I find that the objectives are the most interesting aspect to the game, more so as fleet building adjusts for future waves.

In the core set you have a fleet of tanks and a fleet of nimble objective snatchers.

Add in wave 1, and both sides can build a fleet of tanks and objective snatchers, you also add a balanced fleet that can play either way but perhaps not as well as those built for that mission set.

Add in wave 2, and the fleets are somewhat more symmetrical. From here on we should expect quite some variety in mission selection and fleets that play to their mission choices.

Also the mission choices are not static choices. There could be commanders that change the mission selection rules, say to pick two red missions, what would that do to the Imperial fleets and how many points would they forego to get the choice to be second player? What if additional mission categories were added, a set of green missions say? You could even go so far as to add a commander that gives you access to those missions but only if you take that commander.

The core set has brought with it the concept of mission imbalance, the two fleets and their best mission selections are distinctly different. So we are being shown that the missions are not always fair. The process of picking the mission makes this imbalance fair. If you feel you need to play your missions play less points, if you don't then you accept that you play your opponents missions.

My final hope is that in having many missions the ability to craft a good fleet will not be about taking this ship and this upgrade and so on. But rather the choices will be more fluid and allow players more scope in fleet design.

There is a great deal of strategy in objective selection and fleet building. While you can certainly build your fleet and choose Objectives to work well, you have to make sure your fleet is flexible enough to play the other Objectives as well.

Currently, my main opponent (rebel scum) and I are playing different Objectives each mission, so that we can get a feel for how they play. So far only one, Opening Salvo, did not have much impact. Technically it gave the Rebels an advantage, since they had more ships (4 to my 2) and thus got more bonus dice. In effect, it didn't affect the outcome.

I think the Objectives will give even more replayability to Armada than X-Wing.