So I thought a thread to directly discuss peoples first observations and impressions now some people have gotten hold of copies, and to ask questions to those who have it ect ect.

First impressions for moi;

Feel of the game

I love how cinematic it feels. The ships slowing crawling to each other, with fighter screens in front. Slowly positioning takes form, and then BOOM - Surging forwards with your fighter line to throw chaos into the opponents, and your ships opening up to each other titanically. Even how ships drift apart after a few desperately exchanged volleys, which will be great with more ships to trial with.

I also like how punishing it can be if you don't plan properly. The first game I played, the VSD got a point blank volley with two arcs into a Corvette, practically obliterating it (And then it got finished off by Tie's), but spent the rest of the game being poked in the rear by the Nebulon whilst it and and X-Wings moped up the Tie's in short order, due to it mis-positioning after that. It's definately a case of easy to learn, hard to master.

Gameplay itself;

Whilst I've not played a game with the Objectives yet (Only the L2P, and then a 180 game without objectives just to try a few things), having initiative seems Huuuuuge. It really changes how you plan your turns, at least in the core set, maybe this will lessen especially with objectives involved to balance it out. But it's really going to force different playstyles in each fleet just down to that.

There's a really handy appendix/glossary included which solves a lot of issues of clarity with rules, which is lovely as well. And the rules themselves seem pretty intuitive once you start playing with it.

Oh, and fighters really need the command to be useful as anything other than a tarpit.

How the fleets and such feel;

The stuff in the core set does a good job at making things feel very unique. The Star Destroyer is like this big lumbering cannon that needs careful pointing to get it to do anything, and whilst it'll eat anything in front of it, it can't react worth a ****.

The Corvette A needs to be used with caution since it'll die quickly, and if you commit too early you'll general meet death by turbo-laser. It'll definately be better in pairs, where you can take advantage of it being the fastest and most maneuverable of the core set ships.

The Nebulon Escort frigate; Depending on how relevent fighters wind up being, this may become a must have ship. Two anti fighter dice is really really good. Especially since it's anti ship feels really underwhelming in comparison.

Tie Fighters - They are disruptive chaff/tarpit. Like, they are terrible in a 1v1 versus an X-Wing, but in pairs they are incredibly strong (Since, turning 6 dice to 8 dice is really good thanks to swarm). I found it effective to send one in to try and engage as many squadrons as possible, and then gang up with the others to try and get and maintain a numbers advantage. They feel pretty ineffective against ships as well, so really you'll be using them either to delay fighters, or gang up on them.

X-Wings - As of yet, I'm a little undecided of them. I feel like they are meant to be the major part of the Rebels damage in the core set, but I've never actually been able to use them to direct attack the VSD, since Tie's are a pain. They are pretty good anti fighter though. And given I can't remember the stats of the other fighters, they'll probably stay that way.

Since I don't want to make this too wordy, I'll post more stuff that I discover after I've played a couple more games. I will say that there's about half a dozen upgrades that we've not had previewed in the Core Set. One of which is a little insane in theory. But I shall save that suprise for when ya'll get your own copies

good stuff, thanks for the initial thoughts.

First thought - beautiful box.

Second thought - **** the CR90 is tiny.

Third thought - when you take the CR90 out of the plastic it wasn't a good idea to pop it out by pushing it from the back and having it fly across the room and hit the wall. I can confirm it's a rugged ship!

First thought - beautiful box.

Second thought - **** the CR90 is tiny.

Third thought - when you take the CR90 out of the plastic it wasn't a good idea to pop it out by pushing it from the back and having it fly across the room and hit the wall. I can confirm it's a rugged ship!

Acheivement Unlocked: "Jump to Lightspeed!"

My first time playing it pretty much ended up being a "Lets meet in the middle" The CR90 was able to sneak into the Port side of the VSD and avoid the front cannons, while the Neb-B took a beating on his broadside. By the end of turn 6 the surviving X-wings had stripped the VSD of it's shields and the rebel ships were about to set up another attack run.

Played the intro scenario, and then a 180pt match with Objectives. Objectives make this game SING.

The Initial scenario is definitely a nice way to learn to remember all the things you have to do, but it also isn't nearly as enjoyable as the Objective stuff. The game ended with a win for the Rebels, as they had cleared out all the TIE fighters. No capital ships went down.

Then was the Objective match. I was Rebels again and had 176 pts, which gave me the choice of first player. I let the Imps have it and so drew two random Objectives and picked one. I selected "Intel Sweep" which allowed me to use my speed and maneuverability to grab various bits of Intel around the board and keep from getting blown up. I made my Corvette the scanner ship and went all out, but it still ended up being close as the Victory and Howlrunner put a beating on my Nebulon and X-Wings, but my Nebulon managed to barely escape and the 75pts I scored from the Objective were enough to seal the deal.

It was so crazy thematic, as my forces were so clearly out-gunned, but I had to rush in, grab the data, and then get the hell out while my forces distracted the main Imperial force and just tried not to die.

So good!

My impression after first go is that objectives are going to be a really critical and fun element in your games. Its amazing how it can shift deployment and change your priorities during the game. Once you know what you are doing, you should always use objectives.

Some other thoughts;

Tarkan is probably going to be worth every last point; When you've got things as lumbering as VSD's, the ability to get free command tokens is invaluable. Especially since it actually feels really bad to use a Repair command (That's in general, not just just for the VSD, the VSD just suffers worse for it). So being able to get free tokens is wonderful. He also mediates the issue of the Star Destroyers slow response time.

Dordonna feels much less wonderful. Whilst the idea of giving more reliable offensive crit damage is nice on paper, it really needs something like an Assualt Frigate to feel worthwhile. He'll probably scale into the game, but I'd rather just have Garm Bell Illis I think.

Some part of me really feels like you want to have a pretty similar amount of fighters as your fleets actual squadron value. One or two say Tie Interceptors to act as blockers to engage enemy formations due to there high speed, but otherwise you want to have Squadron commands available to co-ordinate your assualt. (And more importantly allow Squadrons to move AND fire, not or. Which will be big for like Tie Bomber's given they are speed 4).

I don't think B-Wings will be especially good as a result of that. Since move 2 feels like it will be crippling for a dedicated bomber. But, both A and Y Wings should be amazing. A-Wings, since intercepting enemy fighters to allow your X-Wings to either mop up or go onto ships will be great, and Y-Wings since 6 hull on a squadron is reaaaaally tanky.

I can already see a few potential build styles of Imperial Fleets opening up for now, and kinda the same for Rebels (But I think Rebels will change a lot more with Wave 1 than Imperials will, since getting a manfight ship will be pretty big indeed)

I also agree that Tarkin is awesome even at 38 points. Adding those extra commands is HUGE.

x-wings are very powerful if used correctly attacking capital ships. I've taken a beating from my wife hitting my victory on the flanks and rear.

Objectives as stated earlier really change the entire game. Once you've got the basics down add them as soon as you can!

The Neb B is much better that the corvette. Does more damage, very effective anti-squadron, just don't let it get hit from the side! I one shot killed it with my vic firing from the front and side arcs.

I have a few observations based on my first few plays; The Redemption title card doesn't seem particularly useful right now but I imagine with a pair of Assault frigates it'd be very handy. Also I believe Leia is extremely handy right now if you equip the cr90 with her; being able to essentially treat any rebel ship (Possibly the wave 2 Mon Cal Cruiser??!!) as having the same command value as the cr90 gives the rebel player flexibility and will allow the most powerful ships to react to anything your opponent does.

I played a solo game last night. :-) While I can't speak much to tactics, the mechanics feel solid.

I don't like how rolling too much accuracy can be a disadvantage. I feel that you should be able to change any unchanged accuracy into single hits. Squadrons seem hit or miss. As Rebels It feels like you need to spread out to keep from getting jammed up by TIEs. Commands are going to be fun to learn how to plan out. I feel like until there is a way to reveal multiple commands in a single turn, that the multiple command stack is a disadvantage.

so how do the rebel capital ships stack up to the imposing and awesome looking Victories?

do they have a prayer on their own or are the Xwings/Luke absolutely essential?

I'm especially interested in the Nebulons because they seem like a nice solid middle ground ship to get started with when making lists at higher point levels, plus all the titles seem really fun

I think the 2 rebel ships are more than a match for a single victory. They can easily out maneuver the cumbersome victory when it's on its own. If you Stay at long range and pick it off they have a good chance of taking it out.

I played a full 300 point game last night using 2 Nebs, 2 CR90S, Luke and 3 X-wings. Obviously there were upgrades. Went up against to VSDs and 12 fighter squadrons.

Definitely love the Nebulons anti fighter capabilities and its firepower still isn't anything to shrug at considering the red dice do have the double damage sides. Ended up rolling 6 damage on my opening salvo thanks to the objective giving me two additional dice on my opening salvo. Took out the first VSD in two rounds of shooting by focusing every ship on it. Left with only one of my Corvettes limping, but still kicking by keeping it at range and using the evades and redirects.

Love the speed of the CR90; being able to fly speed 4 through everything and get up behind the VSDs and get out of their facing arcs.

Fighters I feel are definitely a huge part of the game considering their maneuverability and numbers you can face when dealing with Empire. Even Tie Fighters can strip your ships of their shields one by one and take out some of the small ships if done right. Definitely need a few X-wings in your list to screen some ties and take them out fast. Luckily Rebels have lower command and you can get some Squadron commands going to shoot down the Ties during their initiative turn before they activate.

Leia on a CR90 is great, allowing her to use the Command 1 to choose the command of other ships within range 5 and change their top command after you reveal her ships command. Helps you recover from mistakes.

I played the learner game last night with a guy who never heard of Armada. He was rebels and I was imperials. I cleaned out both his ships and two squadrons while only losing one tie squad.

My thoughts:

VSD: large, slow, plan your moves well in advance. Think of it as a forward facing weapons platform. It will punish any ship that wanders into it's forward firing arc. I hit the Nebulon B's side with the front cannons and it tore right through the thin shields and armor. (A TIE squads went on to finish it off with one hit next turn.) with its armor, shields, redirect tokens, and brace token it is a formidable foe that is not to be underestimated or played with. It's slow speed and lack of turning makes it feel bulky and a little clumsy. Making a u-turn is slightly harder than keeping it on the board.

TIES: These little guys are decent in a swarm, but that leaves them open to being shot at by a ship with two anti-fighter dice. The guy I played against split his x-wing force so was able to pick off a few squads one by one. However the Nebulon B proved to be a dangerous ant-fighter ship.

Nebulon B: this ship gave me the most trouble obviously. My opponent made the mistake of charging my Vic with this and thus exposing his flank. However with it's speed, anti-fighter dice, squad control, and red dice it is a solid small ship in my opinion.

Blockade Runner: Small and fast without good ant-fighter capability, this ship is either a weak extra gun, or with upgrades it becomes a specialized commando style ship, capable of moving in and hitting a target at its weakest point. Please do not do what my opponent did and ram the front of a Vic with it as that is suicidal.

X-Wings: hard for me to say right now since hardly any of those squads got off a shot before being obliterated by my TIES. They are solid but since they were not used much in the game I played I can't say much about them.

I get the feeling the B-wings will be the Proton Torpedoes of Armada. FFG is drastically underestimating the importance of a squadron's speed when it comes to how quickly they can fire on enemy ships and being able to avoid engagement.

I get the feeling the B-wings will be the Proton Torpedoes of Armada. FFG is drastically underestimating the importance of a squadron's speed when it comes to how quickly they can fire on enemy ships and being able to avoid engagement.

sounds like the X-wing's getting its revenge

I'm loving it so far. Had a couple of LtP games which were good. Then had a 200 point "proper" game and it was so much better. The objectives really add some strategic depth to the game, and the upgrades really mix it up.

One pleasant surprise was how crippling the crits tend to be, they really can be a game changer. I also love how the fighters fit into the game.

Hopefully going to have a 300 pointer tomorrow, can't wait