Firestorm Armada: FREE Rules and more!

Today, I was sat at work cruising the Internet (in my lunch beak, of course!), when a colleague, who is a fellow wargamer pointed me in the direction of the Spartan Games Website, where they now have the newly revised rulebook for Firestorm Armada available for free download!  I'll admit, it's been a while since i've visited their site, so this was a very pleasant surprise.

It seems that at the point my friend Byron and I were introduced to Firestorm Armada, the rulebook had just gone out of print, and after trying in vain for around two months to secure a copy, we just continued playing with the photocopied sheets and tables that had kindly been provided by the chap who introduced us, and decide we would look up the book again in a few months. Having forgot that, and then not dusted off my Directorate fleet for a couple of months, the book now lands on my desktop, for free!

As soon as I got home, I managed to download the 7mb .pdf of the rules, and they look good.  They even include the tokens you need to print off to use in the game.  The rules actually total around 50 pages, and the rest of the 63 page document is the tokens and some pretty pictures of some of the ships you can use in the game as well.  Obviously the hardback version of the game rules contains more than this simple .pdf file, but it gives you enough to play the game, and even gives you a little bit of the background of the game.

AND, as if that wasn't enough (A free game!), you can still download the print-off and cut-out ship models of the original three fleets (Terran, Dindrenzi and Directorate).  All you need to do is print the sheets off as A4 and then cut the 2D paper ship models out.  As the game really is in 2D, the 'flatness' has no effect.

So, there you have it.  Here is a free wargame to play.  Rulebook, counters and ships, all you need to try out Spartan Games' superb space combat system!  I'm off to digest the book, and hopefully get a couple of games, then i'll be back with a review and some comments (hopefully).  Until then, here are some links that you may want to visit...

Rulebook Download
Terran Alliance cut out fleet
Dindrenzi Federation cut out fleet
The Directorate cut out fleet

Gaming Resolutions 2013

This year, I've decided that i'm going to make a concerted effort to get my existing wargaming and roleplaying projects caught up to date.  Since I took a 'break' from playing 40k just after last Christmas, I've gotten into several new games, and although I've hand a handful of games of each, I've spent little time actually painting the models.  The result is that I now have a veritable horde of miniatures stacked up waiting to be painted!  Although I feel i'm a competent painter, I've started collecting non-28mm scale models now, so this may turn out to be a challenge.  New models I've bought this year that need finishing are:

• Flames of War:  British Airlanding Company and Support, Irish Guards Armoured Squadron and German Bodenstandig Grenadierkompanie.
• Firestorm Armada:  Directorate Starter Fleet and Carrier.
• Force on Force:  Various forces for Vietnam, Somalia and Modern Afghanistan.

This is in addition to my existing Blood Bowl teams (three), Epic Space Marine army and a new Dark Angels force i traded with a friend (Four sets of the Dark Vengeance Dark Angels) - Yes, my 40k hiatus lasted just under a year!

So, with all that in mind, my wargaming shelves are already fully loaded, and there is much work to do!  My resolutions for 2013 are as follows:

Wargaming

1. Complete all three Flames of War armies and my Firestorm Armada fleet to at least tabletop standard, and do not buy any more models for these armies until this is achieved.
2. Play a minimum of 1-2 games per month (of any wargame).
3. Finishing building up the Epic Space Marine force and play at least one game with it.
4. Try using the 'Army Painter technique' to paint my Dark Angels up to TT standard ready for the Easter game.
5. Complete enough models and obtain enough scenery to run a Force on Force campaign (Probably 'Day of the Ranger') for my gaming friends and hopefully get them into FoF.

Roleplaying:

1. Bring my Conspiracy X campaign up to date (and do so after each session) on the Obsidian Portal website.  
2. Run the Conspiracy X campaign a minimum of once each calendar month (as promised to the players already!).
3. Finish writing the Call of Cthulhu Campaign I have been writing since last year.

Now I look back, there are actually a few more than i expected, still I feel these are attainable, and I need to make up for this year, where I've managed to convince myself that moving house in January is still a legitimate reason for not getting back to the painting table by December...