[Project] Firestorm Taskforce - Stat Cards

[Wanjajoral]

Thank you.
Honestly, I am impressed a bit as well. I didn't expect that there are sooo many models for all the factions out there. And what I thought would be a fun litle side project has turned into a rather large commitment. And I strongly believe in finishing what I have started - so there is no turning back now.
It also showed me some of the holes in the Taskforce fleet statistics (incosistent use of the "0" and "-" for zero shields, missing models (like the Terran Defence Platform) and weird design choices (nuclear non-Torpedo weapons on the Hawker ships - hos are those supposed to work fluff wise?).
All that convinced me that Taskforce needs some more love. There are still several ships missing (the System Wars models) and who would say to entirely new stat cards (weaker/cheaper optional profiles for the older MK1 models and upgraded/more expensive refits for the newest models of each class). There is still a lot of room in the Taskforce design space and THAT will be a fun project (at least for me as a game designer).

It is a shame that Taskforce has been (and will be) largely ignored by the gaming community. Yes, it is not FSA proper, but it is a fun game and it plays so much faster. I think much of the negative perception hinges on that awful damage table. Something needs to be done with that and I already have a few ideas. But that is something for another time, somewhen next year.

I wish you all a great start into the new year, may it bring a lot of naval gaming for all of us .

Michael

[Wanjajoral]

Hello everybody and a happy new year.
I am back from my vacation and have been working a bit more on the project.

During this last week I finished creating the last missing stat cards (Works Raptor), which brings the final card count to a whooping 156.

I also added the images to the Ba'Kash and Kedorians. This means that the only things still missing are the ship images for the RSN and Works Raptor cards, which equals just 5% until total completion of the project.

It will take me another week or two to get these images done and then I will print a first proof copy via the Gamecrafter to see how the cards turn out when properly printed on solid cardstock.

I also started looking at the faction statistic - analyzing which factions use which (weapon) MARs how often. This kind of reverse engineering will help me getting the first batch of new stats (for the System Wars ships) right and flavourful.

Allright, that's it for this week.
Cheers,
Michael

[Wanjajoral]

Hello everybody,
this has been coming a long time but now I finally want to tell you all that the project is done.
Actually I could have told you already at teh start of February, but I wanted to ask for Warcradle's permission for making these cards available for download here on thsi site.
Unfortunately I haven't received an answer from Rich or Stuart. I tried reaching them again a week later, again without a response.
After that Real Life took over for a while as I had to work on a project proposal but today I finally managed to send an email to the only contact address available on the Warcradle homepage. Honestly I do not have high hopes for a quick answer and I am not sure what that says about Warcradle and their community engagement... but we will see about that, I guess.

I will keep you informed, but currently all I can do is tease you with the finished product and tell you that I hope to make the cards available for download eventually.

Here is the last digital sample I created for the Boardgamegeek site:




There are 156 stat cards in total that I printed through the Gamecrafter and that is one big deck of cards
They turned out beautifully and the font is not too small to read (though some with impaired eyesight might say differently...). The one thing I will change for a future printing is the card back as the Taskforce logo is a bit to close to the upper edge of the card, but that is something that is easy to fix.

And here are a few photos of the printed cards:







If you have any questions about these cards, feel free to reply below or send me a message.

As I mentioned in an earlier post I have plans for expanding this little project, but before I start with any of that I want to hear from Warcradle Studios as I don't want to step on their toes and maybe, hopefully, even get them onboard.
Things that are in the pipeline are:
- System Wars ships;
- separate Stat Cards for older models;
- upgraded Stat Cards for improved ships (aka MK2, Refits etc.);
- Admiral cards (sort of player powers as seen in the System Wars supplement);
- System Wars scenarios;
- a way to play a quick card game with these cards (like the new version of the Citadel Combat Cards from Games Workshop);
- Stat Cards for models from other game systems (e.g. the Fleet Commander ships);
- ...

And of course, the big elephant in the room being - How to fix Taskforce? - which relates to how many players think that the damage table is unfun. I have a few ideas for addressing that issue, but again, developing the game is something I would only consider if Warcradle gave a green light for that.

Beyond that I think these stat cards would make a great online resource - e.g. for wiki entries for all the different ships in the game. Such a system could easily be used for FSA or Dystopian Wars as well, but that is quite a different topic and something that would be too ambitious for a one-man-show.

Well, there you have it, the Taskforce Stat Cards are live, let's hope that they will see a wider distribution eventually.

Cheers and all the best,
Michael

[Ruckdog]

Those came out great! How much did it cost to get them printed up?

Regarding the fixing of Task Force, have you looked at the revised version of DW Fleet Action? It uses a different damage procedure, and since its practically the same game as TF it would be easy to port over.

[markymark1970]

They look awesome, nice work.

[Wanjajoral]

Thanks.

I paid 16 USD for the whole deck (plus shipping), which is a very good price if you consider that this is print on demand and not from a proper printer with an ecomony of scale.

And no, I haven't taken a look at the revised Fleet Action rules yet. I briefly looked the over a couple of months ago and they looked (at a glance) very similar to the older version. I guess I will have to take a proper look.

[Wanjajoral]

Hi everybody,
another two weeks have passed since I contacted Warcradle Studios via their homepage / official email.
Once again I haven't gotten any response from them.

I think that this sends out a terrible signal to all the Spartan Games fans - either the company is not well organized and can't even handle to stay in touch with it's fans/gamers/future customers; or they just don't care about what their fans think - and I don't know what would be worse.

My hopes for a faithful revival of Firestorm Armada are getting less and less and based on the strife surrounding the Dystopian Wars/Age fluff I think Warcradle is running the risk of losing the exisiting fan base.

Oh well... the models still exist and so do the Spartan rules .
Anybody up for a game?