I have two buddies that have gone to Armada mostly because I already have around 80 X-wing ships and we always play together so they don't need anything I don't have. I had played Armada at Gencon twice but didn't do anything but the death-match mode that they use to sell the game. It was fun but didn't seem different enough from X-Wing to really catch my interest. What I didn't know was that Armada had a built in objective based game style that is incorporated right into regular gameplay. I have to say it was such a breath of fresh air. I am really wishing that FFG would add some official support to this type of gameplay for X-Wing! I lost both games mostly due to noobishness but it was still such a blast! The objectives make such a difference in how you plan 2-3 turns ahead hoping to guess what actions you are going to need that far down the road. I really think FFG nailed Capital ship gameplay.

What I didn't like was the slow flow of the game. X-Wing is fast paced and more exciting. The ability to throw defense die in X-Wing adds a critical element that makes it so addictive/glorious/frustrating. Overall I think X-Wing is more my style of game. I wish there were a way for FFG to fully support objectives because I tire of only deathmatch and the scenarios leave a lot to be desired.

I played my first Armada games at the Massing of Sullust event.

It was fun, and I agree it would be cool to have some of the objective-style play in X-wing. I did find Armada a little slow, and the game rounds are long, so I still prefer X-Wing.

I'd like to play more, but there just isn't much regular Armada play near me.

What I didn't like was the slow flow of the game. X-Wing is fast paced and more exciting. The ability to throw defense die in X-Wing adds a critical element that makes it so addictive/glorious/frustrating.

fixed

having played both, I can say X-wing is fast paced but not "more exciting." It's a very different type of excitement, where you can get some glorious last stands and tight moments.

The excitement you get in Armada is macro level, where it's far more than just one ship carrying the team. It's about the fleet as a whole, all its disparate elements interlocking to become far more than the sum of its parts. The excitement comes from playing admiral to a far larger force, and trying to apply it while denying your opponent his advantages.

the major difference between the two is that X-wing rewards good on the fly thinking more than Armada, where you can't really pull plans off at the last moment. Armada, meanwhile, rewards foresight and is hugely dependent on it if you're to see any real success.

here's X-wing being exciting:

here's Armada:

The move to defense tokens, however, is far more player-involving than those crappy green dice There's nothing that screams "eh, nice moves but you might as well not be playing" than perfect unmodified greens on a valuable enemy ship you spent time and effort blocking and shooting.

the more elements X-wing adds to ignore them (on attack stress mechanics, agility-reducers, the immaculate Crackshot, Juke, bombs, autoblasters etc.), the better the game gets

so, shoutout to FFG for making Crackshot, one of the best EPT in literally years and probably my all time favorite

so, shoutout to FFG for making Crackshot, one of the best EPT in literally years and probably my all time favorite

PREACH

There appear to be some capital ships missing from their stands in that Armada picture. Also, good job not derailing a thread with green dice-based vitriol again!

I played my first couple of games of Armada myself - I think I'm going to need to play a few more to get fully conversant with the rules, as it was amazing how much we got wrong or just plain forgot in those games (shoot THEN move, shoot THEN move goddamnit).

That said, I picked up a 2nd Victory-class, Nebulon-B and the Rebel and Imperial squadrons Friday, so the next game should have a feww more elements in it.

My cr90 and Neb suffered the fate of my defender and tie FO

...cat

(Snapped off in their pegs)

Ouch. Any chance drilling & pinning might work?

I have two buddies that have gone to Armada mostly because I already have around 80 X-wing ships and we always play together so they don't need anything I don't have. I had played Armada at Gencon twice but didn't do anything but the death-match mode that they use to sell the game. It was fun but didn't seem different enough from X-Wing to really catch my interest. What I didn't know was that Armada had a built in objective based game style that is incorporated right into regular gameplay. I have to say it was such a breath of fresh air. I am really wishing that FFG would add some official support to this type of gameplay for X-Wing! I lost both games mostly due to noobishness but it was still such a blast! The objectives make such a difference in how you plan 2-3 turns ahead hoping to guess what actions you are going to need that far down the road. I really think FFG nailed Capital ship gameplay.

Mhm, same. Coming from Malifaux myself the lack of any officially supported objective play / formats just feels odd.

Has anyone won with rebels in armada?

I must have played 5-7 games, only games I've won was playing Imperials

Any games my friends won was playing Imperials

Only once have rebels won in any of our games.

I admit I'm finally start to get the hang of it as for my first few games I try to play it like xwing.

Getting use to shooting then moving takes some games getting use to.

And since it's only 6 rounds you can't really take a lot of time try to go around and flank. I tried that one game and in the end only had two rounds of shooting.

But as rebels you can't go at that star Destroyer head on, it hurts.

I guess this is where the objective play comes in but even so I found the Imperials are just much more nasty.

Can't wait for wave 2

The Rebels won two out of the three out-of-the-box games we've played here so far. Of course, we were playing the game horribly wrong...

@OP - armada and xwing are VERY different games. though you said to you they are alike, you've explained some of the basic differences wonderfully ;-)

xwing is a fast paced dogfight game, armada is -not- fast paced and quite fittingly more a "plan, plan and plan. then plan again" game.

not to say that xwing doesn't require planning, but it's very different to armada (reactive, in contrast to "you got 6 turns, better plan ahead AT LEAST 3).

they both are really fun with the right people, and everything negative you can think of with the wrong ones. just like any tt-game.

the one thing in common is: STARWARS. and that's not a bad thing. ;-)

Has anyone won with rebels in armada?

I must have played 5-7 games, only games I've won was playing Imperials

Any games my friends won was playing Imperials

Only once have rebels won in any of our games.

I admit I'm finally start to get the hang of it as for my first few games I try to play it like xwing.

Getting use to shooting then moving takes some games getting use to.

And since it's only 6 rounds you can't really take a lot of time try to go around and flank. I tried that one game and in the end only had two rounds of shooting.

But as rebels you can't go at that star Destroyer head on, it hurts.

I guess this is where the objective play comes in but even so I found the Imperials are just much more nasty.

Can't wait for wave 2

though this is the wrong forum , look up the twitch feed for this years armada-worlds. rebels won it, as they have won other games. very good games, though (and naturally!) not in the pace of xwing games.

The game pictured in my post was won by the rebs

Big problem for the imps is he went so ship heavy he only brought boba for squadrons. This led to Bwings essentially denying the middle and forcing the GSDs away ...and into the up-gunned rebel ships

Turbolaser reroute circuits on the cr90s and Raymus + salvation on a Neb let's them hit FAR above their weight. They quickly minced the poor, out of position GSDs

The ISD was another matter. Channeling the energy of raw "I don't give a ****" it plowed through the middle and one shot +with ram damage) poor model less Yavaris (who doubles the attacks of commanded squadrons that do not move, reaching higher than ISD levels of damage potential)

Without her, the Bwings couldn't punch through the hulking monstrosity and it got away with an unscathed hull

Final tally was a cr90a and yavaris (both model less ships, funnily enough) to 3 GSDs (one demolisher) and poor outnumbered Boba

Epic fun game, especially with the remaining cr90 (1 hull) pulling some audacious initiative shenanigans and slaying the last GSD right under the ISD's nose

My cr90 and Neb suffered the fate of my defender and tie FO

...cat

(Snapped off in their pegs)

Ouch. Any chance drilling & pinning might work?

That would probably keep the cat in place, and away from the game, but the ASPCA would probably frown upon it.

I have played quite a few games of Armada now, and so far I just can't get into it. Something about the game is not gripping me and the really annoying thing is I can't figure out what. Generally speaking I vastly prefer slower, more strategic games that require careful advance planing and that take place on a macro scale, but something about Armada just isn't clicking with me.

I have played quite a few games of Armada now, and so far I just can't get into it. Something about the game is not gripping me and the really annoying thing is I can't figure out what. Generally speaking I vastly prefer slower, more strategic games that require careful advance planing and that take place on a macro scale, but something about Armada just isn't clicking with me.

the biggest problem with armada for me:

-beautifully painted ships.

-and then unpainted snubfighters. that and the sure knowledge: you're doomed. 3 thousand (more or less) fighters, and you will paint them.

ALL OF THEM. *emperor voice*

-then again realising: you'll buy at least 4-6 fighter expansions (both sides), and you will also paint them. ALL OF THEM. *depressed headshot*

@OP - armada and xwing are VERY different games. though you said to you they are alike, you've explained some of the basic differences wonderfully ;-)

xwing is a fast paced dogfight game, armada is -not- fast paced and quite fittingly more a "plan, plan and plan. then plan again" game.

not to say that xwing doesn't require planning, but it's very different to armada (reactive, in contrast to "you got 6 turns, better plan ahead AT LEAST 3).

they both are really fun with the right people, and everything negative you can think of with the wrong ones. just like any tt-game.

the one thing in common is: STARWARS. and that's not a bad thing. ;-)

X-WING is Checkers and ARMADA is Chess... kinda.

I love both so it is all good... just depends on my mode.

@OP - armada and xwing are VERY different games. though you said to you they are alike, you've explained some of the basic differences wonderfully ;-)

xwing is a fast paced dogfight game, armada is -not- fast paced and quite fittingly more a "plan, plan and plan. then plan again" game.

not to say that xwing doesn't require planning, but it's very different to armada (reactive, in contrast to "you got 6 turns, better plan ahead AT LEAST 3).

they both are really fun with the right people, and everything negative you can think of with the wrong ones. just like any tt-game.

the one thing in common is: STARWARS. and that's not a bad thing. ;-)

X-WING is Checkers and ARMADA is Chess... kinda.

I love both so it is all good... just depends on my mode.

shhh...! don't tell THAT to die-hard-chessplayers. we use cards, dice and whatnot, we're purely luck-centric geeks trying to pretend we think about what dice to throw where etc.. (yes, I met people with such an attitude, or at least a very belittle-ling (is that a word?) one..

whereas those diehard-chessplayers just move some unpainted minis across a checkers-board, over and over and over, just waiting for the other one to make a mistake.

no, I'm not against chess. just being sarcastic .. and really not that into that game-thats-a-sport-and-not-a-game and the attitude I described

apart from that, I think your analogy is quite correct. x-wing requires a lot of thought, but you can change your plans / reactions etc on the dime. I like it for that!

armada is planning for at least half the game in advance, where you can really only adjust a little here and there once you've begun. I like it for that!

still.. **** unpainted snubfighters make me go crazy ;D

I have an armada core and an extra ship or two. Core set, extra dice pack, 2 boxes of Imperial Squadrons, a standalone wave 1 Star Destroyer, and a Gladiator class SD.

I don't like how disjointed the squadron and actual ship gameplay is. It seems that you're playing one actual game, and then one loose tacked on sub-game. I prefer the dogfighting of X-Wing over the large strategic battles of Armada.

The actual mechanics are cool and FFG really upped their game with all the cool dials and other do-hickeys with moving parts. But at the end of the day Armada is a 7/10 for me and X-Wing is a 10/10.

Probably going to sell my stuff, a fellow X-Wing player is talking about getting into it. Might also try and trade it for one of the more expensive X-Wing alt arts, like Vader or Lando or Imperial Boba.

Has anyone won with rebels in armada?

I got crushed with Rebels at Sullust, but inexperience was a big part of that. The tournament itself was won by a Rebel list (2x AFIIs, IIRC).

Worlds was just won by Rebels, and not a traditional list. Common discussion has it that fighter squadrons suck in Armada, but the worlds winning list had 8x A-wing squadrons!

(I do find the fighter squadron mechanics disappointing ... fighters can't keep up with slow moving capital ships since they only move/attack unless you use a lot of squadron commands. They're more like minefields than fighters.)

@OP - armada and xwing are VERY different games. though you said to you they are alike, you've explained some of the basic differences wonderfully ;-)

xwing is a fast paced dogfight game, armada is -not- fast paced and quite fittingly more a "plan, plan and plan. then plan again" game.

not to say that xwing doesn't require planning, but it's very different to armada (reactive, in contrast to "you got 6 turns, better plan ahead AT LEAST 3).

they both are really fun with the right people, and everything negative you can think of with the wrong ones. just like any tt-game.

the one thing in common is: STARWARS. and that's not a bad thing. ;-)

X-WING is Checkers and ARMADA is Chess... kinda.

I love both so it is all good... just depends on my mode.

shhh...! don't tell THAT to die-hard-chessplayers. we use cards, dice and whatnot, we're purely luck-centric geeks trying to pretend we think about what dice to throw where etc.. (yes, I met people with such an attitude, or at least a very belittle-ling (is that a word?) one..

whereas those diehard-chessplayers just move some unpainted minis across a checkers-board, over and over and over, just waiting for the other one to make a mistake.

no, I'm not against chess. just being sarcastic .. and really not that into that game-thats-a-sport-and-not-a-game and the attitude I described

apart from that, I think your analogy is quite correct. x-wing requires a lot of thought, but you can change your plans / reactions etc on the dime. I like it for that!

armada is planning for at least half the game in advance, where you can really only adjust a little here and there once you've begun. I like it for that!

still.. **** unpainted snubfighters make me go crazy ;D

Ahh just slap a black wash on the IMPs and a brown wash on the REBs.

Ahh just slap a black wash on the IMPs and a brown wash on the REBs.

Ultra Fine Sharpies did the number on mine. Now they're not boring.

The problem of fighter "theme" in armada has to do more with the fact that we only actually saw one fleet engagement in the original trilogy, and even then we only got snippets of said fleet engagement. I think a visual representation of the whole battle from start to finish would look pretty much like a game of armada... Well, apart from the whole Death Star thing, I mean.

For that matter, I object to the notion that squadron commands seem unlike the old X-wing games. After all, Ace, Keyan, and Marek could instantly get a view of the entire battlefield and evaluate the optimal target in no time at all via the in-game map- How do you think that was happening if not for a team of analysts feeding them instructions?

I watched a bit of the Armada twitch feed after worlds this year. Most boring board game I think I've seen in years. Even the color commentary were having trouble trying to say anything about the game. Didn't draw me at all.

I couldn't get into Armada either from what i played of the box set. I might give it another go when we get more ships and things but my issues were with the fleet size and general game mechanics the little order cups don't really have the zing that the x-wing dials do.

I know their very different games and stuff but 300points of Armada ships really isn't enough to scratch my mass fleet battles itch. Kinda wanted a game I could play with crazy numbers of ships and I think the way Armada works its kinda a more slow deal. Where as X-wing has a faster take that kinda flow.

I kinda also wish Armada had boarding actions.