Star Wars Armada Core Set

I am a huge fan and player of Fantasy Flight's X-wing and when I heard about this new game I was excited, but had a few concerns. I was worried it would just be X-Wing with big ships, but it is a different experience altogether. The ships are represented well, with speed and firepower that seems appropriate for vessels of their size. The models are painted to the same standard of X-Wing's, with the exception of the fighters which are black or white plastic depending on what side you are on. It is important to note that the ships are NOT perfect to scale as FF chose to make them have a relative scale, but still look good on the table. The cards and art are excellent, and the rules while more complex than X-wing, are still fairly straight forward. The price is a little higher per model, but I think are worth it for the fleet sized battles you can have. One cool aspect of this game is that the expanded universe is a prime source for ships that appear. Classics that were mentioned but not seen such as the Victory Class Star Destroyer and the Rebel Assault Frigate appear aside newer models like the Imperial Raider. This opens up a huge wargaming area that has not been available for Star Wars fans in the past, and seeing six star destroyers and flights of tie fighters taking on ten smaller Rebel ships and flights of X-wings is very satisfying. I would definitely recommend it to Star Wars fans, or wargaming players who are looking for a fun new game.Those who are interested in how it compares to X-wing should read this part, as it is a bit technical. The game play requires less guessing what your opponent will do, and rather more planning than in X-Wing. Ships speeds are consistent from turn to turn, and require an order to speed up or slow down. Course corrections are made when the ship moves, rather than determined before hand all at once, and are based upon the speed of the ship. The bases are excellent in this game as each base has the ship's weapons statistics, hull points and attachable dials that allow you to keep track of shield strength on all four sides. Just like in X-wing, actions which are now called orders play an integral role in this game, as they allow you to change speed, fire your weapons more effectively and control fighter squadrons before their normal activation. However one of my favorite parts of the game is that one order allows you not only to reassign shields from one facing to another, but even allow the crew to repair the ship. Fighters operate as squadrons and have separate strengths against ships and fighters which makes the serve specific roles rather effectively, and their bases also keep track of activation and damage. Damage for ships works the same as in X-wing, using the face down/face up for critical system so nothing new there, and fighters mostly just take hits until they are destroyed. The die system uses red, blue, and black die, with each color representing weapons at different ranges, and different chances at critical hits. Ships can also react to attacks with special abilities, similar to the barrel roll, boost, dodge and focus actions, but are not handled the same way.Well I hope this helps, and encourages you to give it a try!

Star Wars WAS my childhood- 25 years ago I was playing "space battles" with micromachines. Armada is exactly what I pictured a Star Wars tabletop game to be: epic fleets doing battle in space, Star Destroyers slowly moving across the battle firing volleys of turbolaser blasts while swarms of TIE fighters attempt to keep Rebel X-Wing fighters from launching their Proton Torpedos, Corellian Corvettes speeding through space trying to capture important documents while Nebulon B frigates attempt to hold off the Empire...This is a core game experience, meaning it comes with all the rules and pieces to play the game, but not enough ships for a full "fleet" experience, or for tournament play. This lets you customize your fleet as you see fit- will you fight against the forces of tyranny and collect only Rebel expansions, or are you supplying the game for your group and you need everything?The models are everything we have come to expect from FFG, accurate and detailed, and well painted. They are not "to scale" but are on a sliding scale that looks amazing on the table. Groups of squadrons are dwarfed by the ships, and the Victory-Class (the movies feature the Imperial-Class, a much larger ship that is expected to be released for Armada soon) Star Destroyer makes the Corvette look very small. The squads are unpainted, they are too small to come pre-painted up to FFGs excellent standards, but with a few minutes and some ultra-fine point sharpies they can look really good.The gameplay is deep and engrossing. FFG have removed some of the chance aspect present in their other Star Wars game, X-Wing, by replacing the defense dice with a token system that makes more sense for larger, more cumbersome ships that still allows for player choice on both sides during an attack- do you block their ability to take half damage but allow them to redirect the hit to adjacent shields? Do you discard that evade token to cancel that double hit die, leaving you more vulnerable the next round? An objective system built into the core gameplay (every tournament game is played with objectives) means even the same two fleets fighting against each other can have a different experience.This game is highly recommended- come on down the Saarlac pit of tabletop miniature games!

The box was far larger than anticipated, and much heavier as well. For anyone that has played the X-Wing Fighters game, the contents should not be a surprise. Three large, lovingly detailed models, and a mountain of thick cardboard for punch out the rest of the pieces. Over all the models are of excellent quality, worthy of being displayed on a shelf by themselves, but sturdy enough to handle some swooshing around while making ship noises. The rest of the pieces are the standard cardboard affairs, which were nice quality although some pieces did not punch out all that cleanly. Putting together all of the little dials and pieces got to be a bit mind numbing, but was worth it in the end. The shining piece was the ship movement pieces. Works very well to accurately and precisely guide your ships, and operation is smooth and fluid. Much better then curved cardboard!The game itself is fairly easy to learn, but it may take a few trial games to get up to speed, even if you are familiar with X Wing, as there is a lot more going on, especially with the wings of fighters. Instructions are a bit lacking in detail in some areas, but not enough that you can piece it all together while playing. Also requires a significant amount of table space(3' x 3' per the rules, plan for more) and a good time investment. For a tactical strategy/Star Wars fan this game is a perfect fit. If you're only one of those, you may find it lacking in some areas, but overall I am very pleased with this, and it will make it into my rotation of play much more often.

This game had great depth and wonderful potential to only get better with the expansions. I love the old Games Workshop Battlefleet gothic but since it's a dead game it's hard to find people to play. Star wars armada has filled that void in my gaming life.Over all buy it. Great game.Pros: Good depth, quality capital ship, quality over all product (game pieces, game accessories ect.) Really funCons: The rules are not always clear and somewhat scattered. Read below.Full reviewThis box set does leave you lacking in terms of the size game you can play but it's a starter set so that's to be expected. I have 2 box sets which gives me 300 pts per side which is the size game that armada is recommended to be played at. This will hold me over until the expansions come out later this year. This my only gripe is the poor way the rules are presented to us. You have a get started book which has rules and does an excellent job of explaining how to put everything together and how to set up your first game. It even goes as far to suggest the settings for the command dials, then nothing. It's the perfect set up for a demo round or anything but nothing. It continues on with the next mission set up with out explaining a lot of the rules, just giving you the broad strokes. The second book of rules you get is a quick reference rules book. This book is great in the fact it does full in the blanks of the other book and goes into greater detail on some rules but you will find yourself going back and forth between the two book & even this leaves you with some gray areas in the rules. But don't let this dissuade you from playing this game. I just wanted to be honest. The is still easy to pick up on and any rules issues will be FAQ but until than a quick Google search to see how the gaming community playing works. Or you solve them with the old "what is the spirit rule/game."

This was my first foray into Fantasy Flight Games products and space combat tabletop games.Overall, I really like Armada. The models themselves are solidly made, very detailed, and probably could've stood in as props for the original trilogy's space scenes, the rules are relatively straight forward and geared towards getting you into the action, and - aside from a few specific ships - the price of expanding your forces isn't ridiculous (I'm looking at you Games Workshop).I'd say there are two major faults with Armada though.First, once you start expanding your fleet and outfitting them with all manner of upgrades and cards that shift about their stats and whatnot it can get....hectic to keep track of it all. At some point, the game becomes bogged down by this and slows everything to a grind as you stop and try and figure it all out from turn to turn, attack to attack, defend to defend, movement to movement, so on and so forth.Obviously, when you figure out your ideal fleet and how its outfitted you'll know it all off the top of your head but at first it can be a little daunting to keep tabs on it all.The second issue I have is with FFG's ability to keep things in stock. This is game is really all about the big ships but you need squadrons as well. The Rebel and Imperial fighter squadrons have been out of print and awaiting reprint now since April 2018......APRIL 2018.....we're coming up on one full year since these things went into reprint and all you can find are grossly overpriced ones or none at all.Honestly, while I really like Armada I havn't touched it in months because of this. I WANT MY FREAKIN' TIES AND Y-WINGS FFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been playing this game since it came out and it never gets old. I admit the price for the starter kit is intimidating but it’s totally worth it. The minis depending upon where you buy them from are pretty pricey but so is the X-Wing miniature expansions but with both games, you get your bang for your buck as it has a lot of replayability and consider the source material which is the real driving factor in cost.As far as the game goes, it is a bit different than X-Wing. First you build your fleet (usually 400 points worth of ships with 30% going to squadrons). Then you set up the tabletop with the player having the lowest point value deciding who goes first and place obstacles (which can hurt your ship but also shield it from incoming attacks) and also pick objectives which can award you different victory points. Also important tidbit here: the game goes for six rounds or until you destroy the other oppenent’s big ships whichever comes first.After you set up the obstacles and your fleet, the fun begins. You decide commands which mean you plan your course of action in advance as opposed to reacting every turn. First you reveal your command (navigate: increase or decrease speed by 1 if able as well as increase yaw if desired, concentrate fire: lets you add an extra attack die, activate squadrons: lets squadrons move and attack in same round, engineering: allows for repair, restore shields or move shields), then you fire, then you move. Once your done moving a ship, then it’s the opponent’s turn to activate a ship then back to you and so on until you're out of ships to activate.Then comes squadrons. Squadrons can really change the dynamics of the game. You have bombers, fighters, interceptors, and specialists squadrons that all can change the course of a game, provided they don’t get destroyed by anti-squadron firepower or another squadron.All in all, a great game with lots of Star Wars flavor to add to it. It’s fun seeing Luke and Vader duke it in their X-Wings and Tie Advanced while Ackbar is commanding Home One with the Grand Moff taking control of a Star Destroyer. They even include Legends and Rebels so you can led Tie Interceptors with Soontir Fel against the might of Phoenix Home and Hera’s Ghost. Even get to watch Hammerhead Corvettes fly against the Interdicator class Star Destroyers protected by Tie Defenders and Phantoms.While not as fast paced as X-Wing with not as many expansions, I enjoy it more due to not having a new card or ship come out every quarter that breaks the game. Most game play is about 1.5 to 2 hours long and it’s the perfect length for such a great Star Wars game.

To start off, me and the girlfriend got this game back in April, and since then now own every single ship and extra this game had to offer!Armada is a wonderful break from other board games and miniature based table top games.It's a fully enthralling look into large scale, Star Wars space combat. With 4 factions to choose from (This box containing Rebel and Empire factions) 34 large fleet ships and a plethora of upgrade and crew cards, no two battles will ever feels the same!Players start by fielding a fleet of ships and take turns maneuvering, firing weapons, activating abilities and crew members and commanding small squads of X-wings, Y-wings, TIE fighters, etc.While the large ships and many numbers may look daunting, the game is super easy to learn and offers hours and hours of play.If you have played the smaller scale game X-wing, your gonna feel right at home.The turns are fairly similar and ships and squadrons work fairly the same, with everything just on a larger scale.A great game for any fan of Star Wars, table top games, space combat or people looking to get into the board game hobby!

Star Wars ArmadaI experienced some hesitation before purchasing this. As much as my family and friends love games that are are more specialized and are on top of all the Spiel des Jahres candidates and peruse Boardgamegeek, we are never “those” gamers. You know what I mean if you go to a local game store (LGS); those players who are hunched over tables with tape measures and chucking dice. Also I’m not a hobbyist. I probably would be if I got into it, by good news for wallet I simply can’t afford the items or the space.I did research on Armada and, while most people will say it’s not “cheap” in my opinion it most definitely isn’t expensive. $150 would give you absolutely everything you would need to have an enjoyable at home game. I am definitely no expert on naval miniature wargaming. I know that Firestorm exists and that there was a Warhammer game that used space ships. I also know that Halo has a version now as well. These three required you assemble and paint your models. Star Wars Armada does not. This isn’t to say that the models are super high quality. The ‘squadrons’ in the game are a solid plastic color: light gray for the rebels and dark grey for the imperials. It works well enough, but if you find that you’re an anal hobbyist, you’ll probably paint the squadrons. The ships look good. But once again I’m sure there are people out there that are doing custom paint jobs. I feel that this game is like a ‘gateway’ into the hobby of miniature gaming.But for the rest of us, the game pieces are pick up and play, no painting required. Very mild assembly is required, but it consists of punching out cardboard pieces and putting them on a stand.This brings me to my first point - let’s talk about quality. The quality of the ships is good. I had an unfortunate bend to my Nebulon in the box, but Fantasy Flight has a dedicated website page to defects that I uploaded a few pictures and gave them my address and replacement parts were shipped the next day. I was very impressed. The game uses lots of cards, dials, and token to indicate certain conditions and keep track of statuses on the ships. Almost everything is high-quality cardboard. But high-quality cardboard is still cardboard. I would have really loved to see plastic chits for the tokens and plastic wheels for shields built into the stands. It’s a small thing, but for a game that is so aesthetically based, I think the pieces could have been a little higher quality. I’m going to be picking up a small tackle/bead box to store all the components. It may look overwhelming if you’re looking at pictures of what’s included, but actually all the tokens are intuitive and make a lot of sense when you get going.Gameplay. The game is engaging, but it takes a good 4-5 hours to get through the first game and completely assimilate the rules. It comes with a rule book that the first 15 pages are basic rules and the game encourages you to use those first and then expand on the rules to get the full ruleset. It also comes with a rules reference which I constantly used and still keep handy. The game is essentially two games going on at once. The draw to this game are the big ships and by far, these are the main core of the game. But the game also uses ‘squadrons’ which are little ships - like the tie figures and x-wings. They have separate movement and engagement mechanics and activation features. If you play you may find yourself loving or hating squadrons. Personally I find that they add a lot to the game and really add to how powerful the big ships feel. As a commander you’re main concern is going to be your big ships, but you’ll also need to take care of the little fighters buzzing around you like an annoying mosquito, making sure one doesn’t get through to your exhaust vent! But realistically ships do little damage to squadrons and squadrons do little damage to ships. But squadrons can do massive damage to other squadrons. Eventually a player may wipe out all of an enemy’s squadrons leaving them free to swarm a big ship. In that case, the squadrons can turn the tide of battle, as it were, but really you need to take care of enemy squadrons first, which really does make it like a little game inside the big ship game.For the most part the rules make sense and are clearly written. There were a couple times I needed to go to the community’s discussion boards to find player’s opinions and clarifications but those were very small things. Interestingly there was one rule I couldn’t find an answer to, but maybe I didn’t look hard enough. (For those interested: does Focus Fire count towards all rolls against the squadrons in a ship’s firing arc, because that’s considered one attack, or does it only counts for one dice roll against one squadron. I’ve seen great arguments for both sides)I very much enjoyed the game and found myself wanting more and thinking about different strategies. I would love to get into some more miniatures from here, if they are all this fun. The gameplay gives you different options with upgrade cards and command dials allow you to plan ahead and ‘surprise’ your opponent. And damage cards add a fun and believable twist to naval battles.If you’re pretty sure you’ll like the game I recommend getting a couple extras right away.I would get two ships right away to add a little variation to the game and give both Imperials and Rebels the option to play ‘heavy’ or ‘lite’ styles. By that I mean that the core set comes with ships that pigeonhole players to play a certain way with each faction, but you can expand that to offer more flexibility to both sides.-I recommend getting a Star Wars Armada: Gladiator-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack because it’s a small-class ship and allows Imperials to do more than just move one hulking ship around in space.-Star Wars Armada: Assault Frigate Mark II Expansion Pack for the Rebels will add a medium ship to the rebel fleet which matches the Victory-Class Star Destroyer that comes in the core set so the rebels don't feel outgunned all the time.And then if you’re really adventurous I would get some more squadrons. The small amount of squadrons that come in the core set (4 rebels and 6 imperials) isn’t really enough to have an impact onIf you think you’ll like squadrons, add on the Star Wars Armada: Rogues and Villains Expansion Pack Board Game, Star Wars Armada: Rebel Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack, and Star Wars Armada: Imperial Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack.I would also pick up a Star Wars Armada: Dice Pack, because believe it or not, the core set actually has ships that use more dice of a particular color than come with the set. Each color dice is different than the other so in those cases you need to re-roll. It's doable, but really actually annoying.