Playtest Fleet: the Directorate (v.0.5.4)

The playtest fleet, plus a Judgement.

The pictured fleet is one of Spartan Games’ Firestorm Armada fleets, the Directorate. Unlike the Cold Navy fleets I’ve posted, this one was painted by Leanne. (Like always, click to expand.)

The miniatures pictured here are all pretty good. The little escorts that look like hermit crabs are Enforcers. The two long ones in front are Vanquishers. The round one is an Overseer, while the one to its right is a Justice, and the big one in back is a Judgement.

By and large, the Directorate boats are heftier than most of the other manufacturers’ ships of the same length. For comparison, here’s a Vanquisher being compared to a Mauridian Ven’Tara:

Vanquisher in back, Ven’Tara in front.

Ven’Tara on the left, Vanquisher on the right.

Spartan made the right choice in making most of the Directorate out of resin, as a pewter model of this size would be quite weighty. The only exceptions are the Enforcers, which are the smallest of the ships, and the Overseer.

The Overseer is a four-piece model, two of which are resin, and two are pewter. The resin pieces are the bulkiest, and each slip inside a pewter ring that fit together to form a channel around the ship containing the point defense weapons.

Our experience so far is that Spartan is very good casting with resin, but not so good with pewter. Not only do we have some (unpictured) Punishers with a really bad fit, but Leanne and I stayed away from Uncharted Seas (Spartans’ fantasy naval game) because the pewter rigging that came with the resin ships didn’t really fit right.

The current playtest values are:

Class        Type      Cost Hull Shd PD Arm Thr Over 
-----        ----      ---- ---- --- -- --- --- ---- 
Enforcer     Escort    47   1    2   2  7   10  15
             Weapon    Grd Str Range Arcs
             ------    --- --- ----- ----
             Lasers    E   4   12    F

Class        Type      Cost Hull Shd PD Arm Thr Over 
-----        ----      ---- ---- --- -- --- --- ----
Vanquisher   Destroyer 264  8    2   2  7/8F 4   6    
             Weapon    Grd Str Range Arcs
             ------    --- --- ----- ----
             Lasers    D   6   12    L/F
             Lasers    D   6   12    R/F
             Missile   -   -   -     -

Class        Type      Cost Hull Shd PD Arm Thr Over 
-----        ----      ---- ---- --- -- --- --- ----
Justice      Cruiser   482  14   2   1  7/8F 6   10   
             Weapon    Grd Str Range Arcs
             ------    --- --- ----- ----
             Lasers    C   16  18    L/F/R
             Missile   -   -   -     -

Class        Type      Cost Hull Shd PD Arm Thr Over 
-----        ----      ---- ---- --- -- --- --- ----
Overseer     Capital   628  16   2   4  7   2   4    
             Weapon    Grd Str Range Arcs
             ------    --- --- ----- ----
             Spine     C   8   18    S
             Missile   -   -   -     -
             Fighter   -   18  -     -

Class        Type      Cost Hull Shd PD Arm Thr Over 
-----        ----      ---- ---- --- -- --- --- ----
Judgement    Behemoth  976  16   2   1  7/8F 0   2    
             Weapon    Grd Str Range Arcs
             ------    --- --- ----- ----
             Laser     B   14  24    F
             Laser     B   10  24    L
             Laser     B   10  24    R
             Spine     B   8   18    S
             Fighter   -   18  -     -

Dan’s fleet consists of:

• 1 Overseer: Spreckels
• 1 Justice: Stanford
• 2 Vanquishers: Mellon and Carnegie
• 3 Enforcers: Vanderbilt, Gould, and Harriman