Loot Call!: Firestorm Armada: Storm Zone - Battle for Valhalla 2-Player Starter Set Unboxing

I actually got this a little while ago, but between Origins and other pressing matters I hadn't gotten around to unboxing it and posting about it. So without further ado, I present the unboxing of the Firestorm Armada 2-Player Starter Set by Spartan Games!

Definitely looks like they're in for a fight, right? Well, let's open it up.

Lots of bubble wrap! Nice to see the pieces secured and protected. And my 5 year old will explode with glee when I give her the empty bubble wrap. So bonus there. :)

This bag contains odds and ends. Smaller bits for the larger ships as well as the various small attack craft tokens (you can see one facing the camera).

This is the main body for the Valhalla Station. I should have laid it across my hand so you can get a sense of the scale, but it's pretty long. A clean model with only a little mold clean up needed on the left end. You can see a bit of "sprue" sticking out.

This is the Terran experimental battleship that comes in the box. For reference, from the base of my hand to the tip of my middle finger is roughly 6-1/4". So this is a big model.

And here is the Dindrenzi battleship. Even bigger. This is why I was interested in this game. Big honking spacecraft duking it out. Yeah! And you can see the smooth area there on the side where the engine section is supposed to go, so it's going to be a big model. The only problem I foresee -- and I will have to go back and look at them again -- is that I didn't see any pre-molded areas where the flight stands are supposed to go. That's a bit of a knock on the models and Spartan Games. If they're missing on this, they're likely missing on any of them that you get. I can certainly drill them, but they should be molded.

Two packs of TAC Cards. The ones showing are for the Soreliyan Collective, so it's nice that you get a complete set, not just the ones needed for the forces int he set. Saves you from having to go out and buy them after the fact.

This plastic punch-out sheet has the arms for the Valhallan Station. Since the station doesn't use a flight stand and instead stands on the arms, I guess resin arms wouldn't hold up as well? I just hope primer sticks to the smooth glassy surface well.

The ubiquitous bag o' dice. Includes small dice to place in the small craft tokens to indicate the number of wings. A handy addition.

The 2.0 rulebook. I read through the previous edition (1.5) and there quite a few things in it that were confusing. I read through this and all that confusion disappeared. The confusing rules have been clarified and/or streamlined. It's better organized. All in all it makes it understandable which is a plus when you're learnign to play.

And the extras. Punch-out token sheets, templates, asteroids, and finally a scenario book. There's scenarios in the main rulebook, but this book is interesting. It's basically a learn to play scenario book using the models that came in the set. It starts off very basic, and in each successive scenario they add more rules to it so you learn as you go rather than trying to learn it all at once. It's a brilliant move and one that I wish more companies would follow. I love miniature games, but some systems can be complicated and might prove daunting to some to pick up. This eases you into it so you have the basics down before adding more layers on top. Well done, Spartan, well done.

I didn't bother photographing some things like the bag f flight stands. The other smaller bubble wrap packages have the smaller ships -- the cruisers and frigates -- and parts for the bigger ships.

If you're interested in buying a copy, here's link to Amazon. As I get the ships together I will post more on it.