Base Sizes

By Dusksong, in Star Wars: Armada

So this really fuels my excitement for the ISD and Mon Cal cruiser, and I rather it don't get lost in the Rules are Out thread - the rules reference includes the base sizes for each ship class... Seriously, draw them out - the large is pretty dramatic...

Small: 41mm x 71mm

Medium: 61mm x 102mm

Large: 76mm x 192mm

How massive the large base is going to be really didn't connect until I traced them out side by side. This is definitely going to feel like a true Imperial Class or Mon Cal. I haven't even touched the game, and I'm already daydreaming about 300 point plus games with ISDs on the board...

hahahaha... I was thinking the same thing! I really hope we see the ISD in wave 2...

Wow... already impatient for wave 1...

... need ISDs...

I'm looking at the large base sketch - looks somewhat close to the same base size as the Rebel Transport? Just an estimate - someone who has the model handy would know better than I.

The large base is around 43% larger than the medium. So going by scale the 1600 meter ISD is 56% larger than a VSD.

So I imagine the actual model of the ISD might be around 45-50% larger than the VSD model. Not bad as far as regular scale goes. There should be no mistaking an ISD next to a VSD.

Yeah would put the ISD around the same size as a rebel transport. Pretty sweet!!

Wow... already impatient for wave 1...

... need ISDs...

You mean wave 2, right?

I'm thinking about this a little more - If large ships are already slated to have Rebel Transport sized bases (and they are nearly identical) is there any worry that large ships could be reserved for "epic" format Armada? My thought is that the standard game size of 3x6 is already geared to accommodate much larger ships. So I guess the real concern would be from a points perspective - if a Victory-II or AFmkII A are already nearly a third of your fleet, are an Imperial Class or Mon Cal even going to be suitably costed for standard games?

BASELESS SPECULATION! I mean, the core rules are already allowing for and laying out what a large ship is, whereas different base sizes and epic play weren't even twinkles in the eye of the X-wing rule book. So probably just idle conversation bits until we're occupying our time playing rather than talking.

It basically depends on what stats and point costs they want to give the Large ships, but I think they can easily fit them into regular Armada games. At the most extreme, an ISD might cost double that of a Victory, putting it at 150-190 points (I don't think it would actually need to cost that much, I'm just pointing out the most extreme example). A 180 point ISD could still have room in a fleet for a cheap commander, a Gladiator and a small fighter screen. I think more reasonably people's guesses of an ISD being around 120-130 seem appropriate, which plus your commander would still leave you half your fleet points to play with.

EDIT: And if there is a version that costs 138 points or less, you can field a fleet of two ISDs plus Motti, and I don't care how viable it is, that is totally a fleet I would field at 300 points.

I think if there was going to be an Epic Armada format, it would have to stretch up to the SSD, which is a totally different conversation.

Edited by GAThraawn

I am ignorant of Warhammer 40k tournaments. But are all tournaments in 40k of the same point size army? If the answer is no, I would expect once big ships are out we could see different point limit tournaments.

But none of this might matter since as far as I know FFG doesn't run 2 styles of tournament play for any of their games.

40k tournaments are usually 1750pts, but can range from 1500 pts to 2000pts. It depends on the organizer.

I am ignorant of Warhammer 40k tournaments. But are all tournaments in 40k of the same point size army? If the answer is no, I would expect once big ships are out we could see different point limit tournaments.

But none of this might matter since as far as I know FFG doesn't run 2 styles of tournament play for any of their games.

They haven't for X-Wing really. But I know for The Game of Thrones card game at least, they have a world champion for both Melee format and Joust format.

That's a good point... perhaps in the future you could see both 300 and 600 point tournaments. That would be awesome.

I love x-wing and play it as much as I can, but, to me, what it always has been missing is the capital ships. That is what I loved about the star wars spaceship battle collectible miniature game was that the starter had two huge ships

Can somebody post an image of all three sizes on one page for those of us away from rulers? PULEASE!

Let's continue with baseless speculation with nothing in hand yet . . .

If and when the ISD and Mon Cal come out, and will be on a base the size of the X-Wing Transport, could we see a Fore and Aft section? Both having their own firing arcs and both sections being able to shoot twice, from different arcs. Maybe even both sections having differing command actions? So it would get to take one Command with the Fore section and one with the Aft?

2 Commnad stacks for one ship might be over complicating things, but . . . Who knows?

So what do you all think? Will the huge base ships have 2 sections?

Holy kuh-rap! Just macgyver'd the bases out and the large is L-a-r-g-e! That's awseome.

Seriously, can we just have some "plain ol" ISDs and MC80s? (If people wanna talk about the extreme end capital ships down the line, especially if they'd be bigger than the standard large class ships, let's do that later and in another thread.)

My concern is that the 300pt game will limit play. Considering the costs of smaller ships, starfighters, and a required commander, an additional large ship is going to mean either an upgrade lean fleet or smaller but robust force. I know we've already discussed how the name of Armada isn't really accurate since it is more like fleet groups. But I wonder how long the game would be if you wanted to field a true task force, something like:

1 Large

2-3 Mediums

3-5 Smalls

6 Squadrons

I wanna see ISDs and MC80s blasting away at each other with their support groups fretting between them in smaller battles!

Edited by R22

The standard 4 fire zones does seem kind of simplistic on such a large ship. Maybe you can fire from two zones but hit multiple targets within each? Either way, gonna be awesome.

I sort've want them to come with a few fighters. I mean, c'mon, they're the true carriers of the fleet. One of each fighter squadron? They should have massive squadron ratings in any case.

And as long as I'm dreaming, I wouldn't mind a few different paint "skins" of the MC80s to help create the unique feel of them. Or just multiple MC classes and types each with different color schemes. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

BRB, coming up for air.

Don't want to burst that excitement but a SSD would be bigger then the table area. We will not be seeing one at this scale. Unless we play with a 10x15 table.

Please don't let this topic deteriorate into the argument for/against SSDs.

(Agreed. Let's keep it on the regular large ships for here and now please.)

Wow... already impatient for wave 1...

... need ISDs...

You mean wave 2, right?

Nope... impatient for wave 1. Wave 2 is a whole other story/addition. ;)

(Yes I'm aware ISDs are in wave 2, but wave 1 isn't even released yet)

Edited by TrinityLyre

I don't think they will change the rules for large ships. I like the fact that the rules are fairly simple. No need to complicate things. I'd rather focus on fleet tactics.

ffg knows how to place the teasers.

whats the base size of the x-wing CR 90 btw?

20cm base seems quite good as a shelf object. if you like imaginary scifi machines of death and destruction with pew pew sounds instead of ceramic ducks on your shelf that is. i exspecialy like the mini sizes of this game ranging from squadron base (1" i assume) up to that size. seems very nice on a 6x3 table compared to all the other wargames out there.

Hmm... If the bases are that big, how much is the model going to cost?