I'm an X-Wing player, very much a novice, but really getting into it. I purchased a barely used super-cheap collection complete with battle foam cases and most ever ship and duplicates of many through wave 7. OK, so I don't want to have such a collection for Armada, if I get into it, for my wife already thinks my storage and setup/takedown times are "crazy" but has been cool with it and played a few times but deems it a "boys game." As a historical background, I saw A New Hope in '77 as a nine year old guy and have loved Star Wars ever since although My favorite is the original trilogy and I haven't seen Rebels yet despite my nephews harassment, haha!

So, if I want a one battle foam C-4 case Armada game setup that I could break out every now and then with my X-buds, what would you guys recommend?

There is no escaping the addictive nature of Armada!

Too late mate. You are here forever now

I don't know what a c4 case holds but if your not looking to go crazy ignore the inevitable you need 2 of everything that is bound to follow. You will want a starter, a demolisher, an ISD, both fighter packs, and an af2. Again this is in my mind a minimum for ' fun games'. Others will have a differing opinion

EDIT: Rogues and villains! Thanks miferr

Buy one of everything, then do it again 3-5 times

But seriously, I'd say pick up a core because you have to, then 2-3 mc-30's (they are tiny so storage is a non-issue) because you get probably your best bang for your buck upgrade card wise from them and with. Then for Rebels pick up maybe 1-2 more CR90 since that will give you a handful of fun lists you can put together. Then for Imps I'd grab a ISD, Glad, and at least 1 raider and imp fighter pack. Then pick up about 3-4 copies of rogues and villains. It's a bit of a steep entry cost all added up, but with that you would be able to play a large variety of lists and have enough you could grab a buddy and have him play rebels while you played imperials or visa versa.

I agree with Tirion, though I would throw in a Rogues & Villains pack as well. I don't think any original trilogy fan should be without Han Solo and the cool tiny little Millennium Falcon!

I don't know what a c4 case holds but if your not looking to go crazy ignore the inevitable you need 2 of everything that is bound to follow. You will want a starter, a demolisher, an ISD, both fighter packs, and an af2. Again this is in my mind a minimum for ' fun games'. Others will have a differing opinion

EDIT: Rogues and villains! Thanks miferr

I'm looking these things up without the lingo, so...I'm assuming har-har

a "demolisher" is a Gladiator-Class Star Destroyer?

an ISD is an Imperial-Class Star Destroyer?

the fighter packs are the Imperial and Rebel ones?

The "af2" is an Assault Frigate Mark II?

And the Rougues and Villans well, are that?

Cool....I'm looking all that up and checking my LGS too...

IMO you can skip the MKII unless you also want to invest in rebel fighters and MC-80, because that ship is pretty mediocre without the addition buy in to get some fighters it can order around as a carrier or Ackbar to beef up it's guns.

IMO you can skip the MKII unless you also want to invest in rebel fighters and MC-80, because that ship is pretty mediocre without the addition buy in to get some fighters it can order around as a carrier or Ackbar to beef up it's guns.

OK, good thoughts.... I like the look of all of the ships (not that "look" is all that) but the AF2; it's downright un-Star Wars to me. Is there a substitute that is a bit more cannon?

Unfortunately not.

The AFMK-II, rules wise, is an absolute blend of all of the capabilities a rebel player wants and needs...

However, the only thing you can really do is either convert the model itself, or replace it with a substitute miniature from elsewhere... Which, if you're just playing at home, might be worth the trouble... But it can be "occasionally difficult" to get away with at the Formal Tournament level, if you ever get there.

For the rebels I would do as I had above. couple of CR90's, couple of MC30's, and if you want a big ship for the lols pick up a MC80 or wait for liberty to come out sometime next year. IMO if you want a thematic star wars large ship, that is the one you want. Till then you can have a blast with some CR90's, MC30's, and the Neb from the core.

Hell, thematically I think the G75 flotillas coming out soon are better than MKII's

You do not realize the power of the Prack side (Prack = "Plastic Crack")

told you people would be telling you to get a bunch of each lol

Its hard to have all the upgrade cards without one of everything. In another thread, a number of us were looking at particular "winning" fleets and their actual MSRP cost. Most were running around 300.

Some of this is going to come down to exactly what fleets you finally find fun and what you want to run. You also might be able to get away with going with one faction and then trading cards with someone in another faction. I haven't tried that in any game, so I can't speak to its efficacy.

Here are some thoughts:

Imperial

You get a VSD in the starter. If you can live without the Flight Controllers card, then you don't have to buy another. I'd get two Raiders and an ISD from there. You'll need a couple of packs of Imperial Squadrons. That's more than enough to start. If you see a build you like, you can go from there.

Rebel

One MC80, one Assault Frigate. You get a Nebulon-B and Corvette in the starter, but go ahead and also get an expansion of each. You can also start with one MC30. Then get two squadron packs.

Finally, in support of both factions, pick up one Rogues and Villains. Maybe a second.

Although this won't let you powergame through every combination in every fleet, you're going to have some good variety in both your Rebel and Imperial builds. You've got access to at least one of every upgrade card, and all of the titles.

Besides the ships i would buy one package of dice, a set of acrylic rangerulers (ebay) and another manöver-tool

I think that guess against what he is looking for as I read it. It looks like he is just looking to have enough variety to have fun with his buddies, not win regionals

There is no escaping the addictive nature of Armada!

Too late mate. You are here forever now

You do not realize the power of the Prack side (Prack = "Plastic Crack")

These three are correct. Once you go down the Rabbit Hole called Star Wars Armada, you are not coming back out.

Ok, as for what you should get.

A second set of Armada Dice, a second Maneuver tool (I recommend building it to be a speed 2 tool)

Rebels, the first thing I recommend is the Assault Frigate. It looks ugly but it is simple to flip the tail and make it look nicer. You will like it after a time.

Imperials, the Gladiator.

Also pick up 1 of all 3 squadron packs. This will give you more than enough building room for some lists.

Total looks like about $140 retail (little cheaper actually) before tax.

Yeah, what clanofwolves is looking for in Armada is exactly what I was looking for with X-wing. I got into Armada first, then I wanted enough for a full point game of X-wing to play once in a while with my friends when we wanted a break from Armada. What I did was buy all of the wave 1 X-wing stuff, which has plenty of cool original trilogy stuff to play. The funny thing is I've never actually played a full game of X-wing because Imperial Assault has been serving that purpose!

Anyway, I totally understand the reluctance on the Assault Frigate. Seriously, if you don't want to get it, don't feel forced to. I would go with BrobaFett's suggestion and get two MC30s or an MC30 and an MC80. With those plus the core set, you can make a fun Rebel fleet to fly. Then you can always add ships later...and you will....

What my group discovered was at first, the Empire seemed like they couldn't lose. Then we got good at Rebels, and it seemed like the Rebels couldn't lose. And eventually when all the rules started sinking in, we found that everything is fairly balanced and you could make a decent fleet with almost anything. So have fun with it!

My suggestion, if you only want to get it out once in a while and play casually, would be the following.

For the Empire:

-Imperial-Class Star Destroyer. It's iconic and you can't go wrong with it. It also has the added benefit that if you want to eventually lure someone into the game, just take the figure out and let them stare at it for a while... it will do the work.

-Either a Raider-Class Corvette (to have a cheap filler) or a Gladiator-Class Star Destroyer.

-1 or 2 Squadron Pack.

For the Alliance:

-MC80 Home One. Again, it's iconic. It's Ackbar. It's the possibility to do the battle of Endor.

-1 or 2 Squadron pack.

-MC30 Fregate or a second Corvette.

For both faction:

-Rogue pack. It's Han Solo, Boba Fett, Dash Rendar, IG-88, etc...

For my demo games, excluding the cards, I field a Star Destroyer, a Victory Class and a Raider, with 100pts of Squadron VS one MC80, a MC30 and a Correlian Corvette with 100pts Squadron. It gives enough to touch everything and have fun with it. Both also seems balanced.

My suggestion, if you only want to get it out once in a while and play casually, would be the following.....For my demo games, excluding the cards, I field a Star Destroyer, a Victory Class and a Raider, with 100pts of Squadron VS one MC80, a MC30 and a Correlian Corvette with 100pts Squadron. It gives enough to touch everything and have fun with it. Both also seems balanced.

Thanks everyone!!! It's fun to learn about the "big boy" ship game of our beloved Star Wars (like taking a drink thru the use of a fire hose, as I google ships)

So here's what I've found that follows what I think will be a fun, balanced (can be Empire heavy as far as I'm concerned haha) game for every now and then:

Starter Set $74.99

Victory-class Star Destroyer,

Nebulon-B frigate,

CR90 Corellian Corvette

Dice set $7.49

Imperial-class Star Destroyer $37.49

Gladiator-class Star Destroyer $22.49

Home One MC30 Frigate $22.99

MC30c Frigate Expansion Pack $22.49

Imperial, Rebel and Rogues fighter Expansion Sets $44.97

still figuring this one out myself. I will say this game (like X wing) is addictive. give up any hope of limiting costs at this point until you have played a few games and figure out what your level of enjoyment is. then you can figure it out from there.

Yes and then you realise how much better you could play with a second Xi7.

And then an extra leadig shots.

And lots more turbo laser reroutes.....

IMO you can skip the MKII unless you also want to invest in rebel fighters and MC-80, because that ship is pretty mediocre without the addition buy in to get some fighters it can order around as a carrier or Ackbar to beef up it's guns.

OK, good thoughts.... I like the look of all of the ships (not that "look" is all that) but the AF2; it's downright un-Star Wars to me. Is there a substitute that is a bit more cannon?

Sorry to see the little love AF MK II get... I like them. Started in Empire at War, I guess. Looks like a MC80 paired with some design taken from the Nebulon B (the structure going downwards).

2 Assault frigates in close Congo line with gunnery teams in an Acbar list are absolutely viable. Just add some squadrons and a small ship ( scout MC30 with TRC) and you are good to go.

For the best bang for your buck you need to shop online and wait for sales. You can find core sets for around $65 pretty regularly. For the stuff I don't want to wait for, Miniatures Market is normally the most competitive prices. The other way to delay the expense and storage is to specialize on building one faction or the other. You'll probably end up building both factions, but it's not a bad way to start if you have others to game with who have there own fleets. As for upgrade cards, you can get most pretty cheaply on E-bay. It seems like a lot of money for just cards but it's cheaper than buying ships you won't use for the cards.