I recently got into the game Star Wars Armada by Fantasy Flight Games. I’ve always been a gamer and I enjoy everything from Magic: the Gathering to Chess. In addition, I am a huge Star Wars fan (or at least I was before the property shifted hands) so it was only a matter of time before these gorgeous model ships caught my eye.
I also managed to rope my friend, Alex, into the game as well. I will be writing about our epic battles on the tabletop every few weeks so be sure to check in if you are interested. Oh, and yes, we do in fact, listen to the John Williams’ film score while playing this game. I am completely convinced that there is no other way to play this game.
Dustin’s Rebels vs. Alex’s Imperials
The Lists:
REBELS
IMPERIALS
Objective: Damage Salvo
Start of battle.
It’s about to get real…
Fight for the Space Station.
Torpedo boats are gonna getcha!
RESULT: Rebel Loss
POST BATTLE THOUGHTS:
Alex liked the Raider a lot and the Light Cruiser was good but he wasn’t fond of the upgrades. He is considering using the Slave Turret upgrade card on the next outing. The other downside is that their front hull is a little weak. Alex really wanted the Gladiator to be better but he thinks that he may have executed a poor strategy. After mulling it over, he mused that an upgrade card that increases the dice for the front and back might be good but then again, just running a Victory Class Star Destroyer (VSD) would ultimately be the better call. He really liked the squadron package. His final thoughts were that the Torpedoes were awesome.
Despite this being our first real game, (second if you count the demo walk through in the rulebook) I still think I could have strategized better. Gallant Haven and General Rieekan were awesome. I think one of my biggest mistakes was not selecting Engineering on my command dials at the right time. Also, I should have provided more support to the Mark II as well as turned my MC-30s tighter so they joined the battle a turn or two sooner. I think this would have greatly changed the outcome of the game. The Ordinance Experts upgrade card was a good choice but Cluster Bombs were extremely underwhelming. Yavaris was okay, I definitely wasn’t playing that ship correctly otherwise it would have been really good. I wasn’t too impressed with my choice of squadrons. Rogue wasn’t as awesome as I thought it was when I first read (misread) the card. They were too easily tied up and they definitely needed to have some Escort ships nearby. I really liked Bey and Corran Horn/E-wings. The E-wings feel like a great balance between speed and power but that may change with more experience.
Overall, we definitely liked the game. We are going to keep playing and getting better and we will of course post our thoughts and results here. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please feel free to shoot me an email/ or message using the Contact Page.
Until next time,
-Dustin
Dustin Schyler Yoak 
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