Fight for the Probe: 1v1v1 Firestorm Armada Battle report

Firestorm Battle ReportWe take to the stars to fight in an intersteller conflict this week in our first real Firestorm Armada 600 point fleet engagement. Two of us only have the tiniest portion of fleets, so we relied on the kindness of our buddy John to supply reinforcements. This does mean that both of us go over the 25% limit for allies in both the Directorate and Aquan fleets as we wanted to try out the Dindrenzi and Terran ships that we just painted- but it's a friendly game! No harm, no foul.

We'll have full fleets soon enough! Now, the lists-

Fleet #1: Directorate w/ Dindrenzi Allies-

Mixed Cruiser Squadron: -Decurion Escort Carrier, 2 wings, 55pts -Velites Cruiser, Scatter Weapon Upgrade 60pts

Dindrenzi Frigate Squadron: - x3 Pugio Light Frigates 60pts

Directorate Battleship Squadron: -Anarchist Battleship, 3 wings, Special Forces (+2 AP), Second Assault (+2 AP), Stealth Systems 235pts -x1Liquidator Frigate Escorts 20pts

R&D Cruiser Squadron: -x2 Turmoil Cruisers, Cyberwarfare MAR 170pts

Fleet #2: Aquan w/ Terran Allies-

Terran Mixed Cruiser Squadron: -Harpoon Cruiser, Turret Weapons 60pts -Perseus Light Cruiser, Turret Weapons 40pts

Terran Frigate Squadron: - x6 Wayfarer Light Frigates 120pts

Aquan Heavy Carrier Squadron: -Oannes Heavy Carriers, 8 wings, +1 Shield/+1 HP upgrade 200pts -x2 Sulla Heavy Cruisers Escorts 100pts

Aquan Frigate Squadron: -x4 Chimaera Frigates 80pts

Fleet #3: Sorylian-
Battleship Squadron- x1 Falx Battleship w/ Weapon Shielding MAR

Battlecruiser Squadron- x1 Hasta Battlecruiser w/ Weapon Shielding and additional Shield

Cruiser Squadron- x2 Falcata Cruisers w/ Weapon Shielding

Frigate Squadron- x3 Scythe Frigates w/ Pack Hunter

Frigate Squadron- x3 Scythe Frigates w/ Pack Hunter
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The area of space that we're all fighting over. The dark planet 'Coke' seperating
the Directorate and Aquan fleets and the ancient probe in the center.

The shiny artifact in the center is sending out a close-range beam of data. Any
ships within 4 inches by the end of the game are able to 'secure' the data and
control the probe. King of the Hill baby.~

My Directorate forces with Dindrenzi allies all ready to race
to the objective.

The Aquan's and their Terran allies in a much more orderly line.

Finally the homogeneous Sorylian Fleet across the table all arrayed
to engage the enemy.

First few activations on the Aquan side, with the frigates darting up. Terran's
keeping their eye on the ball, and Aquan frigates defending the flank. The
Aquan frigates are wiped out by Directorate fire in fairly short order.

One of the Sorylian squadrons of frigates is wiped out by long ranged
Terran torpedoes, the rest of the fleet (including a stealthed battlecruiser ;D)
slowly grinding forwards.

Despite my wish to keep my eye on the ball, the Aquan's respond to the
death's of their frigates by turning their Heavy Carrier and escorts to
engage my fleet.

Trying to ignore them as best as possible I send my two
R&D Cruisers to intercept with some support with my
Battleship still pointed forwards towards the Probe.

The R&D cruisers combine their fire on one of the Aquan cruisers and
score enough damage with their gravity weapons to cause a critical. Double
1's, Reactor Overload! I like to think they actually just pushed it into
Planet Coke or some huge asteroid.

The Terran Frigates and Cruisers, as well as the majority of the Directorate
Fleet push forwards to the objective...

... but the Sorylians are fairly unharmed, and moving in strength.

The three fleets engage. One R&D Cruiser eats up an unreasonable amount of
fire from both Aquans and Sorylian Torpedos before being destroyed. A Sorylian
Cruiser is destroyed even as frigate reinforcements move up. Sorylian fire reduces
the Terran frigates to half strength, disordering them.

Taking some cover behind the little blue planetoid, the Sorylians
take their time, shooting long range torpedos down the board
and waiting for the enemy to close in for maximum effect.

The Terran cruisers show how deadly they are, even as the Aquan ships finally
finish off the other R&D cruiser.

The Directorate Battleship commits, making itself known and racing
forwards to claim the objective, firing out crippling amounts of fire
while supported by the Dindrenzi ships behind.

The Battleship focused on her Sorylian counterpart. The damage caused was
fairly minimal, but the successful cyberwarfare attack was a stroke of good
planning. A critical effect had the Sorylian Battleships engines malfunctiong
(keeping it out of broadside or objective range) and disengaging the forward
weapon's systems.

With fire from behind, and the Directorate frigate showing some
teeth, one of the remaining Sorylian frigates is killed and the other
damaged.

The return fire, of course, silenced the Directorate escort.

With enemy ships on all sides, the Directorate Battleship remained undamaged
as the final turn approached.

The Dindrenzi throw themselves at the probe even as the enemy battleships
throw everything they have at the Directorate forces claiming the objective.

At full health, my victory was assured... until the Aquan
carriers' beam weapons struck the Battleship's Reactor,
causing it to erupt in nuclear fire- taking both the Velites
Cruiser and Harpoon Cruiser with it!

In that astounding upset the Sorylian player managed to move his 'stealth' Hasta Battlecruiser into within four inches, thereby getting more points than my Decurion Carrier near the objective and winning in spectacular fashion.

What a game! We did... many things wrong, but three player games are never exactly 'smooth' and we're all still learning the game. Point defense and weapons firing were all casualties of our inexperience in some ways, but live and learn. It was fun for all involved, and was climactic right to the very end. Hopefully we'll get to play again very soon, and continue to grow the local community.~

Scary Purple Dindrenzi Firestorm Fleet!

So, if there was one area of miniatures gaming I've always been a bit leery of, it's been space ships- specifically of the 'big' and 'capital' variety. There was something about the scale, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to paint them correctly or if I could find ships the size I'd like. Well, my love of the genre overcame my worry, and I finally pulled the trigger on Firestorm Armada- specifically, the Dindrenzi.

I knew I wanted to play a human faction (half of the fun is putting 'myself' on a Bridge in my minds eye) and something about the brutally simple ship style appealed to me. Another concern was that the other major human faction, the Terran Alliance, relies heavily on shields and my dice aren't good enough to rely on surviving anyway. So I split a Taskforce Starter box, and painted up my first ships!

My whole little fleet, as it stands. I know I should have magnetized them,
but I didn't have any magnets on hand and wanted to get to painting. Maybe
down the road.

This is my Velites Class Cruiser 'DFS Hercules Mulligan', along
with three Pugio Frigates- The DFS's 'Bishop, Ripley, and Newt'

On many of the ships I've placed a yellow sunburst pattern, symbolizing
....something, something with Dramos and rebirth. I'm considering between
keeping muted or making bright. The Pugio Frigates have little strips of
yellow to represent warpaint or 'eyes'.

My Decurion class Escort Carrier 'DFS Lafayette' with the DFS 'Frost, Vasquez, and Hicks'

Finally, my little bomber and interceptor wings assigned to the Lafayette as
Chasseurs Squadron.

Its not really enough for a full Firestorm Armada game as of yet, but its a start. I'm looking at a Dindrenzi Patrol Fleet to bring them up to strength, followed perhaps by some Rense System Navy allies- the best of the best in the whole Federation. Until then, I'll make due with what I have!

And try to figure out the best way to keep the big boys from shifting on their stands. If anyone has any suggestions for list building Dindrenzi (I expect Sorylian Lizards and Terran Alliance in my future) let me know!

Food Chain Magnate and the Pizza Coup of 2017

So, if I'm honest, I discounted Food Chain Magnate when it first came out. I saw some pictures of the lack luster board and saw the price tag and I was ready to forget that it ever existed. Then I watched a review done by the boys from Shut up & Sit Down and I admit that my interest was piqued. Then came a bit of trepidation. It was described as a 'systems' game, and an economic one at that- and I was a tad worried that I'd just find myself crushed.

What I found was an incredibly nasty, but very fun game! It wasn't as long as I thought it might be, and the puzzle was a fascinating one but not overly complex. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a knife fight of a game.

So, I came into this very blind. I watched a review, but otherwise I
had nothing up my sleeve. First impression? Love the little player reference.

Having the 'org' chart for the cards is very helpful, but I admit
that I made a silly assumption about the colors. For instance,
I found the hard way you can't train a waitress!

The milestones. The first tip my opponent gave me, and I'll give to
any of you looking to play this- Pay attention to the Milestones. They
are extremely important to your strategy.

 

Our little town there at the bottom. Whoever built the roads in this
particular suburb should probably be fired.

One minor complaint about the game is just how much table space
it takes up. I've played war games that take less room than all the cards!

Here I am, CEO of the brand new 'Golden Duck Diner'. As it
turns out, 'Gold' happens to refer to our famous lemonade.

With our little suburb map being a little... wacky I managed to pick a good
centralized location. My opponent was forced into a worse position- so
he quickly began to focus on the realty business.

My opening strategy. After looking at the milestones I went with a trainer first
and trained up a errand boy. This gave me the 'First to Train' milestone that I
found amazingly useful over the game. It gave me a flat $15 discount on
salaries for the rest of the game. My opponent went with hiring girls out the gate.

As the game went on my access to more houses and easy marketing opportunities
gave me many turns of a modest income selling lemonade to a few houses.
Everything else, every turn, would go in the freezer or get trashed. America!

Things started to look dicey when all of a sudden my opponent had four houses
with gardens buying his beer. He was poised to make an unreasonable amount of
money... but I had a campaign manager in the wings. In what I called the 'Great
Pizza Coup' I made all those households want delicious pizza with their beer. The
payout was huge, and the game ended in a rain of baked cheese.

This was what my opponents corporate structure looked like on the last turn.
He spent a lot of time building his organization, and spent a lot of money
on salaries each turn but if the game went on any longer he threatened to
drown my diner in sheer actions alone.

This was my svelte little operation on my last turn. Nice and simple
heaven bent on meeting demand and profit. Thanks to the training
milestone and the advertising milestone, I never had to pay a penny
in salaries.

Allll of the food I made on my last turn (added with what I had from my
freezer). I'd guess probably 75% of it wasn't used. ~

Everyone I had at the end. It was an excellent, cutthroat two player game,
swung by a last minute advertisement that couldn't be countered in time.
I can't wait to try it with even more players.

Final Score:

(Approximately)
Me: 490
Opponent: 295

Strike on Kar'A Nine and Algoryn Crew

Under the badgering of friends and family just aching to get Gates of Antares on the table, I've finally gotten around to painting up the Strike on Kar'A Nine Algoryn starter forces. I was really impressed with the set from Warlord, especially for the price, and the plastic lads look really striking on the table. With their striking white armor, I've decided that my troops are an Alpine Assault Force- experts in mountain warfare and rough terrain.

With the miniatures came a set of five starter scenarios, designed to slowly teach the rules of the game over a small campaign. I figured instead of just dumping a picture of the force, I'd break them up by scenario as a visual representation of the forces you'll need per mission.

Scenario 1 Escape and Evade: x2 AI squads with two troopers with Mag Guns.

Scenario 2 Weakness: x2 AI squads each with a Squad Leader w/ Mag Repeater,
three AI troopers w/ Mag Guns, and a spotter drone.

Scenario 3 Surgical Strike: x1 AI Squad with a Squad Leader w/ Repeater + 3
Mag Gun + spotter drone, x1 AI Squad with a Squad Leader w/ Mag gun + 3 Troopers
with Mag Gun + spotter drone, x1 AI Squad with Squad Leader w/ pistol +3 Mag
Guns + a spotter drone.

Scenario 4 Drone Recovery: x1 AI Squad with a SL w/ Mag Repeater + 4 Mag
Guns and a Spotter Drone, x1 AI Squad with A SL w/ Mag Gun + 4 Mag
Guns + Spotter Drone

Just a closer look.

Scenario 5 Let Battle Begin: x1 AI Squad with a SL w/ Pistol and X-sling and Leader + 2
Mag Guns + 2 Micro-X launchers (overload ammo) + spotter drone, x1 AI Squad with SL w/
Mag Repeater and X-sling + 4 Mag Guns + Spotter Drones, x1 AI Squad with SL w/ Mag Gun
and X-sling + Spotter Drone + 3 Mag Guns + 1 Micro-X launcher .

Two destroyed Ghar heads- apparently the battle over the
purple space rock has been a bloody one.

Crew of the 'Zyran Shade'

Left to right: Drones, Rao, Commander Argos, Kal, and Ikios

Theme- Bounty Hunters
Tactical Discipline- Retain The Initiative
Species-  Algoryn
Crew-

Commander Argo Ul'nar  - Light Power Armor [25], Plasma Rifle [12], Powered Gauntlet [5] Leader (1) [6], Veteran [6]
Specialist Vyrce Rao- Light Power Armor [25], Machine Gun [10], Marksman [6]
Trooper Kal Wy'lo- Light Power Armor [25], Molecular Slugthrower [7], Tech (1) [4]
Trooper Ikios Yos'jal- Light Power Armor [25], Molecular Slugthrower [7] , Free Disengage [3]
Drone XV-88- Molecular Slugthrower [9], Medic (1) [3], artificial [10], non-reactive [-6], Diminutive [1]
Drone XV-44- Molecular Slugthrower [9], Medic (1) [3]. artificial [10], non-reactive [-6] Diminutive [1]