Mount Up! Recon and Infantry Helix's Spotted!

In the wake of the Leviathan Firepower Helix release and the ORBATs dropping with the rest of the Leviathan rules,  as well as major changes to points and units in said ORBATS, Some photos of our next two helix releases have dropped.  The Recon Helix's and the long awaited Infantry upgrades.

Lets look at some Infantry first!

and Now the recon Helix's.  I am curious about the medium Spiders in this one.  Are we getting some more mobile Drone Nexus? Or are we getting a Drone Factory?

Aquan Recon Helix

Dindrenzi Recon Helix

Sorylian Recon Helix

Relthoza Recon Helix

Terran Recon Helix

Directorate Recon Helix

Well these all look pretty nice.. I know those of you with living infantry have been looking forward to the upgrades for your infantry.  I am really looking forward to a Helix still in development.  The Breacher Helix has a new element in it that adds a new dimension to the game and will be almost as big as a regular core helix.  The ability to destroy buildings and Objectives will add some new tactical depth to the game and make an army geared completely to wipe out the opposing force very viable.  Why take objectives when you can deny your enemy the points.

Until Next time Crush the Alliance and as always

REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!!!!

Firestorm Planetfall: New ORBATs Released

Today is a glorious day for Planetfall players. New model profile documents have been released (think codexes) for all the factions of Planetfall. The main anticipation was building for the release of the stats for the three new alien Firepower Leviathan Helixes (Helices?). There was much more to be found, however. Spartan has been changing up the points and stats for their models during each launch wave and this was no exception. There were significant changes to some units and mild tweaks to others. Very interesting was the fact that Breacher Team upgrades have disappeared from the armies, mostly replaced with Sweeper Teams. This shift from defense to offense for Infantry squads may be an indicator of future things, perhaps having to do with the next release of Recon Helixes. Little is known at this point, though. We are keeping a watchful eye on the horizon.

Head over to Spartan Games' download section to check out the new (and free) stuff:

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/resources/downloads

Halo Fleet Battles At Salute 2015!!!

I will just leave this here for your viewing pleasure.  People attending Salute 2015 get the first glimpse at the game and the models. They  get to try out the game itself. Halo Fleet Battles is in a smaller scale than Firestorm Armada, which is probably why the starter contains a raw ton of models. I am very interested in seeing what its all about, but we are going to have to wait until this summer for the starter box, dubbed "The Fall Of Reach".  Lets look at the contents of the box!

Planetfall Achieved! Thoughts On The Game So Far

Directorate Wraith Leviathan on the Hobby Table

Grettings all. SeerK here to talk Firestorm Planetfall.  With Adepticon over and my move finished, the local crew has been able to really start playing Firestorm Planetfall.  We have been getting in several weekly games and so far we have been liking it.  There have been a few hiccups though and we do have some critiques of the game.

I am not going to go into an in depth overview of Planetfall.  If you are reading this I am going to assume you have at least read the rules and have maybe even gotten a few games in.  Myself and the rest of the "Michigan Crew" have been and will be recording with Firebase Delta in the coming weeks doing a complete walk through of the game including the basics of the game, Army Building and some tactics.  Today I wanted to address a couple things I have noticed and some stuff brought up by our local game group.

Firestorm Planetfall: New Firepower Leviathan Pics

Looks like Spartan Games released some pictures of their new Firepower Leviathans for Relthoza, Sorylians, and Aquans. From the initial renders, I wasn't sure if I was going to like the Relthoza one but now, having seen a painted one, I am a total fanboy of it.

Here's the link to their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spartangames

Can't wait to see some stats!

Firestorm Armada: How do you get to 25%?

Since the Grand Tournament at Adepticon has concluded, a conversation has been emerging about terrain in Firestorm Armada. Wargaming in general seems to have always had an issue with some players not using enough terrain, regardless of which game is being played and we, as a community, are still working out what 25% board coverage seems to look like on our space boards. 

At Adepticon, we tried to get all the boards reasonably close to 25% covered, some were a little less, and some were a little more. I'm not writing today to discuss whether 25% coverage is the way to go, as far as I'm concerned, that is the way the main rule books says to do it. Also, one would think that that was the way it was play-tested as well. Ultimately, it is up to the players to decide where on the spectrum of vaccuum of space to space junk yard they want to battle.

What I would like to ponder though, is the options to get to 25%. We tend to use medium and small chunks of terrain which litters the board, about 25% of it actually. What we discovered during Adepticon, where all the great metas converged was that other people get to their 25% by using less pieces because they are much larger. Some people said our boards were "mazelike" which was very interesting. 

Part of the research and development for next year will to have a variety of board styles, some with many pieces like we had in 2015 and others with fewer but larger ones.

How does your gaming group grapple with terrain coverage? 

Adepticon 2015: Firestorm Feedback and Plans for 2016

The event at this year's Adepticon was glorious. Now that it is over, the work schedules have resettled, and the con-crud is basically evacuated, it is time to start pulling in feedback from the tournament and start brain storming for next year.

Terrain: There has been some interesting things said about our terrain; thankfully all positive in regards to appearance, at least. Some players felt out of balance with it because their local groups either play with much less total coverage, or at least fewer, but bigger pieces. Some of the boards were refered to as "maze-like" due to the coverage. We will be putting some R&D into terrain.

Size of Fleets: The decision to make the tournament a 900 point Battle Fleet standard has been fairly controversial since the beginning. Currently, there is a poll going in the Spartan Games Community forums to gather some hard data. The truth is, that there is no point limit that will make everyone super happy. However, we are committed to staying true to the wishes of the player base. 

Battle Log for Objectives: I don't think I've come across much, if any, displeasure about using this as a supplemental scoring mechanism. However, the points assigned and how the points were earned have received comment. Research will be done in this area as well.

As a first year event, I think that, overall, things went smoothley and a good time was had by most. And a big thank you to the players who showed up. We received several accolades from Adepticon staff for selling out a first year event, especially for a game that doesn't have as much recognition as some of the bigger convention staples.

That all being said, we have planted the seed for the Firestorm Armada Grand Tournament, now we need to focus on making each year better than the last. How fun would it be to get up to a 64 Admiral tournament? I think very.