Star Wars Armada I 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 aStar 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 on If you think you’ll like squadrons, add on theStar Wars Armada: Rogues and Villains Expansion Pack Board Game ,Star Wars Armada: Rebel Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack , andStar Wars Armada: Imperial Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack . I would also pick up aStar 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.
