[Firestorm Armada] Playtest game
Last Sunday I got the chance to 'playtest' a game of Spartan Games' Firestorm Armada (a starship fleet battles game). A few months back I purchased a copy of the rule book, and had been planning on having test game ever since.
The goal of the playtest was to see if I actually wanted to invest further in the game, I mean while the rule book was pretty cheap ($20 NZ delivered), the fleet boxes (which are actually quite reasonable) are 30 pounds a pop. Further, I was lucky enough to join Dale at the Dystopian Wars (which shares the core system with Firestorm Armada) demo at Call to Arms earlier this year, and this experience highlighted a couple of issues I had with the mechanics (basically being a bit more complicated than they really needed to be).
On the up side, Spartan actually provides a couple of cut out fleets for Firestorm, and while these are barely shadows of painted resin miniatures, they are more than enough for a playtest. Also, the kids at the Kapiti College Games club ready to give any game a go, and so I knew that I'd get a good judgement on just how easy the game is to learn and how well it plays in the eyes of a new player.
I have to say that the result was very pleasing. Young Jeffrey (who is 13 or 14) picked up the rules really quickly (in fact he was correcting me by the end of the game), and the sample fleets are nicely balanced. There are some issues with the mechanics (especially around ordnance; fighters, torpedoes, etc.) but nothing late really got in the way of the fun. I will put my hand up and say that I lost in the end, but this was mainly because my last ship's (battleship) main weapon was forward facing, while Jeffrey's battleship's weapons covered multiple arcs. With both large ships turning at the same speed, I was slowly being whittled down, and not really achieving much. In the end,my battleship was destroyed when I attempted to shunt (hyperspace) away, and a lucky shot took me down.
This brings me to the coolest thing about the system, the fact that rolling a 6 (the game uses only D6s) gives you two hits, and is rerolled. This means that even rolling a couple of dice has the potential of snowballing to do massive damage. Of course the other extreme can also happen, and I swear at one point I rolled 17 odd dice (in two separate rolls) and didn't get a single 5+!
So in summary, I was pretty happy with the game, and think I will invest in a couple of fleets - the Terrans and Dindrenzi. As I said the core boxes are reasonably cheap, and these two fleets look the best to me (although the Carriers for both look more TV remotes than starships!). I'd be keen to play more Firestorm (or the Fantasy Naval Fleet version The Uncharted Seas), although surprisingly Dystopian wars doesn't appeal quite as much, and so if anyone is keen, just shout!
The goal of the playtest was to see if I actually wanted to invest further in the game, I mean while the rule book was pretty cheap ($20 NZ delivered), the fleet boxes (which are actually quite reasonable) are 30 pounds a pop. Further, I was lucky enough to join Dale at the Dystopian Wars (which shares the core system with Firestorm Armada) demo at Call to Arms earlier this year, and this experience highlighted a couple of issues I had with the mechanics (basically being a bit more complicated than they really needed to be).
On the up side, Spartan actually provides a couple of cut out fleets for Firestorm, and while these are barely shadows of painted resin miniatures, they are more than enough for a playtest. Also, the kids at the Kapiti College Games club ready to give any game a go, and so I knew that I'd get a good judgement on just how easy the game is to learn and how well it plays in the eyes of a new player.
I have to say that the result was very pleasing. Young Jeffrey (who is 13 or 14) picked up the rules really quickly (in fact he was correcting me by the end of the game), and the sample fleets are nicely balanced. There are some issues with the mechanics (especially around ordnance; fighters, torpedoes, etc.) but nothing late really got in the way of the fun. I will put my hand up and say that I lost in the end, but this was mainly because my last ship's (battleship) main weapon was forward facing, while Jeffrey's battleship's weapons covered multiple arcs. With both large ships turning at the same speed, I was slowly being whittled down, and not really achieving much. In the end,my battleship was destroyed when I attempted to shunt (hyperspace) away, and a lucky shot took me down.
This brings me to the coolest thing about the system, the fact that rolling a 6 (the game uses only D6s) gives you two hits, and is rerolled. This means that even rolling a couple of dice has the potential of snowballing to do massive damage. Of course the other extreme can also happen, and I swear at one point I rolled 17 odd dice (in two separate rolls) and didn't get a single 5+!
So in summary, I was pretty happy with the game, and think I will invest in a couple of fleets - the Terrans and Dindrenzi. As I said the core boxes are reasonably cheap, and these two fleets look the best to me (although the Carriers for both look more TV remotes than starships!). I'd be keen to play more Firestorm (or the Fantasy Naval Fleet version The Uncharted Seas), although surprisingly Dystopian wars doesn't appeal quite as much, and so if anyone is keen, just shout!