"First Star Wars Armada Game" Topic

Well, I finally got a chance to play the game today. I enjoyed it quite a lot. We just played the introductory scenario, but I can see that there are some very interesting tactical nuances in the game.

The Imperials and the Rebels made a head-on pass at each other and then went on by. Each side drained quite a few shields and the fighters pretty well wiped each other out, but only a singe hit was inflicted on one ship on each side. And then we had several turns out of range where nearly all the damage got repaired and then we ran out of turns and disengaged.

Clearly the key is concentration of firepower. With all the defensive counters and such you will need to hit the same part of a ship over and over to have a chance to do real damage.

We are getting some of the expansion sets and will definitely play again!

We had our first game last week too. My friend has 2 starter sets. So of course we had to use all the toys. We kept getting moving and shooting out of order. Fighters do not last long. Imperial fighters are very fragile with only 3 per stand. And the Rebels have 2 more per set to start with.

Beat up 1 of the Rebel Frigates, it had to retire just before we called it a night.

Not sure about the rules yet. I will have to play it a couple of times correctly to see how they work.

Wait, how fast did the fighters wipe each other out? It should be nearly impossible for it to happen that fast.

Is it possible that you misunderstood fighter activation? It doesn't work exactly the way that a lot of people expect.

I think we got it right. Once the fighters get to within short range of each other they become engaged, at which point they can't move anymore. After that they just slug it out. And throwing 3 and 4 attack dice vs fighters, they die real quick. So in our game, as the two sides passed through each other, the fighters all got engaged (around Turn 3, I would guess) and while the big ships were turning around for another pass, the fighters killed each other. By Turn 6, each side had one squadron left with one or two points on each.

Yup. That's how it's been for me too. The fighters get caught up in these hairballs until one side or the other croaks. Fighter combat adds an interesting subplot to the battle. X-Wings are clearly better than the TIEs foe attacking capital ships. If the Empire player doesn't deal with them, they can decide the battle. Now with the fighter expansions, that may change.

Yes, the fighters are an important part of any strategy. The anti-fighter power of the ships is so weak that if a ship got caught alone by 4 or 5 fighter squadrons, it could be in serious trouble--unless it was fast enough to get away. The fact that fighters can only move OR fire (unless given a command by a ship) means that a fast ship might be able to leave them behind.

Just played a few solo games with an Imperial Victory II class star destroyer against 6 X-Wing squadrons, one led by Luke Skywalker. An equal point force. It was more balanced than I had thought. The SD moves just fast enough that after the first head-on pass-through the fighters really can't keep up with the SD very well (although I guess if they wanted to take 4 or 5 turns just moving to get in front of it for another pass, they might be able to). But if they roll well (especially Luke since he ignores shields) they can do potentially fatal damage in just the 2 or 3 turns of firing they can get before falling behind. It was really a lot of fun.

So in our game, as the two sides passed through each other, the fighters all got engaged (around Turn 3, I would guess)

Ah. I thought that you were saying that the fighters all died during the first pass, like on turns 2 and 3. This makes much more sense.

The SD moves just fast enough that after the first head-on pass-through the fighters really can't keep up with the SD very well

You need to learn the automatic keeping-up tactic.

If folks haven't read the detailed fighter tactics articles on BoardGameGeek, you need to.

You wouldn't happen to have a link to that?

Some of the discussions started in General threads, so you can search for them. Strategy threads are here: link

We've had games where the fighters last longer than expected just because the blue dive were being cruel. Lots of crits and that little set of cross hairs mocking me.

Very cool how different dice can be made way different by ignoring certain symbols for different kinds of attacks.

I'm still in love with the fact that there is no defense to in this game. Gives it that big ship feel – and the defense tokens are a great way to give the players more decisions.

emckinney: thanks for the link. A lot of interesting stuff there. But I didn't see anything about the 'automatic keeping-up tactic' unless you mean the one idea about parking a couple of squadrons right in front of a Star destroyer and then having it collide with them each turn which would allow them to reposition in front again. That was de-bunked later in the thread and I've confirmed that myself with the miniatures. The SD can move just far enough to avoid a collision, especially if it turns and swings its stern around out of the way.