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mj12games.com/forum → Starmada → Romulan Armada
Another thing I was noticing, in addition to everything else that's been discussed, is that bow of the ship in the upper left-hand corner looks similar to the heads of the little Cox Communication spacey doods.
:mrgreen:
Kevin - engineer and part time art critic
The artist is Adam Turner - a man who has created some truly great starship art for ADB in recent years.
The pic he did for SFB Module Omega 5 is one of my favourites:
<IMG src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v481/DestyNova/SFU%20Gallery/Omega-5-cover.jpg">
</IMG>
Okay, the rules text has been sent to ADB, and the ship data cards are almost finished. I'm looking for volunteers to review them before I send them on, so I can avoid the (minor) errors that plagued those in Klingon Armada.
If you're willing to crunch some numbers for me, let me know off-list.
Okay -- I have deleted the "modified" cover posted here, as I think it inappropriate to start messing about with other peoples' artwork. If you have comments/critiques on Mr. Turner's work, I suggest you bring them up over on the ADB forums (fora?).
Ah. man! Did I miss something?
Looking at the number of ship designs that ADB has posted by race, it looks like the Romulans really aren't a favorite of their players. There's only four basic hull silhouettes--warbird, D7, Condor and Sea/SKyhawks (and two of the four are from TOS!).
Kind of odd when you consider how massively popular they are from TNG era forward.
Still, looking forward to RA to round out the fleets.
The ships in the pic are just samples from the range of Romulan ships in the Star Fleet Universe - the Romulans are quite popular as a faction (considered one of the big three, if perhaps not quite as popular as the Feds and Klingons).
Besides, one thing worth noting is that the Romulans went into modularisation with their third-generation Hawk-series of ships - partly as a means of not completely losing the run of an economy already strained by the upgrades of their Eagles, and the conversions of their Klingon-built Kestrels. That still leaves a number of different hulls to build, but lets them make the most of the hulls once built.
I hope Romulan Armada will be a success, and keep the door open for further Armada modules to show up further down the line. There are plenty more ships and empires still out there!
I'm looking forward to seeing it - I just got KA, and I really like the way it blends the SFB and Starmada vibes (because frankly, for me the SFB vibe had been smothered under two tons of rules). RA sounds promising. Will there be a third installment, with the Hydrans and Lyrans? I've always been a big fan of the Lyrans.
Doug
Assuming Romulan Armada does as well as KA, the intent is to keep going with more installments. Whether or not that means the Hydrans, Lyrans, or Andromedans I'm not sure yet. But the Tholians are high on my list. 
The talk over on the discus boards seems to be one where the template of combining the contents of two FC modules into one Armada book may be the way to go.
Or rather, to keep going with.
For example, the ships from Distant Kingdoms and Hydran Attack might be best kept together when ported over - I'd like the idea of calling it Lyran Armada, to balance out the Hydran callout in FC, but how and ever...
Oh, by the way - in Klingon Armada, the shorthand offered is KLA (alongside SAE for the core book, for example). This is handy, since in SFU terms KA already stands for Federation Commander's Klingon Attack module.
Is there a similar three-letter short-hand set aside for Romulan Armada, to help distinguish it from the pre-existing RA, Federation Commander: Romulan Attack?
Assuming Romulan Armada does as well as KA, the intent is to keep going with more installments. Whether or not that means the Hydrans, Lyrans, or Andromedans I'm not sure yet. But the Tholians are high on my list.
Tholians and/or Neo-Tholians would be cool indeed. I was never really that fond of the Andromedans. First they were way overpowered, then they were sort of underpowered, and they always seemed like sort of a deus ex machina to me anyway. Never got into the ISC either.
Doug
Not sure it's good form for a new arrival to wander into a contentious debate, but I'll open with how excited I am for the Romulan Armada book (for which I'll go with "ROA" for short, following the "KLA" pattern).
As for the look of the Hawk cruisers, they're the minis that are available, and given the designs, the art looks great. No sense making artwork that doesn't match what's out there, particularly if there's no massive budget for ADB to redesign and resculpt the minis (and change all the artwork in the Starfleet Battles and Federation Commander material).
That said, I really like the look of the "Original Series" Eagle ships, and the menacing nature of the cloak'n'plasma style of "submarine in space" warfare they engender. Seeing this rendered in Starmada could not be cooler. Go ROA!
Oh, I'll be buying ROA alright, I just wish the Hawks looked more like this:
<IMG src="http://www.aovi93.dsl.pipex.com/space_1999/hawk/Space%201999%20Hawk.jpg">
</IMG>
and less like this:
<IMG src="http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchant2/graphics/00000003/0421-Romulan%20Skyhawk%20Seahawk-L.jpg">
</IMG>
Well, I'm probably in the minority, but I hated the FASA designs. They always looked unbalanced and weird with no real reason for the form used except the artist thought it was 'cool'. Especially some of the really weird designs they threw at the federation, like the Chandler and Charger classes.
The SFB were more miniature than models, but they at least look like they followed a logical progression. And when there was a major change there was a reason, such as the Sparrowhawks.
That is why I am so happy to see a Starmada SFB crossover rather than a Paramount Star Trek or FASA Trek one.
I have just ordered a copy of Klingon Armada and can't wait to get it. Romulan Armada will follow as soon as it hits the street!
Release date tentatively set for April 19.
I'm not a fan of the FASA ships either and much prefer the SFB designs.
I have to say I'm really looking forward to Romulan Armada. The plasma races were always some of my favorites in SFB.
Release date tentatively set for April 19.
I just Pre-ordered my copy from ADB. Their website says that they will be shipping mail orders April 26th.
Cheers,
Erik
FYI... ship cards are available as a PDF download from e23:
http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB6102-S
As a long time SFU player (SFB since the 80's, FC since it came out) I was intrigued and excited by the KA and RA releases.
They have provided some fun games so far, and more importantly they have introduced me to SA itself, and myself and regular gaming oppo are having a lot fo fun designing and fighting with out own races.
I do however have a couple of questions about what, to me at least, seem to be odd design decisions, especially to do with ships speed (engine rating).
In SFU the old style Romulan ships such as the War Eagle and Battle hawk were some of the slowest ships in the game, and for good reason, they were old and fairly low tech. In RA they are actually some of the fastest ships, which I find very odd (in the same way I would if I picked up a WWI naval game and found pre-dreadnoughts being faster than DNs and CLs)
And the opposite seems true of the Fast Cruisers. As the name suggests, these ships are supposed to have advanced tech engines, giving very high speed, and are often used in wartime as raiders behind enemy lines, relying on their speed to keep out of trouble. In KA/RA they have no speed advantage over ordinary line crusiers, again an odd choice on the surface.
I would be interested in the reasoning behind these decisions.
I would be interested in the reasoning behind these decisions.
There is a whole separate thread on this exact topic:
http://www.mj12games.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2473
I am not sure if someone posted this but it looks like one of the Plasma S arcs on the Gorn Battlecruisers are wrong. They hsould the LP/RP arcs from SFB, which equate to GHJ and GIK, and some of them incorrectly list the L arc instead. Also, one of the cruisers appears to have the Plasma S arcs as LS/RS and gives the LP/RP arcs to the Plasma Fs. I can list more specifics later when I am back in front of my book.
Ken
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