Hello all,

I have question regarding Armada with an odd number of players. There are only three of us in the area that play Armada. We have been playing 1v1v1 game variants for a few weeks now, but its almost inevitable in each game that one person kind of gets ganged up on. We have even picked about nine objective cards that we felt could be easily modified for three people and use those to add some variation to the game. But ultimately, it's getting a bit stale.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to adopt Armada for a better 3-player experience?

Thanks,

Jason

try a 2v1 scenario where 2 imperial players with 200pts fight 1 rebel player with 400pts or something like that.

1v1v1 seems really tough unless you do a caputre the station type scenario with 3 stations to try and kill.

Collusion is always a problem in these scenarios even if not intentional.

TAKE THE STATION!

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/9e/c1/9ec1e51f-1f72-4ded-baa2-e963a8032fe0/swm_take_the_station.pdf

Thanks, BergerFett. We have considered doing a 2v1, and splitting the 2 player team in two. I'm a little concerned about balance and potential inherent flaws. A coherent single 400 point fleet is potentially much more effective than two smaller 200 point fleets. I don't know if it would make that much difference in the balance of power or not. A consideration is to have the 2-player team make 2 separate 200 point fleets, both with their own commanders. Thus, allowing for each player to create a fleet (albeit smaller) around their play style. We definitely have options, just wasn't sure if anyone had come up with something they've already played with and thought worked well.

Thanks, Drasnighta. We actually have played Take the Station quite a bit. It's enjoyable, but week after week it's nice to play something different. And in fact, we used the template for that scenario to expand into other 1v1v1 scenarios. Basically, we try to draw a triangle on a 3X6 play area to create an equal distance for each player to start from and then we use various objective cards that can be easily adapted to remove advantage to any single player. And then we use rotating initiative just like in Take the Station.

3 hours ago, jasonkc25 said:

A coherent single 400 point fleet is potentially much more effective than two smaller 200 point fleets.

It's also more to keep track of. You could bump point totals to 600. Two 300 point fleets will be more manageable than one 600 point fleet. Longer games, but cuts into the inherent advantages of having one cohesive fleet.

Alternatively, just dock the solo player some points. ~20-50 seems appropriate for a 400 point game.

16 minutes ago, C6248 said:

It's also more to keep track of. You could bump point totals to 600. Two 300 point fleets will be more manageable than one 600 point fleet. Longer games, but cuts into the inherent advantages of having one cohesive fleet.

Alternatively, just dock the solo player some points. ~20-50 seems appropriate for a 400 point game.

Very true. When it was just two of us we pretty much always played 500 points as it felt like it gave us just a bit more room to breath in regards to making fleets and allowing for more squadrons. So, we'll likely try one 500 point fleet against two 250 point fleets and then tweak it from there.

Maybe add some context to it and make it fun! think on having a "special objective" based on rogue one. (Warning: you may find it crazy)

Have one player as empire, the two other as rebels, now the empire has 700 points, the rebels have 400 each. Play on 3'x 3', setup an armed station with rapid launch bays and 3 TIE fighters. Also set up an ISD for a "hyperspace assault" on turn 3. I know it sounds absolutely mad, but it's really contextual

EDIT: Had empire as 500 points :P, oops

Start grooming a 4th player. That's the only long term solution.

5 hours ago, ManInTheBox said:

Start grooming a 4th player. That's the only long term solution.

Trust me, we are trying. Unfortunately, we are in a small town in western North Dakota. A couple years ago we had a fairly strong X-Wing group...I think at it's peak we had 8 or 9 people, but that was at the height of the oil boom. Lots of guys up here with lots of extra money. The x-wingers have all disappeared. I was lucky to find one guy to play Armada, then another guy just recently joined us. Like many people, most of the guys at the local game store say they spend too much money on other games, so they can't spend more money on Armada. And that...is that. The game store had 12 starter sets in stock when the game first came out, I think over the course of two years he sold maybe four of them. Now....they don't even carry stock for Armada or X-wing. Makes me sad.

9 hours ago, jasonkc25 said:

Trust me, we are trying. Unfortunately, we are in a small town in western North Dakota. A couple years ago we had a fairly strong X-Wing group...I think at it's peak we had 8 or 9 people, but that was at the height of the oil boom. Lots of guys up here with lots of extra money. The x-wingers have all disappeared. I was lucky to find one guy to play Armada, then another guy just recently joined us. Like many people, most of the guys at the local game store say they spend too much money on other games, so they can't spend more money on Armada. And that...is that. The game store had 12 starter sets in stock when the game first came out, I think over the course of two years he sold maybe four of them. Now....they don't even carry stock for Armada or X-wing. Makes me sad.

That makes me sad to hear. This is why I'm buying kit for both sides, so I can furnish another player with all the gear they need to play, if it comes it it.

On 2/17/2017 at 5:06 PM, ManInTheBox said:

That makes me sad to hear. This is why I'm buying kit for both sides, so I can furnish another player with all the gear they need to play, if it comes it it.

The three of us have plenty of ships if a fourth wanted to try it out, but nobody wants to commit. Everyone thinks it looks really cool, but too expensive. We've even done a few 'Learn to Play' days at the local game shop. Again, people think it looks cool...but nobody is interested. There is also a local board game club that has a game day every quarter. We setup Armada there as well...and once again....it looks cool...but nobody wanted to give it a go. We're going to try one more time at the next game day and offer a couple 'Learn to Play' scenarios...see what happens. Unfortunately, it just seems its not that popular up here. People want to play board games, they don't want to play anything miniature related....which also includes games like Imperial Assault, Descent, etc... We used to have a small group of GW guys, but they no longer come to the shop.

Ah, but I'm way off topic now.