The Firestorm Galaxy Expansion Kickstarter

Well I guess it was inevitable, SG release a KS for FA and I'm going to blog about it. Before you read on, this will contain various complaints about SGs current behaviour, so if you're still shackled to Spartan like a ball and chain, then this is probably not the post for you. I will, however, attempt to be as fair as I can regarding this, so people who don't know SG can make up their own minds without just the "Oooh, shiney" aspect, but also the "Oh, I wasn't aware of that" side. So, disclaimer over, let's begin.

Kickstarter Provenance

Firstly, let's talk about Spartan's Kickstarter history. This is the third KS they've launched - the first was for modular terrain, was horrible and absolutely bombed - they pulled it before it closed woefully short of its target. Their second was for Dystopian Wars, which I've talked about before at the start of the year (Here) which funded £136k of a £50k target, but only 858 backers - not a large number, well below comparable niche games. Is this important? Well, I'd argue yes, it is, because that directly affects the active player-base and how likely you are to be able to get a game - this is a miniature wargame, not a board game.

Compare this number of backers to a game like Maelstrom's Edge, a brand new niche wargame released in 2015, and it's about the same - they got 813 backers for a completely unheard of skirmish game from a new developer, rather than for an established game from an established company. Now there are obvious differences in the two, but it starts to give you a feeling of how the KS was primarily backed by a hard core of existing players, rather than attractive a much wider audience.

Again, I'm going to compare this with Hawk's Drop Fleet Commander. Here we have a similar game from a similar sized manufacturer, with an existing install base (albeit in a different game). Their KS bagged just over 4.5 times as many backers as Spartans DW Kickstarter, and should be directly comparable to the FA expansion just launched. Numbers of backers is always a better indicator of Kickstarter success than just money, because there are so many variables in the latter.

As I type, there are 217 backers for the FAv3 Kickstarter, about half of what it needs to fund. I'm pretty sure it will fund, but I'm doubtful they'll get as many backers as their DW project. Why? Well, firstly some DW players are also FA players, and not all DW Kickstarter backers have their pledges yet.

This is probably the Number 1 No-No of ANY Kickstarter - don't release another Kickstarter when the first one hasn't fulfilled yet. It just isn't on - it leaves a bad taste and the feeling that the company is struggling with cash flow. It doesn't build confidence, and it just isn't cricket.

The v3 Ruleset

So followers of my blog and podcast will probably be aware what I think here. Spartan Neil specifically promised the community that v3 would really be v2.5 - the existing solid ruleset with tweaks to address a couple of pretty minor flow issues and make games easier to play, the intent being that you could play existing games in a shorter time or larger games in existing timeframes. Here is the actual quote from his own forums that proves I'm not just making this up:

So to quote "This isn't about rebooting v2.0". This year, he's rebooting v2 because he didn't like how certain bits played - again, his words - and so essentially he's rebooting the universe on a whim. Players did NOT ask for this (or those that did were definitely in the minority). This grates with the continuous references to "This is what you wanted" messages throughout the Kickstarter, which sounds like they're trying to convince themselves rather than the players.

So, SG (or Neil) has decided to produce v3, and have released various "sneak peeks" of these on their community, which have had a VERY mixed set of reactions. They are still talking about re-statting everything (in future tense, which is worrying given the timescale), which means testing must be difficult and it sounds like the rules are all over the place. They are also reacting to announcements - there is a Command Order that gives Terrans +2 Shields (which is plain dumb), which on reaction of "jeez that's stupid" they're saying "oh, yeah, we'll address that". Now I know some of you will be like "c'mon Alex, that means they're listening to their customers". Yes, you could say that, but to me it highlights fundamental issues with the developers understanding of the core game mechanics when they're missing such obvious faux-pas at such a later stage.

So how does this affect the KS? Well, I sure as hell wouldn't want to back a miniatures game KS that has rules so far from being finished. Just what am I buying into? The rules COULD be excellent, or they could be pure BS. We just don't know (though I'd say there's pretty compelling evidence at this stage which way it's heading, and the whiff of excellence is decidedly missing...). So Spartan are asking you to back this project regardless of what it's rules are...that's...well...bold would be one word for it.

The Background

One thing I constantly went on at Neil about during my tenure as Spartan Alex was filling out the background - people want a consistent, deep and detailed universe. I fleshed out a huge amount of this, and no interest was shown. Now it's great that SG are addressing this (at last), BUT....wait, what's this? "a revamped and improved narrative"...uh-oh, that sounds suspiciously like ret-con...and here's the killer line:

"...our major rewrite of past and present events truly sets the scene for the continued evolution of the Firestorm Galaxy."

Ugh - this is one of my personal hates of ANY games company...and the major question it raises in my mind is...why? Was there a fundamental flaw in the prior law (such as it was?). No. So why do it? Just to shoehorn in some more races for people ti buy? Firestorm already has one of the most diverse sets of races for ANY wargame, with over 20 individual races you can buy fleets for. Do we NEED any more? So why do it? Well, one thing is models - more races = more models, and Spartan are banking on people buying new shiny. We'll some to that in a minute.

First, back to fluff. Pathogen are being re-invented (unnecessary), Saurians are being introduced (also unnecessary, but I'll put this one as a "fair enough, some people want that" item), but worst of all, they're being introduced in a 2-player boxed set TOGETHER. Why is that a problem? Look at the Firestorm map - the Saurians are in the galactic Northwest, the Pathogen are across the other side, between the Sorylians and the Relthoza in the Rift. So somehow the Pathogen have travelled across the entire width of the Sorylian Collective, through a massive piece of Terran space and attacked the Saurians? How does that make any sense at all?

"But no, Alex, you've got it wrong - there are new galactic maps"....Oh god, so now they're literally changing the shape of their 8-year old universe to fit with a new retconned fluff? This just burns any background credibility of the universe for me. The problem is that Neil has layered his new narrative on top of a prior background which is wholly incompatible with it - like trying to paint watercolour on acrylic, it just doesn't stick - it feels flaky.

I've always maintained you need to build a universe from the ground up - what are the limitations of the drives used, how does communication work, what do people use for power etc - all of this gives a universe a centralised feel and theme, and frames future story writing. Without that, there are no bounds and it becomes an amorphous entity which feels completely ad-hoc. That doesn't mean you don't have flexibility or have to nail down every plank of wood, but you build the boxes that people can play within.

I'll reserve judgement until I see a copy (which I won't buy, obviously). but this part really turns me off as an existing player of the game.

Models

Let's talk about models. There are two factions touted in this expansion, the Saurians and Pathogen. Looking at the Saurians, Spartan have managed to create an aesthetic that is different to most of their existing fleets, which is a good thing.

The centrepiece of this is the Heavy Battleship, which is the main image shown on the Kickstarter page. There are no additional images of this on the page, though there is one of the BattleCarrier which is available as an add-on in the force pack for an extra £75 (which seems on the high side).

Whilst the aesthetic is not one I particularly like, it is distinctive and I'm sure there will be those out there that love them and we know the models will be nice, that's one thing Spartan are still able to do well. They're also introducing something that I (and many other players) introduced to their games years ago - dice trackers for HP & CP:

Not exactly innovation, but at least they've done this now - will be interesting to see if they have double ones for Large ships with >6 Hull Points and Crew Points. So far not, if their KS page is accurate.

They also show renders for the other side of the Saurians:

These are a more Battlefleet Gothic version of the fleet, and do nothing for me at all, though this is something Neil and I discussed a couple of years back - it would have been funny if they'd have done this before the BFG video game was released - and they may have gotten some uptake from BFG fans, but the timing for this just makes this an in-joke which goes nowhere.

We also see a border station for the Saurians:

Whilst this looks initially OK, I know that all those grey pieces are going to be acrylic, which Spartan does not do well and is pretty horrible for these sorts of models, Its got a bit of a Star Trek Deep Space vibe, but overall it's just going to be a big white elephant of a piece IMO - the thing is huge and I'm 99% sure there will be no decent rules for it on release - we've seen this a lot from SG.

OK, so moving onto Pathogen, let's see if Spartan have been listening since those uninspiring models they previewed at Adepticon:

Ugh! Yes, they listened...and produced Tyranid Turds. Oh dear. These have gone too far in the organic direction for me - first they were just Relthoza ships with some droopy bits, now they're pure organic chompy, which is a shame since Pathogen had such potential. Again, there will be players who like these models, and if I were a BFG player they would probably serve as better Tyranid ships than what I had, but these are once again quite disappointing. I'm not sure whether the tentacled turd Large or the Sperm Smalls are my least favourite, but I'm definitely not a fan of these. I think Spartan could have made some really unique models here - techno-hexagon surfaces with tentacles and angles - a fusion of organic and machine, more Geiger-esque than Mr Crapper.

We get a Battleship in the add-on expansion pack here too, which is less turd-like than the Assault Carrier but still too organic sea-life for me.

We also have some other models:

Hang on -these are the same transport ships that SG have been giving away for free with orders in their regular weekend fire-sales over the past few months! They're ok, nothing revolutionary or innovative here, they look like decent transport models which you can use in any game, but their inclusion in their KS is a bit odd, especially when the tagline is; "Often overlooked by gamers, scenery can be used to enhance not only the aesthetic of gameplay but can also vastly improve the overall gameplay."

Excuse me but "Often overlooked by Gamers..."? Do we, as gamers, overlook terrain? I don't think so, especially in Firestorm where terrain is a vital piece of the game - what are SG trying to tell us? "Hey, you idiots that forget scenery, we're making some so you don't in future". The dialogue is just baffling.

Also, the models are going to be delivered pre-coloured for those of us who don't what to paint. Eh? Tournaments in almost any game usually REQUIRE painting beofre play, and though most of us will admit to not painting enough, I don't know many mini wargamers that don't think this is part of the hobby. This isn't a board game. This isn't X-Wing. If I'm not painitng something, I want it pre-painted so it still looks good on the board, not just a purple-brown of baby-poo khaki lump of plastic. I kinda get the sentiment, but does SG really think its appeal is that broad? If they do, they're kidding themselves - do they really understand what their players want?

It's all what we asked for...

Well, apparently they do. Based on their Survey (that extensive one that lasted for slightly more than a single weekend), this is all what we wanted. Hmm, I'm calling BS on that one. Their survey was (as surveys go) massively flawed and very blinkered. They released a survey that would essentially tick one or more boxes on a couple of pathways they had pre-ordained, it wasn't a properly open survey asking for what players wanted in a way that was ever going to change their direction. 

What do I mean?

Well, I design a survey for a specific purpose - if I ask a question like "Would you like more models?" to an audience of gamers, I know the answer will be "Yes", because we all like models. That doesn't mean that Firestorm players wanted new factions. "Players want more background material" does NOT mean re-write the history of the universe. This underlies my big problem with SG at the moment, because they're STILL NOT LISTENING. Yes, they say they are, yes, people on the forums might be trying to engage people (like Spartan FA Mike), but at the end of the day these people are fans, not Spartan Games, and the core of SG have already made their decision, and then they bend the facts and survey results to support their pre-ordained decisions.

Spartan Neil has told us this already, if you read his blogs. Essentially there he said that he changed elements of the game because he didn't like them. Now that's fine - it's his company, his game, he can do what he likes - but that is NOT doing something "because players wanted it". We didn't. We wanted kins ironing out of what was one of the best minis games on the market, not it porting into a Halo/Planetfall/Firestorm/Dystopian Wars hybrid.

Kickstarter Campaign

The final issue I have here is that even as the most ardent Spartan Fanboy, this KS campaign is a bit of a fuck-up. I mean, they're only releasing the Illosians if they hit a KS goal. You only get a Pathogen Dreadnought as a KS exclusive. The add-ons for the Core races are renders of blank boxes, with a message telling you to go to the blog to find out more, when the blog is empty. That money still burning a hole in your pocket for this project?

For me, this feels like a money-grab, It feels like SG are trying to fund bad business decisions by using Kickstarter to shore up their day-to-day business. It feels like we're being lied to.

Now maybe that is the case, and all is shiny in Spartan's future, but I'm not seeing it. If I were an investor and looking for good growth shares, I'd be looking to GW and not SG right now. I mean, I know if I buy some GW stuff I can find a game nearby, and if I get bored I can shelve my stuff and bring it out in a couple of years and not much will have changed. Not sure I feel that way about my Spartan stuff.

So should I back the Kickstarter?

You're asking me? You know the answer. I'm going to wait a year or so and pick up the models I want in a show bargain bin. But hey, if you're that much of a fanboy and you believe SGs hype, sure, go ahead. While you're there, I've got a great time-share property proposal for you - you can't lose....

Cheap GaGa MILANO . GANZTON Airbrush - Is it worth it?

I saw an airbrush on Amazon a couple of weeks ago for £26.99 whilst looking for some other things, and noticed it had a 4.5 star rating...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B016PXGZ68/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here's a pic if the link dies (as Amazon often expires these things)

So this is a gravity feed, double action brush with three nozzles and a braided hose....for £27?? It can't be any good, right? Those star ratings must be from people who listed or work there, right? I mean, a braided airbrush hose will set your back £5 by itself from Amazon (in fact, one that looks suspiciously identical is listed for £5.12!), so we're talking about a double-action airbrush for around £20....that seems crazy.

As I was getting some airbrush cleaning things at the same time, I bought one of these on the basis that being £20 out of pocket for an experiment like this isn't a bad prospect. When it arrived, I was pretty surprised and impressed with what came.

That looks pretty identical with the Amazon picture - so far so good...

Opening the box I was surprised of the quality of what was on offer. I mean, the box and packaging is pretty standard cheap plastic fare, but the airbrush, hose etc all looked pretty good.

I don't have a braided hose, so I popped this out first - no issues from what I can see at all, standard 1/8" fittings with a 1/4" adaptor on one end.

Next up is this - a quick release adapter - another nice feature here

Again, no observable issues, all parts seem like they're good quality.

Last in the airline department is a moisture trap - I've a large trap on my line feed from my compressor, but this is a great little addition too. The only thing I don't like about this is the plastic connection - that type of plastic is pretty brittle and I can see it getting snapped off....

Now here's the main deal, the airbrush itself. I do have a Badger gravity feed brush, but the cup is so small I've never used it. This, on the other hand, has a nice big paint cup and (importantly for me, with the way I use my brushes!) a lid. It's nicely weighted, and feels very comfortable in the hand. You'll notice that it's branded GANZTON - which is different from the name I ordered (GaGa Milano), but its the same unit - when neither is a recognised brand name, does it matter? Not to me!

Here's the lid and rear guard taken off. The brush ships with a 0.2mm nozzle, but it also has 0.3 and 0.5 nozzles and needles supplied

I like the fact these are all individually packed and labelled - seems obvious but we've all struggled with unlabelled products sometimes!

Lastly, we have two pieces - one is essential, as it's the nozzle spanner, one is a little dropper that will be used once or twice and then thrown away. It's inclusion is nice but effectively irrelevant for me.

So I got this all hooked up to my existing compressor, and used it to prime a bunch of my Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 2 minis, as you can see in my former post. That's not really proper airbrushing, however, so I also had a go at a recent model kit I've finished - the Sturer Emil (or more accurately, the 12.8 cm Selbstfahrlafette auf VK30.01(H) - doesn't really roll off the tongue though!). For this I used Vallejo Black Primer, and a mixture of Tamiya black, white and Army Painter Cool Grey. I primed in balck, then mised a dark grey that I progressively lightened on the panels of the tank. Here are the results, which I am happy with, and am impressed by how smooth the brush functions, and how easy it's been to clean and keep running so far.

So if you're looking to get into airbrushing or just fancy another brush - this is a fine little piece of kit which costs not much more than the replacement parts you might need to keep your more expensive piece of kit running!

Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 2: Painting Sleeper & some IGOOs

OK, admission on mis-selling/advertising here - this isn't really painting the CWO2 minis, it's starting to paint them! There's a lot, and I also wanted to test out my new airbrush (more on that in another post), so this was really about priming them ready for painting. I went down the zenithal priming method, and I think it came out pretty well, as I hope you'll agree.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with zenithal priming, this involves three steps (all sprayed, I'm afraid - it's not impossible to do this by brush, but that's really better done with your final colours):

1. Prime the mini with a good-quality black primer - I use Vallejo and can't recommend it highly enough, it's great stuff - good coverage, sticks well and airbrushes like a dream.

2. Spray at 45 degrees with a mid-tone grey (I used Army Painter Cool Grey). This has the effect of covering the primer in all but deep overhangs, creating an illusion of depth - don't be worried if the effect is subtle at this stage, it'll soon pop at stage three.

3. Spray from directly overhead with white (in this case Tamiya Model Colour flat white). In practice, you need to spray from 90 degrees minus 10-15 degrees to create a good effect. Start with the directly overhead and then examine your mini to see how much you need to adjust - you'll get a feel for it quickly and it will differ depending on the make-up of the mini.

Here's it in action - Zenithal spraying (this isn't my video, but it illustrates the technique well and there's no point re-inventing the wheel)

So here's how the Sleeper faction turned out...first it's Tsathoggua

I think the fur really shows well using this technique. Next are the Wizards...

The cultists after that - again, the technique really shows up features like the robe folds well

I love the Formless Spawn - tentacles also come out well using this zenithal shading - you get good gradation and not such harsh definition as on some shapes which helps I think.

The Snake Men look good - elements of the cultists with the robes plus their heads have very clear definition

The High priest will probably need more post-work than the cultists, but the smaller elements here show up well, like the emblem on his chest.

I've found Sleeper challenging to play so far - I've not got the hang of them yet - played two games and come woefully behind in them both. Opener of the way, however, I blasted through and won easily - they're (quite literally!) monstrous!

I also had a bunch of IGOOs that I primed at the same time (oh, and some insects from Shaggai)...here they are:

This is one of my favourite figures:

So there you go - it might not look like much, but it does make the minis easier to paint and I think it enhances their appearance to play with them before they are painted. What do you think?

Overview of changes from v2 in Fanstorm

After the last post there were a certain portion of the Facebook fraternity (yes, they're all guys) who started trolling me and my post/blog. Now I don't mind healthy discussion, but when things start to get nasty, personal or just dull with people asking the same thing that you really don't have to justify, it's trolling. These ranged from people arguing that v1.5 was the best version ever and saying v2 was awful (yeah, really!), to unrelenting demands for evidence to be shown on my claims.

I guess this is inevitable, and I've set myself up for it by putting supposedly "controversial" statements into the public domain, but it still feels unpleasant. It made me think whether I should continue, or whether just to leave FA to v3 and walk away.

But guess what? This is a personal blog, it's my opinions, thoughts and feelings, and I don't HAVE to substantiate my claims beyond getting people to look at things themselves. Do I have evidence to support my claims? Yes. Is all of it in a format I could share? No - because some of it is in personal emails from Neil, some of it is from my former privileged access within Spartan which is not publicly available, and despite my lack of faith in Neil and his company's direction - and my vocal opposition to the things he's doing - I'm not Julian Assange!

So if my writings make you angry, if you don't believe my claims - that's fine. Don't read my blog, don't read my Facebook posts, just carry on - if all is good and I'm an annoying fly buzzing around, you have nothing to worry about, do you? If you think I've got "sour grapes" or am just grinding a personal grudge, then leave me to it - how can it affect you? When TheoryMachine release Fanstorm, don't even look at it - how can it be of interest? Here's a thought - you're probably not the demographic I want to support anyway.

In any case, I am going to continue, so like it or lump it!

The people I DO want to support are those I've always wanted to support, those invested in the Firestorm universe as it developed from v2 release. Those who have bought into that (sometimes in a large way) and have felt let down and disappointed by unfulfilled promises. Those who crave more depth and background in their FA universe that works with the prior background and timelines (such as they are) and flesh out the technologies and structures therein. People who like the structure and playstyle of FA in v2, but want those tweaks made to make the game flow better than it did before, without losing the complexity of the game.

FA is a relatively "chunky" wargame - it's got lots of stuff in it. It's like 40k in that regard, rather than X-Wing. It SHOULD be a 90-120 (maybe 180) minute game, not a 30-60 minute game. That's what Fanstorm is aiming to do - preserve (or actually increase) the tactical depth of the game, whilst making elements identified by the bulk of the community and metas faster or flowing more easily.

So what does this mean? What changes were the FFG looking at and how does that affect Fanstorm - in short, what is due to change in Fanstorm, what will it give you? 

1. Making movement faster/easier. I've already described this in prior blogs.Someone has commented that "Firestorm doesn't need templates" - well, true, it doesn't NEED them. So why did we look at this as a solution? Well, they have been playtested worldwide with a number of groups, and most like them....there's a couple of reasons for that I believe. 
1. It makes predicting movement easier, because a template shows where you'll end up (roughly) before you move the model, and "rewinding" ship movement is a time-killer. This means you can see where movement will leave you touching other stuff before starting - this is really important in the later stages of the game (or "the knife fight"). 
2. It makes movement easier whilst preserving the "feel" of existing FA movement (since you're still describing a polygon of the same radius. In fact, I'd argue that the movement feels more like space combat movement than v2.0, because it's more fluid on the tabletop.
2. Adjusting SRS. This is a hugely controversial topic, and one solution is unlikely to satisfy everyone's personal likes in this regard. The route we talked about most was to remove PD from bombers entirely, keeping their potency but making them very vulnerable to Interceptor cover. Interceptors are "attached" to squadrons for PD support, preventing wholesale PD wall spamming. They can also be "attached" to large tokens to provide protection on attack runs. Fighters now become more useful because they do a little of both roles, a bit less well. So you can run in two squadrons of Bombers on a target, but if the opposing player can get Fighters or Interceptors there, they're going to get mauled. This makes SRS collaborative, and not just a plain binary choice between Bombers or Interceptors. There are reasons for taking the other SRS types too (more below)
3. Firing Options. Linking is a bugbear of some (not all) players of FA. It can get a bit complex at times with squadrons of partly damaged ships with multiple linking weapons...what dice do you roll? We tossed this around a lot, and the best way seemed to be to have a second stat for every weapon showing their linking values, and then just subtract all damage from the linked pool before rolling. This makes calculation faster, and also opens up some design space where some weapons are better than others at linking. We also looked at other options, like Targeted Strikes, which are hardly used in FA v2.0. Moving to a Heavy Dice mechanic for them, together with a redesign of the TS table increases their potency without making them indispensable. Overwatch was also introduced to add another tactical option without any real increase in complexity - we determined it would probably be little used, but situationally it would be important to have, so why not?
4. Fleet Building. This was one of the highlight innovation successes of v2, but it was restrictive in some ways - releasing new ship types for a race caused issues if it didn't already have it in there, and it was possible to build some effective spam lists. Fanstorm approaches this by using a more fluid definition of Tier level based on a ships value. This provides much more design flexibility and actually allows much more balanced but creative list building, with no extensive calculations.
5. The Aquans. This is really about points balancing and adjustment. Because SRS can be spammed easily by the Aquans (and the Relthoza), and the Aquans have lots of arcs of fire, and are quite forgiving to play they're often seen as "easy mode", especially by new players. This is an issue because perception is reality, but actually is addressed a lot by a variable threshold fleet building tool and some overall recosting. The Aquans should be a highly efficient, highly technological race but without the reserves to field masses of top-tier stuff, which the current rules allow. What they have is very points-efficient, but they have to grow their ship hulls, meaning they should be (from a fluff perspective), a bottom-heavy race. What plays at the moment is the exact opposite. These unintended effects occur in a few races, but its actually very simple to rebalance that without nerfing the hell out of anyone.
6. Command & Control. We saw an opportunity to have a more structured C&C function than the FTB/TAC card/Admiral interaction in existing FA, to add some tactical depth to this and other elements. As such, we introduced Command Allocation Dice - a pool generated at the start of a turn and used for various effects - re-rolls of disorder and repair checks, overwatch fire, TAC cards, Admiral special abilities and Cyberdefence. As they're dice it's easy to track, since when you roll it it's gone - and everyone has lots of dice in FA to use in this regard. It also adds flavour to races such as the Directorate, who wear down the CAD pool, but also allows the opposing player to be more tactical with their cyberdefence, rather than the "Dindrenzi are immune, Sorylians are very vulnerable" result that using FTB had in v2
7. Terrain. Some Terrain needed tweaks, and interactions with terrain clarified in some areas (e.g. the ghost ship/station). The main issue with terrain was how much to put down and how - a more structured way to build your gaming tables is presented.
8. Cyberwarfare. You either love it or hate it, and it feels either OP or worthless - in effect down to a table where 33% of the time you generated a Hazard marker. These are now tweaked to make them more appealing and consistent, without making them direct weapons
9. Mines. Although I never really had an issue with v2 mines, some people did - especially in where they come in the order of play, specifically making "drive by" minings that are indefensible a thing. Making Mines regular indirect weapons solves this to a large extent...drive by minings put the mining ship equally at risk....
10. Damage, Degradation & Repair. The double degradation method with HP and CP affecting AD was complex for new players, and didn't add much to the game. We got rid of CP affecting AD, and instead had it affect repair instead, which seems much more logical and interesting.
11. Streamlining MARs. There are a lot of MARs in FA, and not all of them are extensively used or particularly useful, so an examination or those and making them either more useful or getting rid of them entirely seemed like a good idea. Also, MARs that required iterative dice rolls (like Torpedo Spook - which force re-rolls) were looked at to see if the feel/effect of the MAR could be preserved whilst reducing the time to resolve it. So in the case of Torpedo Spook, halving the defensive PD successes of a target is a faster (and more consistent) way of reducing the effectiveness of PD than re-rolling those same dice. Additional dice-rolling steps where they don't add much to the overall experience is always a preferable route.

Now is this going to be universally loved? Probably not - but the beauty of Fanstorm is that if people adopt it and think things should be changed, we can look at them and do what the community wants - or provide solid reasons why we think that would alter other aspects of the game.

Anyway, let me know if you think this sounds interesting, and it's worth TheoryMachine finishing the ruleset - we don't want to just waste our time on something no one wants, after all.

What the Firestorm....??

We're starting to get rules snippets from SG now about v3 of Firestorm Armada....and for me, this does not bode well. Let's have a look at a few of these;

1. Cloaks

Cloaks have been significantly reduced in value - models shooting at a cloaked model now use HEavy (blue) dice rather than Exploding (red) dice. Now I'm certainly not against introduction of the Red-Blue-Black dice mechanics in FA - they would fit well in certain areas, and it's a change myself and the FFG suggested, so it's nice to see some things come through.

Cloaks, however, are not one area that I believe this is a good thing. This essentially nerfs cloaks to the same as in PF, and it makes them sh*t. I always advocated that PF and FA stats should align as far as possible (something that did not happen), and that FA lore should over-rule PF lore, as it came first and was established. This also did not happen - and we have giant space dino-eldars kitted out with nose-rings and howdahs...just stooopid.

The Relthoza being masters of nano-tech and stealth doesn't come through when you're reducing the effectiveness of a cloak by a massive amount - Exploding dice normally have a hit probability overall of 0.8 per die, whereas on a cloaked model in FA v2 you halve your AD, making the probability approximately 0.4 (it's actually slightly lower on a macro level since you round down in FA) - so your attacks are half as effective, i.e. 50%.

Non-exploding "heavy" die have a hit probability of 0.67%, which means they're 83.75% as effective as exploding dice - or a 16.67% reduction in effectiveness. So Cloaks went from being 50% effective at reducing incoming fire to 16.67% effective. Wow - that seems utter garbage.

2. Movement

So it seems we're going down the Halo route of pivots for FA. This is personally something I don't like, but of course it remains to be seen how it pans out. I'm not against pivots as a mechanic, I just think it alters the "feel" of Firestorm, so I think it shouldn't be there. It's a rather imprecise tool too, since you're using the model's own base, you move it without putting a marker for where the edge was and you could open up the possibility for arguments....not something I've ever relished. With the "drift" mechanic (which sounds just like an unnecessarily rebranded minimum move/turn limit), you're also going to encounter the same issues with movement that FA v2 has when it comes to the knife fight - which was one area the FFG looked specifically at resolving.

3. Fleet Building

OMG - going back to %age MFV values? Are you F*cking kidding me? The %age system is easy to say, but a b*stard to use daya to day, and VERY open to abuse. It's also difficult to introduce new ships because if you get the points wrong, it can be impossible to field them in some games. In short, there are more min-max options that are difficult to spot if they are legal or not, and test - since balance is all about testing, this isn't going to allow much time for that, so I don't expect v3 to be balanced in any sensible sense of the word.

4. Weapons

So there are some good things here - one is that they're using a suggestion by the FFG (even if they don't admit it or credit us) about how to deal with linking easily, and that is to have 2 values for weapons - one to use for being the focus fire (or lead) ship, and one for if you're joining in...makes on the fly maths easier.

They've renamed the range bands, which is just stupid and unnecessary. Point Blank? In a starship combat game? Come on! <sigh> Also, the "WARs" (Weapon Assigned Rules) now replace coherence effects (which again seems unnecessary), and some are direct ports from those that already don't really work in Planetfall, so I'm not a fan. Kinetic Weapons are going to be hellish in this edition, now the Dindrenzi don't have to worry about fixed arcs and their weapons f*ck shields. Sorylians get a kick in the teeth since it seems scatter weapons now only work in RB1 (not going to use the stupid name for that!).

Overall

In short, what we seem to be seeing is a wholesale copy/paste from Planetfall with some small concessions to prior FA....but not many. Thsi si feeling a lot like the clusterfuck that v1.5 was, but in a much, much larger way at a time when FA and Spartan can't afford to do this. I don't see this winning over existing players who want a bit of a fatser game or attracting people from other wargames. All it seems to be doing is aligning PF & FA closer together in ways that don't make any sense, and actually detract from former strengths of the game.

Let's face it, if you like FA now, this is unlikely to float your boat, because too many things have been messed with, seemingly arbitrarily. I swear to god if the next change is that Fleet Guides are announced as ORBATS I'm going to have to physically hurt someone!

The big question to me, however, is how on earth are they going to balance all these changes before release? The answer? I don't think they're going to even really try. I think they're going to do a Planetfall v1 and release and change on the fly until it seems to be ok-ish. The problem there being that took over a year for PF v1, and by the time they'd done it they'd lost interest in the game ad abandoned it for...well, until now, actually. The issue with FA at this point is that PF was a new, exciting game with lots of models and it was ground combat and...ohh, new shiney! etc. FA is not that, and it's lost a huge amount of its playerbase. Where are they going to get balancing feedback from? The existing beta-group plus a few more people? How well is that going to work?

Now there is a good outcome here - it's strengthened my resolve to finish Fanstorm! 

Fanstorm Armada - the Autonomous Miyveen Protectorates

So something positive about Firestorm Fanstorm Armada....

The Illosians have always been one of my favourite factions in Firestorm that have never had any attention from Spartan save for some stats in v1. They had a back-story (such as they are in Firestorm), and that was about it. They are the rebellious children of the Aquan Sebrutan, and supporters of the Zenian League. I really wanted SG to release them, because they sounded cool and they were crab-men...what's not to like?!

The Fallout Mirelurk nails what I imagine the Miyveen to look like....

As Firestorm had an aneurism sometime in late 2015/early 2016, the chances of me ever seeing decent Illosians on the table from SG are vanishingly small - snowball in nuclear blast level of probability I think. Since Hawk released Dropfleet Commander, however, this is no longer a problem, since the Shaltari fit the alien derivative of Aquan sleek aesthetic rather well. What's needed then is the narrative and a working set of stats for v2.0. 

Well look no further, here I present to you "The Autonomous Miyveen Protectorates" for you to use in your games, using whatever proxies you fancy. 

The Autonomous Miyveen Protectrates

The TheoryMachine group worked on these stats, and they have been playtested worldwide, but I'm interested in feedback as always, and hope you have fun with them - they're another faction for the Zenian League (which needs them compared to the Alliance of Kurak), but not one that's suddenly been shoe-horned into the galaxy like the upcoming Saurians, which have never had stats or background before. 

The Illosians have always been around (though that name is what the Aquans call them due to their origins on Illosi) - the name change is to make them mine (rather than SGs) and to make them easy to differentiate from the Xelocians - the names for these two races were always too close for my liking. 

What I'm hearing about v3 has encouraged me to continue with v2.5, because I think v3 is not a game I would like to play - too many fundamental changes to the core game mechanics for my liking. Most players agree that v3.0 should be v2.5, that v2.0 did not need completely revising - so that's what myself and TheoryMachine are going to give you - the game Spartan should have worked on. Until then, enjoy the Miyveen!

Spartan redefines stupid with Firestorm Strike Force and Kickstarter

Well, it's been a very busy month for me of late with work - end of quarter, commercial training for my European Team, PMDs (Performance Management Discussions - those 6-monthly reviews everyone loves) and lots of travel - Copenhagen, Barcelona, Darmstadt.....

It's been busy out of those times too - birthdays, keeping the garden under control, working on the house - all stealing time from hobby (apart from our regular Friday night 5e D&D session). I started several blog posts, but haven't had the time to complete them - until today.

Checking through my emails, there's the (ir)regular Spartan Games newsletter. A while back they announced v3.0 of Firestorm would be funded through Kickstarter. That made me exasperated, because I know some people are still invested enough in the universe to fund it, and I believe they're throwing good money after bad. I read the blog which "explained" some of their reasoning - which turned out to be "Neil wanted v3 of FA" so that's why they're doing it. Stupid reason, but still, I'm divested enough from the game to make some commentary on Facebook and leave it be.

Then today what do I find but an announcement for "Firestorm Strike Force" - a fighter combat board game....WTF?? The  I remembered a couple of conversations I'd had with Neil 18-24 months before where he talked about wanting to do a fighter combat game in the FA universe. I eluded to the fact that that would be difficult with X-Wing dominating the market, and maybe as part of the extended game it could work, but there was still a lot of stuff to do in the FA universe first.

Unbelievable. Trying to cram in a board game in that hugely saturated market, and a board game of fighter combat - which as I already mentioned is pretty solidly blocked out by X-Wing anyway, seems insane. Launching it within an existing franchise is smart, but only if that existing franchise has some market presence, which FA really doesn't. So GW would make this work in 40k (as they did), but even they have rolled aerial combat into their core rule set.

So is it really that unbelievable? Well, I don't think so. Let me go back to the point above about why v3 of FA is coming - because Neil wants it to happen. Why is Strike Force coming? Because Neil wants it to happen. Why did SG restructure the "working pretty well" structure of FA/DW? Because Neil wanted to.

Now all of that is fine - Neil Fawcett is the creative director of SG, after all - it's his company, he can do whatever he likes with it. The problem I have with that is the good people who have genuine faith in his words that will waste good money on these products and get taken down with the good ship "HMS SG Titanic". Spartan Games is clearly in trouble - companies doing well with increasing market share don't suddenly switch from a standard retail model to Kickstarter to fund their core IPs.

That's a big problem for me. I have a team of 16 people reporting to me, and decisions I make often have a direct impact on their lives. Neil has a company with about the same number of people (maybe a few more) who absolutely depend on his decision making abilities for their jobs - and he makes BAD corporate decisions. Creating new games and changing direction and structure because of personal whims is fine when no-one cares or depends on you. Doing it when that is the case is a massive arrogance, and shows an underlying ego which borders on the pathological.

In big companies (or small companies that get big and sustain themselves), these huge egos are often used but tempered - so the role of a Creative Director is balanced by the business manager and the CFO etc - committees and reviews, checks and balances that stop companies slitting their own throats when it comes to their direction. Sometimes they still get it wrong, but the risks are less, and usually have countermeasures in place for the "what if this doesn't work" scenario.

The problem with Spartan is this is not a company that has learned from prior mistakes of this kind - the 15mm DW Kickstarter that never was comes to mind - indicating a directive force that was so out of step with its customer base it was shocking. Now SG are here doing it all over again.

So what does this mean for SG long term? For me, I don't see a Spartan long term. The ego that drove the company to prominence in the early days is now driving the company to more erratic and ever-wilder decisions, and negative feedback is not only ignored, but countered - SG were actually arguing on Facebook with their customers, FFS!!! Neil, who was the initiator of the company because he wanted to make himself nice models, has now donned the grim reaper robes and scythe for exactly the same reason - because he still thinks that SG exists to make nice models that he likes, rather than build excellent games with integrated universes that serve people.

For me this is the problem with SG, and its the difference between management and leadership. Anyone can tell someone what to do when they've authority over them - that's management. Not everyone can tell people their vision and then demonstrate that in a way that makes people want to follow it. Spartan started back in 2009 by leading, now they're just trying to manage. Unfortunately they've no authority over their customers, which is why I can't see them existing in the mid-long term. Hell, even the short term is looking chancy.

Apologies for the long monologue, but I've been involved in business improvement since 2007, and it makes my blood boil when I see companies pressing the self-destruct button, especially when they've good products. I'll post something more positive next time...until then, have a great summer everyone....and don't buy Strike Force or fund Kickstarters for games with player-bases that are dropping like stones.... :-)