Firestorm Armada Terquai unboxings

It was inevitable that those accursed traitors, the Terquai, would wash into Oscar's painting queue at some point, and that time has come. Actually, he's had the Dread for a while, and the Patrol Fleet and cruiser box have just joined that - time to look at the all together! Let's start with the Patrol Fleet and go from there....

As usual Spartan do a nice job of their boxes, with lovely full colour photography of the studio models on the front, and breakdowns of the box on the back as normal.

Inside you get the resin, bases, TACs and token sheets as you'd expect...of course we're primarily interested in the models.

These come in two bubble-wrap bags and one zip-lock bag...

...which open up to quite a lot of stuff! Starting from the small end this time, you get four frigates, which are chubby chunkers!

Comparing to a standard Aquan Chimaera, you can see its a little longer, but MUCH fatter...who ate all the pies??

Despite its weight issues (!), these one-piece models are really nicely done, and I just adore the Terquai propulsion golf balls - they remind me of the Liberator from Blakes 7 (if you don't know that ship, you're no sci-fi fan!!!)

Next up are the three cruisers, which can all be built as either assault or torpedo versions. This is neatly achieved by both top and side drop ons (plus a common underside drop-on). I like the addition of all parts so you have complete freedom here - it's a really nice touch from SG.

The cruiser obviously slims out if it grows up from a Frigate, being a little shorter than an Isonade, but lacking its needle-sharp anorexia. The drop-ons themselves are very clever;

 

These two top drop-ons give the ship a different profile and look.

As do the two side drop-ons. Combined they do produce two very different cruisers from the same hull, which can't be said for all the "modular" designs (yes, I'm looking at you, Huntsman!)

The underside piece and flight peg holder is common to both versions, but this doesn't detract from the designs at all

I won't cover the separate cruiser box, suffice to say you get an exact duplication of the Cruiser elements from the Patrol Fleet in a nice box;

Finally for the patrol fleet, you get the Alkonost. This is a three part model (four if you count the underside drop on, which is the same as the cruiser piece), which actually isn't really longer than the cruisers, but it is bulkier and has the two ski side-pods.

The hull has really nice flowing lines to it, and looks like a blend of human and Aquan tech

The side "ski" pods are handed (and have convenient L & R stamped into them).

But again, my favourite part of this models is its engines

Now the Alkonost is an Assault carrier, which means it has SRS tokens. The Terquai have some of the nicest yet;

So moving onto the dreadnought...

 Another gorgeous shot, and we're into the box contents...

This is a bit of a monster! It has a great aesthetic, which times in nicely with the other ships and the prior v1/1.5 Terquai cruisers too.

The hull has great detail and is not as elegant as the Alkonost, but does convey a sense of sturdiness.

The two side pods are the size of a ship each, and have phenomenal detail considering they're both single pieces.

here you can see detail of the surfaces , especially the various guns, and also see how little casting flash they have. One of my side pods has a small bubble in the front, but nothing that either a spot of Green Stuff or painting as light battle damage won't fix!

Both side pods and hull have the same golf-ball aesthetic drive systems, which gives the terquai a very distinct look.

Overall these Terquai releases continue the trend we've seen from SG in the Firestorm Releases - great designs, clever moulding, quality casting and good value. The only thing I don't like about them is that they're on the wrong side!

System Wars Review Part 1 - Terran Ships

Last in this first look at the System Wars ships are the Terrans - those whiny, nuke-toting imperialists who always complain about their stuff. Well, here are a few things they can't moan about.

First of all, the Solar Carrier. To start with, it's straight-up tougher than the Ares, with a 5/9 compared to the normal 5/8 and the same HP and greater PD (6 vs 5). It's faster, but has less crew and AP, and also no mines (though these are hardly a great Terran staple anyway).She only has 5 WC compared the the Ares stock 9, but she has an extra shield, making her equal to the Tyrant or Titan, and of course she gets the usual Terran trick of Sector Shielding.

Her weapons are turrets rather than the for fixed and broadsides of the Ares, but they are pretty substantial - in fact they're battleship level, and with the exact same profile as the Apollo, with the strongest RB close in at <8". So at first glance the Solar is a tough pocket battlecarrier.

Into Hardpoints, and you can give the Solar another hull point or another shield - yes these cost the Durable MAR and 1" of movement, but this makes the Solar a real tank - that's 5 sectored shields on the favoured side and still 3 in other arcs! Alternatively, you can add 1" of movements and increase the Planetfall MAR if you feel like a quick dash to the objective. For non-planetfall builds, you can upgrade her Turrets it Nuclear weapons, and even if she's caught in the blast from her own guns, she's got the shields to deflect it!

Upgrades are typically Terran, with Weapon Shielding and upgrade to Beam weapons as standard, but she also has the option for Decimator Warheads, which could be nice on those close-approach ships that are looking to board.

It's in the accompaniments though, that things really start to look interesting for the Solar. She can take the same Aegis accompaniments as the Ares, but with the option to upgrade her turrets to beams, they synergise with her much better - giving a fore weapon profile of 17/15/7/- for a full squadron. The Aegis will also synergise well with her layered shields, making it even more difficult to punch through them to the tough ship below.

She can also take a Hauberk, giving her a 14/12/5/- nuclear fore as well as some additional arcs for a non-planetfall build, or a primary linked AD of 17/15/5/- max out of one of three arcs, backed up by Bomber or assault craft attack runs. As a shunt-bomb that sounds substantial. It's also very hard to deal with - the Hauberk may be fragile, but the Solar certainly is not and its throwing out a lot of short-ranged dice by itself, and so will demand attention.

Ah Terran mediums - the worst in Firestorm? Well, despite some people decrying the Hermes and Hauberk, the Horizon is a slightly different beast. It's tougher than other Terrans Tier 2 ships at 5/6, it's fast (by Terran standards), has great PD and good CP. AP is low, but the Planetfall version you can boost to 5. In addition, it has 2 shields base and can take a third, or a 5th hull point - again making it the tankiest Tier 2 ship the Terrans possess.

What really might interest Terran players, however, is the cost - it's CHEAP. 35 points - a base Hermes is 50. A non-planetfall version checks out at 40 points, so for the same price as a Frigate Squadron you have a 15AP assault bomb. 40 points is HALF the cost of a base Templar, and most other races heavy cruisers too. It's a steal.

You can upgrade the beam weapons and give it weapon shielding, but with turrets weaker than the Templar I'm guessing most will only do so if they've spare points left over to burn. You can also give the squadron an Aegis cruiser, which does make the shield-heavy version even harder to destroy. What I expect to see is plenty of these making appearances as non-Planetfall ships in Terran fleets.

Finally, the Nadir is another 4/5 SH1 Frigate at 15 points, designed to get troops on the ground quickly. You can even make it SH2, so they are going to be hard to nickel&dime to death, especially if you've Aegis in your fleet for them to hang around. You also get the option to boost their PD, or de-planetfall them and change them to escorts. This option gives you an incredibly hard and durable escort, potentially boosting the longevity of Terran Capital ships even further. Tehy're not going to be wholesale replacements for the the Guardian or Squire, but in selected cases I can see them taking preference.

System Wars Review Part 1 - Sorylian Ships

Back to the Alliance of Kurak now, and the Sorylians. The lizards differ from the other fleets in using Battelcruisers as their primary invasion ships, which ties in with their expertise in making excellent cruiser-sized and down ships, but not being quite so hot on the Large side of things. Splitting their forces into fast Battlecruisers seems like a logical and pragmatic step for them, so they lead their assaults with the Amentum.

The Amentum is very comparable to the Hasta, it has one less HP, an extra AP and PD, but otherwise it's the same. In second-line stats it has no WC like the Hasta does, but it packs an extra Shield - the highest baseline shield stat of ANY Sorylian ship - they're serious about protection on the Amentum! It's weapon is a standard Sorylian Fore-fixed scatter gun similar to the power of a heavy cruiser, but more of a gunship type profile. It also has the Reinforced (Port/Starboard) MAR, which is very Sorylian and helps longevity.

So far, the Amentum is looking OK, but then you see the big sell of this unit - the price. The Amentum starts at 85 points. Then you look at the Hardpoints and Upgrades, and things get nice very quickly! First, it gets to choose up to TWO Hardpoints, and it has a lot of options - it can get faster, turn better, get that 6th HP, more Planetfall or more AP - that's a lot of variation, making it a very flexible ship. The non-Planetfall version exchanges the MAR for a decent set of Fore Torpedoes.

As for Upgrades, this again makes the ship builds even more interesting - you can change those scatter weapons for Kinetics, which changes their threat profile a lot. You can also buy them Weapon Shielding, and add Bigger Batteries - a nice thing when they start with a base 6PD.

You also get accompaniment options for both Planetfall and non-Planetfall builds at lower points. Firstly, you can take a Katar, which both boosts the potential planetfall value, increases the offensive and defensive power of the squadron and thus makes it harder for the enemy to kill the squadron and swing Battlelog. The Falcata does a similar thing for a non-Planetfall build, especially with some weaving to join its broadsides and torpedoes with the Amentum. A non-Planetfall Katar also makes quite a boarding threat for either form too (remember non-Planetfall accompaniments don't come out of your extra Planetfall ship points...).

Anyway, I don't see Sorylian players complaining about the Amentum, it's a solid ship in many ways and for Heavy-Cruiser cost, it feels like a bargain. For a non-Planetfall force you could even take a base Amentum and reserve it for Shunt-deployment, and maximise your Tier2 and 3 build options. I get the feeling, however, that we'll be seeing quite a lot of the Amentum in fleets going forward!

The Katar is a pretty straightforward vessel - it's a Heavy Cruiser without the HP, CP and weapons. It has the same fixed fore as a Falcata, giving a squadron decent RB2 AD. Hardpoints are simple - make it a bit tougher, a bit faster, or a dedicated assault ship for non-Planetfall. With 5AP stock, it can provide an impressive 15AP assault, which with Thermal controls will hurt a lot - It feels very Sorylian!

The Corvus is another incredibly tough small, with cruiser-like stats and a shield. As it's Sorylian, it has a high movement and large squadron size, which makes it good for a swarm approach to invasion missions. As a non-Planetfall build it gains PD Barrage. Not particularly useful by itself, but with an extra PD, it becomes both an excellent SRS sweeper (something the Sorylians don't really have), but also an additional anti-small potential

System Wars Review Part 1 - Relthoza Ships

The final Zenian force in the System Wars Invasion ship release is the Relthoza, who I think got some amazing designs for their models - how do their stats stack up?

Now the Relthoza were a particular design challenge for invasion ships, because their cloaks give them a hellish advantage in trying to get to a position unmolested. So making tougher ships would be difficult, since it's already difficult to kill a cloaked Relthoza carrier. It's no surprise, therefore, that the ootheca is VERY similar to the stock Hive/Theridion - in fact she only differs in having double the AP in terms of headline stats. She also only has 2 WC compared to 8, so you'll probably be fielding interceptors or maybe support shuttles, and her weapons are much less prevalent being in just a single arc - Fore, where she's heading!

So, why would you take this ship? Well, MARs for one start to show the differences. The Ootheca has the Planetfall and Durable MARs, of course (the latter making her that bit less vulnerable to SRS which ignore cloaks). She comes stock with Self Repair, highlighting the durability aspect of the ship, even if she's few reasons to decloak normally. Also looking to Hardpoints, Stealth Systems is free rather than +10 points, again emphasising the defensive nature of the ship. That's fine for Planetfall, but what if we want a non-PF build?

The option here gives +4WC and also Quick Launch - that's a pretty massive reason right there. As the Relthoza have a huge 8" command distance, you're now talking about a 20" threat radius from embarked SRS...Ouch! You can also give her Second Assault, so now we've a permanently cloaked 20" SRS monster with 2 x 8AP boarding (and take a couple of Stinger/Wolf escorts and you can make it 10AP a time)...now if you also take a Theridion with Shunt Matrix (4), you're really going to mess with your enemy in terms of their assessment of how to defend against you. So, alone the Ootheca is a dark horse, but combined with other ships she suddenly becomes very interesting indeed.

The Cotesia is not a particularly rugged ship - again having the same base stats as a Gila or Assassin, but with +1 HP, twice the AP and more PD. Her weapons are close ranged and rather weak, and she has the standard Invasion ship MARs. As an invasion ship she will probably take +1 HP and make for the planet, but non-Planetfall? Well, the Relthoza have approached the Asasault cruiser from a slightly different angle, and her option is to take +3WC, but with a restriction on only taking Assault craft).

Now, for those of you who don't know what Cotesia means, they are a species of parasitic wasp - and that's really what this ship is. It skulks around the edges of the battlefield or shunts in, and performs boarding strikes while cloaked - it really has little reason to uncloak, since both its SRS and boarding assaults can be launched from the shadows. It preys on targets of opportunity, it's not meant to try to tough it out against other ships 1-2-1...that's not the way the Relthoza play. Is it going to be everyone's cup of tea? Most likely not, since the Relthoza can be a tricky force to get right, but used carefully this squadron could snatch a large ship late game and seal victory.

The Ichneumon (another parasitic wasp) is another tough little invasion ship, also with 3 Hull Points, making it difficult to remove with crits. It additionally has the Relthoza Systems Network MAR, granting it Stealth Systems from other Cloaked vessels, meaning you need to get in close to really have a chance of taking it down. It can take an additional PD, giving it almost invulnerability to long-range torpedo snipes when combined with SS granted from SN.

For the non-Planetfall version, it can take a cloaking field. This was dismissed by a lot of people (including me, when I first saw the proposal, I thought "What's the point?"), but read those MARs again. The ship has Systems Network, which grants Stealth Systems to other Systems Network ships in Command Distance. This has traditionally meant Relthoza smalls have to cluster around capital ships (since no prior smalls had SN). The Ichneumon breaks that tradition - for 75 points you gain a 16" x 48" band of Stealth Systems granting cover to your fleet on a 4/5 Cloaked Difficult Target with no reason to ever decloak - that's an ability I'd really like, and will be, taking advantage of in my Relthoza fleets of the future - Terran nukes? Who cares???

System Wars Review Part 1 - Directorate Ships

Next in the line-up of System Wars invasion ships are the nefarious Directorate, and we start with their Assault Carrier, the nicely-named Integration;

The Integration is a typical Directorate approach to invasion ships. Standard Carrier type hull with DR5 CR9 and 7 HP, but with a cruiser-level speed of 9". Also, instead of a cloaking field she has a respectable 2 Shields and 6PD, plus the Durable MAR. You can remove the latter for another Shield, giving her Terran-levels of protection, or go for broke by boosting her Planetfall value and knocking off a single shield. This gives you a wide range of basic builds in terms of protection/utility balance.

She only starts with 3 WC, but can boost that to standard carrier level of 6, and her weapon systems are respectable but short-ranged, similar to the Heavy cruiser. Base AP is actually lower than a standard carrier (as is CP), but you can boost this to 10AP in a non-Planetfall build, and upgrade these to Special Forces with a Second Assault option.

This makes for some interesting builds - you can make a non-Planetfall shield heavy (and this very durable) close-assault option with interceptors or support shuttles, or go for less protection and increase the WC and go for Assault Craft too - that's now quite a scary boarding threat.

Her accompaniment is a couple of Liquidator Class Frigates, which then give her a 15AD RB2 beam attack, which you can make Biohazard too - not shabby. In either of these forms, she makes a pretty lethal shunt-bomb. Planetfall wise, she's fast and hardy, and able to protect herself from most threats.

Next is the slightly more aggressively named Appropriation assault cruiser. The model is almost as big as the Integration, and she reflects this with base stats almost as high as the carrier - Dr5 CR8 is better than the much-lauded Justice heavy cruiser, though HP5 reflects the more modular nature of the craft compared to that ship and the Integration.

She comes stock with a single shield, and can either boost this to 2 or make up that 6th HP. Her AP is relatively low at 3, but the non-Planetfall version of this boosts it to 5, again the same as the heavy cruiser. In fact, many comparisons will be made to that ship as she stacks up very favourably. In non-Planetfall build, you can make her pretty similar for 65 points compared to the Justice's 80.

Now the Justice is more survivable due to her cloak, but the Appropriation brings higher CR plus a shield, and no attenuation of her weapons for less points. So once again we have difficult choices, and with decent weapons (5/6/3/-), a squad puts out decent mid-level firepower in a very hard shell, with a scary boarding threat to finish. I could see commanders running a squad of each, which would be difficult to face to say the least.

The Induction...your culture's first step into the Directorate way of life...sounds so organised and efficient, doesn't it? :-)

The Induction is a cruiser-hard hull with Reinforced Fore, Durable and Difficult Target (this makes it more difficult to kill than a Directorate cruiser!), standard Directorate Frigate movement, good PD and 2 AP. You can remove the Planetfall MAR and give it Bigger Batteries, which make it quite an efficient SRS sweeper. It's also cheap. Having the unmanned MAR protects it from decrewing, and whilst it makes it theoretically vulnerable to boarding, it will always get 3 dice from PD and AP to defend itself, and who's going to waste a boarding action on them?

Now I think I saw someone pick up on this, but with 2AP each they give you an 8AP shunt board you're paying 80 points for. Pay 100 points and the PD threat to SRS is even greater, and their durability against them and torpedoes much higher. That to me is an interesting option. In fact, I'd not bother shunting them, I'd have them on the board, because if someone wants to waste firepower on them, they're welcome, they can shoot down enemy SRS quite efficiently (a squadron should take out, on average, at least 1 wing per activation), and they're a constant boarding threat. That's not a bad threat profile for a small investment. I may well be adding another box...

System Wars Review Part 1 - Dindrenzi Ships

Continuing the System Wars ships analysis, next in the book are the Dindrenzi....let's start with the Legion:

So as we already saw, the model is a real monster - how do the stats stack up against that expectation? Well, pretty well actually - the Legion is just one CR off a standard Battleship in terms of toughness, and 1HP off in durability - so straightaway she is one of the toughest invasion ships, and certainly a very tough ship to carry a carrier tagline. At almost the same base cost as a Battleship, she's also the most expensive invasion ship across the board.

Weapons-wise, she has the same rail cannon as a Cataphract, but as they're on separate rails it's nice to see her Gunrack is much more substantial. She also carries 7 wings base, so potentially an 18AD Bomber strike too - all of this makes her a good mid-short range brawler. A base 7AP also means she's dangerous close-in, and that coupled with 6PD make her difficult to take with an assault. She has a massive Planetfall 6 value, which you can further boost to 8 at the cost of most of her wings.

So already she's got a good solid baseline of stats, and looking at Hardpoints and Upgrades ,you can tailor her to be more wing or assault focussed. The non-Planetfall option adds 3AP, making her 10AP, to which you could add Launch tubes, Second Assault and Assault Blitz - that's nasty. Of course now you're paying 210 points for her without wings, 245 with. You'll probably want Deck Crews too, topping her out at 255 points.

Interestingly - especially with her decent Gunrack, you can add Retarius escorts, which make the broadside output from her pretty formidable....though you're now at a Dreadnought cost of 300 points.

Then we have the Drawback - if you're looking at this thinking how on earth do I counter a monster like this at Patrol fleet, well, you're in luck. The Legion takes TWO Tier 1 slots in a Patrol fleet, meaning you can't field it in Invasion missions (as Planetfall ships don't fill mandatory Tier requirements). Of course you can take the Behemoth version in non-planetfall, but you've now invested 40% of your points in a single squadron - the main ship of which is DR6 with no shields....

Again, it's all about these difficult choices and options. Does the Legion give a Dindrenzi player new options? Definitely yes. Will Legions been seen to the exclusion of other Tier 1 options from now on? I really don't think so. I'm sure they will see action, but they will be amongst Nausica and Praetorians and Gunships and so on. It represents a very Dindrenzi, completely unsubtle approach to invasion, and that is to cram a massive obvious block of armour and guns into the throat of the enemy before he can destroy it. I like it a lot!

Speaking of a lack of subtlety. here comes the Castra. This is a veritable slab of a ship, with DR/CR not far off many Battleships, 6HP and decent movement. It turns like a shopping cart, but it does have a decent (if short-ranged) gunrack. It has 5AP, and the removal of Planetfall adds second assault, plus the upgrades allow these to have Assault Blitz, meaning you can pull of decent boarding assault on relatively undamaged ships.

That's about as complicated as the Castra gets. The other trick up its sleeve is that the squadron can add an accompaniment of Buckler Escorts, boosting linked squadron PD up to 10 and outgoing firepower to quite nasty levels. Still, for 185 points, a 16", 16AD threat isn't so bad...200 points and next activation thats likely to be followed by a 10AP Assault Blitz boarding assault. Not cheap per se, but another point of utility in fleet building and keeping your opponent guessing.

Last in the Dindrenzi line is the Scuta Frigate, which has the stats of a Terran Cruiser, but the standard DT instead of a Terran shield. It also has Three, yes - 3, Hull Points, making it VERY hard to get rid of these ships. It can upgrade its already high AP, but then it doesn't have the high squad size to keep it intact like other invasion smalls.

For its non-planetfall build, it can change from being a simple frigate to a dedicated escort. With that innate hardness and high PD, that could make it an interesting alternative to SRS cover. It's expensive, however, at 25 points a pop, but imagine a legion with three of these covering it on the way in to a planet! As they count as a Zenian League Escort, adding one of these to any capital ship that can take them will almost guarantee a 4 PD baseline defence even after heavy damage, meaning your vulnerability to torpedoes, SRS and boarding is hugely reduced. Taking them down is going to be a massive PITA, and require some dedicated high levels of firepower.

So once again, we see a set of different options for both invasion missions and non-planetfall use. They won't be to everyone's meta, nor will they necessarily be auto-takes where they fit, but they provide choice, which is always a good thing in my opinion.

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.