Firestorm Armada: War Log 3724 Commentary

There is an great thread going in the Spartan Games Community currently. It is called War Log 3724. You have to be signed into the forums to see it, but we will be covering it here as well. Though, if you have any interest in Firestorm Armada, I encourage you to sign up for the forums.

How to Read the War Log Board: The 487 for the Alliance of Kurak is the total amount of Battle Log points added together from all battles, and the 5.53 below it is the average Battle Log earned per battle across all games reported. The Zenian total is to the right of it. Below the overall totals are the faction breakdowns, read left to right, [Name of faction, Faction total Battle Log, Games Played, and average Battle Log per game. This breakdown repeats for all of the factions.

The War Log works like this, as games are played throughout the world, the results are posted in a special thread on the forum, then tabulated into a massive spreadsheet. The goal is to see how all of the factions are doing in a specific manner and wage a worldwide, international campaign between the Zenian League and the Alliance of Kurak. The War Log is updated periodically, but only games that were standard book missions and battles between the Zenian League and the Kurak Alliance are shown. Zenian vs Zenian and Kurak vs Kurak are still noted and will appear as data in the end of the year report (January 2015). This War Log began in January 2014 when the new Version 2.0 Firestorm rules came out. Firestorm Armada uses a Battle Log game mechanic to decide the victor of each battle. As the game progresses, your Battle Log will be raised or lowered depending on what is happening on the battlefield. The higher the number the better.

This post is going to discuss the War Log between April 1st, 2014 to May 19th, 2014 and so will be longer than future ones. As new updates become available, the posts will cover the new board updates only.

Tutorial: Making a Gaming Board for Spaceships!

Example of a pretty NASA photo and kind of what
we are going for with these boards.

Making a new board to play your war game of choice on is usually a fun experience. It gets a bit tricky in the planning stages when you attempt a completely new style or genre though. I'm no stranger to making grassy fields, hills, ruins, etc. However, when it came time to make a board that looked like "space", some Internet research needed to be done as I had no experience in the matter. Firestorm Armada was taking off in popularity at the store, and it was time to upgrade from black fabric and make some legitimate boards to play on.

After reading a number of articles, tutorials, and examples of what had been done before, I was a little disappointed. I was really looking for an "easy button" step-by-step that was both cheap and looked good. Thankfully, nearly all the places I researched had a gem or two of information, and when combined, actually had all the parts we needed to get this project done. So far, we have made six of these boards for our FLGS, Evolution Games, and they are all a bit different and universally well received. The following is a run down of how to make one.

Terrans: Making Long-Range Work

It's Dreadbeard with a alternative way to play your favorite rock'em sock'em spaceships.

Ships Of The Rense pt 2: The Siren / Harpy Escort

SeerK here to kick off the new look for the blog. The Waygate is official and will be bringing you coverage of Firestorm Armada, Planetfall, War Machine and Hordes and any of the other war games the authors currently play. We will be continuing with hobby and strategy articles as well and a little something new I like to call “Fluff Fridays”, where I begin to expand the Firestorm Armada universe for some narrative play and give a little background to our impending Firestorm Armada campaign.

Before all that though, I am continuing a series I started almost 2 months ago. The Ships of the Rense Navy. We continue by finishing off the Rense System Navy Tier 3 ships and starting with our Tier 2 ships. Last time we went over the Bulwark/Hellion Frigate. The workhorse of the fleet and vigilant guardians of Dramos. Today we are going to talk about the the all seeing eyes of the Federation. The watchers of watchers. The Siren/Harpy Escort. We then move into Tier two with the backbone of the Rense Navy, the Spook/Shrike Cruiser.

The End Of An Era: 40K Is Dead

Well Dreadbeard, Spellduckwrong and Myself are hard at work giving the blog a face lift.  We are changing
gear completely.  40K has gone in a direction we are not happy with.  Although we are still holding onto our armies, 40K is now dead in our FLGS.  So if you have been tuning in for 40K coverage is it going to be sparse at best from here on in.  Coverage of War Machine and Hordes will be on the rise, as well as other games.  First and foremost though we will be covering Firestorm Armada.

That said the name of the blog will also be changing.  No longer will we be known as Craftworld Lansing.  When the overhaul is done "The Waygate" shall be left in is place.


So I say goodbye to 40K and GW once again.  In your quest to expand your business you have alienated many of your long time players, hobbyists and biggest supporters.  Despite your status as the makers of the  "Rolls Royce" of miniatures your obvious money grabbing at the expense of a decent game has me and many other fed up.  40K is no longer fun for me.  I will still hobby and paint, but I will not buy any of your products from here on in.  Your practices and excuses that you "are only a miniature company" when faced with criticism about your rules is tired and a cop out.

I invite everybody to still follow and read the blog even if 40K is your only game.  Its good to know what else is out there.  If you part ways with us, thanks for reading.  We appreciate our followers and readers and you guys are why we do this.  Sometimes when you love something you have to it go.  I have been a 40K player and hobbyist for over 20 years.  I left once and it was not because of the game, but rather the hypocrisy of GW when I was let go in 2000 from the company.  Now I leave because of the game and the companies attitude.  We now start a new path and don the mantels of Field Marshals and Admirals.


May Cegorach guide your path and Khaine bless your sword. and for the last time.


Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!

The Adepticon 2014 Aftermath

SeerK here wiith a very delayed report on Adepticon 2014.  I Actually managed to make it to Adepticon despite my 70 hour work week and jam packed schedule.  12 hour days and a 2 hour round trip drive everyday has killed my hobbying time and as you can see my writing time.  I am going to really start making an effort though to try and write about something every Sunday from here on in.  My trip to Adepticon this year was very abbreviated compared to the 3 previous years.  The group was there for one solid day.

We arrived late Friday night.  Kudos to the volunteers manning the registration table.  I was able to get my badge and swag bag at 9 p.m.  As is customary we partied our first night there.  Saturday was kind of a whirlwind.  we saw all the displays, toured the dealer room and got to visit with friends that we only get to see at Adepticon.  Of course Miniature Tim was in this group.  I have to say I find myself looking forward to the cookies his wife bakes for Adepticon.  It was also nice seeing you man.  We also got to meet up with one of our former local gamers who has moved out west.  Ryan braved the GT this year and did not have a bad record for his first go at it.  It was also very nice seeing you sir.

I of course have to give a shout out and congrats to Lansing gamer and all around good guy, Mr. Bill Kim for winning Best Overall in the GT Thursday.  I have played Bill at local tournaments on a few occasions and was firmly stomped I am sad to say.  He is a great opponent though.

I did have the chance to meet Teri Litorco on Saturday and chat for a minute.  For those of you not familiar with her, you should check out her hobby based YouTube channel. Teri is a Hobby Vloger and one hell of a painter.  It is a favorite of mine and is actually one of the few series on YouTube I actually watch every episode of. SO go check it out on YouTube


All in all it was a fun trip.  I can't wait for next year.  I will actually have vacation time and will be able to go for the full convention.  In fact we may be running some events next year.  More on that later though.

I want to talk about the status of the blog in closing.  As you may have noticed there has not been a lot of posting the past couple months.  Well we are in a state of change.  New jobs and less playing and hobby time is a big factor. The main thing though is the Craftworld has kind of lost its way so to speak.  I started this as a blog dedicated to 40K.  I do still play 40K, but it has taken a back burner to other games and life in general.  That said, Spellduckwrong, Dreadbeard and I have been talking about doing a major revamp on the Craftworld.  We have some ideas in development and in the coming month there will be some major changes.  Including the name.  So as April come to a close and Spring has finally sprung, the next chapter of Craftworld Lansing will be starting in May.


Until next time.........


Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!


and as always

REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!

ALL HANDS ON DECK! Ships Of the Rense pt1

“Upon acceptance into the Rense System Navy, Dindrenzi main fleet officers are assigned to one of the many Frigate squadrons that make up the outer echelons of a Rense Navy task force. Would be Captains and aspiring admirals have all had their first commands and baptisms of fire among the Bulwark Frigate squadrons.”

-Admiral Markus Stole,

“A History Of The Federation Fleets”

SeerK here to start my series on the ships of the Rense System Navy. Its been a couple weeks. I have just started a new job and the 65 hour work week is kind of killer. I am planning on posting every Sunday from here on out though, and I hope the other writers start filling in the rest of the week. Some of us will also be at Adepticon this weekend. Sadly we cant go for the full week like normal. As long as all goes to plan the Craftworld crew will be there Friday night. As I stated last time we are going to start from the bottom up. We are going to talk about the Rense Navies Tier 3 ship today. The Bulwark Frigate.

The Bulwark is the main frigate of the Rense Navy and besides the Siren class Escort is the only Tier 3 choice for your fleet. It is fielded in squadrons of 2 to 4. I usually do full squadrons of 4 as it is an even 100 points and the combined fire of a 4 ship strong squadron is pretty decent. Each ship is 25 points and has no upgrade options. The Bulwark has the Elite Crew and Difficult target MAR. The Elite Crew MAR lets you pass command checks on a 3+. The whole Rense Navy has this MAR. The Bulwark also can move 10 inches so it is very quick. With a DR,(damage rating) or 3 and a CR(critical rating) of 6 it can be quite hard for an equal sized vessel to destroy the Bulwark in one go.

Weaponry

The Bulwark is a very close range ship. It has a fore beam weapon ad beam weapons to port and starboard. Its beam weaponry has two range bands. Beam weaponry has 10 inch range bands for those of you unfamiliar with the game so 2 range bands gives the Bulwark a threat range of 20 inches.

Range band 2 , 10 to 20 inches, is your most effective range band. You get 5 dice in the fore arc and 4 in the port and starboard arcs. With a squadron of 4 this gives you 12 dice. Pretty respectable, especially when attacking cruiser sized vessels. In my experience you can usually get a critical hit on most vessels with a critical rating of 6. Of course this is utterly dependent on how well the dice are treating you.

The Bulwark is very well suited to supporting your Spook or Cerberus squadrons. While the cruisers use their range advantage the Bulwark can work in the mid to short range. They have the firepower to finish off crippled ships the heavier vessels have damaged. You can use the Bulwarks speed to get in behind vessels to give it an even better chance of scoring a critical hit.

Tactics

I have been seeing a lot of mixed reviews of the Bulwark on the Firestorm forums. It would seem a lot of people have not been having the same experience I have when it comes to fielding them. It is true they can be a bit tricky to use. They are out ranged by a lot of ships and can get picked off before they can close to lethal distance.

You have a couple of different options for deployment and thanks to they way game setup is done you can really plan out your fleet and how it is going to be deployed. I like to keep my Bulwarks in reserve, unless the mission being played allows for hidden set up. Either way it allows you to delay your Bulwarks appearance on the table and allows you to keep them alive longer. Shunting your Bulwarks, deep striking for you 40kers, into the battle can be a risky gambit. I like to use shunt deployment, but only if there is a good target. To get a good shunt deployment you have to really set it up. The intended target has to be lead into a decent spot so you can get a good one two punch. Shunt deployment backfires quite often. You can't shunt into the middle of a fleet and expect the squadron to survive after trying to deliver a death blow to a stricken ship.

I prefer to actually bring in the Bulwarks on the board edge if there is a decent target that is reachable. Flanking the enemy fleet has its advantages, especially if their attention is elsewhere.

How you deploy your reserve squadrons is entirely situational. As obvious as that sounds many players do that same things over and over again and then get frustrated when it does not work all the time. Firestorm Armada is very much a situational game. This is reflected in the way you set up and play the game. Many 40K players are use to the concept of the “all comers” list. In Firestorm you determine the mission and such before you make your fleet list. All you really know when going up against your opponent is what race they are using.

Well there you have the Bulwark. Next time I will be covering the Siren Escort as well as starting into our tier 2 vessels. I will also Hopefully be reporting form Adepticon later this week.

Until next time....

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!

and always

REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!!!