I picked up a core set and enjoyed the play through so far and I'm looking to expand. No local tourney scene so it's all casual play for me.
I want to keep both sides close in ship count and being fun to play. Not looking for meta builds. What expansions and why.
in my opinion these would be my buy groups for each side
Rebel
First buy
MC-75, fighter pack 1 (possibly 2 depending on your style), MC-80 home, Gr-75 transports
next pickup
MC-30, Assault frigate, rogues and villains, CR-90 corvette
last on the list
corellian conflict, fighter pack 2, hammerheads, liberty, nebulon-b, pelta
reasons
the first buy packs are amazing, the MC-75 is the new hotness and very versatile. and they open up a lot of options with cards. the MC-80 comes with ackbar and is a solid defensive option. transports are great for support vessels
the next pickup are not essential but are nice and well rounded, mc-30 is a good brawler, assault frigate is a jack of all trades, a second corvette is decent and R & V gives good squad options
the last pickups are very niche or garbage (ie. a second neb, without doing a full neb build)
Imperial
first buys
Chimera, fighter pack 1, quasar carrier, fighter pack 2, gozantis
next pickup
Corellian conflict, gladiator, Imp SD, rogues and villains
last on the list
raider, interdictor, Arquittens, victory SD
reasoning
the chimera is amazing as it comes with a full fitout for another ISD so you only need 1 ever. fighter 1 is a good baseline and fighter 2 has the best squad combo in the game (maarek and jendon) and gozantis make your building easier
the conflict helps imps way more than rebels as 3 of the 8 normal imp squads come from here but it can be shuffled down if squads are not your thing, the glad is a great knife fighter plus demolisher is an amazing glad title, ISD is good to have and rogues and villains is very useful
raider is only here throught the merits of the others, its just too niche to be amazing but has its uses, dictor is coming back but its still gotta be your centrepiece so its not necessary to pick it it, Arquittens are very meh and Victorys are and probably will always be garbage, so you dont need a second. the only thing that you may want from here is admiral motti and the flight commanders cards
again these are my opinions, and other than a few exceptions, I feel the expansions fit into these categories, however in casual feel free to proxy and get a feel for something if you want to buy it
If you only play casual, then look at a ship and when you think: "That's awesome!" then go and get it. When you play some time you'll get a feeling, what you like best. The little fast and fragile speeders or the strong fortress ships. The mighty broadsides or the intimidating front arcs. To snipe with red dice or to brawl with black dice. To bring huge numbers of tiny squadrons or to rely on your capital ships.
Otherwise you will get as many different suggestions as people will reply. And that's the true value of Armada. There are nearly as many possibilities to play the game, as there are enthusiasts willing to explore them.
@Triangular
is spot on. With that in mind, here’s another arbitrary set of opinions.
What to avoid at first: the Pelta (requires a well-developed understanding of the game to use well,) the Raider and the Liberty (good, but fragile,) and Rebel squadrons 2 (niche specialists.)
Everything else is pretty approachable. The Chimaera expansion pack is probably your best first buy, as it fills a fleet and comes with good cards (and I assume you want a Star Destroyer, right?
) The Home One MC80 is a good Rebel counterpart, as unlike the Liberty it’s highly resilient, and unlike the MC75 it doesn’t need a double-arc to deal quality damage. A squadrons 1 pack for each side offers some variety. An Arquitens is a good early buy because it runs well with just the Dual Turbolaser Turrets in the box and includes Moff Jerjerrod, a phenomenal commander. (A good Rebel counterpart could be another CR90, or perhaps Hammerheads.) Hope this helps, and welcome to the game!
The First expansion packs I bought were the Chimaera, Home One and Rogues and Villains. I felt like this was the most balanced way to expand from the core set
4 hours ago, The captn said:I picked up a core set and enjoyed the play through so far and I'm looking to expand. No local tourney scene so it's all casual play for me.
I want to keep both sides close in ship count and being fun to play. Not looking for meta builds. What expansions and why.
In this case, I'd suggest you buy what you think is cool.
There are no dead expansions in Armada.
I think all of the ships are cool. I have a good baseline of what I'll start getting over the next few weeks. Seeing alot of the same ships suggested will help me get bang for my buck. Also something besides x wing or legion for me to expand.
2 minutes ago, The captn said:I think all of the ships are cool. I have a good baseline of what I'll start getting over the next few weeks. Seeing alot of the same ships suggested will help me get bang for my buck. Also something besides x wing or legion for me to expand.
All I would suggest is to shop around. If you are not tied down to an FLGS you can get some pretty decent deals. Amazon is decent and other online retailers have good prices although most only have free shipping on orders over $100.
2 minutes ago, Thrindal said:All I would suggest is to shop around. If you are not tied down to an FLGS you can get some pretty decent deals. Amazon is decent and other online retailers have good prices although most only have free shipping on orders over $100.
I do shop around. I support my flgs and take my son when I go get new ships. Amazon kinda takes some of the fun out of that experience for us. Nothing like going to buy a figure then playing a game to try it out. He's not quite armada ready yet at age 6 but give him some more flight time with xwing and I'll let him fly some armada soon.
You could buy 5 hammer head packs feild 9 of them, and declare it hammer time every time you play. Bonus points for actually playing the song at the start of the game.
26 minutes ago, Noosh said:You could buy 5 hammer head packs feild 9 of them, and declare it hammer time every time you play. Bonus points for actually playing the song at the start of the game.
Why stop at 9? You can take 10 of the Torpedo ones with Mothma / Rieekan / Madine and still have the points to put Task Force Organa on all of them.
56 minutes ago, Villakarvarousku said:Why stop at 9? You can take 10 of the Torpedo ones with Mothma / Rieekan / Madine and still have the points to put Task Force Organa on all of them.
Yes! Do it, do it NOOOOOOWWW!