I have been seeing a lot of people stating that their communities of Armada are dying and I am wondering what those of you here are doing to keep interest in this game and doing to build your community.

What advice would you give those who believe their community is "dying" or in the death throes in order to save them and build them back up?

So what am I doing in my area? Well, I am floundering. I am creating a league but we get maybe 3 to 5 players each Friday. I have a ton of people test the game out and like it but I am wondering on what I can do to drum up more interest?

I plan on trying to get a tournament either early December or Sometime early in the new year. My one holdup is knowing the one guy is waiting for Wave 2 to buy in. Locally, I only know of 3 of us with core sets. I'd need to draw some out of towners to have a better tournament.

Regardless, I think if I can get a tournament to happen, it will get some attention. I also know the local store will be on the news later in November, and I plan on going there to play (I'm hoping I can get Armada on TV, X Wing is the most likely one however).

I also started my local Facebook group for FFG Star Wars games (see below). So far it's only 20 people, mostly X Wing, but any sense of community is a good thing.

Mikael Hasselstein is working on a website to help bring all the seperate Facebook pages and meetup groups to one location that people can go to. He is planning business cards for each of the stores in the area and maybe fliers.

I think it is a great idea!

I know the Facebook groups help with spreading info and organizing games. Unless you hate FB, it's the best system short of these boards currently.

I know the Facebook groups help with spreading info and organizing games. Unless you hate FB, it's the best system short of these boards currently.

I'm working on starting a league with a fellow gamer.

I'm hoping that with a league we will see more people play. Right now, it's pretty much he and I, but after sullust we've been joined by another gamer (captain ict here) and hope it will build from here.

I'm not sure what to do about getting people interested in buying into the game however. I'm toying with the idea of buying a couple cores and giving those to the first 2 players who sign up for the league. The conditions being along the lines of 1) they can't keep the core until the league completes and they actively participate in a percentage of games or weeks, 2) that the core will be held by me or the other guy helping me which they will use for each game, 3) they pay up front the sign up fee to the league.

My thoughts are that this will get a couple new players into the game and that it will generate interest in them playing because they can earn a game. I'm not sure if this will work or not. If it does work, then long term goal will be at least 1 core for the first new person to sign up to the league each time it resets using the league money to offset the cost.

Will have to see how this goes.

Our Facebook group is the hub of our activities in San Antonio. I can usually expect to post on there a day or two ahead of time and get a game, often with a few others showing up to play too. Tvayumat and Brikhause have been pretty faithful in putting together tournaments regularly; I don't think a month has gone by since I started playing this summer that we haven't had at least one, sometimes 2 or 3 in a month.

All of our players are pretty outspoken Armada evangelists, who will talk to people who come over to see what those star destroyers are on that table over there. A few of our core folks have started putting together a league with a campaign narrative, which we've gotten a ton of interest in.

Great support from several FLGS's has helped quite a bit too. We have a good five or six stores that support the game in varying degrees, and we can pretty much always find somewhere to play when we have time.

I feel like we have a pretty good perfect storm of friendly players and good store support here.

Part of what helped the initial spread here, I think, was one guy (Brikhause) just up and bought a ton of crap, and lent out whole fleets to people to get them hooked. The man is a regular drug pusher.

I am thinking of getting a few more cores as well. . .

I am thinking of getting a few more cores as well. . .

I've debated on one more core. Maybe the next sale around. I'm expecting to see another $50/60 this holiday. I mean casual play I'll gladly just use one damage deck and lend out a fleet.

Part of what helped the initial spread here, I think, was one guy (Brikhause) just up and bought a ton of crap, and lent out whole fleets to people to get them hooked. The man is a regular drug pusher.

So much this.

The game sells itself once you get somebody moving ships on the table.

Being a staunch Armada Evangelist helps, too. I had two fresh faces pondering buying into 40k tonight while I was packing up my ships tonight. Started talking to them about wargames, wound up talking them into buying one of the core sets on the shelf instead.

Part of what helped the initial spread here, I think, was one guy (Brikhause) just up and bought a ton of crap, and lent out whole fleets to people to get them hooked. The man is a regular drug pusher.

So much this.

The game sells itself once you get somebody moving ships on the table.

Being a staunch Armada Evangelist helps, too. I had two fresh faces pondering buying into 40k tonight while I was packing up my ships tonight. Started talking to them about wargames, wound up talking them into buying one of the core sets on the shelf instead.

Part of what helped the initial spread here, I think, was one guy (Brikhause) just up and bought a ton of crap, and lent out whole fleets to people to get them hooked. The man is a regular drug pusher.

So much this.

The game sells itself once you get somebody moving ships on the table.

Being a staunch Armada Evangelist helps, too. I had two fresh faces pondering buying into 40k tonight while I was packing up my ships tonight. Started talking to them about wargames, wound up talking them into buying one of the core sets on the shelf instead.

How did you pull that off?

Part of what helped the initial spread here, I think, was one guy (Brikhause) just up and bought a ton of crap, and lent out whole fleets to people to get them hooked. The man is a regular drug pusher.

So much this.

The game sells itself once you get somebody moving ships on the table.

Being a staunch Armada Evangelist helps, too. I had two fresh faces pondering buying into 40k tonight while I was packing up my ships tonight. Started talking to them about wargames, wound up talking them into buying one of the core sets on the shelf instead.

How did you pull that off?

Back to 40k for you then.

I think the game is getting stale, it has been delayed and held back for too long and 5 ships just doesn't give it any long term variety. I would almost be inclined to suggest that rather than release a wave 3, future ships should be released on a bi-monthly schedule something more alike FFGs living card games. I think a small trickle of new stuff may be a bigger help than one big release every 6 months and then have that delayed by 2-3 months for whatever reasons.

Which is further problematic for me as the game gets to the US then has to ship back to Australia, so even once it comes out there I still have a 4-6 week wait. So having 6 releases each year just means that the first is agonising and then after that they just float in on a regular basis. This too, may help with the cost of buying new toys, as you haven't a big purchase to hide away from the missus. 2 of everything wave 2 is about $500au and that is rather hard to hide, but a $200 spend every other month is easily going to be manageable.

I suspect that with wave 2 people will come back as they find the game gains more variety.

I still find a bunch of variety in list building. There is so much skill that needs to be learned from each possible list

I think the LCG model of regular pack releases could work well. Maybe it's more of a manufacturing decision. Economies of scale and all that.

Also it's easier than balance the game if you release it all at once. Also, say the ISD came out first, and the rebels have to wait a month for the MC80, but it gets delayed, for 3 months........ I can see that would be suboptimal!

I think the LCG model of regular pack releases could work well. Maybe it's more of a manufacturing decision. Economies of scale and all that.

Also it's easier than balance the game if you release it all at once. Also, say the ISD came out first, and the rebels have to wait a month for the MC80, but it gets delayed, for 3 months........ I can see that would be suboptimal!

Tournaments would never see any rest. . . It would be chaotic. . .

Mikael Hasselstein is working on a website to help bring all the seperate Facebook pages and meetup groups to one location that people can go to. He is planning business cards for each of the stores in the area and maybe fliers.

I think it is a great idea!

Thanks, though I'd rephrase what the website does. I see it's primary functions as being a portal where people who are not yet connected to the communities can find a group (or multiple groups) that best suit their needs.

The main thing we want to prevent is people failing to get into the game because they don't know that there's a community of which they can be a part.

I think the game is getting stale, it has been delayed and held back for too long and 5 ships just doesn't give it any long term variety.

I think the LCG model of regular pack releases could work well. Maybe it's more of a manufacturing decision. Economies of scale and all that.

While those comments may or may not be valid assessments, I'm not sure what they contribute to the topic at hand. It seems to me that Lyraeus is attempting to figure out how we can bring more people and enthusiasm to the game. Bellyaching about what FFG should'a/could'a done doesn't seem like it helps people achieve that goal.

Get teachers involved.

All they have to do is keep a VSD on their desk and any student who likes gaming will notice it and ask. The problem is, the other adults at the store have to be patient and tolerant enough to play teenagers without assuming that their age automatically affords them some kind of superiority, or position of respect that they can look down at 'kids' from.

Teachers can also run a school gaming club if they have the time.

I keep a 40k wraithlord on my desk at work. I have at least 2 dozen kids a year who notice the wraithlord and go 'wow, you painted that?'

Get teachers involved.

All they have to do is keep a VSD on their desk and any student who likes gaming will notice it and ask. The problem is, the other adults at the store have to be patient and tolerant enough to play teenagers without assuming that their age automatically affords them some kind of superiority, or position of respect that they can look down at 'kids' from.

Teachers can also run a school gaming club if they have the time.

I keep a 40k wraithlord on my desk at work. I have at least 2 dozen kids a year who notice the wraithlord and go 'wow, you painted that?'

Having played both ends of that, never assume that someone is older and trickier than you, or that you are older and trickier than someone younger.

In my area the community is just beginning. There have been a number of us eyeing up Armada but not wanting to drop the cash on it. After a friend of mine took the plunge and gave me a demo game I've invested and begun offering demo's to people. Our local club has gone from zero players to 5 in the space of a month. I know so many people that would love Armada but the price (this side of the ocean at least) really puts them off. I'm excited for it as Wave 1 is still new to us and Wave 2 dropping soon should only add more variety.

So long as the game keeps expanding and diversifying, like X-Wing, I see no reason for our new community to do anything but grow. I think playing X-Wing with nothing but Wave 1 would get stale after a while but I'm confident that FFG will keep things interesting and expanding.

Having played both ends of that, never assume that someone is older and trickier than you, or that you are older and trickier than someone younger.

Hm, I always assume that I am older than someone who is younger. As for trickier, I tend to assume that the younger players have more attention to detail and have done more research on combos and what-not. Given the handicaps of age, I feel I have to rely on my tricksiness.

Some things ive done big and small in Australia.

- Linked most FLGS players and organisers to one FB page so that all events have a wider audience base and pick up games can be organised easily

- Started a car pool to get players to go to further away events

- Developing a three monthly series event

- Got greater prize support for boosting event numbers