Welcome to Armada! Whatever you end up getting, head over to KDY, and print out a few sheets of proxy cards for admirals and upgrades you don't plan to start off with.
Create an account, and go to expansions. You will be able to pick and choose what you may want to get next, and try it out.
6 hours ago, BigKahuna said: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.
Oh, like X-wing, I'm actually the ONLY one buying everything... which I don't mind since I'm a collector of many things geek (and what I can't buy, I build... you should see my Ghostbusters equipment!). I love X-wing and I'm digging what I see in Armada and in my group of friends, I have a few that are fans of the larger capital ships than the fighters, so I'll have two different groups wanting to play the different games with a slight over lap.
I appreciate the advice about duplicates! Just from a fluff stand point, I was only ever going to get one of each larger Mon Cal cruiser and no more than 3 ISDs (one being the Chimera). The smaller ships wete the ones I figured I'd need several of if for nothing else, the upgrade cards.
I priced out my revised day 1 purchase and it's less than I expected being around $260! Hopefully the two game stores near me have what I'm looking for and I can avoid Amazon (I'd rather support local businesses) I'll be taking my first dip into this in about 2 weeks, so look forward to an update where I yell "I ****** and bought 5 of everything because I have ZERO control over my buying habits!"
13 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 your looking to run Medium/Large Imperial ships, you might want to look at the Victory SD Expansion, since Admiral Motti is in it.
Yeah, I revised my starting list. Core, ISD, Gladiator, Raider, VSD, Corvette, Neb B, and Home One. Oh, the dice and range ruler too of course.
Edited by Kehl_Aecea9 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:Yeah, I revised my starting list. Core, ISD, Gladiator, Raider, VSD, Corvette, Neb B, and Home One. Oh, the dice and range ruler too of course.
Fighter packs are also really nice. Fighter I I would call essential for those more concerned on theme, and Fighter II essential for people interested in tournament play. People bag on fighters a lot, but end of the day, there is something super "Star Wars" about clashing Vader and a gang of ties against Dutch and a clump of X-Wings and Y-Wings.
As one of the "competitive" (I'd like to think I'm competitive) players you've been warned about, here is my advice: Read. You're coming from another Fantasy Flight minis game, so you have a decent idea what sort of mechanics FFG prefers. With that in mind, you also probably know what playstyles you or your group will be into, so take advantage of that to go through the several existing Armada blogs and figure out what you think you would enjoy, if that's what you're gunning for.
Blogs and Associated Content of Note:
Cannot Get Your Ship Out: About as close to an encyclopedia as we have at the moment, and very thorough, if still working on Wave 7 since it is only a week and a half old. Maintained by @geek19 and @Snipafist, some of Chicago's leading lights. Start here, and go from there would be my first suggestion, if I only get one.
Steel Command/Strategy/Squadron/Something: A blog that is at this point more closely related to a loose confederation of blogs than a single entity, it is nonetheless maintained by high-caliber authors with burnished reputations and more detailed breakdowns of specific fleet concepts and ideas than CGYSO will always do. @shmitty @BiggsIRL and @Truthiness are your hosts here. This blog is also the home of the Vassal World Cup and its associated events and shenanigans.
I Have You Now: The newest blog on the list, @Green Knight is the former developer of the Vassal module for Armada and an exceptionally skilled player. In tone it's somewhere between CGYSO and Steel Command, but as I will get to in a minute, extra eyes are always good to have. Armada is much too broad and complex for any one player or even small group of players to have total knowledge of the game.
Master of the Fleet: A YouTube channel maintained by some hare-brained Aussies (specifically @Irokenics and @Captain Weather), MotF offers hilarious fleet matchups and great fun. Their latest addition Captain's Clinic is a series specifically designed to get new players up and running on the new ships, and while it isn't always right (*cough CR90Bs aren't terribad *cough) it's an excellent starting point, especially if you prefer video to written content.
Luckily for you, all of the above are competitive players at some of the highest echelons of Armada play, and are well-versed in the details and minutiae of the game. All of them also know how to have fun, and are more than happy to help you build competitive or thematic lists that still are a blast to fly and can hold their own against any opponent.
To go more into my own personal opinion, whether you're collecting on behalf your group (those blasted moochers) or just for yourself, I have to second anyone who said that collecting both factions is the way to go. I mainly play Imperials, but I have learned a lot conducting false flag operations with my traitor ships, and I almost always learn something I can take back to angry space triangles when I do. I would also recommend, as others have, learning the game incrementally. You may buy in all at once (who knows, maybe you'll get lucky on eBay) but I strongly recommend starting low on upgrades and ace squadrons and working your way up in complexity. Armada is an FFG game, it's heavy on tokens and short individual rules, but it's got more of the latter than most, so while it will quickly pick up speed for you, understand that that five game learning curve you took to get into X-wing will be probably twice as long to get Armada mechanically, and twice again time-wise since our games tend to be longer on top of that (especially learning games can take hours upon hours).
As far as Armada's competitive scene goes. I cannot disagree more with several previous posters. Competitive players are almost always (insofar as any group of humans can be "always" something) friendly and out to have a good time. We do tend to be more prolific posters here on the forum, but that is for the same reason we are competitive players, we deeply enjoy this game and want to help others do the same. Even in a house game, fleets can be no fun if the constituent components cannot work together, and we are all usually well enough experienced in all of that to help you work through those kinks, especially if you warn us up front you'd rather the list be thematic and casual over so-called "power-gaming".
I will also note that, in my opinion, there are exceptionally few bad cards in Armada. There are definitely suboptimal combinations, but almost any card and almost any ship can find a fleet that will be able to win that it can fit in. (Even the much-maligned Interdictor has its fans.) Like any other game you can min-max if you wish, and occasionally those fleets will appear in the competitive meta, but by and large what you will find if you choose to enter that field is that the meta is in fact wide open and that many of the best players will simply field a fleet that they know is "good" but that they are extremely comfortable flying. At the end of the day, any Armada fleet is ultimately limited by points and will end up specializing to accomplish one task at the partial (or sometimes but rarely complete) expense of other tasks. Further, while there are lists that can be "boring" to fly, the truly boring ones are few and far between, and because the meta is so wide open you are by no means obligated to either play them or play against them. I don't understand how throwing an unstoppable force at an immovable object (as most "meta" games end up being) could possibly be boring, but hey, Armada is a big tent. Go play however you want, that's the beauty of the game.
Hopefully this was helpful, feel free to reply or ping me if it wasn't or it was unclear.
1 hour ago, Kehl_Aecea said:Yeah, I revised my starting list. Core, ISD, Gladiator, Raider, VSD, Corvette, Neb B, and Home One. Oh, the dice and range ruler too of course.
Good List. I would prefer the Light Cruiser over the Raider, but the Raider is a fun boat and Ordnance Experts is great.
16 hours ago, Kehl_Aecea said: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?
This is probably what I love most about Armada: I can affirmatively answer this by saying there is not a single damned expansion that's a waste of your time. Do you want to limit yourself to only 1 or 2 of some? Sure. But some of the things that are dominating the game are from wave 1. The best advise I can give you is grab what looks cool to you, get a feel for the game, and then find your preference.
1 hour ago, Kehl_Aecea said:Yeah, I revised my starting list. Core, ISD, Gladiator, Raider, VSD, Corvette, Neb B, and Home One. Oh, the dice and range ruler too of course.
Your list looks good to me, though I find the AFMk II is a great jack-of-all-trades ship that compliments any Rebel collection. Some people don't like its appearance (I think it's pretty nifty looking myself) but it offers a lot of flexibility. I've found it's quite useful in campaign play as it's typically the "biggest" ship you can afford to add to your fleet (I start my campaigns at 300 or even 250 points to give fleets more room to grow, and dropping a surprise AF or VSD later on can really shake things up).
If you don't opt for the Assault Frigate, then I might suggest the MC30. It's a fun ship to fly and comes with both Assault Proton Torpedoes, another copy of Ordnance Experts and Turbolaser Reroute Circuits.
Finally, regardless of what you buy, I second GilleadPalleon's advice to take it slow and integrate pieces/cards from your collection incrementally. That's not because the rules of Armada are too complex (though you will have to unlearn much of what you have learned from X-Wing), but because I think it makes you a better player in the long run.
One approach I've found that's been tons of fun is to use the turn-1 Corellian Conflict campaign restriction of only allowing 1 upgrade per ship (your Commander doesn't count). You don't have to be so restrictive, for example you may allow 2 cards per ship or X upgrades total for your fleet. It keeps the focus on objective selection, deployment, flying, choosing the right command dials and activation order which I find are the most enjoyable aspects of the game.
1 hour ago, Truthiness said:This is probably what I love most about Armada: I can affirmatively answer this by saying there is not a single damned expansion that's a waste of your time. Do you want to limit yourself to only 1 or 2 of some? Sure. But some of the things that are dominating the game are from wave 1. The best advise I can give you is grab what looks cool to you, get a feel for the game, and then find your preference.
This^^^^^^^^
Yeah, I've been seeing the Assault Frigate MK II show up in a few "get these if you're new" lists, but I wanna stay with the iconic ships to start with. It's how I pulled friends into X-wing before grabbing every **** ship that came out, and a few just don't see table time due to not looking "Star Wars-y" enough.
That said, my second wave of purchases will PROBABLY be everything else if I'm being totally honest XD
Again, I collect, so even if we only ever play this once, I'll have a few shelves of sexy miniatures to gawk at!
One simple question as I've read conflicting reports, Armada is played on a 3x3 or a 3x6 area?
3 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:Yeah, I've been seeing the Assault Frigate MK II show up in a few "get these if you're new" lists, but I wanna stay with the iconic ships to start with. It's how I pulled friends into X-wing before grabbing every **** ship that came out, and a few just don't see table time due to not looking "Star Wars-y" enough.
That said, my second wave of purchases will PROBABLY be everything else if I'm being totally honest XD
Again, I collect, so even if we only ever play this once, I'll have a few shelves of sexy miniatures to gawk at!
One simple question as I've read conflicting reports, Armada is played on a 3x3 or a 3x6 area?
3x6. Only exception is the campaign's final battle (1500 points a side, as opposed to a standard 400 points a side), played on 3x9. There are home-made alternatives, but officially always 3x6 (and you really need a table that's 4(+)x6 to have room for cards, dials, etc, for each fleet).
Edited by GiledPallaeon2 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:One simple question as I've read conflicting reports, Armada is played on a 3x3 or a 3x6 area?
The introductory game using the core set only is 3x3.
Standard games are 3x6.
Cool! The 3x9 might be an issue, but I'm building a custom 4x4 gaming table that could fold out to 4x8, so I'll make adjustments to that last mission.
Now I'm glad I bought a few game mats for X-wing!
21 hours ago, RobertK said:The introductory game using the core set only is 3x3.
Standard games are 3x6.
There is a thread about a “task force format” using 200 point fleets on a 3 x 3 mat with scaled down objectives. Worth looking into, even for beginners, as it makes for shorter games that require fewer ships.
41 minutes ago, Tayloraj100 said:There is a thread about a “task force format” using 200 point fleets on a 3 x 3 mat with scaled down objectives. Worth looking into, even for beginners, as it makes for shorter games that require fewer ships.
Good point. The task force format that @Blail Blerg put together is a great short format that uses a smaller footprint and makes use of smaller fleets. I've played it a bunch with friends. It is interesting and fun.
I ****** up.
Repeat: I ****** UP!
So, got paid with a bonus, so I was all "Hmm, let me check e-bay!" and I found a lot for sale that had everything I was gonna get plus some duplicates and extras and... yeah... so... I went that far and figured "well, I've gone this far!"
I now own at least one of everything.
-lights wallet on fire-
Now I can't hurt you anymore...
6 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:-lights wallet on fire-
Now I can't hurt you anymore...
See, you say that, but are you sure you're trying hard enough?
I mean... Yeah, I think it's safe now. Only Amazon, eBay, PayPal, Etsy and venmo are tied into my bank account...
Oh.
Oh no...
-buys more fighter packs off Amazon-
SOMEONE BREAK MY HANDS!
3 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:I mean... Yeah, I think it's safe now. Only Amazon, eBay, PayPal, Etsy and venmo are tied into my bank account...
Oh.
Oh no...
-buys more fighter packs off Amazon-
SOMEONE BREAK MY HANDS!
Hahaha. That is hilarious. I hope you enjoy the game. I am curious about the ebay lot. What was in it all?
31 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:I ****** up.
Repeat: I ****** UP!
So, got paid with a bonus, so I was all "Hmm, let me check e-bay!" and I found a lot for sale that had everything I was gonna get plus some duplicates and extras and... yeah... so... I went that far and figured "well, I've gone this far!"
I now own at least one of everything.
-lights wallet on fire-
Now I can't hurt you anymore...
What im more interested in was the size of the bonus....
.... i mean to buy one of everything....
...
...
...
.... so you must of been a billionare for what, 2 minutes?
19 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:Hahaha. That is hilarious. I hope you enjoy the game. I am curious about the ebay lot. What was in it all?
Everything up to wave 5 with a couple wave 1 duplicates. Grabbed wave 6 and 7 along with another core set BECAUSE WHY NOT ON Amazon.
Just now, DrakonLord said:What im more interested in was the size of the bonus....
.... i mean to buy one of everything....
...
...
...
.... so you must of been a billionare for what, 2 minutes?
Well, wasn't a bonus, more like I got an extra check because a shop I had worked for 2 years ago got audited by my union, got busted skimming from employees and was forced to pay what we were owed.
Okay, so, while I await my first wave of arrivals to.show up*, a minor question popped in my head...well 2.
With the scale of the game what it is, I noticed the fighters (for the most part) come in groups of 3. Does each ship actually represent 4 individual fighters? (Making each game piece a full squad of 12 fighters.)
My other question, are there any reputable painters on the forum Icould commission to paint these things? I'mno good at painting detail on things this tiny!
*ended up ordering off Amazon due to my local game store no longer carrying Armada. They ended up discounting what little stock they had left and some walk in bought everything)
model scale is .....a sliding one .... the CR90 is not the same scale as the VSD or ISD
consensus is each base of fighters is a formation... how many that is, is up to you the player :p... a base could be a full sqn of 12 or a flight of 3 or anything in between
On 2/11/2018 at 9:38 PM, MandalorianMoose said: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
By my B&N, they still have Rogues, an Assault Frigate and an MC30 and they ae not priced at half off.