Just had a thought, carrying over from my days with Battlefleet Gothic.

The ships of armada arn't little fuel carrying snubfighters going poof when they are killed, they are metal behemoths powered by captured suns or dark energy or anti-matter reactors. Those powerplants usually don't fade quietly into the night once killed. They like to go with a bang.

I wonder if there will be a mechanic for destroyed ships to potentially blow up in a big way, damaging nearby ships. Not a garranteed, but their should be a chance for mini novas upon a kill

I wonder if there will be a mechanic for destroyed ships to potentially blow up in a big way, damaging nearby ships.

In Star Wars, the explosion of a given ship seems to have little impact. Even at the Battle of Endor, you didn't see other ships damaged by an exploding ISD. Closest that I remember being the Executor piling into the DS II.

I doubt it, the difference between GW rules and FFG rules is one of simplicity. GW has scatter dice, and charts galore. Seriously, every time you roll you need to consult a chart to see what happens (if you're new). FFG games show exactly what happens on the dice themselves. Hit, Crit, Focus, Evade. It's all very self explanatory. That's why I don't see FFG doing something like 'When a ship you control if destroyed roll a Red Dice. On a hit this happens, on a crit this happens, on a double hit this happens, and on blank nothing happens.

I am not opposed to the mechanic itself, it could be interesting, but I don't think FFG will implement something like this.

I wonder if there will be a mechanic for destroyed ships to potentially blow up in a big way, damaging nearby ships.

In Star Wars, the explosion of a given ship seems to have little impact. Even at the Battle of Endor, you didn't see other ships damaged by an exploding ISD. Closest that I remember being the Executor piling into the DS II.

This.

Apparently shrapnel doesn't exist in the Star Wars universe.

I doubt it, the difference between GW rules and FFG rules is one of simplicity. GW has scatter dice, and charts galore. Seriously, every time you roll you need to consult a chart to see what happens (if you're new). FFG games show exactly what happens on the dice themselves. Hit, Crit, Focus, Evade. It's all very self explanatory. That's why I don't see FFG doing something like 'When a ship you control if destroyed roll a Red Dice. On a hit this happens, on a crit this happens, on a double hit this happens, and on blank nothing happens.

I am not opposed to the mechanic itself, it could be interesting, but I don't think FFG will implement something like this.

This goes back to the FFG makes lite versions of miniature games. You get all the fun, you get all the playability, but with less rules, no real charts to reference so you can play the game faster and usually with fewer models. I'm glad FFG has taken the approach they have because while I love complex wargames like bfg, 40k etc tend to take way too long to play and the rulebooks for them are massive.

One way to think of it is GW 40k has a rulebook that is several hundred pages and doesnt include the special rules for individual units of many army lists. Xwing on the other hand had a relatively short ruleset that anyone with a decent reading speed could read in its entirety in 20 minutes (and that includes the add on rules like cloaking).

Also Armada looks like it will be solid game but easily moddable with extra rules for campaigns, additional objectives longer games etc. I think of FFG games as being barebones with a modest amount extra added on. If you want more you can easily add it, but it isnt necessary. Take for instance battlestar galactica. Core game is great, and if you want more get a few expansions. Descent, great game, again if you want more get more expansions. That model works for FFG and I hope they continue it because it allows groups to get into any specific game with minimal investment and then put more money down if they want more. On the other hand GW games require a great deal of money poured in to buy the models you need for a basic tournament list, and then if you want more you end up doubling your investment quickly. Just to make a point you can buy one of every model they got for xwing and probably spend hundreds of dollars less than you would for one of each GW product for any one of their factions. That is the difference between lite miniature games and the big behemoths you need a small fortune to play to its fullest.

...I think of FFG games as being barebones with a modest amount extra added on. If you want more you can easily add it, but it isnt necessary...

This right here is why I love FFG's stuff.

The trick to game balance seems to be elegance. When special rules proliferate, there are inevitable, un-expected consequences and bizarro synergies that spiral madly out of control.

FFG -- so far as I have seen -- has seemed to avoid this.

Regarding ship explosions...

The only one I can remember from the films was the second Death Star. If I recall correctly, some of the fighters that flew into the superstructure were mulched by the explosion. Otherwise, I cannot think of any.

In terms of fluff, it would make sense for the reactors to be designed to fail as safely as possible. Most of the battles in the films take place over inhabited planets. The EU and other books expanded on this by having fights occur along heavily traveled hyperspace egress and ingress corridors.

While the Emperor might not have given a flying crap about environmental, radio-active, or other fall-out, he did inherit his basic tech from the Republic. And they definitely had an interest in preserving life -- thus the fail safe.

Apparently, star wars shields eat that **** up

Honestly, though, I hope they don't. It'll be hell to fly bombers, otherwise.

It's also space so the relative distances may seem close but in reality there's a lot of space in between.

I was drawn to xwing and now armada because FFG does a good job simplifying miniatures games (I'm terrible at painting, not looking to get ruled to death, etc.). That being said, it might be cool when you destroy a capital ship you replace it on the board with a debris field token or something.

It's also space so the relative distances may seem close but in reality there's a lot of space in between.

I was drawn to xwing and now armada because FFG does a good job simplifying miniatures games (I'm terrible at painting, not looking to get ruled to death, etc.). That being said, it might be cool when you destroy a capital ship you replace it on the board with a debris field token or something.

That would pretty cool, it just doesn't leave the board after its dead, it becomes an obstacle.

Do the rules have you pick up capital ships off the board when they die? I don't remember reading about the death and destruction. Or do they stop cold, or slowly drift forward or something?

I wonder if there will be a mechanic for destroyed ships to potentially blow up in a big way, damaging nearby ships.

In Star Wars, the explosion of a given ship seems to have little impact. Even at the Battle of Endor, you didn't see other ships damaged by an exploding ISD. Closest that I remember being the Executor piling into the DS II.

This.

Apparently shrapnel doesn't exist in the Star Wars universe.

It does, but shields usually prevent the ships from getting damaged.

If the shields are down, well this happens:

http://youtu.be/ZWoGkrt5Upg?t=1m4s

Armour plating

...I think of FFG games as being barebones with a modest amount extra added on. If you want more you can easily add it, but it isnt necessary...

This right here is why I love FFG's stuff.

The trick to game balance seems to be elegance. When special rules proliferate, there are inevitable, un-expected consequences and bizarro synergies that spiral madly out of control.

FFG -- so far as I have seen -- has seemed to avoid this.

Ditto. I know a lot of hardcore wargamers see 'rules-lite' games as inferior. Personally I think they are better as they tend to focus more on strategy and/or tactics without getting bogged down by rules, and inevitable disagreements over how some of those rules work with combos of special abilities etc. (something that is very rare in X-Wing). Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing rules heavy games (I play some of them), I just enjoy games like X-Wing more.

I agree that having every capital ship explode violently is unlikely, and probably unrealistic. (Yes, the UR-word is a poor choice in this context. What would you use?)

However, I could see explosions as a critical hit effect. For example:

Antimatter containment breach

-1 Engineering

When this ship loses its last hull point, it explodes. All ships and squadrons at Range 1 receive 2 (blue dice) damage. Defense tokens may be used.

Or something to that effect.

I agree that having every capital ship explode violently is unlikely, and probably unrealistic. (Yes, the UR-word is a poor choice in this context. What would you use?)

However, I could see explosions as a critical hit effect. For example:

Antimatter containment breach

-1 Engineering

When this ship loses its last hull point, it explodes. All ships and squadrons at Range 1 receive 2 (blue dice) damage. Defense tokens may be used.

Or something to that effect.

This, exactly the sort of thing I was thinking, and very elegant to implement

It does, but shields usually prevent the ships from getting damaged.

If the shields are down, well this happens:

http://youtu.be/ZWoGkrt5Upg?t=1m4s

Armour plating

Yeah, but one of the Star Wars universe's tropes is ships flying through the explosions of ships they've just killed, with no damage to them. It's as if every ship that's destroyed is totally vaporized. From a cinematic standpoint, this makes sense, as it's no doubt simpler for the FX folks to do, and it fits in with the 30s serials that the movies are based on.

Houseruling that debris fields are created when ships are destroyed (perhaps only medium and large ships?) seems interesting and easy given that the core set includes debris tokens, and you could sub in the X-wing debris from the decimator and YT-2400 (so long as you didn't look at them close enough)

The debris would not just be a danger to ships going full-forward into each other, but it would obstruct shots as well.