As of today Armada is cheaper, Understand though that X-wing is in its 7th wave of ships where Armada is at its 2nd. Though i would take a shot in the dark and guess that Armada will be cheaper in the long run.

Certainly a more impressive experience. Armada, being the fleet game as it is, hasn't even begun to hit its full potential.

X-Wing on the other hand feels like it's starting to plateau out, even with scum's release. The newest excitement to the game has been Huge ships and even they aren't getting as much playtime as they perhaps deserve. Though scum offers a bunch of new upgrade categories, it isn't the same as when turrets appeared.

I think I am helping myself by only buying one faction. However, I may need to e-bay other upgrade cards not in the Rebel sets. I also had a lot of trades form Magic, so that's helped mitigate cost.

I wish they had released the starfighters differently. I'd rather pay $6-7 for each fighter type (bundles of two) than $20 for four fighter types.

I wish they had released the starfighters differently. I'd rather pay $6-7 for each fighter type (bundles of two) than $20 for four fighter types.

SKUs are killers for minis companies. That's why so many of them package in bundles rather than individuals.

Less SKUs equal smaller catalogs. This means less individual products taking up shelf space in LGSs. Which by extension means those stores are more likely to be able to devote space to your product.

Malifaux does this as well, Masters (the 39 different commander models), their themed henchmen, and their themed totems are only available in single combo boxes. Warmahordes is doing this more often and even that old dinosaur GW is having to turn to this (the Dark Elf Warrior box can make 1 of 3 or 4 models).

I wish they had released the starfighters differently. I'd rather pay $6-7 for each fighter type (bundles of two) than $20 for four fighter types.

SKUs are killers for minis companies. That's why so many of them package in bundles rather than individuals.

Less SKUs equal smaller catalogs. This means less individual products taking up shelf space in LGSs. Which by extension means those stores are more likely to be able to devote space to your product.

Malifaux does this as well, Masters (the 39 different commander models), their themed henchmen, and their themed totems are only available in single combo boxes. Warmahordes is doing this more often and even that old dinosaur GW is having to turn to this (the Dark Elf Warrior box can make 1 of 3 or 4 models).

That makes sense. I figured it was more of a production decision (I was thinking product packaging costs and such).

As someone who plays X-wing I can tell you the following would be true for competitive play,

1) you’re going to buy at least 3 of each small ship,(with exception of the E-wing and Tie Defender) Ships like the Z95, B-wing, Tie Fighter will require more ships then the standard 3. Right now in my Area 4 B-wings and 1 Z95 is a hot list to fly. Also certain upgrade cards only come with some ships, if you want more than 1 of them your locked into buy more.

2) you’re going to buy at least 2 of each large ship. Slave is a 3 purchase and the shuttle could be 4.

3) you’re going to buy 1 of each epic. (C-3PO is in the Tantive IV and is a must have card for Falcon Lists) Also if there is a local tournament that is doing epic battles you want to have the ships) also with epic you are allowed to have 12 of each small and 6 of each large.

4) you’re going to buy 2 core sets. (the extra tie figthers and x-wing fill out lists nicely and its good to have extra dice and 1 extra ruler to cut into a range 1, and range 2)

(prices for all ships from http://www.miniaturemarket.com/table-top-miniatures/x-wing.html?dir=asc&order=name&p=1 )

The following is in my opinion the breakdown for each side for having many different comp lists. (also with things like aces or the raider fixing an older ship that is not played keep in mind a tweak from FFG can make any ship back into the meta)

2 Core Set 53.98

Rebels

1 of Each

Tantive (61.49) Trans (41.37)

2 of Each

YT-1300 (19.99) YT-2400 (19.99) Rebel Aces (19.99) E-Wing (9.99) X-wing (9.99) B-wings (9.99) A-wings (9.99) *K-wing (13.77) If the cost of a loaded out K-wing is less then 25 3 would be bought

3 of Each

Hwk (9.99) Y-wing (9.99)

4 of Each

Z-95 (9.99)

Total 496.30

Imperial

Raider (68.97)

2 of Each

VT-49 (27.57) Tie Defender (9.99) Phanton (9.99) Advance (9.99) Imp Aces (19.99) Fighter (9.99)

3 of Each

Shuttle (19.99) Slave 1 (19.99) Bomber (9.99) Intercepters (9.99) Punisher (13.57)

Total 395.63

Scum

2 of Each

IG-2000 (19.99) Hound (27.57) StarViper (13.77)

3 of Each

Most Wanted (27.57)

4 of Each

M3-A (9.99) Kihraxz (9.99)

Total 285.29

Grand Total 1231.20

Heres the breakdown for Armada Ships from Min Market ( http://www.miniaturemarket.com/table-top-miniatures/star-wars-armada.html#/?_=1&page=1&filter.stock_facet_ext=In%20Stock&sort.name=asc )

Core Set 68.97

Maneuver Tool 5.49

Dice 6.87

Total 81.33

Rebel

2 of Each

Rebel Fighter Squadrons (13.77) CR90 Corellian Corvette (13.77) Nebulon-B Frigate (13.77)

3 of Each

MC30c Frigate (19.99) Assault Frigate Mark II (27.57) Home One (27.57)

Total 225.30

Imperial

1 of Each

Rogues and Villains Expansion (13.77)

2 of Each

Imperial Fighter Squadrons (13.77) Imperial-class Star Destroyer (34.47)

3 of Each

Imperial Raider (13.77) Gladiator-Class Star Destroyer (19.99) Victory-Class Star Destroyer (27.57)

Total 294.24

Grand Total 600.87

As of today Armada is cheaper, Understand though that X-wing is in its 7th wave of ships where Armada is at its 2nd. Though i would take a shot in the dark and guess that Armada will be cheaper in the long run.

Well of course the collection of X-wing is more expensive than Armada. X-wing has had a head start for a couple of years, but will that make Armada cheaper in the long run? Well if X-wing continues down the path where a new wave starts to cost $95-$105 to get 1 of each pack (up from $60-$90 for waves 1-5) then it looks like they might be catching up to the same cost patter as Armada where a wave will cost $120-$180.

Now you brought up a good point where as with X-wing it is common to have doubles or so of the models and fill out a squadron where you can get 3-4 or even 8 of the small ships and 2-3 of the large ships. With Armada well looking at squadrons in order to get a full point limit of Y-wings or TIE interceptors you will need 5 squadron packs. As for the capital ships you could field 4-5 of the small ships and 2-3 of the large ships, though having say 3 Victory Star Destroyers is not the same as having 3 Bounty Hunters on the field. You don't need to necessarily double up on anything from either of these games but I do think Armada will have double requirements as well.

As for upgrades well that depends. Sure there are some upgrades you want more of but there is also a lot of upgrades that are unique (such as lone wolf) and other non-unique upgrades that get re-released in later waves. So for upgrades I don't really count the cost for those. For competitive players that know exactly what type of squadron they want to make they will likely know which expansion pack or packs they need and will get only those packs or save money and pull them off eBay for those controversial C-3PO card.

You also brought up Epic packs and the aces packs which came out in 2014 in which Armada does not have any. So really when comparing which will be cheaper to keep up with it depends on what the year cost of the product releases are.So for X-wing there is on average 2 waves ($60-$105) + a special expansion pack ($30-$100) as Armada we can make an educated guess that there will be 2 waves a year ($160-$190 from what data we have so far). However when you take a look at releases with Waves X-wing was a little slow. In 2014 it shot up from core set and 3 waves from 2012 to 5 waves and 4 epic/aces packs. So who is to say that Armada will not follow the same pattern of a slow first 2 years then a big boom? As of now it appears cheaper to keep up with Armada but I honestly don't think this year will reflect future years of releases with Armada.

However I think Armada will be the higher cost hobby. The main reason will be model count. Armada does not have the same model count per game as X-wing where it is common for a player to bring only 2 models thus the model count for the game can range from 4 large ship models to 16 small ship models, where as Armada 16 is likely the lowest model count (including squadrons). So a game of Armada has more of a model count on par with a game of Warmachines/Hordes than that of X-wing.

However I think Armada will be the higher cost hobby. The main reason will be model count. Armada does not have the same model count per game as X-wing where it is common for a player to bring only 2 models thus the model count for the game can range from 4 large ship models to 16 small ship models, where as Armada 16 is likely the lowest model count (including squadrons). So a game of Armada has more of a model count on par with a game of Warmachines/Hordes than that of X-wing.

I respect this opinion,

Really its going to come down to the person playing and if they want to fly a ton of ship or just a few, both games have that idea built into it. On the ebay thing I found cards between 3-7 dollars. For that price i would much rather just buy a new ship if its something that would come in a smaller ship pack, though 5 for a CPO vs 64 for a Tat would be much more do able.