Warcradle Naval Games > Firestorm Armada

[Project] Firestorm Taskforce - Stat Cards

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Wanjajoral:
Hi everybody,
Firestorm Taskforce is a solid entry level space navy wargame and actually much better than many gamers think. The ruleset has a few flaws and I had hoped for a revision as a part of the Firestorm Armada 3.0 ruleset, but with Spartan Games closed this won't happen anytime soon.
This promted me to start this little project which will add a bit to the game experience and, in time, might even expand the game.

This post here is meant to let you all know that I am working on this and to invite you to provide feedback and suggestions for any future developments.

***

I have started to create Stat Cards for all the ships available for Firestorm Taskforce (which are most, if not all Firestorm Armada ships).
The reasons for that are the following:
1. Taskforce is meant to be an entry level game and having cards with all the statistics for each ship in a fleet makes it easier for beginners (or young players) to understand what is going on. The official fleet lists in principle serve the same purpose, but I hope to offer some more value by adding a photo of the ship type (for ease of identification) and by adding brief explanations of all the MARs relevant for each ship (both weapon MARS and ship MARs) directly on the card.
2. Having a deck of cards makes list building much easier and quicker - especially for younger or inexperienced players. My seven year old son can just put all his Aquan stat cards in front of him and pick whatever he wants to field in a game - much easier than flicking through the printed PDF.
3. I think that the stat cards will make it easier to direcly compare ships within and across factions. The same is of course possible with the available documents, but just imagine you would like to compare all the different destroyer models in the game based on the 8 PDF files (6 for the core factions and 2 for the minor races). Just placing all the destroyer class cards next to each other will speed this up considerably. This ease of comparability will also help with designing new ships for he game - which is something we migh want to consider now tha the official support has died.

Here is an example of one of the Stat Cards I have already finished:



The files I create are Poker card sized and I will print my copy of this deck at the Gamecrafter. Obviously I cannot make hem available there publicly, but I will find a way to share the digital files (.png and/or .psd) so that fellow gamers can print their own copies.
The example above is a bi bigger than the final card as the Gamecrafter template also includes a border that will be cut off after the printing. The final cards will look more like this:




***

Where do I stand with this little project?

I started last week and so far I have created 28 cards (all of the Aquan ships and 8 Dindrenzi), but not all of them have images added to them yet. I plan to create cards for all the factions. This way I will end up with maybe 150 cards (just a guess) which will take me a while.

All the rules are taken directly from the Taskforce rulebook and the published fleet lists, but I have taken the liberty to correct a few mistakes (e.g. that the Aquan Escort Carrier was listed as a Tier 3 ship while the Dindrenzi Light Frigate counts as a Tier 2. I also unified the MAR names (e.g. Laser Battery vs. Laser Batteries) and ironed out a few other small typos.

Each faction will have it's own color template (e.g. light blue for the Aquans) and as I create these carsd primarily for my own use I also have changed some of the color for certain factions. My Kurak ships are primarily blue and green, while my Zenian ships are red and orange - and this will be reflected in the background color on the cards - just that you know.

***

Possible future developments?
Well, once I am done with all those cards I would like to create a second deck of cards (maybe called Phase 2) that offers a few alternatives and modifications.
Currently there are several ships of the same class that have the same statistics in the game (e.g. the Aquan cruiser classes Storm, Chironex, and Isonade). This made sense as long as Spartan Games was still publishing new models for the game and it kepts things simple. But now we might be in need for a greater variety in order to keep the game fresh. What I would like to do is to create separate cards for each of the ships that up to now have shared a list entry. The most recent version of a ship (e.g. the Isonade cruiser) would keep the official statistics, while the older ones would receive a certain downgrade - weaker statistics, but also a reduced points cost - to reflect the advancement in military development. Older versions of a ship class could also have a slightly different focus (e.g. weaker lasers but stronger torpedoes). This will open a nice design space and - based on community input - keep the game fresh.
And finally completely new ships (new factions, merchant ships etc.) could also be introduced.

But first things first. I still have quite some Stat Cards to design before I can think about creating new content.

Well, there you have it - my small contribution to keeping the Firestorm games alive.

What do you think?

Andrewchristlieb:
It's an ambitious undertaking. I like the idea about using the older models as alternative stat lines, but it's something that may be an issue with limited availability. That was one of the reasons we decided to give them all the same stats for 2.0. Maybe consider keeping the all the names on any alternative builds or putting a disclaimer so people can choose between builds for the models they have.

Wanjajoral:
Hi Andrew,
thanks for the feedback. That might be a good idea - adding the names of the other scults in a smaller font next to the name of the model depicted. I would prefer the cleaner look of just a single name per card, but I can see your point.
In any case this is still a long way off as I first want to finish all the official stats - and those will have all the names on each card (like the Namazu / Tsunami example shown above).

Wanjajoral:
Allright, it's time for a

Status Report

I am 100% done with the first faction - the Aquans. All the ship classes are represented as cards, complete with images of the models.
I am also done with creating the stat cards for the next two factions (Dindrenzi and Directorate, I go through them in alphabetical order of the fleet list file names), but those still lack their images (for the most part).
Today I started working on the Kural Alliance support fleets and created all the stat cards for Hawker Industries (again, still without images).

This puts my overall progress at a tiny bit above 25% completion - not a bad start but still a long way to go.

During the next week I will create the cards for the next one or two Kurak fleets and add all the images for the Dindrenzi cards and I will keep you updated about this progress.

***

Feedback needed
While working on the Hawker ships today I noticed something weird. The Hawker battleship has a Gunnery turret with the weapon's MAR "Nuclear" and I have serious problems with making any thematic sense of that. Some of the MARs seem to have been assigned almost randomly, but most of them can be justified. But what in the name of Terra is a nuclear gunnery turret?  Something like a huge mass driver gun that shoots not ordinary projectiles but tiny nukes at the opponent? Does that soudn feasible to you? Does that make any sense?
I am seriously tempted to change that, but I am not familiar with Hawker, so I do not know if such a weapon is something they use in FSA proper. The easiest change would be to change the weapon classification from Gunnery to the more generic Nuclear Weapon (something that other Hawker ships use), but honestly I thought that nuclear warheads are something rserved for torpedoes, so maybe it would make more sense to change the weapon MAR instead from "Nuclear" to something like "High Energy". But that, of course, would change the balance of the game slightly.
What do you think?

***

Your ideas wanted
New/custom stat cards are still a thing of the distant future, but I already start to collect ideas in my mind which ships I would like to see in a second batch of cards. And instead of just using my own ideas I would like to know what you, the players, would like to play with. What are the ships that - in your opinion - are in need of a rebalancing as they are too strong or too weak in Taskforce and should/could get a refit version? And what gaps are there in the current fleet lists that could need some filling (e.g. I noticed that the Hawker list has just a single Tier 2 entry)?
If you play Taskforce, or feel like commenting after reading the fleet lists, please post your ideas and suggestions in this thread, so that I can collect them for Phase 2 of this project.

Thanks and happy gaming,
Michael

Wanjajoral:
Status Report

Two more weeks have passed and it's time for another status report.
Progress has been somewhat slower than I had hoped for (as is the case so often when real life happens), but the project has still made a few steps in the right direction.

In terms of 100% finished cards (including images of the models) I have completed the Dindrenzi and most of the Directorate.
And in terms of stat cards without images I created the majority of the cards for the Kurak Alliance (Hawker, Ruyshi, Tarakian and Terquai are done, Veydreth are half done and the Xelocians are still missing).

This puts my overall progress at 40%.

***

With the good news of the Wayland/Warcradle aquisition of the Spartan IPs I am sure that we will see some new developments for FSA next year, but maybe Taskforce will not be very high on the priority list or maybe it will be scrapped alltogether. I will continue/finish this project. Anything else (new units, alternate stats) will depend on Warcradle's plans, which we will learn more next year.

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