Hi! It's me! The guy that bought the entire game in one go! Still haven't had a chance to play yet, but I have more questions!
So, in X-wing, my "standard" games are 150 as opposed to the traditionso 100 points. Could we say bump our games up to 600 points and 8 rounds without breaking anything?
What are some ways of storing these things? I was looking at some foam options for the larger ships (ISD, VSDs, and MC80s and 75).
Edited by Kehl_AeceaWelcome! This game is great and we are always happy to see a new member of the community. Some Admirals get better at higher point values (ackbar, Vader) with more ships that an benefit from their skills. But I wouldn’t call anything “broken” per say. You will find that things die much quicker through sheer volume of concentrated firepower though.
As far as storage goes, I use a large Plano tackle box that I got from Home Depot. It has several different slide out drawers that are perfect for squads/tokens/small ships/dice/etc and a large top space for large ships, and decent sized compartments that are perfect for the medium ships. It’s very portable and handy for taking my entire collection on the go
I highly highly recommend SirWillibald's tuck boxes for this game's storage.
Some have played large games more than me. If you like cinematic and you have a LOT of time, its a lot of fun.
A common rule is only 1 or 2 upgrades per ship and a smaller cap for squads, to save time.
Another common way to play is to do "hyperspacing" -> make it 8 rounds, but only 600 points to start, and at Turn3 hyperspace in the last 200pts for an 800pt game.
That said, game balance is completely awful at larger scales. Squadrons scale to immensely broken levels, capable of one shotting ISDs, multiplier effects like BCC, Toryn, etc, become too good. Vader, Tarkin, Ackbar, Leia all become easily x2 as powerful as they scale up.
You have to move each ship and squad one at a time, and time starts to not scale with the points. at 400 youre at 2hours, at 600, youre probably nearing 4hours already, at 800, you could easily be doing 9 hours (including a break in between).
If you wanna play one long long game of armada for 9 hours... that's your choice.
8 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:Some have played large games more than me. If you like cinematic and you have a LOT of time, its a lot of fun.
A common rule is only 1 or 2 upgrades per ship and a smaller cap for squads, to save time.
Another common way to play is to do "hyperspacing" -> make it 8 rounds, but only 600 points to start, and at Turn3 hyperspace in the last 200pts for an 800pt game.
That said, game balance is completely awful at larger scales. Squadrons scale to immensely broken levels, capable of one shotting ISDs, multiplier effects like BCC, Toryn, etc, become too good. Vader, Tarkin, Ackbar, Leia all become easily x2 as powerful as they scale up.
You have to move each ship and squad one at a time, and time starts to not scale with the points. at 400 youre at 2hours, at 600, youre probably nearing 4hours already, at 800, you could easily be doing 9 hours (including a break in between).
If you wanna play one long long game of armada for 9 hours... that's your choice.
My friends and I have run Epic X-wing games that have lasted 12 hours. It's all good 
I’ve run 800-1,000 point games in 3 hours before, but it is advisable to lower the squadron cap as that is the part that is most likely to bog down
Yeah, I was looking at that too. Maybe 1 or 2 fighter squads per ship.
Eh, I'm sure we'll figure out a suitable balance!
Edited by Kehl_Aecea13 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:My friends and I have run Epic X-wing games that have lasted 12 hours. It's all good
Then you'll know what to expect. Our epic games at liek 350 vs 350 took 8 hours or so. Nope, not for me.
We have a 1,000 point epic list scheduled for a weekend. A full weekend.
Eventually, once we get Armada down as well as we know X-wing. I'd like to remove the round limit and go all out in a similar fashion.
My son and I did 1200 in 6 hours. One upgrade per ship, except your flagship, that you can Christmas tree. Squadrons weren't an issue, as the massive fur ball disintegrates pretty quickly.
^ now that I can get behind!
2 hours ago, Kehl_Aecea said:Hi! It's me! The guy that bought the entire game in one go! Still haven't had a chance to play yet, but I have more questions!
So, in X-wing, my "standard" games are 150 as opposed to the traditionso 100 points. Could we say bump our games up to 600 points and 8 rounds without breaking anything?
What are some ways of storing these things? I was looking at some foam options for the larger ships (ISD, VSDs, and MC80s and 75).
Re: game size
You can play higher points games without too much trouble provided you block out enough time for it, although I'd stick to 6 rounds. Higher points will mean more destruction and by the end of the game you'll still be down to relatively few ships. It's the squadrons that consume a lot of time (relative to their points cost), so I might consider some kind of limit on those when going above 400 points just to keep play moving along.
Re: storage
In general, toolboxes and organizers are a very inexpensive way to store things. I really do not recommend the tuckboxes. Whenever I've seen people try them, it takes them forever to unbox everything they're going to use for a game, set it up, and then pack it back into boxes when they're done. It takes a few games and then they throw away the cardstock boxes and just use the toolbox/organizer combination like most of the rest of us at the FLGS do.
Yeah, the collection I got came with a few containers and already my 3 Victory Star Destroyers have broken comms antenna... Not overly thrilled with that. So, those, the ISDs and Mon Cal cruiser are getting the foam treatment.
1 minute ago, Kehl_Aecea said:Yeah, the collection I got came with a few containers and already my 3 Victory Star Destroyers have broken comms antenna... Not overly thrilled with that. So, those, the ISDs and Mon Cal cruiser are getting the foam treatment.
VSD antennae break constantly. I think I might have one VSD (out of 3) with an unbroken antenna, and we joke that people don't recognize VSDs with intact antennae. The other ships are a lot more durable and don't mind getting bumped around a little. If you're planning to paint your ships, consider foam. Otherwise, don't bother.
Ive played a 2000pt per side game before. Its brilliant but mentally exhausting.
We stopped the game start of round 4 and it took us 3hrs involving setup timr. It was a crapton of fun though and something i would recommend doing at a earlier time of the day and taking the day to then playthrough (we started playing about 7:30/8 pm lol)
If I understand correctly you just bought the game. I recommend keep first few battles simple. I mean go big if you wish, but take no/few upgrades and perhaps no ace pilots, so you can focus on learning how ships and squads move and shoot and you don't have to track so many special rules and rules interactions.
I played few 800-1000 pts battles using rules for so called "All out offensive" from Corelian campaign. It works very well and helps to keep battles shorter.
For storage, Sir Willi's boxes stacked inside an old ammo can works great for transporting the fleet you want to play that evening but you may need something more for your entire collection.
7 hours ago, noggin said:If I understand correctly you just bought the game. I recommend keep first few battles simple. I mean go big if you wish, but take no/few upgrades and perhaps no ace pilots, so you can focus on learning how ships and squads move and shoot and you don't have to track so many special rules and rules interactions.
I played few 800-1000 pts battles using rules for so called "All out offensive" from Corelian campaign. It works very well and helps to keep battles shorter.
Oh, I'm just curious about future gameplay. ****, first few games, I intend to play the demo set up until we get the gist of the game
2 hours ago, Kehl_Aecea said:Oh, I'm just curious about future gameplay. ****, first few games, I intend to play the demo set up until we get the gist of the game
After the first demo game, I’d move up to 200-point fleets on a 3 x 3 mat — it plays like the full game, just scaled down. That way you can play games in less time, test things out, etc.
And as far as broken antennae on VSDs go... It’s so common that I hear VSDs that still have one aren’t tournament legal.
EDIT: Also, speaking of demos, I’d avoid using the Demolisher title for your GSDs until you get the hang of shoot-then-move. It’s a phenominal upgrade, but bad practice while learning the ropes.
Edited by Tayloraj100My take on scale is that t the lower end the Rebels get a big power boost the higher you go it is easier for the Empire to get a power boost (and early on only them) but now the Rebels also have ways to get boosted at higher points.
Yeah, the half size 200pt Taskforce format is really good for trying things out, for new and experienced players. It plays exactly like the normal game, but smaller.
19 hours ago, Kehl_Aecea said:What are some ways of storing these things? I was looking at some foam options for the larger ships (ISD, VSDs, and MC80s and 75).
I am using the foams from Feldherr. They are really great and fitting well.
4 hours ago, Tokra said:I am using the foams from Feldherr. They are really great and fitting well.
Same here.
Several people in my Armada gaming group have also jumped on the Feldherr wagon. There are other good pre-cut foam companies out there (KR Multicase is fantastic), but I feel Feldherr is the best quality for the price. I'd check Amazon first, though Feldherr's website offers more options if you really want to customize.
As testimony of their effectiveness: Both of my VSDs still have their antennas 
2 hours ago, Yipe said:Same here.
Several people in my Armada gaming group have also jumped on the Feldherr wagon. There are other good pre-cut foam companies out there (KR Multicase is fantastic), but I feel Feldherr is the best quality for the price. I'd check Amazon first, though Feldherr's website offers more options if you really want to customize.
As testimony of their effectiveness: Both of my VSDs still have their antennas
Wait! Full out of the box antennas, still have their antenna, or snapped off half way down where they thicken up a bit, still have their antenna?
10 minutes ago, cynanbloodbane said:Wait! Full out of the box antennas, still have their antenna, or snapped off half way down where they thicken up a bit, still have their antenna?
Full, out-of-the-box antennas. Both VSDs are over 2 years old.