In the Ship Phase, you and your opponent take turns activating your ships, starting with the player who has initiative for the round. Ship cards present a wealth of easily accessible information. Once you and your opponents have assigned new commands to each of your ships, you proceed to the Ship Phase. Then, he places it at the bottom of his command stack, to be revealed in a future round (2). Most of the more powerful ships, like the Victory-class Star Destroyer, feature higher command values that demand you plan your actions two or more rounds ahead of time.Ī Rebel player selects a command for his Nebulon-B escort frigate by framing it within his command dial’s fastener (1). Moreover, the more powerful your ship, the slower it reacts to your commands. Then, each Command Phase, you continue planning further ahead, reacting to the shape of battle, but issuing commands that you intend to have your crews execute one or more rounds later.
This means that, in the game's setup, before you have yet engaged the enemy, you need to issue commands for your first round or rounds of combat. Importantly, each ship has a command value that indicates how many commands it will have facedown in its command stack at the beginning of the round. The concentrate fire command allows you to increase the power of a single attack. The repair command allows you to recover shields and repair your hull. The squadron command allows you to order nearby squadrons to move and attack early. The navigate command allows you to change your ship’s speed and increase its maneuverability. You can choose from any of four basic commands, each of which offers distinct advantages: These are locked into that ship’s command dials and are placed facedown at the bottom of its command stack. In the Command Phase, you and your opponent secretly assign commands to each of your ships. Games of Armada are played over six rounds, each of which is broken into four phases. Some tokens even allow you to take evasive maneuvers to avoid attacks fired at long range. For example, you can angle your deflector shields so that a shot fired against your front section might be absorbed, instead, by your left section. You can spend these each round to trigger their associated effects. Finally, each ship comes with a number of defense tokens. The next is its shields, which vary in strength from section to section. Meanwhile, each of your capital ships features multiple layers of defenses. While a ship has a single hull value, which indicates how many hits it can take before it’s destroyed, it has separate shield values for each of its sections, and each of these sections also comes with its own firing arc and attack value, indicated by a number of dice. It requires a keen tactical mind.Īrmada balances the awesome scale of the Star Wars galaxy’s ships and space warfare with intuitive ship designs and accessible rules for issuing commands and resolving combat that make for rich, engaging, and highly tactical play experiences.Įach pre-painted capital ship is divided into four sections: front, rear, left, and right. Accordingly, emerging victorious will require more than just raw firepower. You and your opponent must balance all these systems throughout your battles. Their defenses, armaments, and engines all run from separate systems. These ships are sophisticated and complex. The Armada Core Set contains ten unpainted squadrons, three pre-painted capital ships, nine custom dice, dozens of tokens, nearly one hundred cards, and an innovative maneuver tool that adds a unique feel to the way your capital ships must accommodate for inertia as they maneuver throughout the battlefield! Capital Ships in CombatĪt the game’s heart are its capital ships-massive war machines that can exceed a kilometer in length and whose crew can number in the thousands. Capital ships can’t easily vary their speeds or execute hairpin turns like the starfighters that buzz around them, so successful admirals must learn to master every aspect of the ships in their fleet and learn how best to implement their strategies well in advance of the initial engagement. Gone are the plain white armor and flat shininess.However, battles between capital ships are fought on a massive scale all their own the more powerful your ships, the harder it is to adjust their actions on the fly. With advanced training and elite gear, these fierce soldiers use unconventional weapons and tactics to push back Separatists offensives and secure victory for their brothers. War is a dirty business, and when the Republic has dirty jobs, clone commandos get them done.