Recently, I ran some re-introductory games of X-Wing for my gaming group. Everyone has played before, but it has been some years. So many in fact, that the last time they played was first edition. To keep things easy, I decided to simplify matters and only fly pilot cards, no upgrades at all. Ordinarily I would say this logic is rather sound and helps avoid feels bad moments, but in this case I actually think it was a mistake.
This will be a sort of weird hybrid post. I'll be talking about my thoughts with the recent announcement that Armada and X-Wing are ceasing development, but nobody likes a wall of text, unless you're into books. But this isn't a book, and pictures are required, so I've gone ahead and interspersed my ramblings with photos of my painted Armada squadrons. So it does double duty for the Season of Scenery challenge as well.
While November has been a slow month for me, hobby-wise, it hasn't been entirely devoid of minis. I enjoyed my foray into unofficial Star Wars Armada territory, so I gave it another go, this time with some of the squadrons: a Republic LAAT/i Gunship, Naboo N-1 Starfighters, and CIS HMP Droid Gunship.
I seem to have a tendency to pick "dead" games: Pirates CSG, Star Wars Miniatures, and now, Star Wars Armada. Unfortunately for the Republic and Separatist factions, they didn't get a full release, at least when compared to the Empire and Rebels. I also have a penchant for customizing things, and just because Armada is generally regarded as a complete and balanced game by the competitive community, I'm here for the lore damnit. And the Republic had the Arquitens before it was cool.
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| A smaller angry triangle for your small conflict needs. |
As I come to grips with Armada and it's mechanics, I've been learning about all of the various launches of ships and how they affect the game. I also learned that at some point, ownership of the game went from Fantasy Flight Games to Atomic Mass Games. AMG hasn't released any new models, but they have released print and play expansions that allow you to use old ships in new factions, which I think is neat. They've also used some lore justifications for this instead of just willy-nilly adding things, which I think is neater. However, that means you end up with situations where an Imperial ship in Imperial grey colors is flying alongside Republic ships in the egg-white and maroon colors of the prequels. Which isn't neat to me. Luckily, I am an ok painter, so I was able to do something about that.
In Star Wars Armada, all of the big ships come pre-painted. I've been adding some of my own details to the ships, which has been good practice. You see, the little ships don't have any paint on them, and so require you to come up the paint yourself (I guess if you don't mind bare plastic, you aren't required to do anything). I've taken a quick stab at two of the "squadrons" that I randomly picked out of the box of tiny Star Wars fighters: the Millennium Falcon, an Imperial Shuttle, Republic V-19 Starfighters, and Separatist Vulture Droids. More after the hyperspace jump.
If you told me the next post I would have written in the sci-fi genre wasn't going to be Warhammer 40K, the game I just spent two posts talking about not too long ago, I would have been surprised. Life has a funny way of working though. I was at a Flea Market at my FLGS, selling some of my wares, when the fine fellow at the table next to me suggested a trade. And that's how I ended up with an entire Star Wars Armada fleet.
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| Republic Commandos |
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| Some Clone Troopers explore a newly created building. Inexplicably supported by an Imperial AT-ST (for scale). |
