So today I went to a local tournament for Armada, here in Orlando, FL.

We used to struggle to fill tournaments. Even after Wave 7, we'd have a hard time. Many times we'd have 3 or 4... if we had at least 4 we could run a tourney though. And these are small tournaments, not Store Championships. These are usually for store credit. Sometimes it's an OP kit, sometimes it's just for the heck of it and no extra prizes. But a few months ago we stopped struggling to fill tournaments. We'd routinely have 4 or more. Sometimes 6. Then it kept growing. Last month we had 9 twice... today we had 11!

11 people for a non-special Armada tournament! And there's another one at the end of the month!

My point is, this game seems to be growing! At least here in Orlando. Part of it may be the fact that I put together a facebook group, part of it may have been simply due to the fact that we have ALOT of tabletop gaming stores here as well.... but whatever the reason, this year I've seen a HUGE increase in Armada participation such that our REGULAR tournaments will pull in more people than X-Wing! We'll see how Store Championships do - not making any promises there... but this game is doing so much better!

Another thing that's wild here, (Orlando) is that there's virtually no meta. Like, out of our 11, only 3 were Rebel, the rest were Imperial... but out of all those Imperials NONE were Sloane! Everyone runs different stuff! I ran Tagge today and had a freaking blast! Tagge for cryin out loud! Jeesh maybe I'll try Ozzel next time just to say I've done it! ROFL!

Anyhow - if you are sad and bummed out about Armada - come on down to Orlando! We love to fly! And it shows! (Is that some type of copyright thing from an airline?)

How many of you have noticed this trend? is it just us here?

Ozzel is great

We had 16 at our store champs yesterday and our regular game nights we're regularly getting 4 or more games in total just for casual play, so our local scene is strong and improving.

That said, our veterans are getting concerned about the lack of news and our FLGS would like our veterans to have something to spend more of their money on.

Finally, leave Ozzel alone. Dude is great. Two of my Adepticon wins are with Ozzel.

I hear you about the veteran players having something to buy. I'm inspired by MOTF's recent batrep and I'm really wanting to do REALLY huge battle now - for kicks. Maybe if 1200 point battle started to become popular some veterans might need to buy more rofl! I'm ready for new stuff too though - but for me, I'm more at peace because I ALSO play other games, so I have new stuff for Legion and soon, X-Wing 2.0 to help keep me relaxed.

I'll think about Ozzel - It's just strange because my style of play revolves so much around using concentrate fire, that I haven't ever really wrapped my head around him as a commander in a really serious "How am I gonna make this win" kinda way - but now I figure the time may have finally come!

And that's just another thing that makes this game great in my eyes. He's been out for quite awhile. I haven't used him yet. There's STILL new combinations and tactics to discover even after this long.

That's awesome to hear crabbok. Hopefully your armada scene continues to grow and grow. Once gencon rolls around with whatever FFG has been keeping secret I'm sure it'll generate a ton more interest and have players return.

We seem to have built up a regular group that is primarily old 40K space players (They mentioned it once or twice, battle fleet gothic was it's name?) and I don't even play Armada (I want to, I just keep funneling my gaming funds to "higher" priorities. If I had someone to split a core set with, I'd be all in.). Of course everyone that plays tells me pretty much the same thing, there's no true meta, every ship has a role and every commander is a viable option (Although they did warn it may take some creative list building with some commanders).

My local group doesn't seem to phased by lack of new content because they still play on a consistent basis, even if they feel like FFG might be abandoning them a little bit, with Gencon around the corner their is hope. In the meantime they'll be playing a tournament next weekend.

I'm also inclined to think that how well a game functions without new content is a testament to how well the designers considered replayability when designing the game. And after this latest they seem to have hit the mark pretty well, at least in my local area anyway. (Before armada was that game that sat on the shelf and people wished it was good.)

Here in Melbourne Australia, last year was low point in the game as we only have had myself and two others show up for 6 months for tournaments at our local. Due to low numbers, we had to cancel them.

@X Wing Nut and myself have been working hard the last year, building the community since those dark times and passing our knowledge.

Now our numbers are quite good with avenge player turnout of 6. The last tournament we had 9 players show up. Also, there are other stores in the area that are building their player base as well.

This shows that Armada is not dead!

23 minutes ago, FlyingAnchors said:

We seem to have built up a regular group that is primarily old 40K space players (They mentioned it once or twice, battle fleet gothic was it's name?) and I don't even play Armada (I want to, I just keep funneling my gaming funds to "higher" priorities. If I had someone to split a core set with, I'd be all in.). Of course everyone that plays tells me pretty much the same thing, there's no true meta, every ship has a role and every commander is a viable option (Although they did warn it may take some creative list building with some commanders).

My local group doesn't seem to phased by lack of new content because they still play on a consistent basis, even if they feel like FFG might be abandoning them a little bit, with Gencon around the corner their is hope. In the meantime they'll be playing a tournament next weekend.

I'm also inclined to think that how well a game functions without new content is a testament to how well the designers considered replayability when designing the game. And after this latest they seem to have hit the mark pretty well, at least in my local area anyway. (Before armada was that game that sat on the shelf and people wished it was good.)

Where are you located? We may be able to organise split core set

3 hours ago, Crabbok said:

So today I went to a local tournament for Armada, here in Orlando, FL.

We used to struggle to fill tournaments. Even after Wave 7, we'd have a hard time. Many times we'd have 3 or 4... if we had at least 4 we could run a tourney though. And these are small tournaments, not Store Championships. These are usually for store credit. Sometimes it's an OP kit, sometimes it's just for the heck of it and no extra prizes. But a few months ago we stopped struggling to fill tournaments. We'd routinely have 4 or more. Sometimes 6. Then it kept growing. Last month we had 9 twice... today we had 11!

11 people for a non-special Armada tournament! And there's another one at the end of the month!

My point is, this game seems to be growing! At least here in Orlando. Part of it may be the fact that I put together a facebook group, part of it may have been simply due to the fact that we have ALOT of tabletop gaming stores here as well.... but whatever the reason, this year I've seen a HUGE increase in Armada participation such that our REGULAR tournaments will pull in more people than X-Wing! We'll see how Store Championships do - not making any promises there... but this game is doing so much better!

Another thing that's wild here, (Orlando) is that there's virtually no meta. Like, out of our 11, only 3 were Rebel, the rest were Imperial... but out of all those Imperials NONE were Sloane! Everyone runs different stuff! I ran Tagge today and had a freaking blast! Tagge for cryin out loud! Jeesh maybe I'll try Ozzel next time just to say I've done it! ROFL!

Anyhow - if you are sad and bummed out about Armada - come on down to Orlando! We love to fly! And it shows! (Is that some type of copyright thing from an airline?)

How many of you have noticed this trend? is it just us here?

What was the location of the tournament? I live about 40 minutes west. Trying to get some players going here, but a field trip to Orlando would be nice.

It's looking promising in Helsinki, Finland as well. Last year, I played one proper game with someone who also collects Armada (i.e. not counting the handful of times I managed to coax my brother or a friend into playing with me).

Since about April/May, I've found two people to play regular weekly games with, and through that we've sparked the interest of at least two newcomers and had a few people walk up to us with "oh cool, I've been trying to find other Armada players around here".

There is still a healthy community of players in the UK. We had 72 players at Euros, and that was oversubscribed, when even X-wing had spare tickets!

@crabbok - I am in Orlando in the last two weeks of August. Would be great to join a tournament / game night. I would have to borrow some stuff as I will be travelling without my plastic space ships!

Same in mid Sweden, had a small tourney without Store support so no FFG Loot and still showed 10 people with alot I know of close didnt show up. Looking forward to Nordics in Stockholm this autumm

Yeah, here in we have ne players showing up occasionally and I expect their numbers to increase.

Armada's doing great in our area. I think there are 7 various store championships leading up to Nova, and then also regular monthly tournaments!

I wouldn't mind more ships to spend money on, though.

We've had two more people recently join our scene here in central Illinois. With their addition, we typically have two games going on our casual play night and often a third. Our store championship is full between regulars, occasional players, and out of towners. We just need a new wave announcement to keep the momentum going.

Last week I met an older teen that was just starting out, we played a game and he will enter our local league, bolstering numbers further up and maybe some of his friends will join too. Local tournaments are always rushed by more players than fit.
So we are doing good I think. Thinking about buying more surplus ships.

7 hours ago, Thalomen said:

What was the location of the tournament? I live about 40 minutes west. Trying to get some players going here, but a field trip to Orlando would be nice.

Coolstuff Waterford.

Check out the facebook group - Orlando Armada, X-Wing, and Imperial Assault. We have another tournament at the end of the month.

We actually did have a Sloane list that I faced in the second round. I really liked the two round format. Six hours is just so much easier to carve out than an entire day.

We had a nice turnout in Fairfield, CA yesterday for a store championship. I think it was around 15 or so. It was nice to play opponents you don't see very often.

14 hours ago, Crabbok said:

How many of you have noticed this trend? is it just us here?

Sadly, it's the exact opposite trend here in the OH-MI area. There are still a few enthusiastic stalwarts, but general attendance and interest for events has sadly plummeted compared to two years ago. One flagship store which used to have about a dozen players for their monthly Armada Saturday events is now lucky to have two to three people show up, resulting in many of the Saturday events being canceled due to insufficient turnout (which then just further discourages those players from driving all the way back out next month).

So, savor and cherish your growing and active local scene. Like all gaming, local communities are always contextual and contingent (which is why the "Friendly Local (Board)Game Store (FLGS)" has never had a National chain (whereas pretty much every other business has been largely supplanted by national chains across the US). Hobby gaming is always so localized that it's not possible to build a universal business model that can be applied to multiple regions, because while one store might have a thriving Warmahordes scene, another may have a forty-two person Blood Bowl League going into their fifth season of play. And there is really no way to predict what the individuals of the local community will jump into and sustain and what they won't.

We had 12 at our store champ in CT on Saturday. There were only 10 people at the New England Regionals last year, so that was quite an awesome turnout!

I’m hoping a good push will keep that number up. Things seem to have died a bit right after flotilla spam became the thing.

8 hours ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

Sadly, it's the exact opposite trend here in the OH-MI area. There are still a few enthusiastic stalwarts, but general attendance and interest for events has sadly plummeted compared to two years ago. One flagship store which used to have about a dozen players for their monthly Armada Saturday events is now lucky to have two to three people show up, resulting in many of the Saturday events being canceled due to insufficient turnout (which then just further discourages those players from driving all the way back out next month).

So, savor and cherish your growing and active local scene. Like all gaming, local communities are always contextual and contingent (which is why the "Friendly Local (Board)Game Store (FLGS)" has never had a National chain (whereas pretty much every other business has been largely supplanted by national chains across the US). Hobby gaming is always so localized that it's not possible to build a universal business model that can be applied to multiple regions, because while one store might have a thriving Warmahordes scene, another may have a forty-two person Blood Bowl League going into their fifth season of play. And there is really no way to predict what the individuals of the local community will jump into and sustain and what they won't.

We've experienced a ton of growth this year in the Columbus, Ohio area. We've had someone new show up at the Guardtower almost every week for months(not everyone continues or is consistent). There are at least 4 games of Armada being played concurrently every Monday night with a lot of folks eager to see and teach new players. We actually have more consistent players than ever for Armada.

I think a few of our people are planning on going out to a lot of the store championship around Ohio. Maybe they can help spread some of the good vibes Cbus has experienced!

Just the diehards left in our area, the FAQ kindled a bit of interest but the lack of news for Armada/piles of news for Legion destroyed any real momentum before it started.

2 hours ago, beefcake4000 said:

Just the diehards left in our area, the FAQ kindled a bit of interest but the lack of news for Armada/piles of news for Legion destroyed any real momentum before it started.

That tends to be the case in a lot of places but interest in the usually ebbs and flows. Sometimes all it takes to boost interest is getting one new person onboard to start a domino effect of reinvigorated older players. Everyone would like more news though. That would definitely help alot.

Just now, Megatronrex said:

That tends to be the case in a lot of places but interest in the game usually ebbs and flows. Sometimes all it takes to boost interest is getting one new person onboard to start a domino effect of reinvigorated older players. Everyone would like more news though. That would definitely help a lot.