Hello All,

I picked up Armada recently and have been easing into the game. I'm thinking of making some customer obstacle and debris field markers that I could use for Armada, BFG, etc. I'm wondering how much difference the exact shape of the tokens makes. Should I copy them exactly or could I get away with an appropriately sized GW base?

For a tournament of "official" game, you have to use the 6 obstacles that come with the game, and only those 6 obstacles. So, as long as you made the obstacles footprints the exact same size/shape, you could theoretically custom-make your own obstacles and use them, though they would probably not be allowed at a tourney.

This is, of course, for Official Play Tournament Rules:

It would come under the heading of 3rd Party Components.

They would have to match the FFG components identically in size and shape to be claimed as such, and would have to be the correct thing shown... (Asteroids are Asteroids, Debris are Debris, the Station is a Station)... You could not, for example, model the Debris Fields as Asteroid Fields, lest you confuse your opponent... because those 6 Components must match the FFG components in usage to even have a shot at legality.

In which case, the Judge has the final say on what is allowed or not... And if they are Disallowed, you must have the original ones to use instead, or you risk being immediately disqualified from the tournament.

For Private, casual play.... Anything you agree with, with your opponent, is awesome.

For a tournament of "official" game, you have to use the 6 obstacles that come with the game, and only those 6 obstacles. So, as long as you made the obstacles footprints the exact same size/shape, you could theoretically custom-make your own obstacles and use them, though they would probably not be allowed at a tourney.

But for strictly casual play it wouldn't affect game-play too much?

It would affect game play in unknown and possibly unintended ways.

The Good part about it, is in Casual Play, such experimentation is part of the Fun...

But certainly outside of the Casual Game concept, its a no-no.

Some people want even then Casual games to be "by the rules", and their size and shape is indeed mandated by the Rules

For a tournament of "official" game, you have to use the 6 obstacles that come with the game, and only those 6 obstacles. So, as long as you made the obstacles footprints the exact same size/shape, you could theoretically custom-make your own obstacles and use them, though they would probably not be allowed at a tourney.

But for strictly casual play it wouldn't affect game-play too much?

It would depend on how far you go off rails. If, for example, you changed up the footprints to include: 3 asteroids, 2 debris fields, and 1 station of roughly the same overall volume/dimensions as the original game components, the affect on game play would probably be negligible, if at all. If, on the other hand, you swapped out all the debris fields for asteroids, that would harm smaller ships with lower engineering more than bigger ships, since you need 3 pts of engineering to fix a damage card. If you went the other way and swapped out all asteroid fields for debris fields, it might have a different affect. If you made the footprints twice as big (or 1/2 as small), or doubled the number of total obstacles, it would all have a pretty big affect on game play (or, at least it would if I was playing against you :-) )

My friend and I play casual, we use custom rocks (lava rocks painted and mounted on wooden dowels, they look great). We just set them on top of the stock asteroids to keep collisions accurate. The asthetic touch is great

My friend and I play casual, we use custom rocks (lava rocks painted and mounted on wooden dowels, they look great). We just set them on top of the stock asteroids to keep collisions accurate. The asthetic touch is great

Yep, that's a great way to do it, too.

Well, I finally got around to finishing my test piece. How do I post a pic?

You have to host it somewhere else... Photobucket, Imgur, Facebook...


Then you need to find the entire URL of the picture, down to the .jpg or .gif or whatever at the end ... AND NOTHING AFTER IT... (as Facebook is want to add a bunch of useless stuff)

The post that URL here, Encased in the [ IMG ] [ /IMG ] Tags... (Without the spaces, of course)...

Personally, I use Photobucket, because it gives me a link I can click and paste directly, Tags included

Let's see if this works . . .

Love it! Not sure how people just stick with the basic cardboard if they have an option, but that is the wargamer in me;) Great job!

I like the ultramarine hanging out in the background.

I've been working on a similar side project, replacing the cardboard obstacles with 3D alternatives. I've got the transparent bases cut out using a scroll saw, I have a little Star Trek station ready to go, lava rocks, acrylic rods to hold it up. Just can't seem to figure out an easy replacement for a debris field.

Well, for what little it's worth, my suggestion is 'both'. Make some asteroid counters in a GW base and pop them on top of the templates so that when your ship overlaps something, you just reposition the asteroid and not the asteroid marker. Best of both worlds as Jukey said. Oh and chalk up another 'yay' for the Ultramarine.

Finally got around to finishing the other markers!

Not sure if I should start on the asteroids for X-Wing or move onto the debris fields.