After getting the Campaign I looked it all over and then came across the Armed Station card.

While I think it does have a good amount of Anti-fighter firepower and hull points, I was disappointed by its major lack of anti-ship firepower. I know its only an objective thing, but still I think it should be able to defend it self better then 1 blue die; not to mention why doesn't it have shields.

The art for the card is showing a Golan battlestation...this station is a poor reflection for the picture used to represent it. And why is the station objective piece the same as an unarmed station...lack of effort? I was excited for an armed station to fight against and to capture but...this feels under-gunned and boring.

But that is just me.......Anyone else???

I am almost thinking that it is a Graphic mistake. I bet it was supposed to have 1 blue anti-fighter dice, and 2 blue and 2 red anti-ship dice.

well, to be fair, if it had the 4die attack against ships it would kinda decimate one player as thats a pretty mean attack.

Against squadrons, it prevents you from just having a deathball go after it. You must have a ship around supporting the fighters or they will die horribly. Quite glad since pretty much all rebel ships could rip that station to shreds (minus awings).

I think it's fine. It is not supposed to be on an equal footing with the cap ships (for game balance reasons it seems obvious). Also, it's stationary. It's a lot harder to defend a stationary object from incoming fire.

As for the art? It looks good, and I think you're reading a bit too much EU detail into it. It is not an uncommon failing in the fan-base of pretty much any fiction. I.e. you're overthinking it.

It's an objective/terrain item. It's not a new ship.

Counts as a ship in the rules though heh

Counts as a ship in the rules though heh

Only in a limited respect.

The station doesn't have to match any fluff, it just has to be worth 40 points. That's what you're giving up by choosing it. It's an extra station so it will heal your ships and it might suck up some firepower (something the Ion Cannon won't). When defending a base, you're given three options, the armed station, a 4 dice non-friendly attack, or 40 points of fighters. I think most players won't be able to resist the fighter wing.

Since it's a ship with one hull zone, I'm pretty sure that when it fires it's anti-squadron dice, it hits any squadron in range all the way around it. It will create a squadron no-go zone somewhere on the battlefield (although it will be extremely vulnerable to long range bombers.)

Well as it's just a generic armed station, i am hopeful we may see Golan battle stations added to the game in the future.

So you want a 4 dice, 360 degree attack at 13 hull? That's better than a VSD averaged out. (Accounting for its horrible turning and the fact it will be out flanked most of the time.) The Station isn't supposed to be a beat stick monster that just sits in middle of the board punishing everyone that comes near, it's an objective and it should not outshine all capital ships for its point value. Hell, 4 dice against Squadrons is already really good, if that was switched with the ships it would be WAY too good for its points. A 360 degree fire is too powerful to add more dice to that.

Also FFG may use old art but Nothing in EU is considered Canon so they don't have to follow it. Also coming from other games there is a very common saying, "Fluff doesn't equal Rules!" and we shouldn't ever expect it to. (Even though I would be disappointed if the Executor was shoe-horned in on a small scale with only two more dice than the ISD. That would be just sad. We can at least expect them to follow Canon mostly but give them some credit on EU stuff or they might never reuse the EU ever again if there are too many complaints and they will just do new art, like the Raider.)

The station doesn't have to match any fluff, it just has to be worth 40 points.

So, if they made the ISD a 40-point anti-fighter platform, because that's what the game balance required, you'd be okay with it?

I'm largely with the OP, with the caveat that I understand that the Golan III (which seems to be depicted) is purely Legends, and may be redefined in the NuCanon or FFG's RPG material. However, if it isn't so redefined as a largely anti-fighter platform, then I think it's a mistake to have created and used artwork for the Golan for this station.

The point is: I understand that to some of you, the Star Wars "fluff" (see my mini-rant on that term here ) is basically meaningless. That's perfectly fine. Whatever floats your boat. But this game is also geared for those of who derive great enjoyment from the Star Wars lore. FFG makes a mistake when they disregard the Star Wars lore without a good reason. The good thing is that they don't tend to make those particularly flippantly, so perhaps they're working on a redefinition of the Golan III. Since the image comes from Edge of Empire, is it associated with any description and/or stats?

That said, I'm not going to be a purist. I'll confess to just perusing Mel Miniature's Golan I , and feeling tempted for its use in games including the Armed Station. I already have the Space Rocks (R.I.P.) set, which includes the station pictured on the obstacle token, and I love the rare opportunity* to use it in games. But, it seems like most of my opponents find the physical models for obstacles annoying ( ), and that fact diminishes the enjoyment I get from their use.

* Rare opportunity, because I usually get around town on a bicycle or motorcycle, and thus my Armada stuff needs to fit in a sling bag. Right now, I can either bring Space Rocks or my ISDs/Interdictor; not both.

That's sad Mikael cause I go with you on this side of people who like to put 3D stuff on the board (even if you have to put them aside for ship mouvement). When I bought my first Core set, I was looking for Space Rock stuff And saw the warning from Disney asking them to close the shop or take the chance of being sew. So I just miss this opportunity to buy those.

Maybe we could see some of those (armed station, asteroids, etc..) in the next wave but I have some doubt.

For me, the stats of the armed station is okey by the fact that it's just a help for the defender, not a ship joinning the fleet

I figured the Armed station was an XQ platform and Golans were more serious than this. Really, Golans are a space station from Star Wars that are noticeably armed. Therefore, they are the art for an armed space station.

I think if anything this points to FFG's reluctance to depict a space station in Armada, or they would have taken more care to select a space station that wouldn't be anything they want to do going forward. I could be wrong. If I am though, I'd rather have the more utilitarian XQs.

I figured the Armed station was an XQ platform and Golans were more serious than this. Really, Golans are a space station from Star Wars that are noticeably armed. Therefore, they are the art for an armed space station.

I think if anything this points to FFG's reluctance to depict a space station in Armada, or they would have taken more care to select a space station that wouldn't be anything they want to do going forward. I could be wrong. If I am though, I'd rather have the more utilitarian XQs.

I figured the Armed station was an XQ platform and Golans were more serious than this. Really, Golans are a space station from Star Wars that are noticeably armed. Therefore, they are the art for an armed space station.

I think if anything this points to FFG's reluctance to depict a space station in Armada, or they would have taken more care to select a space station that wouldn't be anything they want to do going forward. I could be wrong. If I am though, I'd rather have the more utilitarian XQs.

Also in a game of Ship Tactics where movement and planning on where you and your opponent will be the next turn is big when you need to get them in your best arc while staying out of their's. A station with a 360 degree arc that doesn't move kind of defeats that whole purpose and it would be kind of easy to just avoid without it being the objective.

Right. As much as I want to see plastic for space stations I'm really having a hard time figuring out how to put it on the table. The Campaign pack was pretty much it. The only thing I can think of in the future is either another campaign pack, or the space station itself comes packaged with an objective card that somehow makes it important to scoring. That would be kind of cool actually... but could it be made to work?