Let me start by saying that I may completely change my mind after playing Armada or watching a demo.

So what do I mean, when I question whether Armada fits into Episode 4-6? Obviously, the ships are all of the right era.

What I mean is the conflicts of Episode 4-6 were not great Naval battles. It wasn't Pearl Harbor. It wasn't like Star Trek. Or even like Babylon 5 or Starship Troopers.

The original trilogy had a very human scale to it. It was about the underdog and it was about dogfighting.

The single X-Wing versus an unimaginably sized space station.

The Falcon shooting down TIE fighters.

Capital ships were always in the background.

Whether it was trying to escape Star Destroyers on Hoth or the Rebel Fleet at Endor trying to create a diversion as Guerrilla troops try to blow up the shield generator.

Can the Rebel Fleet even go Toe-to-Toe, mano-y-mano with the might of the Imperial Navy? The strength of the Rebels were their insurgent tactics.

Capital ships fighting each other doesn't seem to fit the fluff.

Anyways, it's just a thought.

Capital ships were battling in Return of the Jedi...

You're right, we want to think of our Star Wars games like symmetrical warfare, whereas the galactic civil war was anything but symmetrical warfare.

The old LucasArts PC games did a pretty good job showing how Rebel 'hit and fade' tactics still allowed for battles like we'll see, here.

It's very much a lack of 'front lines' and things like that, but...Rebels would definitely strike a convoy for supplies, and maybe have a force of frigates and corvettes perform a quick strike on a nearby Star Destroyer's patrol route to try to create a distraction for the convoy effort.

Or the Empire might locate a small Rebel listening post, and have a Star Destroyer jump in to destroy it - with the Rebellion throwing a few small ships before the Star Destroyer to try to buy the base more time to evacuate.

Etc.

Indeed, it wasn't a period of 'major naval battles'...but there were certainly PLENTY of opportunities for the big ships to still fight, at the scale this game seems to be aiming for.

There are also cases (from the RPG) of privateering, but that would generally be a single capital ship operating relatively alone or in concert with fighters. (e.g. this - .pdf 90MB)

I think the objective cards that we have seen will help address this point. For the Rebellion, the point may very well be to avoid combat to the greatest extent possible. The very first scene from 1977 is of a blockade runner learning the consequences for failing to avoid engagement with a Star Destroyer.

If the Rebels have a mission like "capture the medical supplies", and the Imperials have the mission "prevent the Rebellion from capturing same", then you have the basis for a large-ish fleet combat, in a way that lets the Rebellion have a squishy fleet that isn't capable of inflicting punishment, but can dart in, steal stuff, and get out.

In another thread, someone asked why 2 Corvettes were the same number of points as a Star Destroyer. This could very well be the reason.

Also, the game lasts fir a strict 6turn limit. Which means getting vps from ibjectives us mire imoortant than destroying the enemy ships. At least from the rebels pov.

Also, the game lasts fir a strict 6turn limit. Which means getting vps from ibjectives us mire imoortant than destroying the enemy ships. At least from the rebels pov.

Well, sure - after 6 turns, more Imperial ships start jumping in to the system, and the Rebels automatically lose...

We are not here to RPG the OT.

To be fair, this game will at its largest be simulating fairly small skirmishes. It looks like 3 ISDs may even be more than the rules are designed to handle, though obviously we don't know for sure at this point.

This is still a skirmish game, and simulating very well the types of battles that would happen during the rebellion.

The name of the game is Armada. Not skirmish.

True. And we don't know the points totals yet, but I would be surprised if you could field more than a single Imperial class star destroyer. They were considered an entire battle line by themselves.

And Armada would still fit because you could have a large ish fleet of multiple small capital ships.

The name of the game is Armada. Not skirmish.

And? Star Fleet Armada and Firestorm Armada are ALSO skirmish games, despite the names. If you want a full on battle game you are going to have miniatures representing units, not individual ships. That or the ship mini's will be tiny.

This is a skirmish game, make no mistake. You aren't going to be running dozens of star destroyers, at least within the core rules.