AMG Released this statement on August 20th, 2021. They’ve had Armada since November 2020. They haven’t worked on anything for Armada yet, and don’t plan to now. But maybe they will someday. I’ll admit I was hit VERY hard when I saw this – I was also already struggling with some internal issue that particular Friday, so when this showed up I almost broke. So what does this announcement mean?
First the bad. There isn’t any new product now, soon, or even next year. They don’t have any experienced Armada developers on board and just had 3 games fall into their lap. This isn’t AMG’s fault – but they do have to react to it. They chose not to prioritize making new content for Armada. It’s a tough pill for Armada fans like myself to swallow, but it’s also the facts. And even if they do get things stable enough to devote some time to Armada development by 2022 or 2023… the turnaround time between starting a wave, and it hitting store shelves is typically around 2 years. So it could be 2024 or later before we have any brand new Armada ships in our hands.
Next the mediocre. They are still supporting the game through organized play and reprints. This is significant in that it’s NOT the same treatment games like the Star Wars LCG and Destiny received. It does however resemble Imperial Assault, in some ways, however Imperial Assault has very separate challenges. The good news is that Imperial Assault is still being printed, still gets played, and is also currently expecting new product, as Steve Horvath mentioned back in 2020 – “Imperial Assault’s Story is not finished”. Armada hitting a developmental pause does not mean the end.
The GOOD part. Perspective is important right now. Armada is already used to only 1 ship a year. We’ve seen it with the SSD and similar situations. The game is VERY solid and has a dedicated playerbase. But the key here is that we JUST got so much. First, we got a 1.5 Ruleset, which made some significant changes to the rules, including points updates, and card errata. These changes were also represented in the upgrade card expansion. All the old stuff is new again! That’s years and years of content that’s ripe to go re-explore! Plus we got The Clone Wars! 2 new factions, 4 ships per faction, squadrons, and even more new upgrades, many of which can be used across all 4 factions. Seriously there are so many builds, combos, and changes – it may actually take Armada players 3-4 years to try out all the new ships, commanders, and upgrades!
Our community is strong, and I’ll keep creating content. There’s a plan already in place if the game gets cancelled or support otherwise ends. There’s also tons of homebrew to satisfy those eager for even more content as well. I would urge you to explore the game as it is however, rather than dive to deep into fan made content, as there’s probably TONS of options you hadn’t even considered yet!
This game is pure gold. And it absolutely is NOT dead.
