Just curious if anyone else thinks FFG may entertain the idea of bumping to 500 points.

Seeing that it's the max in CC makes me think that wave VI or wave VII may see a bump up to 500 or possibly higher depending on models released. I feel as if wave VI should be similar to IV. The rebels have 2 large class ships and a single medium, where as the empire has a single large class and 2 mediums, meaning they may try to balance that by releasing a large imp and medium rebel. (they seem really into symmetry?)

That said, with two large ships available on both sides, it seems feasible that 500 could become standard.

My other thought is that it may wait until the eventual release of the SSD. Seems like an FFG trump card to me, if Armada ever starts to decline, release an SSD, since there are so few high quality SSD models on the market, it's sure to sell... Then they can do the same "epic" game system that they did with x-wing.

I believe it will remain at 400. But I HOPE for more.

I think 400 is here to stay for official events and tourneys. Anything larger is just too unwieldy for single day tournament formats. You may see more campaigns, but the "real" format will likely stay the same.

As for the rest, that really doesn't make a lot of sense. The lead time on a model, especially something that could significantly alter the default "play mode" is far too long to cook it up as an emergency save the game measure. This ain't wizkids. Plus, if they develop the model, they would release it (pending LFL approval, of course). Why wait until interest declines to sell something that WILL make a ton of money. That's kind of a cynical view of FFG.

Also, epic never changed the point cost of "basic" games in X-Wing, so "epic" or "cinematic" play in Armada wouldn't necessarily effect the core gameplay, and if an SSD were released, I imagine it would either be tied to those types of play for balance reasons, or toned down enough to be fine in normal games.

TL;DR, I personally think 400 is here to stay, but nothing in the world is keeping you and your gaming group from going beyond that!

Post CC there is more interest in larger games. That's understandable. We plan on doing a casual 450-500 point tourney to see how that catches on.

1 minute ago, FatherTurin said:

I think 400 is here to stay for official events and tourneys. Anything larger is just too unwieldy for single day tournament formats. You may see more campaigns, but the "real" format will likely stay the same.

As for the rest, that really doesn't make a lot of sense. The lead time on a model, especially something that could significantly alter the default "play mode" is far too long to cook it up as an emergency save the game measure. This ain't wizkids. Plus, if they develop the model, they would release it (pending LFL approval, of course). Why wait until interest declines to sell something that WILL make a ton of money. That's a really cynical view of FFG you appear to have.

Also, epic ever changed the point cost of "basic" games in X-Wing, so "epic" or "cinematic" play in Armada wouldn't necessarily effect the core gameplay, and if an SSD were released, I imagine it would either be tied to those types of play for balance reasons, or toned down enough to be fine in normal games.

TL;DR, I personally think 400 is here to stay, but nothing in the world is keeping you and your gaming group from going beyond that!

I wouldn't say cynical, but it's clear to recogize it's a sure fire "win" situation for FFG, whether they release it as part of a regular schedule or save it to boost sales, the key here is that the SSD will sell. For sure. When it does, there would have to be a mode to accommodate that. (I think? The thing is massive.) Though, yes, your point does stand, epic play did not alter standard in the least.

I suppose it's unlikely, but with as hard as FFG has been pushing squadron play, I'd like to see large ships be a more essential part of the meta. Even with floatillas, it's hard to have two large ships and still maintain a balanced fleet at 400 points.

3 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

Post CC there is more interest in larger games. That's understandable. We plan on doing a casual 450-500 point tourney to see how that catches on.

My friend and I run 600 pretty standard. Good times.

Oh, I know. I love this game, but it's a little frustrating to be playing "Armada" with what amounts to a small strike group.

...man, I am typing A LOT of air quotes today...

That's why my "standard" games now are 900 point fleets/upgrades/admirals with a 300 point fighter contingent

Just now, idiewell said:

That's why my "standard" games now are 900 point fleets/upgrades/admirals with a 300 point fighter contingent

Holy cow, that's gotta be a helluva game!

Oh they're a blast! At that point range you can run a large battlegroup with all sorts of upgrades. Last battle i fielded 2 Liberty's, 2 MC-30's, an Assault Frigate, an MC-80 Assault, GR-75, Command Pelta and Pelta Assault Ship. Now all that on the board, surrounded by a bunch of fighters is what star wars is all about

3 minutes ago, idiewell said:

Oh they're a blast! At that point range you can run a large battlegroup with all sorts of upgrades. Last battle i fielded 2 Liberty's, 2 MC-30's, an Assault Frigate, an MC-80 Assault, GR-75, Command Pelta and Pelta Assault Ship. Now all that on the board, surrounded by a bunch of fighters is what star wars is all about

Yeah I just tested what I could fit into an imp build.... whew.... bet those take some time though lol

Well yeah, you want to reserve 5-6 hours for the full fight lol. My opponent fielded 3 Victory's, an ISD, an Interdictor, a Gladiator and a Gozanti with a skillion fighters it seemed.

He crushed my left flank with his ISD, Interdictor and Gozanti. Fortunately my remaining fighters on that flank tied up the ISD while my remaining ships/fighters started to drop Victory's. We called it after the end of turn 4. Technically it was a victory for him, but he conceded that the full 6 rounds would have swung the game to me. So i consider it a victory lol

We've played a 600 once and it was good but that was before Wave 5 when we were a little limited with our options. Our standard games now are always 500 as we generally find 400 a little restrictive and unsatisfying for a precious weekend night's worth of gaming !

I don't go to tourneys so I don't really care what the official size is. 500 might be the best gaming experience, but it will add to the playtime and presumably make tournaments more challenging. TO be honest though, i really see the future of Armada in its campaign play and for that I really hope they continue with the 500 point limit.

I don't think a move to 500 points would push it out of timing for a tournament too badly. Typically the longest portion of games for us is the fighter game because of all the rolls and movement. At 500 points you're adding a couple more squads max per side and maybe a couple ship activations. Out CC games have not been taking noticeably longer at the larger mark, except one the other night when two players played uber defensively and it lasted 3+ hours

I'd love to see it go up to 500 points. Truly.

And I'd also like an enhanced tournament system that involves more points, and tighter brackets. This way you could do a 2 round format, with each round earning you anywhere from 1 to 20 points.

In my game group we had the most fun when the limit was roughly 450 in our CC campaign. Itadded enough flexibility to make lists awesome while not overly bogging down the game.

1 hour ago, Crabbok said:

I'd love to see it go up to 500 points. Truly.

And I'd also like an enhanced tournament system that involves more points, and tighter brackets. This way you could do a 2 round format, with each round earning you anywhere from 1 to 20 points.

I don't know. I feel like that allow luck to play too big a role in winning tournaments.

I want to see the points go up to 500 as I see a lot of really cool builds come out of these 500 point games in CC, and I don't feel like the game is much slower at all. I would not mind them breaking there 1/3 rule and just cap squadrons at 150 points I feel that would help with most peoples objections to the 500 point lists.

FFG has clearly already bumped some modes of play up to 500, the campaign mode. But I don't think for a moment that premier tournament play will be anything but 400 points (but I do think that eventually we may see ~250 point 'blitz' group tournaments, and maybe 1,000 point epic tournaments at a casual level). The SSD/Epic ship thing feels all but inevitable, so that we might very well see a 1,000 point Epic scale, epic ships, and maybe even 9'X3' playspaces.

Basically, yeah: but I don't think you'll see a regional championship at 600-ish points, it'll still be 400 for that even if 600 point games may still catch on with the player base.

I think they could but it will take a retooling of the game design to make happen. Maybe in a future "Armada 2.0" edition they'll have a way to balance things out correctly. I think that there are some issues to work on for now that would make it harder.

For one, i think the game is moving towards squadrons at a rate where 1/3rd of the fleet is exceeding the intended power curve. 134 points of nearly any squadrons with either black dice batteries or the Bomber keyword are more powerful, durable, and maneuverable than a 120 point Imperial-2 Star Destroyer and less impacted by negative effects thanks to Intel and other special abilities. In addition, small flotillas are definitely more effective at activating squadrons than any combination of other ships, excepting possibly Yavaris.

600 Points, Max 150 spent on squads. Happy days.

Had a 3999 point game, took the Weekend but was fun;)

I think the biggest issue with bumping up the game size is how it skews objectives and admiral choices.

Otherwise, Im all for it.

I don't think that raising points to 500 would skew anything too badly. Unless anyone has any specific cards they think/know would mess things up. They key would be to not raise squadron point too much. So 500 points with 150 of squadrons. The other important thing is that Armada is easy enough to play at any reasonable point total. The only format that is set in stone is tournament play. And I don't see it going over 500, because of time constraints, and raising the points too musch would make tournaments more intimidating and less accessible.

I'm for 500. It's a lot easier to fit large ships into. But squadrons get exceedingly more powerful in mass. Due to how their supportive benefits are multiplicative as opposed to mere additive 167 fighters is a huge increase in power as opposed to 134.

Howver, my hate for squadrons not withstanding, I'm still for 500 points even with no rules changes. Let me actually create 2 ISD lists!

Sadly objectives become even less important if they are point based, which you end up selecting.

Msu doesn't really benefit after a while cuz the board gets smaller and too many units. Also if low activation fleets have like 6 activations vs 9 there's more places for the msu player to make a mistake.

The gsmes will spread out on the board more and be bigger in scale. But con is that concentrated fire will be even more of s problem causing snowball effects from mistakes or from having ships downed one at a time.

One solution is to create a flotilla cap: only 100 points cAn be spent on flotillas and upgrades attached to them including admirals.

I wonder if maybe the way to fix flotillas is to make the ship hull count towards the squadron cap? At 167 points, it balances that out a little more. You can still field 2-3 and several generics, but no more big pile of flotillas commanding a dozen generics and unique squads without any issues.