A Teaching Demo for Firestorm

So I introduced a new player to Firestorm and we got together to help him get use to the rules. We are playing on the new Pillars and Jets mat. His fleet is the first to be completely outfitted with Omni-Stands!. Mine still needs some work. I have a mix of version 1-5 of the stands.

He brought a directorate i alliance fleet with some dindirendzi gunship backup. 750 points each.

This is a nice shot of the mat before we cover it up with our ships. No my fleet isn't pink... Not sure why that color looks that way in the camera.

My opponent.

This was my initial setup. Off to the side is another frigate unit. The ended up joining the turtle anyway but I needed something on the other side of the planets for the first few turns. They cam in handy later.

My opponent moved his heavy cruisers at an angle and quickly followed with the gunships. That nut was hard to crack but eventually he had to swing around the planet and leave the battleship alone for a turn and that spelled doom for it.

I moved up and got a lucky shot from the shield ships at range band 2. The battleship moved up as well and split its fire between the battleship and those evil gunships.

The Directorate battleship closing fast as my frigates move up to take on the approaching directoate frigates.

My frigate score some hits,

 

The Directorate Battleship takes some hits and the heavy cruises take some shots just before disappearing behind the planet. Looming in the distance is the directorate carrier and its frigate killing bombers. Good thing our formation is still close together.

The neglected terran cruiser squadron sneaks around the side for a full broadside criting a gunship for its second hard pounding.

The Directorate battleship takes another crit and losses motion control.

Thing sare getting tight now. The carrier is fully committed but the heavies are spending a turn out of position while the terran fleet still holds strong with one functional shield cruiser.

The frigate swarm is to close for torpedoes but is trying to stick together as the bombers close in. The battleship is positioned for a devastating attack.

The gunships get a crit on the battleship and the heavy cruisers get to take a shot. This is the last chance the directorate players has to win. the frigates have moved in to take the gunship that took two hard poundings and is down to 1 cp and 1 ap. A 2 to 4 roll off and I loss one and the gunship crew losses one. That never plays out because the battleship does what it does best and lines up a full on shot at the battleship and a full broadside at the carrier. The Directorate battleship takes a hit and dies and a double crit on the carrier ends the game. At that point we gave up our table for a Battletech Quickstrike game and cleaned up.

It was a good learning experience and the newbie directorate player only made a few tactical mistakes.  The omni-stands performed great and the mat looked amazing. It was the first time I had it out on a table. It makes a great backdrop to any game.

An observant gamer might see a little sneak peak at a furture product that will be in production soon after some slight changes and fine tuning.