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Hello all. I am considering starting one of Fantasy Flight's naval based games after WM and 40K, but I'm not sure which. Can someone sum up the differences between X-Wing and Armada and also give an opinion towards this matter? Cheers.

It's essentially a matter of scale.

X Wing is a dog fighting game, fighter level, where the largest list you can run in a standard game is 8 individual ships.

Armada is a fleet level game, where capital ships such as the Star Destroyer are the focus (but fighters still play a role.)

Personally, I find Armada to be the lesser of the two, X Wing is a lot more immediate, financially accessible, and widely played, but if your tastes run to a slower, more considered, game then Armada may be a better fit.

As above; there is a considerably different feel between the two;

X-wing is very quick where manueverability is huge; feels and plays like a dogfight.

Armada is more plodding and plotting, feels like a battle between naval vessels bombarding each other as they slowly circle one another.

I'd suggest trying X-wing first; it's easier to pick up the rules, plays faster and has bigger variety.

Armada is objective based at its core, locked into 6 turns every game (barring tablings) and has alternating activations, with a reversal of the usual move/shoot paradigm. When a ship activates, it shoots, then moves, all resolved immediately. Maneuvering is rather limited, things will basically never turn around. The key is planning ship commands in advance, angling and positioning, and managing activations well.

X-wing is a dogfight. It's largely about attempting to outguess, outshoot, or outlast your opponent. Weak pilots move before and shoot after strong pilots. Many more different playstyles are functional in X-wing, though this is partly an artifact of how much larger the ship and card pool is.

I would definitely try X-wing first, it's a lot of fun! Armada is more of an acquired taste, imo, but the appeal of X-wing is extremely broad. And as mentioned, it's very cheap to try to see if you like it

Go with X-Wing. Extremely popular, more affordable. Heard a lot of negative criticism towards Armada, with quite a few players compaining about Armada often playing like watching an accident about to happen yet being unable to interfere - you gotta plan ahead a long time, which is fair and square, but also yields to a lot of situations where you know you're totally screwed and can hardly intervene anymore...which is frustrating.

I wrote a really awesome post once comparing Armada, X-Wing and Imperial Assault. I need to find it.

But I'll cliffnotes it.

If someone is coming from a Collectible Card Game or a board game background, X-Wing is a great option for them.

If you're from a mass battle wargame background like 40k or the like, (or, naturally, Battlefleet Gothic), Star Wars Armada is a great option.

If you're from a RPG background, or a skirmish game background or heroclix or certain kinds of coop games (EG Ghost Stories), Imperial Assault is a great option. Though there is a major deckbuilding component of the 'skirmish game' variant.

Other things

X-Wing: Normal games play on a 3' by 3' board, take 1-2 hours to play. - Great for a midweek game where you've not got a lot of time or space to play.

Armada: Normal games play on a 6' by 3' board, take 2-3 hours to play. - Ideal for a club gaming night situation, where you're going out to play a game in an environment where there's lots of 40k players etc.

Imperial Assault: Two game modes, a pseudo-RPG Campaign and a more traditional Skirmish game mode. The semi-RPG campaign can take 1.5-3 hours, depending on the amount of Rebel bickering that happens. The Skirmish game variant is about 45 minutes to 1hr 15 minutes.

Hey Compel, thanks so much for your response. I did originally come from a 40K world before moving on to Warmachine (although a recent YouTube podcast has drawn me back into 40K-verse), so Armada sounds most interesting. But the costs though! I got out of 40K because it was time consuming and high prices. Still, I'm not a fan of quick combat; I like to actually think for a while before making any choices. I'll contemplate a bit more. Meanwhile, I'd welcome more suggestions that would further my understanding of both games and differences.

Conversely, I haven't played a CCG in near 20 years, came to X Wing from 40K and don't really rate Armada, so while I follow Compel's thinking, it isn't necessarily going to apply to everyone.

 hcls315 wrote:
Still, I'm not a fan of quick combat; I like to actually think for a while before making any choices. I'll contemplate a bit more. Meanwhile, I'd welcome more suggestions that would further my understanding of both games and differences.

Don't rush to conclusions, even in X-Wing, you have to plan ahead. The main difference is that X-Wing is more reactive, i.e. you can and must react turn-wise whereas in Armada, you have to plan ahead for a longer time then just the next turn. Both are very tactical games and far, far, far away from 40k aka dice-rolling simulator.

The cost isn't so bad for Armada if you do your research beforehand I think. There's a bit less of a requirement of 'that one card' from that specific set than there is in X-Wing right now. - But that is because of the relatively few releases there's been.

The Starter Set's a ridiculously high price, which is what hurts Armada most, I think. But, for example, if you get the Starter Set, the Gladiator and the ISD and potentially a fighter or Rogues set, you've got a perfectly viable fleet. It might not be 100% efficient, but it's perfectly viable.

Here's one I just threw together quickly as an example, using just the Starter Box, the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Gladiator Star Destroyer set.

EMPIRE FLEET (399 points)
Imperial II-class Star Destroyer - Darth Vader - Gunnery Team - Electronic Countermeasures - Relentless
Victory II-class Star Destroyer - Wulff Yularen - Expanded Hangar Bay
Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer - Assault Concussion Missiles - Demolisher
''Howlrunner'' TIE Fighter Squadron
TIE Fighter Squadron x5


The theory of the list being that the VSD focuses on Fighter Command (Thanks to Wulff, he can command 5 out of the 6 TIE Fighter squadrons with a squadron command. - That lets you send one out as bait, then the rest jump on it). Then you've got the ISD and the Gladiator for killing.

Admittedly, it's harder to make one for the rebels, because the Nebulon B Frigate in the starter set isn't a very popular ship at all. It is doable though.

Also, the discount market makes Armada much more palatable than retail. You can get the starter for around 65 US dollars from places like Miniature Market, with things like the fighter packs and Corellian Corvette running 15 or less. Hell, one of the main things making me ponder it is the ability to get the 50 dollar Star Destroyer for just a hair over 30, which is a HUGE boon for a guy who will have to buy both fleets to play the game.

A huge problem and the main reason for why I would not personally start Armada is the lack of iconic Rebel Ships. The Empire has the different Star Destroyers, but Rebels have...well...

Great points everybody! I think at this point I'm pretty convinced in starting Armada first. And yes, I like the Empire more. Thanks a bunch!