Data Sphere

So... I have a sizable Zenian League - Rense System Navy fleet.

Me and a buddy of mine were thinking about just playing a fun fictional campaign involving Infinity and Firestorm Armada. Basically, we would prioritize boarding actions in Firestorm Armada (through the use of Carriers and such).

But that aside, I was wondering if any other Infinity players here on Data-Sphere play this cool game.

I'm on the Full Thrust with its free rules and a scratchbuilt fleet of mine. I prefer FT for its complexity even at a small scale battles and the most prominent vector movement system.

I didn't hear good things about Firestorm. It seems to feel like a naval game, in space, while other similar games had a more "space' theme. I love the models though, and their new Planetfall undoubtedly will give this system a boost as well.

Don't like Firestorm Armada. I gave it a try and the rules are too simple and to "classic" and thus don't work for me.
And I don't like the models.
I also prefer Full Thrust or Starmada - both imho bring by far more space feeling onto the gaming table.
And offer customizable DIY factions/ships/armies.

Harlekin wrote:Don't like Firestorm Armada. I gave it a try and the rules are too simple and to "classic" and thus don't work for me.
And I don't like the models.
I also prefer Full Thrust or Starmada - both imho bring by far more space feeling onto the gaming table.
And offer customizable DIY factions/ships/armies.

Couldn't find anything on Full Thrust.. models on a webshop, but no rules, factions.. whateffs. I've heard it mentioned many times when people were saying FA wasn't like FT.

Full thrust rules were first done by Ground Zero Games (GZG) and so are the "official" ship miniatures.
However, due to the flexibility of the rules, and the ease of "converting" series X or Y ships into it, you don't HAVE to use their ships and I've seen everything from Babylon5 v BSG cylon match-ups to Empire v Starfleet and stuff in between.

These days, the rules and fleet books are available at the skunkworks
http://emeraldcoastskunkworks.wordpress.com/

I prefer FT to FSA also. I've used GW's BFG ships in it, FSA ships (likewise, I have rense), actual GZG Neu Swabian League (which were also my "SM fleet" for BFG since many of the ships have an eagle on the prow) ships, and others.

I played FT years ago... as for FSA, Kathara Khan is intending to give me a test run.
We'll see.

There was a rumor that GroundZeroGames were going to revive the rulebook on paper dedicating it to the FT anniversary. This may be a reason to remove the rules from free access.
If someone wants original FT rules and fleetbooks - send me a PM.

M2Cat wrote:There was a rumor that GroundZeroGames were going to revive the rulebook on paper dedicating it to the FT anniversary. This may be a reason to remove the rules from free access.
If someone wants original FT rules and fleetbooks - send me a PM.

Are you talking about physical books, or PDFs? I tried looking for 'free' stuff on Full Thrust last week, but seriously.. they look like they don't want new gamers!

RSN fleet here as well... it was those ships that made me look into it in the first place.

I play Full Thrust as well (Kravak)

@Scorch
I'm talking about those PDFs made by GZG. If you want them, I'll upload them somewhere. Other fanmade stuff you can find on fanmade sites.
I want to advocate the GZG. They are very small company, maybe even one-man-band. They made rules available for free when they ran your of hardcopies. They constantly expand the miniatures range. They upgraded their site and webshop recently. They have miniatures in stock and send orders very fast. If they attend game shows and exhibitions, they warm about this beforehand.
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FT is not an out-of-the-box X-Wing game. It has higher barrier for entering, more demands on the players' hobby skills.
Here in Kiev, Ukraine, we had a group that promoted and pushed hard FT for two of three years. In the end that had large fully painted fleets and small games with lite rules. They started a campaign and burned out after two games. Niue they all quited and forum has no updates for months. The main reason if this group's failure was lack of gaming quarters in our city. Those that were present were small and dedicated to 40k. Now we have large wargaming club, but people live their lives.
Only two (including me) of that group preserved interest. We were the less agitated and the slowest in the original group. Now we push more popular projects (I'm solely push Infinity, since February we have 4 regulars and several newbies). The other guy is dedicated to historical games. And we made an agreement that FT sod stay in a shadow for a time.

I like some of the Firestorm Armada ships (particularly the Aquans), but the mechanics don't work for me. They're basically the same as Uncharted Seas and Dystopian Wars.

Which is really funny, because I enjoyed Battlefleet Gothic which uses almost exactly the same mechanics as the old Epic40k (combining firepower dice and a small range of hits-on-a-4+ weapons).

So, I gave it a test run.

It is a fun and pretty simple game - I might be getting myself a rulebook. Definitely no models, though - they are far too big and too expensive. Plus with just markers (base-sized) the game is just as fun.

Errhile wrote:It is a fun and pretty simple game. (...) Definitely no models, though - they are far too big and too expensive. Plus with just markers (base-sized) the game is just as fun.

I'm definitely in the same boat. Don't understand why the models have to be so huge while they are counted as "points".

Here's the official links for all the Ground Zero Games rules: http://www.shop.groundzerogames.co.uk/i ... cat_id=130

You will notice some significant changes between Full Thrust/More Thrust and the Fleet Books. Massive change to the ship design rules, specifically, but since Fleet Book 1 has all the ships for the official universe, you should be fine.

Full Thrust is flexible enough that I came up with some submarine naval action using modified FT (have to add better detection rules, and I'm still working on those).

I don't mind the Firestorm Armada ship's size, but the price is a killer.

Started Full Thrust with 2nd edition(only because I couldn't get hold of 1st edition in NZ) 20 years ago and I still play it today. I've also picked up Colonial Battlefleet which has a little more crunch and the move distance to weapon range ratio allows for more tactical experience if you find FT not quite to your taste.

Robert