As the title says, I am new to armada, having only played one game, and I have a couple of questions regarding game play.

1. Fighter squadrons - what are their purpose? I have the squadron expansion for both rebs and imps, however in game play, they seem to just get bogged down in engaged dogfights for the entire game. Are there abilities that will allow the squads to keep moving past enemy fighter screens so I can drop my ordinace on capital ships? Do I have to keep adding interceptors/a-wings to the frey untill I come out victorious in a timely manner?

2. Reb power versus imp power - Why arent they properly represented? The Rebels power has always been in their fighters. With their on board light drives and sheilds, they are designed to be quick, agile, heavy hitters. The imperials, on the other hand, have their power in their capital ships. a single ISD (granted in know it hasnt been released yet) would strike fear into any rebel ship in its path, while it empties its cheap fighters in an endless swarm.

While I notice that Ties are universally cheaper (and weaker) than their rebel counter part, I cant field mostly fighters with a couple of capital ships for support which is something the rebels would do, and thrive on it. Also a CR90 should not be able to take out a VSD. I feel that the Fighters for the rebels are wasted points, and the only reason to take them is to prevent the Imp bombers from wrecking havoc on your capital ships.

3. Mission/Turn limit - understandable for tourny play, but SOP for regular play? Why is this the case? by turn six in the game I was playing, our ships had just entered medium range of one another on a regulation size board. The game was over before it really got started, and the only reason I won was because my ship with the upgraded weapons scored the only kill of the game, an x-wing squad that got too close.

I feel a little underwhelmed to say the least for my first experience, and would like your guys and gals help in order to make this a more enjoyable experience. I want to love this game so hard. The Battle over Endor is my favorite piece of cinematic moments of all time, and the interaction of large scale battles like that are what made games xwing, tiefighter, and empire at war with it.

Any list suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated... I have the core set, mk II, and GSD with both fighter expansions. I have come to love Demolisher GSD to beable to fire after moving.

1) Squadrons do get bogged down. There are ways through upgrades to take advantage of this and bog down your opponents squadrons first.

2) Firepower are represented properly. In the EU, there are many examples of the Imperial Navy respecting the strength of the rebels ships, not just their squadron’s strength.

3) You slow played till turn 6? *slow clap* I have never seen that done before. It is actually impressive.

The game actually goes by quickly. I have a feeling that you and your opponent were very unused to the speed and a possibly set up outside of the deployment area and instead were deployed in the corners of the 3'x6'

This is a tactical heavy game. Choices and decisions made become critical fast and at times a single mistake can lose you the game. That makes it fun.

To 've honest most players right now feel that fighters are a little underwhelming, but They can still be made to work and are a ton of fun (at least in casual play)

Once you get use to the turn limit it really makes sense, it makes sure that the game actually happens in a timely matter and most of the time assuming you are trying to get into range you should be fully engaged with your opponent by about turn 3 with light fire exchanged turn 2.

I personally thought they did excellent at making the factions feel correct. Generally the imps want a strait up fight and generally the rebels are better at hit and run and will be trying to play the objective which feels thematic to me.

It is also always possible that you have a few rules misconceptions at first (which EVERYONE has had when we first started) that may potentially be detracting from your experience, I would look up local gamer stores or check this forum for a group that plays and play a couple games with experienced players if you haven't all ready.

He is right. . . Everyone has had a rules misconception at least once.

I love tactical games. Laviathans from Catalyst is still one of my favorite games, and its a VERY tactical heavy game.

that being said, a rules misconception is highly possible. my opponiate was a first time player too (my wife) no we did not set up on corners of the 3x6. we set up in the deployment zone. we just happened to stay speed 1 because we were both too carefull and not sure what we were doing.

That's fine. Imperials need to be daring, rebels what to stay at range and use their speed to evade the Imperials and do some damage.

With squadrons, Imperials want to bog down Rebel squadrons and rebel squadrons want to bog down their squadron while the rest of the squadrons make attack runs.

Also, did you play with objectives? I find they tend to light a fire under each sides' proverbial behinds, and they change the game drastically from just "shoot your opponent". Once both sides understand you only have 6 turns to accomplish your mission, you'll see much less sitting in the backfield at speed 1.

Yes we did. the objective was "enchanced weponary" the only kill of the game was an X-wing squad which also happened to fulfill an objective... so double points?

either way it is what caused the win.

If you are first player and you want to be cautious, try setting up in the middle of the table. That way you can cut left or right or just go straight and not give too much away to your opponent. If you set up in a corner then you give your opponent the chance to split up your ships or keep you in the corner.

If you are playing less than 300 points I would suggest a 3x4' table as avoid the "run away" problem, at 300+ the 3x6 board is rather tight.

How did you only get into medium range by turn 6? I mean, I almost did that once, but I had rebel ships at speed 3-4 intentionally skirting the front arcs of three VSDs. We still had ships in medium range by round 4-5.

The board is 3x6 if you are playing 300+, but only 3x3 if you are playing 170. Using suggested sizes and fleet totals, you are free to do whatever you want. Were you starting on the 6' edges, setting up 3' from each other? I guess the other way you might not even be at long range after 5 rounds so that doesn't really make sense.

Think of the 6-turn limit as representing the ability of the Rebellion to make the jump to lightspeed before Imperial reinforcements arrive.

Remember that the Galactic Civil War is a situation of asymmetric warfare between a legitimate government, and a rag-tag band of terrorists seeking to undermine galactic law and order. Just like terrorists and insurgencies everywhere, the strategy is not about holding territory, but about attempting to slowly sap the government's desire to fight. The Rebellion therefore engages in hit-and-run tactics, and turn 6 represents the moment when the astrogation crews have plotted the escape and the ships can get out of the system.

Yes we did. the objective was "enchanced weponary" the only kill of the game was an X-wing squad which also happened to fulfill an objective... so double points?

either way it is what caused the win.

How did the X-Wing become an objective ship? They are a squadron not a ship. Squadrons can not be selected as an objective if it says ship.

1. Fighter squadrons are only really good against other fighter squadrons. Having said that, I feel that the Rebels have much more anti-ship punch than the Imperials. So far, my games have been no-squadron fleet builds but my inital games had me playing with squadrons and I usually win these fights. However, I was hesitant to put my Ties in range of enemy Rebel ships as their anti-squadron dice are much better than the Imperial ships, so once I won the squadron war, I felt that my fighters were rendered useless.

However, with regards to your questions, yes. Admiral Chiraneau allows engaged ships to move out of engagement, and there are other cards that introduce interesting changes to the fighter battle mechanic as well.

At first, I was not really happy with their "fight to the death" idea of squadron engagements, but I do see the point now. If you have a couple of fighters bearing down on you, you can't really pursue your original mission until you get those fighters off your back.


2. As I've said, Rebel fighters are much better than Imperial fighters in terms of anti-ship attacks. They also have more HP, to represent having shields. I've had so many Ties die after one attack from an X-Wing and the only reason I've won the squadron battles is because I've got more fighters and I have interesting effects... Mauler, Howl, and Fel were my favorites.


3. For in-your-own-home play, you can indeed play with unlimited turns. For tourneys, well, you can see how that cannot be possible.

As for your own game experience, remember that you can set your ships to go max speed from the start. That'll be speed 4 for some Rebel ships and speed 3 for some Imperial ships. Of course if you both set up on opposite corners of the board and set each ship at speed 1, then you'll run out of turns quick. Set up facing each other directly and set you ships at max speed and you'll be firing by turn 2.

However, remember that sometimes, it's not all about who kills what. Objective cards might mean one side wants to rush the other while one side just has to sit and protect a certain objective.


Hope that helps!

There is a lot of good advice above so I have two pieces of wisdom for you

First - Buy extra dice.

Second - this is a great game take a breath and don't feel overwhelmed, Armada is not even 1 year old and a lot of us are still trying to figure everything out. I think with Fighters FFG will prop have some changes coming in the next waves to come out. They do a great job with there games making everything usable and fixing that which is not. There is a lot of feeling fighter sqauds at a competitive level just don't match up to the ships, or that Rebels are under powered. All I can say is keep asking questions and keep getting in games things tend to make more sense after a couple games or so. We the forum, are here to help out when needed.

Welcome and enjoy it is one of the best table top games out there and you picked a great time to begin the journey.

Squadrons bog down squadrons because squadrons are the most effective counter to squadrons

Knowing how to break a screen (sometimes with cap ship support) while keeping your ships safe is essential to using them

Squadrons have a bit of a learning curve because they're a unique game mechanic reliant on your positioning (relative to tour opponent AND your own ships). The fact that younlose if you lose all your cap ships complicates things

Reb squadrons are beast (esp the bwing) and their ships are quite agile and apt at hit and run except for the neb (unless you ignore arcs keep long range and go full squadron support)

Try flying a couple of B-wings (with escorts) out in front of say Yavaris.. That keeps that annoying Demolisher think twice before rushing in.. To attacks from 2 B-wings really hurts !