"Star Wars: Armada" Topic

New Capital Ship Star Wars game coming from FFG:

link

-Ken
Radioactive Press

Aww man… I've been fighting the urge to pick up more ships for X-wing and Attack Wing, and now they go and pull this.

Cool, thanks for the heads up!

Yes.

Just yes. Who do i send my pay check too?

uh oh

Time to call my agent and tell her to sell the book, already! I need cash!

Cool. I still have fleets of the WOTC Star Wars vessels, as I spent obscene amounts for the ships and figures. These look considerably better made and detailed. Maybe the rules will work for the fleets I already have..

Ugh, like X-wing isn't eating up enough of the gaming budget as-is! :)

-Will

about time. If it's as good as xwing, this should be excellent.

I think the suggested price $99.95 USD for the core boxed set with only 3 ships and some fighters will scare off people though.

Hmm. What can I sell?

Star Ranger, Good point. Hadn't seen that price tag until now. Will watch a few games at the LGSs before I drop into this one.

Fair's fair; 'some fighters' is ten squadrons.

Bit disappointed by the 'unpainted' part. Sure plenty of folk will repaint, but a lot of us love the games for us not having to go begging for someone else to tart up the figs.

At this price, 'unpainted' feels 'unfinished'.

Doug

It looks like only the fighters are unpainted. Wouldn't take much to spruce them up. I'm more curious about whether they plan to introduce more capital ships. Just the three they have will get boring very quickly.

Looks interesting. I am anxious to see what people have to say about it alter playing it and what expansion sets are planned for the future.

Looks cool. Seems like a strange choice to use an expanded universe Imperial ship, rather than a normal Star Destroyer. Also, I think a Mon Calamari cruiser would have been a more logical opponent.

I'm sure they'll add extra ships separately, just like with X-Wing.

For myself I'll pass it's just too much money.

Eventhough I really like Star Wars I like Star Trek just as much if not more,so I'll stick with the FASA Star Trek for my main Space Gaming since I have a fair number of Federation,Klingon and Romulan ships both real and copies including several ships which FASA never made.

In addition I also have several hundered Star Blazers ships from the Classic Space Cruiser Yamato which is one of my Favorites.

So I have plenty of things to keep me busy then spend $100.00 USD on 3 painted ships and several unpainted fighters just my two cents worth.

It'll be $60 USD on Amazon.com That is acceptable if they are the quality of X-Wing.

I'm in!

Xin

Wouldn't take much to spruce them up.

Wrong.

I already admitted there are plenty of folk who have no trouble with doing painting.

I am not one. I am not alone.

Doug

Doug,

I won't be painting my fighters. I think they will look fine as is. Think of them less as miniatures and more as 3D tokens and you'll be happy ;-)

I really like the choice of capital ships to begin with. I'd rather start out small than do what the old WotC game did and start with the two largest ships in the galaxy!

I would agree as long as they have plans on doing the really large ships.

Looking at the photos included in the preview the unpainted ships look just fine… Hell, I couldn't even tell they WERE unpainted.

If they really bothered you that much, a quick black wash would be enough to finish them all off. Those things are TINY and already come in good colors.

Seriously, I wouldn't worry about them being unpainted.

Here's a question for you all how long do you think this game will go?

I say this because there is a limit on the number of big ships in Star Wars unless you throw in the ships that were never in any of the films of cartoon series.

To me these type of games do have their limitations where they put out x-number of ships and then when that's done then what?

That was how I fealt when Attack Wing came out since almost all of the ships they made are from the Next Gen period and there are limitations there.

Your thoughts?

I'm noticing that the ships are out of scale. That's probably unavoidable, but.as it is, I think that a bit more could have been done to correct things (assuming the art gives real examples of comparative size in the final product.. The Star Destroyer needs to be at least twice as big as the model is now (compared to the blockade runner) to at least give the feel of the imposing size in the movies. Even that wouldn't be accurate, but it would feel right.

Parzival,

As I understand it, the star destroyer in the Armada game is a "Victory" Class rather than the "Imperial" Class which we see in the movies. The Imperial Class is about twice as big as a Victory Class, which would make it just what you want :)

link

I'm hoping that we will see many different classes of Imperial and rebel ships added to the game as time goes by.

the star destroyer in the Armada game is a "Victory" Class rather than the "Imperial" Class which we see in the movies.

Still, if one were to respect scaling values, the Victory Star Destroyer (900m) should be three times the size of the Nebulon Frigate (300m)and six times the size of the Corvette (150m). An ISD (1600m), if made to scale, would be almost twice the size of the VSD.

I'm sorry to say that I'm one of those who find the total disregarding of such things inherently annoying.

Well, I suppose some allowances have to be made. If everything were in scale then a fighter would be the size of the head of a pin.

Sorry, I snipped; you have to understand, I've ruined things even with a simple wash.

Agreed the fighters are probably not an issue, EXCEPT, when we're talking about the price tag. ;->=

Doug

I've been wondering what FFG's marketing plan is. How will X-Wing and Armada compete for the same dollars? Are they hoping Armada will be carried by X-Wing's coat-tail effect?

It just seems to me that X-Wing and Armada might be competing against each other.

Hope I'm wrong.

Regards,
Keith F.

Meh…
StarWars is ABOUT the heroism of 'one man fighter combat'… not the naval feel of larger ships (that's Trek…)

Just a cash grab that I can pass up… Given the pricing anyway… might be a decent game mechanics wise.

I've been wondering what FFG's marketing plan is.

They've oft tried 'try everything', sort of worthy of the title 'shotgun marketing'.

The problem with a shotgun: if you shoot yourself in the foot, it's SO much worse!

Doug

Despite my initial desire for this line, on reflection the cons are starting to add up:

1. Price. $100 USD is a steep entry, especially for only three ships (yeah, yeah, and some tiny fighters. Still too steep.)
2. Play value (especially given what the game claims to be).Three fighters in the X-Wing set was fine, as that game is all about dogfights. But three ships for a fleet game is a joke, especially when one of the "fleets" consists of one ship. That's not a fleet; that's a captain who got lost. Compare to Hasbro's (sadly abandoned) Battleship Galaxies which came with two fleets of 10 pre-painted ships each (total 20… and for $75 USD retail, too). Granted, it's not Star Wars and the painting was basic, but surely FFG could go for a few more ships per side? Say three or four capital ships per side? Heck, for that same price you can put together two opposing Firestorm Armada fleets of about a dozen ships each. No, they won't be painted, but once again it seems to me that FFG has the advantage of greater potential sales, and should to be able to keep the cost down to an acceptable entry level. This ain't it.
3. Cost adds up quickly for any effective expansion. X-wing had a $40 USD entry cost, and $15 USD per extra ship. So for less than $100 USD total you could end up with a nice little dogfight array of six ships, with some variety for all sorts of scenarios. Another $15 USD, and you had all the first wave of ships, including an extra X-wing, a Y-wing, and Darth Vader, allowing you to even play a simple Death Star run. But the Armada game sets the capital ships at $30 USD and up. If you want even a tiny "fleet" you're looking at doubling or tripling the cost to reach even an equivalent state to my X-wing example. Want just four ships for each side? Thats $99 USD for the starter, plus $150 USD to get the five additional ships you'd need.— so $249 USD to even approach what might be called a fleet (if squinting through fog).

So, it may well be a great game, but it's got some hurdles to mount compared to X-wing…

Fantasy Flight announced the rest of the Wave 1 ships for Star Wars Armada at GenCon. They include a Gladiator class Star Destroyer, Assault Frigate Mk II, Imperial Fighter pack and Rebel Fighter pack.

link

I'm lovin' the Rebel Assault Frigate!!! Now, I'm definitely more interested in this game! Hopefully, the cost will be offset by purchasing through other online stores…I hope..

They look good. I definitely will have to get these when available.

They've oft tried 'try everything', sort of worthy of the title 'shotgun marketing'.

From what I've been able to glean on the Fantasy Flight Forums, the Star Wars license is up for renewal in a year or so. If I were FFG, I'd be concerned that Disney was thinking of raising the licensing fee…a lot.

If I were working for Disney Licensing, I would be thinking about the new films, and what a hot property Star Wars is, and how much the suits upstairs paid for it. And I would be looking to start making some of that money back, especially if I wanted that promotion.

And so, if I worked for FFG, I too might be tempted to accelerate the release schedule, in case there's a shoe or two dropping in the next year or so.

And so I'm planning on buying two core sets, online, while the getting's good. :)

I am looking at getting all the new stuff online in the event the plug is pulled on it by Disney.

I have a SW fleet project using ships from other makers – Studio Bergstrom, Odyssey Slipways, the CMG, and Shapeways – and scale is pretty slippery but that's the only way to get everything I want in the game. So I'm hoping some of these work as things I can slip into my project.

As for long-term licencing, the other things the guys at Disney need to think of, is if not FFG, then who? If there's no competition, your choice is make some money, or none. Not make some money, or more money.

Boy Wundyr – that's the reasoning that was behind Agents of Gamings defence of their Babylon 5 license, and for you and me, it's logical.

Corporate suits aren't so easily moved. They refer to their own metrics, which tells them that this IP is worth thus-and-so, and thus-and-so is the price. Pay up or cease and desist.

I think FFG sees this as a distinct possibility, which is driving their frenetic release schedule.

Chief Lacky Rich, feel free to weigh in – you've seen this side of the elephant before, haven't you?

Just watched the demo games. Looks very promising. Will keep watch on this one.

Thanks for the POV kmfrye, I guess those suits didn't go to the Grateful Dead school of economics :-)

I never thought about the Disney/license issue. I'd love to get into the game, as I stated earlier, but I admit I'm now concerned about an "abrupt" cut off of releases. I mean I'd rather not get stuck with just a starter set and a Wave 1 of releases(only), then all of sudden the license is yanked and the line cancelled? Is that a legitimate concern?

Actually it would not be any different than when a company tells you they have plans on releasing an extensive line of miniatures for whatever period and after coming out with some they stop making any new ones. So what you have to decide is if the risk is worth taking or not.

I agree with Disco Joe, strike while the iron is hot. I have nothing to go on beyond semi-informed speculation, and I certainly expect to be able to buy the first wave of Armada.

Even if the license fee is raised, FFG may well be able to afford it.

Like Disco Joe said, we can never be completely sure.

Keith F.

Yes, but the increase in the license fee means a direct increase to the Retail price, and thus to our already hurting pockets.

Brooklyn Wargamer – unless they've already factored an increase into the price point….

…ah-hah! ;)
K-