So maybe you like spaceships. That’s totally understandable, bro. Do you like spaceships fierce battling? I know I do. What about terms like “fire all broadsides” and “damn the torpedoes” and that kind of thing? Because if you’re down for that, I may have a game for you. Firestorm Armada, by Spartan Games, isn’t a big name compared to some of their other work, but if you want a space combat game with a good set of rules and current model support, it’s well worth considering.

If you’re not sure if it’s the game for you, read a little further and I may be able to convince you.



What Is Firestorm: Armada?

Firestorm: Armada (often abbreviated FSA) is a space combat game that tends strongly towards the “retro” feel of 19th Century naval warfare while drawing its visual aesthetics from a wide variety of sci-fi universes. Though they don’t so much as admit it in print, it’s pretty clear that most of the major races (and many of the minor ones) steal their design philosophies directly from various other fictional universes, but this isn’t really a bad thing. The dice system for the game is its big draw- virtually all actions are resolved using the same basic system, which is based on d6s rolling for 4+s, and this unity makes approaching the game as a new player much easier.

In fact, the game is extremely easy to access- while a ship statline is a little intimidating at a first glance, actually playing the game is much simpler than you might assume from looking at things and the unity of mechanics means that grasping the basics is very simple. Beyond that, the game is more focused on maneuvering and tactics than a plethora of special rules, though it certainly has a reasonable number of those as well. While a little more complex than, say, X-Wing or the like, it is a game that is relatively easy to simply sit down and begin playing without being completely overwhelmed.

The basic mechanic is that a ship’s stat for a given thing will be the number of dice you roll, with 4+s being successes and 6s being “exploding” dice; a 6 counts as two successes for a roll and also lets you roll another d6 beyond your original pool, potentially getting another success (or even another six, which can blossom into another die, etc.) Depending on the roll in question, the number of successes will generally be compared to some needed value- for example, when shooting at an enemy ship, you need to equal its Damage Value in order to do anything to it; less than that and your shots simply don’t penetrate deeply enough, go wide, etc.

Turns are shared between players, with a roll-off to determine who has the initiative that turn. The player with the initiative acts with one of their squadrons, moving them, shooting at whatever targets they wish, using special abilities, etc, and once that squadron is resolved the opposing player does the same with one of their units, alternating back and forth until both players have acted with all of their models, at which point the turn is over and a new turn (and a new initiative roll) happens. This alternating method prevents any real possibility of an alpha strike crippling one player completely before they can act as well as presenting a lot of tactical choices about which units should act in which order. For example, going first with your battleship might allow you to damage an enemy squadron before it can do anything, but might leave it exposed to enemy maneuvering to get into its vulnerable rear arc.

What About the World?



A game is more than just its rules, of course, and while the storyline isn’t Firestorm’s strongest point, they do several things right that I think give them a strong start on making an interesting IP. The setting isn’t anything tremendously original- a huge imperial power once dominated the sector but has since been broken into several smaller dominions, aliens and pirates are swarming over region, a new war looms, terrible atrocities, heroes and villains, etc; it sets a pretty decent stage for battles of just about any faction against any other while creating some delineations and natural rivalries. Its big plus, like the 40K universe, is that it leaves a lot of the details open to the players- the fleets, admirals, planets, sectors, etc, are all pretty wide-open for player-created ideas, as are the other specifics of the fluff. Now, some of this is obviously just the finite provided detail, but it goes beyond that- by providing an expansive universe for gamers to play around in, FSA makes sure there is room for anyone and everyone. Do you want to be a rogue admiral that has defected to the other side? Great, go for it. Are you a heretofore-undiscovered race that is tentatively part of one of the major alliances? There’s like ten different sub-factions per side, so take your pick for counts-as. Firestorm gives you thousands of planets to work with and a wide-open universe to detail as you please; more than anything, I think this is what has made 40K strong- the ability to play whatever you want without worry about whether it conflicts with something official or fits into the universe or whatever.

The Alliance of Kurak

The Alliance is the nominal “good guys” of the world, a sort of alliance of survival between several of the factions fighting defensive wars to maintain their current territory. They’re hardly goody-goodies (the Terrans razed the Dindrezi homeworld with nuclear weapons, for example), but tend to get the “nicer” treatment in the fluff.

The Terran Alliance



The Terrans are one of the two flagship factions, alongside their hated enemies the Dindrezi. Composed of the remnants of Earth’s old empire, they are the old guard of the Firestorm universe- venerable and powerful still, but not what they once were. Terran ships are modeled heavily off of Battlestar Galactica in their designs, with long, wedge-shaped vessels mounting batteries of guns all over. Mechanically, the Terran ships tend to have slightly subpar natural defensive stats, but make up for it with good Shield ratings (which, while a bit random, can be quite effective) and the ability to simply shrug off any damage they do take with very little effect. Terran ships are excellent mid-range brawlers, able to dish out significant damage while taking enemy punches on the chin and grind their foe down with punishing broadsides of fire.

Aquan Sebrutan



Stealing the Vorlon aesthetic, the Aquans are a collective race of different aquatic species working in concert as part of their galactic empire. Their ships are universally sleek, fast, and able to fire volleys of lasers into every arc simultaneously. For admirals that enjoy diving into the very thick of things and making a mess of the enemy’s carefully-constructed formations, the Aquans are a perfect choice and they come with a wide variety of other sneaky tricks as well, including mines on most every ship. Though their usual weapons are fairly short-ranged, Aquans also mount many torpedoes for longer-distance engagements, many of which have status effects attached to them.

Sorylian Collective



Careful, collected, and methodical, the Sorylians are a race of cold-blooded lizardlike people that value rationality and scientific thought over all else. Under attack from their longtime rivals the Relthzoans, the Collective is slowly rousing itself to war using the might of their advanced engineering knowledge. Sorylian ships generally have good (but not amazing) defensive stats and extremely strong broadside guns, but few other weapons. However, they also come with another advantage- boarding assaults. Though every ship is able to launch them, the Sorylians are the undisputed masters of boarding tactics and at point-blank distances the ability to flood the enemy with giant, angry lizardmen in power armor is no laughing matter, and their ability to contain or repair even the most catastrophic damage to their ships does credit to the race’s technical know-how. Sorylian vessels are also famous for their “scatterguns” that discharge fire in precise mathematical patterns designed to maximize chances of a hit, making evasion impossible for even the most agile of targets.

Minor Allies



In addition to its major constituents, the Alliance of Kurak contains a number of minor races that can be fielded either alongside their larger compatriots or as forces in their own right. Alliance fleets are much more flexible than “pure” armadas in terms of the models they can field, but have access to somewhat fewer tactical options and the disunity of purpose often means taking a penalty to initiative rolls and the like. From the human industrial might of Hawker Industries to the glass cannons of the Veydreth to the flexible hybrids of the outcast Ryushi, Alliance fleets have a wider variety of ships than almost any other.

The Xenian League

Unlike the Alliance, the Xenian League makes no pretenses of having a common purpose or mutual goodwill- they are allies of opportunity only, friendly until the point at which their interests cease to coincide with each other. While they are sometimes shown to have motives that rise above the most base,

Dindrezi Federation



Once no more than a band of rebels trying to win their independence from the Terran Alliance, the Dindrezi are now arguably the greatest military power in the galaxy, having taken a large portion of the Alliance’s most lucrative territories with them when they seceded. The rule of the Federation is harsh but orderly, with secret agents and holy preachers alike ensuring that the citizenry stay in line. Dindrezi warships are universally heavily armored and armed; though they lack the powerful shields or broadside arrays of their Terran counterparts, they make up for it with dozens of meters of ablative plating over every part of their hull as well as the massive Type IX railgun mounted to each ship’s fore. Under sustained barrage from these monstrous weapons, no fleet can hope to prevail.

Relthzoan



Though it is commonly assumed that the Relthzoans are a hive mind, such an assumption is gravely mistaken- every individual is just as much capable of solitary thought and action as any human being. It is thus all the more indicative of their superiority over other races that they are able to act in such perfect concert with each other, then, especially in comparison with the bickering of the lesser races. Relthzoan ships are equipped with the so-called “Web of Shifting Mirrors” that allows them to vanish from enemy sensors almost at will, making them nearly impossible to target at range- and when the time is right, they can reappear to deliver punishing broadsides of fire and cripple them before they can react. Many Relthzoan weapons make extensive use of nanotechnology to inflict disastrous damage to the hull or crew of their targets, further rendering them incapable of fighting back.

The Directorate



Although they seceded from the Terran Alliance along with the Dindrezi, the Directorate consider themselves wholly separate- and they have both the economic and military might to back up such a claim. Not a government but rather a collection or corporate entities that hold themselves outside the law of the individual nations, the Directorate controls vast natural resources as well as some of the most brilliant minds in the galaxy today. Mounting a wide array of plasma weaponry as well as stranger weapons culled from the R&D labs of their corporate masters, Directorate ships are masters of cyber-warfare and can cripple an enemy ship without ever so much as firing a shot at it. They also have mastered the use of A.I. boarding units, bioweapons, and even more obscure things- rest assured that if it is possible to weaponize a thing, the scientists of the Directorate have found a way to do so.

Minor Allies



Beyond its three main constituents, a vast array of pirates, marauders, and cuthroats make up the Zenian League. Entities such as Works Raptor, the most terrifying of the corporations in the Directorate, as well as the Rense System Navy and its stealthy security agents fight alongside the reckless berzerkers of the Ba’Kash and the deceptively-slow floating citadels of the Kedorians making for an armada no less mighty than that of their opponents.

Come On In, the Water’s Fine

In addition to the relatively-accessible rules, Firestorm has another big advantage in getting started: cost. The Patrol Fleet boxes contain 500-700pts of models, depending on how you equip them and which particular faction they are; this is enough points to play the basic level of game (the rules allow for different fleet compositions in different sizes of game) and will only run you about US$60. Expanding upwards from that is similarly not too expensive- at 1200pt fleet, which is on the big side of things overall (something like an 1850pt 40K army) shouldn’t set you back more than perhaps another $60-$100, depending on how you build it- and that’s before any discounts from online retailers or your FLGS. Firestorm is a pretty cheap game to get into, all things considered.

Nor are the models lacking in detail or casting quality; in fact, rarely do they even have mold lines that need to be cleaned off, at least in the cases of the resin ships. The older sculpts of ships are sometimes a bit flat overall, but the newer ones are much improved and are almost entirely done in very workable resin, so rarely will you need to put any significant effort into getting things to fit together or onto their flight stands.

Now add in the ease of creating a FSA board- you need a black cloth, perhaps flecked with some stars, some “rubble” to be asteroid/debris fields, a couple bulky things for planetoids, and maybe some miscellaneous stuff for ghost stations, comets, or gravity wells (did I mention those are all things in this game? because they are) and you’re pretty much good to go. Of course you can put a ton of work into a fancy board if you want to, but unlike some other games building a terrain collection up to the point where the game plays “correctly” isn’t a monumental undertaking.

In short, Firestorm is both relatively simple and relatively cheap to start playing. If you can muster the interest of a couple of your friends, you can have a lot of fun with it, as balance amongst the factions (and ships) is generally pretty good. If you’re into space battling spaceships, I would heartily recommend it.