Author Topic: General Firestorm Chat  (Read 11299 times)

Stephan

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General Firestorm Chat
« on: August 27, 2014, 09:49:03 pm »
Thought I'd open a thread to have general discussion of Firestorm issues.

Landlubber

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2014, 12:52:03 pm »
Looking at the other ships that can complement my shiny new RSN fleet, I'm thinking about picking up some of the pirate/marauder ships.  Obviously I need to flesh out the rest of the RSN fleet (carrier, dreadnought, escorts, heavy cruisers, etc), but I really like the look of the Omnidyne, Oroshan, and Corsair ships.

Plus, it would be nice to have those ships on hand anyway to use as a "wildcard" in scenario play.

Anyone have any experience with these ships?
"Sometimes, you gotta roll the hard six."--Commander Adama

Stephan

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2014, 02:04:41 pm »
I think we're all starting from scratch here with V2.  The Marauder rules were iffy in V1, so not many people got a chance to play them.

Andrewchristlieb

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2014, 11:43:01 pm »
I've got quite a bit of experience with the Marauders. The Oroshan are my favorite faction as an add on to other fleets and they offer a fairly straight forward play style. The RSN especially will be happy that the Oroshan have Fleet Tactics 3 also so there is no loss in Fleet Tactics.

The Armageddon is pretty stout with standard DR/CR but 11! HP and 2 shields :D. Weapon Shielding as an add on makes their less then stellar AD values continue to dish out damage, despite any hits against it. The Turrets linking in against a single target also help boost those AD values up to something worthwhile and if you have a set of Griefs lined up with it there's a possible 23 AD to be had... :D

The Harbinger is also pretty good, though its SRS value is a bit low for a battlecarrier. It does make up for that with upgrades, but really I would focus more on this as a battleship with 5 wings. Weapon Shielding and +1 Shield are great and puts this on par with some of the best BB's around, once again the Griefs can boost their AD values up to something usable offering a decent 20 AD (ok 21 AD in a narrow 2" window linking the Turret and broadsides).

Defilers are obscene They're fast, have squad size 4, great AD values in a full arc, good any arc torpedoes, above par armor, shields, high AP... They have simply jumped to the top of the medium landscape, easily one of the better medium options. Their downfall? Once you have taken Pack Hunters (Oh ya Pack Hunters... because 22AD frak ya!) these are 70 points, so ya... 280 points or 300 if you want High Energy too (great for boarding builds). You will have one of these, and not much else if anything for mediums.

Slayers also step up the game for their tier. There are not many Tier 3 options that I would call a must take, but if you're not bringing as many of these you can there's something wrong with your strategy. Their only real downfall is that those crazy four armed brutes are seriously too ready to board so you see AP 2 but only CP 1. 16 AD with Pack Hunters is good, really good, but 2x 10 AD attacks are usually better. These also work really well in smaller groups, but they do hemorrhage dun na na na Batlog points in smaller groups.

The Grief is back and forth with the Siren as best escort in the game imo. It has guns, but not just guns... lots of guns! Not to mention the PD or AP it can get, but I prefer to keep them cheap.

Omnidyne are very expensive and have Fleet Tactics 1 which ruins them in my opinion as an add on to any fleet other then Directorate (for which they're natural allies). I would steer well clear of these as allies for RSN mainly due to their abysmal FT value.

Corsairs would drop your Fleet Tactics also, but not as much. The do have a ton of options and are easily the fleet I have had the most fun just brainstorming ideas for fleets with. I don't think they would really bring much to the RSN though since they don't offer anything the RSN doesn't already do... and better.

Let me know if you any more input on anything and I'll try and put up some thoughts when I get on again.
I don't make the rules, I just think them up and write them down.

Stephan

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2014, 11:27:51 am »
Is the fleet tactics loss that you mention something from V1?  According to the V2 Marauder pdf, you use the Fleet Tactics Bonus from the Core fleet when allying marauders to another fleet.

Andrewchristlieb

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #5 on: September 06, 2014, 12:05:28 am »
No thats the current rules, pg 3 first paragraph under 'Mercenaries'

Quote
Each Squadron uses the Command Distance of its race or faction and your Fleet
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Landlubber

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #6 on: September 06, 2014, 12:07:38 am »
Well, Stephan loaned me a full squadron of Slayers and Defilers to round out my RSN starter last night against his Aquan/Terquai build.  The Defilers shunted in near his carrier in turn 3 and really put a hurt on it.  But I wasn't overly impressed with the Slayers.  But, it was my first time using any of those ships, mine included, so I'm sure there's plenty of strategy left to learn!

Thanks for the rundown on the marauders.  After I flesh out my RSN, I'll look to start picking up some of those ships as well.  The Defiler is a darn cool model, so I may have to get a squadron of those just on aesthetics alone.
"Sometimes, you gotta roll the hard six."--Commander Adama

Andrewchristlieb

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2014, 12:11:52 am »
When I started (thanks to ManBattlestations, thank you very much) I bought the Oroshan off their looks alone too. Im stoked for the new battlecarrier and escorts (hopefully in a tidy little box set) so I can finish them out. It looks like I'm getting a set of Sorylians next though to go with the Planetfall models I want... :D
I don't make the rules, I just think them up and write them down.

Landlubber

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2014, 12:27:07 am »
Did you see the latest round of Planetfall pics on Spartan's Facebook page? Holy cow, those models look good.
"Sometimes, you gotta roll the hard six."--Commander Adama

Andrewchristlieb

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2014, 01:04:29 am »
Yes! The Sorylian troops are what sold me on them. Wicked cool looking. Im not so much a fan of the Works Raptor flyer they showed but I'm probably still going to grab the starter set since my son plays Aquans and I play Directorate.
I don't make the rules, I just think them up and write them down.

Grabula

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2014, 12:00:26 am »
Can you guys tell me under the 2.0 rules if I have anything resembling a legal fleet at the moment?

Sorylian Patrol Fleet box which I believe contains a battleship (Falx?) 2 cruisers and 6 smaller vessels
Xyphos Carrier
Dreadnaught

It's a bizarre collection I know and I'm adding to it over the next month.

Stephan

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2014, 11:41:07 am »
Grabula,

First, welcome!

It will depend on the size of game you want to play.  You can definitely do a Patrol fleet (up to 800 pts) with the Battleship, Carrier, Cruisers, and Smalls.  You can't take the Dread in a Patrol fleet.  If you go up to a Battle fleet (801-1200 pts), you can use the Dread, but you'd either need to split the smalls into two squadrons or buy another squadron (to meet the Tier 3 minimums).  Just download the Sorylian fleet list from the Spartan site and it gives you all the composition stuff.

Andrew,

Regarding the Tactics Bonus, looks like there's a disconnect between the main rulebook and the Marauders fleet list online.  The fleet list, page 2 at bottom left, says, "Your Fleet Tactics Bonus is that of your Core Faction, however each Squadron has the Command Distance of its own Faction."
« Last Edit: September 10, 2014, 02:09:57 pm by Stephan »

Andrewchristlieb

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2014, 01:03:00 pm »
It is a bit of a disconnect. If you look at the Marauders and Alliance fleet books you'll see there are two sections in each of them. A Zenian or Kurak support fleet (no core races) or a Marauder fleet does take the fleet tactics of its core faction, but only if they're those specific fleet types.

If you take an Alliance fleet (detailed in the core race: Terran, Dindrenzi, etc guides) which is one of the core 6 and any ships from one of the Kurak or Zenian league then your FT is the lowest instead of what your core race's FT would be. For instance a Dindrenzi fleet (FT 3) with a squadron of allied Directorate Tormentors (FT 1) would be FT 1 despite the core Dindrenzi being FT 3.

In the same manner Marauders taken as Mercenaries in any fleet that is not a Marauder fleet (big 6, alliance, Kurak or Zenian support fleet) takes the lowest FT. You can see that starting on page 2 of the Marauders fleet guide under 'Mercenaries' and continuing onto page 3.

Now honestly I don't know why it's setup this way, I can assume that Marauders are maybe better in tune with other Marauder factions and can operate with them better then someone else? Likewise maybe the smaller alliance races are able to cooperate better amongst themselves then with one of the big 6? It's probably just to promote mixing within the alliance races and marauders over mixing between factions.
I don't make the rules, I just think them up and write them down.

Stephan

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #13 on: September 10, 2014, 02:12:31 pm »
Ooops, I missed that bit!  I hate it when they put something like that in two different places.

Quickdraw

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Re: General Firestorm Chat
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2014, 03:43:44 pm »
I'm sure I just missed something in my reading, so I'll ask anyways.
Generally for allies 1/4 of the total MFV is allowed, does this include SRS tokens purchased for an allied model?
Am I correct in saying that the cost of the SRS is not factored into the cost of the model/squadron, but rather a stand alone cost?