G’Day all. So, I’m going all in on Armada once the Separatists Core comes in. I’ll be getting the Core and Squadrons pack.

However, I am unsure of the upgrade card pack (or whatever the official name is). The article indicates its usefulness for all 4 factions, but I’m not really sure how useful for the new factions. Is there any conjecture as to what this pack will bring to the table? Will 1 Squadrons pack be enough?

Any thoughts regarding a new player getting into it for the first time are appreciated.

Hello and welcome to the game!

The upgrade pack contains all legal upgrades released to date, most of which span factions. Beyond a casual game, it's very much a must-buy.

Unless "all-in" means getting into Rebels and Imps, or if existing upgrades will be reprinted in CW expansions.

There's still stuff we don't know, but the pack appears to be created so new players like you won't feel seriously behind if you didn't spend several hundred dollars on past waves that may or may not be awaiting a reprint. 😉

1 hour ago, Chudley said:

G’Day all. So, I’m going all in on Armada once the Separatists Core comes in. I’ll be getting the Core and Squadrons pack.

However, I am unsure of the upgrade card pack (or whatever the official name is). The article indicates its usefulness for all 4 factions, but I’m not really sure how useful for the new factions. Is there any conjecture as to what this pack will bring to the table? Will 1 Squadrons pack be enough?

Any thoughts regarding a new player getting into it for the first time are appreciated.

Card Pack = Contains all the essential cards for ALL factions. So I'd say it's pretty mandatory, as your fleet-building options will be limited otherwise.

Or you can make do with just the cards in the starter sets. I'm sure that will be an acceptable solution as well. We don't really known what cards will be included though.

1 squad pack + core squads: Enough, but not a lot of flexibility.

Any buzz on when the card pack will arrive? I pre-ordered one. I will probably buy another.

2 hours ago, postje said:

Any buzz on when the card pack will arrive? I pre-ordered one. I will probably buy another.

So far, it's still saying December for all the above incoming packs/starters.

8 hours ago, Chudley said:

G’Day all. So, I’m going all in on Armada once the Separatists Core comes in. I’ll be getting the Core and Squadrons pack.

However, I am unsure of the upgrade card pack (or whatever the official name is). The article indicates its usefulness for all 4 factions, but I’m not really sure how useful for the new factions. Is there any conjecture as to what this pack will bring to the table? Will 1 Squadrons pack be enough?

Any thoughts regarding a new player getting into it for the first time are appreciated.

I would suffice to say that getting the card pack will give you a HUGE leg up as a new player (welcome to the game btw! ^^). The vast majority of cards included will not be faction-specific and therefore will slot comfortably into the Clone Wars ships.

On top of that, for me at least, two squad packs are pretty much the minimum in order to have a decent enough spread of squadrons for both fighter screens and bomber wings. Honestly, I myself preordered 3 since the CIS is looking like it will be pretty lax on bombers for the first chunk of squadrons released (just the Hyena vs the Y-wing and the ARC-170), but that may vary depending on how much you wanna run bombing lists or Counter-heavy lists (dunno what the Belbullab's gonna do without dice or full keyword teases, but hey that might be a useful list-focus too).

10 hours ago, Chudley said:

G’Day all. So, I’m going all in on Armada once the Separatists Core comes in. I’ll be getting the Core and Squadrons pack.

However, I am unsure of the upgrade card pack (or whatever the official name is). The article indicates its usefulness for all 4 factions, but I’m not really sure how useful for the new factions. Is there any conjecture as to what this pack will bring to the table? Will 1 Squadrons pack be enough?

Any thoughts regarding a new player getting into it for the first time are appreciated.

Based on FFG's GenCon announcement video, it appears that the Upgrade Card pack was designed specifically with players like you in mind. So yes, I'd say it's an easy purchase at $25 -- especially for new players.

And welcome to the game! It's fantastic.

14 hours ago, Chudley said:

G’Day all. So, I’m going all in on Armada once the Separatists Core comes in. I’ll be getting the Core and Squadrons pack.

However, I am unsure of the upgrade card pack (or whatever the official name is). The article indicates its usefulness for all 4 factions, but I’m not really sure how useful for the new factions. Is there any conjecture as to what this pack will bring to the table? Will 1 Squadrons pack be enough?

Any thoughts regarding a new player getting into it for the first time are appreciated.

The upgrade card pack may be the most valuable product in FFGs Armada line-up.

For $24.95 you get 290 cards, just about every card that has previously been released. There are three notable exceptions, cards that are being "shelved" for tournament play. Some of the cards in the pack are cards only found in one or another expansion. If you wanted Piett or Emperor Palpatine, for example you have to shell out between $150 - $200 for the SSD. Some of the expansions can also be hard to find, and resorting to Ebay can lead to price gougers. I have two of almost every ship expansion released, because some of the cards you just want more than 1 of. If this pack was previously available, it would've saved me a lot of $$ and I could've focused on just buying my Rebel faction. (Even though I play Imps a lot more these days, go figure.) Many of the generic upgrades will be able to be used with Clone Wars factions. You'll want staples like APTs, ECMs, Gunnery Teams, Engine Techs.

In addition, we're told that the upgrade card pack will have errata'd about 18% of upgrade cards to the latest legal versions.

One last thing, I never pre-order from FFGs website, but this time I made the exception - this upgrade card pack is just too good a product to pass up.

...for me, who has played since 2015 and have multiples of every card...it's not such a great deal

For a new clone wars player, absolutely get it. We don't know what existing upgrades will be included in any of the new clone wars expansions. To have every upgrade available to you get the upgrade card pack. I will get it eventually because I want all the printed updated cards. Not looking forward to the increased size but oh well.

Amazon is a good source for purchasing ships. Often times Amazon will run specials, and you can get the ships significantly below list.

3 hours ago, postje said:

Amazon is a good source for purchasing ships. Often times Amazon will run specials, and you can get the ships significantly below list.

That's true for Amazon.com... but not necessarily for Amazon's international sites.

For example, Amazon Canada's prices for all of FFG's Star Wars games are about 20% higher than my local board game shops' listed prices, which is why I buy and pre-order games from my LGS instead of Amazon Canada.

I think a quick Google search would easily determine the cheapest source of Armada expansions.

If the OP is just getting into Armada, the Clone Wars factions are probably the best way to go because the launch wave is in December and the 2nd Clone Wars wave is supposed to be in January, and it should be possible to to build a 400-point fleet with one Fleet Starter and one of each ship expansion and squadron pack.

Personally I think I would going for two squadron packs because there have been dozens of times in fleet building that only having one has restricted me. I only bought one of each starting squadron pack for empire and rebels and I definitely need more.

These folks have done a great job giving helpful advice, so I'll just add in another Welcome! And I hope you enjoy the game. Remember to pop in and ask if you have questions or ideas!

Jeez! Didn’t realise the Armada forums were so toxic! Maybe this is a bad idea after all!

😜

Thanks for your help guys. FYI, I am purely going CIS.