Okay, so I haven't bought anything yet, but I'm planning to soon. I do game nights/weekends with my friends and want to avoid burning out on X-Wing, so i figured Armada would be somewhat similar yet different enough to spice things up.

Aside from the core set, what else is recommended?

Should I get core sets?

While I don't wanna say "best", what ships will give us the best bang for our buck (mechanic wise)? Anything that's just an absolute waste of plastic and money?

Note: I will be buying for both sides... and will most likely grab everything at some point if for no other reason than to own pretty miniatures!

Isd for the imperials, either is fine.

Rebels are more complicated.

Want a brawler? The new mc75

Want a dancer? Mc30s or my favorite the liberty

Want a defensive power house? Homeone.

Plus get the first faction fighter packs. Pack 2s are up to you, not nearly as important

And ya, core sets are kinda mandatory

Lol yeah, wouldn't get anything without the core... wait... sets? As in plural? So.. two sets then?

21 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

Lol yeah, wouldn't get anything without the core... wait... sets? As in plural? So.. two sets then?

It depends, how serious is your group about it? Technically each player is supposed to have their own damage deck, and only one comes in a core set.

For casual game night sharing a deck is fine, though if one of you plays dodonna you will burn through it quick. For tournaments each player needs their own deck.

If possible, check your local Barnes and Noble- they used to carry everything through wave 2 but have since stopped, and all remaining inventory is 50% off

And for sure an ISD and Homeone- they are the most iconic Star Wars ships for their respective sides, and take up a lot of points as well, so you will have an easier time building full point lists.

Mans Squadron I for either side is a must

First off. Dice Pack

110$

A large ship for both factions

200$

Fighter pack 1 for Rebels and Fighter pack 1/2 for Imps. Either version is fine, but I lean toward 1.

240$

Finally a small ship for each faction.

I recommend the MC-30 Frigate and Gladiator Star Destroyer.

300$

If I were limited in funds. This is how I would go about doing it. Assuming you spend base price and unable to find Sales.

You can get a Core box for 70 on Amazon now.

https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Games-SWM01-Star/dp/1616619937/ref=sr_1_5?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1518406968&sr=1-5&keywords=star+wars+armada

Okay, so... as fun as two core sets would be... I'm just gonna grab an extra deck off eBay. So, I've seen the Chimera, should I grab one of those along with a regular ISD?

Also, the Corellian Conflict box... is that worth getting or something I can hold off on?

Chimera is amazing. But both ISDs are good purchases. Hard to go wrong with either of them. If you have the funds for it, I'd grab one of each.

CC can be great fun, and confess with a bunch of new objectives and new cards for ace pilots and unique squadrons - many of which range from good to excellent. But it doesn't come with any plastic, so if you don't already have the squadron packs, it does you very little good.

On an unlimited budget, definitely grab it. On a limited one? Look over the aces and decide if you really want what they have to offer. It's definitely worth it, but there might be other, more important things to get first.

Good recommendations so far. I’d also suggest a couple things:

Check out this site: http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/p/welcomewhere-to-start.html?m=1

Second: you might consider checking eBay, you can find people selling whole lots (which can save a bit of $$).

Third: my personal suggestion would be core set, one dice pack, Rebel/Imperial Squadron 1s, 1 Rebel large (I’d say home one first, but that’s just imo), 1 Imperial large (either is fine), Gozanti & Medium transports, and Mc30/Gladiator

Seeing as I have at least one of everything from X-wing, I don't mind double dipping here and there as long as they're fun and come with useful cards. Having a playable campaign sounds fun as heck! (The filter on the boards here is silly)

Okay, so, looks like I'll treat this like I did X-Wing... grab the iconic ships first (along with the core and campaign), then grab whatever else gets my attention... Then everything else... because I'm a collector and impulsive and dear Lord someone hide my wallet!

That being said, is there anything I should just not bother with? I seriously don't want another TIE Punisher situation with Armada.

Everything in this game is good... and that's maybe a problem

Every ship and squadron can have a purpose, depending the way you want to use it.

I have X-Wing too and in Armada, there is no bad ship. There is maybe some ship that we see less but if you use them the way they are supposed to be play, you will use them

Oh.

Oh no.

Also, I seriously can't thank everyone enough who has made suggestions!

So, I think I've narrowed down my Day 1 purchase to being the core set, fighter set 1 for both sides, Liberty, MC-30, Gozanti, Home One, ISD and Chimera. Probably another set of dice, a second range ruler, and a damage deck from eBay.

I know I'll double up on the ships from the core at some point.

Some ship have good title (i.e. Neb-B with Yavaris or GSD with Demolisher), are good with some admirals (i.e. VSD with Jerjerrod, Liberty with Lea Organa)

or are just good even vanilla (ISD)

Last question:

Any smart device based fleet builders I should look at? I have one for X-wing my friends and I live off of (XW Startactics).

I was using Star Wars Armada Warlord since the start but there is Ryan Kingston Armada builder too

http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions/

http://armada.ryankingston.com/

I'm not an Armada tournament pro, but I am the organizer for my local group. Over the last year and a half I've introduced and sold over 10 people on the game, taught most of them how to play and I'm currently starting up my 4th Corellian Conflict campaign. My ideas are going to be a little bit different, but here's what I recommend to all beginner players and it's been successful so far:

1. Purchase 1 — and only 1 — Core Set.

This is the only FFG product where I make that recommendation (if you're an LCG player, you'll understand what I mean). I've purchased multiple X-Wing Cores of both types, and I've lost count of the number of LCG Core Sets I own. But for Armada, it's 1 and done.

You do not need a second damage deck. Even with General Dodonna, who lets you cycle through the damage deck, you won't run out of cards (especially not as a beginner with a limited collection). If your friends enjoy Armada after you introduce it to them then they'll buy their own Core set and bring their own damage deck. Problem solved.

2. Buy the ships in the order they were released.

Armada isn't X-Wing. You don't need to chase the "meta" or build the hottest fleet/flavor of the month. More than any miniatures games I've played, Armada emphasizes in-game decision making over list building. You want to be good at the fundamentals — create a plan, deploy properly, execute your plan, fly your fleet well, activate and react with your ships appropriately. Fortunately, Armada is a well-balanced game with few (no?) obsolete ships. All of the Wave 1-2 ships released for Armada are still widely used. Beyond the Core Set, your initial purchase should be:

• Rebels: Assault Frigate Mk II, Nebulon-B Expansion, Corellian Corvette Expansion
• Imperials: Victory Star Destroyer Expansion, Gladiator Star Destroyer, Raider Corvette

This gives you 5 Rebels ships and 4 Imperial ships. You have a nice mix of small and medium ships, slow and fast ships, long- and short-ranged ships. Plus you now have a total of 3 Rebel commanders (General Dodonna, Garm bel Iblis and Mon Mothma) and 4 Imperial commanders (Grand Moff Tarkin, Admiral Motti, Admiral Screed and Admiral Ozzel) to choose from.

3. Buy 2 additional accessories.

• Extra Dice Pack: This is a no-brainer. The Core Set simply doesn't come with enough dice to play the game.
• Extra Maneuver Tool: This isn't absolutely necessary but it's very nice to have. A second maneuver tool allows you to make a shorter version of the tool for squeezing into tight spaces when ships get close to each other. It speeds up play and helps prevent ships from getting bumped/knocked over. As an X-Wing player, you'll appreciate it.

4. STOP! Build yourself a pair of 300-point fleets and go play.

Wait, what about the squadrons expansions and all those fancy ace pilots? And aren't tournament fleets 400 points?

Tournament fleets are 400 points, but when you're first starting out 300 point fleets are equally fun and your games will play faster (which is crucial when introducing new players and teaching them the rules). Armada is a longer game than X-Wing (about double), so if you're goal is to get another buddy hooked, keep those first games short and action-packed.

Squadrons are awesome and add a crucial strategic dimension to the game, but they are also more complex and slow things down. In the beginning, just put your ships on the table, move then around, shoot at each other and blow stuff up. Trust me, those ship models look a lot more impressive than the squadrons and they will get people's attention. And once you've gotten their attention, you can introduce them to the game and presto — another person to play against! My Armada motto is: come for the ships, stay for the squadrons.

Once you're your comfortable with the basic ship movement, command dial and attack rules, then add squadrons. Start with 1 pack of Rebel and Imperial Fighters Squadrons I each. Eventually you'll get more of these, but 1 to start is fine.

You're going to get recommendations to buy big ships (ISDs, Home One, Chimaera), flotillas (Rebel Transports and Gozanti Cruisers) and a bunch of other stuff, but I say all in due time. Start with Wave 1. Build a pair of small fleets. Learn the rules. Add squadrons to your 300 points fleets. Learn those rules. Buy Wave 2. Go up to 400 points. Play lots of games. And finally go wild and buy everything.

Welcome to the club, it's a great game!

do you use android or iphone?

Edit: If android there is one but it's a pain to get. I love it to death though. (not on google play or the amazon market, you have to go to their google+ page).

https://plus.google.com/communities/109814116029534233094

As far as fleet builders go - I love armada warlords (already linked to above). But for mobile devices, I tend to just use the Battlescribe app.

(Warlords is mobile compatible, and a much better builder overall, but Battlescribe is app-based instead of web-based and less fiddly to open up and get into to just throw a list together)

For someone who is just starting out, I'd use Warlords, though. Battlescribe will list the effects of every upgrade in the list viewer, but you'll have to remember what they do when picking them. Warlords has the card images and text available when choosing your upgrades.

EDIT: Also, there are no obsolete ships. The closest you might come to is the Victory-class Star Destroyer, but new upgrades from recent waves have revitalized it enough that it still sees competitive play. There are plenty of dead upgrades (but not as many as you'd think), and there might be some ship variants that don't see high-level play. But you'll find somebody advocating every single ship model in high-level play. Even the Interdictor has won a Regionals tournament!

I use Armada Warlords as an archive to save fleets, but I've found Ryan Kingston's fleet builder to be the fastest, cleanest and most intuitive list builder available:

Ryan Kingston's Armada Fleet Builder

It's nice and quick for when you are brainstorming fleet options.

21 minutes ago, Yipe said:

I'm not an Armada tournament pro, but I am the organizer for my local group. Over the last year and a half I've introduced and sold over 10 people on the game, taught most of them how to play and I'm currently starting up my 4th Corellian Conflict campaign. My ideas are going to be a little bit different, but here's what I recommend to all beginner players and it's been successful so far:

1. Purchase 1 — and only 1 — Core Set.

This is the only FFG product where I make that recommendation (if you're an LCG player, you'll understand what I mean). I've purchased multiple X-Wing Cores of both types, and I've lost count of the number of LCG Core Sets I own. But for Armada, it's 1 and done.

You do not need a second damage deck. Even with General Dodonna, who lets you cycle through the damage deck, you won't run out of cards (especially not as a beginner with a limited collection). If your friends enjoy Armada after you introduce it to them then they'll buy their own Core set and bring their own damage deck. Problem solved.

2. Buy the ships in the order they were released.

Armada isn't X-Wing. You don't need to chase the "meta" or build the hottest fleet/flavor of the month. More than any miniatures games I've played, Armada emphasizes in-game decision making over list building. You want to be good at the fundamentals — create a plan, deploy properly, execute your plan, fly your fleet well, activate and react with your ships appropriately. Fortunately, Armada is a well-balanced game with few (no?) obsolete ships. All of the Wave 1-2 ships released for Armada are still widely used. Beyond the Core Set, your initial purchase should be:

• Rebels: Assault Frigate Mk II, Nebulon-B Expansion, Corellian Corvette Expansion
• Imperials: Victory Star Destroyer Expansion, Gladiator Star Destroyer, Raider Corvette

This gives you 5 Rebels ships and 4 Imperial ships. You have a nice mix of small and medium ships, slow and fast ships, long- and short-ranged ships. Plus you now have a total of 3 Rebel commanders (General Dodonna, Garm bel Iblis and Mon Mothma) and 4 Imperial commanders (Grand Moff Tarkin, Admiral Motti, Admiral Screed and Admiral Ozzel) to choose from.

3. Buy 2 additional accessories.

• Extra Dice Pack: This is a no-brainer. The Core Set simply doesn't come with enough dice to play the game.
• Extra Maneuver Tool: This isn't absolutely necessary but it's very nice to have. A second maneuver tool allows you to make a shorter version of the tool for squeezing into tight spaces when ships get close to each other. It speeds up play and helps prevent ships from getting bumped/knocked over. As an X-Wing player, you'll appreciate it.

4. STOP! Build yourself a pair of 300-point fleets and go play.

Wait, what about the squadrons expansions and all those fancy ace pilots? And aren't tournament fleets 400 points?

Tournament fleets are 400 points, but when you're first starting out 300 point fleets are equally fun and your games will play faster (which is crucial when introducing new players and teaching them the rules). Armada is a longer game than X-Wing (about double), so if you're goal is to get another buddy hooked, keep those first games short and action-packed.

Squadrons are awesome and add a crucial strategic dimension to the game, but they are also more complex and slow things down. In the beginning, just put your ships on the table, move then around, shoot at each other and blow stuff up. Trust me, those ship models look a lot more impressive than the squadrons and they will get people's attention. And once you've gotten their attention, you can introduce them to the game and presto — another person to play against! My Armada motto is: come for the ships, stay for the squadrons.

Once you're your comfortable with the basic ship movement, command dial and attack rules, then add squadrons. Start with 1 pack of Rebel and Imperial Fighters Squadrons I each. Eventually you'll get more of these, but 1 to start is fine.

You're going to get recommendations to buy big ships (ISDs, Home One, Chimaera), flotillas (Rebel Transports and Gozanti Cruisers) and a bunch of other stuff, but I say all in due time. Start with Wave 1. Build a pair of small fleets. Learn the rules. Add squadrons to your 300 points fleets. Learn those rules. Buy Wave 2. Go up to 400 points. Play lots of games. And finally go wild and buy everything.

Welcome to the club, it's a great game!

Thanks for the starter recommendation! Though, i am probably gonna deviate a bit, but I'll skip the squadrons for now... as for game length... there's a reason I said game night/weekend. We play some very unconventional X-wing games (150 point basic games and 450 point Epics and we are working out the logistics for a 1000 point, 3 team epic). With the added points, some of the most lack luster ships can REALLY shine and hold their own against the new hotness (except the TIE Punisher... we spent an entire day building lists and testing and that thing just got mowed down every **** time...)

In all honesty, a small part of me wanting to get involved with Armada was to see if some of its mechanics could be home brewed over to X-Wing... mostly the attack dice variations and the more I looked into Armada, the more I wanted to play it until it hit this level of "This has to happen and soon".

I'm an imaginative guy, and I've had this extremely elaborate campaign I wanted to make for X-wing, but having mostly fighters and 5 corvette sized ships was far too limited. Now, I can weave the more grand campaign i dreamed of!

Of course, this all hinges on whether my friends like Armada as much as X-wing...

1 hour ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

Thanks for the starter recommendation! Though, i am probably gonna deviate a bit, but I'll skip the squadrons for now...

I'm an imaginative guy, and I've had this extremely elaborate campaign I wanted to make for X-wing, but having mostly fighters and 5 corvette sized ships was far too limited. Now, I can weave the more grand campaign i dreamed of!

No worries. Deviate as much as you like, of course. If you do jump into the bigger ships early on, then I'd recommend the Home One and Imperial Star Destroyer expansions over the Liberty and Chimaera. That's not to say those 2 aren't excellent ships — they are — but the former pair are your staple big ships with solid upgrade cards and commanders (notably Admiral Ackbar, but I've also had a lot of fun with Vader in campaign play).

If you like campaigns then definitely give the Corellian Conflict expansion a try. I'm not saying pick it up right away, but my group has found it to be a very enjoyable way to play the game and the aces it comes with are great. It's a bit simplistic so don't expect some in-depth, logistical naval experience. However, if you're an imaginative type that likes to house rule things, it offers a solid foundation to build upon for increased complexity.

Those were the two I have in my sights!

And yeah, I'll get the campaign mostly for the new ship stuff it comes with and for ideas on how to run my campaign.

It is pretty cool to see a few of the aces my friends and I use n X-wing cross over... though, my friend is gonna be heart broken that Night Beast isn't in this game. No joke, he uses him in every imperial squad he makes.

I gotta say, you guys are amazing for all the help and the warm welcome. I was legit expecting someone to say "the game is broken. Stay away."

So many bitter X-wing players...

2 hours ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

Oh.

Oh no.

Also, I seriously can't thank everyone enough who has made suggestions!

So, I think I've narrowed down my Day 1 purchase to being the core set, fighter set 1 for both sides, Liberty, MC-30, Gozanti, Home One, ISD and Chimera. Probably another set of dice, a second range ruler, and a damage deck from eBay.

I know I'll double up on the ships from the core at some point.

If I might make a suggestion. Only get one ISD (Either of them will work out here) and instead pick up a Gladiator and Imperial Light Cruiser instead for the moment. Both are fantastic ships, and the Light Cruiser has some upgrades and an Admiral that I whole heartedly recommend.

A Quasar is kinda a must for VSD II I must say though. Two fantastic upgrades are in it that makes the 12 point jump totally worth it. Not counting all the other stuff included in that expansion.

Not that I'm an expert or anything but if I had an opportunity to do it all over again there are three things I would have definitely done.

For one, I would not have split my core set with my friend and collected both factions. It sounds like you are already doing that and I think if you are going to play Armada you should learn to use both factions and collect both factions. For one, it gets you all of the cards and material, which really expands your list building options but more importantly by learning to play a faction you learn how to play against it (aka learn its weaknesses) and that's just generally good for becoming a better player. I only collect one faction and I very often find myself outmatched more out of a lack of knowledge about the faction than anything else.

Another thing I wish I did was spend more time trying stuff out rather than basing what I try out on "meta" and "competitive play" feedback. From the competitive arena of the game you get a lot more advise than from the casual arena and as such there is a lot of "components".. aka upgrades, ships, etc.. that you simply never try because you presume that because the competitive branch of the game says its no good it must be no good. The truth is that they are almost always wrong and the worst advice you can take is from the competitive branch of the game is when it comes to what to purchase, what to try and what sorts of lists to build. There are several reasons for this, one is duplication. If you watch meta list building and competitive play you will find a lot of min maxing of duplication (aka you need 5 flotillas, 4 X or Y upgrades, 10 X squad etc..). It gets nutty and really doesn't do anything to improve your game because you will not find meta play at your house games, nor will you know what to do with it, so there is no reason to prepare for it. This advice might be more useful if you get into competitive play but bringing lists like that to house games will yield poor results (not just poor win or loose results but quality of evenings and games). Meta lists in general are just boring to play, they are designed to win when specialized (very complex) tactics are employed, not to enjoy the game on a casual level. The game is far more dynamic and interesting when players create interesting and creative lists, its more balanced and in general a much much cheaper venture. The cost overhead for going competitive is effectively about 5x what you would actually need to have a fun collection. So avoid the "You need at least 5 X ships" type of advice, you will just end up with a lot of stuff you will never use.

In general you don't need more than one copy of any large ship. Yes you can run dual MC080 or ISD lists and you might want to do that in the future, but my advice is to avoid that initially. If you are going to buy multiple copies of anything it should be the medium or small ships. Neb B's, Corvettes, Raiders, Gladiators, MC30's, all of those you find natural reasons to put multiple copies into lists.

Finally I would say learn the game in waves. Aka, play a few games with just the core set, than if you still want more.. buy the next wave.. so on and so forth. You want to make sure the game sticks before you shell out the cash needed to buy everything and I can assure you that just because you like X-Wing does not guarantee you will like Armada, in fact in my group I have found the exact opposite to be true. X-Wing players don't like Armada and Armada players don't like X-Wing. These games are vastly different, in particular in terms of pacing, complexity and strategy.