(Part 2) Best products from r/StarWarsArmada

Okay FIRST! You should know, you can play any faction in Armada, Empire VS. Empire, Rebels VS. Rebels, Rebels VS. Empire.

Also the Thrawn expansion won't be available for another couple of months. Probably end of November - end of December.

If you want something to counter Thrawn's ISD Chimaera that really depends. This is a point game, you can have five Corvettes or one STar Cruiser, it's up to you. Do you mean a ship of a similar size? Then there's the Home One Cruiser and Liberty Cruiser, but there's also the Profundity Cruiser coming out with Thrawn. I feel you should also know the Chimaera will come with inferior cards, the regular ISD comes with the normal ISD-I and ISD-II cards. You won't have a fun time playing without the ISD-II card. I suggest finding a way of getting one.

Someone asked this a couple days ago. I'm just going to copy my answer over, you might find it useful.

Is this on a budget? Or just wondering what to get first? I'll link everything I name to Amazon, just so you can see what they look like and to see the rough pricing. You might have to change the url to your respective country's though.

It might look like a wall of text but I'm very brief on each ship here. The bottom will give you the best explanation. Please feel free to ask any questions about the various ships. I own at least one of each ship I name and have used them all at least once.

You could first invest in Squadrons. Rebel Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack I, and Imperial Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack I. Then there's also the Rogues and Villains Expansion Pack which includes ships for both factions. Such as the Millienium Falcon and Slave I.

For ships, it all depends on what you want your fleet to work as. Want large capital ships? Go for an Imperial-Class Star Destroyer, and a Calamari Cruiser, to which there are two options. The Home One Cruiser and the Liberty version. Easiest way of differentiating the two? Home One is slower and fires from it's flanks, Liberty is faster and spews out its attacks from it's front hull. All three are of course super fun to play, though they take a little more skill to manuever effectively. I rarely use fleets that lack my Star Destroyer Basilisk or my Home One Cruiser Allusis. My two favourite ships to use.

Want something smaller? Try an Assault Frigate or two. Great ships. They can lead fleets well as Flagships or support larger capital ships. Another invaluable Rebel ship is Mc30c Frigate. Fast, and deadly at close range. I rarely play Rebels, but when I do I always use this ship, along with the Assault Frigate or the Home One.

For the Empire you have lots of options. You can add a second Victory-Class Star Destroyer to your fleet, along with the core set Victory. They work pretty well, are easy enough to move around, and look cool. Want something up close and personal? The Gladiator-Class Star Destroyer is one of the most popular medium sized Imperial ship. Manueverable, deadly at close range, and very effective title cards.

Now lets talk Corvettes and Cruisers. Out of everything here I'm going to 100% suggest you buy at least one Arquitens Light Cruiser. Comes with great cards, works well as a Squadron carrier, picket ship, you name it. One fun and easy fleet I play is two or three Arquitens with a Gladiator, or two Arquitens and two Gladiators. They all fire from their flanks, so you line them up in a conga line like a convoy and fire salvos into your enemy. For something smaller the Raider-Class Corvette moves around the board fast, can move squadrons around, but is kind of hard to use unless you have experience with it. Still a very cool ship to own, I like using at least one when I run larger Capital ship fleets. Allows me to manuever my ISDs into space while also having something really fast to close gaps and push fighters around.

For the rebels there's options, depending on which flank you want to fire from. Front? Get another Nebulon-B. It comes with the Salvation and Yavaris title cards, which perfect the Nebulon-B. Corellian Corvettes are also good options. Side arcs? The MC30c Frigate.

Lastly lets quickly talk more speciality ships. I don't have any experience with Rebel Squadron dedicated carriers, but I do with the Imperial Quasar Fire-Class Cruiser Carrier. This thing exists solely to push Squadrons around the board. Know how to use it and you can wreck enemy fleets, make a bad move with it and it'll get torn to shreds ruining your strategy.

There exist two ships called Flottilas, they are very cheap and also exist solely as Squadron movers. They are the Gozanti Cruisers and Rebel Transports respectively.

That's the bulk of most of the ships. There are a couple others like the Hammerhead Corvettes and the Second wave of Squadron expansions, but these are harder to play with (in my opinion) and I'll let someone else tell you about them. Bottom line, it depends what kind of fleet you like playing. Squadron heavy? Look at Carriers and Squadron expansions. Classic ships? Go for a Star Destroyer or Star Cruiser. Want lots of ships in your fleet with lots of options? Get a bunch of Light Cruisers and Gladiators, and the various Rebel Frigates and Corvettes.

Edit: Forgot about the Interdictor-Class Star Destroyer. A personal favourite for casual games, but really hard to use competitively. A very expensive ship point-wise, and not very powerful attack wise. It has some cool abilities, like forcing enemy ships to change speeds, but that's about it. Shame really, this is by far my favourite looking ship.

If you'd like a more assertive answer. Buy the two Squadron expansions I. They come with classic ships like TIE Advanced, Interceptors and Bombers. And The Y-Wing, A-Wing, and B-Wings. Get one or two Light cruisers and one or two Nebulon-Bs. And if money isn't a problem get a Star destroyer and a Star Cruiser.

Just dive right in. I had never painted miniatures prior to Armada. I've found it to be much easier than I was expecting. It really doesn't take long before your results start to surprise you. A couple of tips:

Prep

• Use acrylic hobby paints (trusted brands include Vallejo, Citadel, and Army Painter). I only have experience with Citadel but by all accounts the other manufacturers are equivalent in quality. I'd go with whatever is readily available at your local game store or art supply store.
  
  
• Choose a good brush (in person, if possible). Army Painter and Citadel make great brushes that should be stocked by your FLGS. Local art supply stores should additionally carry brushes made by Winsor & Newton. You'll want a size Small brush (Citadel and Army Painter) or a size 0 brush (W&N) for detail work. Focus on picking out a brush which has a good, sharp tip on it. Avoid brushes which have strands splaying outward - this is why I recommend picking up a brush in person. You should also pick up a larger brush for basecoating (size Medium for Citadel/Army Painter or size 2 for W&N).
  
  
• Try not to let paint soak up more than halfway up the bristle. Your brushes shouldn't be saturated with paint, you only need a little ink at the tip. If your brush does soak up too much paint you should clean the paint out in your cup of rinse water. Otherwise you risk the paint drying where the bristles meet the handle which can ruin your brush's clean tip.
  
  
• Pick up The Masters Brush Cleaner and use it to thoroughly clean your bristles after every painting session. It's inexpensive will help your new brushes last a long time.
  
  
• Use a wet palette to both help thin your paints (more on this below) and to help ensure your paint doesn't dry before its applied. Mine consists of a shallow tupperware container with a wet paper towel lining the bottom topped with parchment paper. Cheap, easy, and quick to make.
  
  Painting
  
  
• Don't apply the paint directly to the model from the bottle. Model paint is designed to be diluted - usually with water - before application. This means when you do apply paint you'll usually need to apply two to three diluted coats of paint rather than one single coat of thick paint. As a rule of thumb the paint should have the runniness/consistency of milk before you paint with it. This adds some time to your process but the results are inarguably better. This video helps illustrate why.
  
  
• A nice benefit of thinning your paints is that mistakes don't show up as vividly and can be covered back up with ease. I make tons of mistakes when I paint. Simply paint over the happy little accident with your base coat and move on.
  
  
• For additional tips, the Warhammer Youtube channel has tons of helpful tutorials on painting. A lot of the mystery of painting is taken away when you can actually follow along step-by-step.
  
  
• /r/Minipainting also has lots of tips/inspiration. If you have Facebook join one of the many Minipainting groups for similar tips/inspiration.
  
  If I think of anything else I'll edit my reply. I hope this is helpful. Please be sure to share your painted squads when your are done with them!

I have an army painter line laser, and got one because I saw two other people using them (in a fully lit room). The price seemed a little high. The non-line thing, the crossover x, really? That sucks. The word is that they are finnicky - the QA must suck because some are fine and other aren't. I've heard about other laser line levels having a curve to them perhaps because the lens was mismounted. I haven't heard about the non-line ones, but people were talking about how even with fresh batteries the line didn't work very brightly on some of them.

I had a similar issue, bought mine, tried it out same day, worked great. Left the batteries in there, came back to play with it a week later and, same as you, working, but barely. Just mega-dim.

So, I got new batteries. Tried them, they work fine. Now I store the batteries next to the laser in a snack bag. When its game time, pop in the batteries, then take them out hours and hours later when the games are done. I haven't needed to buy a third set of batteries after the first mistake of leaving them in there for a week straight. I have RC things as well, and those batteries are way more problematic. Storing the batteries out of the device isn't a big deal.

The army painter target lock laser works fine if you're good about battery care. Can we get a pic of the X thing? I bet if you send that pic to army painter they'll help you out.

A quick googling shows that this is being talked about on the FFG forums. Here's some things I found:

• http://tabletop-laser.com/
  (germany)
  
  
• https://www.harborfreight.com/laser-marker-93242.html
  (remove the saw attachment, best deal, same quality as army painter)
  
  
• ebay "green laser", some of them come with several caps, some of those have a cap with many straight lines. Or buy a lens on amazon
  
  
• use home depot or amazon for a real laser level
  ($15)

I would not reccomend Citadel paints (from GW) for a first time painter. Citadel paints run on the expensive side, the bottle they come in sucks and makes it hard to water down when needed. The brushes from GW are pretty good though and the washes as great.

For paints I like Vellejo. They have a huge selection of colors, can be found in almost every hobby store and use dropper bottles which is the best way to store and use acrylic paints IMO.

If you plan to do more painting then this small project this wet pallet is one of the best investments you can make:

Sta-Wet Palette Keeps Paints Fresh For Days With Airtight Lid 857 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000C18GTE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Pk1VBbZPKAD25

I keep all of my stuff in the Stanley Click n Connect, but the SSD is just way too huge to fit in any reasonably sized carrying case. We were looking for a solution for a while until our group stumbled upon This ukulele case. It fits the SSD perfectly. You can keep dials and other accessories in the front pocket. It's great.

Honestly, don't bother with either of those compressors. You REALLY want one with a tank. For precision painting, the tank ensures an even air flow, while the kind that don't have a reserve tank sometimes can't keep up with consistent spray.

I have this one: http://www.amazon.com/AIRBRUSH-COMPRESSOR--Airbrush-Published-Exclusively/dp/B001738DXU/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1449878332&sr=1-1&keywords=airbrush+compressor+with+tank

YES, it's more expensive, but honestly if you want to do it, I highly suggest you do it right. Had several friends buy those starter kits and they always wound up replacing both the compressor and brush it comes with, thus spending more.

Speaking of brush, those brushes are pretty bad. They aren't precision machined, so they use O-Rings all over the place. Those are hard to clean and a point of failure.

I have two airbrushes that I adore: an Iwata Revolution and a Grex (I forget the model)

You have a few different kinds of grips: a pistol grip and a pen grip. I have one of each and use them for different applications, but have found that I mostly prefer the Grex.

I think this is what I have: http://www.amazon.com/Grex-Tritium-TG3-Trigger-Gravity-Airbrush/dp/B002XQ2K5W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1449878477&sr=8-2&keywords=Grex+Airbrush

Someone can probably recommend a cheaper alternative-

I recommend a gravity feed. Side feed and vacuum feed are both more of a pain to clean, and don't work so well with small amounts of paint for miniature work.

Anyways, just my opinions and observations. YMMV!

It's the bottom piece of a Stanley click and connect set. Absolutely perfect for armada. You can get a big top box and lower part combo (this piece) on amazon and then buy as many lower pieces as you want.

In the top I have all medium and large ships plus a Plano case for tokens. The two compartments in the lid hold dice and command dials perfectly in one with damage deck, objective tokens, and speed dials in the other.

One lower box contains all my small base ships and another lower has all my many squadrons.

Stanley Hand Tools STST19900 Click & Connect 2-in-2 Deep Tool Box And Organizer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NBJ8GBF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MFZwzbF7J4YBB

It can be really cheap or overly priced on amazon. Hardware stores might have it. I love that I can keep adding layers to it. And honestly, a small Plano holds more than enough defense tokens, objectives, etc. this one fits right in the upper box resting on the yellow dividers. Since the lid is deeper where the handle is on top, the Plano isn't squished when the lid closes.

Plano Moldings #3600-20 Utility Stowaway Organizer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C9ZULAI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_sKZwzb3NG29N7

I use different sheets for each card type (Ship, Squad & Objective, Upgrades).
http://www.amazon.com/20-Twenty-Pages-4-Pocket-Postcards/dp/B003AOG42Q - Works perfectly for Ship Cards. A little extra space so sleeved cards will fit in.
http://www.amazon.com/BCW-9-Pocket-Trading-Card-Pages/dp/B003GDZ7HE/ref=sr_1_3?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1451522478&sr=1-3&keywords=pro+9-pocket+page is a pretty standard trading card sleeve, space for sleeves, works well.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ETN7N4?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00 - it's a little hard to see on the image, but the space for each card is a bit truncated compared to the standard TCG page protector so the mini cards fit a bit nicer.

The only thing I'd change is a black-backed page, but I can't find many of those in non-traditional (ie not trading card sized) sizes.

Seconding this. I was holding out for a local shop to see if they could order them and was just keeping the titles with my other upgrades in these: https://www.amazon.com/BCW-PRO-16-POCKET-PAGE-UPGRADES/dp/B018OM5MGC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=armada+upgrade+card+holder&qid=1574173866&sr=8-1

Depending on what ships you have it may not be one-to-one perfect, but you can definitely double up in the BCW holders. They're definitely worth the money, along with a set of these. The templates let you print the labels, and you can use the Armada font to organize by name AND icon to help speed up unloading/reloading cards.

Has anybody tried this beast? I've been thinking it would be a great all in one box for the ship, squadron and upgrades/damage cards. The oversized front pocket might be to thin to hold many ship cards with sleeves. I do like the dice and small storage drawer though. This thing is HUGE!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DHQSG6O/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_14?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I wish i was in the US, so i would have people to play with!

I'm italian and ISD are easy to find on Amazon due to, well, nobody playing this game here. Here is a link in case you want to purchase a spaghetti ISD https://www.amazon.it/Giochi-Uniti-GU428-Puzzle-Imperial/dp/B01E8OIBUY/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_it_IT=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=18KT3TZQMIV4N&keywords=star+wars+armada+imperial&qid=1573564510&sprefix=star+wars+armada+%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-1

The Chimaera looks even nicer than an ISD but i would have to give up on Vader and 20 more €!

Interesting idea.

Not sure anyone has tried it before.

...Route66_LANParty goes and plays with Fab's Fleet Generator a bit...

Typically the starter set games are played with 125 or 180 points on a 3ft x 3ft play area. That might work ok for your Rogues pack idea. But for a bigger 3ft by 6 ft game, you'll want to invest in more large ships before the starfighters packs.

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As for deals though... Rebel CR90 corvettes are still only $7 ... such a good deal. And comes with the best rebel commander this side of Ackbar.

CR90 - http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Armada-Corellian-Expansion/dp/1616619953

Combine one $7 CR90 with the $22 Gladiator. Which are also at a nice Prime shipping price right now. Then you've got enough for a 225 point game on the bigger table.

Gladiator Star Destroyer - http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Armada-Gladiator-class-Destroyer/dp/1616619988/


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In the end Rogues and Villains aren't a bad expansion to own. None of them are bad buys at this point.

This one has served me well. fits 2 mats easily.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DLYJ2G4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

These

BCW Pro 8-Pocket - Multiple Size Pockets - (20 Ct. Pack) - For Star Wars Armada https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IUG071W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Rev3CbGXMFH90

I use these for ships and titles. You can put the titles in the small pockets next to the ship cards.

BCW PRO 16-POCKET PAGE - TOPLOAD - (20 CT. PACK) FOR X-WING AND ARMADA UPGRADES https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018OM5MGC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Ofv3CbCMQ7GJT

I use these for all other upgrade cards.

Both of these hold the cards well sleeved or unsleeved.

Also, keep in mind that each ship can only have certain upgrades assigned to it. There are icons at the bottom of the ship card that represent what upgrade slots are available. Those icons match the icons on the back of the upgrade cards.

To use your example, you can only use the XI7 on a ship that has a turbo laser upgrade slot. So you can put it on a CR-90A, but not on a CR-90B.

I have mine sorted with Rebel commanders on one page, Rebel Officers on a page, Imperial Commanders, etc. One sixteen pocket page per type of upgrade.

Star Wars Armada: Dice Pack https://www.amazon.com/dp/1633440664/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_YkLsyb954AF2A

Star Wars: Armada Maneuver Tool Board Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/1633441288/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ElLsyb2SGDD47

Star Wars Armada: Gladiator-class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616619988/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.lLsyb19Z9A09

Star Wars Armada: Assault Frigate Mark II Expansion Pack https://www.amazon.com/dp/161661997X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_KmLsybNX34KDG

Star Wars Armada: MC30c Frigate Expansion Pack Board Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/1633441199/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_9mLsybWRYC8M5

Star Wars Armada: Rogues and Villains Expansion Pack Board Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/1633441210/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_EnLsybTWV1HXT

Added the mc30 in there just because its fun too. Alternatively, get the ISD and MC80.