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Edit: I'll let this get back to oggling beautiful GenCon ship photos now

 Medium of Death wrote:


The bases are particularly troubling to me. I'm not sure why there's so many dials and gubbins involved.

This is to keep the status of the units in question as obvious as possible on the playing field for both parties while retaining the mechanics of the different ship sections and the tactical options such things present. Rather than record-keeping being off to the side and/or requiring a mass of counters to be moved about, it's right on the table for the most part and done with a minimum of fuss. Damage cards, speed and defense status seem to be the only things that are off to the main field. This speeds up the game, which is important in a tournament setting to get through matches more quickly so you can have more rounds/participants and it is in those competitive environments where a game can get some serious legs.

The 3 ships in the starter will be available individually, as well as rebel/imperial fighter packs containing 8 bases of fighters (looks like there might be a mix), a gladiator class star destroyer for imps and an assault frigate (mk 3) for rebs.

Any idea on blister prices?

What's a Gladiator class Star Destroyer?

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
I can see some reasons for the size and power scale to be what it is. How many Rebel players would really be willing to have accurate scaling if it meant needing $80 worth of small ships to match one $20 VSD?

Even the original movies have 3 or 4 types of Rebel ships which can be credibly seen combatting a Star Destroyer, and EU has tons more. There would have been no need for this scaling up the Corvette only so that the game involves an 'iconic' Rebel ship (which was actually only shown for like 30 seconds in the first movie...). The corvette is 1/6th the length, and probably like 1/50th the mass of a VSD. It's just daft.

smaller star destroyer (500m) intended for escorting victorys
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gladiator-class_Star_Destroyer

 Hulksmash wrote:
What's a Gladiator class Star Destroyer?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gladiator-class_Star_Destroyer

Escort vessel, apparently somewhat larger than a Nebulon.

Woot!

Armada Wave 1 pic from my friend, nabbed off a twitter feed from someone at GenCon, not sure of the original source:



Edit: Curse my typing speed, ninja'ed by 6 seconds . But mine's bigger!

Really does seem like the only ship "upscaled" is the corvette. The rest seem to be in reasonable scale to each other.

I need a better picture of the Assault Frigate. Not sure I'm a fan. Interesting they went with a design of their own instead of the Mark 1 or 2. Love the rest of it though.

 Medium of Death wrote:
I'd imagine the collectors market would of been larger though.

I doubt it. FFG's models are good enough for gaming purposes, but I can't imagine anyone wanting them just for their display shelf.

This game doesn't seem like it's meant to last.

Why not? Everything looks fine to me, and so far your only real criticism seems to be "the models aren't perfectly scaled". And the scale issue is something that was inevitable with a fleet combat game in the Star Wars universe, simply because the size differences between the biggest and smallest ships is larger than the maximum realistic variation in size between models.

 Krinsath wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:


The bases are particularly troubling to me. I'm not sure why there's so many dials and gubbins involved.

This is to keep the status of the units in question as obvious as possible on the playing field for both parties while retaining the mechanics of the different ship sections and the tactical options such things present. Rather than record-keeping being off to the side and/or requiring a mass of counters to be moved about, it's right on the table for the most part and done with a minimum of fuss. Damage cards, speed and defense status seem to be the only things that are off to the main field. This speeds up the game, which is important in a tournament setting to get through matches more quickly so you can have more rounds/participants and it is in those competitive environments where a game can get some serious legs.

These features also make the game very accessible to non-wargamers, because you can tell them the defence field is value 3, as shown by the dial, and when they take a hit it goes down to 2, and so on.

Looks like a lot of the info is from the Team Covenant twitter feed, although the pics are very small on there:

https://twitter.com/teamcovenant

Also an announcement of Imperial Assault, a ground-based (dungeon crawler type?) board game with Star Wars miniatures, including an AT-ST visible in the pics.

Now to see how much these ships are going to cost and if the fighter blisters come with different types of fighters.

The more I see this the more I think the Corvette was wedged in because of X-Wing and it's nature of being the first Star Wars ship seen on screen.

xowainx wrote:


I'm sure that it won't be long before linked campaigns using the two systems are available, and possibly not too long until a third, ground combat system is released to complete the set.

Called it. Nothing here that doesn't look awesome.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:
I'd imagine the collectors market would of been larger though.

I doubt it. FFG's models are good enough for gaming purposes, but I can't imagine anyone wanting them just for their display shelf.

This game doesn't seem like it's meant to last.

Why not? Everything looks fine to me, and so far your only real criticism seems to be "the models aren't perfectly scaled". And the scale issue is something that was inevitable with a fleet combat game in the Star Wars universe, simply because the size differences between the biggest and smallest ships is larger than the maximum realistic variation in size between models.

Asking for correctly scaled ships is not asking for the moon. It would have perhaps introduced some interesting game mechanics. Also, here's a quick indicator of the potential size these ships could have been to remain in scale while being playable. Obviously I appreciate that the model is in three dimensions but felt length the best way to portray the differences.


Rough example taking that an Inch would be 200m. The Blockade runner i totally doable in that size as is the Nebulon.

The smaller Rebel ships could have easily come in multiples. Having scaled ships could have really increased the maneuvering options. Smaller ships being able to run circles around the Star Destroyers. I really don't see that as being possible now.

Typically Wave 2 would be even more out of scale.

If you watch the video on the prior page, they actually do have a cool mechanic allowing the smaller ships to run circles around the bigger ones.

Maybe the game mechanics wouldn't work well with too many small ships, though- at the point costs we've seen, I think the most ships people could run in a standard sized game would be 9 (if they want to include a decent number of fighter squadrons, too) or 10 (with no fighters).

It would be sweet to see 30 small rebel ships fighting a few star destroyers, but it just might not be workable from a game mechanics perspective. As previously noted, they're not just aiming at wargamers with this, and there are other space fleet games for people who prefer more ships (as much as I would've liked this to have them).

Even at the current number of ships, though, this is going to be pricey to hit 300 points for each side.

If you really want to play big Star Wars fleet actions you could get a load of Star Wars models and work out appropriate stats and points using the Starmada rules.

I'm really hoping pricing on the VSD/Assault Frigate is $30 like a falcon and that the frigate/corvette/gladiator are $15. With Fighter blisters being $10-$15. That way getting one of everything on launch isn't totally insane. You'd be looking at (assuming different upgrades in the fighter blisters) $225-$235. Which isn't wallet breaking. Bump those costs up $5-$10 each and it starts to get into a different realm.

This would give you two 300pt fleets or so with some flexibility. Fingers crossed since you could get everything for x-wing on launch and play full 100pt squadrons on both sides with them for just $100.

I must say, the Gladiator and Assault Frigate mk.3 are slightly odd choices for Wave 0.

See, I can understand why they don't roll out the Mc80 and ISD in wave 0; they're extremely iconic ships, and can generate a lot of hype for the first post-release wave. However, their choices of really minor vessels is a bit odd; the Mk.3 only ever appeared in Empire At War, as far as I know (and almost every mod axed it in favour of the more well known version, or just Dreadnoughts), and the gladiator is virtually unknown, whereas something like a Carrack would be much more recognizable to Starwars fans, fitting the same niche as a smaller frigate, though is a bit uninteresting as a model.

I'm still going to get all the things, but it's a bit odd where X-Wing focused on iconic stuff first, Armada's jumping not just into the EU (a necessity, in truth, for any capital ship game), but really minor parts of the EU first.

Yeah, I would have preferred the MkI version of the assault frigate. As for the Imperial ship I like the choice. the carack is an ugly little ship and it's aesthetic isn't strongly imperial which is what the Gladiator has going for it.

I don't know, I'm still geeking out about this . Didn't have this experience with X-wing since I didn't get drawn in, but I'm happy to have some other iconic ships coming in the next wave, assuming they tease them as it gets closer.

Like Hulk, I'm a fan of the Gladiator, and while I don't recognize the other ship it looks cool and is of the "aquatic" style that makes the others (soon to come!?) so cool.

Anyone else getting the sense that this game might very well just fall flat on its face?

At least until an ISD is released. - Even then though, part of me is really starting to think now, once my initial excitement is over, that this will just be a flash in the pan.

I used to be a massive star wars fan in my teens. - All the books, utterly obsessed. TIE Fighter was actually my first 'proper' computer game.

I have never even seen the Gladiator class before. And I think I only, maybe, sorta, kinda, saw, ish that version of the Assault Frigate once before too...

The other wave 1 ships are now on display!

Interesting, no Tie Interceptor in the Ties. Just the Bomber, Advanced, and Fighter. But Rebs get A,B,X, and Y. Guess that fighter pack is a requirement now

My only concern is that the pricing is apparently higher than most people were anticipating. Over on the FFG forum someone mentioned that the Assault Frigate is $40, Gladiator is $30, and Fighter packs are $20.

That's getting up there in price for a 300pt fleet (around $200 per fleet or $300+ for both to start).

As for it being a flash in the pan I don't think so. The pricing certainly isn't great but since Wave 6 isn't anything epic and I don't think most people not deep in the EU are going to be to interested it should work out for Armada. Thankfully no Imperial Epic or anything was being set for release.

I also hadn't seen the Gladiator before but it makes more sense aesthetically then a Carrack or Lancer class cruiser. As for the Assault Frigate I would have preferred the Mark I but I'll just have to deal.

 Compel wrote:
I have never even seen the Gladiator class before. And I think I only, maybe, sorta, kinda, saw, ish that version of the Assault Frigate once before too...

The Gladiator Class was seen in the old (circa 1985) Star Wars: Droids cartoon series. The Assault Frigate originated from the Star Wars: Empire at War real-time strategy game (circa 2006) according to Wookieepedia.

Hulk - Interceptors are in the top pic at the bottom.

Oh snap, good catch. Sweet!!!! Is it bad that I'm super excited for the little paintable fighters?

 MajorStoffer wrote:
I must say, the Gladiator and Assault Frigate mk.3 are slightly odd choices for Wave 0.

See, I can understand why they don't roll out the Mc80 and ISD in wave 0; they're extremely iconic ships, and can generate a lot of hype for the first post-release wave. However, their choices of really minor vessels is a bit odd; the Mk.3 only ever appeared in Empire At War, as far as I know (and almost every mod axed it in favour of the more well known version, or just Dreadnoughts), and the gladiator is virtually unknown, whereas something like a Carrack would be much more recognizable to Starwars fans, fitting the same niche as a smaller frigate, though is a bit uninteresting as a model.

I'm still going to get all the things, but it's a bit odd where X-Wing focused on iconic stuff first, Armada's jumping not just into the EU (a necessity, in truth, for any capital ship game), but really minor parts of the EU first.

According to the photo in the above post, the ship is labeled as a Mark II.