So I'm thinking that Armada is going to have some serious difficulty in tournaments if it ends up being as popular as X-Wing. The 6' x 3' size of play surface isn't going to be easy for many shops to accomodate IMO. Using standard folding tables, you will end up needing 3 of them, or some other custom solution to provide a large enough flat surface.

And even at that point you can only hold half as many people. It seems like Armada will only be tournament playable at the very large gaming stores. I've got two gaming stores in my local area that are small to medium sized, and I can see them accomodating 3 games simultaneously tops. Kinda stinks.

40k or Fantasy tournaments and events require even more space and they have been going on for a long time already (withouth GW support, of course). I don't know shops in your area, but in mine they can easilly accomodate 16 player tournaments for 40k, so it's not hard to have the same for Armada.

You could just get a full sized 8x4 MDF board and then mark the playing surface. Just place it on a table and make sure not to learn to heavily on the edgees

This is similar to what we did back in the days of Mage-knight by wizids when we needed a 3x3 playing field.

Warhammer players seem to have no issues brining two tables together and placing a flocked MDF on top

Our store has standard plastic topped folding tables (72x30) used for most gaming. When a wider surface is needed there are MDF (72x36) boards with 1x runners on the bottom that do a great job of locking them over the standard tables. They are placed along a wall for storage when not needed. Ours are painted green (grass), brown (desert) and white (snow) but often get covered with craft paper or colored fabric for tournaments

True, the store that I go to could accommodate a 10 person tournament, which is plenty for right now, but in the future it might not be big enough.

I know of 2-3 in the area that could accommodate about 20 players. Interestingly those are also the stores that keep the play area in the same space as the merchandise, rather than in a separate back room.

I can definitely see the issue. At my LGS, Warmachine/Hordes, Infinity, Xwing and other 4x4 or smaller table games as well as card games have forced the 40k guys away on all other days than their "own" day (Warhammer Fantasy seems to have been chased away entirely). The regular wednesday minigame day simply could not accomodate them for table sizes and terrain requirements. Especially since they wanted to play 8x6 megabattles.

If the shop makes some 3x6 tables that might work for armada, shaving away a foot on the table to allow other games more space. But for now they have to use the 4x6 GW tables. Which isn't ideal.

4 by 6 isn't bad as it allows each player 6 inches of table space before the actually deployment zones for cards and tokens.

Not too many tables come wider than 30 inches (standard card table) unless that game shop has come bling and space, and bought bigger tables. Most tables are standard card tables, 30 inches by 6 or 8 feet (or square). I am sure that the popular game size of 36x36 does match a vendor that can supply those tables to game stores. But they won't be your typical table. For instance, where I live, it will be nearly impossible, or impossible for me to rent a table more than 30 inches deep if I wanted to host my own bigger than average tournament ( I know because I set up a huge party every year). I know the local community areas like churches - where you might be able to cheaply rent space if you wanted to create your own tournament has tables that are 6 bingo cards deep - that is they aren't 36 inches deep. It will be a challenge. Uline.com does not even sell a 36 in deep table unless you find a custom work table.

4 by 6 is standard for other miniature games (several Ancients systems, Flames of War) and can be easily accommodated at venues like hotels and such.

At my LGS we've never had issues u tiling the normal tables that you'd buy at a big box discount store for any table top game. We simply lay the correct larger boardsize overtop.