just as sometimes we criticize whats wrong with the game, we should also mention what makes the game great! let us talk about all the things we like about the game here. I'll start:

ship viability. most wargames have about 30%-40% of their models being viable for competitive play. in armada, the percentage is MUCH bigger:

wave 1, we have the gladiator and nebulon being awesome even if merely due to titles; cr90 having found success both as a zombie and as a trc platform; assault frigate being an overall prevalent ship for many top tier lists(ackbar gunboat, carrier, etc); the victory class perhaps struggles a bit, bit it is more than viable as a carrier for a rhymerball build. found lots of success in wave 2 regionals and may resurge now with d. capacitors.

wave 2, we have the mc30 and raider, awesome as a torpedo carrier and AA shiprespectively, the ISD being very good (see last euros). the mc80 isnt really top tier, but it has been included in some pretty powerful lists(most recently the objective token spam version).

wave 3/4, we have two competitively lackluster ships, the liberty and interdictor, but they are definitely important in shaping the meta-just, a bit too expensive. they are important in a CC campaign where you have more points leeway, though. we also got flotillas, who are obviously competitive(duh!)

wave 5 gave us the arquittens and pelta. not uberships, but they have their role. very strong, just a bit off-meta right now.

5 waves, and we have everything but 4-5 ships in top tier lists. even in these 4-5 remaining ships they are strong ships, just a bit off-meta/harder to use. not really "bad design" ships.

The ship minis are fantastic and pre-painted!

Painting is a deal-breaker for me. So I get to play the game thanks to this.

Friendly community, actually has a viable custom, painting and expansion community (something that rarely happens before a game is out of print). Product is easily available both locally and online. Most importantly for me, the game scales well up to 600, 1000, 1500 points per side. All you need is more time to play.

Also, SWM20 is the SSD Executor.

I love that there are endless possibilities when it comes to list creation.

This game just looks so pretty on a table. The top of the round just before the fleets collide is a teeny tiny diorama of something from the movies, but with rules and a structure. That's why I play.

Having commanders for every fleet feels like a nice theme to build around, and the officers let you inject some thematic characters into the game even if they wouldn't fit in a battlefield scale war game.

The objectives make the game always new and different, give it some narrative bite, and encourage deeper thinking and multiple ways to victory.

And I think the way the game is planned out turns in advance adds a lot of scale to it.

I love that it's possible to have a good time and spend more time theorycrafting lists than actually playing the game.

I love the mechanics and the models.

I love the theme.

I love the fact that you can use the base rules and all the things to play any kind of game you want to play (different point totals, custom campaigns) meaning that if FFG canceled development of the game tomorrow I know I can be playing it and having fun 20 years from now with it.

What's good? I could write a wall of text why I love this game.

I love the models.

I love the mechanics.

I love all the upgrade cards.

I love the design in general!

I love the fact that there are new expansions.

I love that ships and squadrons are equally important.

I love that there is no unbeatabe fleet, you always find a hard counter (eventually).

I just love this game

I love how valuable player input is, and how often it feels you can work around 99% of things and prevail through good play. There is no hard counter, rock paper scissors effect going on.

I love my obnoxious imperial paint scheme and how clearly it separates even mirror matches

I love giant ships, drifting through space, unable to just stop or turn on a dime. The inertia, the planning it requires, and everything that goes with it.

I love the dichotomy between ship and squadron play, and how it emphasizes scale and effectively present us with 2 very important games that you are ideally going to win both of.

I love how die manipulation tech is prominent, despite it not being free, as dice hate me and I need as much help as I can get.

I love that defensive actions are not dependent on your die rolls.

I love how important deployment is, and how mucking up your deployment can easily cost you the game, really makes you think about it and not just plunk everything down and go at it.

I love how important objectives have become, and how tailoring your fleet to maximize their use is now extremely viable.

I like the game mechanics and the models are great. I also like that the game is very balanced in a campaign setting and make pretty much every ship and card viable, both in a tactical and strategic sense.

It is a great game to reenact "historical" or fictional scenarios with its own objectives and hidden agendas, it is just so fun to put yourself in the shoes of a Rebel or Imperial admiral and play such scenarios out.

The overall slow movement of ships make you feel like commanding large behemoths and make the game very strategic, even squadron tactics is important that you plan several turn ahead and that is a big plus in my book.

Did I mention the Star Wars theme... one of the coolest space ship combat there is.

The biggest thing:

IT'S STAR WARS!!!!

7 hours ago, Democratus said:

The ship minis are fantastic and pre-painted!

Painting is a deal-breaker for me. So I get to play the game thanks to this.

This. So much this. And everything else people have said: the Star Wars theme, the space combat, the narrative aspect, the campaign play, the unlimited feet design, the community, etc, but above all that, this. It's what prevents me from getting into IA, should I be able to afford it. I can't paint, I never will paint nicely. MAYBE I'll get decent enough to convince myself to try IA. . . MAYBE. But if Armada wasn't painted, I wouldn't have first tried to get into it, which means that I would have missed out on all the above.

I love it for the "pew pew!"

It's okay, I guess.

Hate to be a bummer, but I'm going to say something negative about the game.

I DONT GET TO PLAY THIS FANTASTIC GAME ENOUGH!

My favorite has got to be the squadron models. It gives those of us who like to paint nice, quick and rewarding projects. But I love the balance of already having painted ships also. When you have a whole army to paint, I think painting loses some of it's fun. But with this, I can play with beautiful models right away (and just as importantly, my opponent will too, no more gray hosts) but I get to have some models I can be proud of too. I think it's the perfect balance of both worlds. I don't think any other game has that.

Plus. It's actually a fun game.

I love the selection of squadrons and ships, that almost make the possible fleet combinations infinite. Being able to come up with crazy fleet ideas and actually playing them.

I love ship movement.

The commanders and objectives and how they mix with different fleet strategies.

Being able to pull off the unexpected.

I have a Star Destroyer in a display case. That was my best takeaway from this game. Goes well with my Hot Toys figs too!

I love this game so much. I often wonder why people so upset by this game spend so much time on its forum.

Two years ago my friend rushed into my house with several boxes in his arms and excitedly told me we are playing armada...We play between 1-3 games a week now and the combined collection has filled two whole display cases in my living room. Amazing game.

37 minutes ago, Hrathen said:

I love this game so much. I often wonder why people so upset by this game spend so much time on its forum.

I believe the first sentence answers the second.

It's Star Wars.

Chicks with piloting sticks, duh.

"We have the best women in the Imperial Navy, don't we people?"

I'm looking at you, Howlrunner.

3 hours ago, Democratus said:

I believe the first sentence answers the second.

Wish there was an unlike button for this. I couldn't disagree more. If you don't like something, then just move on instead of spending so much time on negativity. Not saying you personally but there's a few on here that just need to sell their collections and go away.

2 hours ago, ninclouse2000 said:

Wish there was an unlike button for this. I couldn't disagree more. If you don't like something, then just move on instead of spending so much time on negativity. Not saying you personally but there's a few on here that just need to sell their collections and go away.

Wrong thread for this. Please don't tell people to leave the hobby in a conversation about positivity.

13 hours ago, ninclouse2000 said:

Wish there was an unlike button for this. I couldn't disagree more. If you don't like something, then just move on instead of spending so much time on negativity. Not saying you personally but there's a few on here that just need to sell their collections and go away.

The point is that people get upset on the forum because they love this game so much.