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Topics - Dakkar

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91
FACO / Patrol Fleet Tourney!
« on: August 26, 2015, 10:07:26 am »
On Saturday, October 3rd, Gamer's Haven in Colorado Springs ( 5730 Academy Blvd N 80918) will host a Firestorm Patrol Fleet Tournament!

This is a chance for experienced players to try out a new Fleet, or for brand new players to learn to play in a fun and challenging environment! There's no variety of experience like a tournament!

Start Time: Arrive at 10, play by 10:30~!

Also, now a $5 fee towards additional Prizes!

Fleets should be no more than 650pts, and confirm to Patrol Fleet construction rules.
Pairings will be Swiss style, with random initial pairings.
Rounds will be 90 minutes.
Scenarios will be selected for each round.
Painting is highly encouraged.
Prizes will be available for top scoring players! (Waiting on official kit approval)

Please post any questions here!

-Dale

92
FACO / RSN versus Ba'Kash
« on: June 05, 2015, 01:17:02 pm »
So Alex (Warhawk) and I had a little 1000pt game last night, quickly thrown together.

The RSN had:
-- Dreadnought with 2 Escorts
-- BB with 2 Escorts
-- Mixed Cruiser Squadron, 2 Spooks and 1 Cerberus
-- 2x Full Frigate Squadrons

Ba'Kash Warboys brought:
-- Assault Carrier, optimized for speed (9"!) and assault
-- 3x Heavy Cruisers
-- 3x Light Cruisers
-- 2 x full Frigates

Table had one asteroid field in mid-left from my POV. Alex used that well, flying a Frigate squad in there. With Elite, he'd need to roll all 1's and 2's on 3 dice to fail a check. The one time he did, i failed to even damage him on 7 collision dice. I could never bring enough firepower to get them while obscured. Whereas they're not impeded firing out (right?)

Overall, Stephan has a new challenger for Uber Dice-Witch. Alex seemed to be rolling 2 or more 6's on every single batch of dice he threw. A throw-away shot of 5 beam dice got a CRIT on my Battle Carrier with like 12 hits. And the king of all WTF moments, his badly damaged Cerberus throws out a ONE-die broadside to port and starboard. The ONE die to port does 6 hit to kill my damaged Hvy Cruiser, and the ONE die to Starboard does a 7 hit CRIT to kill one of my Cruisers.
Only towards the end did they seem to cool, as my Battle Carrier and 2x Heavy Cruisers ran around with one crit or hit left for a few turns.

Worst luck I've endured in many a game. In all my volleys and bomber runs, I only rolled double digit hits twice, + the very last shot of the game. The rest of the time, I was just doing a point at a time  - a frustrating way to try and kill a Dread or Battleship. My one frigate squadron failed to kill his for 3 turns. And I had three boarding actions and three bomber runs that basically flubbed.

I tried flanking with my Heavy Crusiers at the start, relying on the power to Engines card. It still felt like they took too long to get there.

I think we forgot the RSN shields on the Dread and BB the whole game, so it was at least a draw. Only the tenacious stats of the Ba'Kash heavies and AC kept me in the game, along with the wonder of Weapon Shielding. Even with 7 Damage, the Battle Carrier could throw a 12 die smack around. Whereas the RSN  Tier-1s went downhill rapidly with that kind of damage. In the end, the Ba'kash maneuverability also allowed them to keep guns on target, while the RSN were still turning, and they wore down the RSN tier 1's.

A close match all round. Many thanks to Alex!

93
Firestorm Armada / Planetfall Storming
« on: June 04, 2015, 03:57:57 pm »
So yeah, had some extra time today, and was pondering a regular din of complaints out there about the Dindrenzi Nyx infantry, who seem to drop in and ruin everyone's day. Sometimes, you'll be trying to eject them from objectives in turn 2. Or worse, they're storming your own poor Infantry on an objective.
For ideas to try, it's always a start to look at the raw math. Storming doesn't have a lot of other factors once its happening. All these assume the owner can choose which bases die when all are equidistant, preserving the best CQB dice.

Okay, so here's the math vs Nyx Cadres.

Storming the Nyx:
Assume 4 Nyx Stands incl 3 Sweeper Teams in a Building. That's CQB total dice of
18, rerolling 1's per racial MAR. Slightly good dice yield 14-15 hits versus
attackers, accounting for avg 6's.
-- Against even Sorylian Kul'Vok Heavy Infantry, that's 2 dead stands out of
4, before they even get to attack.
-- Against Relthoza, that's often FIVE dead stands out of 8!
-- Relthozan Jamriss will still lose 3 stands out of 5, returning only 4 dice - so they're FAR better off just shooting for a turn.
-- Terquai Nabis will also lose 3 stands out of 5, but with a little luck it easily flips to three stands left
-- If you can Hit and Run with Aquan Khitari, that's 12 shots into them before
CQB. 9 hits total on average, but they'll get 4 cover save dice from the
building still, so assume only one stand killed. Then in the storming,
they're still rolling likely 15 dice before you go, killing at least 2 of
your 5 Khitari Stands. Your remaining 3 stands will do 9-ish hits on 12
dice, killing two more. You'll have 2-3 stands left, they'll have 1. Hard to
say who does the most hits to "win".
-- A Directorate Grand Company in a Haunter has maybe the best sequence. They disembark right after the Haunter lights up the Nyx building with two flamethrowers (14 dice). Even with cover saves, the Nyx lose 2 stands avg. Even if lucky, the Nyx kill 3 attacking bases out of 8. The return throws 21 dice, easily wiping out the rest of teh Nyx and taking the building. This may eb the *only* single activation storming with that kind of one-two punch.

So in almost all cases (but one), you're better shooting up dug in Nyx with anti-personnel
(from lights or flyers) or Artillery before storming.


Defending:
-- Nyx storming go simultaneous with defenders via focused assault. Assume Sweepers, so
again 14-15 hits, 3-5 dead stands for any defenders.
-- Defending Khitari Sweepers will return 20 dice (simul) killing 3 stands
at least.
-- Defending Nabis , with Drone nexus, will only get 2 nyx stands.
-- Defending Relthoza with Nexus will kill 3 stands for losing 5
-- Defending Sorylian Kul'Vok on Overwatch will shoot dead one stand before
the attack. The remaining 3 Nyx stands will kill maybe two of the
Kul'Vok, but the rest will finish fof the Nyx altogether.
-- Defending Khitari Gunners on Overwatch: One dead Nyx base before CQB. If
they drop the Officer, they lose the tie attack. If they drop a Sweeper,
they lose +2 CQB dice. Assume the latter. Nyx left kill 3 stands, Khitari
left at simul kill 2 more Nyx leaving your 2 Stands to one Nyx Sweeper. And
on your turn you can shoot him dead.

So in most Defensive cases, you're better with Gunners on Overwatch vs Nyx
attackers. Exception being the Directorate Infantry, who don't have
anti-personnel gunners - unless they're using their Heavy Cyberweapon
Troops, who might prevent the Nyx doing anything!


Worst unit for the Nyx to Storm is my Relthozan Jamriss Swarm on Overwatch.
25 defense dice before CQB, so the Nyx lose avg 3 stands of 4! But since Jamriss must deploy using Sky Drop, this scenario is less likely than most others. Close second in similar scenario are Terran Huscarls.

And lastly, all Defensive scenarios ignore the #1 defense against Nyx arrivals - Light anti-personnel Tanks on overwatch! It may feel like holding back your Recon elements, but just ONE dead Nyx stand makes all the difference!

94
Firestorm Armada / Relthozan Singing
« on: June 02, 2015, 12:18:33 pm »

95
Firestorm Armada / What good are Veydreth?
« on: May 12, 2015, 03:08:29 pm »
Does anyone have solid play experience with Veydreth? I just can't noodle out what their niche or strength is...
Most of the primary Allies compliment their core race ally in key ways: RSN provides the Torp strength that Dinz lack; Ba'Kash can rush forward to engage while Relthoza lines hang back;Terquai likewise specialize in stand-off shooting, while Aquans engage closer.
But the Veydreth just seem like crappier versions of already existing Sorylian ships, the only difference being Mines. But Mines have shown to be only lightly effective at best in any games I've played.

96
Firestorm Armada / PLANETFALL -Stuff the FAQ doesn't tell you
« on: May 08, 2015, 01:39:19 pm »
So we had a new 3000pts game last night, Aquans vs Relthoza, and learned a LOT to pass on. We had basically a full Core helix each (double boxes), though my Relthoza swapped out 2 units of recon Drones for a Bakash Flying Helix.

-- Shelve your prinetd rulebook (unless a new printing) and just use the updated e-Text. SO much is different.

-- Case in point - CQB is now *CLEARLY* one unit versus one unit. Nearby models within 4" take no part. Either the active unit picks a single target, or a single unit within 4" of the active (but not initiating) unit decides to attack them.

-- I now understand the Rear Echelon MAR. A Drop ship with this counts as already activated. So even if they land within 4" of an enemy unit, they can neither initiate CQB, nor have it initiated against them (as they could not specifically decline it). So no CQB as Overwatch in this case...

-- Flyers, Recon,  or other elements with Anti-personnel, Scatter, and/or Barrage weapons are DOOM to Infantry, even in building. My lone Novian gunship vaped 4 stands of Khitari Sweeper Teams in a building. And a single squad of Imzani skimmers killed 16 Jabri Drone bases over 2 activations. 

-- Shield dice are only rolled for those models in a Squadron which might actually take DAMAGE, not just hits. Other models in the same Squadron do not add in their shield dice. This goes for Infantry using Building Saves too.

-- Pinpoint Dice are only rolled against damaged but not killed *models* not dsquadrons. So if you wipe out whole models from a multi-model squadron, no pinpoint effect. And no effect at all versus Light and Infantry, which tend to have just a single Damamge point each.

-- Also, you roll only the highest contributing Pinpoint number for the SALVO, not the combined PP dice for each contributing model.

-- The Hard Target bonus for skimmers applies only when shooting them at your long range!

-- Flat-out prevents shooting, CQB, and Disembarking from a vehicle that moved Flat Out. However, if Infantry moves cruising OR Flat out, and all models in the squadron make base contact with a building or transport, they may embark on it.

-- It's actually GOOD that infantry cannot disembark from their transport and embark into a building in the same turn. Forces the little buggers out in the open for at least one activation.

-- CQB requires within 4" and LOS. Your Size 1 infantry cannot see over each other to CQB a Size 2 model, so this can make placement tricky for a large unit.

-- You can have Infantry CQB guys in a builidng without Storming. They just don't take the building if they "win", and Defenders get a cover save.

-- If you want to survive a nearby Relthozan (or insert favorite Infantry here) Sky Drop, you MUST employ Overwatch.

Questions I still need to look up:

-- Does a Drop Marker count as a model, or such that a moving model cannot stop on top of it?
Not that I can see from any reading - Drop and Artillery markers are "markers" and thus can be covered by moving models.
 
-- If Infantry can move some stands but not all into contact with a building, can they still embark in the building? Ditto for Storming actions?
Infantry must move ALL stands into contact to embark on anything, but they can flat-out to do so.

For storming, if Infantry ends a cruising move within 4" of a building, they can call for a Storming CQB during the CQB phase. Then they get a free Cruising move to get into base contact. Only models which make base contact fight, after resolving defenders attacks. As long as one model in base survives, and they win the CQB, all defenders can occupy the building, even those not originally in base contact.


-- If a set of link fire weapons don't all have the same MARs (just at least one to allow linking), does the odd MAR still apply to the whole Salvo?
I still can't find a discussion or answer on this one...

97
So I'd been happily accumulating Dindrenzi for Firestorm, but Planetfall has me in a redirect mode. I just don't dig the Dinz for Planetfall, but I'm kind of loving the Sorylian walking dinosaur stuff. And I'm a symmetry kind of guy, so I'd like to realign my stuff accordingly. And all of this is in addition to my primary Relthoza, thus is outside the normal budget.
I'd trade any "fleet portion" of the following Dindrenzi ships for equivalent value in Sorylians (Firestorm OR Planetfall). Or I'd do a cash deal, though there I prefer it be done as the receiving party putting in LGS store credit for me :-)

Bulk of trade stuff was painted by prior owner in grey, red, and yellow. Most are preglued to bases, for upside down storage. Includes some basic foam storage.
-- Retribution Dreadnought
-- Conqueror Battleship
-- 6x Retarius Escorts
-- 3x Secutor Cruisers
-- 6x Thraex Frigates
-- 2x Trident Destroyers

This following sub-list is painted for official Demos, in grey with orange trim. Bases are not glued on.:
- Praetorian Battleship
- Falchion Carrier (incomplete painting)
- 3x Secutor Cruisers
- 3x Thraex Frigates

This last bit I'd only trade if you were getting "all of the above" as they'd help me round out a complete fleet if I keep any
- Retribution Dreadnought + Escorts , NIB
- I don't know how many SRS tokens...
- 3x Gladius Gunships
- 3x Thraex Frigates

Let me know if interested, and we'll deal. I might also be talked into deals for Aquans (either game), Veydreth (new cruisers/gunships only), Kedorians, or Omnidyne.

EDIT => Now also looking for Directorate models in trade!

98
News and Rumors / April P-Fall Updates
« on: April 23, 2015, 12:23:48 pm »
The last three Leviathans are UP! And apparently all 6 ORBATS are updated, though I haven't figured out what changed yet in Terran/Dindrenzi/Directorate.

I'm also puzzled why the Dindrenzi LV is 75pts cheaper than it's counterparts. The Terran LV at least has more dispersed firepower to justify its lower pts.
But compare the DinD to the nearly identical Relthoza - the better DR track could be explained by the Relthoza LV having Cloak. From there though, there's nothing substantial to explain the pts difference... is Drone Nexus really a 75pt MAR?

Still, I love the new ones.
-- Aquan "El Shamu" (that's what I call it...)  is the physically weakest, but also arguably the hardest to hurt (EIGHT SHIELDS) and deadliest Firepower (Target Locks plus dual Pinpoint 3's!) and one of the highest CQBs!

-- Relthoza Varisei-Kei (no nickname yet...) , as mentioned, brings eveything the DinD brings, plus that 16" Drone Nexus.

-- Sorylian "Grandpa" Nobarro has flat out the most firepower of any LV, is arguably as tough as any, and brings a MONSTROUS 24" Command bubble.
The Sorylian ORBAT is cool enough overall now to make me want to trade out my Dindrenzi Firestorm, lock-stock-barrel, and jump into a Sorylian fleet...and therefore Sorylian Planetfall!

99
FACO / Firestorm Armada at Genghis-Con
« on: January 23, 2015, 09:40:12 am »
All take note, if you haven't already, of the Sunday (Feb15th) Firestorm Armada Tourney being held at Genghis Con! See the Con site for details, but quick summary:
-- Bring 3 fleet sizes, 800/1000/1200.
-- Painting is optional, but there's a prize
-- Three rounds, and the first round will actually have team ups!

Scoring will include Painting AND Sportsmanship.

Prizes are:

 Best Painted: Choice of Firestorm Dreadnought Group Box (main factions), or a Planetfall Allied Aerial Helix (Ba'Kash or Hawker)

"Most Sporting": Marauders Campaign Guide (I assume the old book), or a Random FS Blister.

 3rd Place: One of the three Firestorm Hardbacks, or the Planetfall Rulebook

 2nd Place: One of the books as above, PLUS choice of Firestorm Cruiser Box (any main faction), or Planetfall Allied Recon helix (Works Raptor or Terquai).

1st Place: One of the books above, PLUS choice of Firestorm Patrol Fleet Box (any main faction), or Planetfall Core Helix (any main faction).

If I can swing it, I'll come up on Con Friday too, and run some Planetfall.

100
FACO / Informal Pre-Con Firestorm Day?
« on: January 15, 2015, 01:21:57 pm »
I'd like to runa  few more games and scenarios before Genghis Con. Time and scale means Saturdays though - so let me know which days are better for any interested:

Sat Jan 31st ?
or
Sat Feb 7th ?

as with last day, might cap this with some Planetfall games. I'm eager!

101
FACO / Updated TAC cards?
« on: January 13, 2015, 01:13:51 pm »
Okay,are the updated TAC cards the ones for download on Spartan's page? They don't have the white border, which is why I wondered.
 http://www.spartangames.co.uk/wp/wp/wp-content/spartanimg/TACs-Compiled.pdf

Based on the Aquan card, hey do look new, but I want to be sure...

102
FACO / Firestorm Demo Day, 20 Dec (Sat) Gamer's Haven
« on: December 07, 2014, 10:59:40 pm »
All,

Gamer's Haven will be hosting a Firestorm Demo Day on Saturday, 20 Dec, starting at 10:30AM and running til we run out of fun to do.
( http://www.gamershavenco.com/forums/showthread.php?39414-Firestorm-Galaxy-Demo-Day-20-Dec-2014-10-30AM&p=99479#post99479 )

I'll be giving demonstrations of Firestorm Armada to any interested. For existing players, we'll put together matches, discuss painting, and future events.

If time permits, I'll also do some learning/teaching games of PLANETFALL.

Since I have the formal promo pack from SPARTAN, there'll be some swag giveaways as well!

Post here if you're interested, and let me know any further ideas you might have for activities!

-Dale

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