This thread is for providing new players with tips and resources for helping them get into Armada. Let's post tips, articles, and resources to help new players out.

Useful Links

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Analysis of Rebel Squadrons - https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/196647-vanilla-rebel-squadron-analysis/

The Armada Community Painting Thread - https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/195570-the-armada-community-painting-thread-keep-your-pictures-here-keep-em-visible/

Armada Fleet Builder by Warlords Hive Lab - http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions/

Armada Trade Thread - https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/177975-armada-trade-thread/

Podcasts and Blogs

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Commonly Used Terms

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ACM - Advanced Concussion Missile. A card that affects black dice which on a crit will cause damage to each adjunct hull zone.

APT - Advance Proton Torpedoes. A card that affects black dice which on a crit causes the enemy to suffer a face up damage card regardless of shields. Popular in the current meta.

Congo Line - A tactic used by the Rebels, usually with Admiral Ackbhar, where their ships will travel in a line with one behind the other, continually fireing their side cannons at the enemy.

ECM - A card which protects a defense token from accuracy. Popular in the meta to use for ships with brace.

Fireball - The updated version of the Rhymerball. It's an Imperial build which utilizes the Tie Bomber Hero, Major Rhymer, Darth Vader in his Tie Advanced, Dengar, and a number of Firespray 31 bombers. Dengar's Intel allows the ball to move and fire even if it's engaged with enemy squadrons, Darth Vader's escort prevents anything else from being targeted, and Rhymer gives the ball medium range. Considered one of the dominants builds of Wave 2.

Glad - Gladiator Star Destroyer

Meta or Metagame - Refers to the popular builds used by players and what is considered "good".

MKII - Mark II Assault Frigate

Neb - Nebulon B Frigate

ISD - Imperial Star Destroyer.

Rhymerball - An Imperial build based around the Tie Bomber Hero Major Rhymer and a number of Tie Bombers. The build takes advantage of Rhymer's ability to give Squadrons medium range and the cheapness of Tie Bombers. Considered a predecessor of the Fireball.

Vic - Victory Star Destroyer

VSD - Victory Star Destroyer

Armada Newbie FAQ

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1. General Armada Question

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Q. What's the difference between X-Wing and Armada?

A. X-Wing is easier to learn and cheaper. The games tend to go much quicker and the game has been around longer, so there's a decent second hand market for miniatures and cards as well as several solid options for your forces.

Armada has a steep learning curve and is more expensive and definitely should not be your first miniature or strategy game. However it's much more strategically in depth than X-Wing to a point where it can be considered that X-Wing is like Checkers and Armada is like Chess.

Generally if you like light strategy games like League of Legends, StarCraft, or are just starting in miniature wargames you should play X-Wing.

If though you are a Warhammer Fantasy refugee, like playing X-Com hardcore mode, or have been playing miniature wargames for a bit you should play Armada.

2. Starting Fleet

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Q. Should I buy 2 Core Sets?

A. No. Unlike X-wing, two core sets aren't a cost effective solution at all. If you are playing rebels it's far more cost effective to just get another Nebulon Frigate and Corvette and buy an extra pack of dice. That way you also get a whole bunch of extra cards.

Sadly 2 of the Starter box Victory Star destroyers are not very useful, nor are having more starter Tie's. If you want another Victory Star Destroyer, you are much better off buying the Victory Star Destroyer box just to get a bunch more cards as well as another pack of dice. But really, your next purchase after the Core set for the Empire is the Imperial Star Destroyer.

Q. I'm on a budget, what should I get after the Core Set?

A. If cost's an issue, play Rebels. Their ships are significantly cheaper cost wise and with the Core Set you can put together a decent Rebel fleet for just $30.00 more. Consider getting another Corvette and Nebulon B, or just a MK II Assault Frigate. That will give you a solid starting fleet to learn the game, and it's financially easier to add too.

Also note that there's also usually really good deals on Rebel ships. People are often trying to offload the Nebulon and Corvette from the starter set for cheap along with the X-Wings, also online places sometime run smoking good deals on Rebel Ships like Amazon's $8.50 for Rebel Corvettes.

Q. I'm on a budget and I really want to play the Empire

A. Get the Imperial Star Destroyer and the Gladiator. It's going to run you at least $60.00 if you find the right deal online. However those two combined with the Victory Star Destroyer and the tie fighters in the starter set are a good way to learn the game for the Empire. From there look at getting the Imperial Fighter Squadron Pack as your next purchase.

Q. What's the difference between the two sides?

A. The Rebels tend to have faster and more maneuverable ships which excel at long range firepower (red dice). Their fighters are good all around and they have access to several different classes of bomber. They also have a tendency to have access to more repair and defense options than their Imperial counterparts. However the draw back is that Rebel Ships are more fragile and their fighters are much slower and more costly than their Imperial Equivalents.

The Imperials have much more fire power and more resilient ships than the Rebels, and they have much cheaper and faster squadrons as well. They also tend to have more access to dice reroll options and manipulations than their Rebel counterparts to mitigate bad luck. The drawbacks are their ships aren't as maneuverable as the Rebels and their fighters tend to be more fragile as well. Also their firepower really only comes to bear at medium and close range (blue and black dice)

Q. Which side is stronger?

A. Neither. There are really strong competitive tournament builds out there, however it's arguable if either the Rebels or the Imperials are unbalanced against each other by a significant degree. Also a lot of armada games are decided on skill rather than optimized lists.

Q. Aside from buying online, how else can I save money?

A. Basically get ready to sell and or trade some of your squadrons and cards. In each expansion you buy, you get a number of cards that you might not want or need but other people will be willing to pay for.

For example, spare Admirals are a pretty safe bet. You only ever need one Admiral, and if buy two of the same ship, you'll have a spare admiral you might never use but someone else will be willing to pay a decent price for.

Another good deal are squadron packs. While spending $20-30 bucks when you only need 2 bombers, usually people are good about trading and swapping around squadrons packs and outright selling them.

However in terms of cards, if there's a card you only have one of... DO NOT SELL IT. There are some cards you will regret selling or trading that are in demand right now, specifically Assault Proton Torpedos. Lots of Imperial Players want them, you only get one in each MC-30 Pack so don't sell it. They are too awesome to sell.

3. Why am I losing?

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Q. I'm losing, what ship should I buy so I can start winning?

A. Odds are you are losing because of your strategy and tactics as opposed to you needing a new ship. Armada is a hard game to master, so you should expect to have a bit of a losing streak when you start out. This shouldn't drive you to buy another ship.

Q. What should I change so I can start winning?

A. The most common mistake I see with new players tends to be with deployment and maneuvering. As a rule, and especially when your starting out in Armada, you should try and keep your fleet together and not let the enemy divide you up. If for some reason you have to be divided up, make sure you have a way to try and get your fleet back together soon.

For that matter, try and set your fleet to the same speed so they can come together. Try and get a Navigation Token on each of your ships early and try and take a middle of the road speed for your ships like speed 2. That way, if your max speed throughout your fleet is 3, you can easily change your speed to either 1 or 3 without needing a navigation dial.

Q. I am still losing all the time, what else can I do?

A. One exercise that might help is just after playing a game where you are defeated, ask your opponent to rematch the game except this time you can play his list and he plays yours. Play that game out and if your opponent manages to beat you with your list, you should be able to pick up a bunch of tricks to use and understand why he won. If you manage to win with his list, you probably can look at what changes you might want to make to your fleet based on your new experience.

Q. Any other tips to help me start winning?

A. The Navigate Command dial is probably the most important command you can issue to a ship, followed by the Squadron Command if you are running several Squadrons, followed by Concentrated Fire, and finally the Repair Command.

Remember as nice as it is to have an extra attack die or repair some damage, getting in the right position can mean you hitting an enemy weak point with a lot of dice while they can only hit you back with a little. This is worth far more than Concentrate Fire or Repair. As a general rule, save Concentrate Fire for occasions where you don't really need to maneuver much that instant and Repair to remove face up damage cards.

Some more blogs that I find really helpful as well as Hero's

http://concentratefire.blogspot.co.uk/ by Shmitty

http://xwingtactics.blogspot.co.uk/ by Matthew Kelsey (this is more about Armada now)

Some more blogs that I find really helpful as well as Hero's

http://concentratefire.blogspot.co.uk/ by Shmitty

http://xwingtactics.blogspot.co.uk/ by Matthew Kelsey (this is more about Armada now)

Excellent added to the list.

One of the the most important lessons I learned is that Navigate dials are a lot better than you probably think they are, and Concentrate Fire is often not nearly as good as you want it to be. In fact, using Navigate will often equate to far more dice being thrown than a CF command because your ships will be better placed to utilize their full armament.

As someone who just bought in to Armada, having these resources in one place is very helpful. Thank you!

I bought Armada on a whim - first minis game or anything of the sort. After a couple of games and realizing I was way out of my depth, I discovered X-wing and got stuck into that. 6 months down the track, I'm ready to dust off the Armada box (hopefully wave 2 hits Australia soon) and have another crack. This thread has already filled my head with a lot to consider! Thanks for the resources!

Some more blogs that I find really helpful as well as Hero's

http://concentratefire.blogspot.co.uk/ by Shmitty

http://xwingtactics.blogspot.co.uk/ by Matthew Kelsey (this is more about Armada now)

Thanks for suggesting my blog! For the new folks, I've got a decent writeup of each ship in the Commander's Guides, so check that out first!

One day. . . My work will be good enough to be here. . .

And suddenly, thamks to your signature, it is.

And suddenly, thamks to your signature, it is.

And suddenly, thamks to your signature, it is.

I wish I could track how many clicks my signatures get. . .

You and me both. Or track how many clicks any link in the forum actually gets. I dont know why, but for me it rarely counts links from here correctly.

And suddenly, thamks to your signature, it is.

I wish I could track how many clicks my signatures get. . .

You and me both. Or track how many clicks any link in the forum actually gets. I dont know why, but for me it rarely counts links from here correctly.

Here's one.

Take Leading Shots on your MC80.

One day. . . My work will be good enough to be here. . .

I do actually read you blog too mate but for battle reports. Keep it up

Buy extra Dice packs, 2 per person playing.

In the future when you surpass 6 dice of one color on a roll buy another set.

Thanks for the thread it's highly useful. I started with X Wing and a friend who is very active in this community brought me over to Armada. Thanks Blail Berg.

I really enjoy Armada and there is one thing I wanted to share a slightly different take on than the original poster. The cost of Armada vs X Wing is completely dependent on your level of commitment. If you just want to dip your toe in the pool Armada is more expensive hands down. However, if you are an all in player who wants entire waves with multiple builds Armada has been significantly less expensive for me even when comparing wave to wave. The amount to get into Armada isn't trivial but if you're committed it not so bad. Armada has also given (won as a Massing at Sullust tournament prize) a ship, something X-Wing never did.