Editing Star Wars: Armada (section)

=Cost=
Compared to [[Warhammer 40000|some other tabletop strategy games]], Armada has a relatively low entry cost and upkeep requirement. That said, Armada's price is largely front-loaded, especially compared to X-Wing, with the Core Set required to play the game running $100 MSRP, yet providing less than half a full fleet for each faction and the necessary components being impossible to split between two new players to share the cost. 

However, once that sticker shock fades off, the good news is that beyond the initial purchase staying up to date with new releases is very inexpensive. With one to two waves per year, and typically one ship per faction per wave, upkeep costs can be as low as $20-$30 once every six months. Unlike X-Wing, it is typically uncommon to need more than two of any ship, and as often as not there's limited need to buy more than one. Furthermore, only a small handful of upgrades are found only in one faction's boxes, so a player who only purchases mono-faction won't be significantly hindered. Eventually, many of those upgrades end up as alt-arts, making them plentiful and cheap to buy or easy to borrow.

As for going from the Core Set to a full 400 points, it'll depend on which faction you want to play and what sort of fleet grabs your interest, but will likely run you around an additional $120. Obviously, if you can grab anything below MSRP - either from a [[FLGS|local retailer]] selling at a discount or buying ships second hand - then that price will begin to fall dramatically. Sample [http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/03/building-imperial-fleet-on-cheap-250.html Imperial] and [http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/03/building-fleet-for-cheap-2-rebel.html Rebel] cheap starter fleets for $250 or less (including the $100 Core Set) can be found here, if your own Google-fu fails you. Get imperials if you like pizza slices and Doritos, Rebels if you want the option to proxy potatoes and pickles as ships.

As of 2020 it's now possible to buy the older upgrade cards in just a big box of cards (appropriately named the Upgrade Card Collection), for the most part allowing you to buy just the plastic you want.  However you still need a starter set for things like the damage deck, and it remains the only source of the Luke Skywalker & Howlrunner squadron cards.

There are also separate starter boxes for the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems.  Each starter has all the necessary bits you need to play, but focused on one faction and giving you a respectable starting force of three ships.