My son and I played our first game of Star Wars Armada today and we had fun. I took the rebels and he took the Imps. We did a straight forward game with a Victory I vs. a standard Nebulon B and Corvette A and the starter fighters with him taking the Howler Tie Fighter Squadron and me taking Luke Skywalker's X-wings.
We only forgot the squadron engagement rule (I forgot that fighters are engaged when within 1 range of an enemy squadron). Other than that we figured out everything pretty well, except that I couldn't find the rules for the defense icons for the special fighter squadrons. Do they work exactly as per ships, or are the one time use? I forgot to use them entirely when my son took out Luke's squadron, but my son remembered the scatter icon on his Howlers (which seems crazy- you ignore all attack rolls when used). Does anyone know where this is spelled out in the rules?
Overall we had fun. All the capital ships were destroyed and the game ended when my Nebulon was surrounded by Tie Fighters (I spent my X-wings going in to take out the Victory class ship).
I enjoy the game, but it's also really fiddly, and I can see it breaking down into a mess with lots more ships on the table. The maneuver device is also really fiddly and large, and reaching into a group of ships to spin dials got a bit hairy with lots of fighters on the table.
I think overall I like the game more than I dislike it, and I've already bought an extra starting set and the extra ships available at the moment, but I can't escape the feeling that it's a lot of gimmicks trying to overcome a lacking design. I'm not sure yet. It all makes sense, but it just feels like a simpler and yet more elegant design could have been used and made the game more fun and allow for more ships.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a huge fan of Star Wars capital ship battles and ran my own home rules, Star Destroyer at Little Wars and Rock Con for a number of years with lots of ships on the board, so I admit a personal bias.
What are your thoughts on the game?
