I have been trying hard, without much success, to resist Star Wars Armada. I have plenty of other capitol ship games including most forms of Star Trek and Epic X Wing, but Armada has that elusive Gnats vs Elephant dynamic that so epitomises Star Wars and avoids the one ship only dynamic of the denser Star Trek games.

X Wing has become patchy. I bought the three new squadron packs, mostly to use the ships in 1e, but struggled to get excited about the Tie/rb and Guild Tie. My lean towards 1e for Empire era and 2e/Epic/Huge* for TFA period is not at all set in stone and I do have all the conversion kits, but I feel the Resistance and First Order will probably be on the on-going radar, but not the other factions.

Looking at the options, the standard core set with a handful of extras and some fighters would net me (with a smallish budget) a decent 400 point fleet for each, with some variation, but what to get?

This stumped me for a day or two. Getting some of the older ships and some popular packs was problematic and where and how I purchased them became messy. Splitting freight between six different distributors effectively cost e a ship.

Then a thought struck me.

The Clone Wars are a period I am aware of and even quite like, but have not touched in X Wing. The thought of hordes of “junk” Drone fighters is not appealing (I purchased most of my horde of Tie fighters etc cheap in 1e clear outs and do not want to dilute that good fortune with expensive and small cannon fodder), but in Armada a 150pt swarm comes in at the price of one X Wing ship. The reality is that the Clone Wars had a lot more toe to toe fleet battles than the Rebel or Resistance periods, so it even feels right.

The Separatist and Republic ships are gorgeous, the rules, cards and small ship sculpts are a cut above and the feel of this period is more even. I have the dual advantage of covering a neglected period and the system dynamic in one, reasonably contained fashion. It also helps that this period for me comes with a lot less baggage character and depth wise. The ships are even “generic” enough to be occasionally repurposed, something the distinctive shape of an Imperial Star Destroyer precludes.

Purchasing was a dream.

One supplier was having a clearance, netting me the two core sets, two flag ships and the Pelta, plus three fighter packs (two Droid to balance the Pelta), for a pair of 400+ point fleets with most characters represented, all at overseas prices and flat rate Australian shipping.

*

Then another insidious idea emerged. I have been looking at the other fighter packs for a tiny ship “Travel” version of X Wing (normal bases, little ships), but felt it was a bit much to buy a pair of packs just to use 4 ships from each. With an original Core set, four fighters (Rebel 1, Imperial 1 & 2 and Rogues- ironically some of the problem packs) and a few small ships, I can play a big bad, ponderous, Star Destroyer with a swarm of Ties vs the Rebel flea circus “Minnows” in multiple scenarios. I even get extra dice and movement gauges.

To me the original Rebel period lends itself (repeatedly) to a rag-tag fleet of small stuff vs the Imperial monster feel, so scaling down from my original idea (adding a huge Star Destroyer, Home One and MC-30), this will do the trick. I am fully aware that a fighter heavy fleet is not tournament legal and maybe even flies in the face of the Armada ideal, but having done it properly in the Clone Wars, I can now do small delaying action/hunt for the hidden base/decoy/base evacuation or raiding/strike party scenarios with;

A CR-90, Nebulon-B, Falcon, Outrider, Scurrg, 12 squadrons of fighters, maybe some Hammerheads and Transports vs a single Star Destroyer, 16 squadrons, 4 small ships, maybe a Raider, some Gozanti or a Light Carrier and some Scum Mercs. This makes two 3-400 point scenario friendly fleets (if fighters and Aces are allowed over the tournament limits - see Battle of Yavin, Evacuation of Hoth etc for precedent) from a Core set and a few cheaper packs and it’s all very Star Warsy. With the new upgrade card pack (which is hard to justify for Clone Wars alone), I can now get most options on the table with these few ships.

I also get to mine these resources for my mini X Wing set.

*Something I also would like to share soon is an idea I have for a solo X Wing massed battle game, using a card activation turn sequence and d6’s, but the X Wing ship stats and dials intact.