Just curious which everyone likes more and what makes armada fun?(I never have played armada)

my local gamestore is just getting into legio and seem to like it, but seem to LOVE armada. For my taste in Star Wars, I tend to like the characters and the force more than the spaceships, but maybe legion will grow on them more, but maybe also armada is a well made game too

which do you’ll prefer and why?(to people that have played both)

And I’m aware, everyone just has their own taste. If you asked 10 people anything, you would probably get 6-7 one way, and 3-4 the other

Armada and Legion are both well-designed, incredibly fun games. The only reason why X-wing is so much more popular than them is that it's shorter, simpler, and generally cheaper (and easier) to get started.

You realize this is the Legion forum, not the Armada forum?

just saying you may be asking a bias' crew.

I love Armada, and I do believe it's the best balanced of all of FFG's Star Wars games. That said it is in desperate need of a card pack. So many upgrades are locked to a single ship, and stock of what is available can be bad. It's also much slower of a game, which can be a turn off to some.

10 minutes ago, thepopemobile100 said:

I love Armada, and I do believe it's the best balanced of all of FFG's Star Wars games. That said it is in desperate need of a card pack. So many upgrades are locked to a single ship, and stock of what is available can be bad. It's also much slower of a game, which can be a turn off to some.

100% agree with this

I tried armada and there's a few things about it that I didn't like. The fighter squadrons being almost totally dependent on capital ship support always seemd very un star wars to me. And the shooting before moving drove me crazy, it's backwards from every other wargame I've ever played. If they changed it to each ship having two actions and choosing to shoot then move or move than shoot I'd be willing to give it another try. As it currently stands I much prefer legion, followed by X-wing.

3 hours ago, buckero0 said:

You realize this is the Legion forum, not the Armada forum?

just saying you may be asking a bias' crew.

Good point lol, but still appreciate any answers and opinions. There is a small chance I might get into armada too at some point, so looking for some feedback and differences. But I’m 98% sure legion will be my #1 for years to come

I love both armada and legion but armada is the superior game but it’s very hard to find all of the expansions you would need unless you’re willing to pay scalper prices. Of course legion has its own supply issues as well but not nearly as bad as armada.

I was obsessed with Armada for a good couple of years, but gradually moved on to imperial assault and now dipping my toe (well, 2 clone cores and many expansions later maybe more of a plunge) into legion. It's a great game, still like to put it on the table now and then, but set-up and break down is a bit of a killer on that one

2 minutes ago, 54NCH32 said:

. It's a great game, still like to put it on the table now and then, but set-up and break down is a bit of a killer on that one

This for me. I want to like the game, but it goes sooo slow while you're playing and like most FFG games, the setup and Card and Fiddly-widgets and tokens required is a drag.

I have the cards for Legion but unless it's a specific character or exhaust card or something, I usually play like I'm doing an old warhammer game and just play without looking at the cards. Most of them now don't even print the full rules on the card, so the card is nearly useless.

Armada always seemed to get in its own way, there were some fun mechanics but I feel there are other star wars games that were more fun for me and easier to get a game of.

Armada is cooler in my opinion but so much more niche.

I play both and love both but I seem like hobby side legion more. My only complaint with both games is the time which it take to play a game as for shorter versions the legion scrimmage plays nicer then the 200 point armada but full game armada is a more fine tuned game. But lack product drive me to legion now I am in able get new stuff for this game so I make game table to kill my time.

I like that Armada is a bit more strategic than xwing (which is more tactical). I also think the campaign system for it is great. Playing the corellian conflict was/is my favorite FFG game. My only complaint is the amount of cards/tokens to keep track of.

Legion is significantly easier to get into than Armada. Also the option of 4 different factions instead of just 2 makes Legion a bit more versatile with lots of different choices for what your army will be like. And like a few people have already said armada has significantly more cards and upgrades and these are so hard to keep track of sometimes. Armada is also a much slower game since basically none of the ships can just speed across the board and make a surprise strike of some kind unlike Legion where one strategic activation can often completely change the course of the game. From my Armada play experience all of the games are pretty predictable as soon as placement is over. The ships move towards each other, shoot each other, and you hope you roll better than your opponent. Legion on the other hand is more unpredictable as to how the game will go. With the option of choosing your two actions in Legion instead of having to just shoot and then move, this forces you to have more strategy when playing Legion.

I see more Armada stock at stores than Legion but rarely anyone playing.

On 3/5/2020 at 9:13 AM, jrheel123 said:

Just curious which everyone likes more and what makes armada fun?(I never have played armada)

my local gamestore is just getting into legio and seem to like it, but seem to LOVE armada. For my taste in Star Wars, I tend to like the characters and the force more than the spaceships, but maybe legion will grow on them more, but maybe also armada is a well made game too

which do you’ll prefer and why?(to people that have played both)

I tend to enjoy Armada quite a bit more then Legion. But both are great games.

For Armada one of its major strengths over Legion and X-wing is the defense tokens. Defense dice are infuriating. (Actually why I never play X-wing any more, too many ships with high green numbers getting one-shot because bad rolls, where Legion has dodges and cover to help mitigate defense dice sucking).

What Legion has over Armada is the objective-deploy-condition/Initiative system. Armada's objectives don't do enough to make players focus on mission play, and the deploy is almost always the same. It's all points scored/destroyed. It also has a bad problem with bidding due to it's locked 1st/2nd player system. Legion feels much more dynamic for objective play.

23 minutes ago, bllaw said:

Also the option of 4 different factions instead of just 2 makes Legion a bit more versatile with lots of different choices for what your army will be like.

I feel the unnecessary need to come to Armada's defense a bit here on a couple points. Though for clarification, I play both Armada and Legion and greatly enjoy both.

For starters, you'll be happy to hear that Armada will be getting the beloved Republic and Separatists factions at the end of the year, so at least the option for four factions will be there. It's just going to take some more waiting. Like with most of FFG's stuff.

30 minutes ago, bllaw said:

Armada is also a much slower game since basically none of the ships can just speed across the board and make a surprise strike of some kind unlike Legion where one strategic activation can often completely change the course of the game.

I rarely see a Legion game that takes less than 2 hours, and that's even between experienced players who are playing practiced lists. Armada certainly can take up to 2 hours to play, but from my experience, average gameplay time can take about an hour to an hour and a half if both players have enough experience with their lists. There are less activations and actions to deal with so the games tend to wrap up faster. If anything, it's usually squadron activations and movement that can really slow down an Armada game.

As for surprise attacks, there's plenty of options! Just not as easy as Legion allows. There's an objective that will allow the second player to drop in a ship at the start of any round, Admiral Raddus allows the Rebels to drop in a ship, and Raddus's ship, the Profundity , can hide a ship inside of it to drop out for a surprise attack! A rarely used upgrade, but an option, allows squadrons to hide inside of a ship to surprise attack too! There are a lot of strategic options beyond any of those that can really change the game in an instant. Timing and knowing when to activate a ship are just as important as any of the strategic activations in Legion.

40 minutes ago, bllaw said:

From my Armada play experience all of the games are pretty predictable as soon as placement is over. The ships move towards each other, shoot each other, and you hope you roll better than your opponent. Legion on the other hand is more unpredictable as to how the game will go. With the option of choosing your two actions in Legion instead of having to just shoot and then move, this forces you to have more strategy when playing Legion.

I feel like Legion could be summed up in a pretty similar way. Everyone deploys their units, runs to cover over one or two turns, then sits in cover most (if not the rest) of the game taking shots at each other until one side's dice fail them enough times and the unit is eliminated or panicked away. The only units I see doing anything but that are melee units that have to move around more to get into a better position or vehicles that have compulsory moves that force them into different positions throughout the game. Oh, and the one objective that forces you to move to get your units into your enemy's deployment zone.

Armada doesn't have as many interesting actions, that's true. But the strategy in Armada comes from knowing target priority, maximizing attacks, focusing fire, how to move, how fast to move, what angle gets you best firing arc, and what move is going to keep you out of a deadly firing arc. It's just a different kind of strategy than Legion.

3 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I tend to enjoy Armada quite a bit more then Legion. But both are great games.

For Armada one of its major strengths over Legion and X-wing is the defense tokens. Defense dice are infuriating. (Actually why I never play X-wing any more, too many ships with high green numbers getting one-shot because bad rolls, where Legion has dodges and cover to help mitigate defense dice sucking).

What Legion has over Armada is the objective-deploy-condition/Initiative system. Armada's objectives don't do enough to make players focus on mission play, and the deploy is almost always the same. It's all points scored/destroyed. It also has a bad problem with bidding due to it's locked 1st/2nd player system. Legion feels much more dynamic for objective play.

100% this. I play Armada much more casually because I prefer just playing Death Match with alternating initiative so the initiative bid is less important for that reason. I've also not been playing X-Wing as much for that same reason (plus a few other complaints with 2.0/Hyperspace rules).

Legion also has the 500 point skirmishes that I find are real easy for quick games/getting new players into the game. Armada I've never liked trying lesser point games, it demands a larger scale I feel.

5 minutes ago, Derpzilla88 said:

Armada doesn't have as many interesting actions, that's true. But the strategy in Armada comes from knowing target priority, maximizing attacks, focusing fire, how to move , how fast to move , w hat angle gets you best firing arc , and what move is going to keep you out of a deadly firing arc . It's just a different kind of strategy than Legion.

Huge.

With some of the larger ships, sure, it can be a slug fest of two big ships just blasting each other in the face, but I think the majority of Armada's ships depend on using the maneuver tool and planning to it's maximum.

25 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

What Legion has over Armada is the objective-deploy-condition/Initiative system. Armada's objectives don't do enough to make players focus on mission play, and the deploy is almost always the same. It's all points scored/destroyed. It also has a bad problem with bidding due to it's locked 1st/2nd player system. Legion feels much more dynamic for objective play.

Agree completely. The objective system for Armada was a huge step up from X-Wing, but Alex Davy clearly learned a lot and improved on it quite a bit for Legion. Locked initiative is also a frustrating issue, which has caused lots of balance issues in the past with things like a last/first Demolisher. If they ever release an Armada 2.0 these are pretty much the only things I would like to see changed.

On 3/5/2020 at 10:53 AM, KarlVonCarstein said:

I tried armada and there's a few things about it that I didn't like. The fighter squadrons being almost totally dependent on capital ship support always seemd very un star wars to me. And the shooting before moving drove me crazy, it's backwards from every other wargame I've ever played. If they changed it to each ship having two actions and choosing to shoot then move or move than shoot I'd be willing to give it another try. As it currently stands I much prefer legion, followed by X-wing.

There's one Armada ship (Gladiator Star Destroyer) that has ship title (Demolisher) that allows it to make its second attack after it moves, and it's incredibly powerful -- especially if the ship activates last in the round and then first the next round. If all ships could do that, it would ruin the game.

For example, if a Super Star Destroyer could move and then attack 3 times , it would obliterate every ship in its path. The way the SSD is "balanced" is it will always get out-activated, which means it will activate early in the round and then its opponents will activate after it. The SSD would probably be out of range (or at long range) of the enemy ships, and moved into range enemy ships; then the enemy ships activated, attacked, and moved in closer -- or tried to run away before the SSD gets to shoot. The SSD only gets to attack the enemy ships the next round, so the enemy ships have a chance at survival.

The same problem would exist for all ships if they could move and then attack; smaller ships wouldn't stand a chance.

Therefore, the Attack Phase has to occur before the Movement Phase in Armada.

Legion is different. Sure, there are hero units who can inflict heavy damage and potentially wipe out a 5-trooper unit in one attack; but units roll defense dice to try to block their attacks, so they have a chance at survival. That's why Legion units have 2 actions (sometimes more) that they can perform in the order they wish.

30 minutes ago, Lochlan said:

Agree completely. The objective system for Armada was a huge step up from X-Wing, but Alex Davy clearly learned a lot and improved on it quite a bit for Legion. Locked initiative is also a frustrating issue, which has caused lots of balance issues in the past with things like a last/first Demolisher. If they ever release an Armada 2.0 these are pretty much the only things I would like to see changed.

I actually started a conversion of Armada objectives into the Legion deploy,condition, objective categories. (which was also going to rework the commanders for a pip/initiative system but as soon as I got close to finishing RitR came out so I scrapped it.