Will and I purchased a few starter fleets for Firestorm Armada a few months ago and hadn’t done anything with them. This Labor Day weekend we decided to assemble, primer, paint and play with them. First up are the Aquans, painted by my son Will.
The Aquan fleet heads sunward toward the enemy battleline.
Will painted them a light blue, then used GW blue wash to achieve the shading. The engines are a bright green highlighted with yellow-green. Raised detail was picked out in silver.
An Aquan battleship in orbit around an airless moon.
Aquan cruisers and frigates prepare for action.
Every one of Will’s ships is named after a type of seafood. Some of the dishes I had never heard of before!
Next up are the beginnings of the Sorylians. I got them all primered, basecoated and washed, but was only able to finish a few before game time. The Aquans were smaller and smooth, with little deep detail. The Sorylians were anything but.
The Sorylian carrier begins its gravity well turn.
The ships are beautiful and lend themselves to a wash/drybrush method. I started with primering them Army Painter Necrotic Flesh, followed by a green wash, then a black wash. I then drybrushed the models with GW Rotting Flesh. Details were picked out with slate blue, yellow and gold metallic.
The Sorylian carrier starts its delta-V.
I have all the drybrushing finished and am picking out details on the fleet. I should be all wrapped up this week. BTW, the planet and moon were painted awhile ago by me for Battlefleet Gothic. The moon is a green florist styrofoam ball, while the Mars-like planet is a wooden ball I purchased at Michael’s.
A Sorylian frigate prepares to follow the carrier into action.
As for game play, we had a blast. The core mechanics are very much derived from Uncharted Seas, one of our favorite games. That being said, the game is distinctly different, adding new rules for torpedoes, fighters, bombers, shields and point defense. Each race has its unique advantages and disadvantages. While we made a few mistakes early on in our first game, we still had a lot of fun and quickly adapted to the new mechanics. We are confident our second game will go without a hitch.
