OK, so I've had a really weird history with this game. I've owned it since Wave 1 and own the following:

- Core Set x1

- Rogues and Villains x1

- VSD x1

- GSD x1

- ISD x1

- Raider x1

- Imp Fighters x2

- Corvette x2

- Neb x2

- Mark II x1

- Home One x1

- MC30c x1

- Reb Fighters x2

So I've got plenty of stuff to build with etc. I love, love, love the system, the theme, the idea of piloting these huge epic fleets, the parallel systems of ships and squadrons etc etc and yet I've played the game like <5 times and haven't played since Dec 2015...In that time I've played X-Wing 48 times and Imperial Assault 16 times - so what gives?

I play and collect all of X-Wing and Imperial Assault - so I'm not averse to complicated rules systems with lots of moving parts and I'm used to FFG games, tokens, minis, cards etc.

At this point I'm just totally intimidated by the huge amount of cards and moving pieces that I own for Armada and don't really know where to start. I read the cards and I kind of get what they do, but can't really parse them in being able to know what's good or bad or what works with what. Similarly, with ship cards I look at the dice loadouts and the speed/movement charts and I draw a blank - it's not like looking at an X-wing dial and being like 'oh ok so it has all these greens and can do a S-loop'.

I want to keep up with releases and not fall behind and we've got waves 3 and 4 coming, and the campaign box, but if I haven't played in 8 months is there any point? I've painted all the squadrons too so I feel invested.

Can anyone give me some good 400 point starter lists with objectives for both Rebels and Imps to enable me to just get playing?

I think it's best to look at the Fleet Lists thread and ask the creators for their thoughts.

Pick a single card, be it a title, upgrade or admiral, and we can build you a list from that.

Just give us a little starting point and we will very happilly turn into fleet. Its kinda tough to do the same from a blank piece without knowing your style or preference.

OK thanks for replies so far.

Pick a single card, be it a title, upgrade or admiral, and we can build you a list from that.

Just give us a little starting point and we will very happilly turn into fleet. Its kinda tough to do the same from a blank piece without knowing your style or preference.

OK - well I suppose I'm just after solid, starter lists for both sides, that don't do anything too complicated or nuanced?

For the Imps I really want to run SDs and a good mix of squadrons - I like the idea of:

For rebels again I just want an average, no frills sort of starting list - I've just found this list saved on my fleet builder:

I imagine both of those lists are a bit crap - but basically I want to run a mix of around 3 ships and some squadrons and not have too many upgrade cards - If I'm trying to get to grips with the game and just get it to the table more, it makes little sense to me, to overload the lists with loads of upgrade cards.

Imagine you're demoing 400 point lists to someone and you want to showcase each faction with an interesting, fun but not too complicated list.

Rebel List - add Turbolaser Reroute Circuits to the Scout MC30c. Objectives:

Advanced Gunnery

Firing Lanes

Superior Positions

Just play ! You've already fallen behind people who have played more battles than you, but don't worry, playing a few battles will put your right on track very very quickly ! In Armada, skill and how you fly your ships is much more important than list building for the win (even though mistakes in list building will put you at a disadvantage).

Try your SD/VSD list and see how to build up from there

Just dotting to point out a thread was once made to explain to newbyes what works and what not. It's only updated up to wave 2, but would someone with more search skills than me dig its grave?

Remove the defense liasons from the VSD's, imo. If you are that concerned about commands, toss wing commander on the fc vsd and spam nav. You could alternatively take those six points and add xi7's to the ISD.

VSD's as carriers are great ships to run upgrade-less, and are pretty effective in that role. Rebels are a little tougher to run without upgrades because the upgrades really make the fleet sing for the Alliance. Plus, it fits with the theme of Rebels having smaller, adaptable craft that can be altered and outfitted easily.

If you take Biggs' advice your rebel fleet would be a really solid list, though you might consider swapping out the Y-wings for some rogues from Rogues and Villians. You will mostly want those big ships to be blasting away with Ackbar, CF and gunnery teams, not ordering around a slew of inexpensive bombers, and dropping the Y's means Home Ones Squadron "3" will allow you to activate all your X-Wings every turn if you wish, and not leave some squadrons without the ability to move or shoot later in the squadron phase. In the end, you may get much more traction out of a single Dash Rendar YT-2400 over the course of a match than you would the 3 Y-Wings.

Just dotting to point out a thread was once made to explain to newbyes what works and what not. It's only updated up to wave 2, but would someone with more search skills than me dig its grave?

That was a call for me wasnt it?

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/218481-prominent-upgrades-a-newbie-friendly-guide/?p=2189758

And for the Rebel list: (Biggs comments in Red as they are good comments, and mine in blue)

MC80 Assault Cruiser:

- Ackbar

- Home One

- Electronic Countermeasures

- X17 Turbolasers

Assault Frigate Mark II B

- Gunnery Team

MC30c Scout Frigate

- Gunnery Team

- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

Awing

Awing

Tycho Celchu

Dash Rendar

Advanced Gunnery

Firing Lanes

Superior Positions

Just play ! You've already fallen behind people who have played more battles than you, but don't worry, playing a few battles will put your right on track very very quickly ! In Armada, skill and how you fly your ships is much more important than list building for the win (even though mistakes in list building will put you at a disadvantage).

Try your SD/VSD list and see how to build up from there

Hot dice help too :-)

Just dotting to point out a thread was once made to explain to newbyes what works and what not. It's only updated up to wave 2, but would someone with more search skills than me dig its grave?

That was a call for me wasnt it?

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/218481-prominent-upgrades-a-newbie-friendly-guide/?p=2189758

And for the Rebel list: (Biggs comments in Red as they are good comments, and mine in blue)

MC80 Assault Cruiser:

- Ackbar

- Home One

- Electronic Countermeasures

- X17 Turbolasers

Assault Frigate Mark II B

- Gunnery Team

MC30c Scout Frigate

- Gunnery Team

- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

Awing

Awing

Tycho Celchu

Dash Rendar

Advanced Gunnery

Firing Lanes

Superior Positions

I'll second Ginkapo's list. That's a really solid learning fleet

As others have said, just get someone else to the table and start flying the fleets. Each of the ships handles really differently and you need that practice to get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

I don't get to play nearly as much as I would like and something that helps me get my buzz and keep in the mindset is using a fleet builder on my phone when I have a spare 5 minutes. I come up with a single concept for a list and try to find a way to build that.

For example it might be a list using Mon Mothma and agile ships with evades to dodge and strafe the enemy. I might take a ship title, like Independence for the MC-Pickle, and try to focus a build on that, such as slingshotting B-Wings into combat.

I find that helps me to parse the cards and identify good synergies because I can sort through them with a context.

I can recommend a great fleet builder if you're on Android.

Best thing you can do for yourself is jump in the game and play, and play, and play! What I tell new players in our community don't be intimidated or scared from playing in a casual tourney because you are new. You learn so much from the tournament goers such as the little rules nuances and tricks they use to maximize their ships. Not to mention playing three games in row with a single list build really helps you show what your list can do and what it's limitations are, and don't get me started on objective selection. From there you modify your list and try again. A lot of this game is trial and error. There is no one list design that has proven to dominate in any given situation. Which is what I think appeals to the player base. We have a game that has not been figured out, and keeps giving us reasons to play it.

By the end of the day I find that what makes me a successful player is that I have ran a similar type of list for quite sometime at multiple tournaments and learn to be very good at it. To a lot of our players on the forums and in my group it is relatively unorthodox, and so people have problems bringing a dead counter to it without making themselves weaker to other type of list builds.

My recommendation is to not add too many upgrades anyway. Sometimes having more ships/squadrons is just as viable as having fewer ships with more upgrades. Having fewer upgrades tends to make fleets both easier to build and fly. When you have a ton of upgrades, especially for a new player, sometimes you'll forget to use them!

A related tip is when you have two of the same ship, try keeping similar upgrades on them. So for your Imperial fleet, I would recommend making both your VSD's have the same upgrades. It's not necessary, but it reduces the load on your brain when playing, and as a new player you'll already have enough other stuff to think about.

When you start playing more games, you'll start getting a feel for which upgrades tend to be more useful for the points. You'll notice some upgrades barely get used, and some upgrades are used all the time. That's when you start tweaking. I'm sure you've experienced something similar with X-Wing, though I don't know the game that well.

And most importantly, have fun!

There's also a large collection of blogs out there to help new players get started.

I know Biggs and myself run one:
http://xwingtactics.blogspot.com/p/commanders-guide-links.html

http://lkhero.blogspot.com/search/label/armada

OK, so I've had a really weird history with this game. I've owned it since Wave 1 and own the following:

- Core Set x1

- Rogues and Villains x1

- VSD x1

- GSD x1

- ISD x1

- Raider x1

- Imp Fighters x2

- Corvette x2

- Neb x2

- Mark II x1

- Home One x1

- MC30c x1

- Reb Fighters x2

So I've got plenty of stuff to build with etc. I love, love, love the system, the theme, the idea of piloting these huge epic fleets, the parallel systems of ships and squadrons etc etc and yet I've played the game like <5 times and haven't played since Dec 2015...In that time I've played X-Wing 48 times and Imperial Assault 16 times - so what gives?

I play and collect all of X-Wing and Imperial Assault - so I'm not averse to complicated rules systems with lots of moving parts and I'm used to FFG games, tokens, minis, cards etc.

At this point I'm just totally intimidated by the huge amount of cards and moving pieces that I own for Armada and don't really know where to start. I read the cards and I kind of get what they do, but can't really parse them in being able to know what's good or bad or what works with what. Similarly, with ship cards I look at the dice loadouts and the speed/movement charts and I draw a blank - it's not like looking at an X-wing dial and being like 'oh ok so it has all these greens and can do a S-loop'.

I want to keep up with releases and not fall behind and we've got waves 3 and 4 coming, and the campaign box, but if I haven't played in 8 months is there any point? I've painted all the squadrons too so I feel invested.

Can anyone give me some good 400 point starter lists with objectives for both Rebels and Imps to enable me to just get playing?

Come join us on vassal. Lots of good lists to be seen there. I've gotten a lot of inspiration that way.

Vassal - The Try before you Buy version of Armada

Awesome replies in here guys - thanks for the help - going have to get it to the table and report back!