Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I had trouble getting into x-wing, just didn't get into the dogfight aspect too much. Couldn't play STAW mostly because I'm not really into Star Trek. It seems like FFG has hit the nail on the head at least for me with this one. Anyone else excited for this?

Just waiting for my starter so I can read me some rules and get in some test games

Yeah I ordered mine from the FLGS today too. I just happened to read about it on Facebook randomly. I instantly wanted it when I saw the TIE fighter bases next to the Star Destroyer.

Saw the ships again in action this weekend at Adepticon. I really like the look and scale. And seems to flow well. I've already pre-ordered one of everything for wave 1 and will likely put in another order for another starter and a few more of the smaller ships

How similar/different is it from X wing and STAW?

 Hulksmash wrote:
Just waiting for my starter so I can read me some rules and get in some test games

You can already read the rules if you are interested in learning the game.

FFG has posted the rules as a PDF on their webpage

Here's the link

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDMQFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fantasyflightgames.com%2Fen%2Fproducts%2Fstar-wars-armada%2F&ei=3QwSVaymKaa3mAXGiYGoCw&usg=AFQjCNGKzsiEXnKTiMv8ptSK_laJTYulkw&bvm=bv.89184060,d.dGY

According to the FFG forums lots of Americans have gotten their copies already. Hopefully those of us across the pond will get ours soon. My LFGS is hoping to have theirs by Friday.

Amazon are still giving a release date of late April. Hope this changes in the next day or two!

My store said they will have them Thursday stateside.

Basic rules rundown as far as I can see.

You have ships with 4 arcs. Used for firing weapons, shield hits, etc.
Each arc has some number of dice of 3 types, that dictates how well the weapons perform at range.
You have a secret 'command' dial you place in a stack, and resolve the top one. This means any new orders for these special commands are delayed by X turns. Bigger ships are therefore clumsier.
You can attack with two arc facings, unless you use the command to double-down on one arc (intensify forward firepower!).
You roll the dice to see how much you deal to an enemy. The enemy can spend tokens to deflect, redirect, or brace for impact. The same token can be used twice, if you burn it permanently. This means concentrated fire really hammers the crap out of a ship.
Destroying an enemy ship means you dealt enough hull damage past shields.
After ships fire, they move.
You then choose to maneuver with a special adjustable template. Seems straightforward. You can only change speed though via a command.
Then fighters activate, I-go-you-go, choosing to either move or attack.
New turn.


seems really cool. A bit more in-depth than X-Wing, but you'll usually have fewer capital ships on the table. Fighters seem like a real threat, as most capital ships have feeble AA guns and will rely on intercepting them with your own fighters.
Lots of big-ship esque 'intertia in turns' and 'slow commands' help differentiate the empire's godlike firepower and fast/tricksy rebel scum.

I really want to play this game but I'm waiting for the Mon C to release. If they don't release that ship with a card called "its a trap", I will be very disappointed. Plus the buy in is kinda steep considering my local group doesn't want to get on board. I tried to get them to play xwing but got nothing. So now I have to drive to my buds by st. louis to play a game (2.5 hours) :(.

The Mon Cal Cruiser is almost certainly coming with Admiral Ackbar as a fleet commander.

I expect every game to be exchanges of quotes.
'Ah, our first catch of the day'.
'Intensify forward firepower, I don't want anything through.'
'It's a trap!'
'INTENSIFY FORWARD FIREPOWER'
'TOOLATE AUGH'

I picked up the game tonight on my way into work and then spent some time punching cardboard, assembling ships, and reading the rules.

All and all, it's looks to be pretty fun and I looking forward to playing it on Saturday when my friends and I have our game night.

Got to watch two demo games at my local store (wasnt feeling well so I didnt opt to play myself). The game definitely looks exciting, I just ordered 2 starters for myself (opted to get them from walmart, may have to wait a bit, but its 40% off retail. Yes I know 2 is a bit excessive since I would still need to buy blisters, but its worth it for the dice and rulers etc alone).

I was surprised by how large the miniatures are, I knew theyd be big, but I didnt realize just how big until I got up close with them. The paintwork was actually great, with the exception of the nebulon b which struck me as being only ever so slightly better than STAW in terms of quality.

The one thing I took away from it is that there is a very clear mismatch between both sides. Not an imbalance, but a mismatch. If its an indicator of faction playstyles going forward then rebel players will have to get used to the idea that their 'big ships' exist to support their fighters and not the other way around. Both games I observed the Rebel player tried using his x-wing squadrons to go up against the tie fighters while his Neb-B and Corvette went up against the Victory. Needless to say neither game ended all that well for the Rebels. It is absolutely essential that Rebel players use their ships to soften up the Tie Fighters so that the X-Wings can finish the job. Once the Tie Fighters are out of the way then they can focus everything on the Victory (an absolute must, that thing can TANK!).

Saw the game today. Got my starter set on order.
My first thought was cutting off the engine pods on the Nebulon and Tantive and swapping them with each other.
But then I'm known for bashing ships and making Uglies, so...

Played multiple starter box games. Both with no upgrades, since they were learning games.

There's a lot to the system.

Command Tokens mean a more than you think, and seeing how things worked, it's probably better to spend a turn or two stacking generally useful orders on ships by moving them out of combat, especially the smaller more vulnerable ships. The VSD should always have a navigation token on it for situations when you don't want to collide with ships, or overlap enemy fighters, which lets the opponent place those fighters right in your weak spots.

Maneuvering means a lot, but it's also very hard to use. At least in this game you can pre-measure your move without too much planning ahead of time, but you'll find more often than not that you wished you were at one speed higher or lower, thus the suggestion to spend the turns getting extra command tokens.

Just as in X-Wing upgrades will be a huge part of this.

The CR90 will do horrific things to the VSD if it gets in the very weak rear zone.

It's very hard to get a VSD's front pointed back at enemy ships unless they mess up or you're really on the ball with planning.

Also, the standard point game is going to be 400 points, instead of 300 once wave 2 comes out. They recently announced this via the official tournament pack. This mean a lot of ships.

Using the squadron command is very powerful for both Rebels and Imperials. Fighters excel at hitting locations with 0 shields.

Don't be afraid as Rebels to run your ships away.

Don't set your speed too high too quickly, spend some turns slowly turning where you need to go.

As above, don't rush the fighter squadrons in to engage. Once you engage, most fighters will be locked into the dogfight until they're dead. So don't commit until you need to.

Got my set today. Everything is assembled and I'm currently reading the rules. I have plans to play tonight. Also on a side note according to the FLGS owner Walmart miss priced the game on their online store and will not be honoring it. Since they listed it at cost. Hopefully they do honor the price for those of you that ordered it.

What is everyone getting through Core + Wave 1?

I figure I'll get two core sets, 1 of each additional large ship (at first) and 2 of each fighter pack.

What say the rest of you?

I'm looking to run a fighter swarm, so maxing out on the 1/3 points in squadrons and taking whatever I can to back them up.

So, 3 Gladiators at least and 1 Victory from wave 1, then 2 boxes of fighters. That should be enough coverage for both the list I want to run, and general play.

chaos0xomega wrote:
Got to watch two demo games at my local store (wasnt feeling well so I didnt opt to play myself). The game definitely looks exciting, I just ordered 2 starters for myself (opted to get them from walmart, may have to wait a bit, but its 40% off retail. Yes I know 2 is a bit excessive since I would still need to buy blisters, but its worth it for the dice and rulers etc alone).

I was surprised by how large the miniatures are, I knew theyd be big, but I didnt realize just how big until I got up close with them. The paintwork was actually great, with the exception of the nebulon b which struck me as being only ever so slightly better than STAW in terms of quality.

The one thing I took away from it is that there is a very clear mismatch between both sides. Not an imbalance, but a mismatch. If its an indicator of faction playstyles going forward then rebel players will have to get used to the idea that their 'big ships' exist to support their fighters and not the other way around. Both games I observed the Rebel player tried using his x-wing squadrons to go up against the tie fighters while his Neb-B and Corvette went up against the Victory. Needless to say neither game ended all that well for the Rebels. It is absolutely essential that Rebel players use their ships to soften up the Tie Fighters so that the X-Wings can finish the job. Once the Tie Fighters are out of the way then they can focus everything on the Victory (an absolute must, that thing can TANK!).

I don't think there will be as much of a mismatch once the Mark II comes out, as that thing could seriously mess up a Victory Class if it can get it in 2 of its firing arcs, as its sides are very strong.

It seems that the Rebels could be effective either doing a mixture of heavy and small fast ships or a fighter swarm, while the Imperials could put out even more fighters if they wanted to go for a swarm.

TIE fighters with the swarm ability seem to be anti squadron based. I think Imperial would want to go TIE swarm and maybe some bombers to drop the ships. I ended up giving my Imperial stuff to my girlfriend. I actually found a game shes interested in we have already played 4 games since last night haha. I wonder what kind of rebel fleet I want to build.

The rebel ships can seriously hurt the VSD, they just have to maneuver correctly and wear down its shields. Although early on it's still better to support the fighters, especially with the Nebulon B, which has 2 Blue dice to attack squadrons.

And remember, when you attack squadrons from a firing arc, you attack all squadrons within range and in that arc, one after another. So, if those TIEs swarm up, lock them down with 1-2 sacrificial X-Wings and unload from two arcs with the nebulon B, meanwhile the remaining X-Wings go after the VSD.

The CR90 can really put the hurt on to the VSD if it gets in its super weak rear. However, the VSD has two redirect tokens, meaning you'll still want to lay down some withering fire to knock down shields. Don't fly the CR90 directly at the VSD on the first turn, heck, fly it perpendicular honestly.

Even the Nebulon has 3 red dice that can shoot out to long range on its narrow front arc, so if you keep it at range, it's putting out the same firepower as the VSD from the front.

I feel like movement and positioning is more important in X-Wing.

While planning ahead with Orders and using the right 'weapon' (to include Squadrons) against the right order of targets is more important in Armada.

Both of course, take into consideration special abilities, etc.

Overall, Armada took longer to play. We'll have to see if the novelty wears off after a few games, or if it lasts like X-Wing.

 cincydooley wrote:
What is everyone getting through Core + Wave 1?

I figure I'll get two core sets, 1 of each additional large ship (at first) and 2 of each fighter pack.

What say the rest of you?

I collect for nice-looking groups as well as what is actually useful on the table so my shopping list is a bit bigger than most people's I'd imagine.

Getting 3 cores now and when they're released 1 more VSD, 2 Gladiators and 2 fighters for the Imperials.

Not sure on the Rebels yet; at least 1 of each, but I don't know on the ships in the starter if it'll just be that or a couple more.

Is there any point to getting two starters?

Besides getting double of everything? Maybe for the crew cards.

 malfred wrote:
Is there any point to getting two starters?

From what I've gathered its only worth getting if you want to get a full point list until wave 1 is released.

Otherwise it isn't worth due to the lack of upgrades and commander variety.

So unless you want to sink in another $100-$150 bucks I'd say just get the one.

Alternatively you could look at getting separate ships out of box online (Ebay).

Will the wave 1 star destroyer pack, corvette, and nebulian ships have different crew cards compared to the starter ones?

 Hückleberry wrote:
Will the wave 1 star destroyer pack, corvette, and nebulian ships have different crew cards compared to the starter ones?

Yes, FFG has listed what you get with the expansions on there website.

Here's the link to the articles on the expansion ships

Rebels

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5348

Empire

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5325

 malfred wrote:
Is there any point to getting two starters?

Depends on your local scene, normal gaming environment and personal plans.

If you are the primary person interested locally, having 2 cores makes for more interesting games in the interim, and you have all the components to do two simultaneous intro games if you wanted to try and drum up interest in the game for Wave 1. People are much more willing to try a new game if it doesn't cost them anything after all, and that's especially true at Armada's price point. If your preferred gaming venue is frothing at the mouth for Armada already though, that's not really useful.

If you regularly game with family (especially young children) or in "accident-prone" areas (or around pets), the components (damage deck, dice, etc.) are handy just for replacement. If mishaps don't befall your stuff very often then that's less of a concern. The extra maneuver tool will likely be just as handy as the extra templates were in X-Wing where you don't need to pass them back and forth during the game.

My personal plans for display involve having 4 VSDs anyway, and totaling up the cost of building via expansions vs. the starter, I basically get the fighters and damage deck for free (technically they cost a buck and change using MM's prices). At that scale of lunacy, there's still room for the expansion's unique cards and the CR90 might get a few more on top of that. However, that's not building for the game so much as having awesome-looking Imperial battlegroups off the table, which is obviously a very niche scenario.

It's not the slam-dunk deal that the X-Wing starter was where you can recommend it to anyone, but there are scenarios where 2 core sets can be worthwhile, especially in the short term. If those scenarios don't apply to you though, then the value becomes far more arguable. If you know you can get those unique cards some other way or are simply comfortable with having 3 VSDs (the only ship I think you'll struggle to utilize that many of after buying expansions), the purchase might be worth it.

I played two games last night and over all, I was really enjoyed it.

The first game we played was the starter scenario out of the rule book and, for the most part, it did a really good job of explaining the rules. I flew as my beloved Rebels and I ended up winning the game pretty easily. The missing fourth blue dice didn't seem to matter all that much as my X-wing squadrons would usually destroy a TIE squadron with three dice.

For the second game, we played using the first list on FFG's website and it was a completely different experience! We had another person draw two random objective cards and then we picked one. We ended up with a Navigation card and the objective was to attack the enemies rear arc. I thought this would be to my benefit since the Rebels are much more maneuverable than the Imperials, but I didn't take into account my poor flying! My CR-90 took a full broadside from the Star Destroyer on the second round and was destroyed. I limped along for a the remainder of the game until I ultimately lost.

It is a totally different game than X-Wing... in a good way!