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.

Let's see what happens in September. FFG may not have mentioned Armada at GenCon thanks to the blackout on Episode VII licensing announcements, which ends on September 4. FFG did all but say they have Episode VII stuff incoming even now.

I'm somewhat agreeing. Rebels are OK for early variation. But the imperials are badly, badly lacking. OK the VSDs fell like they play differently. There is little outward difference between the 2 gladiators so it feels dull to me right now.

That and I'm terribly at the game.

 Compel wrote:
I'm somewhat agreeing. Rebels are OK for early variation. But the imperials are badly, badly lacking. OK the VSDs fell like they play differently. There is little outward difference between the 2 gladiators so it feels dull to me right now.

That and I'm terribly at the game.

I think it helps that the Rebels have 50% more ships than Imperials . What FFG should have done is release the Raider wave 1.

I have no problem with FFG's release schedule. I rather prefer to wait to see what comes up after Star War 7 is released.

I kind of like the fact it was spaced out so much, it allows my wallet to recover and buy one of each right off the bat, insead of scrambling to buy before supplies are gone.

I am with the OP. Have high hopes for this game and it seems to do well but incredibly bored with the lack of variety. There needs to be a release a quarter. There are hundreds of ships in the EU plus crap from the prequals. They will not run out. I picked this game and some extras up early on and haven't pulled it out of its box after playing a half dozen games. It was the same thing over and over even if we did swap out ship cards for other ship cards.

I know they are having labor issues but when the thing that pays the bills isn't going anywhere, you come up with alternative methods to get it there. You don't just ho hum and blame it on someone else. Contract a cargo plane. Hire scabs. You make it happen. Nike isn't going away. Players moving on to another game system is a real thing.

Col. Dash wrote:
I am with the OP. Have high hopes for this game and it seems to do well but incredibly bored with the lack of variety. There needs to be a release a quarter. There are hundreds of ships in the EU plus crap from the prequals. They will not run out. I picked this game and some extras up early on and haven't pulled it out of its box after playing a half dozen games. It was the same thing over and over even if we did swap out ship cards for other ship cards.

There probably isn't going to be ships from the prequels introduced to Armada or X-Wing, as FFG seems pretty firm that these games take place in the Rebellion Era.

As far as "lack of variety" goes, this game is in a better spot then X-Wing was at the same point in its life. I don't get the need for instant gratification and wanting to have tons of ships all available at the release of a brand new game. The single largest complaint people had at the launch of this game was the price. If there were twice the amount of ships available, people would be complaining twice as loud about how much money they have to spend to play the game. Even worse, what if it failed and now they had all of these products just sitting in warehouses and on FLGS shelves collecting dust?

I know they are having labor issues but when the thing that pays the bills isn't going anywhere, you come up with alternative methods to get it there. You don't just ho hum and blame it on someone else. Contract a cargo plane. Hire scabs. You make it happen. Nike isn't going away. Players moving on to another game system is a real thing.

Again, like the other guy, you don't seem to understand how cross ocean shipping, ports, and labor works.

For starters, you can't just "contract a cargo plane" to move dozens and dozens of shipping containers worth of products; the real world just doesn't work that way. Not only would be incredibly expensive, you would risk breaking shipping contracts just to do it (not to mention the logistical nightmare of trying to unload ships that were already loaded, moving freight from the port of departure to an airport, etc. plus all of the products already on the boat, both crossing the ocean and sitting at the port waiting to be unloaded). There are no "scabs" to hire at the ports because the longshoremen weren't on strike so there is no one to replace at the ports. The shipping conglomerates were accusing the longshoremen of not negotiating in good faith while cutting their hours and longshoremen were accusing the shippers of slowing down the flow of container ships into port... and by "port," I mean every West Coast port. Plus, if you really think firing all of the longshoremen who weren't on strike and then hiring 20,000 scabs was the solution for you get your toys faster, I don't even really know what to tell you...

You guys act like small company like FFG had the capital and clairvoyance to not be affected by a labor dispute that crippled West Coast shipping. The dispute caused economic ripples across the world, why is FFG the only company you people think could have been immune from it if they just tried harder?

ChrisRR wrote:
I'm happy that the 2nd wave hasn't released yet! This give plenty of time for people to play with what they have and for good tactics before new stuff comes out. I will buy wave 2 when it gets here but for now I am perfectly content with what we have. x wing has made a lot of waves obsolete and I don't want that to happen to armada.

Precisely. Slow and steady wins the space race for me with armada -- I play a lot of systems and also paint, so rapid release schedules actually hurt our scene, not help it.

Well, for some variety we have been going into the following:

I am toying with the idea of a possible repaint or at least a touch-up to differentiate between models which can add some eye-candy to the mix.
My friend has managed to paint all his fighters: very impressive looking.
He is even more crazy and cuts off bits and adds little bits, messes with the mind when he did not say anything till I noticed they were physically different in minor ways.

We have been focusing on a variety of fighters with a few named piliot/squadrons which has made some nail-biter games.
Luke is brutal for ignoring shields.

I want to bash together a station of some kind but the overlapping with it for repair seems a little too indy-pit-stop to me.

We field quite a few asteroids on the table. Ouch they hurt if you hit them: you fear those things more than being shot at.

I have been putting together an Excel sheet of the various stats for the ships and upgrades, it is nice to be able to identify and match what can be used on what ship.

Buy a felt mat and paint your own background on it... handy for X-wing too.

Just some ideas to make the slow releases from FFG seem not so long.

Personally Im not a fan of the lack of prequel era content, but thats just me.

I love the longer release windows FFG tends to have. My biggest concern is being able to keep the pegs full between those windows. X-Wing in particular is flying at one of my local shops and they say they can't get any more in. There is literally one copy of Imperial Aces and 2 or 3 of the most recent big Imperial ship. For Armada, there's a starter set or two.

Apparently Disney has confirmed that the Rebels use prequel ships such as left over Trade Confederation vessels and so forth so there is no reason they cant be included.

Note that aside from them putting out new movies, I am absolutely against everything else Disney has done regarding SW and the existing true story line. So I guess it depends on if you take Disney or the EU as true canon.

Col. Dash wrote:
Apparently Disney has confirmed that the Rebels use prequel ships such as left over Trade Confederation vessels and so forth so there is no reason they cant be included.

Yeah, but there is new movies coming out and from a marketing standpoint, fancy new ships are better than ships from movies that no one likes.

Note that aside from them putting out new movies, I am absolutely against everything else Disney has done regarding SW and the existing true story line. So I guess it depends on if you take Disney or the EU as true canon.

They didn't do anything to the story line because the only story line that really matters is the six movies. The EU books and comics were never on the same level of cannon as the movies to begin with, on top of most of being horrible. Don't be surprised if the handful of good EU stuff is mined to make the new movies,

Also, if Lucas had decided to make the new movies himself, there is no way he would have followed the EU stories because he didn't write them. He would have done the same thing as Disney.

Is the scale dramatically different from the old Star Wars Battles vessels? Aside from some being quite bendy, you could put those to good use. Houserule a few of the ships and have a space doughnut fleet.

Neither game kept a consistent scale between ships, so that shouldn't be an issue. The Armada ships might be bigger than the equivalent model from the Starship Battles line, though.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Is the scale dramatically different from the old Star Wars Battles vessels? Aside from some being quite bendy, you could put those to good use. Houserule a few of the ships and have a space doughnut fleet.

I think most things from SFB will be very small next to the Armada ships, with the Imperial Star Destroyer being smaller than the Armada Victory Star Destroyer. However, some of the medium ships might work, such as some of the Clone War era ships.

Armada

Nothing but completely satisfied. Depth and release wise.

I agree that if X-Wing release schedule is anything to go by, we have great things to look forward to as Armada players.

People who disagree should play more. There is PLENTY to explore before the next release.

My disappointment with Armada will likely be identical to my disappointment with XWing - No prequel era ships.

chaos0xomega wrote:
My disappointment with Armada will likely be identical to my disappointment with XWing - No prequel era ships.

Seriously, that is the best thing about both of these games. FFG has made it perfectly clear that these games take during the Rebellion Era and afterward. Aside from being totally uninspiring, the Prequels are too divisive for FFG to introduce to the game without pissing off legions of fans.

The trouble SPJ is some people actually liked the Prequels and thought the ships were neat even if they thought jar-jar was a tool.
So they might actually want to play with those era boats.
I get that FFG has said this is supposed to be Hope-Jedi era. But they are now adding the Post Hope/ new Era ships.

I bet they would make some cash though if they made a Prequel era expansion. It wouldn't be that expensive either, just do the Naboo fighters, the Jedi attack ships from Revenge and 2 different Droid types and there you go. Ohh and throw in Jango's firespray upgrade card and some update cards for one of the small base S&V boats and there you go.

Whoops forgot we were talking about Armada.
That makes it easier, Do a Trade Fed control ship and a Republic cruiser. Then toss in a couple of bases of fighters.

 Nicorex wrote:
I get that FFG has said this is supposed to be Hope-Jedi era. But they are now adding the Post Hope/ new Era ships.

They're adding Episode VII and beyond stuff (possibly) because they are new.

I understand that some people, for whatever reason, like prequel-era ships... but lots of people don't. There is no reason to introduce something that is so divisive to the game that on top of that, isn't in the era that the game takes place in.

Most people I know dont have any issue with the prequel era ships, just the characters and films.

Everyone knows The Clone Wars animated series was the best thing Lucas made since RotJ

chaos0xomega wrote:
Most people I know dont have any issue with the prequel era ships, just the characters and films.

Quite the contrary. Lots of people dislike prequel-era ships, and for good reason: they're boring and uninspired, lacking the dirty lived-in feel of the original trilogy (gakky dialogue and filmmaking aside, that was one the worst parts of the prequels).

Everyone knows The Clone Wars animated series was the best thing Lucas made since RotJ

Which isn't saying much, considering Return of the Jedi had ewoks. The saving grace of RoTJ is the Battle of Endor (which is probably the single biggest influence in Armada) and Luke v. Vader, round 2.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Which isn't saying much, considering Return of the Jedi had ewoks. The saving grace of RoTJ is the Battle of Endor (which is probably the single biggest influence in Armada) and Luke v. Vader, round 2.

Hey, I thought that the Jabba's palace scenes were pretty cool (outside of the awful CGI "musical number" in the special edition). It functioned as a good "cold open" to the film. Granted, now that we know what actually happened after The Empire Strikes Back thanks to Shadows of the Empire, it makes a lot more sense than it did at the time. Here's hoping Shadows is still canon...

Honestly, Armada looks to be doing fine in a lot of places that already had significant X-Wing scenes. The main factor putting people off appears to be the high entry price compared to X-Wing, but X-wing already has a fairly low price of entry as tabletop games go (at least by the 40k standard). Another problem I see is that the complexity of the game, while making for a solid overall foundation, puts off people who would otherwise be interested in the game. I'm not talking about regular tabletop gamers, but people who are just getting into the hobby and want something relatively easy to grasp.

Like I said in the thread I made, Armada is a great game and I hope it sticks around and improves by the time I'm finally able to devote myself to it.

For whatever reason, FFG have done nothing* with the prequel era across all their Star Wars games - X-Wing, Armada, Imperial Assault or the RPGs. The reason for that can only be speculated on. Perhaps their licence doesn't cover it. Perhaps they're simply not fans of that setting and don't wish to cover it. Perhaps they will cover it, in separate products at some point in the future.

Trying to claim that your preference one way or the other is the majority or "correct" view isn't going to get the conversation very far.

*OK, there's a few things, like Geonosians, Zabraks and B1 battle droids turning up in the RPG, and a painting of what looks like Asohka Tano in the Force And Destiny rulebook.

I think, much like a certain poster in this thread *cough*scootypuffjunior*cough* they're probably elitist nerds that think the prequel era stuff is all universally crap, and that everyone universally agrees with their opinion, and thus its not worth doing.

chaos0xomega wrote:
I think, much like a certain poster in this thread *cough*scootypuffjunior*cough* they're probably elitist nerds that think the prequel era stuff is all universally crap, and that everyone universally agrees with their opinion, and thus its not worth doing.

So now we're going to resort to name-calling?

It has nothing to do with being elitist, the prequels are all around bad movies. The acting, the dialogue, the pacing... they're all bad. Are they still Star Wars? Of course. Did I faithfully go each one in the theater when they came out? You bet, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Where there some parts that were pretty cool? Sure, especially in Revenge of the Sith. The prequels are what they are and I've defended them to more than enough people who like to pretend they don't exist (including here on Dakka).

That doesn't change the fact that all three of those movies lacked everything that made the original movies special.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
For whatever reason, FFG have done nothing* with the prequel era across all their Star Wars games - X-Wing, Armada, Imperial Assault or the RPGs. The reason for that can only be speculated on. Perhaps their licence doesn't cover it. Perhaps they're simply not fans of that setting and don't wish to cover it. Perhaps they will cover it, in separate products at some point in the future.

Trying to claim that your preference one way or the other is the majority or "correct" view isn't going to get the conversation very far.

*OK, there's a few things, like Geonosians, Zabraks and B1 battle droids turning up in the RPG, and a painting of what looks like Asohka Tano in the Force And Destiny rulebook.

I can just about promise you that the don't do the prequel era is because, as a whole, it is nowhere near fleshed out as the Rebellion Era. On top of that, if you're a game company that wants to sell games to people, why would you use stuff from a bunch of movies that the majority of fans decry (which is the truth, whether you guys want to admit that or not)? It's a lot safer to stick with what they know people want.

Besides, take a random person off the street and ask them what they know about Star Wars, and it's almost a guaranteed that they will answer with some combination of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2, or Yoda. The reason is because that is what the public thinks of when it comes to Star Wars.

I intended for that to come across more humorously than it did, so apologies if I offended you.

Also, ironically enough, now that Disney owns the rights, the prequel era is more fleshed out than the rebellion/gcw era due to the EU stuff being rendered irrelevant, leaving the Prequel era with the only non-theatrical film source of canon.

chaos0xomega wrote:

Also, ironically enough, now that Disney owns the rights, the prequel era is more fleshed out than the rebellion/gcw era due to the EU stuff being rendered irrelevant, leaving the Prequel era with the only non-theatrical film source of canon.

Except FFG doesn't really care about canon (G-canon or otherwise), the EU has always been irrelevant compared to the films (and anything made directly by Lucas), and much, much more of the EU stuff takes place during and after the Rebellion Era than before meaning FFG has more stuff to pull from.

FFG clearly does care about the canon (they would have to as everything they do now has to go through the canon approval process in addition to licensor approval), hence their creation of the Imperial Raider as a canonical vessel classification, as well as their excuse that there are no prequel-era ships because the game is set within the canon of the Rebellion era of the Galactic Civil War (which was always a BS excuse because even in the old EU there were prequel era starfighters and capital ships turning up in Imperial Remnant and rogue Imperial Warlord fleets decades after the Battle of Endor, not to mention the fact that they're now doing ships pulled from a point in the canon set 30 years after their stated focus point).