Firestorm Armada — First Impressions
We got a copy of the Firestorm Armada rulebook along with some of the miniatures and the cards. We hope to have more details up soon but our initial impressions, after a first look through the rules, are very positive. It is a mix of previous games and the influence of Battlefleet Gothic and Babylon 5: ACTA is very evident, but it is still a new and unique system of its own. It places emphasis on ship-to-ship combat but also integrates fighters and attack aircraft in a seamless and logical way. The cards are an optional component, and must be purchased separately, but we highly recommended them. They add a lot of flavor to the game.
The miniatures are very well done. They are crisply cast resin (some of the smaller ships and bits are metal) and are a bit larger than the BFG minis but are also beefier overall and in some cases, especially the battleships, much larger. There are four races available now: the Aquan Prime, Terran Alliance, Sorylian Collective, Dindrenzi Federation and the rules detail two more that will be released in the future. Our favorites are the Sorylian Collective and the Dindrenzi Federation. The Fleet Boxes also include a sheet of fighter counters and generic play counters that are printed in full color on glossy card stock and have to be cut out.
The Firestorm Armada site has lots of goodies for download including assembly guides, tactics tips, fleet rosters, and wallpaper. There are even full color fleets you can print out to get playing right away without need for the miniatures. Spartan now has both errata and clarification sheets for the game.
We look forward to getting in a game, painting up some ships, and seeing how the system progresses. If you have any interest in sci-fi ship combat games Firestorm Armada deserves a serious look.
Russ Wakelin, of DakkaDakka fame and the D6 Generation podcast, has started a wiki page on DakkaDakka on Firestorm Armada with useful comments. Also see their Firestorm Armada review.
[Updated: 17DEC09]
The View from the Turret 
16Dec09 at 1912
[…] Firestorm: Armada [Spartan Games] – Spartan surprised a lot of folks with their fantasy naval game Uncharted Seas. We have no interest in fantasy but we have to admit the miniatures for the game are extremely well done. They are large, crisp, well detailed resin ships. We got excited when we learned they are doing a sci-fi game next. Even if the rules turn out not to be that interesting the ship models should be of interest to all who play sci-fi ship combat games. […]
27Dec09 at 1204
[…] see Firestorm Armada — First Impressions. […]
20Jan10 at 1631
[…] Firestorm: Armada [Spartan Games] – Spartan produced an instant classic with FA. We should see the four core fleets get more units and perhaps the Directorate and Relthoza fleet models will release in 2010. Fleet specific card decks is another rumor. […]
12Apr10 at 0943
[…] Games has announced new heavy cruiser models for their tactical space combat miniatures game Firestorm Armada. four current races. No beta rules yet nor mention of a release date. Sorylian Heavy CA […]
21May10 at 1323
[…] Games has released the fifth fleet for the Firestorm Armada, the Directorate. Like the previous four main fleets the release includes the BB, CV, and CAs but […]
12Jan11 at 1848
[…] Firestorm: Armada [Spartan Games] – Spartan announced 40 new ships, additional races, new books and possibly Fleet specific card decks for 2011. Warm up that credit card! […]
14Feb11 at 1133
[…] The Firestorm Armada Stat Viewer presents the stat cards for all the ships currently available for Firestorm Armada. It is a simple straightforward app but very handy with a nice presentation. Best of all, it is […]