If I play a game I want to be competitive with said game. To be competitive with X-Wing in any given meta will require that that I have access to the options that other players who have been playing as long.

I have played MTG, played Commander in fact and even legacy. I had to stop the because I got bored because in the end I could tell what could happen more often than naught.

This game is sustainable but I don't expect more than 2 waves a year. Any more and it may have issues.

I do expect half waves though like X-Wing Aces packs. Those will be nice.

If I play a game I want to be competitive with said game. To be competitive with X-Wing in any given meta will require that that I have access to the options that other players who have been playing as long.

I never played a game in my life that require me to have all its content to be competitive. I'm sure I can pick up a competitive list with a couple of complement to adapt myself to the meta and if I play well, I'll be all right.

I have played MTG, played Commander in fact and even legacy. I had to stop the because I got bored because in the end I could tell what could happen more often than naught.

That is quite weird, especially for commander (the most unpredictable format), but if you feel bored sure you should stop. Anyway that doesn't invalidate the point I am trying to make.

This game is sustainable but I don't expect more than 2 waves a year.

The rhythm of release is proportional to the commercial success of the game to a certain limit of course. So if Armada become very popular sure they will release waves more than twice a year, if you know that a product makes good profit you will try to sell more of it, that is basic business logic.

Any more and it may have issues.

I will be interested to know what issues you are talking about?

I played MTG and a competitive deck would include (sideboard) answers against several things you'd meet in your meta. Ofcourse there were always specialized decks that didn't care what the opponent is doing, but just raced their own combo/aggro stuff.

You could have Tier 2 competitive decks worth of merely 100-200 dollars or dig deep and have Tier 1 decks of 1000+

SW Armada is different, no sideboard, so your fleet has to be able to deal with various other fleets and every item is still purchasable against retail prices. In my opinion that means that you don't need every expansion, but just the ones that you think are necessary to build your basic fleet that is either specialized enough to race the opponent or has enough answers to deal with whatever the opponent comes up with (at least run a couple of fighter squadrons).

With 2 waves a year at a retail price of roughly 150 dollars per wave to get 1 of each, I really doubt this game is sustainable if you believe you need at least 1 of each and several of others just to have access to the options other players may come up with. It basically means that you force yourself to being able to build every possible configuration.

If you 'need' to build competitive fleets (I'm just playing this game casual, so don't care about that, I intend to just buy the ships I want, until someday I might be able to run 1000 point games for kicks) and are worried about the investment, then it's better to focus on 1 side (rebels/imperials) and then try to find a balanced fleet-composition that can beat the majority or some specialized fleet that either ROFLSTOMPs the enemy or lose terribly

Highjacked Thread.

The gameplay is definitely not good enough to keep my interest without the Star Wars tag. Neither is X Wing. If they were generic sci-fi or WWII games, I never would have picked them up.

Not good enough? I hardly see how they could do better, different sure but better.

I guess better is a subjective term. BFG is a better game, IMO.

This isn't a game that needs 8 waves of models. A game should have a tight focus, to keep it's identity and brand 'pure' and to keep it's development focused. Constantly spamming more and more obscure ships because we HAVE to have another wave only hurts the game.

It is actually quite the opposite , Star Wars Armada just like every other game that is aiming for the long term with community and tournament support needs to release new things to survive, it is factual.

This is untrue. Many historical games thrive with no new units being released for, well, thousands of years. Many board games remain extremely balanced and competitive without needing hundreds of new playing pieces to be released. FFG is pumping out waves for their Star Wars games because they will only have the licence for a few years and want to maximise their profits in that time. They aren't trying to build a game that lasts forever, they're trying to build one that will be super-duper popular for at least the next five to ten years, and after that they don't care.

No it doesn't. If a game adds too many options it becomes inaccessible for new players, unfriendly to casual players, loses it's identity and focus, and ultimately crumbles under it's own weight.

those examples demonstrate pretty well that games do not crumble on their own weight , they just grow stronger and deeper.

Those examples demonstrate that it's possible to grow deeper and stronger. But there are other examples that indicate the opposite. WHFB was just cancelled after 25 years, 40K is losing market share, etc. Mark my words, if X Wing and Armada continue their current rate of expansion they will implode within a decade.

I guess better is a subjective term. BFG is a better game, IMO.

The gameplay is indeed subjective, balance however isn't , the one of BFG is well .... ridiculously bad.

This is untrue. Many historical games thrive with no new units being released for, well, thousands of years. Many board games remain extremely balanced and competitive without needing hundreds of new playing pieces to be released.

Well quote me one game that manage to be popular with no new content, and when I say popular don't make me laugh with historical games because they represent almost nothing in the current game market.

The only example I have in mind is Starcraft BW , the only reason why it was kept alive is because of the E-sport in Korea and now the game is almost dead because of SC2 which is also dying for this exact reason (the meta is completely stale not enough shake up not enough new content despite the expansion).

FFG is pumping out waves for their Star Wars games because they will only have the licence for a few years and want to maximise their profits in that time. They aren't trying to build a game that lasts forever, they're trying to build one that will be super-duper popular for at least the next five to ten years, and after that they don't care.

If their Star Wars' games are successful they will extent the contract believe me. If they are not trying to build the game for the long term then, their community/tournament support policy is pointless, so I assume they are.

WHFB was just cancelled after 25 years, 40K is losing market share, etc. Mark my words, if X Wing and Armada continue their current rate of expansion they will implode within a decade.

The reason of those declines is simply because of a very very very poor community support and ridiculous price growth, I am well aware of this because that is the reason why I switched to other publisher like FFG despite playing 40k for more than 10 years. So it has nothing to do with the releases rhythm which is currently what is keeping 40k alive and the lack of it killed slowly WHFB before it got smashed by its own creator.

To come back on the initial subject you should play Armada because FFG is not GW , there are not stupid.That is one of the main reason why I switched, beside the very good gameplay and the Star Wars Universe.

I guess better is a subjective term. BFG is a better game, IMO.

The gameplay is indeed subjective, balance however isn't , the one of BFG is well .... ridiculously bad.

I absolutely loved Battlefleet Gothic and I have to agree here. It's a really enjoyable game, but it isn't even remotely balanced.The further you get away from Imperials vs. Chaos (Orks aren't too bad in there either), the more lopsided games could become. Eldar vs. Orks in general was just ugly to watch for the Orks, and don't even get me started on Necrons...