Hello all

very New to Armada. Friend and I recently split the cost of core set. He gone Imperial and i gone Rebels. we done a few games and fairly familiar with rules. A few minor unknowns on how certain abilities are applied, but planning on eventually arranging game(s) with experienced players down at Dice saloon (Brighton, UK).

we are soon to start trying games with upgrade cards, but for time being have good overview of how they work (youtube videos + ryan Kingston fleet builder).

we are about to buy our first new ships (i gonna get profundity + we go halves on Rouges & Villains, not sure what ship he gonna buy). with the upgrade cards that will come with new ships, it has become apparent that we need to start thinking about how to divide upgrade cards from core set.

The first obvious bit is to distribute faction-specific cards accordingly. with the rest, all iv heard suggested is to look at whats ships me and friend plan on buying, and what ever cards included in them, give said core-set card to other player. I did some research, but it still leaves a ? on a lot of cards that not included with other ships we plan to buy.

I guess for now, we could use randomly divided upgrade cards (from core set only, put aside cards from newly purchased ships) for a few games and see which seem more useful to each player. but its tricky because we new to game and difficult to estimate which cards might be useful for future fleet-builds .

If i may ask, could you chaps make some suggestions on which cards would likely be of better use to which faction?

(or any other suggestion on how to go about dividing them?)

List of cards (non faction-specific):

-Engineering Team

-H9 TurboLasers

-Expanded Hangar Bay

-Electronic Counter Measures

-Defense Liaison

-weapons Liaison

-Nav Team

-Gunnery Team

-Enhanced Armament

-Overload Pulse

-Assault Concussion Missiles

Many thanks everyone, very happy to become part of this lovely community.

1 hour ago, pond weed said:

Hello all

very New to Armada. Friend and I recently split the cost of core set. He gone Imperial and i gone Rebels. we done a few games and fairly familiar with rules. A few minor unknowns on how certain abilities are applied, but planning on eventually arranging game(s) with experienced players down at Dice saloon (Brighton, UK).

we are soon to start trying games with upgrade cards, but for time being have good overview of how they work (youtube videos + ryan Kingston fleet builder).

we are about to buy our first new ships (i gonna get profundity + we go halves on Rouges & Villains, not sure what ship he gonna buy). with the upgrade cards that will come with new ships, it has become apparent that we need to start thinking about how to divide upgrade cards from core set.

The first obvious bit is to distribute faction-specific cards accordingly. with the rest, all iv heard suggested is to look at whats ships me and friend plan on buying, and what ever cards included in them, give said core-set card to other player. I did some research, but it still leaves a ? on a lot of cards that not included with other ships we plan to buy.

I guess for now, we could use randomly divided upgrade cards (from core set only, put aside cards from newly purchased ships) for a few games and see which seem more useful to each player. but its tricky because we new to game and difficult to estimate which cards might be useful for future fleet-builds .

If i may ask, could you chaps make some suggestions on which cards would likely be of better use to which faction?

(or any other suggestion on how to go about dividing them?)

List of cards (non faction-specific):

-Engineering Team

-H9 TurboLasers

-Expanded Hangar Bay

-Electronic Counter Measures

-Defense Liaison

-weapons Liaison

-Nav Team

-Gunnery Team

-Enhanced Armament

-Overload Pulse

-Assault Concussion Missiles

Many thanks everyone, very happy to become part of this lovely community.

Me and my friend bought a core set each, then split up the ships. We didn't want to get into an argument about non-faction specific cards, plus we wanted our own movement tools, dice, etc.

That's my advice honestly, to get another core set so neither of you are missing stuff.

19 minutes ago, Piratical Moustache said:

Me and my friend bought a core set each, then split up the ships. We didn't want to get into an argument about non-faction specific cards, plus we wanted our own movement tools, dice, etc.

That's my advice honestly, to get another core set so neither of you are missing stuff.

In the long run, this is the best way to do it. Each player needs the objective cards, damage deck, and obstacles found only in the core set, so it is inevitable.

8 minutes ago, Piratical Moustache said:

Me and my friend bought a core set each, then split up the ships. We didn't want to get into an argument about non-faction specific cards, plus we wanted our own movement tools, dice, etc.

That's my advice honestly, to get another core set so neither of you are missing stuff.

Thats honestly the best bet, especially if you can get it on sale. You'll want more movement tools, dice, damage decks, etc anyways. Plus it gives you enough ships to really start doing something.

The down side is that very quickly those ships will be worthless. lol

You'll still want at least 1 of every expansion, so the rebel player will have 3 Nebs and 3 corvettes. You seldom see more than 1 neb in play, never 3. The corvettes are ok though and can be used to swarm. The Vic has the same issue. 1 is good, 2 might occasionally be useful, but 3 is pretty much overkill.

If the two of you will be playing a lot together and not worried about getting into hardcore tournaments right away, you may want to agree to move forward wave by wave. Like you both buy wave 1 stuff at the same time, wave 2 at the same time, etc. This allows you to slowly incorporate and learn how to use new pieces along with new upgrades. If you cherry pick stuff you want you may end up missing upgrades or units that work well with one another.

Maybe a draft. Shuffle the cards in two stacks. Each one of you gets a stack and picks one card. Then you swap stacks and repeat till there a no more cards. The cards that you picked are the ones you get to keep.

The real answer is:

• For now, it doesn't matter at all. Share the upgrade cards from the core set.
• Later, if you venture out into the wider world of Armada, you'll each want the stuff like objectives, dice, maneuver tools, measuring tools, damage decks, and obstacle markers. This is only important if you go to a formal event like a tournament, and even then only at fancy stuff like regionals. Of course, the core set only gives you one set of each of these components.

For now, don't limit yourself to what you personally have a copy of, or even to what either of you have a copy of. Use fleet builder sites to make fun lists, and "proxy" (aka, pretend) the upgrades you don't have. There's no need for the cards themselves to be on the table all the time if you have the text of what they do on hand, and all of that is available online anyway.

ok thanks for replies. makes sense what you say about getting 2 core sets.

2 main reasons we split one core set.

we both very financially constrained these days.

and also we the only 2 people who play in our area (i mentioned Brighton, closest armada peeps, but still quite a distance away).

we really keen to get more ships (game aside, we love the models as they are) and for the moment we would rather spend money on new stuff for a bit of diversity. cause we only 2 players in area we okay with 'being joined at the hip'.... at least for a little while.

I feel a bit snooty ignoring all your advice, Im grateful for the suggestion, but it seems getting duplicates of everything feels a bit off when we dont mind sharing everything except upgrade cards.

probably gonna end up doing what Lordcola and Nostromoid said, random pick + proxy. go from there.

so the other night 2 of our friends peaked interest at our gleeful excitement over this new armda game we got. they seemed interested in joining in a game with commanding the odd ship or squadron etc (not much but just for the sake of involvement & for them to see what game all about. As i was getting it all out, one guy started making funny twisted faces and proceeded to get a headache at the amount of tokens and "fiddly ruler bits" appearing on the table. the other guy spent the whole evening on his phone playing 'Go'. Lol. i think he prefered when we played 'Risk'.

so yea just us two for now

the buying in waves seems tempting. nice way to slowly expand, but i gotta admit i really dont like the look of that space potato (mk2 frigate).

Greetings from Pompey!

If you're not up for buying two core sets then I suggest dividing the upgrades on the basis of which cards you're likely to acquire later, depending on faction and usability. Faction-specific cards (admirals, titles, some officers) should of course go to that faction.

Suggestions are as follows:

• ECM

- Rebel

(comes in CR-90 and Assault Frigate packs)

[Cannot be used by the Imperial player with their starting ships, suggest the Rebel player passes the spare to the Imperial player once they have a spare after buying a CR-90 or Assault Frigate pack]

• Overload Pulse

- Rebel

(comes in Victory-class Star Destroyer pack)

• Expanded Hangar Bay*

- Imperial

(comes in Victory-class Star Destroyer pack)

[Cannot be used by the Rebel player with their starting ships, suggest the Imperial player passes one to the Rebel player once they have a spare after buying a Victory-class Star Destroyer pack]

• Defense Liaison

- Imperial

(comes in Victory-class Star Destroyer and Nebulon-B packs)

[Rebel player is more likely to get a Neb-B sooner than Imp player gets another Victory, suggest Imperial player hand over spare if this is not the case]

• Weapons Liaison

- Rebel

(comes in Gladiator-class Star Destroyer and Assault Frigate packs)

[Suggest if the Rebel player gets a duplicate after buying an Assault Frigate first they pass it to the Imperial player]

• Assault Concussion Missiles

- Imperial

(comes in Gladiator-class Star Destroyer and Victory-class Star Destroyer sets)

[Cannot be used by the Rebel player with their starting ships, suggest the Imperial player passes one to the Rebel player once they have a spare after buying a Gladiator or another Victory]

• Engineering Team

- Rebel

(Comes in Nebulon-B, Interdictor and Imperial Light Cruiser packs)

[Cannot be used by the Imperial player with their starting ships, suggest the Rebel player passes the spare to the Imperial player if they get a Nebulon-B pack first]

• Nav Team

- Rebel

(Comes in Gladiator-class Star Destroyer and CR-90 packs)

[Cannot be used by the Imperial player with their starting ships, suggest the Rebel player passes the spare to the Imperial player if they get a CR-90 pack first]

• Enhanced armament

- Imperial

(comes in Nebulon-B and Assault Frigate packs)

• H9 Turbolasers

- Imperial

(comes in CR-90 and Assault Frigate packs)

• Gunnery Team

- Imperial

(comes in Victory-class Star Destroyer and Assault Frigate packs)

[Cannot be used by the Rebel player with their starting ships, suggest the Imperial player passes the spare to the Rebel player if they buy a Victory first]

* Also available as an alt-art

All cards and the packs they come in can be found on the Armada Wiki , a really useful resource for planning future purchases!

Intriguing, there may be an armada scene at Dice Saloon. I'd come down for tourneys as I have friends in the area....

@pond weed

I recommend the Assault Frigate mk2 and Gladiator expansion since they have repeats of most of the core box upgrades.

Both are roughly 30 usd on Amazon.

Hey I did a similar thing when starting, me and a friend split bought me rebels him imps. the way we managed it was we just pooled all non-specifics and used what we needed. if we were both wanting to use a specific card then whoever bought the pack it came in had first dibs. however for casual play you don't need to have cards, you can just use fleet builder. and for tournaments I'm sure there'd be a facebook group for your local scene, just post what you need and someone should be able to lend you stuff

ah neat thanks headgehog. that a helpful list.

@Ginkapo yea from what i gather there a small Armada community at Dice saloon, small but definately a few. there is a dedicated 'Armada at Dice Saloon' facebook group/page.