Noble Armada (Horton Hears a Who)

[Sawbones12]

Fans - "We are here, we are here, we are here!" Response - "Just a touch of paint and the next Nubile Armoire, no...Nordic Armatures? Dang what was the name of that OTHER starship game we released? Noble Armada! That's it! Anyway, those miniatures will be posted up for your pleasure..." Seriously, will we EVER really get the next "wave"/trickle of releases - the Vau, the Church, more ships for the original fleets or the Fleets book? No more hiding, no more excuses - please show the tiny iota of respect earned/paid for by those of your fan base that deserve it for having invested significant amounts into this seemingly forgotten game and give us some real answers. Give us a solid couple of days, put that "lick of paint" on ten or so friggin' miniatures and actually work on OUR game of choice and then go back to Star Fleet. For the love of God, please stop asking what you should publish/release next while neglecting an already established game. "Not forgotten...we have some really exciting stuff just about to be released for you...any minute now...really...any second now...(you will forget the months of frustration, you will forget the months of frustration, you will forget the months of frustration)."

Rob

 

[katadder]

agreed, do feel a bit of a 2nd class citizen on these boards. havent heard much either, get occasional updates but more on next SF book than on the book that was supposed to be released last september, but then knew this would happen to be honest

 

[JohnDW]

I must say that I haven't been interested, or even heard of, any SF mini games before my friend demoed ACTA B5 for us(we all own the dvd's and whatnot for the show, but I never had any of the minis for this either), and then talked about SF when it came out. I haven't had a chance to look at the NA rules yet, but I do see that it has many fleets with a nice selection of ships, and I would like it to see it get more development.

Naval/Space games dont tend to take off into large groups around here, usually its an underground vibe of playing with your group of friends at your home, or sometimes meeting up at a gaming store, so I haven't heard of anyone around these parts that does play NA, but it could be interesting to have both SF and NA going on. But you do have to admit SF has better recognition factor than NA, and maybe it will bring more people to mongoose who can then discover NA, like I did through B5 and SF.

Too bad about B5 though.

 

[Rick]

I got the B5 ACTA game as soon as it came out and was buying up the supplements as they came out. When NA came out, I looked at the background, then bought the game. I really enjoy playing both of these games. ACTA SF, on the other hand, I haven't bought, and I'm not sure that I will - mainly because I never liked the addition of drones to the TOS (ish) setting. Without the semi-Star Trek background, I think NA is the better of the 2 current iterations and that is the one I'd like to support. I agree that waiting for the promised new stuff is annoying (what? release date put back AGAIN?), but while Mongoose are making more money from ACTA SF, that will be the one they concentrate on. Does feel a bit like us NA gamers are being sidelined, though!

 

[MongooseMatt]

I've got something for you Noble Armada chaps, just need to clear some space on my desk and polish it off - hopefully a bit later today. Stay tuned!

 

[lastbesthope]

While I only heard of Mongoose due to the B5 RPG advert in the DVDs, I loved B5 ACTA, and though I initially thought I wouldn't like NA, I did and bought the Mega Deal.

ST doesn't do it for me, the setting doesn't grab me.

Saw some of the new ships on Saturday, liking them. Also picked up the Sawfly, nice variant.

LBH

 

[Nerroth]

I'm trying not to mind the delay too much; RedBrick have also been faced with issues concerning the release of the third edition of the Fading Suns RPG.

And to be honest, given how much trouble my FLGS has in trying to get A Call to Arms books in either current flavour, I'm not too hopeful that even when FotFS is released, they will have an easy time of ordering it...

(Dunno yet how things will pan out for FS3, distribution-wise.)

 

[lastbesthope]

I'm so looking forward to the RPG

LBH

 

[MongooseMatt]

Okay, chaps, was hoping to get a battle report using the latest rules up on Planet Mongoose, but 'twas not to be - the report needs a tad more work from our intern first.

Still, not all doom and gloom. The last Noble Armada ships are at the rapid prototyper right _now_. There are qwuite a few of them, so may take a little more than a week to crunch through the models but, as soon as they come back, they will be put into moulds, the first batch will be cast and sent to the painter. Figure he will take a week or two with them (there are quite a few...) and then, as soon as we have those painted models back in our hands, they will be photographed and Fleets of the Fading Suns will be off to print!

There is indeed light at the end of the tunnel, and it is not a Vau Sentinel coming to wipe you out!

 

[Nerroth]

Will there be a PDF available on DriveThruRPG in the same launch window as the printed book, or is there to be the same kind of gap there currently is for the pay-to-download ACtA:SF file?

 

[phoenixhawk]

I ordered two fleets of NA ships today, next up the rulebook, to give it a try and the ships looked interesting. The best thing is...I have no real idea who the factions in NA are, so I can paint and model them without prejudice lol

Chris

 

[lastbesthope]

Which factions did you order? I got the Mega Deal but have only painted some Hawkwood (>1 fleet box worth painted)

LBH

 

[phoenixhawk]

I don't know what the "mega deal" is.

I got Hawkwood and Hazat. Figure they can fight it out for fun and demo games. I didn't know what factions were allies or enemies, I just went with the 2 groups whose ships I liked best lol.

 

[Celisasu]

I think to a certain degree Noble Armada has been lost amongst the Starfleet stuff. To be fair Starfleet is newer so it's being trumpeted around more right now, but also brick and mortar stores are also probably more interested in it. I know my LGS got a bunch of Starfleet stuff where they only picked up the rulebook and one fleet box(for a fleet that doesn't even have rules in the rulebook) for Noble Armada. It's just easier to sell for something that advertises itself than it is for something you have to advertise. After all most people don't know SFB and Star Trek are different licenses. They just see the pretty Klingon and Federation ships and go "STAR TREK WARGAME!".

In my case I'd be happy to play any of the three CTA games(I still have a Narn fleet for B5).

 

[MongooseMatt]

Will there be a PDF available on DriveThruRPG in the same launch window as the printed book, or is there to be the same kind of gap there currently is for the pay-to-download ACtA:SF file?

No gap planned.

 

[Sawbones12]

From my review, the following are known to be pending release (back to metal instead of resin for the larger pieces would be welcome - really do not like the resin ships in comparison):

1) Li Halan Kojiki Escort
2) Li Halan (and Church) Honoured Saint Martyr Fighter
3) Church Confirmation Grand Cruiser
4) Church Mitre Monitor
5) Church Zorothion Destroyer
6) Al Malik Serendipity Scout Cruiser
7) Decados Raphael Heavy Cruiser
8) Hawkwood Heracles Armored Cruiser
9) Vau Seeker Explorer
10) Vau Sentinel Frigate
11) Vau Strider Destroyer

Any others?

Hope this happens...

Rob

 

[lastbesthope]

I don't know what the "mega deal" is.

Mega Deal was one each of the 4 fleet boxes available at the tie, plus a free rulebook hardcopy and pdf IIRC.

So I have one each of the four fleet boxes:

Hazat
Hawkwood
Decados
Li-Halan

And I've picked up a load of extra hawkwood since

LBH

 

[phoenixhawk]

That sounds like a cool deal. I got the pdf rulebook and I am reading the fluff and am very impressed. Haven't finished it all yet, but I am very interested in reading everything I can get my hands on and learning all I can. Can't wait for the fleets to get here.

 

[highpriestrsw2]

I actually bought the game to try and give my group a good starting point for learning the ACTA rules before all of the Starfleet stuff is rolled out. As a new player I'm pretty impressed by the amount of stuff already out for the game. Looking at what you get its a very good value for the price. I currently own 3 fleets and have 2 on the way in the mail. After seeing how it plays with the base fleets we're going to expand our fleets to match our play styles. I'm looking forward to seeing more out for NA and I'm also hoping to see my favorite Trek race released as a fleet box soon- Gorn! I have the starfleet rulebook currently but no fleets for it. My decision was to buy 3 more fleets for NA instead of just one for Starfleet.

 

[Nerroth]

In terms of background, one thing I hope they add in to FotFS (and which I was surprised not to see in ACtA:NA proper) is a map of the Jumpweb.

When RedBrick were on their old server, they had a free pdf showing the Phoenix Empire, but it's not available on their current site. Apparently, there is set to be a new map in the upcoming 3rd edition of the Fading Suns RPG, to represent the changes in the timeline that are to be factored in to the new book. (3rd edition advances the timeline by several years, in terms of which in-universe date is the "present" time.)

In older editions of Fading Suns, the known Jumpweb was not presented all at once; the Known Worlds were on the "main" map, the Lost Worlds shown on the map in Star Crusade, and a very stylised map of the Vau Hegemony elsewhere. I'm not sure what RedBrick have in mind this time around, but a wallpaper showing all of the pieces linked together would be pretty neat to see.