So, uh... Fighter combat.

[Hive 607]

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Introducing--------a-Firestorm-Board-Game-.html?soid=1103441312609&aid=VrGEj1JTKS0

 

Color me... Intrigued. I'm sure thos will be a miss for many people who just want more Armada/Planetfall love, but... I'm in a boat where I'd love to share stuff like Armada with people, but a lot of people around me are way more into board games, so this could be really cool. I could see this being a serious hit if support for the mainline games is kept up as well.

 

Of note, I like that the Relth fighter is more in line with the SRS tokens than Planetfall flyers.

 

I am a little bit disappointed that it looks like none of the components will be useful for Armada itself. That's something that another company has done that I really like- the boxed-games have all been filled with models usable in the core wargames. Any chance these minis are the right size for Planetfall and will get stats therein?

[Pathogen 151]

I don't even know what to say...

[child9 226]

It's a joke, right? Another game? Again?

Deal with the existing ones that are currently dying. Have you heard about a game called "Planetfall"? You know, the one with no news at all for a year and half...

You could also deliver your kickstarter. I'm just dropping random ideas...

Ridiculous, SG will never learn. Won't buy. 

[Venter 218]

This must be a social experiment, that's the only reasonable explanation.

[Presidente 655]

I am lost for words, crazy, another game, clearly they will never listen or learn

 

[fracas 349]

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/firestorm-strike-force-arrives

 

depends where this is sold it might be a good thing:

on the shelf with other board games it might get more interests in the firestorm universe

on the shelf against X wing /tie fighter it will fail and drag down Spartan Games

[Bessemer 340]

46 minutes ago, Hive said:

Color me... Intrigued. I'm sure thos will be a miss for many people who just want more Armada/Planetfall love, but... I'm in a boat where I'd love to share stuff like Armada with people, but a lot of people around me are way more into board games, so this could be really cool. I could see this being a serious hit if support for the mainline games is kept up as well.

This is probably the only pro as it stands. Sorry SG but this was not the right time for this. If this was a one off, I may have been more behind it.

[fracas 349]

Interesting that it is the major 6 plus Saurians and Pathogens; will these be FsA cores as well?

[tansalus 84]

i am curious to see if the Pathogen and Saurians will become core factions as well. The pathogen would make an interesting third faction in the firestorm universe. 

Personally, I am excited for this Firestorm game. It may not be exactly what Armada needs but I do think it will help generate more interest in the firestorm universe which will hopefully help the system overall.

[draco84oz 690]

First question - WTF Spartan? Do you not remember the backlash from Empires last year? Or is this part of the Kickstarter starting soon?

Second question - does this game use its own models, or can we use the fighter models from Planetfall? And if the answer is latter, are we going to get a "commander" pack for those who already have models?

[WestAustralian 818]

You the Community asked for it....

Support for existing games... Oh wait, what, seriously, ok then.

You the Community never asked for it....Another Game System....

Up next, Planetfall elite Squad, a small board infantry based squad vs squad game of tactical awesomeness......

 

OMG LOL Spartan

Spartan Guys, I have Supported you Hard on the Forums, in the stores and with my money. But you are making this so tough. At any point during those 9 years of development you could have mentioned this to the community, started some interest, gotten some feedback. But instead secret x-wing game created in the vacuum. 

I have no doubt the sculpts will be great. I have no doubt the game will be fun. But Please help me out, listen to the community and Communicate. 

[child9 226]

As it's available to preorder, I seriously doubt it's part of the KS.

It's just classic random SG acting. They get an idea and just do it, no matter if it's totally unwanted or if it hurts their already too numerous barely supported games.

BTW SG, what's the point in making surveys if you don't take their results into account? The last one clearly stated that we don't want any new game. You're already totally drowning and unable to provide 10% of the support your current  games needs.

Stop this nonsense, now would REALLY be a good time. I'm sad to say this but I hope this boardgame will fail hard.

[Xerkics 98]

It looks super bland. Unless the gameplay is super amazing somehow it just doesnt look very exciting. I dunno maybe if you did a gameplay video which shows how the game plays people would be more positive about it. As is im just feeling as annoyed as the others. Please get all your existing games up to scratch first before starting any new projects. 

[alamo 455]

while i was greatly surprised to find the ad in my inbox and while it does look good and has many facets going for it......i do wonder if this is something...

we buy into and wait for other factions,cards etc. to come out?  at an undetermined time?

is this ala 'taskforce', buy and then wait on future rules etc.?

is this like invasion where i buy the factions and the game goes silent while the models and rules change?  till it gets released. aka planetfall 

is this like uncharted where we buy and despite promises made it slipped silently under the waves

will there be a dedicated forum person to answer queries etc.?  aka medusa radar question over 4 years and counting.

is this a one-shot deal or something that will be expanded on and grow?

it is true this game does have appeal in fast playtime plus a nice plug for armada i still have reservations over purchases given the past track record. please, please prove me wrong and i do indeed hope the game is a hit.

btw the email was the only thing ive seen about this game?????????????? seen any planetfall lately?

 

 

[Brimat 176]

I habe to admit, i asked for a board game in the last survey, as something like this perfectly rounds up their portfolio of games. Great that SG worked so fast to give it to me.

No seriously, it was a bit of surprise to see this.

[reddwarf 1,156]

What.  The.  F---.

[Paladin21 229]

$65 (more or less, depending on exact exchange rates) for a set of tiles, 12 models (24 in the pre-order!) and a deck of cards.  All other ship types and factions to be bought later, extra tiles to be bought later, extra cards to be bought later, etc.  ... it's like the board game version of ridiculous money-grubbing DLC in video games.

I like board games.  My gaming group and I regularly play a variety of them from old-school classics like Red Storm Rising and World in Flames to newer ones like Spartacus and The Others.  We all like board games!

...we aren't buying this one.  We have a plethora of space combat board games with varying degrees of complexity that we already enjoy.  They aren't marred by the gotta-have-em-all vibe I'm getting from your announcement.  I hope for your sake this gets you enough profits to justify the negative publicity you're going to receive, but it's definitely going to cost you with your core gamers (just look at the thread!).

Whether justified or not, the perception is you guys can't chew gum and walk at the same time.  In the meantime, it looks to us like you're trying to chew gum, walk, juggle some chainsaws, and write an opera score at the same time.  Putting forth *another* new project when you're behind deadlines on existing ones is not good PR.  Whether the people involved with this were actually pulled from Armada or Planetfall teams won't help that perception.

[von Klinkerhoffen 431]

Firestorm Strike Force

Wow!

Spartan produce a nice board game based around space fighter combat, set in the Firestorm universe and you moan?  

Game looks good and sounds fun.

Looks like you could also use it for playing out Firestorm Armada fighter combat if you wished?

This could be excellent for introducing younger players to the hobby, and for those out there with children a game you can play with family.  

Personally I like games like this because non of us are getting any younger and there are not many youngsters in the hobby.  If we don't find a way of bringing them into the hobby and letting them enjoy war gaming it will go the way of the Do Do.

 

[hahnc77 249]

depending on the scale of the models (assuming they are smaller then in Planetfall) they could be used as instead of the Tokens in FSA which at least gives visaul Appeal.
I don't like hex games so the game is not for me.

 

[Small Mek 53]

Well in the recent blog post Neil stated that he wants to

Quote

Adjust SRS – I never liked the 2.0 rules and I felt we were making the wrong use of the tokens

so we cannot say that we weren't warned...

Anyway, I agree with those who said that if this is an attempt to imitate x-wing, I have my doubts about it's success. However as an intro into the firestorm universe it might (?????) have it's place... (an intro for taskforce which is ant intro to FSA itself?) Maybe?

It's not meant for the my present self, but if 3.0 is out, and if it has good rules, and if I can see it's supported well... maybe I can see myself picking it up. Maybe(?????). And if it's developed for 9 years probably it won't take up more design capacity, as it's probably already finished behind the scenes...............  

 

[Sniddy 81]

9 hours ago, WestAustralian said:

Up next, Planetfall elite Squad, a small board infantry based squad vs squad game of tactical awesomeness......

OMG LOL Spartan

Spartan Guys, I have Supported you Hard on the Forums, in the stores and with my money. But you are making this so tough. At any point during those 9 years of development you could have mentioned this to the community, started some interest, gotten some feedback. But instead secret x-wing game created in the vacuum. 

I have no doubt the sculpts will be great. I have no doubt the game will be fun. But Please help me out, listen to the community and Communicate. 

At first was not sure if you're joking about the planetfall until I realised it was Planetfall and Spartan has probably forgot it existed

So, I'll add my voice to the chorus asking 'really?'

You have systems with players crying out for attention - and you do this? 



Oh, Spartan do you want us to leave? 

Is that the game drive off the old guard, Kickstarter and bring in new suckers  customers? 

[S.Neil 800]

Hi All,

Let's se if I can comment on some of these questions:

Scale: yes to smaller than Planetfall. As to using them as proxies in FA, you could I am sure, but as part of the new 3.0 work for FA we have created brand new 3D fighters and bombers which look much better than our flat tokens. You will see them in our Kickstarter.

New races becoming Core Races: With the newly created narrative the Saurians and Pathogen will take a greater role in the game. Overall though we are using 3,0 as a vehicle to better integrate a number of our alliance races into the centre space of the game.

Why a board game: good question and has a longer answer than I will ask you to read here, but we have a Q&A going up Monday which goes into much more detail. We get asked a lot for products which generate aa simple entry into our game worlds. After GenCon 2 years ago we created Taskforce and Fleet Action to try and assist in generating a simpler entry point to FA and DW. As to whether they worked, they proved popular in some areas, but were perhaps not the most perfect gateway into our worlds. A board game is a simple entry point and once built places limited demand on a company's resources, much less than a full blown game.

Are we targeting X-Wing: made me smile, and a clear no. Last time I looked X-Wing wasn't a board game. FFG has done a wonderful job with that game. Firestorm: Strike Force is a new type of game for us which adds a new dimension of fun to the FA Galaxy in the nature of a board game, hence being played on game tiles.

FA Kickstarter: there is some overlap with the new board game and the Kickstarter, but our work on the FA Expansion has been underway for sometime now. Just to be clear, the Expansion revolves around my 3.0 rulebook. This is my vision for where I am taking the galaxy and FA game and delivers on improvements I want for the game. So 3.0 is a key part of the game's advancement and has generated a whole batch of things: new core nation models, new races, a massive revamp of narrative, delivery through new books, terrain, and so on.

But at the heart of the changes is 3.0. The way we have changed SRS means new products are needed. New use of flight stands, which can be retro fitted to players models if they want. New narrative delivers new factions which ignite a whole new series of campaigns and further ignites the narrative. Part of this will see an effort to develop narrative based on your gaming experiences - we want to have your experiences develop aspects of the narrative - we think we know how and we really hope with your help we can pull it off. But we've never dine it before and we may well fail with it, but I really think it is worth a go.

Spreading ourselves too thin: always an issue and we are looking at how to resolve this. If you look at Dystopian Wars we have moved that game on leaps and bounds this year. New rules, new core models, new stats and a roll out plan that is embracing our allied nations. We are delivering on our research and are hugely happy with our work this year to get on top of the game and its player base. Legions has a great set of models, but we've not matched the models with a great set of rules - that has got away from me and I am still working on figuring out how to fix it.

Firestorm Armada and Planetfall need work, we all know that. Right now it is frustrating for folk, and I apologise for that, but we are close to detailing how the galaxy and game system will develop. As I mentioned earlier, we have built a new rulebook, lots of focus on narrative (masses of effort placed on this bit) and 3.0 has spurred us to look at the whole game system and all existing models and all new models moving forward.

Going to stop now, I have a Scout Hut to go and clean (it being Sunday and my wife thinking I don't have enough to do..) but I am coming back later to continue my answers.

All the best,

Neil

 

[murphy'slawofcombat 130]

I think you are taking on too much with this new game ....just my thoughts on this please don't take offence 

[Pathogen 151]

Thank you for the communication and explaining your vision.

[child9 226]

3 hours ago, Spartan Neil said:

Spreading ourselves too thin: always an issue and we are looking at how to resolve this.

 

Excuse me but no, you don't. You're aware of this problem for years and did nothing. On the contrary, you keep spreading more and more : Taskforce, Fleet Action, Halo Fleet Battles, Halo Ground Combat, Dystopian Empires (thank God, we escaped this one...) and now this boardgame. All this, in the very last few years.

Please, stop taking us for fools by saying one thing and doing the opposite, and try to focus on your already too numerous existing games. You might get new customers but you'll lost tons of others. And believe me, it has already started.