Obviously enough, most of you people have already read the lost post regarding this tactical card game. However, that post is probably on the 2nd or 3rd page of this forum (called Favorite Card Games).

I like to go into a little more datail on the game.

How to win the game:

There are 3 victory conditions you can choose in order to win the game.

1. Standard Victory - The first player to conquer all of his opponent's homeworlds, wins the game.

2. Trancendent Victory - The first player reach a Tech (technology level) of 30 wins the game.

3. Alternate Victory - This is caused by the Advantage card that each player should have. These card can alter the rules for a victory condition.

Is there limit as to how many players can be in the game?

No. The minimum number of players needed is just 2. On average, there are 4 players in the game since there are only 4 different Alien Decks (The Muero, the the Dysori, the Humans, and the Soven) for a player to choose from.

However, it is possible for 2 or more players to represent the same alien race.

Can an Alien deck be modified like the Yu-gi-yo and Pokemon cards?

Yes. Each deck has a set of booster cards (cards that can be used by any player) that give the player more strength or tactics.

What can a hero card do?

Heroes have certain traits that can give them an advantage over your opponent's Heroes. They have these traits:

- Diplomat, Spy, Assassin, Explorer, Military, Oracle, Medic, Mechanic, Scientist, and so on.

What can Planet Cards do?

Planets are the backbone of your starsystem's economic strength. They work like factories. At the start of each turn, they produce Resources for you to use as expense.

If you lose some of your planets (because your opponent conquered them), you will begin to lose resources that are vital to your success in the game.

During the game, you can also modify the planets so that they can produce more resources faster.

That's all I can say for now (more info later).

Here is a set pics that can give you an idea on how the cards look like. These cards are from the Soven Deck.

Rules and concepts (continued)

Each turn is divided into 3 part (PHASES): Reset Phase, Main Phase, and End Phase. More of this later on.

How are each of the card's information setup?

1. At the upper-left corner of the card, there is a number inside a black circle. This is the card's resource cost. This is how much resources you need to cough up in order to use it.

2. Just next to the circle, you will see a small dot. The number of dots indicates how have commands you will have to cough up as well.

3. And next to that dot, you will see a number inside an orange circle. That tells you how high your technology level (Tech) has to be in order to use that card (no, you do not expend the amount of tech you have).

4. On the upper-right corner of the card, you will see a red box with a number in it. This is the card's Cosmic Value. It is a random number from 1 to 4. More on this later.

5. A lot of cards in the player's deck have red ovals with numbers on them. This is the card's statistic. More on this later.

6. Many cards (mainly Hero cards, Ships, and planets) will have a small list of traits printed on the side. This list describes the card's detail.

7. There is a small word at the upper-right corner (just below and to the right of the card's BOLD NAME) of the card. This tells you what type of card it is (ship, tactical, hero, planet, fate, support, alien, and advantage).

8. Each card will also have a symbol located at the lower-left corner (or on the side). It is a circular symbol. The card that you see above indicates that it is Soven. There are 5 different symbols of the game (4 of them represent each alien). Only one of them represents a Booster card.

9. And finally, the Bold letter text that you see below the card's image. This tells you what the card can do.

10. There is usually a word written at the start of the text with with 2 dots after it (ex: Combat: or Reset: or Any: and so on). This tells you when the card's action (effects) can be used. When it says Any:, it means that you can use at any phase of the turn.

Phases (in order from top to bottom) of each turn:

1. Reset
2. Main
    a. Combat subphase
3. End

That's all for now.

There are 3 card piles in the game for every player.

The Draw pile: This is where you draw your cards.

The Recycle pile: If you have played Yu-gi-yo, you would call this a Graveyard. This is for cards that are TEMPORARALY out of the game. If you run out of cards in your draw pile, you can use the recycled cards as your new draw pile to keep the game going.

The Terminate pile: This is for cards that are PERMINANTLY out of the game. Fate cards will usually end up in this pile after being used. Other cards will instruct you to terminate a certain, and so on.

Just like Yu-gi-yo, you will have the so-called HAND.

However, your Maximum hand size will be up to 6 cards. Once you have placed a card on the field from your hand, draw a card from the Draw pile to fill up your hand back up to 6.

Review:

There are 4 different kinds of decks. Each represents an Alien (along with boster cards). Here is a small list of the decks in order of strength from top to bottom:

1. The Muero
2. The Dysori
3. The Humans
5. The Soven

Rules on deck-construction:

1. You must have a minimum of 50 cards in your deck (including the one required card, see below).
2. One of you planets must have a Homeworld trait (this is your starting planet).
3. You can only have a maximum of 3 copies of any particalur card by card name (ex: 3 Gaurdian Platforms).
4. You cannot have more than 1 copy a any card that has the Restricted trait or the Unique trait (this includes fate cards).
5. You can only have 1 fate card for every 10 regular cards in your deck (ex: 50 cards will yield 5 fate cards).


Information of the Alien card:

The Alien card tells you what alien you will be representing during the game.

1. The printed Tech level (printed in the ovals) tells you what Technology level you will start with.
2. The printed Resource (printed in the ovals) tells how many resources you will start with. I will soon explain more about this statistic because it get confusing after this.
3. The Symbol tells you the alien represents.
5. The Bold Card Name at the top is the name of the Alien.
6. The printed Commands (printed in the ovals) tells you how many commands you will start with.

I'm starting to get a little bit tired (my fingers, actually) of typing the entire set of instructions. But I'm still willing to make this one last set.

The fun part of the game. COMBAT!!!!

This is one of the most exciting parts of Firestorm. Here, you will see 3 kinds of Combat: Ship-to-Ship, Hero-to-Hero, and Ship-to-Planet.

SHIP-TO-SHIP Combat:

Attacker Declaration: You have 2 ways of declaring combat (attack) against your opponent's ship.

1) Issue 1 command, move your attacking ship to the location of your target ship, then declare the attack.

2) If you are in the same location as your opponent's ship, issue 1 command and declare the attack on that ship (your target).

***Automatic Actions for Ship-to-ship combat***

What the attacker does:

1. Choose any number of ships (yours) that are Adjacent (next to) to location of combat and move them to the combat area (where your attacking ship is).

2. Choose any number of ships (yours) that are IN the location of combat.

2. Starting from the person to your left, you can ask a player to help you in combat (if he accepts, he will be your Attack-Support (or just Support).

What the Defender does:

1. You gather up your forces using the same steps mentioned above.

2. The player that helps you will be you Defense-Support.

***Battle***

Starting from the Attacker and moving to the next player (Clockwise), the attacker and other players can perform a Combat action (such as firing your ship's GUNS). The defender can fire back as well (when it's his chance to perform the action).

RULE: A player can't attack a ship that has already been attacked by someone else in this TURN.

When all players pass consecutively, the combat subphase ends (and you move on to the END phase).

The damage inflicted by the Guns (1st value on the ship's printed COMBAT statistic) will reduce the target ship's printed STRUCTURE statistic.
HERO-TO-HERO Combat:

This kind of combat only involves 2 players and NO supporters (this is a personal fight).

How to declare a Hero combat:

1. Just simply say which hero (your target) you want to attack and which hero (yours) you will use to attack that hero.

***Automatic Actions for Hero-to-Hero combat***

1. Both players will draw a card from their draw pile (kept FACE-DOWN) and place it next to their own hero (the ones that will fight).

2. Flip the cards over to reveal them. Look for the card's Cosmic Value (upper-right corner of the flipped card).

3. The Attacker will ADD his value to the COMBAT statistic printed on his attacking hero.

4. The Defender will then SUBSTRACT his value from the attacking hero's Combat statistic.

5. How much the attacking hero has left will be how much damage that hero will inflict on the LIFE statistic printed on the Defending hero.

If the defending hero survives the first blow, the defending hero now becomes the attacker while the attacking hero becomes the defender.

Note: Both heroes will continue to attack each other until one of the hero's LIFE statistic drops to "0".

Note: Whenever a ship's STRUCTURE is down to 0, or when a hero's LIFE is down to 0, those cards will be sent to the RECYCLE pile unless the card's text say otherwise.

I have found a link that provide a lot of information (resources) of the game including a full manual of the game.

http://www.thirdworldgames.com/html/fs_re/

This is as far as I can tell you before my fingers die on me.

Here is a pic I made that shows how the planets are laid out.

If you notice, each player is only limited to a maximum of 6 different planets in their star system. Each player is required to have a planet that has the Homeworld trait printed on it. Also notice that the planets are laid out in letter-order.


What else can a Hero card do?

1. They can destroy your opponent's ships.
2. They can alter the rules of the game.
3. They can enhance the guns of the ships that you control.
4. They can enhance the Combat, Life, and Influence of other heroes that you control.
5. They can protect other heroes.
6. If they have the Spy trait, they can ride on any ship that is controled by your enemy.

What can support cards do?

1. They enhance the guns, shields, structure, or energy of any ship that you control (retrofits)
2. They can add weapons to your planets (installations)
3. They can add special abilities to your heroes (gears)

What can Advantage cards do?

1. They can GREATLY alter the victory conditions of the game (this only works for you, not your enemies).
2. They improve your ships or tactics.

What can ship cards do?

1. They can destroy ships and planets.
2. They can ride on bigger ships as if the big ships are carriers.

Firestorm is a really good tactical card game for those who have a military mind and want to put those minds to the test.

This game can last for hours.