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!

Aerial Helix Unboxings - Alliance of Kurak Core Races

For the second part of the Planetfall Aerial Helix unboxings we have the ships of the Kurak Alliance Core races. You may have seen a sneak peak of the Terrans already in the last painting update, but we'll cover those again anyway. Given that, we may as well tackle them first...

Opening the box and getting to the resin we have four interceptors and one heavy interceptor, the first requiring only their jet exhaust adding, the heavy requiring two of these plus having a rear-mounted pod as well.

The models are nicely moulded with a minimum of casting flash, the heavy just needing the pouring lugs cutting off, which are nicely located where the exhausts will be glued - always nice to see a manufacturer thinking about this sort of thing in its production methods - kudos to you, Martin and your team! 

Taking a closer look at the interceptor, I rather like the "just in the future" look of these vehicles, they're very sleek and compact, and are a nice contrast to the Hawker planes, which i also really like. I also like how they are essentially the same as the SRS tokens from Firestorm...a nice little tie-in.

Underneath the models lose nothing in the way of detail, having six detailed missiles sculpted on, and with an integral flight stand holder.

Moving onto the heavy, again I really like the look of this, though I'm not sure it really screams "interceptor" to me...it looks like a ground attack and transport craft, but that's just my interpretation. 

 Detail on this model is superb, there's even a hatch sculpted into the underside to where the pod fits - very cool.

The pod itself is a bit of a mystery to me, it makes the whole thing feel a little like Thunderbird 2 - which while being no bad thing, again it doesn't personally chime with the interceptor theme. It's very nice though - I half expect it to launch out a couple of jetbikes or something!

OK, onto the aliens, specifically the Aquans

The Aquans are getting some very cool stuff in Planetfall (as they have in Armada), and the aerial helix is no exception

The five ships you get are all one-piece, the simplest in any of the helix boxes, but don't let that fool you in any way...these are not simplistic or basic in any way. The designs are beautiful, elegant and menacing at the same time.

The interceptors are sweet models, instantly recognisable as Aquan and they tie in extremely well with the existing Planetfall releases.

The Heavy interceptor is one of my favourite models from this release, it's like the interceptors but looks faster and meaner. It has lovely flowing lines and the sculpting is fantastic...10/10 for the Aquans I think!

Last (and for me, the least) for the Kurak Alliance are the Sorylians.

Now, I don't hate this box, it just puzzles me slightly...especially given the models that SG have just announced for the ground attack helix for the Sorylians. First, let's have a look at what you get in the box...

...it's a lot of stuff! Each of the interceptors is a six-piece model;

So there's the central pod, the two engines, two "winglets" and the flight stand holder insert. That gives us pod racers. Hmmmm. Now, it's an ok concept I guess, but again I'm looking at this with my suspension of disbelief eye...the rider is exposed, and even in a future with shields and power armour, this just seems unnecessary for such a practical and pragmatic race as the Sorylians. One possible answer would be that the lack of a physical cockpit gives the pilot an unprecedented field of view...but that argument is really shot down (excuse the pun) by the TERRIBLE field of view this guy is going to have whilst hunched over the controls - his forward vision is a measly 20 degrees between those pods, his forward down FOV is about the same. Again, you could argue that in the far future instruments will provide all this data, but in that case why have him exposed at all? Simply put, I'd prefer this model if the pods were under the line of the fuselage and in line with the pod. Having seen renders opf the ground attack ships, that's kinda what I'd expect of the interceptors. In fact, in all probability we'll simply swap with these models - these simply look and feel more like ground attack craft than interceptors.

Now that's not to say that these are not bad sculpts, by the way - as always, the execution of the designs and moulding is second-to-none - the pods in particular have some fabulous detail, and will really benefit from some nice painting.

The Heavy Interceptor, in stark contrast, is GREAT. It has a solid, purposeful design, looks Sorylian and has some great engineering features - like separated engine nacelles and the FOD guards on the intakes.There's also no discernable canopy, which further highlights the oddity of the pod racer design of the interceptor. 

casting on this model is also fabulous, again Spartan blow me away with how they cast items like this in a single piece and retain the complexity and detail of the designs - masterful!

Overall, the aerial helixes are again a somewhat mixed bag, though with 5/6 designs being absolutely top-notch that's not a bad win rate. The Sorylian pod racers are another "quirky" design that will be another marmite design choice that may put people off, though I think it's modular design and overall quality mean that it'll be easy to assemble into another, non-pod racer configuration. Spartan get it right more often than not, and their high standard of output has led us to expect an awful lot from them...we're lucky people really!

System Wars Part 4 - Commanders

In this final instalment of the System Wars review, I will cover the subject of the new Commanders for Firestorm Armada, both their rules, reasoning and the individuals themselves.

To start with, why have commanders in FA at all? Well, the FA universe has been developing in several ways over the past year or so, and with the development of Halo, Commanders became the subject of discussion for Firestorm too...Obviously they have a role to play in Halo, but that is a game designed with them in mind - could they be added to Firestorm in a way that was compatible with the existing mechanics of the game without feeling simply "bolted on" or unbalancing?

Well, the answers to these questions are of course, yes they can, and having them introduces another layer of tactical options for players, in a similar way to Hardpoints and Upgrades on ships. Now, Halo uses Command Dice in order to unlock special abilities, but an additional random element within the Firestorm universe was not viewed as either necessary nor desirable. Firestorm Commanders were thus developed completely separately from Halo commanders, as was the rest of the Halo ruleset, so whilst Halo was an initiator for the discussion, that's where the input ended.

One thing that was strongly desired was that these should be an optional add-on, and they should NOT be dominating in the game...I think everyone has seen the likes of Typhus or Marneus Calgar in 40k, strutting up and down almost every small skirmish force on both sides because they're so good (or at least they were when I played!). For me, special characters should bring something both positive and negative, so they remain a choice, rather than an auto-take. They should be interesting, rather than amazing!

So let's look at the mechanics of the Commanders and see how they work.

Firstly, there are some rules about adding a commander to your force - they take up a TAC slot, and can only be fielded for a force of the same race (no Sorylian commanders in Aquan forces, for example). As they represent your Fleet Admiral's commanding structure (i.e. their boss - they're not on the board), they grant effects usually without the Fleet Admiral being present (although that's not always the case). The effects they have are given in four broad areas - Expertise, Alliances, Fleet Build and Upgrades - these latter being optional (the first three are all compulsory changes). So right off the bat these guys are costing you something in terms of in-game flexibility.

Ok, given these generalities, let's look into individual commanders to see the implementation;

Guardian Shoal Assembler Ssirrin Tsalas

So Ssirrin sets the scene for us on the Commanders, with a nice piece of artwork of a new Aquan species (which I really like) and some accompanying background. After this are his (its?) adjustments to the standard rules.

Expertise: So this chap is a Planetfall specialist, so you get the option to add more Planetfall ships to your fleet using your existing fleet point allocation. This is pretty much self-balancing, since you're degrading your combat capability to potentially net battle log from Planetfall MAR ships landing on the objective, so it's potentially risky.

Alliances: This one is easy, since he has no special effects here

Fleet Build: Here you can exchange one frigate in a maxed out squadron with a standard cruiser. It has to take the Difficult Target MAR, which means its a more expensive squadron by some points, but adds quite a bit in terms of offensive power (plus some torpedoes and a few mines of course). It does yield an extra Battle Log when destroyed, however, so again you get extra utility at extra cost and risk - is it worth it? Well, every commander can choose if it is or not!

Upgrades: Here this card sets a trick that several of the commanders do, and that is to allow some utility at the cost of extra TAC slots. In this case you are able to reduce the retrieval cost of the +2 initiative TAC to 0...BUT that costs you 2 TAC slots....and given that the commander himself takes one it means you have to buy the Intel gathered card with battle log, and you are limited to only one other TAC (which you will also have to buy). Now, its a powerful ability, but thats a lot of tactical flexibility you're giving up for the chance to win initiative every turn...

So this is the general pattern of all the commanders - they can give you some powerful buffs in certain situations, but there is always a downside or a tactical impact to consider. Overall Ssirrin is a solid commander- he allows Aquand's to get the edge in activation dominance with his Upgrade, though that then restricts the fleets general TAC breadth pretty dramatically. Increasing the power of Tier 3 frigate squadrons is nice, but it makes fleets more expensive, and the Aquans have a lot of really solid choices already, so again this will be very dependent on individual player's styles - which is exactly as it should be, of course!

 Fleet Marshall, Gamma - Savar G. Bilitas

Expertise: This can add 2" to a ships move if they don't turn, which is useful for getting Planetfall ships down early or gaining some range from an enemy towards the end of the game. Not that useful in general for the Dindrenzi who typically want to maintain distance as long as possible, but it may have situational application

Alliances: Savar doesn't like the RSN (they are restricted and cost more in his fleet builds), which means his fleets get to take lots of other allies if they want, making him open up a host of fleet-building possibilities. The downside to this is that you lose access to the most powerful TAC available to the Dindrenzi, the Eye of Rense - not a problem anyway if you were going down the Alliance route, but it does hurt you in pure builds. Overall this means Alliances are the favoured choice here, meaning you can mitigate some of the Dindrenzis typical weak points with other races fleet ships, which is pretty nice - especially if you want a change from typical Dindrenzi/RSN builds

Fleet Build: Savar allows you to take the Legion at 800 points, and as we've already covered, the Legion is a brutal ship. You can also field multiple Assault Carriers at higher points, which with his Alliance abilities makes for some very interesting possibilities...Legion and Ootheca anyone? Unfortunately you get reduced access to Battleships, which are some of the Dindrenzi's strongest vessels, and this feels like a fair trade.

Upgrades: Savar's only upgrade is a pretty nice one - you get to use TACs when your Fleet Admiral is off the board. This has use both at lower point builds where you're putting your Admiral on a carrier or battlecruisers, for instance (useful as you can't take a Battleship) - meaning you can shunt them in and not worry about being able to play TACs when you need them. Another use is late game when your Admiral's ship has taken damage and you want to shunt them out - you still get access to your TACs afterwards. The Yang to this Ying is that you have to pay Battle Log points to play them when your admiral isn't on the board, and you don't get to retrieve them unless he's present - again, a pretty evenly balanced ability.

I really like "The Silent Savage", he looks like a thug but he's a quiet and clever tactician who plays it straight...very Dindrenzi! He's some nice tricks, which although apprently straightforward give him a great deal of flexibility...the devil, as they say, is in the detail.

Acquisition Director Olga Anasenko

With one of my favourite pieces of artwork for the commanders, next up is the cyber-granny from the Directorate!

Expertise: Directorate fleets already get a lot of tricks, and Olga's expertise is very situational, but basically makes it harder for Ambush fleets to surprise her fleets. Revealing Hidden set-up markers within 12"is a 50% boost to normal range, and means if a squadron is revealed involutarily, it is then going to get hammered by RB2 weapons - Directorate ships having turrets makes this almost certain. This means that players who know you are going to be using Olga are going to be more reluctant to use Ambush - meaning you're having an influence on fleet building even before the game starts, and making her very useful against Sorylian/Veydreth fleet builds.

Alliances: This is where I feel most people will see the utility in taking Olga for a spin - the ability to take the arch-rivals OSO & Works Raptor together in a fleet. They cost more if you want them to work together, but you can do it. Together these two have some really nasty combos.

Fleet Build: More Assault Cruisers! What's not to like? Well, loss of R&D ships, which some will not care about and others will hate. The Directorate is (as I mentioned before) a real "jack of all trades" fleet, with lots of tools available...restricting these will be unpopular with those who see utility in those tools. Facing Terrans, for instance, it's nice to have Turmoils which ignore their multiple layered shields...unfortunately Olga doesn't allow that option.

Upgrades: Here we have the first of the commanders with multiple Upgrades. First, she can reduce the effectiveness of deployed mines - useful against Aquan mine-heavy fleets and in Invasion mission 9 - Reinforcement. It costs Battle log to do this, but again its psychological effect on pre-game fleet building is valuable in itself. Secondly, Integration assault carriers can be configured as cyberwarfare vessels - giving you access to cyberware capacity that you no longer have in your R&D Cruisers. Not for everyone, but that's why it's an optional upgrade.

Amirah Vvivirrin Ith’ik’iss K’ssirr

The Relthoza are the next race to feature, with Vvivirrin K'ssirr.

Expertise: K'ssirr's expertise provides a cut-price corrosive element to Relthozan fleets, which will be welcomed by many...but of course this also limits choice, so it's something of a double edged sword.

Alliances: Like the Aquan commander, K'ssirr provides no special abilities here.

Fleet Build: Once more, as we see highlighted with several of the commanders, Planetfall ships are favoured in fleet building. Although the ability to field extra Planetfall ships might seem to make her an auto-take for invasion fleets, as these come at expense of your tier slots AND they lose Systems Network. So you might hesitate and have to think long and hard about exactly how you build your fleet before taking the plunge.

Upgrades: Once again we see two upgrades here - firstly Drone or Widow class frigates can choose Biohazard ammo, which most players will be very pleased with...even more so since as she forces Corrosive choices on other ships, they will be one of the main sources of getting Biohazard into your list.

Her second upgrade lowers the buyback cost of Repair Drones, which is very useful as the Relthoza have more wings available than any other fleet bar the Aquans, who they are on about equal footing on. This is tempered by both the reduction of available TACs, and also the fleet builds she favours, which tend to be lighter on wings than others.

Under-Tertiary Ganash Kragg

Ganash is probably my favourite piece of artwork from the commanders, just edging ahead of Olga.

Expertise: Ganash's attention to detail and planning make for a very interesting expertise, which shouldn't be underestimated - battles can swing on ships appearing exactly when you need them, and paying a single battlelog to ensure that squadron's arrival when you need it is pure gold.

Alliances: This is where Kragg shows some similarities to the Directorate....he doesn't like fish! Kragg is generally a friendly chap who can boost non-natural allies to 30% of your MFV, so long as they're not Aquan....he just doesn't DO Aquan (we hear you there, Kragg old buddy!)

Fleet Build: Now this is where things get really interesting - Kragg can enable you to take a full squadron of Battlecruisers at Patrol fleet level, or an extra squadron at other levels. Now, you lose a Battleship allocation, but as most Sorylian players consider the Falx a relatively weak battleship, that's not too much pain to bear. now, before you get too excited, at least one of those squadrons has to have had access to the Planetfall MAR - or in other words, currently they have to be Amentums. I don't think that's going to upset too many people, however, as that actually works in the Sorylians favour in invasion missions, and the Amentum is not at all a bad ship outside of them

Upgrades: The final cookie the Sorylians have in their already quite full basket is the ability to recycle the Thermal Controls TAC for free...it severely restricts other TAC access, but if your considering an assault build, this makes it better

Rear Admiral Tobias Armstrong

The Terrans round out the commanders in the System Wars supplement with Tobias Armstrong.

Expertise: This slot actually gives a big boost to Terran invasion fleets, since it allows them to fulfil a Tier slot requirement...something they can't normally do. That means in all probability that the Tier 2 requirement will have some assault cruisers in, allowing you to bulk up the Tier 1s and 3s....

Alliances: So Armstrong is a lizard lover - he allows his fleet commanders to field half of their MFV in Sorylian models, though they do lose access to the Terran TACs. You pay for this with access to Hawker, which is treated like any other ally with a 25% allocation, though you still get Terran TACs as normal.

Fleet Build: Did I mention you'd be taking Assault Cruisers? Why not Destroyers? Here's why...Tobias' fleets can take one less Destroyer squadron and one extra Assault cruiser squadron. As they're hard as nails, I don't think we'll hear too many complaints.

Upgrades: A slightly different TAC modification here, allowing you to extend the use of Cyclic Shielding to another squadron just like Drives to Maximum. It's slightly expensive in TAC restriction and its situational, but negating coherence effects can be crippling against some opponents.

For his second upgrade, did I talk about Assault Cruisers before? Well, now they can get Special Forces for an extra 15 points per squadron. Being an upgrade makes it optional if you don't have the points or want to spend them elsewhere, but it's a great option.

Altogether, you can build a fleet under Tobias which is very true to his fluff, aggressive and brutal, which I think is great.

Overall the Commanders open up another set of decisions to be made by the player, and a level of unpredictability in your opponent. They have simple mechanics and its great to see the background expanding with their introduction too.

System Wars Review Part 1 - Aquan Ships

So both preceding (in the form of the PDF) and accompanying (in the form of the printed booklet) the invasion ships is the System Wars Phase 1 Supplement.

So in the spirit of full disclosure, I am - together with the FFG - (and as you will see from the credits on the picture above) the primary writer for this booklet, so my views are bound to be biased. This also gives me the ability to talk about intent and design purpose, so there are advantages and disadvantages to me writing this!

So the first thing to talk about is the difference between the PDF and printed booklet. Essentially the PDF has all of the ship stats and rules on Commanders, plus any errata, whereas the booklet does not. Both have background, pictures and descriptions of commanders and the four additional scenarios. For me this is a good compromise where I have a physical book to flick through and read, but without pages that will rapidly become invalid with errata and FAQs.

So I think the first thing to talk about are the ship stats themselves, which I'll tackle in the order they come up in the PDF, so first we'll deal with the Aquans.

Stat-wise the Nectridea is very similar to the Charybdis, just being slightly faster, slightly better defensively. At first this looks like a short-changed ship, but if you look at MARs, the ship has Reinforced fore (again, boosting its defences) and Energy Transfer (1) included - which costs 5 points on the standard carrier. In addition it has the Planetfall MAR (more on that later) and the Durable MAR, which makes the ship more resistant to the attentions of SRS. Its hardpoints also change the picture somewhat - the extra shield or Difficult Target make it more durable by far...the +3 WC (for free) boosts it to Charybdis levels of carrier capacity, making it a very viable alternative to that ship - similar role, but different focus.

"So what?", I hear people saying, "I never take the Charybdis anyway!". Well, that's up to you, but the Nectridea gives you options you didn't have before. You can configure it as a cheap carrier with Quick Launch - that's not to be sniffed at, giving your bombers a 6" range boost - by itself that could sell the ship. Alternatively, a DT Large with 6 Bombers is likely to deliver that payload right down the enemies throat. I've found in games the Nectridea is great at sweeping smalls or mediums out of its path, either using separate attacks or linked depending on requirement.

In invasion missions, the ship draws a lot of fire, as it's supposed to. DT & Reinforced Fore make it difficult to destroy, and I've not yet faced one that also has a second shield! It also has the option to take the Sulis as an accompaniment. Now this makes it more expensive, but imagine this - two Nectridea with Sulis, travelling together and each using the others Energy Locus to boost their combined RB1 shots into a target 20" away....that's potentially a 16AD attack per activation, plus Port/Starboard shots and any Wing action. It's not a Maelstrom, but it is viable and unusual....you can also choose to use the Energy Locus with another squadron (say 3 Stingray destroyers), and give yourself a 1-2 punch from them followed by the Nectridea squadron - or multiple fore shots. It all depends on who you're up against. Go against Dindrenzi with hard to kill shielded DT ships with lots of approach angles and I'd often opt for multiple lower AD shots, since I'd be unlikely to get a crit anyway, I'd go for attritional kills.

The thing for me is this gives Aquans another way of fielding ships, it ADDS to their already extensive toolbox, without being an auto-take. I can see uses for a Nectridea in Aquan fleets, and it's a difficult ship to square up against, which alone makes it a viable option in my opinion.

"An Assault Cruiser? It only has 2AP!?!"

Yes, once again I'm always amused by people who take a completely monocular view on ships, especially ones supposedly designed by aliens! There are no formal definitions of what ship classes are in FA, so to trying to impose them, especially on a diverse group of races as in FA, is slightly narrow-minded.

The Limulus is designed to assault enemy planets and installations by delivering ground forces safely to the surface - it's not an FA space assault marine ship. It can't even be upgraded to fit that role - it's simply one Aquans don't do well - period.

So what does it bring? Well the Limulus is tough - DR6/CR7 make it almost as tough as the Nectridea - oh, and it can gain DT too...with a typical Aquan squadron size, you can have four of these 6/7 DT ships heading for your planet, netting their commander 8 Battle Log - that's not something you can ignore. They're going to take a lot to bring them down, and that's a lot of firepower that then is NOT targeting your enemies combat ships.

That is the essence of the invasion ships and the scenarios (which I'll talk about in another blog) - the tough choices you need to make as an opponent to these ships. They bring only frigate-level firepower to the table, but any targets of opportunity they can pick off are just gravy - they just need to deliver their contents to the planet.

Whilst we're on the subject of firepower on these ships, let's just step back a moment....if these had decent (ie equivalent firepower to their normal equivalents), putting them on the planet would degrade your ability to damage the other fleet, and thus be a negative to actually doing it. The Large ships which actually do bring some firepower are also relatively slow, so they're not reaching the planet until turn 4 at the earliest, by which stage in the battle the BL they represent is better on the planet than potentially destroyed....and they're going to have attracted a lot of firepower by that stage.

As far as non-Planetfall builds, you have the option to take Mn2....Wow. Escort-sized mines...yawn, right? Well, they do this for free, and that links to Mn5 for the Squadron. Again, underwhelming. They have the option to take Double Mines, however, which now gives them a lot more options - now the squadron can lay 8 Mn2, 4 Mn 3, 2 Mn5 or 1 Mn9 token. Clouds of Mn2 or Mn3 mines don't sound much, but now think about these guys flying ahead of your fleet, sowing these mines in abundance. When the enemy arrives, these are going to do nothing to his ships, but any SRS around are going to have a rough time, as a 6 kills one wing regardless of its source....so 3 Mn2 tokens are as deadly to Wings as a single Mn6.

So again, is this an auto-take? No - 200 points to achieve this is a lot, but against certain enemies (like Relthoza), this kind of active suppression could be very handy. Dealing with the Squadron is also a pain because they're a nuisance rather than a priority threat, they're tough and yet they can shape the way the game flows. So again, difficult choices.

Finally we have the Antiarchi, and one of my favourite models from the release. Planetfall wise, these are tough, cheap and net you a Battle Log each - plus get one down on the planet and you've denied your opponent destroying the squadron, so no negative to your BL and no positive to him, meaning the worst they can do with one ship down on the planet is parity (+1 BL for enemy by reducing Tier 3 to half, +1 to you for getting one down).

Non-planetfall build, they give you 4 x Mn2, 2 x Mn3 or 1 x Mn5 Drone mines. So once again, you've now an active threat to SRS, or even small ships from these little tadpoles. The most you're going to spend on them is 80 points, so that seems like a fair return to add this sort of flexible harassment factor.

Originally the Smalls were not going to have a non-planetfall option, but adding one into the ships was actually not difficult and gives people the tactical options once again. Will this appeal to everyone? No, but then no option (or ship design) ever does. The point if that they're there for that time you could need them - how about a couple of squadrons of these in Hold the Waypoints, pumping out Drone mines around your (or your opponents) objective?

SUMMARY

The invasion ships are designed exactly for that, but also have builds to slot into existing fleets to bring a slightly different angle. They're probably non-optimal in several regards for standard fleets, but then that's to be expected - these are ships designed (both in a background and gaming sense) to fulfil a specific purpose. They tend to be tougher, down-gunned version of their respective classes, but are often designed with some little tricks to add something flavourful for the race in question. The Aquans demonstrate some aspects of this, and we'll pick up this thread in the other races ships as well.

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.