I have been playing X Wing for a couple years now and I'm looking to jump into Armada but dont know the best route or which faction to focus on.

I love the way Imperial ships and squadrons look, with TIE Fighters and Interceptors being my favourite sci fi ships.

But from what I read the Rebels capital ships tend to be more my style and focus on movement. In XWing I loved the maneuverable ships that were more about arc dodging rather than just beefy stats.

Which do you think is more important in choosing? Aesthetics or playstyle? I plan to use a lot of squadrons rather than a crap ton of capital ships.

And what are some important first buys once I choose?

Thanks for any help!

1. DONT BUY THE IDEA THAT THE CORE SET IS INDICATIVE OF FACTION PLAYSTYLES.

the core set is designed to be a tutorial where you show one player how to better direct a ship's firepower, and another player how to maneuver to avoid firepower. they picked imperials to be the first and rebels to be the second due to iconic roles, but this is in NO WAY indicative of the full meta and environment of star wars armada.

the roles may even INVERSE from game to game: for example, an Imperial player may build a list full of fairly basic ships with powerful guns (i.e. light cruisers and gladiators) and a rebel build a list around small ships like flotillas and cr90s, supporting one HUGE main damage dealer ship like the Home 1 or the Mon Karren. or you may imagine the rebels having super ace heroic pilots, but indeed the imperials have unique ones of their own as you sure know from x-wing! right now, almost all playstyles are available to both factions.

with that as granted, you have two options:

1) pick the most powerful army . this is a mistake because the game, while no game is perfectly balanced, is "balanced enough" that the factions are SO CLOSE in power that the "who's the most powerful of the two" answer changes 2-3 times per year as the meta evolves.= basicaly a non-issue. if you pick depending on "whats most powrful now" you will regret it.

2) pick the army that you like the most because of lore or models etc. thats what i'd advise.

i will write my advice on what to buy in an Edit in mins.

buying guide edit:

you want squadrons over capital ships, and TIEs over x-wings? if so, i would assume you wish to play Imperials due to aesthetics. i also assume you wish to employ a Rhymerball tactic (a tactic of buffing squadrons for mass bombardment of enemy capital ships). i will not show an exact list but i will make a write up of "what i'd try to play/fit in the list":

1) 2 x packs of Imperial Assault Carriers. very small ships, maneuverable, and with an insane capability to coordinate squadrons for their cost. they can also give rerolls to squadrons with the Bomber keyword.

2) the Core Set for its victory class. equip it as cheap as possible. it may or may not deal damage if it gets the chance-you want it for its large squadron value.

3) another victory class grants you Admiral Motti-the best carrier general ever imho. your fear is getting your ships demolished as your squadrons lay down the pain-Motti makes it that much harder by increasing all their Hull. another option instead of the victory class is wave 5 Imperial Light Cruiser. small, maneuverable, and with the awesome Centicore title it allowes you to coordinate squadrons far-away from your other ships. imho i like it better if wave 5 comes early where you are.

squadrons: you will need the following:

2 x packs of Imperial Squadrons I, this will get you Major Rhymer, a bomber that greatly increases the threat range of ALL your squadrons vs ships, and 3 x TIE bombers. it will also get you 4 x TIE advanced. this may or may not be Darth Vader(your choice), but with their Escort title, they protect Rhymer (and Dengar, se below), can deal damage to enemy squadrons, and are no slouch at all when attacking ships. this also contains the TIE interceptors, excellent squadrons but not for this list(low damage output vs ships, too antisquadron focused). TIE fighters can also work, because their antiship is low but they have such low cost so it is actualy "ok on performance/cost ratio". building a bomber wing you can play well is a minigame on its own, so see what works for you

1 x pack of Rogues and Villains. this will give you Dengar, a powerful unique squadron that robs enemy squadrons of the basic ability to engage, letting your squadrons just ignore enemy fighters and keep bombarding enemy ships. the enemy player will be forced to kill him if he wants to stop your bomber force, and with tie advanceds and/or darth vader closeby to "tank", that wont be easy. it can happen but it's hard (basicaly a big factor of how the match will be decided). this pack also gives Bobba fett, who also has the bomber title and can synergize if you find the points for him.

you can also build other lists, focused on capital ships large, medium or small, and using tie fighters, tie advanced and tie interceptors to kill enemy bombers (building a list without squadrons is NOT advisable, you need lots of fighter cover no matter what you do). but this was an example of a list that is ALL about the squadrons. tons of other good stuff for squadron game comes with wave 5, but the meta of that is not shaped up yet to give solid advice.

Well, ISD, Gladiators, raiders and arquitens are all about maneuverability.

Mc80L, Mc30, cr90s are all about maneuverability.

The interesting thing with these ships, only the isd lends itself to being a carrier. So i would suggest that imps are for you.

Well, ISD, Gladiators, raiders and arquitens are all about maneuverability.

Mc80L, Mc30, cr90s are all about maneuverability.

The interesting thing with these ships, only the isd lends itself to being a carrier. So i would suggest that imps are for you.

i would also say that the ISD is awesome but you are just starting and since it is hard to fit both an ISD and the (core set) VSD in a bomber force (no points if you wanna cover all your bases), thats the reason i didnt mention it.

EMPIRE!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome, thanks Kikaze! Appreciate the effort you put into that.

Are Empire on Empire matchups still fun? My main opponent mains Empire, and one other guy is trying to collect most of the ships regardless of faction.

Awesome, thanks Kikaze! Apprexiate the effort you put into that.

Are Empire on Empire matchups still fun? My main opponent mains Empire, and one other guy is trying to collect most of the ships regardless of faction.

Are they friendly? Will they swop cards with you?

If so, play Rebel.

*Simples*

Ah, so you mean proxy? I could try that

Watch a bunch of battle reports. Watch the 2015 and 2016 world championship game (the 2015 has bugged sound in the first 10 minutes, stand ready to mute it...it gets fixed eventually). As mentioned, there are a slew of tactics available to both factions.

If you go point heavy ships like an ISD, I'd vote go for anti-squadron squadrons to defend it while it does the job of killing their ships. If you want a lot of ships to increase your activations, go bomber wing. Remember, the goal is to kill the enemies ships. Without their ships, they lose....regardless of how many squadrons they have up.

Noted, thanks!

I will only say this. Virtually everything in this game is relevant. DO NOT listen to people that say buy this many of this and this many of that. Only buy what you are interested in. You can anyways add to your collection. If someone says buy the of any given thing they're I'd a solid chance the third one will just collect dust, except in rare situations.

Just my ten cents.

Ah, so you mean proxy? I could try that

That, and also there are cards which you will want which come in the opposite faction expansion packs. If you can trade with them it makes things easier. Plus you will be the only rebel so can drive a hard bargain.

I will only say this. Virtually everything in this game is relevant. DO NOT listen to people that say buy this many of this and this many of that. Only buy what you are interested in. You can anyways add to your collection. If someone says buy the of any given thing they're I'd a solid chance the third one will just collect dust, except in rare situations.

Just my ten cents.

Agreed

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a233/Sabain/Armada/Yep.jpg

One of my friends leans heavily into the squadron game and likes running Rebels for that reason. He runs Yavaris, two GR-75s with bomber command centers, and a mix of X-Wings and B-Wings. It's pretty potent, highly defensible, and has crushed many lists I've sent against it.

The Rebels tend to favor large numbers of smaller ships, like CR-90s, Nebulons, and MC30s. Their Flotillas are also cheaper than the Empire's, but are unarmed. Rebel advantages also lay in stronger and multi-purpose fighters (nearly every fighter in the first Rebel wave had bomber). They are more general than the Empire, but have higher hull counts. Rebel ships tend to bias more shields than hull (making them vulnerable to APTs). With the release of the Pelta there are new interesting fleet support options, including one that allows every activated fighter +1 speed.

If you like Empire and want to stay maneuverable, the Empire has the Gladiator Star Destroyer, Raiders, and the Gozanti to call upon. All of these craft are pretty potent... some could argue they're more effective than the bigger ships (Demolisher, a title for the Gladiator, is one of the most meta-affecting cards so far). Gozanti cruisers can be your stand-ins for proper carriers, but to activate 6 fighter squadrons at once you'll still want to have an Imperial-class Star Destroyer on hand.

Generally I've found that Imperial fighters want the advantage when activating, and for their cheaper points and lower hull they want to kill targets before those targets have the chance to shoot them down first. Imperial fighters also have a higher number of 'auto-damage' squadrons (Mauler Mithel, Boba Fett) to make up for how fragile their selection is.

Empire Isd-1 is the carrier to end all carrier at the moment.

Empire vs. empire leads to some very exciting matches, my regular partner Darth Lupine can attest to that from our games. So don't be afraid to run it. The only time it really matters having dedicated (or at least willing) Rebel players is for the new Corellian Conflict campaign.