*edit* oh did i mention that less plastic sitting around doing nothing but collecting dust is also a good thing to note? yep. i'd much rather make use of said plastic rather than filling up another shelf in my display case with ships that are doing nothing but collecting dust, all for the sake of "viewing purposes"

Oh a good point! I wanted to weld additional steel rods in the frame of my glas display box halfway between to current boards to support m04r boards! Perfect thing to do today instead of working on my thesis.

Just my two cents, each point of which I think has already been said at least once;

1. No reason you can't use proxies in a friendly game, if you are so inclined. Do whatever floats your boat. Tournaments though, are a different animal. If you are trying to field a competitive list on a budget, you may need to do some trading for singles. If you are fortunate enough to be part a decent sized community playing the game, this shouldn't pose too much difficulty. If not, there's always the internet. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if some individual cards went up on ebay or what have you.

2. I can't blame FFG for trying to incentivize the purchase of multiple models. It's a business. If their model doesn't make them money, then its self-correcting behavior.

3. I don't know that it's fair to compare Armada to games like 40K, but it IS considerably cheaper and far more accessible than games of that ilk. I used to play wizkid's MageKnight back in the day, and at least in Armada I know what I'm buying and can purchase only the units I actually want to play with. Comparable initial investment for tournament play, imo.