Firestorm preview sketches and announcement of the release of the beta May 6th

[RuleBritannia]

https://blog.warcradle.com/blog/2020/warcradle-studios-diary-25

[Toxic_Rat]

We will be using these beta rules at our annual GenCon event this year.  Hopefully it will be received better than the previous Spartan beta rules.  If you're going to Indy this year, come join us at the game table!

[Fracas]

https://blog.warcradle.com/blog/2020/warcradle-studios-diary-25

the drawings look good!

[Landlubber]

I like the vertical orientation of the Veydreth ships. Interested to see where they go with this.

[Fracas]

stylistically wayland products appear more art nouveau than cubist of spartan

[RuleBritannia]

That's a really good point.  I think Deco tends to look more warlike but looks less detailed so I can see why the change, even if its one I don't personally like.  Thank you for finding such an apposite way to describe the difference.

[Dakkar]

I am cautiously optimistic

[Fracas]

The German fleet set has three cruisers of the hipper class: each model is individually named.

Also this scouting rule is interesting: https://www.warlordgames.com/victory-at-sea-scouting-intelligence/

[Landlubber]

That is an interesting technique...think you meant to post this in the Victory at Sea thread though...

[Fracas]

Yes I did

[Covertwalrus]

 Just seen this one - https://blog.warcradle.com/blog/2020/warcradle-studios-diary-28

 Now, I'm very much in agreement with the sentimnest about the Covid19 thing and cannot fault them for that.

 I have nothing bd to say about the ships; They look a lot like the Spartan versions of this faction and are just nice-looking and wel-designed vessels in their own rights. Well done whoever is working on these, and let's hope they see production in something very like this form..
 
 However, and you can stop reading now if vicious negativity engendered by mental health issues aren't your thing . . . . I am angered and frustrated as to why the Warcradle designers can get this aesthetic to line up with the previosu one, whne the DW ones are at such odds with their illustrious ancestral types.

[RuleBritannia]

Pity about the beta, even if we didn't have the guiding hand of Warcradle to guide us through, the Dystopian wars Beta lasted for about a year with some minimal updates so exploring how space will be played with and getting a chance to poke about under the hood would be fun.

The random fluff changes so that Warcradle can 'make things their own' continues.  I really dislike their approach of its about people's inherent character rather than government and structures, and their choice of new character for the Terran Federation is depressingly generic evil company which never strikes me as particularly sustainable for an empire over hundreds of years.

[Covertwalrus]

 Oh, found this summary of the new look FSA beta rules - https://www.reddit.com/r/firestormarmada/comments/gitxr6/new_update_from_the_forum_space_whales_and/

[Dakkar]

Space Whales I was really digging.

I was totally geeking out over the Relthoza design pics too... until I read this:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/firestormarmada/permalink/3282796558398202/

So the Relthoza faction as I knew it is essentially gone, assimilated by the Unity Pathogen (and not even the fun Unity like on Rick and Morty).
I wanted to play hyper-intelligent singing space spiders ... not YAB (Yet Another Borg).

Anyone want an old fleet cheap? :-(

[Wanjajoral]

Seeing the new concept art and reading the few fluff snippets makes me cautiously optimistic. Some of the changes will need to getting used to (like the Aquan fluff, or that the Veydreth and Bakash are now major factions), but given that they jumped the timeline quite a bit into the future most of these changes can be explained nicely.

And I really like the look of the new designs. The Sorylian battleship looks sweet and I am looking forward to seeing more for "my" fleet . I also like how the new Terran models use some of the Directorate design inspirations to indicate their merging.

Maybe Warcradle can bring FSA back in a nice way, and if not, at least we might get some cool looking models that will fit into the old line of ships pretty well.