So I bought armada not long ago. Can't believe I waited so long. Loving this game

I also bought a assault frigate. Gladiator. Imperial cruiser aswell as rebel and imperial squadrons

I' m still working out upgrades but know I want 3 ships for each side. And hopefully 1 of each fighter to add for flavour.

So far I have for rebels

Assault frigate b

Dodona

Nebulon b escort frigate

Cr 90 corvette a

Wedge

Tycho

1x x wing

1x a wing

1x b wing

1x y wing

Empire I got

Victory star destroyer a

Admiral screed

Gladiator a

Light cruiser

Howlrunner

Major rhymer

2x tie fighter

2x tie interceptor

Not sure what upgrades I need though so far Empire is at 279 points and rebels are 276 points. Is that enough for upgrades? How should I fit them?

First off, welcome to the game

Although the rulebook in the armada core set tells you to make 300 point fleets, that was upped to 400 points around the time of wave 2 I believe.

I'm pretty sure 300 points was just a stopgap points value to account for the smaller variety of units available in the games infancy, or the switch to 400 could have been for balancing reasons related to the large ships debuted around that time. I wasn't playing armada myself at that time so I'm unsure of the reason.

There's nothing wrong with 300 point fleets, and you can still have perfectly good games at 300 points, but if you plan on doing pick-up games at your lgs or doing any tournaments then you should be aware that 400 points is the default fleet size these days.

Now, upgrades;

I can only really speak for imperial as I have little to no experience playing as the rebel scum, but you probably don't have quite enough points budgeted for upgrades there.

The gladiator is probably best played with the demolisher title, and also wants ordnance experts to help make the black dice more reliable. Engine techs is also really good on the gladiator as it allows it to outmaneuver most of the rebel ships and bring those black dice to bear. Then lastly you might (although you don't have to) want to add assault concussion missiles to the gladiator.

That's about 30 points of upgrades (although engine techs and assault concussion missiles are more optional)

The light cruiser can run quite well without many upgrades, in fact you might only want to add the twin turbolasers turrets for another 5 points.

The victory class I'm not entirely sure how to set up (I mostly do quite badly when I try to fly them), but at a rough guess you probably want to leave 15-20 points for upgrades on that.

So I'd estimate an upgrade budget of about 45-55 points for your fleet.

Also with the ships you have, you may want to reduce quantity of your fighter squadrons and play more aces; you don't have all that much fighter command with the ships you have selected, and squadrons aren't terribly effective if they're not activated by a capital ship (exception for squadrons with the rogue ability, but I don't think your collection includes any of those yet).

Welcome to the game!

It is a lot of fun, and it will eat up all your time and money very quickly. But it's worth it.

This early in the game, I think you can just play around with everything and see how things work. If you have a regular buddy you play with, just try random stuff and see what happens. Even played poorly, or with ineffective lists, this game is a lot of fun.

But, when you start getting more competitive, you will need to start focusing your fleets on certain goals. Do you want a bomber heavy list? Do you want one big ship that hits very hard? Do you want Multiple Small Units? Pick all your upgrades/ships/squads (or at least most of them) to fit those goals.

For an example of this, all the different fighter types do not work towards the same goals. For instance A-wing and X-wings do not get along well. A-wings want to be attacked to use counter, but X-wings have to be attacked because of escort. B-wings struggle to keep up with everyone else if they don't have support by other means.

Also, if you haven't already, you'll need to start getting used to objectives. This can be a little daunting and confusing. To start out with, maybe just try these three: Most Wanted, Superior Positions, and Contested Outpost. Those ones are all pretty simple, and once you get used to them you can play around with the others. But objectives play a HUGE part in the game, because in this game First Player as a distinct advantage over 2nd player, and these are meant to mitigate that advantage.

One thing I will say, is Electronic Counter Measures is way better than Redundant shields, even though it doesn't seem like it at first. namdoolb's advice is all good as well.

Good Luck! Hope that is somewhat helpful!