Star Wars Armada is a miniatures game that puts you in control of massive starships from the original trilogy . Corellian Corvettes , Star Destroyers , even Grand Moff Tarkin makes an appearance !
Armada is Fantasy Flight Games ’ follow - up to the massively successful X - Wing miniature combat game . While disco biscuit - Wing focalize on skirmishes between small ship like case-by-case 10 - Wing fighters , TIE fighter , Slave I , or the Millennium Falcon , the exfoliation is importantly increased in Armada — now we ’re talking about capital ships , behemoths with entire electric battery of guns and heavy shields .
Our reexamination written matter of Star Wars Armada was provided byCoolStuffInc , and included one Victory - Class Star Destroyer , one Corellian Corvette , one Nebulon - Bel frigate , several disco biscuit - Wing and TIE scrapper squadron , two mensurate puppet , and a truly monolithic amount of tokens , wit , and counters . The tone of the component part is typical of Fantasy Flight Games , which is to say , curse telling .
In fact , purely from a collector ’s stand , you ’d be hard - adjure to bump in effect versions of these large ships suited for a desktop or a display ledge . The particular is particular , and the quality control condition is also well — even the Nebulon ’s long , spindly hull was straight as a rod . From experience , that variety of component can well become warped , either by the border process or by getting bent on out of shape during shipping . There are a few place I might require to improve the pigment job , but there ’s not much to complain about . I ’m a bit worried about the maneuver pecker — not that it ’s badly made , but it suffers a lot of vesture and tear , and it is made of plastic .
How are the rules , though ? A few canonic facts : this game is not at all compatible with X - offstage . Totally different biz , totally different scale . Also , Armada does not account for the omega - axis . All ships battle on a two - dimensional airplane . If you ’re looking for a super exact simulation of 3D space combat , move along .
What this game does very well is depict the command and movement of massive starship in a quasi - realistic manner that feels very satisfying . It ’s not easy to slow up down or rick a huge ship , so each twist you have deal with the limitation of each picky vas ’s maneuverability and the fact that it ’s already moving . You ca n’t stop on a dime bag — in fact , it ’s hard to even slow up down without dedicate a bidding to it . This creates a open and interesting set of vantage and disadvantages between different ships . The Victory - Class Star Destroyer is obviously an immensely powerful ship , but it ’s a lumbering oaf compared to the more nimble Rebel ships . It can be unmanageable to consistently bring the Star Destroyer ’s brutish front batteries to support .
Armada also have the inherent difficulty in issuing and execute commands on a sincerely massive ship and makes it a play , interesting part of the plot . That ’s quite a effort ! When was the last time you capture excite about logistics ? But count that a Victory - Class Star Destroyer is more than half a mile long , with a crew of nearly 5,000 . It takes some time to coordinate the telephone number of people and systems necessary to put to death a maneuver .
This is represented in the game by a push-down store of command dials . When you issue a command , it ’s locate at the bottom of that ship ’s good deal . When a instruction is executed later in the twist , the top command dial is the one that gets used . big ships have more dials in their heaps — the Star Destroyer has three , while the Corvette has only one ( which means you issue and action command in the same turn ) .
This could be frustrating — what if you ’re out of cooking stove of your enemy by the time your “ shoot ” command is executed ? But Armada smartly stave off this . Basic matter like maneuvering your ship and scoot your guns befall on every turn . The mastery you issue give you a bonus of some form to a particular military action . The “ Concentrate Fire ” mastery gives you an extra attack die , for instance . Plus , you could save mastery tokens if you resolve not to use a bid on the routine it ’s execute and spend them later . In that cause , you get a less variant of the bonus ( the “ Maneuver ” bidding , for instance , lets you adjust your pep pill and make a sharper turn than normal , while the “ make unnecessary it for by and by ” version only gives you the speed tweak ) .
This is n’t just a game of huge ships blundering about in quad . Squadrons of smaller combatant come into play as well . The miniatures of these are not awfully elaborated and wholly unpainted , but they do the job of typify a little grouping of fighters on the table . I found the squadron element of the game a flake fussy , but they ’re an important part of fleet tactic and using them properly , even if to just subvert your opponent ’s fighters , is a crucial part of the game .
Each ship has a point value that ’s used to build balanced oppose forces and also calculate victory point ( in most scenarios you get victory points for the ship you destroy ) . Each of the ship has a two - sided card for its base , as well as two different stat cards , that play two variants of the ship with different point price . There are also many add - ons you could build into your fleet , from improved weapon systems to especial officers , admit Grand Moff Tarkin . In addition to generic squads , there are also squads with especial pilots , including one headed by some kid name Luke Skywalker .
you could add a snatch of space terrain , like a space station and some asteroids , to animate up the field of conflict , but most of the variety from catch to match will involve scenarios . There are quite a few scenario cards include which pop the question different victory conditions and objectives , from defending a especial ship or rewarding getting all of your ship ask in the engagement .
Fantasy Flight already has a bit of expansions be after to sum up new ship to the secret plan , as well as a bunch of accessories . you’re able to put back the inevitably violate maneuvering peter orbuy spare dice(the number of dice include in the pith stage set is n’t even enough for many canonical attack in the core rig itself , which is a bit dissatisfactory ) . Some of the upcoming ship are fairly exciting though , including anImperial - Class Star Destroyerandthe perfect ship to let you yell “ It ’s a Trap!”at the gaming mesa . There will be a pack that adds iconic ships likethe Millennium Falconat the proper scale to work as squadrons to your principal ship , and other squadron pack that impart Y - Wing belligerent and TIE Interceptors .
I never catch into X - flank , despite its success , but the larger scurf and more methodical , strategical gameplay of Armada appeal to me immensely . Plus those amazing toy ships ! Seriously , I need them all .
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