I haven't seen this proposed so I'll throw it out. Seems like X-wing is making is easier for newer/younger ones to enter the game by the quick Build party game, just find pre-set ship builds you like and build up to a certain threat level. With all the many upgrades and combos in armada plus the many interactions they have between ships I wonder if this quick build format might be a welcome thing to make Armada more attractive to jump into? Indeed I sometimes get overwhelmed with the multiple number of factors I have to consider to make a good list. We already have ships that tend to build a certain way(trc90s, yavaris, demo) so ffg or us could simply make a threat cost based on these popular builds and how much an impact they make on the game.

Like the X-wing quick builds, armada quick builds could also not follow the 400points nor the upgrade slots for that ships, instead leaning toward more thematic or fun ways to fly that ship

Here a little possible sample of ideas for quick builds(using abbreviations here so not too wordy):

CR90A: TRC: Threat-

CR90B: SW7: RBD: ET: Threat--

Nebulon-B Support Refit: Yavaris: FC: Threat---

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate: QBT: EWS: Boosted Comms: Threat--

Pelta assault: ER, IF: Threat- (also increase all your other ship threat levels by 1)

Gladiator I: Demo: OE: APT: Threat----

VSDI: Spinals: OE: ET: Threat---

Cymoon: Slaved: QTC: IF: Threat----- (also increase all your other ship threat levels by 1)

Thoughts?

Boosted Comms on a what now?

Cymoon : Thrawn: Chimaera: shields to maximum : intensify firepower Threat:- - - - - - - -

2 hours ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Boosted Comms on a what now?

On a non- yavaris neb

Quick build will allow builds that are specific as well as able to break the upgrade slots mold of the ship chassis

I think this is a very interesting idea.

It could be a way to invigorate Armada - and also make it more accessible.

It opens the way for new combos never seen before - and it can take away some of the obviously useful ones (so you might NOT want to feature the classic TRC90, or at least give it a higher threat rating).

The only drawback is that, as always, these kinds of alternate formats are slow to catch on. Around here Quick Build X-wing is not a big thing. It's not out altogether, but I'm betting 95% is just normal 200 vs 200. That said, we do have a W2 Quick Build tourney coming up, and I do thing we had one for W1 as well. I can't play that one, but if I could I would, bc it looks fun and casual and competitive at the same time.

Anyway, this is what X-wing says:

"This mode of play offers players a way to create a squad quickly using predefined selections. Each ship comes with Quick Build cards that list different options for that ship. Each option consists of a ship card, a number of upgrade cards, and a threat level (a number of bars 1–5). This threat level represents the approximate strength of that particular combination of pilot and upgrade cards."

It's pretty simple, no?

X-wing suggest "8 threat" as good for a standard game, so let's say that's the case for Armada as well. Vader with lots of upgrades is 4 of 8, so about 50% of a list. So that means 200 points in Armada, or around 50 fleet points per threat (a more granular approach would be 25 to 1-10 threat, but I think that's too complicated).

But this has to be a flexible figure: A Support Neb with Redundant Shields and High-Cap Ion turbines isn't necessarily the greatest use of said 50 points!

Squadrons are easily handled: 3 A-wings and Tycho is 1 Threat. Howl and 5 TIE is 1 Threat. Etc.

The hard work would be making some quick builds to being with... it need not be exhaustive, but a number of builds have to be made.

Some comparative examples:

TRC90 - 1

Crambo - 1

Demo with a bunch of upgrades - 2

ISD with bunch o upgrades - 3

ISD-2 flagship with Thrawn and Chimaer and a ton of upgrades - 4

Lightly built SSD - 5

Heavy SSD build - 6 (Ok so Armada has max 6 threat)

Epic SSD - Can't be used

Food for thought: Admirals either come glued to a specific flagship - or maybe they need not be used at all?

1 hour ago, Green Knight said:

Food for thought: Admirals either come glued to a specific flagship - or maybe they need not be used at all?

I would suggest separate threat values for admirals. Higher threat admiral means less threat amongst the ships and vice versa. They can, of course, be placed on any ship.

7 hours ago, Green Knight said:

Food for thought: Admirals either come glued to a specific flagship - or maybe they need not be used at all?

Perhaps you'd have to pick something off a "Flagship" list where you get your Admiral and then you'd fill it out with things off "ship" and "squadrons" lists.

I think you could perhaps instead of making squadrons separate include them with the ships. You could that way change the threat level on a Yavaris or Quasar by what squadrons came with it.

I think you'd want to make it such that you limit squadrons or at least limit more fiddly squadron combinations so it isn't just quick-build but quick play.

Part of the idea with Quick Builds in X-wing is to create squads within limited collections. Most quick-builds are created from upgrades in the core set and the expansion the ship come from. Although I don't think that would necessarily be a consideration for the audience for this.

They need to couple the quick build idea with single faction starter boxes. Enough ships/fighters and prebuilds to put out a decent 400 point list. The box comes with two or three prebuilds for your ships/list.

I really like this idea, something to break up list building. Could be good even to try make "canon" ship's and squadrons, so maybe red squadron gives Luke and wedge at a certain threat, Hera and two a wings as phoenix squadron or Ackbar and lando on the home one similar to endor. Could also be good as a random draw setup giving you and your opponent a random yet somewhat thematic fleet to play against

Just to illustrate some of the things that could be done with Quick Build:

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: Yes
Threat: 3

Pelta Command Ship (60)
• Commander Sato (32)
• Flight Commander (3)
• Fighter Coordination Team (3)
• Rapid Launch Bays (6)
• Phoenix Home (3)
• Wing Commander (6)
= 113 Points

Squadrons:
• A-wing Squadron (11)
• B-wing Squadron (14)
• VCX-100 Freighter (15)
= 40 Points

Total Points: 153

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: No
Threat: 2

Quasar Fire II (61)
• Cham Syndulla (5)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Rapid Launch Bays (6)
• Pursuant (2)
= 80 Points

Squadrons:
• Hera Syndulla (28)
= 28 Points

Total Points: 108

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: No
Threat: 1

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 51 Points

Total Points: 51

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: No
Threat: 1

GR-75 Combat Retrofits (24)
• Quad Laser Turrets (5)
• High-Capacity Ion Turbines (8)
= 37 Points

GR-75 Combat Retrofits (24)
• Quad Laser Turrets (5)
• High-Capacity Ion Turbines (8)
= 37 Points

Total Points: 74

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: No
Threat: 1

Squadrons:
• A-wing Squadron (11)
• B-wing Squadron (14)
• X-wing Squadron (13)
• Y-wing Squadron (10)
= 48 Points

Total Points: 48

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: No
Threat: 1

Squadrons:
• Biggs Darklighter (19)
• 2 x X-wing Squadron (26)
= 42 Points

Total Points: 45

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: No
Threat: 1

Squadrons:
• Gold Squadron (12)
• Norra Wexley (17)
• X-wing Squadron (13)
= 42 Points

Total Points: 42

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: No
Threat: 1

Squadrons:
• Ten Numb (19)
• 2 x Y-wing Squadron (20)
= 39 Points

Total Points: 39

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: No
Threat: 1

Squadrons:
• A-wing Squadron (11)
• Ketsu Onyo (22)
• VCX-100 (15)
= 49 Points

Total Points: 48

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: No
Threat: 1

Squadrons:
• Han Solo (26)
• Luke Skywalker (20)
= 46 Points

Total Points: 46

And let's pretend the Home One is really beefy, almost SSD level

---

Faction: Rebel
Command: Yes
Threat: 5

MC80 Command Cruiser (106)
• Admiral Ackbar (38)
• Damage Control Officer (5)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Hardened Bulkheads (5)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Redundant Shields (8)
• Redundant Shields (8)
• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Enhanced Armament (10)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• All fighters, Follow Me! (5)
• Shields to Maximum! (6)
• Home One (7)
= 248 Points

Total Points: 248

This is actually the system I'm building for a homebrew campaign. Everyone uses prebuilt ships and prebuilt fighter groups, and it's simply a matter of picking the ones you want off a big list of choices. A few rules apply:

1. I rebalance as needed, and most are intentionally not tournament-style loadouts. Costs may correct some mistakes in FFG's pricing.

2. For fun, some impossible examples are included. Rebel Quasar, one single Victory with Engine Techs, etc.

3. When a ship is destroyed, its future cost is incremented upwards by about 5-10%, so that it will become harder to keep using the same ships over and over, especially if they're targeted for destruction.

4. Each side starts with only a few basic choices (Rebels with some small corvettes and Imps with Vics and patrol ships like the Arq or Neb). By progressing through the campaign, your team can "unlock" more of the "tech tree."

17 minutes ago, Nostromoid said:

This is actually the system I'm building for a homebrew campaign. Everyone uses prebuilt ships and prebuilt fighter groups, and it's simply a matter of picking the ones you want off a big list of choices. A few rules apply:

1. I rebalance as needed, and most are intentionally not tournament-style loadouts. Costs may correct some mistakes in FFG's pricing.

2. For fun, some impossible examples are included. Rebel Quasar, one single Victory with Engine Techs, etc.

3. When a ship is destroyed, its future cost is incremented upwards by about 5-10%, so that it will become harder to keep using the same ships over and over, especially if they're targeted for destruction.

4. Each side starts with only a few basic choices (Rebels with some small corvettes and Imps with Vics and patrol ships like the Arq or Neb). By progressing through the campaign, your team can "unlock" more of the "tech tree."

This sounds interesting. If your willing to share I'd love to take a play with it.

5 hours ago, Geordie27 said:

I really like this idea, something to break up list building. Could be good even to try make "canon" ship's and squadrons, so maybe red squadron gives Luke and wedge at a certain threat, Hera and two a wings as phoenix squadron or Ackbar and lando on the home one similar to endor. Could also be good as a random draw setup giving you and your opponent a random yet somewhat thematic fleet to play against

Would you be better off creating a full blown scenario ignoring some build restrictions either for theme or balance reasons?

29 minutes ago, sabsben said:

This sounds interesting. If your willing to share I'd love to take a play with it.

I'd be happy to, but right now it's not even at that prototype level (other projects involving Armada and more, stay tuned). I'm throwing together the list of ships, so I'm happy to take requests if anyone has ship platforms they'd like to see.

1. Classic ship loadouts: the Yavaris Neb, the

2. Thematic ship loadouts: the stock-standard ISD2 as you think the Empire would roll them off the shipyards, the plucky little Nebulon-B medical frigate, etc.

3. Rule-breaker loadouts: What if a flotilla had ExRacks? What if Hammerheads had a new generic title? What if Imperials fielded Nebulons in the early stages of the campaign? What if a Raider had Slicer Teams?

I'm also working on squadrons. While it's fun to design small groups of fighters (three A-Wings is Phoenix Squadron!), it isn't as clear when such a group has been "destroyed" for the purposes of stepping up its price for future battles. Only if all squadrons are eliminated during a game? Only if half or more of its squadrons are eliminated?

6 hours ago, Frimmel said:

Would you be better off creating a full blown scenario ignoring some build restrictions either for theme or balance reasons?

Honestly that's probably a better option, although the quick build cards could be fun as well. Either way I've always kind of wanted more narrative options to armada. Reenact the battle of Endor or Scarif, or have scenarios set up of hypothetical battles with their own story happening similar to the lord of the rings battle games narrative scenarios

I think this is a great idea and a good way to ease into upgrades for newer players that might not know what combos are good or bad.