Editing Firestorm Armada (section)

==The Gameplay==

===Exploding Dice===
Despite what the quote at the top of this page might lead you to think, the game plays nothing like Battlefleet Gothic. For just about any given die roll, 4+ is generally a "success".  The ‘Exploding Dice’ mechanic is the Core Dice Mechanic used in Firestorm Armada, and other games by [[Spartan Games]].  Whenever a Dice is rolled using the Exploding Dice mechanic, the roll of a natural ‘6’ on a dice ‘Explodes’, resulting in two successes '''and''' the chance to roll the dice again and score further successes!  If you rolled a 6 again, keep on rolling!

This can result in ships being slapped with a double or triple crit, usually resulting in a lovely explosion as the ship in question suffers [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CriticalExistenceFailure critical existence failure].  It goes the other way too, with a shield maybe stopping a deadly shot in extraordinary fashion.  While some people get cranky when this happens, others love it.  Statistically speaking there is "no more random" with exploding 6s than without [http://ops-center.weebly.com/uploads/4/6/2/4/46246671/exploding_6_explained.pdf per this article] it's just that there is a chance for an occasional extraordinary result.  Thus the mechanic does mean that even a lowly frigate has ''some chance'' of blasting a battleship and hurting it, unlike 40k where until 8th plain ol' Guardsmen couldn't never do shit to big things.

===Ships===
Ships come on a sometimes wobbly clear plastic base; magnets or Hawk Widgets help a great deal with this problem.  The bases have four firing arcs: fore, aft, port and starboard.  Stats include: hull, crew, point defense, wing capacity, shields, assault, damage rating and critical damage rating.  You compare the various stats when you roll dice in different situations, blah blah blah.  

Ships fly in squadrons of one to six models.  Most bigger models stand alone.  Little birds flock together.  When you move your ships, they go between 6"-12" generally, and you use a wonky tool to help you turn that even a Master's Degree won't help you figure out.  Bases can touch, and you can shoot something you're touching, unlike X-wing.  

Almost every single ship has more than one weapon system pointing in different directions, so a player who gives a shit will generally try maneuver in such a way as to fire more than one weapon in the same turn.  This sounds easy enough, but there are mines, asteroid fields, not to mention other ships all clogging up the game board so good luck with that.

Frigates, corvettes and other tiny Tier 3 ships have two hull points and can be wiped out in a single good hit.  Cruisers and other Tier 2 ships have three to five hull, so it takes a couple good shots (or a mitful of 6s) to wipe them.  Battleships and the like have eight or more hull and are generally a bitch to take down.

===Alternating Activation===
I choose one of my squadrons, move it, then fire its weapons.  Now it's your turn to choose one squadron, move and fire.  Back and forth until all squadrons are done, then send out the damage control teams to get shields back online, and a new round starts.  Who goes first each round is sorta a big deal, but Firestorm is no way near as alpha-strikey as other games and nobody gets tabled round 1.

===MARs===
All the various special abilities are called Model Assigned Rules and there's over 50 - way too many of them to mention here, ranging from "why does anyone want that?" to "mwhahahaha".  Different ships have different MARs but with only a couple of exceptions there aren't many combos between ships, unlike Warmachine where this dude buffs that dude who fucks your world apart. 

Mercifully the MARs are standardized, same name, and all in the main rulebook, so Spartan doesn't just make shit up like GW.   You can buy MARs and other upgrades for your ships.  Almost all ships have at least one upgrade available.  Some bigger ships you can mix and match half a dozen MARs.

===TAC Cards===
Nobody remembers what this acronym means, but you get to choose 3 (maybe 4) cards to play that allow you to do cool shit you normally couldn't, cause strategery!  Some TAC are available to everyone, others are specific to your race or faction. 
 
===Duration===
This game takes a while, ok?  Like 2-3 hours.  If you're new, add another hour.  More ships?  More hours. They're working on making it more streamlined with a new version without dumbing-down and breaking everything in the process.

===SRS===
[[Meme|SRS please leave]] cause the rules be wonky and a tad broken, but whatever, eat 18 bomber dice, bitch!

SRS refers to Short Range Spacecraft, which are the fighter screens or bomber wings that are represented on the tabletop by either large or small SRS tokens, with a dice in it representing 'wings'.  

They divide into the following groups:
*'''Interceptors''' - These little bastards can proactively make a mess of other SRS tokens, can re-actively make intercept moves against enemy bombers, and can shoot down torpedoes like Battlestar Galactica.  Even a few of them can make your torpedoes useless.  The only downside, they cannot directly attack ships. 
*'''Fighters''' - These jack-of-all trades can fight other SRS tokens or attack ships, and have a 18" range, but that still doesn't convince most people to field them.  Even the game designers wonder what the hell they were thinking. 
*'''Bombers''' - Can hold their own against fighters with the added bonus of having a '''fucktonne''' of attack dice (18 dice on a full 6-die wing) against ships, the backhander for this being they only have 12" movement, but so what?  If your enemy doesn't have interceptors on the defense, you ''will'' wreck his shit.  
*'''Assault Craft''' - the shortest move range of all SRS (8") with the same dogfighting ability as fighters, but laden with a tonne of pissed off dudes to deliver into an enemy ship.  If you don't feel like your ships have enough Marines already, that is.
*'''Support Shuttles''' - Shares the Assault crafts tiny move distance, but who needs it when these guys will be hugging a ship in order to repair it or provide replacement crew.