Massive Star Destroyers fly to battle against Rebel corvettes and frigates in Star Wars: Armada, the two-player miniatures game of epic fleet combat in the Star Wars galaxy!

In Armada, you assume the role of fleet admiral, serving with either the Imperial Navy or Rebel Alliance. You assemble your fleet and engage the enemy. Using the game’s unique maneuver tool, you steer your carefully detailed and pre-painted capital ships across the battlefield, even while the battle rages around them.

Banks of turbolasers unleash torrential volleys of fire against squadrons of X-wings and TIEs. Engineering teams race to route additional power to failing shields. Laser blasts and explosions flare across the battlefield. Even a single ship can change the tide of battle, and it’s your job to ensure that it’s in the right place at the right time. You issue the commands that will decide the course of battle and, perhaps, the fate of the galaxy.

~ Capital Ships In Combat ~

Armada balances the awesome scale of the Star Wars galaxy’s capital ships and space warfare with intuitive ship designs and accessible rules for issuing commands and resolving combat. The result is a rich, engaging, and highly tactical play experience.

Capital ships are extremely powerful war machines, but they’re also massive and sophisticated vessels that can’t swiftly react to every development in the heat of battle. Instead, you must plan ahead. Each of your ships has a command value, which determines how many commands it will have in its stack at any given point in time. These commands are then revealed throughout the game, one per round, even as you assign new commands to the bottom of your stack. Each of the four possible commands offers a different, powerful advantage. The key to flying your ships effectively is to issue these commands in such a way that your crews will be ready to execute them at just the right times.

~ An Innovative Maneuver Tool ~

Another reason you need to plan for the future is that the massive space battles of Armada are always in motion. Throughout the Ship Phase, in which you and your opponent activate your capital ships, you’re always exchanging activations. Not only that, but when you activate one of your ships, it attacks first, then moves. This means that you’re always setting your course to set yourself up for the next round’s attack, rather than setting a course to set yourself up for an attack in the same round. You have to consider where your opponent’s ships have already moved, where the unactivated ships are likely to move, and which ships are likely to activate first in the coming round. You also need to consider your ship’s limitations.

Capital ships can’t easily vary their speeds or execute hairpin turns like the starfighters that buzz around them. They measure hundreds of meters long, boast thousands of crew members, and carry tremendous inertia through every turn they execute. Accordingly, Armada uses a unique and innovative maneuver tool to maneuver your capital ships that makes it easy for you to set a ship’s course, even while it lends an element of realism to your ship’s pitch and yaw.

~ Squadrons of Starfighters ~

The Star Wars movies remind us that there’s always room – even a need – for personal heroics. No matter how many Star Destroyers, corvettes, or frigates rain laser fire upon each other as they vie for the fate of the galaxy, there’s always the chance that a single starfighter pilot can turn the tide of battle.

Accordingly, even though they’re dwarfed by the capital ships they accompany, starfighters and their pilots are a critical part of Armada. Entering the game as whole squadrons, your starfighers are highly adaptable and flexible, and only a foolish admiral would overlook the tactical options they can add to your fleet. While squadrons don’t pack the raw power or resilience of the capital ships they accompany, they come with their own rules for movement and combat that make them far more capable of occupying and threatening the exact portion of the battlefield that you choose.

If left unchecked, a swarm of starfighters can tear down even the most massive of capital ships, and while capital ships can return their fire, any shot directed at squadrons is a shot not taken at a larger ship.

~ Assemble Your Fleet ~

With its capital ships, starfighter squadrons, and accessible rules, Star Wars: Armada provides you an unparalleled take on the largest and most consequential battles in the Star Wars universe. What’s more, your first games are only the beginning of your involvement in the Galactic Civil War. Just as it is your job as fleet admiral to assemble a battle plan, it is your job to build the fleet that stands the best chance of emerging from battle victorious. Rules for fleet-building allow you to handpick your strike force as you prepare to meet the enemy.

Within the Core Set, you will find plenty of options. Not only can you choose which ships and squadrons to bring to battle, you can upgrade them with powerful weaponry or call upon the talents of elite pilots and officers. However, these options expand further with starship and squadron expansions that allow you to refine your strategies and explore even more of the Star Wars galaxy.