I have a friend of mine who likes playing board games but has not play a miniature game, but he is willing to give Armada a try. He also isn't into Star Wars so iconic ships don't really apply here. We are looking at the fun of game play. I am looking for 2 200 point fleets. One rebels, one empire. Each fleet highlights the themes of the factions. Up to one upgrade per ship. And one Ace squadron. I have at least one of each medium and large ship and 2 of small ships. I have seen some starter fleets for new players but they didn't really have what I was looking for.

I think the Core Set starter box pretty much gives you exactly what you just described. The asymmetry of the Nebulon-B Frigate & CR90 vs. a Victory Destroyer points up the factional differences nicely. Unfortunately, it will only take a couple of games until you realize that one side (won’t spoil which) has a critical flaw that will keep it from winning most of the time, but hey, it’s a starter box. It lets you play enough to see if you like the game. If you find it too limiting, give each side another 100 points to build with, and after the first game or two, start trying out different pieces from your collection.

If you have the elements that need to play, but don’t want to spring for a Core Set, just build the Empire using a VSD and up to... I think, 6 TIE Fighter squadrons, and build the Rebs using a Nebulon-B Frigate, a CR90 Corvette, and 4 X-Wing squadrons. That’s (as I remember) what you get in the Core Set.

I should really just have this in a google doc someplace to copy paste, but here we go...

--Imperials--

Victory II (Veteran Captain, Dual Turbolaser Turrets)

Arquittens Command Cruiser

Raider II

Squadrons:

• Darth Vader
• 3 TIE Fighters
• 1 TIE Bomber
• 1 TIE Interceptor

--Rebels--

Assault Frigate MKII A (Veteran Captain, Dual Turbolaser Turrets)

Nebulon B Escort

CR90 A

Squadrons:

• Luke Skywalker
• 3 Z95s
• 1 A-Wing
• 1 Y-wing

No Obstacles, No Objectives.

For the purposes of an intro game 3 ships is *plenty* it gives each player a CMD3, CMD2 and CMD1 ship, plus a Speed 4 and a Speed 3. (Arguments could be made to run a Pelta instead of the Neb to get a Spd 2 for the rebels, but it has yet to be an issue for me)

The issue with larges in a starting game is they have so much more power. The ISD is going to get into point-blank range and remove most of the Rebel ships, and the Rebels don't really have anything to match without taking a Starhawk.

On 10/18/2020 at 12:25 PM, Alzer said:

I should really just have this in a google doc someplace to copy paste, but here we go...

--Imperials--

Victory II (Veteran Captain, Dual Turbolaser Turrets)

Arquittens Command Cruiser

Raider II

Squadrons:

• Darth Vader
• 3 TIE Fighters
• 1 TIE Bomber
• 1 TIE Interceptor

--Rebels--

Assault Frigate MKII A (Veteran Captain, Dual Turbolaser Turrets)

Nebulon B Escort

CR90 A

Squadrons:

• Luke Skywalker
• 3 Z95s
• 1 A-Wing
• 1 Y-wing

No Obstacles, No Objectives.

For the purposes of an intro game 3 ships is *plenty* it gives each player a CMD3, CMD2 and CMD1 ship, plus a Speed 4 and a Speed 3. (Arguments could be made to run a Pelta instead of the Neb to get a Spd 2 for the rebels, but it has yet to be an issue for me)

The issue with larges in a starting game is they have so much more power. The ISD is going to get into point-blank range and remove most of the Rebel ships, and the Rebels don't really have anything to match without taking a Starhawk.

Thanks! I liked this a lot!!