I agree that game length is a challenge to overcome in Armada. It has definitely taken a long time for me to become efficient with rules/decisions. Playing more games is the answer! 
However, don't a lot of miniatures battle games take a long time?
"Game too long"- what to do?
I have only played a couple of games of Armada (a bunch of X-wing though) and I find the main difference to be the setup time. Games of X-wing can really drag on with certain types of lists. This is handled by calling time in one-day tournaments but you see some really long games in leagues and on vassal.
For multiple people playing armada. Every one gets a ship and some squadrons to manage. Do no cross talk and make it feel like each person is a different officer trying to fly in formation and not hit their own teammates. we used to do this in early x-wing so 6+ people could play on one 6x3. it was a great way to teach a lot of people the game at once.
As for time. Its the nature of the beast. Its a methodical game that requires a lot of thought and calculations. Those games take a long time.
Don't forget per the errata/faq you can only pre-measure your movement during the "determine course" phase
I played against a friend (Benni “the great”) that never had played a game of tabletop. The Armada rules are so well written, that I only had to explain for about 5min and the Rest was done while playing. We needed exactly 2h for a 200 points game including set up and explaining the rules.
The Lists were:
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1 • Assault Frigate Mark II B - Assault Frigate Mark II (72) - General Dodonna (20)
• Total : 92 • Code : r8c2
2 • Nebulon-B Escort Frigate - Nebulon-B Frigate (57)
• Total : 57 • Code : r3
5 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13 • Code : r6
6 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13 • Code : r6
7 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13 • Code : r6
8 • X-wing Squadron - X-wing (13)
• Total : 13 • Code : r6
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1 • Victory II-class Star Destroyer - Victory-class Star Destroyer (85) - Admiral Screed (26) - Expanded Hangar Bay (5) - Enhanced Armament (10)
• Total : 126 • Code : e2c6g1t1
2 • TIE Fighter Squadron - TIE Fighter (8)
• Total : 8 • Code : e4
3 • TIE Fighter Squadron - TIE Fighter (8)
• Total : 8 • Code : e4
4 • TIE Fighter Squadron - TIE Fighter (8)
• Total : 8 • Code : e4
5 • TIE Fighter Squadron - TIE Fighter (8)
• Total : 8 • Code : e4
8 • TIE Interceptor Squadron - TIE Interceptor (11)
• Total : 11 • Code : e7
9 • TIE Interceptor Squadron - TIE Interceptor (11)
• Total : 11 • Code : e7
11 • TIE Bomber Squadron - TIE Bomber (9)
• Total : 9 • Code : e9
12 • TIE Bomber Squadron - TIE Bomber (9)
• Total : 9 • Code : e9
I set my Victory (VSD HAMMER) on Speed 1, while the rebel fleet put itself on maximum speed (3) towards me. While I put the space debris on the flanks, while B. put them right into the center.
One X-Wing Squadron (RED) covered the flank of the Assault Frigate (PRIDE OF NARWHAL) and the others (BLUE, GREEN and PINK) flew cover for the Nebulon-B (PRIAM) and began racing ahead. My TIE-Fs stayed in the middle to engage BLUE and PINK while being out of range of the Neb-B, while the TIE-I raced out to stay out of the range of the PRIDE but in range to engage RED at will. The TIE-B had a free way to the PRIDE.
“Helm: Set heading to 4-5-9, all weapons ready. This Rebels seem eager to be torched” - Screed
On TURN 2 the PRIDE faced its first challenges to get itself through the center debris field but emerged without damage. The TIE-B, welcomed it with a full torpedo salvo that did minimal shield damage. PRIAM managed to fly a flanking move for HAMMER and catched two unlucky TIE-F with some flak fire.
“BRACE for impact” – Dodonna
TURN 3 saw the HAMMER and PRIDE trading heavy front and broadside fire while the TIE-B stayed on target. PRIDE lost most of its shields and could penetrate HAMMERs shield on one Arc. RED was intercepted by the TIE-I and saw heavy losses by the Imperial craft.
“I cannot shake it… its just to …….AHHHHHHHHHH …..” – Arvis Colono RED 3
“Target destroyed” – Capt. Jaina Mallister – Gamma 2
PRIAM kept creeping in, still out of range. BLUE and PINK engaged a cloud of TIE-Fs in which no side saw any serious losses.
On TURN 4 HAMMER kept battering on the PRIDE shooting out huge chunks of the once fine crafted ship, whole sections were cut off from the ship (Crit: Add. damage) and the TIE-B joined in to fire ordonance on the emerging weak spots (Crit: Add. damage). While the now burning hulk of a PRIDE could get in a few Turbolasers shots on HAMMER this shot of the side of the Tower (Crit: Add. damage [belive it or not we shuffled the damage deck before]), however overall the damage on Hammer was minimal. PRIAM supported PRIDE by firing a full salvo into HAMMER right shields. Despite the warning of the senior Helmsmen the PRIDE had plotted its course wrong and rammed into HAMMERs side. The structural integrity of PRIDE was already weakend and the whole ship transformed into a fiery ball of loose metal around HAMMER. HAMMER in return could not evade some space debris while trying to face PRIAM for a finishing salvo. An mid-sized Astroid crashed into the already damaged main TOWER (Crit: Add. damage [WE REALLY SHUFFELD THE DAMAGE DECK!).
“BRACE for impact – NOW REALLY” – Dodonna
RED was wiped out while BLUE suffered heavy causalities taking some TIEs from ALPHA with them.
TURN 5 saw PRIAM get of a good salvo into the half damaged HAMMER, and in Return lost all its front shields and some front armour. BLUE and PINK were wiped out and most TIEs swarmed onto PRIAM but couldnt catch it yet. GREEN was engaged with the rest of TIEs ALPHA.
“Shall I report from which side NO enemy ship vector in captain?” – Charwe`ddw`sal, Sensor officer
TURN 6 finally saw PRIAM act first. Shooting HAMMER down to minimal hull. The next salvo of HAMMER would surely just blow PRIAM out of existence, however it saw itself unwillingly crash into HAMMERs other side. After so many collisions, HAMMER reactor simply broke. Main power out, it was a now not more than a drifting hulk, unable to slay its final prey of the day.
“We … we… somehow broke the Star destroyer, no energy readings at all” – Charwe`ddw`sal, Sensor officer.
Despite loosing (which could also be due to the fact I forgot my enhanced armament on the HAMMER) it was a very pleasant game. It was dramatic (for instance: HAMMER lost its last hull point from the second ramming) and we had no problems with the rules. The whole game lasted 2h, which was also very pleasant. Benni was very satisfied with the power of the X-Wings despite that most had to yield to the vast number of TIEs. I think the squadrons also helped to get a very nice Star Wars feeling out of it.
For fun we played it out: He had 1 XWing and a damaged Neb-B left and I had 2 TIE Bomber, 2 TIE-Interceptors and 1 TIE-Fighter sqaudron left. While first the Bombers put out decent damage, in the long run all TIEs were destroyed withou destroying anything in return (all focused on the Neb-B).
Perhaps if you try this kind of games/lists, you can speed it up. I really found armada to be explained and played fast and simple.
I know people are not going to want to hear this but if you think Armada is too long then you need to move on to another game, like maybe X-Wing.
I do not like the excessive measuring either, but that usually comes from people only being engaged during their turns and not "strategizing" during the other players turn. Watch those people. during your turn they will be checking their phone or talking to other people and not focusing on the game at hand. I find those people also do not win very often.
This game is so good and so involved that I barley notice when we hit the 2 hour mark. If you think a game (any game) is too long then you are not engaged in the game.
Sorry, but one of my pet peeves in gaming is complaints about game length and down time.
The Armada game length is fine.
Simplify setup and tear down by having ships and tokens ready somehow. Having to totally assemble or disassemble everything, everytime is a major time waster.
Solution: get new friends
I know people are not going to want to hear this but if you think Armada is too long then you need to move on to another game, like maybe X-Wing.
I do not like the excessive measuring either, but that usually comes from people only being engaged during their turns and not "strategizing" during the other players turn. Watch those people. during your turn they will be checking their phone or talking to other people and not focusing on the game at hand. I find those people also do not win very often.
This game is so good and so involved that I barley notice when we hit the 2 hour mark. If you think a game (any game) is too long then you are not engaged in the game.
Sorry, but one of my pet peeves in gaming is complaints about game length and down time.
The Armada game length is fine.
That. There's something to be said for people wasting time on purpose but otherwise that's kind of the point. Come ready to play, get set up done quickly, and blow up some fake ships already!
What is this "excessive measuring" everybody keeps talking about?
We measure if a ship is in range and how far it can move. Each done in a couple of seconds....
Solution? Execute them.