A friend and I played are first 600 pt. game recently. The extra points let us each put our large ship on the table with room for supporting ships and squads. I know tournament play is 400 points but 600 felt like an actual fleet battle. It was contested outpost so naturally there we collisions and the fighters became a factor. Don't know if I'll make another 400 pt fleet, and when I have enough stuff I'll be pushing for 1000.

We've done 600 pt games and you're right you can really amp up the fun. Feels like a no 'compromises' game when you do it.

Another thing we do is open up to a 4x6 surface which also seems to add to the fun.

Compared to 400pt tournament play tho I think it's still the right number. 600pts, is a surf and turf meal with salad and dessert. 400, you're committed and much make choices that will lend to having to have a plan. 400pt lists if will have character.

600-750 is generally what I enjoy playing at most, and it really is a blast for a fleet game. Glad to hear it's not just me and my insane little band of renegades and rapscallions. It really does feel like a battle, and that silly 'activation bid' thing starts to mean less and less when there's less lynchpins because there's more points. An additional large ship, more squadrons, it's great.

4X6 sounds like a terrific idea too, Tgall. And I completely agree: 400 is great because it forces choices and builds character that often simply can't cover all its bases (even if, unfortunately, we also get some inane gimmicky swing lists with it). But yeah, 400 for tournaments, 600ish for fun games, and 1,000 is very -very- fun too. Plus, it makes for some interesting team games.

Post Scriptum: So, what was your fleet and what did you enjoy using, hmm? More fun gizmos, or more flights and bare ships?

Yup... bigger is better (most of the time).

A 1000 Point game sounds pretty fun! I just used Fabs Fleet Generator and it's something that is totally do able for me and who ever i have playing with me! Will have to give a 1000 point game a go sometime soon

Our games are usually 500 points, and we find that a good compromise. If we had more time on our game nights (usually only get two hours) we'd definitely boost it to 600 or 700.

My brother-in-law and I play huge games 600pts to 800pts and to make it extra challenging we shuffle our ship cards and roll a 1d6 to decide how many capital ships we are going to use and then deal out that many. We sometimes go as far as separating the upgrade cards into their categories and shuffle and deal out the max each ship can take. Then just to decide on how many unique squadrons to take and how many normal squadrons to take. Makes it really interesting.

That's like an analog Fab's fleet random generation.... I have to try this sometime. It sounds crazy and challenging.

I guess I didn't mention, but I do have a 4' by 6' mat. It ended up being 3'6" by 6' because of table size, but the extra size is great. I like having that first turn to maneuver before you get into range. My friend suggests moving the setup area, but honestly both fleets were pretty much scrap at the end of turn five.

We have done a couple of large games but chose to do 2x400 point allied fleets per side rather than allowing 1x800 point fleet.

It stops certain admirals from dominating the game too much. Ackbar in an 800 point fleet gives lots of extra red dice but in a 2x400 point fleet he only effects his half of the rebel side and say Mon Mothma effects the rest.

It also gets more people playing and can encourage arguments, pleading and bribery with beer between allies as to who gets to use the unique upgrades like Demolisher or Ray Antilles.

6x4 table is a good idea. Either extend the deployment to distance 1-5 of the table edge or add an extra game turn to make up for the increased distance between fleets at the start.

did 1500 point game. Found that is sort of devolves into separate fights in any case. Still didn't manage to get all my ships on the table, and i've gotten more ships since.

Found that alternating first player every round and not bothering with objectives and making the deployment area the entire 6' edge worked quite well. Also limited the number of upgrades allowed per ship, which was important to keep the game moving along (less need to go checking back if this corvette or one of the other 5 has this upgrade or the other) but it still took a crazy amount of time.

did 1500 point game. Found that is sort of devolves into separate fights in any case. Still didn't manage to get all my ships on the table, and i've gotten more ships since.

Found that alternating first player every round and not bothering with objectives and making the deployment area the entire 6' edge worked quite well. Also limited the number of upgrades allowed per ship, which was important to keep the game moving along (less need to go checking back if this corvette or one of the other 5 has this upgrade or the other) but it still took a crazy amount of time.

You ain't got DAT Many ships... do yeas?

We know you used some of them there MOUSE Ships to fill it all in!

did 1500 point game. Found that is sort of devolves into separate fights in any case. Still didn't manage to get all my ships on the table, and i've gotten more ships since.

Found that alternating first player every round and not bothering with objectives and making the deployment area the entire 6' edge worked quite well. Also limited the number of upgrades allowed per ship, which was important to keep the game moving along (less need to go checking back if this corvette or one of the other 5 has this upgrade or the other) but it still took a crazy amount of time.

You ain't got DAT Many ships... do yeas?

We know you used some of them there MOUSE Ships to fill it all in!

Sadly, I DO have that many ships.

did 1500 point game. Found that is sort of devolves into separate fights in any case. Still didn't manage to get all my ships on the table, and i've gotten more ships since.

Found that alternating first player every round and not bothering with objectives and making the deployment area the entire 6' edge worked quite well. Also limited the number of upgrades allowed per ship, which was important to keep the game moving along (less need to go checking back if this corvette or one of the other 5 has this upgrade or the other) but it still took a crazy amount of time.

You ain't got DAT Many ships... do yeas?

We know you used some of them there MOUSE Ships to fill it all in!

Sadly, I DO have that many ships.

GLORIOUS!!!

our last 6 games have been on a 6 foot round table most likely 600+ points per side if we bothered to add them up

I've been running normal 400 points with an additional 50 points that can only be spent on squadrons. I could maybe go up to 500 with my collection but it would be a bit of a stretch on the rebel side.

The 50 extra squadron points really make the standard tournament fleet building feel less strained, I'm hoping it might become the norm in the future.

I feel like Armada scales up much better than X-wing, I could see them perhaps going to 450-500 points standard after wave 3

I'm interested in trying 2x400pt allied games or larger games once or twice to see how it flies. I like the idea of allies working together. But I think 400 points is the sweet spot. I have enough points to try interesting things. But I have to make tough choices, and miniatures wargames are about making tough choices.