if it is then the fluff is not necessary, I can have whatever fluff I want for my universe, ignoring anything I don't like. Otherwise I will just use the new models to refresh and fill in gaps in my existing fleets, and play the game I already know - not the end of the world.

Firestorm Armada Core Race Expansion Sets

So now we have the blog Spartan should have put up before they started their Kickstarter, we can see some details of the planned Core Race Expansions, and it doesn't make for pretty reading for me. Why? Read on (Spoiler - contains jaded opinions about Spartan Games' current behaviour - do not ingest if sensitive to honest but scathing opinion).

Core Race Expansions - A Good Thing, right?

Well, possibly....

Expansions should be added for a reason, other than "the company needs to sell more models". Ultimately, this goes down to why a company exists, it's heart and soul. For me, a gaming company needs to be about gaming - it needs to have that at its core...if it doesn't, it comes through in everything they do, and what they do doesn't ring true. Of course companies exist to make money to continue doing what they do, but that shouldn't be an end point - it should be a means to it's end (which is growing its games). 

Take GW as a case in point. They used to be a games company - founded by gamers who didn't want to grow up. It was successful- enormously so, and grew to behemoth proportions. Still, in the late 90's-early noughties, it was still a games company - lots of hobby tips (for free) on its website, GW stores were places people went to congregate, paint and play. People inside and out were passionate about games.

Then it started being run by executives.

Sometimes, this can be a good thing - execs bring focus and timelines, spreadsheets and analysis that can really help companies improve, cut out waste, do more god stuff. Sometimes they end up controlling things and the bottom line becomes the important thing, and the rest is a mantle upon which it rests. Prices go up, free stuff starts being removed and replaced with chargeable extras, things are pushed out because they're low volume sellers, and the execs start directing company direction. People leave because "it just isn't the company it used to be". These things are picked up by the community, because things start to feel different in the game.

This behaviour really hurt GW for the past decade. Now they've a new CEO who seems to understand that the "Games" in GW means something to its customers, and is getting back towards the company it used to be. Hell, they even released a pack of skulls, which if isn't taking the piss out of themselves (in a profitable way" then I don't know what is. Not to say they still aren't having some crazy pricing decisions (that Primaris Captain and Librarian, for example), but it's early days.

So I'll come back to this point at the end of the blog when I've run through the Tiers and factions;

Tier 3 - Destroyers

"Wait a minute Alex, you said Tier 3, but you're talking about Destroyers..."

Yes, I know. Most factions get "Light Destroyers" (I'll come back to naming conventions later too), a couple get Torpedo Destroyers. So this is one of those "Oh god I hate them" general faction-wide releases that makes no background sense whatsoever. That's the first thing. The main issue I have with this release, however, is that where do these fit in the design space of Firestorm?

What do I mean by this?

Well, as a designer (and I did this for Firestorm for a long time, so I do know what I'm talking about here) there should be a reason for the ship you're designing. That's number one. So you have a role the ship should fit, and then you look at what already exists, and stat the ship according to its role and what has gone before. In general, it should fit with the existing theme of the fleet, with maybe a few differences based on its new role (otherwise why would the race design it?). Stats should be in-line with existing ships and the role, unless it's some ground-breaking new technology. So, in the FSA world, a Destroyer is generally a hard-hitting, but often difficult to spot/hit type of ship (more like a wet-navy submarine). Firepower wise they hit above their weight, especially at longer engagement ranges (with exceptions for those "Ambush" type iterations like the Venom).

Now the Firestorm design space is fairly "tight". DR ranges from 3 to 7, CR from 4 to 13. The lower end of the spectrum is more crowded, because the difference between 3/4 in game is not much and you can't really go above that for a small (as Cruisers start at DR4). So that means a "Light" Tier 3 Destroyer could be "Light" just by the virtue of having a Small hull, rather than difference in weapons, so you have a (for example) 3/5 hull with standard Destroyer weapons.

The problem then is why would you not take these awesome new Smalls over standard Frigates? That kind of Firepower is pretty good on a small ship. Well, you could price them higher, but now you're encroaching into standard destroyer territory - it's only 150 points for a pair of Venoms, whilst its usually around 100 points for a bunch of Frigates. Do you see what I mean by a crowded design space now?

This is why the FFG worked so well at designing ships, because we had twenty-odd players of the game each with a different meta putting in their opinion in the design stage, so we didn't end up with glaring oddities that ended up massively OP or vastly useless. What you really want is a ship design that half of the players think is OK, one-quarter think are OP and one-quarter think is useless. You've usually got it right then.

What should NOT happen is someone decides "you know what, all races need a new small, what should it be - I know, destroyers!" and then this is implemented. That fundamentally breaches Rule Number One - the ship should be derived from a need (perceived or real), not an arbitrary assignment. It's a bit like some god-like entity suddenly saying to all the nations of the world "and you must have Battleships in your navies". We don't need them - they're obsolete, and obsolete for a reason. Shoe-horning them in would be moronic.

Tier 2 - Medical & Repair Ships

Hmmmm. My gut feeling on this is....why? From a fluff point of view, this is madness - you don't repair ships or send in ambulances in the midst of a pitched battle. We already have SRS to cover these functions in v2, what do these add except for sucking out more points and making you buy more resin? If the repair function effectively acts as an add-on Self Repair MAR, then I foresee a lot of issues - it will tend to drag the game out, rather than make it smoother and faster.

This goes back to rationale as I mentioned above for the Tier 3s - what is the reason for introducing a ship type? Did anyone call for any of these ships in their games before (and by that I mean the function rather  than the name)? In other words, is there a gap to be filled? For me, the answer is no.

Tier 2 - The Terran Heavy Gunship

Wait, the Terrans - one of the CP-heaviest factions and one of the fleets most likely to see use of Medical Shuttles - does NOT get Medical ships? Nope, they get a Heavy Gunship. Not a gunship, which of course they don't have, but a Heavy Gunship.

Now a gunship for the Terrans is not a terrible idea, but its also not a great one. Sorting out the role of the Heavy Cruiser (which is essentially a gunship in all but name) would have achieved the same thing, but of course wouldn't have required you to buy more models.

Tier 1

Now here we start to see some apparent variety, so I'll go through them individually:

The Aquan Repair Battleship

Now there's an oxymoron for you - repair battleship. It's like a War Domain cleric....does it fire sticky glue that covers impact blasts? Does it have multiple cranes that attach to other ships and fix them? What? You think I'm being silly? Well it's because it's a fucking STUPID idea, thats why.

The associated fluff basically says its a Battleship which carries Repair Shuttles - or in other words, an Aquan Battleship. All this really indicates is that the normal battleship is restricted in the SRS it can carry (if any) and that this is a Battleship with limited usage. I'll come back to my stock question here - Why? If you're having to create new ship types because of changes you're making to the mechanics, then please, stop.

The Dindrenzi Battle Carrier

So here's a ship type that you can actually see the race developing. The Dindrenzi actually have a decent carrier option, but you can definitely imagine them creating a Battle Carrier, so this is actually one that seems quite rational.

The Sorylian Fleet Carrier

OK, so the fluff makes no sense whatsoever here - "The Sorylians do not make much use of SRS, but when they do it is normally ‘heavy’ in nature." - in fact I'm not sure that's even a proper sentence. Still, the idea of a Fleet carrier for the Sorylians is...meh. They already have a fleet carrier in the Morning Star/Xiphos - again a decent carrier. Surely the Sorylians would be best supported (both in game and in fluff) with an Assault Carrier? Or how about another Battleship to use, since their existing Battleship and Dreadnought are much maligned? No, we get another carrier. :-(

The Terran Battle Carrier

Well I suppose this one was inevitable, despite never being intended as a production model, when you show a render/artwork people are inevitably going to say "Ooh, shiny, when can I buy it?". That's not necessarily a good rationale to base a ship class on, and so we have the Terran battle Carrier, despite the Terrans having one of the two best Fleet Carriers in the game (the other going to the RSN Argus), and good battleships.

So why is a Battle Carrier a bad idea for Terrans? Well, it's either going to have sub-par weapons, in which case if you want SRS the carrier is probably a better idea, or it's going to compete with the battleships (why have a plain battleship when you can have a battleship+?). It also adds a third ship to the Battleship space for the Terrans, when they could really do with choices elsewhere. So whilst not a terrible decision, it is a ship in a crowded spot in a tight design space for the Terrans. It's not very interesting, and it's not very Terran.

The Relthoza Heavy Battleship

So a ship between the Brood and the Apex? Hmmm...I mean, it's possible, but as for the Sorylians, why not an Assault Carrier or Battle Carrier for the Relthoza? Ships that fit with their background and fluff? Why call it a Heavy Battleship? Is the Terran Tyrant a Heavy battleship? Did people have issues distinguishing the Apollo and the Tyrant? No, so what's the point? It's the Why? question again.

The Directorate Fleet Carrier

Oh dear. Not only do the Directorate nor care about their vat-buddies that they're prepared to spend vast amounts of capital to make specific ships that will help them out in the midst of battle, but they're so intent on SRS operations all of a sudden that they make a Fleet carrier, which sounds like a Battle Carrier if you believe the short fluff. It's quoted to be as tough as a Dreadnought, armed to the teeth with beams and cyberweapons (which are due to be bland AOE weapons in v3), and carry loads of bombers and stuff. 

The problem is once again that the Directorate already have a pretty bitching Battleship that does a lot of this in the Anarchist, and they also have the Overseer - a carrier that never needs to decloak. I've seen double-Overseer lists run by Directorate players, and they can be pretty savage. So this ship promises to do all of the Anarchist and Overseer jobs in one, which makes it either too powerful, overcosted or one of the two sides at least partially redundant.

The main issue I have with it though, is it just seems unimaginative. Maybe it'll be ok, but I already have big issues with how the Directorate flavour is being massively diluted with v3 rules. Why would I add another shade of grey to those already available?

Naming Conventions

OK, so this is a personal bugbear. and I know it doesn't bother some people at all, but I hate these arbitrary namings of "Heavy" and "Light". It smacks of a small child trying to win a war of words;

"I've got a gunship"

"Yeah? well I've got a HEAVY gunship"

"That's nothing, I got a Battleship"

"So? I got a HEAVY battleship"

And so on. It smacks of Trump's lack of vocabulary ("It's gonna be really, really great - really"), a lack (once again) of IMAGINATION. Why does that matter? Well, this is meant to be an immersive universe. Why would all factions suddenly create "Light Destroyers"? What's the rationale behind calling a Battleship "Heavy"? The answer to this is - there is no reason - and that (for me) makes the whole announcement sound hollow, a clanging tin bell. I don't think "Cool, a Heavy Battleship", because I'm not 6. I want some meat to my sci-fi, even in a game with plastic spaceships. I may behave like a 12 year old when I'm playing games, but I don't expect to be treated as one mentally.

Verdict - Hit or Miss?

Once again, I don't need to tell you my verdict on this. It only adds to the Kickstarter cash grab feel that SG is developing lately. These announcements in the right environment with the right thought process and rationale behind them would be exciting, and investment and expansion to the universe. What they do instead is highlight the poor planning and lack of creativity that seems to be beleaguering the FA universe (and maybe the whole of SGs portfolio) at the moment.

If I were a potential Kickstarter backer reading this blog, it would not sway me to part with money. Most Kickstarters offering this as part of the campaign or as stretch goals will actually show you what they're doing or planning - here you just have to hope. Even if you think all of these are fantastic ideas, you have no idea what the stats are or what the ships look like - you have to take it on faith. Unfortunately (or rather, Fortunately, for me), I'm an evidence-based guy, and without a shred of it ,being asked to rely on Spartan's word (which is increasingly worth nothing, if it ever were) is purely ludicrous.

I mentioned earlier I'd come back to the point of a company's heart and soul. It seems Spartan is increasingly a model company, rather than a games company. The other pieces - it's rules, it's fluff, it's community support (such as it is) - seem to be "stuck on", after-thoughts  to sell more models, rather than being part of it's DNA. They laughably tout the Kickstarter as being "what you told us you wanted" but they should KNOW what people want, they should be able to sense it intuitively. If they were really customer-focussed gamers at heart, they would (or should, at least). That's a change no-one can force on SG, and it's the reason I've not bought into their products for some time now - why I have a Halo Ground Command box which is still unopened in my gaming room. It's the same reason I got out of 40k and decried GW for what they did to themselves, because no-one wants to feel like a bred-for-its-milk cash cow.

The Hub Systems Podcast Episode 10 - System Wars Part 1

We tackle the summer System Wars releases in two parts - firstly the MARs, ship models and stats...plus we introduce a new feature for Episode 10!

Planetfall Unboxing - RSN Assault Helix

Quite some time ago I acquired the RSN Assault Helix for Planetfall, but with a busy summer it's had to wait until now for airing.

Opening the box we are greeted with the usual Spartan bubble bags, and there's not much space left inside!

Eager as ever to get our hands on the actual resin, the little bags don't resist for long...

We'll start with the smallest elements first, since they're single piece (though very well executed) - the light tanks. You get six of them in the set.

These are nice little models, and I love the way they are very similar in several aspects to the old Dindrenzi Daggers from Firestorm invasion.

So, these are nice models, but they're not why you've bought this set, am I right? Next is the Temple of Dramos.... (just placed together here...not glued!)

Now I'm in two minds about this model...I'm really not sure if I like it or not. It's very thematic, but it plays to one element of the RSN which has always been a fringe one, and it seems a bit too impractical in many ways for them - their ships in Firestorm are not fetishised in any way, yet here you have a combat model which has large sculpted angels on it....it's cool, but I'm just not sure how it sits with me...I'm firmly "on the fence"!

The model itself is made of several pieces

The base (here it's upside-down)

The legs/stands...four of them that fit onto the underside of the base element...

...like so

 Turning the base over, you have two areas for the vertical sections

Which are here, and fit in place....

..like so

You then have the Dramos Angel statue piece, hcih sits between them....

...here it's just placed on top, it actually sits flush - but be careful that you mount it at the same time as the vertical sections, as the angles on the sides mean you can't put it in place if you glue the sides on first.

But you probably didn't buy this set for the temple either - even if you love it. What you probably bought the set for is...

The Avenging Robot! Yes, this Gundam-esque beast is the real reason you bought the RSN Assault Helix. It's a stylised human-robot with wings, missiles and a big sword. It's a combination of resin and metal, and it has a degree of being posable.

The chest section is slightly iron-man, with a central piece very mush like a power core and thick armour plates.

The head is white metal, and very stylised, which I like. The ball and socket jointing allows this to be put at almost any angle

The arms are both single piece, reducing the flexibility of poses somewhat but I think anything else would have made the model too fiddly. The Left arm comes with a cluster-rocket pack.

The right with the huge sword (which I think is a leviathan CQB weapon)

The legs are also one-piece, though these and the arms are all ball and socket jointed to the body, allowing a lot of variation in build. The legs contain rocket motors, and I like the feet that have flipped back into "flight mode"...it would be nice to see some variant arms and legs in future for variation too - a standing version would be cool.

Finally, the wings and flight stand insert are white metal pieces that both attach to the central body, and both have some variation - the flight peg holder is ball and socketed, so you can have your robot flying in different ways, and the wings and scored to allow them to be bent back slightly at an angle (be careful though a the last thing you want to do is snap them!).

I've already assembled mine and sprayed it gold - this is a statement by the RSN of man's supremacy, to hearten its allies to fight and to strike terror into the hearts of the alien scum that oppose it! I'm looking forward to finishing it....now tell me how many grown men are going to be doing the exact same thing, and then flying it around their games room making pew pew noises?!?

Aerial Helix Unboxings - Zenian League Core Races

The Aerial Helixes have been out for a couple of weeks now, and my usual unboxings have been delayed by a whole bunch of real life "stuff", but here is the first, addressing the Zenian League races.

We'll start off with the main proponents of war, the Dindrenzi.

They get a Heavy Interceptor and three standard interceptors, the latter modelled on the SRS tokens in Firestorm, which is a nice touch, and repeated with the Terran Helix. The others depart from this theme, but I'll get to that when we deal with those Helixes. The Dindrenzi Helix has one of the highest part numbers of the sets, as you can see.

The Dindrenzi heavy is a very nice ship, with a somewhat predatory silhouette, and moulded in a single piece with four engine add-ons.

All the parts are sharply moulded as you'd expect from Spartan, requiring a minimum of clean-up. Some of the engine parts have a little more thickness on the bottom, leading to them being slightly different heights. Rather than try to sand them all down to the same height, I just lined them up in height order and used similar sized units on each flyer, which worked just fine - the differences are only going to be noticeable if you use them side-by-side.

The standard interceptors require the most assembling of any aerial Helix bar the Relthoza Heavy. As there are three of them this amounts to the most modelling you will do in the aerial boxes. As well as the engine pieces, they require the wings to be added...which is the first snag. Looking at the models, the attachment area has a distinctive downward sweep angle of about 15 degrees, but on  the box they look like they've been assembled with wings straight out. If you do this, however, you're relying on the <1mm tab contact surface to hold the wing on.

In the end I decided to go ahead and angle the wing, both to provide a better joint, and because they look cooler that way. As the Heavy Interceptor also has downward turned winglets, they tie in well as a whole...plus who knows - they may be like X-Wings and have variable wing geometry!

Next up are the Directorate, who get a Heavy and no less than five drones

The heavy features some of the limited amount of metal in these releases - the missile pods Directorate players will already be familiar with from their Combat carrier. Once again it is beautifully cast with very little in the way of clean-up required.

Other than this, it has a flight stand holder and two dual-engine blocks to add to the underside/rear of the model.

The Drones, on the other hand, require very little assembly at all, being one-piece sculpts with just a flight stand needing to be added. They are very reminiscent of the designator drone in the tank destroyer set.

Both sets fit nicely with the established themes of the factions, the Dindrenzi being flying bricks that will probably scream overhead after their ordnance has pounded your position, as subtle as a display team at an airshow. The Directorate you'll probably only be aware of as your equipment malfunctions seconds before missiles slam into your forces from some unidentified location...based on the models alone (I haven't looked at stats yet), I'd recommend either to Dindrenzi or Directorate players.

Finally on the Zenian side are the Relthoza.

This set has probably caused the most controversy amongst Firestorm / Planetfall players (even more so than the Sorylian set which we'll discuss in the AoK Aerial unboxings), even before you open the box. Why? Flying Bugs, thats why.

Now, for me (and many other Relthoza players out there) the Relthoza were a really novel and unique race in the pantheon of miniatures games, because here were giant spider-monsters who were NOT a big hive-mind tyranid-esque plague swarming out across the galaxy eating their way through everyone etc. They stood out because they were subtle and stealthy, masters of cloaking and nanotechnology - these were not dumb bugs, but highly evolved, intelligent and creative individuals.

Some of the Planetfall releases seem to have directly gone against this background, and the aerial set literally seems to fly in the face of it. Here we have flying bugs - probably the oldest cliche to fall into with an insectoid race (which has been hinted at rather than an arachnoid race as they've always been). This bugs me in a number of ways (see what I did there? ;-) ).

1. It seems to be subtly ret-conning the Relthoza background - and I LOATHE ret-conning
2. Why would ANY advanced race which extensively uses drone technology for its SRS (as per the existing background) use a "flying combat suit" on the ground? You don't see the US military using men in flying suits as heavy interceptors or as flying controllers for their Reaper drones, do you? Why not? Because it makes no sense whatsoever
3. Even IF a flying suit made sense, WHY OH WHY would you power it with ACTUAL WINGS? The Relthoza are one of the most advanced races in the Firestorm universe, but they're going to make a suit with flappy wings? Take a look out the window next time you're near an airport or airbase...how many flappy wing aircraft do you see? None...now ask yourself why that is...because we have found different technological ways of flying...I rest my case.
4. It seems to be almost comic...which isn't what I'm looking for in my games

In short, this set messes with my suspension of disbelief. Now I get why some people who have just come into Planetfall think its cool - "Hey, flying bugs, these guys are like the arachnids form Starship Troopers", but the Relthoza were already cool, and DIFFERENT. It's just disappointing when Spartan have done so many cool things to see this sort of direction for the Relthoza, and it's the third time we've seen this kind of blip too...the Sorylian leviathan and the Aquan fish-riders being the other two (which I actually like, for the record).

Now I get that this is Spartan's universe and it will take it in directions that it wants, but for me it's just odd that it would pull in different directions to those already established over 6 years with Firestorm Armada...which should be the natural expansion base for Planetfall. The thing is that gamers are sensitive people - often highly attuned to difference...it's no surprise that they tend to be detail oriented..the sorts of personalities that notice editing and continuity errors in films. Why limit your expansion into an existing player base with differences in feel and background? I know many Firestorm players who feel this way, or nervous about both Planetfall AND Firestorm, wondering if these sorts of changes will wash back across the FA universe they love too. I really hope it doesn't, because I know from personal experience that these sorts of shifts can end up costing player-base, and for a game like Firestorm that is not firmly established everywhere, that could be costly...if you can't find a game locally, what do you do? 

Anyway, back to the Relthoza models. You get one heavy and three standard interceptors in the set, just like the Dindrenzi.

The heavy os a 10-part model, and not the easiest to put together from what I've heard (I've not assembled mine yet - still deciding exactly what to do!). Not surprising given the nature of the ball-and-socket joints, which provide a great deal of flexibility in posing (which is nice). The parts themselves are fantastic, and flash etc is minimal and restricted on the most part to the metal parts as casting spurs.

The drones are all single-piece castings, only requiring the adjoining pieces removing from between the wings and the pouring points cleaning up.

Once again, there are points on this model I like and points I don't. I like how it resembles the light walker, I think that's neat. I like how the "wings" seem to be platforms for some form of anti-gravity unit rather than physical wings...BUT...why have the "wings" at all? Why not positional A-G pads like on the hovercraft in The Matrix? Why not a dozen other possibilities?

At the end of the day, the Relthoza Helix just does nothing for me. There's always going to be this sort of thing in any game, and making flying bugs was always going to be divisive, which is why I don't really get why Spartan did it. Don't get me wrong - if you like that sort of thing then the models are beautifully executed as we've come to expect from Spartan games, and I'd highly recommend them to anyone on that basis. If they're not your thing, then they'll "bug" you in the same way they do for me!

Overall the Aerial helixes are exactly what you'd expect from Spartan - excellent models, great casts and sometimes quirky decisions!