It seems the most "spammed" ships these days are the mc30 and the light cruiser. The prevalence of conga lines of broadsides made we wonder if the Armada ruleset captures naval combat of the 1500-1800s better than other games in that genre? I think with larger numbers of small bases, the maneuver tool and left and right firing arcs might really be a fun way to capture engagements between ships of the line.

Not familiar with Age of Sail beyond the general blue water navy theme. I would say that one issue you'll have right now is that were in the middle of a massive upswing in the squadron game which is forcing a reevaluation of those more classical navy ship fleets. You can still play them but now it has to be in the context of squadrons everywhere.

There's an older game called Pirates of the Spanish Main that had a lot of similar concepts to Armada... But it was at a MUCH lower price point (styrene cards instead of full painted plastic ships) - so much so that it makes me laugh just thinking of how bad I felt spending "sooo much money" on it, when it was essentially $50 for just... Most of everything in each release (instead of ONE ship).

I think the theme brings way more interest to Armada than some people give it credit for. Personally, I love Age of Sail stuff, but I don't know many other people who would be interested enough for a game like armada to work.

On a much smaller scale maybe.

There's probably a market for it, but a smaller one than you think. I think Sails of Glory probably has it covered and that looks probably midway between X-Wing and Armada in complexity.

The sci-fi theme is more ripe for interesting rules gribblies like modifications. Generally, ships back then were limited to their broadsides. Eventually you'd have to sacrifice some historical accuracy for the sake of more varied gameplay and I think that would annoy the history buffs who would be most attracted to it.

Those sacrifices are exactly what Pirates of the Spanish Main eventually had to do, and the game declined around the same time.

14 minutes ago, Greatfrito said:

There's an older game called Pirates of the Spanish Main that had a lot of similar concepts to Armada... But it was at a MUCH lower price point (styrene cards instead of full painted plastic ships) - so much so that it makes me laugh just thinking of how bad I felt spending "sooo much money" on it, when it was essentially $50 for just... Most of everything in each release (instead of ONE ship).

I think the theme brings way more interest to Armada than some people give it credit for. Personally, I love Age of Sail stuff, but I don't know many other people who would be interested enough for a game like armada to work.

On a much smaller scale maybe.

Yeah it's definitely more niche and doesn't have the automatic pull of star wars. Maybe they could use the rune wars races or something if not sticking to real world navies but I don't know anything about that IP. The people that like Armada but not squadrons might be interested in this option.

37 minutes ago, Wired4War said:

Yeah it's definitely more niche and doesn't have the automatic pull of star wars. Maybe they could use the rune wars races or something if not sticking to real world navies but I don't know anything about that IP. The people that like Armada but not squadrons might be interested in this option.

It depends on how well the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie goes over. The popularity of the first three did a lot to drive the success of Pirates of the Spanish Main, beyond the history buffs that are normally drawn to Age of Sail games.

46 minutes ago, Greatfrito said:

Those sacrifices are exactly what Pirates of the Spanish Main eventually had to do, and the game declined around the same time.

It was never a really good game, but it was cheap and interesting. I know my group didn't give it much of a second thought until the giant crabs and dragons appeared.

I think the idea could work in another genre: World War naval combat. Either war as they both can bring different things to the table. Of course the scale would have to be smaller.

Sails of Glory is more involved than Armada. I have, and like, both.

I didn't even think of Pirates of the Caribbean, maybe a good way to capitalize on their Disney partnership. Could do a single boxed set or just a few expansions and have very movie themed objectives or even a campaign.

Jump onto Ebay and buy some of the lego Pirate ships. Swap the manouver tool for say a compass and ruler (set speeds can only turn at such an angle or what not) and make up your ship stats based on how many canon doors your ship actually has.

You can even get better stats by having more lego men crewing.

In fact, this sounds like fun. I'm off to ebay.

All the reasons it wouldn't be successful be damned, it would get my money. I think it would work pretty good for an age of sail thing.

Sails of Glory really does cover that era very well. Not sure a game based on the Armada rules is needed or would do that well.

Look im a huge history nerd and I love renacting and age of sail era texhnology. However what would you rather have as a model, an English third rate or an Imperial Star Destroyer? To be honest both but if I had to pick im going with the Star Destroyer.

Part of what makes Armada so successful is of course primarily its Star Wars theme. Yet its the quality of the models, and models of Star Wars ships we have never gotten physical models of before, and all in relative correct scale of eachother that is most appealing.

7 hours ago, evanger said:

Sails of Glory is more involved than Armada. I have, and like, both.

Yeah, I was going to say - there isn't any way better to scale down to Armada-sort-of-complexity the 'age of sail' then Sails of Glory (which is in-print, and putting out new ships all the time). It's basically the ideal simulation of it, and I'd say more complex than Armada (not least because it models ships losing effectiveness of command and damage output very rapidly as the ship takes damage).

Also does the pre-painted model thing, and looks pretty cool on the table...

...example of it's 'ship control cards', here:

If you want to step deeper a bit in complexity (because, honestly, modelling 'age of sail' is ALL about the wind - which 'Sails of Glory' does pretty well...but other games do better) you can look at either of...

• Wooden Ships and Iron Men (out of print, but a true classic - reprinted a few times - that is easy enough to find copies of)
• Close Action (this one in print, and about as detailed as you could possibly get modelling the age of sail - FAR too detailed, IMHO, but if that's what you want...)

I take it back that game looks AMAZING!

I have every ship made and the mat and the specials and I have never played a game. I wish some of you guys lived closer....

2 minutes ago, fistfulofforce said:

I have every ship made and the mat and the specials and I have never played a game. I wish some of you guys lived closer....

Try posting on BoardGameGeek - you'd be surprised how many people are in your area. there is a game page for it, which isn't a bad place to start, although one of the regional guilds might be a better place. Also tends to see pretty active discussion on Facebook!

(I know we've got a few dozen active players roundabouts my area, although I understand Portland, OR is a bit of an anomaly, generally - I mean, heck, we've got 4 different stories maxed out running 6-played 'Corellian Conflict' campaigns...)

10 hours ago, Teloch said:

Jump onto Ebay and buy some of the lego Pirate ships. Swap the manouver tool for say a compass and ruler (set speeds can only turn at such an angle or what not) and make up your ship stats based on how many canon doors your ship actually has.

You can even get better stats by having more lego men crewing.

In fact, this sounds like fun. I'm off to ebay.

Haha, that sounds like the most expensive option available

1 hour ago, Sbloom141 said:

Haha, that sounds like the most expensive option available

But but but..... yea. Still, lego canons and boarding actions where the different upgrades for your lego man replace their armour and weapons....

the Black pearl and the Imperial Flagship trading broadsides... : D critical damage like fouled rigging.... : D

I may have spent all day watching Black Sails and Hornblower

I'll add my voice to those suggesting Sails of Glory as the go-to system for an equivalent game at roughly Armada's level of complexity.

Armada itself wouldn't feel quite right as a sailing game, as the maneuver tool is a bit too abstract when it comes to what these old ships were able to do maneuver-wise. Really, they had very limited options, something that SoG's movement cards replicates nicely, including taking into account wind direction.

Sails of Glory is indeed very cool, if a bit more involved than Armada, very similar ideas at work. But yes, Armada is more naval than space combat, which makes it more relateable to people as we don't actually have space combat.

Something else about Sails of Glory (a really fun game of which I own quite a few ships) is that there are actually multiple "sets" of rules. The basic is very quick and more of a scaled down xwing. Intermediate is somewhere between xwing and armada. Advanced is mor complicated than armada but in a good way. And then there are a few dozen optional rules you can add to any basic set to make the game more advanced and fit your playgroup. With my gaming friends we use a lot of the optional rules in the advanced game. With my family we use some.

It it really is a great game. And it is beautiful on the table.

Sails of Glory is a great one, but I believe both it and Armada could share ideas.

For my group, SoG suffered early on from a lack of any means of forming a fleet. At the time there was no point system in place for the game. While I believe they have one now, not having one in place early on hindered the growth of the game with some groups. Also, the tacked on addition of admirals was an afterthought, and should've been included from the start along with the point system.

SoG could've also benefited from the Spanish being introduced early on as well. I know it's tough for companies to gauge how well a game will do, but just having the French and British from the start (with Old Ironsides thrown in as another afterthought) didn't appeal to the historical gaming groups I know (who are hooked on Close Action anyways, easily the most detailed age of sail game out there). If you can't do the Battle of Trafalgar in a game about naval combat during the Napoleonic Wars then you're doing it wrong.

And as far as what Armada could take from SoG, I say boarding actions. While I know this suggestion brings out the naysayers, it's been a part of the Star Wars universe longer than any other fleet actions thanks to the opening scene of a New Hope. It can and should be done (properly, of course).

So yeah, I guess in short I think given the half baked start of SoG there's still room for another Age of Sail game out there that pulls from Armada. The idea of equipping a crew slot with heroes from the Napoleonic wars is a cool one. I'd also like to add that it should include rules for amphibious warfare (such as it was then), that way you could take ports and things. Also, an age of sail game could use a campaign as well.