So, in the rule book it says:

If you look at the entry right above "Choose Objective" it helps explain it.

First, you determine initiative. Compare fleet costs. The player with the lowest fleet cost gets to choose if they want to be first player or second player. Once that is decided, move on to the "Choose Objective" portion. Whichever player was chosen to be first player now has to pick from the second player's objective set.

So the first player will always pick the objective, but the person with initiative isn't always first player.

12 minutes ago, Astrodar said:

If you look at the entry right above "Choose Objective" it helps explain it.

First, you determine initiative. Compare fleet costs. The player with the lowest fleet cost gets to choose if they want to be first player or second player. Once that is decided, move on to the "Choose Objective" portion. Whichever player was chosen to be first player now has to pick from the second player's objective set.

So the first player will always pick the objective, but the person with initiative isn't always first player.

Thanks. Not sure how I got confused with that. 1st player picks objective card from 2nd player.

It's a one of the things that makes this game complex on so many levels.

Going first is an advantage. Counter this with objectives that provide your fleet an advantage (and most objectives benefit 2nd player more)

14 hours ago, drail14me said:

Thanks. Not sure how I got confused with that. 1st player picks objective card from 2nd player.

Yup, this is why all the objectives provide a bigger innate benefit to the 2nd Player. It's meant to be a compensation for the fact that the 1st Player has the "advantage" of activating the first ship each round.

That said, some objectives offer a much greater advantage to the 2nd Player than others, and these tend to the ones that are incredibly popular choices when fleet-building.


While choosing objectives is a hugely important part of fleet-construction and the value of an objective is dependent on the contents of one's own fleet, the very popular objectives to include in your fleet tend to include: Most Wanted, Advanced Gunnery, Contested Outpost, Fire Lanes, Fighter Ambush, Sensor Net, Superior Positions, and Solar Corona. It's actually pretty rare to run into a fleet is using an objective that is not on this list, since the benefit offered the 2nd Player over the 1st Player on these objectives is extreme (versus other objective choices).

32 minutes ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

Yup, this is why all the objectives provide a bigger innate benefit to the 2nd Player. It's meant to be a compensation for the fact that the 1st Player has the "advantage" of activating the first ship each round.

That said, some objectives offer a much greater advantage to the 2nd Player than others, and these tend to the ones that are incredibly popular choices when fleet-building.


While choosing objectives is a hugely important part of fleet-construction and the value of an objective is dependent on the contents of one's own fleet, the very popular objectives to include in your fleet tend to include: Most Wanted, Advanced Gunnery, Contested Outpost, Fire Lanes, Fighter Ambush, Sensor Net, Superior Positions, and Solar Corona. It's actually pretty rare to run into a fleet is using an objective that is not on this list, since the benefit offered the 2nd Player over the 1st Player on these objectives is extreme (versus other objective choices).

I’m quickly seeing that this game is a lot more in depth than X-Wing.

So, when fleet building, if you’re building with the intent of getting the bid and being First Player then your choice of Objective Cards are really moot unless you’re outbid?

9 minutes ago, drail14me said:

I’m quickly seeing that this game is a lot more in depth than X-Wing.

So, when fleet building, if you’re building with the intent of getting the bid and being First Player then your choice of Objective Cards are really moot unless you’re outbid?

Exactly right. 1st Player's objective cards have no impact on the game, so you'll basically be choosing them only for that "worst case scenario" should you be outbid.*


*Note : Regarding "big bids" in Armada, it's not uncommon to see lists that want to be First or Second player bidding 15-20 points, and even bigger bids than that can be found without too much effort. While not all lists care equally about controlling 1st/2nd, those that do are willing to really pay for it, since it's value cannot be understated.

18 hours ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

*Note : Regarding "big bids" in Armada, it's not uncommon to see lists that want to be First or Second player bidding 15-20 points, and even bigger bids than that can be found without too much effort. While not all lists care equally about controlling 1st/2nd, those that do are willing to really pay for it, since it's value cannot be understated.

This is correct, I have seen as big as 23-25 point bids. Mostly in big tournaments, casual games tend to bid lower unless someone is testing out a list for a tournament.

I will add though that you always have to take care choosing your objectives. You may think your 20 point bid for first is plenty and you will run into someone with a 21 point bid and you end up as second player. Always think through your objectives, how they benefit you, how your opponent will treat them etc.

On the flip side I was at regionals last year and I won the bid BUT I was going up against an obvious "Fish Farm" list which I knew was not favorable to me so I chose 2nd. In the end I still lost but that was due to strategic errors on my part. I would have fallen hard to his objectives. So that is another consideration, be able to make educated guesses as to your opponents objectives. If they have Strategic in their list then you can count on token heavy objectives. If they have an ISD without Gunnery Team or an MC80 H1 Advanced Gunnery is a pretty safe bet for their Red Objective.

I really like objective play which is one reason I think I don't like X-Wing all that much. Legion is another Objective based game but they need to double the number of objectives to really make it a focal point of list building and game play. I wish Armada had a few more too.

8 minutes ago, Thrindal said:

This is correct, I have seen as big as 23-25 point bids. Mostly in big tournaments, casual games tend to bid lower unless someone is testing out a list for a tournament.

I will add though that you always have to take care choosing your objectives. You may think your 20 point bid for first is plenty and you will run into someone with a 21 point bid and you end up as second player. Always think through your objectives, how they benefit you, how your opponent will treat them etc.

On the flip side I was at regionals last year and I won the bid BUT I was going up against an obvious "Fish Farm" list which I knew was not favorable to me so I chose 2nd. In the end I still lost but that was due to strategic errors on my part. I would have fallen hard to his objectives. So that is another consideration, be able to make educated guesses as to your opponents objectives. If they have Strategic in their list then you can count on token heavy objectives. If they have an ISD without Gunnery Team or an MC80 H1 Advanced Gunnery is a pretty safe bet for their Red Objective.

I really like objective play which is one reason I think I don't like X-Wing all that much. Legion is another Objective based game but they need to double the number of objectives to really make it a focal point of list building and game play. I wish Armada had a few more too.

What’s a “fish farm”?

1 hour ago, drail14me said:

What’s a “fish farm”?

It usually consists of lots of Strategic then Fire Lanes and Sensor Net for Objectives. Second player just keeps hurding tokens and collecting objective points. It isn't unheard of to be able to "farm" 20+ Victory tokens with the right list. The Red Objective is usually something equally nasty like Advanced Gunnery or Most Wanted.

The main Fish Farm lists were neutered a little by the changes to Relay and the 2 Flotilla Limit but they can still be strong.

27 minutes ago, drail14me said:

What’s a “fish farm”?

Thrindal's right in his above statement, but to give a little background on why it is called that.

Often this term was used in conjunction with Admiral Ackbar as the commander for the fleet (colloquially known around here as "fish" for his Mon Calamari heritage). As Thrindal indicated above, one of the main features of the list was its ability to farm objective tokens to run up victory points. Thus, "fish farm". This fleet traditionally wanted to be second player so that it could derive the benefits of this strategy from its own objectives, but part of its power was its ability to deal significant damage to opponents who tried to contest its objective control.

When playing against such a fleet, one strategy is to choose to play as second player, thus denying the "fish farm" fleet the use of its own objectives. But this usually is a problem, since few fleets are optimized to take advantage of objective tokens quite like "fish farm", so being first player with a "fish farm" fleet could still work out ok for the "fish farm" fleet.

Man for a second there I had hoped everyone was doing it wrong and second player got to pick the objective... What a world that would have been to live in..

22 hours ago, drail14me said:

I’m quickly seeing that this game is a lot more in depth than X-Wing.

Considering the importance of overall match-length strategy called for in Armada, and that 1st/2nd selection, objectives, and ship placement during deployment make SUCH a huge difference in the game...

...it's certainly fair to say most games of Armada are won or lost before the first dial is set, and the question the game is trying to decide is the degree of the win or loss.

(FWIW, that's another thing Armada differs considerably in vs X-Wing. In X-Wing, wins or losses are more or less absolute, and the amount of the win or loss only settling ties...a win by 1 pt in most cases exactly as good as a win by 100. Armada is the exact opposite - tournament games are scored as 11 pts - so a total win is 10 to 1, more common big wins are 9 to 2 or 8 to 3, slight win is 6 to 5, etc. As a result, even in a game you've "lost", it's critically important to keep your head and deny the enemy as much of a gap in points as possible.)