Star Wars: Armada

It's been a while since I posted anything from the Ambler Gamers.  Sporadic meetings and my own laziness have all but killed this blog.  But last night we met up for a game of Star Wars Armada. It was my first dip-of-the-toe in this game. I was familiar with SW: X-Wing. Despite some superficial similarities, Armada turned out to be nothing like X-Wing. While in many ways it was more complex, we all agreed that it felt just like a SW space battle, with lumbering capital ships and swarms of light ships and fighters trying to score an advantage.  Scott provided the miniatures, and Joe provided the expansive playing space. 

I'll say this right off the bat: Armada is the most visually impressive sci-fi space combat game I have yet played in.

Big ships hovering above the table...I wonder if anyone has made a stop-motion film of one of their games?

Here's my command: the bad boy Star Destroyers in the center of the Imperial fleet. They pack quite a punch to the front and can take a crap-ton of abuse, but I quickly learned that they have vulnerabilities, too. 

We imperials had a hella lotta TIE fighters. Fun in swarms, but they are just as fragile as in the movies.

Both sides seemed to have the same idea: peel off ships in the center to get a local advantage. We randomized initiative instead of using the standard rule. It produced some nail-biting moments as commanders pushed their ships into the sights of the enemy.

My biggest Star Destroyer caught Joe's frog-like non-canonical vessel.  The command system was fun in that we had to think hard about our priorities in combat. Launching a fighter strike at the right time can be devastating.

Mark and Jeremy sparred with smaller vessels to my right.Mark quickly gained an edge with a devastating strike against Jeremy's cruiser. I tried to get Jeremy support, but my lumbering ship was too slow.

Yes. Yes we are seriously going into an asteroid field. Never tell us the odds.

A shot towards the end of the game. We called it around 9:00.  The rebels had lost some significant tonnage, but they had taken a heavy toll on the Imperials.  Both of my Star Destroyers were in bad shape, and a serious salvo could have taken out either.  Had we played to the conclusion, I'm not sure there would be many survivors...