It’s been a little while since I gave Firestorm Armada some love and as James Wilson of Political Dice (@ChairmanAsheth) got me some Kestros Class Destroyers as a thank you for doing his blog banner it was the perfect opportunity.
I’ve always loved the sleek yet curvy design of the Sorylians I also like the tactical challenge using them presents as they specialise in encircling an enemy and then blowing the shit out of them with broadsides.
The cool thing about the Kestros Class destroyer is it lives up to its type. It’s aggressively geared towards a nose to nose fight. At its best at range band 3, it’s job is there to move ahead, soften up the big ships and generally make a nuisance of themselves before the big buggers open up with broadsides. Which is brave as it’s not the toughest crate in the sky. That said, operating in units of 2 or 3 and they’ll do a lot more than soften up targets. 8 torpedoes and 13 shots at range band 3 is pretty nasty and as a unit can take as much punishment as a battleship.
So it’s a roving pack hunter that, in numbers is bloody horrid. Throw in a gunship and your opponent suddenly finds themselves with a kill unit ploughing ahead of the main force that will tear a whole and cause enough of a headache that may cause enough distraction that the rest of the fleet can surround and destroy the enemy. Which is cool.
The model itself is ace. Sleek, compact and covered in guns and meaner than a fatty on a diet. I kinda wish the cruisers looked a little more like them but it’s easy to say that as the cruisers are a few years old now, but I really dig how everything is so tightly packed with armour plating over the top. It’s a design shift for the Sorylians but still identifiably them which I utterly love. Detail wise it’s mostly up to Spartan’s usual standards, although on my models it gets a little thin towards the back of the ship and there’s a nasty bit of flash on the engines but it’s easily cleaned up. None of it really matters though because it boils down to this; from every angle the Kestros Class looks fantastic. Combined with a genuine and worthwhile tactical advantage that really adds something to the Sorylian fleet they’re fantastic models. Now to order 4 more…
