I am a huge fan of X-wing, but the other day I made the mistake of reading the learn to play booklet for Armada. The game looks really cool! I need some advice: should I start Armada, or stick with X-wing?

I say Armada but that's because I'm biased. The more people the better.

We just got a pretty big FAQ with some errata, and a new wave is coming out. Currently, no one really knows what "dominant" fleet or fleet type is going to do well after wave 6 so everything is pretty wide open.

I'd also consider how many Armada players are in your area. I don't think you'll want to spend money on a game and have no one to play with.

I could say a lot more, but I think it would be more effective if you watched videos of people playing or see if you can play a demo at a store.

More people will be around to persuade you to play.

Well, what do you like about x-wing? To me, armada is nice because it has a lot of strategic planning in it. There are many ways to play, and most of them are competitive.

It also has very cool models.

Depends on what you like. I started with Armada, then fell into X-Wing. I see X-Wing as faster, more luck, second-guessing... If you've ever played a Tafl game, I would liken X-Wing to it while Armada I would liken more to Chess. Armada wants you to think ahead more than X-Wing does. It's also a bigger financial investment to get you started relative to X-Wing, which I've still managed to play without breaking the bank.

I also love that Armada basically recreates WWII naval battles and all the strategies therein but IN SPAAAAACE!

Yeah, if there is a group near you that plays, it is a no-brainer. Try a demo game. It'll sink its teeth into you...

46 minutes ago, Juisintime said:

I am a huge fan of X-wing, but the other day I made the mistake of reading the learn to play booklet for Armada. The game looks really cool! I need some advice: should I start Armada, or stick with X-wing?

Does it have to be one or the other? I do both. They are different games that scratch different "itches."

If you liked the Battle of Endor space battle more than the Battle of Yavin, play Armada.

49 minutes ago, Baltanok said:

Well, what do you like about x-wing? To me, armada is nice because it has a lot of strategic planning in it. There are many ways to play, and most of them are competitive.

It also has very cool models.

The thing I like about X-wing is the feel of being in a space battle. I also enjoy playing through the missions.

48 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

Does it have to be one or the other? I do both. They are different games that scratch different "itches."

The problem is that I doubt I have enough money to get into both games. I don't know though.

52 minutes ago, CaribbeanNinja said:

Yeah, if there is a group near you that plays, it is a no-brainer. Try a demo game. It'll sink its teeth into you...

Alright, I'll try to play a demo game sometime soon.

Thanks for the help everyone!

You should try a game before you decide. X-Wing and Armada are two very different types of games. I would be inclined to call X-Wing for a skirmish game and Armada as a battle game.

Armada has far more strategic and tactical elements than X-Wing has. Armada also has two different types of game play, the squadron game and the ship game. These two different elements of Armada require different thought processes and make the game just tactically deeper than X-Wing.

Armada will also require more space and time to play, might be important to you or not.

1 hour ago, Varulfr said:

I also love that Armada basically recreates WWII naval battles and all the strategies therein but IN SPAAAAACE!

Definitely this ^^ but then again parts of the movies are basically The Battle of Midway in space which is pretty much how Lucas filmed it!

Other than that much as the others have said; strategy, tactics, models and theme.

You should totally take the plunge into Armada. It is incredible AND it's in a REALLY good space right now.

I feel like X-Wing is getting a bit overloaded, due to years of product overload... felt like they were dumping dozens of new ships on us every few months for awhile. Then the 3rd faction just threw the whole thing into a frenzy. It's got so much stuff I have a hard time keeping up with all of it.

19 minutes ago, Crabbok said:

Then the 3rd faction just threw the whole thing into a frenzy. It's got so much stuff I have a hard time keeping up with all of it.

That is one problem I have with X-wing. I really despise the Scum faction. I think it has pretty much wrecked competitive play. Is Armada pretty much balanced right now?

32 minutes ago, Juisintime said:

That is one problem I have with X-wing. I really despise the Scum faction. I think it has pretty much wrecked competitive play. Is Armada pretty much balanced right now?

Haha, good question. https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/6/20/squadron-battle-plans/

There were a few competitive combos that were becoming almost 'must haves' for tournament play. FFG have rightly nerfed some of these. (See article) This should balance competitive play some, making more builds viable. Which is a good thing.

Overall I think as a game it is pretty balanced. And FFG make an effort to keep it that way!

56 minutes ago, Juisintime said:

That is one problem I have with X-wing. I really despise the Scum faction. I think it has pretty much wrecked competitive play. Is Armada pretty much balanced right now?

Honestly yeah I think it is. For example - I just made a list with the worst possible mechanic last night (Consider it the X-Wing equivalent of flying Biggs solo with an EPT Astromech and Lone Wolf), and it honestly could have won if I didn't make a crucial mistake. Armada is more about decision making than just bringing a badass fleet.

20 hours ago, Juisintime said:

I am a huge fan of X-wing, but the other day I made the mistake of reading the learn to play booklet for Armada. The game looks really cool! I need some advice: should I start Armada, or stick with X-wing?

To answer this question you should see the pro and contra for both games. And the differences.

• X-Wing is a fast dogfight game. A match is really fast done, and there is no limit of the turns. You can turn around really fast with the maneuvers (180° turn).
• Armada is a tactical game with squadrons and ships. It is limited to 6 turns and take way more time for a match (casual easy 3 hours). The turning of the ships is really bad, and because of the 6 turns you might not even come around for a second attack.
• Armada has missions on every match (normally). So the same fight, with the same lists, might be total different because of the missions.
• X-Wing has normally between 2 and 4 ships. In Aramda you have normally a fleet of 2-7 ships and 0-12 squadrons.
• I find that X-Wing is way more luck based, because of the red and green dice. On top of the game becomes a guessing game because of the double blind maneuver. The great amount of free actions for boost, barrel roll,... makes it really hard to guess where the opponent will be.
• In Armada you have only one hidden information, and in most cases this one is not this relevant for the maneuvers. So will know where the opponent will be.
• The luck factor is way less in Armada (imo). It is still a dice game, and sometimes die can be a really b.... But overall i find it still predictable.
• X-Wing is cheaper when you start. On Armada the base box is really expensive, and the price per ship is as well higher compared to X-Wing.
• The downside on X-Wing and the price are the many waves and ships that are there. You need to buy a lot of ships if you want specific cards. And the Epic ships are really expensive as well.
• This means: for a competition tournament player it will be more expensive to play X-Wing compared to Armada (from the point if you start from 0).
• In X-Wing all models are painted. In Armada the squadrons are not painted (minor fact, but a problem for some).
• Aramda is being played on a size of two X-Wing matches. It does not sound this much, it takes way more space and some tables are just not big enough for it.

To shorten ist: Armada is a tactical, strategic fleet battle with captical ships that take some time. X-Wing is a fast dogfight battle with starfighters that can be done really fast.
All under the factor of tournament play (100 points in X-Wing, 400 points in Aramda).

Epic games are a total different feeling and match. Epic in X-Wing is really nice with the big ships. But Epic in Armada (600+ or even 1000+ points) really feel like a space battle like Battle of Endor.

Most people I know who play Armada have at least 2 of everything for both sides, if you went to your local group and showed interest I would bet they'll be super excited, welcoming, and let you pretty much borrow everything you need. All you might need will probably be a core set. At least that's how my group plays. We all just share all our ships/squads we're not using for casual play and tournament play. But at the very least I would recommend scoping out your local group (to see if they even exist) and mingle with them to get a feel for the game before you take the plunge. Also there are a lot of YouTube videos of games being player, so watch them if you're interested in knowing more about how the game plays out.

You can probably even find some friendly players who would teach you on TableTop Simulator/Vassal as well.

I played X-wing for a while and after the long run it's left me disillusioned, but then I tried Armada and I really enjoy it!

I got tired of the power creep in X-wing and feeling like I had to buy multiples of every new release just to be able to field a squadron that wouldn't get crushed even in causal play, let alone competitive. I also got tired of nobody ever playing any thing in X-wing other than the tournament standard 100pt dogfight. Comparing the game play, Armada makes X-wing look spastic. There's a big variety of missions in Armada and you don't know for certain what one you will be playing. So, it's not only that the fleets are different, but it's not always the same fight over and over again.

The entry price for Armada is a stumbling block for many, but I feel the overall cost of Armada is a less and I feel what I buy gets used a lot more too. X-wing deceives you on the price because so many models are cheaper, but you end up needing a lot more of them. For Armada, the ship expansions tend to come with cards that are really good for the ships they are packaged with, so you don't need to buy [X] ship plus 3 other things to chase cards just to make it effective. You also don't need to buy redundant ships unless you really want too. Plenty of fleets are a potpourri of different ships. They also add up quickly so hitting the 400point tournament standard is actually rather easy. All you need is the base set and about 2 ships from your faction and a squadron pack, but due to all the different Admirals and upgrades you can play that collection multiple ways.

Here's an excellent blog for both newbies and experienced players alike:

Cannot Get Your Ship Out Armada 101

26 minutes ago, Dameon13 said:

I played X-wing for a while and after the long run it's left me disillusioned, but then I tried Armada and I really enjoy it!

I got tired of the power creep in X-wing and feeling like I had to buy multiples of every new release just to be able to field a squadron that wouldn't get crushed even in causal play, let alone competitive. I also got tired of nobody ever playing any thing in X-wing other than the tournament standard 100pt dogfight. Comparing the game play, Armada makes X-wing look spastic. There's a big variety of missions in Armada and you don't know for certain what one you will be playing. So, it's not only that the fleets are different, but it's not always the same fight over and over again.

The entry price for Armada is a stumbling block for many, but I feel the overall cost of Armada is a less and I feel what I buy gets used a lot more too. X-wing deceives you on the price because so many models are cheaper, but you end up needing a lot more of them. For Armada, the ship expansions tend to come with cards that are really good for the ships they are packaged with, so you don't need to buy [X] ship plus 3 other things to chase cards just to make it effective. You also don't need to buy redundant ships unless you really want too. Plenty of fleets are a potpourri of different ships. They also add up quickly so hitting the 400point tournament standard is actually rather easy. All you need is the base set and about 2 ships from your faction and a squadron pack, but due to all the different Admirals and upgrades you can play that collection multiple ways.

Here's an excellent blog for both newbies and experienced players alike:

Cannot Get Your Ship Out Armada 101

This is my thoughts exactly. I was a little worried about Armada after seeing World's list and to a much lesser extent Euro champ, but FFG came up with a new FAQ that stopped the power creep before it took over. As others have said the fleet build is not an instant win in Armada as it is in X-Wing. I have won games I should have lost because I made fewer mistakes or capitalized on my opponents. Look at local group and online group for someone getting out or someone that tried it and didn't like it. I got a hell of a collection, about 95% complete with multiples, for about 50% off MM/CSI online prices; I found a like new used core locally for $20 that I gave to a friend and his wife that needed a 2nd core for them to play at the same time. You can get in for a decent price if you look and wait.