During casual or single matches, do y'all usually play to win/lose? Or do y'all calculate full Margin of victory? How does it affect the considerations you take into account? (decisions during combat, deployment, objectives, etc.)

i'm wondering how useful casual matches are in helping to test out fleets as well as evaluate performance.

In casual games? Neither a mere win nor a big MoV. In casual games I have merely one aim in sight: Total annihilation of the enemy fleet!

Win/lose, as calculated by who killed more after 6 rounds.

I don't know how it affects my decisions, as I never have approached tourney games any differently. I always play as if the game is win/lose. I would say casual games are pretty useful as tests, since if you intend to win anyway, you are still going to create fleets, choose objectives, and deploy for the best chance at victory. The only thing that changes is how much you value victory. If the game is casual, you don't care by how much you won, as it is not important. You won, and that's it. For tourneys it matters, so you go through the trouble of counting and recording it. That's how I think of it, anyway.

Typically play to win, but we always calculate mov afterwards so if in the last round I've got a 1 health tie that's not locking down a squad or likely to get a kill he runs off.

I always play for MoV (aside from special cases like teaching games or demos), but I don't always go to the trouble of calculating it out. Particularly when I've clearly soundly beaten the other guy and he's frustrated, I'll usually just guesstimate rather than sit there and rub it in by figuring out exactly how bad the 10-1 was or whatever.

But yeah, I pretty much always play my casual games like they were tourney games in that regard.

I rough calc MoV in friendly games. Recently I've been looking at games based on achieving a set of asynchronous objectives and that is fun.

When I get a chance for a game, I tend to just play for the sake of playing - to see what happens. Winning is a nice bonus, MOV is a technicality/curiosity. Mostly I want to have fun pushing around little starships. So outside tournament games (and even then in not-so-serious ones) I'm happy to talk through things, point out alternatives, let opponents take things back and so on if they're Ok with it.

But maybe I'm in a minority there.

On a high level, Win-Loss. With some of the guys, we figure out MoV to see how close it was and then usually workshop how the loser could have changed a move/Command/Target-choice to maybe swing it their way

In all casual games, MOV/victory points, however, only to find out how much the discrepancy is. I think this is one thing a lot of players lack thinking about when they test things: A lot of times when a light AA screen is played against a max squad is that the entire light screen is wiped out: free 70-90 points for literally usually only one squadron down from the max squad (given real life, the alpha strike of a small squad not optimized for carrier potential tends to be 1-2 squads max, then they get utterly run over by the mulitplicative elements of max squadron play). The other issue is objectives, a lot of people also don't realize that when they play max squads that they might kill some stuff off the board (assuming not a tabling), but that the squadron player has won SO many points off of their objectives that they've surpassed the amount they lost, then also add stuff the squadron player killed in ships and squadron screen, and it becomes an utter win for squadrons.

In ultra casual game:

Till one guy is anhililate, complete crushing of the other fleet or surrender, no 6 round limit, no objectives, total fleet size varies.

(Often lets us play more rounds, experience upgrades effects more, lets us find counterplays, etc.)

In casual.

Keep shooting till someone dies or we hit round 6. However has killed the most amount of stuff wins. 6 rounds, no objectives usually, total fleet size varies, total players varies

(Ultra casual with a time limit)

Semi casual.

Objective play, 6 rounds, MoV but we dont really care, just getting games in for fun really. 6 rounds. Objectives, 400pt fleeta.

(Getting ready for a tournament)

If I lose or it is too close to call, I will add up points. If it is clear that I won, I don't worry about it. For some reason — and this might be the casual side of me — a 7-4 feels way better than a 6-5, but an 8-2 or higher doesn't really feel any better than a 7-4. Yet, a 5-6 feels way better to me than a 4-7.

My feelings about the game go something like this, based on points:
1-10: Ouch! That was rough!
2-9: I took a beating.
3-8: I lost soundly.
4-7: I lost, but at least I put up a good fight.
5-6: Close game!
6-5: Close game!
7-4 or better: I won! Yay!

But I always play to win, even in casual games.

47 minutes ago, stonestokes said:

If I lose or it is too close to call, I will add up points. If it is clear that I won, I don't worry about it. For some reason — and this might be the casual side of me — a 7-4 feels way better than a 6-5, but an 8-2 or higher doesn't really feel any better than a 7-4. Yet, a 5-6 feels way better to me than a 4-7.

My feelings about the game go something like this, based on points:
1-10: Ouch! That was rough!
2-9: I took a beating.
3-8: I lost soundly.
4-7: I lost, but at least I put up a good fight.
5-6: Close game!
6-5: Close game!
7-4 or better: I won! Yay!

But I always play to win, even in casual games.

This is pretty much me word for word. The only difference is... I really enjoy (internally and in private) those major victories, good for an ego massage. I don't take them too seriously though, so I don't get caught up in min-maxing games either. Maybe in an actual tournament with prizes.

If I ask someone how their game went, and they respond with a numerical value, that's a good indication that I don't want to play Armada with them.

Example #1 (what I usually hear):

Me: "How'd the game go?"

Ultra-Face-Smash-Armada-Gladiator: "7-4 to me."

Example #2 (what I wish I would hear):

Me: "How'd the game go?"

Gamer: "It was awesome! My Admonition was hanging on by 1 hull point but I got off a double arc shot on his flagship on the second to last turn and turned the tide."

I like it for the Star Wars, and the narrative. I definitely prefer to win, but if the game doesn't make a Star Wars movie in my head then it was ultimately a disappointment. I know that's probably meaningless to a lot of people, for whom it is mainly a chess match or math problem.

MOV? I strictly fly casual, I'm usually unsatisfied playing with the kinds of guys who play tournaments competitively. I play with friends, we play to win, talk a lot of smack during and after the game, and then figure out who won by who scored the most points. I'm not sure what else there is to do in a casual environment, because figuring out who won by more has nothing to do with a single one off game.

TBH I still havent cottoned on to how to work out MOV

I like to play for fun, but it's nice to win once in a while ?

I'll always do the MOV calculation to figure out the score, but nothing past that casually. Mostly because if you're a little dense like me, looks are deceiving. It may look like a blowout, but I don't math things out as I go.

Back at the beginning, I played some games against an opponent who was only interested in win/lose. As a result, he would refuse to engage (VSDs were too slow to force a close-range encounter) and ships very rarely blew up. Most of the time the MoV was in the low double digits, and purely a result of a couple of squadrons having been ground down on either side. It wasn't particularly enjoyable.

Although I have no interest in competitive play, I do think that the tournament scoring system encourages much more exciting battles.

Having said that, the situation is quite different now in that both sides have access to fast, hard-hitting ships, and the overall lethality level is much higher than it used to be.

We usually evaluate who "wins" by who killed the most points. Anymore, I'm more interested in cool stories post-game over just circling the drain and winning by sniping a squadron or something so I'm not particularly interested in determining the victor.

That said, it's important to some people, so I'm happy to calculate.

See, you have two types of players.

One type plays for the 'feels'. They want the cinematic Star Wars feels, and so don't really care for MoV. They fly very casual, may use lopsided scenarios, and such.

Then you have hardcore tourney players. Every game for them is a test or practice run for the next tourney, and they always play to tourney standards, including MoV.

Now, some are a bit of a mix. I for one can play for fun when warranted (as in CC, for example) but usually I'm in the second bracket, as I'm always gearing for the next major event. So I always use tourney rules, and I always calculate MoV.

Once again, I find the “forced divide” between “casual” and “not” somewhat insulting... ?

i mean, what is Casual? What does it mean, what are it’s implications, what is lacking, how far do you take it?

I mean... in Casuak games, does the FAQ apply as standard? I mean, it is literally the TOURNAMENT FAQ... does that make things any more or less casual? And thus, will I be accused of not being casual if I request it? (Answer is yes, by the way, as I have...)

i guess i just look for a definition of casual, when inherently, it is not readily or easily defined...

Just win/loss in our casual games.

Newbies come to play with us and I don't want to discourage them by showing how many points they lost by.

Instead, "you lost this time, but here's how you can do better next".

MoV.

We might play sub-optimal lists or strategies, or knowingly make poor but cool choices, and there'll be a lot more table talk and less attention to quick play or concentration/focus. But scoring, rules/timings, etc, are typically the same as a tournament match.

I count points in a casual game, just because it's a good measuring stick for someone to analyze the game after.

Like, ok, Demo was 99 points and I traded it for a 176pt mc80, BUT Valen and Ciena were 30 points, they traded for nothing, and allowed my opponent to score 180 points in fire lanes tokens. It means I flew Demo well, but have a weak point that I need to shore up by choosing a better objective, altering a component of the list, or not making the same mistakes again next game.

For me, this is both thematic AND competitive. The Empire should never lose against the Rebel rabble, and it is our responsibility to learn their tactics to soundly defeat them any time the occasion arises.

As many others, we usually calculate MoV just to see where the game really ended up. Objectives can really swing things. No one bothers with blowouts, unless it's especially crazy (and that's assuming the other person is comfortable with it) just to see what the high number reaches.

What saddens me reading this thread is how many people play Armada like X-Wing and just look at what gets killed. Objectives are (in my opinion) so much a part of this game that I feel like it isn't even Armada if you're playing a deathmatch. First player advantage is CRAZY if you aren't factoring in thhe objective, plus it's just way less fun (again, my opinion).