After several years of additional models and downloadable rules tweaks, Firestorm Armada is back, in the form of a handsome hard-bound edition of its rules. For those of you that don’t know, Firestorm Armada is a fleet-scale space combat game from Spartan Games, and it uses the core movement and shooting mechanics from that company’s other two naval games, Uncharted Seas and Dystopian Wars. The following is not going to be a review of the game per se; for that, I heartily recommend Episdoe 46 of the D6 Generation podcast (most of the review largely applies, even with the changes in this edition). Rather, I am going to focus in on the changes between this version of the rules and the first one, as well as my overall impressions on the quality of the book. So, be warned that much of the discussion that follows assumes you have some understanding of how the game works ;).

Layout and Useability

This is probably the most important aspect of this book, as it is first and foremost intended to facilitate a table top miniature game. The overall setup of the book is very similar to Spartan’s other rule books, with a brief introduction to the background of the game followed by the rules, which is in turn followed by sections that detail the stats and background for the various factions in the game. The rules themselves read very well; in my opinion, this is probably the best and most clearly organized Spartan rule book to date. I got the impression that new players will have a fairly easy time learning the game from this book, while experience players will have little difficulty spotting changes and new additions to the old version of the rules. There is also a nice section on basic modeling at the back of the book now which will also help those players who are new to the game and/or the hobby of wargaming.

Unfortunately, Spartan decided to go without an index this time around, which will complicate the locating of specific rules when questions arise during the game. However, the table of contents has been expanded a bit with more sub-headings, so hopefully this will help compensate a bit. Interestingly, the unit stats at the back of the book follow a similar layout to the unit stats presented in other recent Spartan books, though the order is a bit different (dreadnoughts and battleships are listed before carriers, for example). Still, the collection of stats appears to be complete through all the currently released or announced models, which makes this book a nice, complete reference.

Changes in this Edition

So, I must say up front that I don’t think the hardback edition constitutes a full-blown second edition; like the revamped Dystopian Wars rules released a few months back, this book is more like version 1.5 than 2.0. However, there have been significant changes to the game nonetheless, most of which I think are for the better. What follows is not a complete list, but more of the ones that most stuck out to me:

Wings

The way fighters, bombers, and assaulters work has been drastically overhauled, in a good way. Under the first edition of the rules, it seemed like wing combat tended to bog the game down too much, but not any more. In some ways, I think the changes are even more dramatic than what happened between the two version of the Dystopian Wars rules. The first thing I noticed is that now each flight, no mater how many wings are in it, are represented by a single token. The exact number of wings in that flight is marked with a D6 or other suitable marker, between 1 and 6. This is a bit of a buff, since flights used to be limited to only 5 wings. However, bombers and fighters must now land on a carrier to re-arm after they have fired their torpedoes, unlike the first edition where they could make as many attacks as they wanted. Balancing that, though, is the fact that bombers and fighters can now combine their fire, instead of having to link. 6 bombers launching 3 torps each and hitting on a 4+ is not too bad! Also nerfed a bit are the point defense to-hit numbers for bombers and assaulters; they hit only on a 4+, while fighters and interceptors get a 3+. This change, in particular, I am happy with, as it makes other types of wings more useful. Under the old edition of the rules, it seemed like I was only taking either assulters or interceptors. The tricky intercept move mechanic is intact, but it has been made easier to deal with by the fact that flights are represented by only a single token now.

Boarding

Just like with Dystopian Wars, continuing boarding assualts are no more. Now, all boarding action is resolved in one round, and the assault either succeeds or fails. If it succeeds, the boarded model is destroyed (no prizes here!). If it fails, the marines from the side that launched the boarders is wiped out, even if they weren’t all killed in the melee. So, the mechanic that prevents ships from recovering their marines and launching multiple boarding attacks is still in place; this makes boarding a very risky business, indeed! Thus, boarding is nerfed a bit, but has been streamlined a lot.

MARs

Model Assigned Rules were first introduced by Spartan in Dystopian Wars as a way of adding a little extra flavor to factions and individual ships. So, naturally, the first edition of Firestorm lacked this element. While it was later added in via PDF, this version of the book includes them as well. Unfortunately, it feels like they are still an afterthought; all of the models from the initial releases still lack MARs, a conscious decision to keep the game simple. While this has the benefit of not invalidating their stat cards, it does mean that many of these ships still feel a bit plain in comparison to the newer releases.

Point Defense

In the first version of the rules, each ship projected a 8″ diameter “bubble” of point defense coverage that could be used to attack any incoming torpedoes or flights, regardless of who those torpedoes or flights were attacking. This has been scaled back a bit, in that now ships can only provide PD support to other models in their squadron. This is very similar to the way Ack Ack and Concussion Charges work in Dystopian Wars, and I think it is a very good thing because it removes the incentive players used to have for clustering their entire fleet together for the sake of mutual PD support. It also makes using fighters and interceptors to support capital ships more attractive.

Artwork and Graphical Design

Without a doubt, this is a very nice looking book. The top and bottom of each page is encased in cool “greebling” that just oozes sci fi, and the miniatures used for the photography are simply beautiful. Likewise, the technical illustrations such as the new diagrams and examples are very easy to follow and also have a nice sci-fi feel to them. However, I wish that there was more hand-drawn or digitally rendered scenes in the book; while the model photos are nice, they are not as dramatic as, say, the battle scene that graced the cover of the first edition book. Also, the unit stat tables at the back of the book are missing the small CAD renders of each ship class next to its stats, like the latest Dystopian Wars book has. A small omission maybe, but it makes this section much less interesting in my opinion. Finally, I was disappointed to see that no pictures of any of the alien races made it into the book. I was really hoping that this edition of the rules would finally show what the Sorillians, Aquans, and Relthoza look like! This kind of illustration is especially important in a sci-fi game, as it allows players to understand the background of their chosen faction better.

Final Thoughts

I have been a fan of Firestorm Armada since its release a few years ago. You see, having gotten into the wargaming hobby through Battlefleet Gothic, I have always considered space naval games to be my first love. So, when I saw the advertisements for Firestorm Armada at the store I frequented in San Diego, it was pretty much a must-buy for me. However, over the last couple of years it seems to me that the game had kind of lost its way through all the patching and online updates. So, it is nice to see this new version of the rules that collects the best elements of all of these online updates, as well as a few obvious lessons learned from Spartan’s other games (I’m thinking of the boarding and flight rule changes specifically here). This book is by no means perfect; it lacks an index, the fluff hasn’t been expanded to the degree that I wish it had been, there is a lack of new artwork, and there are still no missions or scenarios to speak of. Despite these issues though, the Firestorm Armada hardback edition is a much tighter version of the rule set and will, I believe, play much faster while still preserving its sci-fi theme. I highly recommend this book to all space combat fans!

Until next time, Good Luck, and Good Hunting!