Hammerhead and Quasar!

Coming straight from Lothal, FFG is bringing the Hammerhead Corvette and Quasar Fire Carrier to our games of Armada.

These look like some really fun ships.  Announcement articles from FFG don't often have a ton of details, but let's take a look at what we can find.

100th Post - The Pelta!

Today FFG unleashed their preview of the Phoenix Home expansion and the Pelta with its Fleet Command Upgrades.  I have been eagerly awaiting this preview since seeing the Pelta model at GenCon.  The preview did not disappoint.

It also happened to coincide with my 100th post here at Concentrate Fire.  I had been planning something else for my 100th post, but that will have to wait.  I really want to talk about the new ship.  

But first, a big thanks to all of you that read this blog.  I really appreciate anyone who takes the time to read through my ramblings on Armada.  Thanks for all of the encouragement you have given me along the way.  Now, let's talk about those new upgrades...

More Corellian Conflict Info

We hadn't heard much about the Corellian Conflict expansion since GenCon.  Thankfully FFG put out a new preview to help whet our appetites today.  LINK  While it didn't tell us everything, it certainly gave us enough information to get an idea of the campaign will flow.

The State of Armada

I had a really good time at GenCon this year.  The con itself is always a blast and it's just fun to see so many games going on all at once.  I started this blog just after GenCon last year as a place to kind of "think out loud" about Armada.  I've been kind of surprised and pleased that anyone has cared enough to follow along.

The blog gave me the chance to go back to GenCon this year with a Press Badge.  For whatever reason I found this really amusing.  So, I decided to take it seriously and see if I could do some press-like things and get some interviews or do some reporting.  That turned out to be a lot of fun and was in some ways the most memorable part of this year's con for me.

In my interviews I really tried to stay away from spoilery questions and focus on getting the big picture.  The spoilers will come eventually anyways, but there isn't always a lot of context on Armada in internet discussions.  So, the purpose of this post is to give an un-official "State of Armada" report based on what I learned at GenCon.

A Long Time Coming...

Did you know there is an expansion for Star Wars: Armada on the way called the Corellian Conflict?

You do?  Oh good.

Had I mentioned that I'm really excited about it?

I did?  More than once you say.  Well, good.  Because I am REALLY excited about this expansion.  I love campaign systems.  I think it's the board gamer in me, but I really enjoy it when my tabletop games feed into a bigger picture.  That I can earn bonuses in future games (or limitations if I screw up), just raises the stakes and lets me enjoy the game on a whole other level.

But aside from the campaign, FFG is using the Corellian Conflict to do something really awesome for Armada.  Something that both Armada and X-Wing players have been asking for since the launch of the respective games...

Wave 4 Spoilers!

Over the last couple of days FFG has spoiled the contents of the Wave 4 expansions, the Interdictor and the Liberty.  This is to help people enter their new Fleet Design Contest.  I thought I would post up some quick reactions to the spoilers before I actually sit down and work on getting my fleet submitted.

Wave 4 and other news

I was out of town for the past few days and away from the internet.  I come back and find out that we will get a whole other wave of Armada ships this year!  That's almost like a second Christmas.  I'm betting we see Wave 3 before GenCon, which will impact that tournament in a big way.

I could see some pre-release sales of Wave 4 at GenCon with the full release shortly afterwards.

I'd been guessing that Wave 4 would be announced in September with Force Friday, but was obviously wrong.  I still think something gets announced then.  Last year it was the new Force Awakens starter for X-Wing that was announced and almost immediately released.  This year, I bet we see something for Rogue One, but who knows which line it will be for.

I'm excited about the Liberty and Interdictor showing up.  I'm really glad that they went with the Rebels version of the Interdictor as it is just a beautiful design and I love that show.  The title for the Liberty and how it interacts with Squadron Tokens makes me wonder if we get a new set of officers that grant the corresponding type of command token each turn.  

I will post up some more thoughts on Wave 4 soon.

Armada Wave 3 Gozanti Preview!!

FFG posted a preview of the Gozanti expansions. There are some great new cards in the expansion and not just for the Gozanti, but also for the ships we already have.  I'm really looking forward to trying out both the flotillas and the new upgrades.

Here's a quick breakdown of the new stuff:

An Interview With FFG Organized Play

As I've been getting ready to TO the local Regional Armada tournament I've been communicating a bit with the Organized Play group at FFG.  They've been really gracious and helpful, so I contacted them with a list of interview style questions about the OP program in general.

It's a good read and we find out what happened with the missing acrylic Engineering Tokens!

Looking For Correspondents

I've been on spring break for the past week, which is why it's been a bit quiet here.  Expect to start seeing some new tactics articles next week. 

We are now getting in to Regionals season and I am looking for some correspondents to report back on their experiences.  So, if you're a regular reader here at Concentrate Fire and you'd like to write a report of your Regionals experience, please let me know.  Other than reports of your games, it would be good to get your general sense of the fleets that our brought.  Rebel/Imperial balance, activation counts, squadron numbers, etc.  

While I will be at GenCon, I can't make it to Origins.  So, if you're attending the National Championships there I'd love to hear your experiences.  

Regionals Prize Kit

The FLGS where I will be running a regional Tournament for Armada got their prize kit in today.  I stopped by to take a look as I wanted to see if there was anything special in the rules that I needed to know about.  The only thing that stuck out was that the players who earned a Bye at a Store Championship don't receive any additional points beyond a normal Bye.  This is a significant switch and may cause some players to not use their Byes.

I think all of the prize support looks really good for this event.  I REALLY like the dice and may attend a Regional that's about a 2 hour drive away just to try for another set.

Armada Wave 3 Preview

Yesterday FFG gave us the first preview of the third wave of ships for Star Wars: Armada.  There has been some surprise that there were only two ships previewed, but I am still excited to have more options coming soon.  Let's take a look at what was announced so far.

GR-75 and Gozanti!!

Today at the GAMA trade show in Las Vegas, FFG showed a quick preview of the incoming GR-75 and Gozanti models for Armada.  No real details were given, but they are supposed to be available this summer.

The first thing that stands out is that these come 2 ships to a stand.  That actually makes a ton of sense to me.  Individually, they would be weak and therefore cheap.  In order to prevent people from simply spamming them for activations, the 2 to a base allows them to be a more appropriate cost.  I would be surprised if they cost much less than CR-90b.

What will they do?  Maybe they will come with new objectives.  That would be fun.  Otherwise, they could provide cheap squadron commands like they do in X-Wing.  I am sure we will see a preview article soon.

Who has a guess on what these might do in the game? 

UPDATED

And now we have the real preview article.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/3/16/bigger-battles-better-tactics/ 

The fleet support sounds interesting and the flotilla rule is a great way to keep a ramming swarm from being a problem.  They are still ships though and will work with Admiral abilities.

More Wave 2 Spolers

A user at a French Armada forum has posted some pictures spoiling the Rogues and Villains pack as well as one more upgrade from the MC-30.  If you can't wait til Wednesday for the FFG preview take a look at the following link or check out the picture below.

Wave 2 Impressions

Today saw the release of the MC-30 preview on the FFG site.  We now have previews for each of the Wave 2 ships, although the squadrons and a few upgrades are still not spoiled.  Individually, each of these new ships has been really exciting for the new options that they are bringing to the game.  Now that all 4 ships have been previewed, I feel like it's possible to get an idea of how they fit in the big picture.

Imperial Star Destroyer Preview!!

After a long drought with minimal news from FFG, today we received the first preview of a Wave 2 ship!  This has been met with much rejoicing in the Star Wars: Armada community.  The ship not only provides new options in fleet building, but the upgrades that are included seem like they will be a real boon to some of the Wave 1 ships as well.