So i've come to a conclusion that 400 points is great for simulating skirmishes but not bigger sized fleet battles. I'm not talking epic mode where there's a thousand points each but something in the middle.

As it is I'm hesitant to invest in squadrons as I sacrifice another capital ship or two to do so. Then with Capital ships it's a little silly that to be used effectively Imps can only field two Imp Star Deuces. I really think the game needs an official 600 point (or around that so 500-800) match type to accommodate larger battles and create more diverse lists.

Have people experimented with custom games around this point range and how is the balance and game length? Will there ever be an official game mode with more points?

I just played a game last night with my buddy that was used as a supplement to our RPG.

It involved a rag tag rebel fleet led by Mon Mothma (275 pts), Ackbar (275 pts) and Jan Dodonna (300 pts), for a total of 850 pts. vs. 600 points of Imperials.

The mission objective was to clear out the imperial fleet and buy enough time for the PCs, the ground crew, to take out a shield generator that was protecting a nearbye starship manufactory using sabotage/demolitions (basically the plot of RotJ, except a spacestation instead of death star).

While it was 850 points against 600, the rebels had to move fast, as each turn they risked another ship (or ships) launching from the space station.

It was a great game and worked out pretty good (with an obvious bias for the rebels)

Have people experimented with custom games around this point range and how is the balance and game length? Will there ever be an official game mode with more points?

That depends, and is a very loaded question, if we consider X-Wing as the guideline.

Is it possible that there will be an Armada "Epic" Mode. Perhaps. Perhaps Not.

Even if such a thing exists, will people consider it "Official"? Perhaps. Perhaps Not.

Because that's where X-Wing is right now. They have multiple game modes outside of the 100pt Deathmatch, but there is a very palpable stagnation of vitriol in their Forums about "Competitive" vs "Casual" where Competitive is only the 100pt Deathmatch System, and everything else makes you a filthy casual. Or something. I don't know, the general discussion was mostly ignored by me.

All we know, is that for Armada , "moving forward", the game limit for the Tournament style game is 400 Points, and that is where it will stay.

If you are not playing the Tournament game, then its inherently a house rule, and, it is up to you what rules apply .

Is 400pts a Large Fleet? No.

But hey, earlier today we had someone stating that games already take too long because there's too many Squadrons on the board for them...

A Tournament system, by its very merits, has to be playable . Accessable and Playable in a reasonable timeframe, and I feel 400 makes it so. its a good compromise point.

There are numerous threads about this very fact - where people will espouse that 450 doesn't make a big difference, that people can get 600pt games done in under 3 hours, etc, etc.

More power to them.

But I prefer the rigid structure of the 400pt Tournament game. The Objectives (which are soon to double!) already adds a ton of variety to the game in comparison to the X-Wing Deathmatch, and honestly... I don't think I'd get to play as much if such a framework did not exist, as I'd be lugging my stuff 2 hours across town on public transit to get there and find out that no-one wants to play because everyone's got a different idea of how big of a game should be done.

If you've got an open group, who can discuss ideas beforehand - go for it - I do enjoy reading battle reports and seeing the massive games played.

But it will never work as a standardised framework. All points systems in the game are balanced for a certain point, and that point is 400pt.

I wonder if there would be any interest in a 600 point vassal tournament to see how it works. Seems like there should be enough players interested in trying bigger lists to support something like this. I know the 200 point games have been fun.

Would objective points have to be upped? So 20-30 since you would be going from 400-600.

That's the beauty of miniature game over video game: you can do whatever you want.

However for a tournament format I feel like 400 is a good middle ground .

600 points is a lot of fun and doesn't require that much more time. I highly recommend giving it a shot.

600 points I feel the best option for larger scale battles yet not so large as they spend too much time running. I did one such with my 600 point Rebel fleet vs 2 300 point Imperial fleets. It was pretty fun.

2300 ... and I really need to upload the full table, instead of a third of it. (Granted the one with the highest concentration of ships and squads.)

We ended after Turn 4 and I won by 11 points.

Last game was a 900 point game, with fighters kept to 100 points or less to help speed along the game. If you bring along full squadron points at the higher level games it slows down the play.

600 and 900 point games work fine. We've found that at 900 points things slow down a bit too much but it's more to do with the set up (getting out and arranging tokens and cards) then it is to do with the actual game. 600 points is pretty much our standard size game now.

I wonder if there would be any interest in a 600 point vassal tournament to see how it works. Seems like there should be enough players interested in trying bigger lists to support something like this. I know the 200 point games have been fun.

I'm game. Anything from 450 to 600

600+ games can be a bit harder on the rebels as the mass of star destroyers limits their ability to outflank them

My regular opponents and I often play 600 point games and find it to be an ideal mix of playability and options. You get to kit out ships the way you want and still have points for support. Do you take a 5 ISD fleet, or just a trio, support vessels, and fighters? It's funny that even with 200 Pts of fighters available, it is rare that either side takes more than 10 of them. And let me tell you, if you want to see Tarkin work well, he positively SINGS at 600.

I seriously believe that if you are playing a larger game, (600+ points), you would need to use a larger table. Much as the tables expanded when we moved to 400 points. Due to the minis being much bigger than Xwing, you need more space to maneuver. My 1.87 cents.

Of course that being said, has anyone played a big game on a big table?

As it has been pointed out, scaling up takes up more space, and that means some ships will be less viable due to decreased maneuverability. Maybe if the game mat was 7X4 it would be easier to move around on and flank. But I wouldn't know since I only play 400 points.

2300 ... and I really need to upload the full table, instead of a third of it. (Granted the one with the highest concentration of ships and squads.)

We ended after Turn 4 and I won by 11 points.

I forgot the pictures!

https://imgur.com/a/3SiVw

having 400 point games keeps the price point down as well for poor players like me.

Well lets take a look at what 400 points give us.

So for the rebels the cheapest ship is the Medium Transport flotillas but taking a fleet of unarmed ships might not be the best strategic decision so lets go with the CR-90 B. Cheapest commander is Doodana and with that you can take up to 9 CR-90s (not following any ship limitations) and still have a few points to spend for upgrades or a squadron.

Now for Imperials we have the cheapest commander Ozzel again at 20 points. IF you spend no points on upgrades you can take up to 3 ISD Is and 6 TIE Fighter Squadrons. But going for the most ships lets go with Gozanti Class Cruiser. With 380 points left you could pick up 16. But you really wouldn't use that list so for theoretic sake lets max out the points on squadrons.So you can get 15 TIE Fighter squadrons (but probably won't be purely TIE FIghters so we will just go with 134 points on squadrons spent exactly. 246 points left will leave you with 10 Gozanti flotillas.

Of we can go wit ha raider swarm which is about 8 (1 less than the maximum # of CR-90s). Still that is a lot of ships.

I think 400 points is fine. Sure X-wing uses 300 points for Epic and 400 points (200 points each) for team epic but you got to remember X-wing and Armada point values don't scale the same way. You actually bring more to the table with Armada points than just a couple of huge ships.

Now for expanded games I think FFG OP could go into "team matches" a little bit more for than just the one scenario. IMHO team matches are great because you get to do combinations like having 2 commanders that you would never be able to do in a standard match. But with 3 large ships or 9 small ships and 10 flotillas with a squadron swarm I think is more than enough on the table.