Invasion ships unboxing - Sorylians

Completing the Kurak Alliance are the Sorylians with their Bastion fleet...

I especially like this set because it's different in composition to the others - and that actually raises another point here, the way that they're all named factionally is nice too. It ties the factions to their fluff more and makes the release feel less cookie cutter in my view. Anyway, let's get to the models.

Ten ships for the Sorylians, more than any of the other factions. This goes with their existing fleet compositions, with large squadrons of smalls.

This time I'm going to start with the rather gorgeous Amentum battlecruiser, a vessel that has both the largest number of parts of any of the invasion ships, and which is also one of the best looking. It has three drop-on pieces for the engines, three for the invasion canister things (you can see one placed at the chin of the model above) and a standard flight stand peg insert - 8 parts, 2 ships, 16 components in total

After that is the Katar

Slightly smaller than a standard Falcata, the Katar is a single-piece resin ship (plus flight stand insert), in stark contrast to the Amentum

It is no less gorgeous, however!

Finally the Corvus Frigate - probably the weakest design of the set (it has a difficult job compared to the other ships!).

Even so, it's still a beautifully moulded single piece.

Another point I haven't made with any of these ships so far is how well they are moulded - flash is almost non-existent, and where it does occur it is flimsy and easily dealt with. Moulding pour inserts are likewise simply removed and clean up well, and are generally located in sensible places. 

Sorylian players should be very happy with this release, and I can see Amentum's being used as non-Planetfall ships and to proxy for the Hasta for those that don't like that ships particular aesthetic.

Invasion ships unboxing - Terrans

Next up in the Invasion ships release are the Terrans, with their Charter Enforcement Fleets.

I've covered the main points of what else is included in the Aquan blog post, so I won't repeat myself here, but instead concentrate on the ships themselves, and here they are.

So you get eight ships in total...let's start with the Nadir Frigates

These are similar in size to a Terran Armsmen Frigate. and they share many common elements, which is great as it ties in very well with the fluff and really gives the impression that this is a ship that has been developed in conjunction with or adapted from the standard Frigate.

So here you can see the rear of the ship is identical to the Armsmen, the engines etc all standard, and then the main changes start to come in the front two thirds of the ship. This is also very apparent from underneath;

The front is also completely different, with a short runway (Aerial Helix, perhaps?) and hanger entrance etc. Overall it's a very flavourful ship for this theme.

Next in line is the Horizon Assault Cruiser. This is a slab-hulled ship, unmistakably Terran and with design cues from many Terran sources.

The last ship in the set is the Solar class carrier

This is an interesting ship, the fluff mentions Hawkers extensive involvement in its development, and that comes through in the model - the elevated bridge/viewing platform is very Hawker-esque, but otherwise there are again many familiar Terran cues, so it really does feel like a co-developed design. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...

Overall, these continue the theme of the Invasion ships in the prior blog - some interesting designs with beautifully moulded detail. Any Terran commander would be proud to field them I feel!

Invasion ships unboxing - Aquans

With Halo released, I can turn my attentions back to my real space combat interest...Firestorm Armada :-)

The most recent release here are the System Wars invasion fleets, and I'm going to start with the Aquans today.

So the box is exactly what we expect from SG, but this time it comes emblazoned with a banner declaring the System Wars booklet. Opening the package, we again see the familiar layout of resin in bubble wrap bags and accessories in ziplock bag - and once again it's a pretty full box!

Setting all this out...

So in addition to the resin and accessories, you get the System Wars Phase 1 supplement booklet and an A5 sheet of pre-cut generic defence platforms and 2 planets. Now let's look at the resin!

If you're expecting a weighty haul or resin ships, you will not be disappointed! you get 9 ships, 4 tokens, microdice and flight peg insets. Invading a planet is a dangerous business, and these ships are hardy, which translates into models as big! Here's the Antiarchi frigate with an Isonade cruiser....

It's a lovely tadpole of a model....

 ...and the detail is fantastic - I especially like the "roe" underneath together with the rotary pod launcher...

...with it's little mouth at the front! Very cool.

Moving onto the Assault cruisers;

Again, it's a big, chunky ship compared to the stiletto of the Isonade, with some great detail, including deep incuts...once again Spartan have done an astonishing job of moulding these ships.

 Again, detail on the underside is good, and this ship is apparently male....!

Lastly we move onto the Nectridea...

Now this is a really interesting ship - one of the best designs I think in this release (and there are a HEAP of good designs!).

It's got a heap of design cues from prior ships, but its also got some unique elements. It's unmistakably Aquan, anyway.

Underneath are more of the "roe", pus some very nice looking iris bay doors.

The ship is chunky and has a similar launcher thing at the front. Moving onto the booklet now...

This is a typical Spartan product, nicely produced and a nice bonus to the boxes.

It includes three main elements - the Planetfall Rewards table for playing linked Firestorm and Planetfall games (more on this in another future post);

...Four Invasion missions...

...and a commander for each of the core races - hopefully we will see more artwork like this.

Interestingly, no stats are present in the book, either for the ships or on how to use the Commanders - these are all available on the Downloads section of the SG website, however. This is a nice way of doing things, since you have a nice shiny book for reference, but stats can be kept up-to-date and errata'd easily through the on-line stats.

The last element is the card scenery;

This is double-sided, so you can choose your planet colour, and includes four "defence platforms". This is a nice addition since one of the scenarios calls for Defence Platforms, and if you don't have any this allows you to get right into it...no forcing you to buy products you don't want from Spartan!

Overall, this is a really nice set and a cool addition to the Firestorm Universe. the models are exactly what you'd expect from Spartan, and the addition of the System Wars booklet provides a very fluffy experience.