The quick analogy I've used to explain armada vs Xwing is return of the Jedi. The point of view of Luke from palp's thrown room watching the ship battle is armada, the point of view from Lando from the falcon in the battle is xwing. And maybe the point of view of Han from the moon of endor is rebel assault.
I have never played a miniatures game before and when I saw Armada for the first time, the scale of the game (essentially fleet engagements ala Battle of Endor) is what sold me on trying it out, and the simplicity of the rules but strategic and tactical depth of the game (and the great models) sold me on expanding past the core set. Pricing wise while msrp is $100 I bought my core set on Amazon for $66 and have yet to see it on Amazon for more than $78. In terms of variety I think FGG could eventually release a CIS and prequel Republic factions and eventually a First Order and New Republic faction. As long as they establish a solid foundation so interest in the game does dry up when the movies stop being released I'll be happy.
On the topic of price, X-wing is far more expensive if you want to buy-in and get EVERYTHING, and/or always buy at least one of every pack in a new wave. Armada has a lot less total stuff to buy for now. However, if you know the list you want to field, X-Wing tends to be far cheaper to just buy what you need for a single list, especially if you can borrow/trade/buy individual cards. Both games can be relatively cheap (compared to say, MtG or Warhammer), or both can be relatively expensive.
How I see it is that if you put $100 into XWing you have two decent squads and if you put $100 into armada it doesn't quite seem like you have enough. But I totally agree that compared to a lot of other tabletop games it's relatively cheap .
While X-Wing has lower entry cost, the overall cost seems higher. You can put together a 400 points fleet under 150$ (including core set), and get enough options to build several different fleets under 200$, but my friends who play X-Wing have already spent much more than that
I am a subscriber who watches and enjoys all of your gaming-related videos. Thanks for the great content! I am concerned with the other content you have been featuring lately. Many of your show/movie related vids have had titles which contained mild spoilers (even if just speculative). I am unable to watch Rebels when it debuts and try to avoid most of the discussions of future movies until after viewing. Could you please us more generic titles ie. "Episode VIII INFO!!!" "Rebels News" or consider a second channel for non-gaming videos?
Could you please do a repair tips and tricks video? I just had a TIE fighter squadron stand for armada break on me and I'm not sure what would be the best route of fixing between either hot glue or tape or something else
laser spade I just opened my imperial assault carrier and had both tie fighter ship base split when I tried to but them on the carrier. Was a prime deal on amazon so was first xwing ship. Will just have to use other ships and be more careful. Also go on a have to figure out how to get plastic out of the ship holder lol.
The initial buy kept me out of Armada until now. Got a core set for $55 just as background for X-wing, decided to pick up a few extra ships on sale to try out, now I'm in to it. Armadais more expensive initially, but cheaper in the long run, at least in my case. Thank you for the comparison.
Armada is likely less successful because of: 1) Higher barrier of Entry 2) longer game time 3) more complex rules 4) extra required space (especially true in game stores) 5) lack of a third faction (partly because of variety but mostly because of balance) 6) objective format being required for competitive play vs just pitched battle I'm not saying its not a good game but it will never be as popular and they are already running out of creative space for the fleets while Xwing could live off of the EU forever.
I'll agree with 1 and 4, but the others I don't see as really being a problem. I've had several Armada games finish in less time than X-Wing games, though the norm is approx. an extra hour, but since it's a scalable game you can easily run less points for a faster game. The Rules can often get far more complex in X-Wing once you get into the 11+ waves of product and all of the new mechanics, between cloaking, huge ship barrel rolls, card errata, all the new stress mechanics and the timing of all the new cards from the last year... I'd argue that X-Wing has become more complex - though if we are only looking at the core set, then sure. and for 5) The Scum faction is still there, they are just on the Empire's side. You still have those ships as options. And the Objectives are one of the best parts about Armada, not a detriment at all IMO.
The ships are there. Your comment was about variety. Having more ships within each of the two factions boosts each faction's variety. I suppose if you really want a third faction that bad you can simply house-rule it... run all of the bounty hunters in the same list and say it's a scum list?
Except I explicitly stated when I posted it's not all about variety but balance. Having three factions makes balancing actually a lot easier than just two because you can have more hard counters to overpowered lists without said counters dominating the meta. The balance in this game is a joke as it is and ships like the MC30c need to be brought in line.
icholi88 the least balanced political and gaming shape is the triangle. Asymmetric tends to lead to faction based hard counters. It's why so many board games and RTS tend towards fewer factions more sub-options.
Another thing is X-wing tends to have more hidden information than Armada. The dials for Armada only conceal actions and that is only 4. Sure 3 of them could be stacked up but with only 4 actions (or commands) it is easily predictable. For X-wing the dial has more information thus more hidden information. Sure when you are familiar enough with the maneuvers and dials you can also start to predict moves but even then the unexpected maneuver is something that catches even seasoned players off guard at times.
So...I basically like the dogfights, not 1v1 and having few but nasty big ships on the board so I figured X-wing is more for me. I've always prefered a scenario when there's one capital ship with a few small ship fighting a swarm of medium and small ships. Something like a big boss fighting a raid party or two big ships and their entourage duke it out. The way I see it Armada is lots of big capital ships and their tiny swarms. Which is cool, really cool too but...perhaps not the best for me. I also don't see how you can play Armada with more than 2 player while I can easily give Falcon to my firend, I take Slave I, get my gf on Ghost get his GF on Hounds tooth and have a scenario of bounty hunters chasing the falcon but Ghost intercepts and we have a 2v2 fight. Or..same scenario, take out ghost of the equation and have a bounty hunter race who gets the bounty first so free for all with a mission, give it a turn limit where the falcon escapes and voila. So in a way X-wing seems more adjustable to be a board game not just a miniatures game and that has appeal to me. Granted I speak from the view of a person that is yet to play but has watched more than a few reports on both. If anyone notices this on a 2 year old video and has the insight I'm wrong, please explain before I end up spending too much lol(Already ordered starter + lando's falcon + slave I).
One of the bigger things I noticed as someone trying to decide between the two games was play time. I ended up ordering x wing over Armada because of the lower entry price and shorter play time. I totally agree about Armada needing a cheaper option. 30-40 is about as much as I'm willing to spend on trying a new game
This is true. however, I find that if I have the time, I would rather play one game of armada rather than two (or three if they are small) games of xwing. Also, armada does have a greater initial buy in, but overall the cost is much less - over time, players often spend a LOT more on xwing- its like Doritos - you can't buy just one fighter....
davethepak Makes sense. I can see myself playing the longer Armada games and xwing being more expensive. But since I'm new to tabletop games, I really just want to try it out for awhile. Demoing x wing at SW celebration was great, I just wish I had the time to Armada there
Xwing has its place - it is a lot more simple (compared to armada - xwing has some depth) and is good for quick games. Armada however, is incredible - it has a great amount of depth with (relatively) simple rules. Just the "shoot then move" mechanic makes it much more of a thinking man's game than most wargamers that have the opposite mechanic.
The rules in these games are pretty lame.. I bought a few boxes of Star Wars Rebellion and and few boxes of its expansion set... and I bought crap load of replacement ships and figures on ebay.. and I bought a crap load of rebel and Imperial start fighters from the Armada series... I have a a massive Imperial and Rebel force and Im in the process of painting them. I also converted a large table into a massive space map and made my own planets... I made my own rules... battles take place in space.. and on planets.. I have made custom maps that represent the planets, each planet has a map the size of a traditional RISK map and each planet is unique and no two planet layouts are the same. I also created maps for ship board combat, space ship combat, or base combat. Ive also created maps for cities, ect. .... My game doesn't have these complicated boring rules.. My games fast paced and fun and very expansive.
The quick analogy I've used to explain armada vs Xwing is return of the Jedi. The point of view of Luke from palp's thrown room watching the ship battle is armada, the point of view from Lando from the falcon in the battle is xwing. And maybe the point of view of Han from the moon of endor is rebel assault.
Or Battle of Endor vs Millenium Falcon escaping from the Death Star?
or han is legion
I think it would be absolutely amazing if they where to make a game like this but based in the clone wars era
They both have clone wars ships
I have never played a miniatures game before and when I saw Armada for the first time, the scale of the game (essentially fleet engagements ala Battle of Endor) is what sold me on trying it out, and the simplicity of the rules but strategic and tactical depth of the game (and the great models) sold me on expanding past the core set. Pricing wise while msrp is $100 I bought my core set on Amazon for $66 and have yet to see it on Amazon for more than $78. In terms of variety I think FGG could eventually release a CIS and prequel Republic factions and eventually a First Order and New Republic faction. As long as they establish a solid foundation so interest in the game does dry up when the movies stop being released I'll be happy.
Bonus: Armada's not getting a second edition yet!
Great video. Answered a lot of my questions.
On the topic of price, X-wing is far more expensive if you want to buy-in and get EVERYTHING, and/or always buy at least one of every pack in a new wave. Armada has a lot less total stuff to buy for now. However, if you know the list you want to field, X-Wing tends to be far cheaper to just buy what you need for a single list, especially if you can borrow/trade/buy individual cards. Both games can be relatively cheap (compared to say, MtG or Warhammer), or both can be relatively expensive.
How I see it is that if you put $100 into XWing you have two decent squads and if you put $100 into armada it doesn't quite seem like you have enough. But I totally agree that compared to a lot of other tabletop games it's relatively cheap .
Why get everything? It's better to think of -Wing like a TCG, and "build a deck", rather than catch 'em all.
Thanks for the info! Good video thanks for taking time to make it.
While X-Wing has lower entry cost, the overall cost seems higher. You can put together a 400 points fleet under 150$ (including core set), and get enough options to build several different fleets under 200$, but my friends who play X-Wing have already spent much more than that
Thanks for the explanation.
I am a subscriber who watches and enjoys all of your gaming-related videos. Thanks for the great content! I am concerned with the other content you have been featuring lately. Many of your show/movie related vids have had titles which contained mild spoilers (even if just speculative). I am unable to watch Rebels when it debuts and try to avoid most of the discussions of future movies until after viewing. Could you please us more generic titles ie. "Episode VIII INFO!!!" "Rebels News" or consider a second channel for non-gaming videos?
I'll try to keep that in mind. Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks for making this video!
Could you please do a repair tips and tricks video? I just had a TIE fighter squadron stand for armada break on me and I'm not sure what would be the best route of fixing between either hot glue or tape or something else
I'll have to put that on hold for the moment as I haven't had many ships break. For now I'd suggest Super Glue - it'll bond to plastic very quickly.
The citadel glue worked pretty well for when I had to fix my houndstooth
laser spade I just opened my imperial assault carrier and had both tie fighter ship base split when I tried to but them on the carrier. Was a prime deal on amazon so was first xwing ship. Will just have to use other ships and be more careful. Also go on a have to figure out how to get plastic out of the ship holder lol.
The initial buy kept me out of Armada until now. Got a core set for $55 just as background for X-wing, decided to pick up a few extra ships on sale to try out, now I'm in to it. Armadais more expensive initially, but cheaper in the long run, at least in my case. Thank you for the comparison.
this channel is 2nd to none on xwing and armada.
Does Ramada have ships from like the Old Republic era and post Endor ships as well or is it just the Galactic Civil War
Both
the biggest difference is: Xwing £40 starter with £15 ships. armada £100 starter £20-50 ships
Hey man do you use any app to squadron building for X-Wing ?
Daniel Lima de Oliveira Star Tactics is the best from the Google Play Store
i just use battlescribe
Armada is likely less successful because of:
1) Higher barrier of Entry
2) longer game time
3) more complex rules
4) extra required space (especially true in game stores)
5) lack of a third faction (partly because of variety but mostly because of balance)
6) objective format being required for competitive play vs just pitched battle
I'm not saying its not a good game but it will never be as popular and they are already running out of creative space for the fleets while Xwing could live off of the EU forever.
I'll agree with 1 and 4, but the others I don't see as really being a problem. I've had several Armada games finish in less time than X-Wing games, though the norm is approx. an extra hour, but since it's a scalable game you can easily run less points for a faster game. The Rules can often get far more complex in X-Wing once you get into the 11+ waves of product and all of the new mechanics, between cloaking, huge ship barrel rolls, card errata, all the new stress mechanics and the timing of all the new cards from the last year... I'd argue that X-Wing has become more complex - though if we are only looking at the core set, then sure. and for 5) The Scum faction is still there, they are just on the Empire's side. You still have those ships as options. And the Objectives are one of the best parts about Armada, not a detriment at all IMO.
The Scum faction is still there, they are just on the Empire's side.
So the faction isn't really there, is it.
The ships are there. Your comment was about variety. Having more ships within each of the two factions boosts each faction's variety. I suppose if you really want a third faction that bad you can simply house-rule it... run all of the bounty hunters in the same list and say it's a scum list?
Except I explicitly stated when I posted it's not all about variety but balance. Having three factions makes balancing actually a lot easier than just two because you can have more hard counters to overpowered lists without said counters dominating the meta. The balance in this game is a joke as it is and ships like the MC30c need to be brought in line.
icholi88 the least balanced political and gaming shape is the triangle. Asymmetric tends to lead to faction based hard counters. It's why so many board games and RTS tend towards fewer factions more sub-options.
Another thing is X-wing tends to have more hidden information than Armada. The dials for Armada only conceal actions and that is only 4. Sure 3 of them could be stacked up but with only 4 actions (or commands) it is easily predictable. For X-wing the dial has more information thus more hidden information. Sure when you are familiar enough with the maneuvers and dials you can also start to predict moves but even then the unexpected maneuver is something that catches even seasoned players off guard at times.
The hidden stuff makes it more complicated,which you x-wing people use as a point. That is 2 clashing points.
Cheap is relative. Xwing has craploads of stuff to buy.
But it's also a better game
As someone who plays both - its not, not remotely. They are both great games, just different. Apples and Oranges.
So...I basically like the dogfights, not 1v1 and having few but nasty big ships on the board so I figured X-wing is more for me. I've always prefered a scenario when there's one capital ship with a few small ship fighting a swarm of medium and small ships. Something like a big boss fighting a raid party or two big ships and their entourage duke it out. The way I see it Armada is lots of big capital ships and their tiny swarms. Which is cool, really cool too but...perhaps not the best for me. I also don't see how you can play Armada with more than 2 player while I can easily give Falcon to my firend, I take Slave I, get my gf on Ghost get his GF on Hounds tooth and have a scenario of bounty hunters chasing the falcon but Ghost intercepts and we have a 2v2 fight. Or..same scenario, take out ghost of the equation and have a bounty hunter race who gets the bounty first so free for all with a mission, give it a turn limit where the falcon escapes and voila. So in a way X-wing seems more adjustable to be a board game not just a miniatures game and that has appeal to me. Granted I speak from the view of a person that is yet to play but has watched more than a few reports on both.
If anyone notices this on a 2 year old video and has the insight I'm wrong, please explain before I end up spending too much lol(Already ordered starter + lando's falcon + slave I).
Galloglaoch just talked me into my choice. Lol 😂
Same hahahahaha You bought me into X-Wing
One of the bigger things I noticed as someone trying to decide between the two games was play time. I ended up ordering x wing over Armada because of the lower entry price and shorter play time.
I totally agree about Armada needing a cheaper option. 30-40 is about as much as I'm willing to spend on trying a new game
This is true. however, I find that if I have the time, I would rather play one game of armada rather than two (or three if they are small) games of xwing.
Also, armada does have a greater initial buy in, but overall the cost is much less - over time, players often spend a LOT more on xwing- its like Doritos - you can't buy just one fighter....
davethepak Makes sense. I can see myself playing the longer Armada games and xwing being more expensive. But since I'm new to tabletop games, I really just want to try it out for awhile. Demoing x wing at SW celebration was great, I just wish I had the time to Armada there
see if you can find some people in your area who have the games - the best part about both is that you can play a 2 player game with either starter.
Armada is the better game though. For sure.
You forgot weapon ranges
who cares the ships are sweet in both
I love Star Wars and Miniatures Games. I tried them both. I love Armada, but X-Wing is boring to me.
Xwing has its place - it is a lot more simple (compared to armada - xwing has some depth) and is good for quick games. Armada however, is incredible - it has a great amount of depth with (relatively) simple rules.
Just the "shoot then move" mechanic makes it much more of a thinking man's game than most wargamers that have the opposite mechanic.
Me and my friends found ourselves playing huge games of X wing so we moved to Armada. First major game today.
I know it's a small thing, but the ship bases turn me off the game every single time I get interested. Total immersion killer.
I get what you mean, so you are not alone and it's not a small thing. I was looking at the alternative bases before I was even buying the game.
The rules in these games are pretty lame.. I bought a few boxes of Star Wars Rebellion and and few boxes of its expansion set... and I bought crap load of replacement ships and figures on ebay.. and I bought a crap load of rebel and Imperial start fighters from the Armada series... I have a a massive Imperial and Rebel force and Im in the process of painting them. I also converted a large table into a massive space map and made my own planets... I made my own rules... battles take place in space.. and on planets.. I have made custom maps that represent the planets, each planet has a map the size of a traditional RISK map and each planet is unique and no two planet layouts are the same. I also created maps for ship board combat, space ship combat, or base combat. Ive also created maps for cities, ect. .... My game doesn't have these complicated boring rules.. My games fast paced and fun and very expansive.