Sit on the fence much?

Not as streamlined. Not as good with the fighters. May have trouble finding opponents. But!!

The one redeeming feature you have given the game is it is cheap and you can therefore field bigger fleets.

Why yes, I happen to be a Professional Fence-Sitter, grade 2A, thank you very much.

Other redeeming features:

-more fleets and ship options with a greater range of potential play styles (at least for now)

-more terrain options for interesting boards and scenario play (slingshots via planetary gravity wells!)

-boarding actions and capturing ships!

-increased deployment and tactical options - reserves, hidden deployment, scouting, and shunting into the middle of the fight (think jump drives)

-did I mention EXPLODING DICE?!?!

Most of all....I find it fun. I also happen to find SW:Armada fun. Don't make me choose!

Am thinking of dropping armada for halo or the forthcoming drop fleet commander as you can actually fight fleet sized battles with them, you just can't do that with armada unless you have all day to play it.

There is no real reason not to play different games! Armada isn't very well suited to large battles, but it does scratch that Star Wars itch for me I play FSA and Dystopian Wars occosionally as well and will look into Dropfleet Commander

I never understood why it is one or the other game...

Currently I play on a regular basis Flames of War, X-Wing, Armada, Imperial Assault, Dystopian Wars and World of Tanks.

(the latter a PC game but still; I play it quite abit)

In between I eat, sleep, work and keep the missus happy.

I like my life.

I have played both Firestorm Armada and Star Wars Armada. Both have their advantages:

Firestorm:

- More varied tactics (the big ones for me are boarding ships, shunting into the middle of a battle, targeting particular points on ships, etc)

- More varied terrain

- More options

Star Wars:

- Better storyline

- More interesting critical effects

- Shields on different hull zones / defense tokens

The big clincher for me, and the reason I went with Star Wars Armada despite having a ton of, and enjoying the heck out of, Firestorm Armada is this: Spartan Games SUCKS at sticking with a property. Since the original Firestorm Armada game was released, they have been teasing Leviathans (huge starships) and still have yet to see them show up anywhere. Because they have so many game lines in place, they can't seem to get out of their own way and produce for each one. I can't remember the last time something new came out for my faction in Firestorm Armada. There have been maybe two new options for them in the last 18 months.

The other big problem with FSA is that there are so few people who play it. Since they have FSA (a space fleet combat game), Dystopian Wars (a dystopian WWII or something fleet combat game), and Uncharted Seas (a naval fleet combat game), they're competing with themselves. The games died at our store when a bunch of us got together who liked Spartan Games, but of the 8 of us, the best we had was 3 of us who had already bought into the same game. No one wanted to invest another several hundred dollars in a very similar game with a different packaging, so no one really played FSA.

It's too bad - I think I probably enjoy the game more than SW Armada, but I've been burned twice by Spartan Games not supporting their own game to my liking (once with FSA1, and once with FSA2) and I don't really want to deal with it again. FFG has a track record of supporting what they produce. Even if Wave 1 is a black stone right now.

I like the asthetics of FSA & if ur looking for something thats about full scale fleet actions then yes i think its the game for u. However iv personally found the rule books poorly structured and like others have already hinted at there isnt any rhyme or reason behind how the handle new releases. Always sad that GW stopped supporting BFG.

I never understood why it is one or the other game...

Cost to collect similar games. All those you list are completely different but two space games are too similar to run both at the same time.

I love my dystopian wars fleets, I have 3 now (French, Prussian and Antarctica)

Really love the models and the cost to get into the spartian games is quite low but you do need to paint them, that may be a turn off??

I have found in all my years of gaming that Full Thrust is a very good rule set and one of the best parts is that you can use what ever ships you have.

The rules are downloadable I think, or you can find a hard copy on e-bay.

Speaking as a huge, life-long fan of spaceship games:

- Firestorm is a great, highly enjoyable game that does big fleets better than Armada in all honesty.

- Full Thrust is superb if you want something a bit more granular, and can also be quite "realistic" if you use the newtonian movement.

- Armada is wonderful (obviously) and hits the Star Wars vibe spot on. it is however not great for big fleets and clearly doesn't even try for realism.

Hell, i even played B5 Wars and Star Fleet Battles a lot, as well as Sky Full of Stars and almost every other ship combat game you care to mention. Both Armadas (Firestorm and Star Wars) stack up very favourably against almost all competition. None of them are perfect, but they hit different areas well.

I have every expectation Halo will be very good fun, but since I already have fleets for Firestorm, Star Wars, Full Thrust AND B5 i really don't know if i can do another.

But....i probably will.

In my defence, i really only play spaceship games.

Cool ships!

The problem I have with Spartan games is that they release way too many games, and then don't support any of them as well as they should. Then a couple years down the road, they pull a GW and rerelease the game, with better looking minis... I avoid all of their games because of this.

To date none of their games have had more than a 2nd edition, and pretty much everybody agrees that each of those second editions vastly improved the respective rules.

Honestly....if any game i play wants to hugely improve itself every few years, i'm kind of ok with that. Its not like they release a new codex constantly which obsoletes old stuff. Every army list is free, as are many other documents.

There's nothing wrong with iterating on a game as long as it a) Improves it significantly and b) Doesn't cause existing players to have to spend much (if any) money. Spartan get this right, unlike....well, another big company.

GW will invalidate armies with new editions litterally rendering them unplayable.

Spartan doesn't go thar far, but constantly having to release new editions to your ruleset is a problem. It's probably why they have such sporadic release schedules.

Thier games certainly include interesting mechanics, but because they try to include too many interesting mechanics that just don't always play particularly well.

I would hardly call 2 full editions for each game "constantly".

I actually feel that more companies SHOULD update and release new editions of games a bit more often.

Each to their own though...i like Spartan, their games and their business model. Others may equally validly have a different view. Thats fine...there are spaceships enough for all \o/

Spartan really screwed up every game they ever published with a poorly designed rule book and terrible rules inconsistencies.

Fixed that for you

I doubt I'd get the miniatures for Halo but I might consider getting their rule book (or simply FSA's) so I can use the Armada figures in a different rule set and simulate larger battles. I've even fooled around with using Armada figures with the Jovian Chronicles rule set, an old space miniature game by Dream Pod 9.

I didn't see anyone mention the difference between the fact that the Halo miniatures game is unpainted. It's not a big negative thing for people who like to paint miniatures but it can be a big miss for those who want to play out of the box. There's also the question of how much assembly is required for the final version of the game: the small ships will likely be a single piece but 3~5 pieces for the larger ones.

To be honest, I'd rather see a Macross or Gundam miniature space battle game than Halo, even if I have to import it from overseas.

I doubt I'd get the miniatures for Halo but I might consider getting their rule book (or simply FSA's) so I can use the Armada figures in a different rule set and simulate larger battles. I've even fooled around with using Armada figures with the Jovian Chronicles rule set, an old space miniature game by Dream Pod 9.

I didn't see anyone mention the difference between the fact that the Halo miniatures game is unpainted. It's not a big negative thing for people who like to paint miniatures but it can be a big miss for those who want to play out of the box. There's also the question of how much assembly is required for the final version of the game: the small ships will likely be a single piece but 3~5 pieces for the larger ones.

To be honest, I'd rather see a Macross or Gundam miniature space battle game than Halo, even if I have to import it from overseas.

Wow. You must be one of like.....10 people in the world that also played Jovian Chronicles. Lightning Strike was a pretty cool, if slightly hardcore, ruleset!

I loved Jovian Chronicles Lightning Strike. It was a ton of fun... just hard to get a lot of figures for it, especially for the ships. I really loved the difference in movement between mecha and fighters.

I was doing some Firestorm armada up until FFG armada was released. I think they are both good systems.

FFG Armada feels like a new kid on the miniatures scene. Custom dice, a custom-created maneuver tool, very high production quality out of the box, and (At least as I see it?) A new defensive mechanism are totally different from where Firestorm is.

Firestorm, as I see it, has more in common with older and more traditional miniatures games. You assemble a pool of D6s. You roll that pool. Hunt-and-pick for 4, 5,s and 6s (which need more dice). Opponent assembles a pool to counter roll. Gobs of dice thrown about across several checks to see just how much damage is applied at the end. FFG on the other hand has all of this solved in one roll of the custom dice.

But I will give that Firestorm has a bigger fleet feel than FFG armada. You are buying units to put into your fleet, and aside from the big ships, when you activate you're activating a squadron. More models on the table works depending on your point of view, because that's also more to command and when you're buying into it, more models is more expense.

Also, fighters. Fighters in Firestorm feel essentially like special missiles... they go to their target to attack and are either wiped out or you get a reload after their successful attack. Fighters here in FFG armada feel like they have a presence, rather than simply being soley dependent upon their carrier ships.

I'm not in a hot hurry to rid myself of my Ryushi fleet, but on the other hand I am eager to get Armada back to the table and i want to have wave 1 released for those bigger fleets. I also like the more hands-on approach to commanding my capital ships... I didn't feel as invested in Firestorm as I do with FFG armada in having direct command of the ship.

This community is awesome! I'm gone for a day and this post has gotten way more attention than I'd have thought. Thanks all! It was all super insightful since I've never played a Spartan Games miniature game.

I think I will personally be sticking with Armada, although a buddy in my game group (who isn't investing in Armada) is thinking about picking it up as his contribution to the group. While I love the Halo series, I think the Star Wars IP is just so hard to beat, especially now adays. Fingers crossed that some of the visual updates they're making will trickle its way into some of these products (Updated X-wings, Chrometroopers?!). Besides, I'm a big fan of FFG's game mechanics in their miniature games thus far.

@Parduke: Good to know that MM is open to splitting orders. I'll have to give then a ring and see about getting my Core.

@Kubernes: Getting a hold of the rules actually isn't a bad idea. May give it a whirl with my Armada miniatures just to get a taste. And I never even thought of a Gundam miniature game! Probably for the best. My wallets looking pretty thin as is

@Norsehound: That bit about the squadrons definitely helped tip the scales to Armada. I'm a big fan of meaningful squadrons in large-scale battles.

Just buy both, we'll have conversions to use the Halo stuff with Armada soon enough.

Speaking as a huge, life-long fan of spaceship games:

- Firestorm is a great, highly enjoyable game that does big fleets better than Armada in all honesty.

- Full Thrust is superb if you want something a bit more granular, and can also be quite "realistic" if you use the newtonian movement.

- Armada is wonderful (obviously) and hits the Star Wars vibe spot on. it is however not great for big fleets and clearly doesn't even try for realism.

Hell, i even played B5 Wars and Star Fleet Battles a lot, as well as Sky Full of Stars and almost every other ship combat game you care to mention. Both Armadas (Firestorm and Star Wars) stack up very favourably against almost all competition. None of them are perfect, but they hit different areas well.

I have every expectation Halo will be very good fun, but since I already have fleets for Firestorm, Star Wars, Full Thrust AND B5 i really don't know if i can do another.

But....i probably will.

In my defence, i really only play spaceship games.

Ah good ol Babylon 5 Wars. Still one of the best navel combat games around.

Very rules heavy but in a good way.

Speaking as a huge, life-long fan of spaceship games:

- Firestorm is a great, highly enjoyable game that does big fleets better than Armada in all honesty.

- Full Thrust is superb if you want something a bit more granular, and can also be quite "realistic" if you use the newtonian movement.

- Armada is wonderful (obviously) and hits the Star Wars vibe spot on. it is however not great for big fleets and clearly doesn't even try for realism.

Hell, i even played B5 Wars and Star Fleet Battles a lot, as well as Sky Full of Stars and almost every other ship combat game you care to mention. Both Armadas (Firestorm and Star Wars) stack up very favourably against almost all competition. None of them are perfect, but they hit different areas well.

I have every expectation Halo will be very good fun, but since I already have fleets for Firestorm, Star Wars, Full Thrust AND B5 i really don't know if i can do another.

But....i probably will.

In my defence, i really only play spaceship games.

Ah good ol Babylon 5 Wars. Still one of the best navel combat games around.

Very rules heavy but in a good way.

Very, VERY rules heavy, but really one of the best "simulator" type games made. Definitely not for large fleets, but for a few ships a side just fantastic.

Speaking as a huge, life-long fan of spaceship games:

- Firestorm is a great, highly enjoyable game that does big fleets better than Armada in all honesty.

- Full Thrust is superb if you want something a bit more granular, and can also be quite "realistic" if you use the newtonian movement.

- Armada is wonderful (obviously) and hits the Star Wars vibe spot on. it is however not great for big fleets and clearly doesn't even try for realism.

Hell, i even played B5 Wars and Star Fleet Battles a lot, as well as Sky Full of Stars and almost every other ship combat game you care to mention. Both Armadas (Firestorm and Star Wars) stack up very favourably against almost all competition. None of them are perfect, but they hit different areas well.

I have every expectation Halo will be very good fun, but since I already have fleets for Firestorm, Star Wars, Full Thrust AND B5 i really don't know if i can do another.

But....i probably will.

In my defence, i really only play spaceship games.

Ah good ol Babylon 5 Wars. Still one of the best navel combat games around.

Very rules heavy but in a good way.

Very, VERY rules heavy, but really one of the best "simulator" type games made. Definitely not for large fleets, but for a few ships a side just fantastic.

So true.

But then I do prefer games with fewer units that take a lot to kill rather than the hollow feeling of "oh you rolled a 6 well I'll take that take unit off the board"

I just love changing your heavy lasers to piercing mode and trying for a hit to his reactor in the hope you do enough damage to cause him to have to choose what weapons to keep powered.

Or getting in close and using your plasma cannons to melt his armour so your fighters can get in and do maximum damage to that critical system....

A real shame there are hardly any games around like that now.

Totally with you. Its why Armadas smaller scale works for me. Not that i am in any way equating Armadas take on "detailed low shipcount games" to B5 Wars take....thats like comparing apples to an apple farming accountancy spreadsheet

The incredible detail level of different weapons etc was amazing.