Monday, May 4, 2015

Ooh! Shiny!

Since it is Star Wars Day, I shall confess to my first outrageous impulse buy of the year.



Last Wednesday was our fortnightly Odin's Night gaming club, held at the local Good Games shop. In my defence, I knew it was likely to just be me and one or two others turning up, and I had left all my SAGA stuff at school, so I grabbed my starter box of X-Wing and headed down to the store. I quite like X-Wing, but to make the game work you really need more than the starter set, so I was thinking I would buy a couple more ships, maybe even the Rogues and Villains set.

Anyway, after some agonising, I ended up buying Star Wars Armada instead, for which I largely blame the review on Meeples and Miniatures. Gaming buddy Lawrence and I had some fun assembling all the shiny components (many of which are fiendishly clever), then got the ships on the table and worked our way through the basic game, joined by Ben. I confess to being the first to make 'phew phew' noises while manoeuvring my Tie Fighters.



He's smiling because he didn't pay for it.

I have a theory that X-Wing appeals more to gamers with a background in things like first person shooters or skirmish games, while Armada is going to appeal more to gamers who normally get into big tactical games. It's a clever and pretty intuitive system once you get into it and play a few turns, but to my way of thinking this is a deeper game than X-Wing, and I think I will enjoy it more. As it turns out I'm pretty glad I never bought much X-Wing stuff. Armada may prove to be costly.

9 comments:

  1. Shiny indeed! I've also cracked and bought it, similarly glad I didn't jump into X-Wing. Armada seems to have more depth for an experienced gamer. Two core sets improves things greatly and Wave 1 around the corner now.

    For some variety, there's a wiki with the other fighter cards on it, we proxied a few different types.

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  2. I'd like to give this a go myself and I don't do Sci-Fi either???

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  3. I couldn't resist either... already have the Imperial class on pre-order...!!!

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  4. I am confused my your comment: "I shall confess to my first outrageous impulse buy of the year."

    This is a contradictory statement - all gaming related impulse buys are sensible investments in future fun and mental wellness. Ergo, they are not outrageous!

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  5. "Mistakes were made..." Ha!

    I've been lucky, my school children's parents have bought 2/3rds of my X Wing stuff - of 31 ships, I've only paid for 9! Get a sponsor bro!

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  6. You junky! More toys, our club has gone the x wing way but I have to admit that the big ships do appeal.

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  7. I was thinking about buying Star Wars Armada, then I spotted the obsene price being asked for it and went... nah...

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  8. I love that cartoon, translates into almost any hobby!

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  9. I'm with you on dumping my X-Wing stuff for Armada (thank goodness there are several guys willing to take on the excess cargo). X-Wing is a great tactical game but maneuvering whole fleets appeals to the megalomaniac in me.

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