Over in Imperial Assault, FFG uses Time Periods to determine which units are usable during campaigns.

I'm just curious to see if we wanted to do the same in Armada, what would be the best way to spilt them up?

This is what I came up with on the fly:

Period 1: Early Empire & Rebellion

(pre- ANH)

Empire:

Victory Class SD

Gozanti class Carrier

Arquittens class cruiser

TIE Fighters

TIE Advanced

Rebels:

CR-90 Corvette

Pelta class Frigate

Z-95 Headhunters

A-Wings

Y-Wings

Period 2: Early Galactic Civil War

(ANH - ISB)

Empire:

Gladiator class SD

Imperial class SD

TIE Bombers

Lambda Shuttle

Rebels:

Nebulon-B Frigate

MkII Assault Frigate

GR-75 Transport

X-Wings

Period 3: Late Galactic Civil War

(ISB - pre TFW)

Empire:

Raider Class SD

Interdictor Cruiser

TIE Interceptors

TIE Defenders

TIE Phantoms

VT-49 Decimator

Rebels:

Home One MC80

Liberty MC80

MC30

B-Wings

E-Wings

*Note: I know that the ISD is seen in The show Rebels, but by pushing it back to period 2 gives the Victory some time to shine. I also know that the Interdictor was seen in Rebels, but is was a prototype, and Period 3 needs some love.

Also, based on what people over there are saying...

"Used to use."

Also note that the Interdictor and the ISD (at least the ISD-I) both existed pre-ANH. No cannon sources on when the Glad and Raider first started appearing, though.

I think that creating such limitations could be fun for a grand campaign, or for a series of campaigns modeling the different eras of the war.

Another way to think about it is regional rather than chronological. Vader's fleet would pretty much have state-of-the-art stuff because he had influence with the Emperor and Imperial Center like no other. However, if you're some Outer Rim Moff who's appointment to the B-F-E sector at the edge of Wild Space is more of a punishment than an honor, then it's less likely that you're going to be issued ISDs, Advanced TIEs, or ECMs, much less TIE Defenders and Phantoms. The same could be said about the resource base of the Rebels.

Also note that the Interdictor and the ISD (at least the ISD-I) both existed pre-ANH. No cannon sources on when the Glad and Raider first started appearing, though.

There's no newcanon references to the Gladiator at all, yet.

In the EU, it was designed to escort the Victory-class - but ended up being delayed and coming out right after the Clone Wars. We know they existed around 15 BBY - since that's when Droids ended up being defined as being set.

I think that creating such limitations could be fun for a grand campaign, or for a series of campaigns modeling the different eras of the war.

Another way to think about it is regional rather than chronological. Vader's fleet would pretty much have state-of-the-art stuff because he had influence with the Emperor and Imperial Center like no other. However, if you're some Outer Rim Moff who's appointment to the B-F-E sector at the edge of Wild Space is more of a punishment than an honor, then it's less likely that you're going to be issued ISDs, Advanced TIEs, or ECMs, much less TIE Defenders and Phantoms. The same could be said about the resource base of the Rebels.

The limitations was my thought as well.

Thinking about it regionally is a great idea. I like that a lot.

I suppose one question I have is, what is your goal with this? I don't see it as something that would be widely accepted, and if you're looking to do something with just some mates around the table, then you can really do whatever you want. The timeframe piece is difficult, and even the regional one can be touchy. Since the Rebels can strike anywhere from hidden bases, they can really bring everything they have on the table. On the flip side, an Imperial Moff could easily call in the support of the Imperial Navy if there is a legitimate threat.

I would just say create your own narrative. If you're looking for pickup games, something like this is clunky and won't work too well. If you're looking to do something like an informal campaign, just go nuts! I would recommend one of two things in a situation like that:

1) Give ships and squadrons a Rarity Level. Ones that are very common (CR90s, Neb-Bs, VSDs, TIE Fighters, X-Wings) would be Common and have no limitations on how many you can field. Things that are rare or experimental (ISDs, MC80s, Interdictors, E-Wings, TIE Phantoms, etc.) would be Rare, and you would either be limited in how many you can field at once or how easy they are to replace battlefield losses. And, obviously, unique ships/squadrons would be irreplaceable.

2) Create a faction roster for each side. Say you go with the Outer Rim moff versus a Rebel force. Sit down and create a force chart for each side before you begin playing. Maybe even base it off of a certain number of points (say, 1,000pts each). Now you have only those ships to choose from whenever you create a fleet. Once a ship is destroyed, cross it off of your roster. That way you guarantee to keep your battles an even number of points, but you can't constantly field triple ISDs or somesuch.

I think this would be more relevant for DA's custom cards... but not for what we have now. Most of what we use is squarely in the Galactic Civil War, and all the "old" equipment can commute into older periods. This isn't like trying to rationalize why Kylo Ren is in a lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan. In fact, this isn't even trying to justify how the First Order is using Gladiator-class Star Destroyers, because the Force Awakens mateiral isn't in the game to be relative to anything.

Things that are rare or experimental (ISDs, MC80s, Interdictors, E-Wings, TIE Phantoms, etc.) would be Rare, and you would either be limited in how many you can field at once or how easy they are to replace battlefield losses.

The first ISDs entered service during the Clone Wars - and mass production of them took off right after the Clone Wars ended. I could see them being pretty widespread within a couple of years of the war ending.

True, the Empire had a lot of them. According to the old (like, twenty years old) Star Wars Encyclopedia, at its height the Navy boasted 10,000 Star Destroyers. That's a lot. But spread across millions of planets under their control. The movies kind of misrepresent how massive the Empire truly was. Whenever you see the navy, you see dozens of ISDs with no support vessels. But you're only seeing Darth Vader's fleet that is hunting down the core of the Rebel Alliance, or the Imperial fleet during the ambush at Endor. It's like watching a documentary about the Battle of Midway knowing nothing else about WWII. It would leave you with the impression that the US Pacific fleet consisted almost entirely of aircraft carriers. Star Destroyer captains were a big deal. They could overrule planetary governors. Not only could they blast apart a small fleet on their own, but they also carried thousands of elite soldiers. A Star Destroyer could hold an entire region of space on its own.

So there were a lot of them, yes, but given the number of ISDs versus the size of the Empire, they were pretty uncommon.

Things that are rare or experimental (ISDs, MC80s, Interdictors, E-Wings, TIE Phantoms, etc.) would be Rare, and you would either be limited in how many you can field at once or how easy they are to replace battlefield losses.

The first ISDs entered service during the Clone Wars - and mass production of them took off right after the Clone Wars ended. I could see them being pretty widespread within a couple of years of the war ending.

I thought that was the Victory Star Destroyer. The Imperial Class came at the start of the Alliance of 1,000 systems decided to rebel.

I like it. Its a bit like Flames of War periods for different stages of the war.



However the TIE Bomber was introduced very early (as was the ISD-I):

The TIE Bomber came into service during the early years of the Empire and was used to quell the Separatist holdouts still active at the time, namely Gizor Dellso's fleet of former CIS naval starships and private droid army.^[9]

Two months after the Battle of Yavin, TIE bombers were deployed during a Rebel scouting mission to the Dominus sector to bomb the Rebel scouts, but the Rebels were able to escape the bombers.^[17]

I thought that was the Victory Star Destroyer. The Imperial Class came at the start of the Alliance of 1,000 systems decided to rebel.

Early EU portrayed the ISD as a post-Clone Wars design - late EU showed it as a Clone Wars era "Imperator-class" which was renamed "Imperial-class" to celebrate the birth of the Empire.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_I-class_Star_Destroyer/Legends

The campaign in the Raider pack for X-wing revolves around testing the early TIE Advanced for what it is worth.. (but FFG needed to fix the Advanced so there is that..) ..