Hey everybody!
Welcome to my not-quite May the Fourth Game Day! I couldn’t break what has become a hallowed tradition by posting this yesterday, of course, but I wanted to celebrate the occasion by taking a look at another Star Wars game. So without further ado, here are my first thoughts on the recently-released Armada!
I made the above video back when I picked up the game at the end of March, though it wasn’t until the end of April that I actually managed to play a game. Following that experience, I thought I’d come here and share some of my thoughts with you guys. You know you love it.
First of all, the ships are pretty great quality. Nothing new if you happen to be a X-Wing player, of course, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. Comparisons to X-Wing are inevitable, of course, but this game does actually feel like you’re more of an admiral in charge of your fleet, rather than a handful of ships dogfighting among some asteroids. There is a real sense of battle-planning and stuff here, which I was pretty surprised by if I’m honest.
I’ve got to be honest here, I’m not very good at strategy-type games – well, I told you about my last game of X-Wing, of course – but I did still enjoy this game. In the game I played, I took the Imperial side (naturally), and started the game awfully by driving my Star Destroyer into an asteroid field (naturally) and it just went downhill from there.
However, I have to say, while the capital ships look fantastic, that’s pretty much where it ends really. I mean, cards and tokens aside, I feel like all the care and attention went into making the capital ships look great, and the rest of it all looks just a bit meh. The starfighters are reminiscent of usual boardgame pieces, but there’s something about those command dials – and that goofy range-ruler-thing – that just seems cheap, somehow. All that grey plastic just doesn’t look good, and detracts from an otherwise good-looking game – for me, at least!
I enjoyed my one game I played with this, but if I’m completely honest, I don’t know if/when I’d play it again. When it was first announced, I was a bit apathetic about it, then back in December I grew a little more interested. But while I enjoyed it, I’m back to being a bit apathetic if I’m honest.
What about you guys?
spalanz.com 
It sits weirdly alongside X-Wing for me. As an X-Wing player, I know it has a different feel, but it is similar enough I am just not very interested. Then add in the cost, and the fact you need a huge play area for it (6×3 for a full game isn’t it?) … A few of my gaming group have it and it *looks* great but it doesn’t seem to have clicked very well with anyone.
Also, what is up with that giant box which is mostly empty?
I haven’t noticed much excitement for it at my local store, while X-Wing remains as strong as it always has been – it seemed odd back when they announced it that they’d have two space games and (at the time) no land-based game, but it does seem to be very much in the luxury category of an already luxury market!
And yeah, the box surprised me by being so light! Everything fits into that narrow channel, very weird!