I hate to say it but I think I'm depressed.

Over Christmas the founding member of our gaming group in NE Ohio had to move back to California. He was a really charismatic fellow and did a great job inspiring people to come play. After he left the group has basically fallen apart. I tried to step into his shoes and encourage players to come out, even offered free pizza and soda, I can barely get 3 people to show up, and almost never on the same day.

Two of our members announced they're selling their ships last week and another told me Saturday he's stepping away from Armada...

I tried running tournaments, and organizing CC events, nothing seems to have worked....

Any of you guys feel like moving to NE Ohio, make it suck less here?

I feel your pain man. Our CC group fell apart after three rounds because three guys never seem to want to show up for games. The worst part of that to me is those three are the closest people out of our group to the store we play at. The others in our group excluding myself have to drive an hour and a half to play and haven't missed a game yet. I'm planning on hosting a tournament next month and even with having an actual kit and offering up additional prizes out of my own pocket I'm still not expecting more than 5 or 6 people to show up.

Recently we've had a solid armada group that could meet almost every week to play 1 game ( 2 tables, 1 vs 1). But, the newest member was someone I didn't know (a friend of my friend) and he didn't seem to care that much about the game. He had 1 list prepared and 1 only, never bothered checking Warlords to make new lists. Even had a ISD that he never used. Anyway, we ended up beating his list almost every week for 4 weeks straight because it just wasn't good and that person decided to quit armada saying the game is too much based on chance and dice rolls (when you lose every week to the same players, it might be you that's doing something wrong).

So the guy quit the group, and we've had troubles finding a 4th player again. We're having a game tonight with a 4th guy we don't know so we hope everything goes well. Otherwise, we sometimes try to make 1 person play 2 games in the same night while the 2 others play one.

Needless to say I'm a bit angry towards the 4th guy that left that never gave the game a solid chance, because since my number of Armada games dropped by a solid 50%, but you can't control people's attitude so...

It's really got me depressed.

Since I was 6 years old I wanted a game that let you play as the Empire and let you use the ISD... It's always been my favorite. When the RTS titles came out on PC (Empire at war I wanna say it was called) I was stoked, but it took so long to build up to ISDs and once they hit the map the game was over...

Armada has been the most fun I've had with Star Wars since I was a little tyke running along the fence line of my parents property with one of those old micro machine x-wings and tie fighters pretending it was the trench run.

It's really killing me to see the group just dissolve.

9 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

It's really got me depressed.

Since I was 6 years old I wanted a game that let you play as the Empire and let you use the ISD... It's always been my favorite. When the RTS titles came out on PC (Empire at war I wanna say it was called) I was stoked, but it took so long to build up to ISDs and once they hit the map the game was over...

Armada has been the most fun I've had with Star Wars since I was a little tyke running along the fence line of my parents property with one of those old micro machine x-wings and tie fighters pretending it was the trench run.

It's really killing me to see the group just dissolve.

in the end you only need 1 person to play the game with. Odd numbers in a group suck for that reason.

I had a good friend who decided to sell his Armada stuff and focus on MtG because he's going back to school and feels like he won't have the time or money to keep supporting Armada. I tried getting my brother in-law involved in the game but his family (3 young kids) just takes too much of his time...

Best thing you can do is find someone who you enjoy playing against in a tournament and try to play against that person again.

But yeah, I know the feeling and it sucks. It's impressive how unreliable people can be. Personally, I never sell any of my games, I keep on hoping I'll be able to play more in the future.

Just now, Sybreed said:

Best thing you can do is find someone who you enjoy playing against in a tournament and try to play against that person again.

I started playing with one of my best friends, and he's fairly reliable, but the skill difference between us is massive. Almost every time we play I table the guy. We've been working on improving his skills, but without anyone else to play but me, it's been a slow process...

Just now, Darth Sanguis said:

I started playing with one of my best friends, and he's fairly reliable, but the skill difference between us is massive. Almost every time we play I table the guy. We've been working on improving his skills, but without anyone else to play but me, it's been a slow process...

I guess it depends on how invested you are in the game.

On my end I learned very quick because I watched a lot of videos on youtube and spent a lot of time on the forums. Hell, in my 1st tournament I had to correct people about rulings who had a 50 games experience vs my meager 5 at the time. If your friend wants to learn new stuff, best thing he can do is to watch some videos of people playing together (WWPSteven's video are good for that) because otherwise there's a risk of burning your friend just like we burned our 4th player (he literally rage-quitted when I kicked his ass 10-1 but I wasn't even trying to win...)

@Darth Sanguis I know it might not help your current situation, but if you ever make it down to the Cbus area, I'd make it a point to play a game with you.

And if I ever plan a trip up to NE Ohio I can set aside time for a game.

Just now, Sybreed said:

I guess it depends on how invested you are in the game.

On my end I learned very quick because I watched a lot of videos on youtube and spent a lot of time on the forums. Hell, in my 1st tournament I had to correct people about rulings who had a 50 games experience vs my meager 5 at the time. If your friend wants to learn new stuff, best thing he can do is to watch some videos of people playing together (WWPSteven's video are good for that) because otherwise there's a risk of burning your friend just like we burned our 4th player (he literally rage-quitted when I kicked his ass 10-1 but I wasn't even trying to win...)

I should clarify this:

4 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I started playing with one of my best friends, and he's fairly reliable, but the skill difference between us is massive.

AS in we both started playing at the same time back in 2015, we have equal levels of experience, or **** near, but I'm a little more skilled.

2 minutes ago, Quadro28 said:

@Darth Sanguis I know it might not help your current situation, but if you ever make it down to the Cbus area, I'd make it a point to play a game with you.

And if I ever plan a trip up to NE Ohio I can set aside time for a game.

Thanks, yeah I'm not often down that way, but if you're ever up this way shoot me a message we'll get a game in for sure!

Well, something must be horribly wrong with you as a person, and it's not that the game itself has gotten stale and same-y with almost everyone bringing pretty similar 2 ship + 3 flotilla + squadron fleets, right?

As what you are saying is totally an isolated phenomenon and isn't happening to NYC, NC, VA, and so cal gaming groups that I also participate in and I'm in touch with, right?

I know that comes across as sarcastic and unhelpful, but seriously, the forums have gone balls to the wall in shouting down people who think the game is getting boring but then you are lamenting people being too bored to play the game after shouting at the people pointing that out?

Hard to be sympathetic.

9 minutes ago, Reinholt said:

the forums have gone balls to the wall in shouting down people who think the game is getting boring

I think you are exaggerating this quite a bit.

3 minutes ago, Reinholt said:

almost everyone bringing pretty similar 2 ship + 3 flotilla + squadron fleets, right

Actually very rare with our group. We had a great mix of play styles, I don't think we saw 3 flotillas hit the table till our first CC and it did not do well. Most people only bring one, maybe two if they're sporting 2 ISDs.

I think you may be projecting there a little?

8 minutes ago, Reinholt said:

forums have gone balls to the wall in shouting down people who think the game is getting boring but then you are lamenting people being too bored to play the game after shouting at the people pointing that out

I really don't remember shouting at anyone, I've stated simply, each time I've spoken in opposition to flotillas changes, that they didn't make sense based on experiences I've had in my group....

because they've never been too abundant or under abundant in our group.... not one person in our group ever complained about flotillas, except that our store never has any in stock...

It's not entirely the same, but maybe Vassal can tide you over until a new group can emerge.

Just now, homedrone said:

It's not entirely the same, but maybe Vassal can tide you over until a new group can emerge.

I may have to. I've played a few games on it, but I struggle. Conceptualizing the battlefield is hard for me to do in 2D. The last few times I played on it I misdeployed and got rekt. I suppose practice will help in that area though.

I can sympathize with this... I'm the third person in my little meta, and I maybe get in a 1/4 of the games as the other two as a result. It sucks, but I love this game too much to give up.

2 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I may have to. I've played a few games on it, but I struggle. Conceptualizing the battlefield is hard for me to do in 2D. The last few times I played on it I misdeployed and got rekt. I suppose practice will help in that area though.

Yeah, my only recent games have been in the vassal new player tournament.

3 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I really don't remember shouting at anyone, I've stated simply, each time I've spoken in opposition to flotillas changes, that they didn't make sense based on experiences I've had in my group....

because they've never been too abundant or under abundant in our group.... not one person in our group ever complained about flotillas, except that our store never has any in stock...

Eh...except your group seems to have fallen apart, and you are having a hard time getting people interested in the game? There is a reason writing letters to politicians is generally encouraged, as it's largely held that for every one person who bothered to write a letter - there are 10 people that felt the same way, but didn't. MOST of the time, when people are just unhappy with something, they silently walk away instead of saying anything about it.

IE., a lot of that problem keeping a group going might well be because people don't like flotillas, and their impact on the game, but don't verbally say that, because:

A) They see you like them, and they seem normally accepted, and so don't want to seem the odd person out who 'just doesn't get it'

B) They don't have enough experience with other games, or look at games from an 'analyzing how the mechanics work in general' perspective, to be able to describe why they aren't happy with it. They just know it 'doesn't feel right', and so can't keep their interest up in it.

A lot of people want to play the game like they see the movies - put a couple ISDs on the table with swarms of TIE Fighters and have that work . At the moment, it doesn't come close to doing so, and creating Frankenstein lists of a pile of counters to counters and trying to deal with activation disparity and etc...just isn't fun for a lot of folks.

25 minutes ago, Reinholt said:

Hard to be sympathetic.

30 minutes ago, Reinholt said:

Well, something must be horribly wrong with you as a person, and it's not that the game itself has gotten stale and same-y with almost everyone bringing pretty similar 2 ship + 3 flotilla + squadron fleets, right?

As what you are saying is totally an isolated phenomenon and isn't happening to NYC, NC, VA, and so cal gaming groups that I also participate in and I'm in touch with, right?

I know that comes across as sarcastic and unhelpful, but seriously, the forums have gone balls to the wall in shouting down people who think the game is getting boring but then you are lamenting people being too bored to play the game after shouting at the people pointing that out?

Hard to be sympathetic.

6 minutes ago, xanderf said:

Eh...except your group seems to have fallen apart, and you are having a hard time getting people interested in the game? There is a reason writing letters to politicians is generally encouraged, as it's largely held that for every one person who bothered to write a letter - there are 10 people that felt the same way, but didn't. MOST of the time, when people are just unhappy with something, they silently walk away instead of saying anything about it.

IE., a lot of that problem keeping a group going might well be because people don't like flotillas, and their impact on the game, but don't verbally say that, because:

A) They see you like them, and they seem normally accepted, and so don't want to seem the odd person out who 'just doesn't get it'

B) They don't have enough experience with other games, or look at games from an 'analyzing how the mechanics work in general' perspective, to be able to describe why they aren't happy with it. They just know it 'doesn't feel right', and so can't keep their interest up in it.

A lot of people want to play the game like they see the movies - put a couple ISDs on the table with swarms of TIE Fighters and have that work . At the moment, it doesn't come close to doing so, and creating Frankenstein lists of a pile of counters to counters and trying to deal with activation disparity and etc...just isn't fun for a lot of folks.

Ok really? Turning a "I lost my group of players" into "Well clearly they hate flotillas and you're a sh*tty person for using them" discussion?

Seriously. What the **** is wrong with you people.

2 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

Ok really? Turning a "I lost my group of players" into "Well clearly they hate flotillas and you're a sh*tty person for using them" discussion?

Seriously. What the **** is wrong with you people.

Where did anyone say that?

What we said is that if your game group fell apart because people aren't having fun with the game maybe there is a reason for that and you shouldn't automatically dismiss all suggestions to that effect, insisting that the game is perfect as-is . Because, for some people, it's obviously not. Who knows if it has anything to do with the flotillas - maybe it does, maybe it's something else. But casually dismissing any idea that the game isn't perfect for everyone means you'll never be able to actually solve the problem if that IS related.

3 minutes ago, xanderf said:

Eh...except your group seems to have fallen apart, and you are having a hard time getting people interested in the game? There is a reason writing letters to politicians is generally encouraged, as it's largely held that for every one person who bothered to write a letter - there are 10 people that felt the same way, but didn't. MOST of the time, when people are just unhappy with something, they silently walk away instead of saying anything about it.

IE., a lot of that problem keeping a group going might well be because people don't like flotillas, and their impact on the game, but don't verbally say that, because:

A) They see you like them, and they seem normally accepted, and so don't want to seem the odd person out who 'just doesn't get it'

B) They don't have enough experience with other games, or look at games from an 'analyzing how the mechanics work in general' perspective, to be able to describe why they aren't happy with it. They just know it 'doesn't feel right', and so can't keep their interest up in it.

A lot of people want to play the game like they see the movies - put a couple ISDs on the table with swarms of TIE Fighters and have that work . At the moment, it doesn't come close to doing so, and creating Frankenstein lists of a pile of counters to counters and trying to deal with activation disparity and etc...just isn't fun for a lot of folks.

I suppose this could make sense, except that there's no real evidence to support it.

A.) In our group I've never praised or ridiculed any ship other than the interdictor, which was done comically so when I got stomped by a couple of Libs while using one, shortly after wave 4 released.

B.) Could be true, but if it is, then it doesn't make sense to me, as Armada is the only tabletop I've played while most of the others played at least 2 or 3 other games... Perhaps the opposite? They've played other games and therefore can feel an issue created by a mechanic in the game that I could not? Either way, it was always unspoken if true and I don't know if I could verify it.

WE all build fleets with ships we like, not to win.... you may not have seen any of my builds by I often don't run fighters..... no one in our group ever had to build to counter activation disparity because our guys didn't play like that.... the highest ship count we ever had was 6 @ 500 points during the CC event, and that fleet got REKT...

We were all very open people... I just don't think someone would hold back that kind of feeling... as we'd have happily house ruled it to help them...


the stated reasons for folks leaving make sense, and could be true
-1 had to move to cali
-1 hated the store because stocking issues so he started playing at another store on weekdays, said he got into 40k
-1 is in college just out of HS, so his time got eaten up, said he just couldn't make it
-1 got promoted at work and his schedule changed to disallow him to play


but I still feel like I could have done more...

I live in a small town, nearly 2 hours from my LGS, so I was excited when I was able to get a few of my friends from my town to play Armada. This was good for a few months, but as of recently, my group has slowly quit on me. Since I was the designated provider of gaming supplies, I ended up with a huge investment in the game, which in turn ended up with hundreds of dollars worth of ships, and no one to play with. Having discussed it in depth with them, they have explained they don't enjoy the game due to not understanding it. I would have been fine with that, if they had actually tried to pay attention while I explained the game mechanics. The only player who understands the game refuses to play the game unless it is according to his rules, and he uses custom game components. Not a huge problem, except when I want to play a regular game, which causes him to start complaining about not being able to win. The instant he starts losing, he gets angry, and flies his ships off the board to quit early.

Since I can't make regular trips to my LGS, I only get in a game now once every few months. It's annoying, having such an expensive investment in a game, and then having everyone in the group quit...

I played a game against your erstwhile Ohioan! He sends his regards and had nothing but glowing things to say about the community there. He got a kick out of the fact I was using your squadron plates, what a small world it is!

That said, I am sorry to see the group dissolve. Potentially suggest they find someone local to sell the ships to? Maybe someone that has been on the fence about joining the group but the cost kept them away? They might be willing to take the 10% cut of the cost ebay would take and pass that along to someone who might keep the local community alive?

I think Armada is a fine game, and I greatly enjoy it. I understand people growing tired of it, as it is a huge investment of time and brain power that can all to often be totally and utterly sunk by a simple oversight or single bad move. I have moved to much more fun builds in my casual games, and almost never play tournament spread lists. It's all ISDS and hordes of Ties vs. Home 1 and a slew of Nebs and CR90's and Xwings. Almost never play mirror matches, if my opponent wants to play rebels I will Imperials and visa versa. Keeps things fresh and enjoyable.

1 minute ago, BrobaFett said:

I played a game against your erstwhile Ohioan! He sends his regards and had nothing but glowing things to say about the community there. He got a kick out of the fact I was using your squadron plates, what a small world it is!

That said, I am sorry to see the group dissolve. Potentially suggest they find someone local to sell the ships to? Maybe someone that has been on the fence about joining the group but the cost kept them away? They might be willing to take the 10% cut of the cost ebay would take and pass that along to someone who might keep the local community alive?

I think Armada is a fine game, and I greatly enjoy it. I understand people growing tired of it, as it is a huge investment of time and brain power that can all to often be totally and utterly sunk by a simple oversight or single bad move. I have moved to much more fun builds in my casual games, and almost never play tournament spread lists. It's all ISDS and hordes of Ties vs. Home 1 and a slew of Nebs and CR90's and Xwings. Almost never play mirror matches, if my opponent wants to play rebels I will Imperials and visa versa. Keeps things fresh and enjoyable.

Oh so it was you! He sent pics, how cool!

I tell ya we really miss him up here, he's a good dude.

Not a lot of local interest, even at insanely good rates.... new players are very hesitant to make that jump especially when existing players don't show up... it's been frustrating...