Hi,

Just had my second game of Armada with a friend (also his second game.) First game was the learning scenario and the second was following the squad building rules. The objective cards though I don't get. I struggled to get all the ships I wanted in my list (we ended up building 312 point lists) so not sure why you'd want to spend points on them (some of them are 12 points) when the initative coin toss may mean your cards aren't getting used. Some of them also seem really stacked against the player with initative . I know activating and shooting first is an advantage, but I feel the objective cards counter it too much the other way.

Do most people play with them or ignore them? Are they part of competitive play?

Thanks,

Dan

Objective cards don't cost anything to add to your fleet. In fact, in competitive play it is required that each fleet have one of each color (red, blue, yellow).

When playing the "full version" of the game, initiative is determined by comparing total points spent on lists. The player who spent the least gets to decide who goes first. This person goes first the entire game. Which ever player was chosen to be first player will pick one of the second player's objectives to play. That is the objective that will be used.

If you see points displayed in the corner of the objective, that tells you how much a victory token is worth at the end of the game when playing this objective. Multiply this number by the number of victory tokens you have at the end of the game and add this amount to the points scored by destroying ships and squads to determine who won.

Sadly I am not where I can point out the relevant sections of the Rules Reference, but if no one else has by the time I get to it, I will. Welcome to Armada!!

EDIT:

Here are sources from the Learn to Play booklet that comes with the game. Since you're just a few games in, I figured I would start there.

From the Learn to Play [pg 22. 'OBJECTIVES']:

"Objective cards add variety to each battle by providing a narrative for why the Rebel and Imperial forces are clashing while also changing how players score points... Objective cards may describe special setup rules which must be followed during the setup process. They also may include special rules that must be used when playing with that objective. Some objectives allow players to collect victory tokens to increase their score; at the end of the game, each victory token is worth the fleet point value listed in the lower-right corner of the objective card."

From the Learn to Play [pg 22. 'USING OBJECTIVE CARDS']

"As part of the fleet-building process, each player chooses three objective cards. Each objective card must be from a different category. This means that each player brings three objective cards to the game. During the 'Choose Objective' step of setup, the FIRST PLAYER (the player with initiative) looks at all three of the SECOND PLAYER's objective cards and chooses one of those cards to be the objective for the game. The second player's remaining objective cards and the first player's objective cards are not used this game."

The Complete Setup is described on page 23 of the Learn to Play, which denotes who has initiative.

These are all clarified further in the Rules Reference Guide. I hope that helps!

EDIT: Sorry, I misread your post

And you are correct that the objectives are stacked against the first player and that this is to balance out the advantage that the first player gets by going first.

As @Astrodar has pointed out, the first player chooses one of the second player's objectives to be the active objective for the game, so, when you build a fleet, ask yourself which objective of each colour would help your fleet the most if you don't get to be first player and choose those objectives for your list.

So when you build a list and aim for a bif, you decide if you'd rather go first or have your opponent pick your your 3 objectives? (and there might be only 1 in 3 you really want your opponent to pick.)

What do most players go for? Become first or second player?

Just now, baxio said:

What's the number in the bottom right then of some of them (for example, the number 20 at the bottom of blockade run)?

Some of the objectives award Victory Tokens for doing certain things. Each Victory Token is worth a number of points equal to the number shown at the bottom right.

For example: In the objective Dangerous Territory, each Victory Token is worth 15 points. At the end of the game, if you had 3 Victory Tokens, you would score 45 points (15 each) in addition to the points earned from destroying enemy ships and squads.

19 minutes ago, baxio said:

So when you build a list and aim for a bif, you decide if you'd rather go first or have your opponent pick your your 3 objectives? (and there might be only 1 in 3 you really want your opponent to pick.)

What do most players go for? Become first or second player?

This sort of depends on your fleet build. Lots of people build lists with a bunch of activations and then leave 8 or 10 points unspent so they're likely to get to go first. The idea there is to get the last activation on one turn (because you have more ships than your opponent) and then the first activation on the next turn (because you're first player). You get to go twice in a row, letting you fly into someplace dangerous, shoot, and then run away before the enemy can react. This is a plan that pairs really well with hard-hitting small ships like a Gladiator or MC30c.

Other people try to make lists that force the opponent to play their game. A classic variation of this is as an MC80 paired with Strategic squadrons. You move your huge tank of a battleship slowly through your objective tokens, using the squadrons to control where they're located, and force the opponent to come stop you from getting a ton of points from your objective card. He has to fly right into a kill zone you set up for him if he hopes to win.

Objective play is one of the most unique and interesting aspects of this game, and whether you plan to use your own or your opponents' objectives most of the time is one of the first questions to address when fleet building.

1 hour ago, OlaphOfTheNorth said:

This sort of depends on your fleet build. Lots of people build lists with a bunch of activations and then leave 8 or 10 points unspent so they're likely to get to go first. The idea there is to get the last activation on one turn (because you have more ships than your opponent) and then the first activation on the next turn (because you're first player). You get to go twice in a row, letting you fly into someplace dangerous, shoot, and then run away before the enemy can react. This is a plan that pairs really well with hard-hitting small ships like a Gladiator or MC30c. fly right into a kill zone you set up for him if he hopes to win.

...

Objective play is one of the most unique and interesting aspects of this game, and whether you plan to use your own or your opponents' objectives most of the time is one of the first questions to address when fleet building.

Exactly as Olaph stated, your bid (maximum fleet cost minus actual fleet cost) should depend a lot on your intent with your fleet.

For example, a fleet with Demolisher and/or a few raiders will often want to bid high to make sure they actually get to go first in order unleash havoc from close range and leave before the opponent gets to move.

Another example of high bid fleets are fleets that would really like to go second. In particular an interdictor that would like to mess up with the game obstacles and objectives to its advantage, or making sure you get good use of those squadrons with the strategic keywords. Even heavy fleets that like to stay almost at a stand still near a contested outpost until the enemy comes to them.

There are tons of combinations and you can read up on a lot of them on Steel Strategy's blog for example ( http://www.steelstrategy.com/ ), but in my experience it is a lot more fun to make a casual match with a friend with your experimental fleet to see if it works out.