Our first 2-player game comes in a 11.5″ x 9″ x 2″ book case box, with a MOUNTED GAME BOARD and more!
(Learn how to play the game through this instructional video: Learn to play The Armada!)
The Armada: $59 (U.S.)
28″ x 22″ high quality mounted game board depicts western Europe and The Spanish Main:
The Armada is an entry level game: 10 page game manual, 107 double-sided pre-rounded 5/8″ counters representing the capital ships and army regiments of the belligerents, and 12 red & yellow 8-sided dice. The Armada will be a fun gaming experience for any gamer of any experience level, and it’s a GREAT way to introduce novices, kids or even spouses to strategy gaming!!
The Spanish player wins by either marching into London or using his wealth and military power to cajole France’s warring parties to Catholicism; and brute force to dictate it upon the rebellious Spanish Netherlands. England has A LOT to say about both, but Spain is the economic superpower of Europe in 1585 with her extraordinary wealth from the new world! Feisty England will no doubt purloin some of that with raids on The Spanish Main…
French Catholic and Protestant forces fight it out for religious dominance during France’s religious civil wars. Both players will try to lend military assistance to their allies in the ongoing continental brawl. Here, a Spanish regiment and two capital ships try to seize control of Brittany from French Protestants. Sometimes you can induce your partisan friends to rise up with you, but Spain didn’t feel like waiting apparently! Nearby, two English men-of-war lurk, waiting to see the initial results before committing to battle.
There are two popular tales, both perhaps apocryphal, of King Philip II’s reaction when he was told, while toiling in his study, of the destruction of “The Great Armada” in 1588:
“I sent the Armada against men and not against the wind and waves of God.”
……….or……….
“I give thanks to God by whose hand I have been so endowed that I can put to sea another fleet as great as this we have lost whenever I choose.”
Whichever of the two versions was true, if either, both ended “and without a sigh or a change of expression, the king picked up his pen and went on with his letters.” (Mattingly, “The Armada”)
In “The Armada”, you don’t just have your enemy to contend with, you also must be aware of the vulnerability of 16th century sailing ships to the vagaries of the weather and the hazards of navigation at the whim of the winds. It’s dangerous to gather vast fleets in compacted areas, as evidenced by the required roll for such concentrations on the “Shipwreck Table” (above) every turn!
Re-fight the glorious Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604 with “The Armada”
