This is a good question. I can really only give the view of what I did

A) At the start I made a Concious choice to only play Imperial. Im a huge fan of the Empire in both movies/ books/ comics and the expanded universe. This has made my choices easier (in terms of what to buy)

B) I order online. I try to support my local stores but to be honest Hobbies like this in Aus can get very expensive. I have used online stores to buy say 90 percent of X wing stuff. I start with booko.com.au and use the isbn to track down the specific stuff I want. It makes it easier to budget but of course then you have waiting periods for it to arrive . Ive never not had something arrive.

I think Ive saved easily 300 dollars plus doing it this way. I DO sometimes feel guilty for not supporting my FLGS, but when it comes down to it, I saved 300 dollars or so. That is more important to me.

For a while there is was V hard to get certain ships locally, so I managed to actually do some ship for ship trading for extras I had but had not yet opened. This might be possible for you, if you have such ships.

Like a few posters above me, and because of my exclusive focus on the Empire, I dont really find a huge desire to buy any Scum and Villany so Ive put that money aside to get into Armada (well preorder but close).

This is a good question. I can really only give the view of what I did

A) At the start I made a Concious choice to only play Imperial. Im a huge fan of the Empire in both movies/ books/ comics and the expanded universe. This has made my choices easier (in terms of what to buy)

B) I order online. I try to support my local stores but to be honest Hobbies like this in Aus can get very expensive. I have used online stores to buy say 90 percent of X wing stuff. I start with booko.com.au and use the isbn to track down the specific stuff I want. It makes it easier to budget but of course then you have waiting periods for it to arrive . Ive never not had something arrive.

I think Ive saved easily 300 dollars plus doing it this way. I DO sometimes feel guilty for not supporting my FLGS, but when it comes down to it, I saved 300 dollars or so. That is more important to me.

For a while there is was V hard to get certain ships locally, so I managed to actually do some ship for ship trading for extras I had but had not yet opened. This might be possible for you, if you have such ships.

Like a few posters above me, and because of my exclusive focus on the Empire, I dont really find a huge desire to buy any Scum and Villany so Ive put that money aside to get into Armada (well preorder but close).

Start the Imperial March!

Serious answers cometh:

I've likewise put X-wing on pause. I'm a fan of the OT and PC games. They've effectively exhausted those ships and everything else feels less fluffy and therefore less exciting. The idea of certain cards is appealing but, with Armada on the horizon, I can wait for a more liquid moment or for a trade/single card purchase.

I don't have any FLGs so I do everything online. What's awkward is that the preorder discount is significant. So I'm actually trying to find a wa to save up for everything now because if I wait till later I will be paying a significant amount more. It feels counter intuitive, spending a lot now to save, but the math is pretty explicit at this point. MM has always been good to me. Plus the silver lining of the port authority strike is that it has kept the preorder window around longer, "buying" me time to scrap something together.

Another thing to do is to talk the game up with those you'll play with, emphasize things they'll be especially excited about, and then encourage them to chip in. Unless you have partners you'll end up doing it all on your own and that adds up.

Next, take a hard look at things you don't want in Armada. Don't dismiss them. Instead see if you can arrange trades. For example, I'm a fan of the OT ships and have no interest in either the Rebel Assault Frigate MkII or Imperial Gladiator. Each is on preorder discounted sale at MM for $27. However, I do want the cards which can be applied fleet wide: upgrades, commanders, etc. So I've made a deal with another member of this forum who wants the model but not the extra cards he'd get by buying duplicates. He's giving me $20. I'm buying the Assault Frigate, keeping the cards I wants, and mailing him the miniature with requiite tokens. I'm paying shipping, it won't be much. That effectively means I'm paying about $10 for a model that goes MSRP for $30, getting just what I want, helping out a community memeber, and forging a relationship with somebody I can do future trades with. I highly recommend this approach. For example, another thing you can do especially is trade extra fighter squadrons once people begin looking for favored squadrons without wanting to buy the whole fighter expansion. The X-wing forum has an ongoing thread called "The Big X-wing Trade Thread" where people post what they have, what they want, make trades, and then publically confirm the good word of members safe to trade with, encouraging community. I'm sure once Armada is out such a thread will begin here as well. Keep an eye out.

You can apply any of these things to older sets you don't want. So if you play X-wing but notice it's gathering dust, consider trading or selling the items. No reason you can't trade X-wing for Armada. I have the epic ships from X-wing but Armada is going to fill that niche. I'm planning on selling/trading the epic ships, effectively cashing them in for multipe Armada ships. I advertise them as like new, include everything needed except a couple cards I want, and haggle with interested parties.

As a last resort you can go to ebay eventually and other secondhand sources where people will break open products into their component parts. This will be less than the whole thing but likely more expensive than they're worth, you're paying for the discount ironically. But I always recommend trading before straight up buying.

The main rule I have is never buy at full MSRP. Too many deals, fellow gamers, and discounts to ever do that unless you need it immediately. If you have a local gaming store to support than you can pay more to show support. They have higher overheads but create community. Offer to play the game in store or run an event to generate interest for the store. In exchange you will generate buyers for the store, find gaming partners, and maybe even people to split purchases with.

Many stores, even the big online ones like MM, also have reward programs. Once you start buying from somewhere sign up. I don't care how little your purchase is, it comes back to help. With a game like this where it is always expanding you will end up going back for purchases with each wave. This adds up. Come wave 3, if you're still interested, you'll have accumulated enough to maybe get one thing for free.

Don't focus just on gaming stores. Note other stores like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble that sell these items. Wal-Mart might discount something (they have the core at $60). And if you're a reader, many of Barnes & Noble's regular discounts apply to games. I'm a member so I get a 15% discount on anything once a month, nevermind all the seasonal coupons they send. I read so much it pays itself over and B&N doesn't get picked over the way gaming stores do. You can find things there you long thought missing. On that note, it's also worth noting that you should ask stores to check their stock behind the shelf. Multiple times Target and B&N have had leftover stock discovered by inquisitive X-wingers who came away with huge hauls. You'll see them post it in the X-wing forum: "Target in Xtown has 20 Falcons as of X date." Nearby forum people swarm it or even call to reserve/order it. So it's always worth asking if they have anything in the back.

Last of all is proxying or using homemade things for cards. If you like a spoiled card but not the $30 model it comes with, just print up the image on stock paper for home use. It won't be legal in tournaments but that's enough most of the time. X-wing even has a program called Strange Eons (google it) that lets you make your own cards with the official* templates. You can make your own or remake cards that come in products you don't otherwise want. [*They are not official because minor parts are left out but they are so generally alike that you wouldn't notice. The minor differences are to keep it copyright safe.] I'm sure an Armada version will come out eventually and be shared here. My mates and I played X-wing so much we made our own pilot cards, printed them, and them took them to Kinkos to laminate. $1.35 and now I have a legit A-wing unique pilot of myself. Looks wicked real. This won't help with models but for the cards it's a blast. If you want you can buy models from older games like some of the micromachine Star Wars fleets. People turn those into models sometimes to incredible effect, though it'll be harder with Armada.

Okay that's all I got.

--

As for those who feel there are no adult answers to questions like this, see above.

I can not stress enough if you plan to, expect to, or want to play in or have a store organize events/Armada play times; you have to buy some product there.

Maybe not all, maybe not even at full price depending on deals they offer, but if you want a store to play in you have to buy stuff there. It's in your own interest as no pragmatic business will bother supporting a game they aren't selling, and we'll a shop isn't pragmatic isn't likely to remain open.

If you only play on your own kitchen counter, buy whereever, but don't be that guy that never supports a shop he's in regularly.

^^Affirmed^^

If I wasn't clear I agree wholeheartedly with the above. If you go the FLGs route be sure to purchase and support there.

I stick to online orders through MM because I'm in an area that doesn't have any local gaming stores. I've checked. Just comic books. But if I had a store that was nearby I'd love it.

my 10 percent of stock comes from the Store I occasionaly play at. I dont get to play too often sadly.

I am pretty much done with buying x-wing as there is not else I want to buy. So I can focus on Armada sparingly at first so I can see if people are playing it

I think thats one of the main reasons why armada has been released in the first place . People have bought that now. We need something new, lets do it "compleety differentTM" like this. tada! armada

I never played x-wing and ill buy armada as i like to have a very simple yet good looking tabletop for casuals next to things like infinity. Also for me its good to buy the X-Wing 2.0. where they had time to realize some fo theire mistakes from X-Wing. I get Armada is a "totaly different game"TM dont throw stones. Also i got Descent and not Imperial Assault so also theme wise this is new. Im not going to buy IA. X-Wing does the same job as armada imo as beeing a casual yet good looking tabletop which you can explain to someone who never played tabletops in 20mins. If i had X-Wing id probably change the PI, get a tabletop with a more complex ruleset if i wanted that or change the game genre compleetly to something like "fully-coop" or "semi-coop" if thats still missing in my collection.

X-Wing and Armada are for me only none redundant (or lets say there is another pick which is far far far less redundant to my game collection) if you already have about 30 other boardgames. In that case the questions how much bucks to spend on boardgames isnt realy of importance to you, is it? its your main hobby then.

I never played x-wing and ill buy armada as i like to have a very simple yet good looking tabletop for casuals next to things like infinity.

I would say that Armada will be more complex (rules-wise) than X-Wing, but still less than many other games (so about the middle of the complexity-rules scale). Also, I think most people would agree that Armada offers much deeper levels of strategy and tactics.

I never played x-wing and ill buy armada as i like to have a very simple yet good looking tabletop for casuals next to things like infinity.

I would say that Armada will be more complex (rules-wise) than X-Wing, but still less than many other games (so about the middle of the complexity-rules scale). Also, I think most people would agree that Armada offers much deeper levels of strategy and tactics.

It's still basically snakes and ladders level of casual next to Infinity though

Yikes... wouldn't go that far... more like Axis and allies to world in flames.

Ok, possibly a bit of hyperbole. Still...Infinity is significantly harder to play on a "casual" basis. Though N3 has made it flow much more smoothly....i've been playing it a lot again lately. Great game.

The worry I have is that I played the SWLCG and X-Wing. It didn't bump into each other too often, but the issue was that everyone was so caught up in buying for X-Wing and playing that no one had time to play the LCG. Given it had it's problems, but there were only about 3 players who even made to that stage which is when it really crapped out on us.

I think my biggest worry is making this fairly significant purchase of Armada and having the same thing happen with X-Wing and this game and be making a much more expensive mistake. It is sad that the LCG got me so jaded, but it will be hard to dethrone X-Wing.

You know how we gamers can be... we see the new shinny red button and we must press it! Armada will get a lot of gamers attention for a while for sure. In the end things will balance out and I don't see one killing the other in the long run. I guarantee you will se a temporary slump in sales and enthusiasm for x-wing in the short term as many will focus on Armada.

For what it's worth, I just picked up the core set and the decimator and pre ordered a raider. Not sure how much Xwing I'll play but the models will look nice on my nerd shelves.

The thing is that X-wing is bound to fade in the near future as what else can come out? Once the next movie comes out we may see some new ships but other than what is currently in the pipe line their really isn't much else for them to do?(unless they go to episodes1-3 or the cartoons). I would like to see them do the Ghost from Rebels but I have no interest in the first 3 episodes. As X-wing enters a down swing Armada will pick up the slack. Granted this is how I am currently looking at things and could be proven wrong.

Hmm... glad to see I'm not alone in being unexcited by scum. I've pushed X-wing pretty hard at my FLGS but ever since Armada's release has been on the horizon I've been blind to X-Wing news. The Phantom change hardly phased me, I was thinking about my Armada core set.

Scum and villainy is probably going to be the name of the game in X-Wing for a time. My worst expectation is that the next wave or two will be nothing but scum... and I'm an imperial navy fan. When having to choose between scummy bounty hunters in a game that punishes my dice luck or Star Destroyers to really play to an Imperial Navy fantasy, it's not a hard choice.

Even if Scum doesn't dominate the next waves they're still under-staffed, and at worst the next wave will drop to one ship per factino (or two scum and one rebel/empire). Since we just got the decimator I am really not looking forward to Imperial doozy ships like the TIE Oppressor or TIE Aggressor. Those are really ugly and unimaginative fighters that I don't care to waste my money on. If X-Wing gives us the popular pair of the Avenger and Gunboat I might return, but at the moment it's an IF.

Meanwhile that Star Destroyer spoiler pic looks more and more alluring, and I'm asking myself if I want to put forward the cash to afford two of those beauties eventually. It's the epitome of all those childhood fantasies of being an Imperial Navy commander.