When you first get Star Wars: Armada from Fantasy Flight Games, it looks a little something like this:
Then you get it to the table (or floor in my case) and it looks more like this:
But then, after you’ve taken everything out of it’s showy packaging and gotten rid of the always-awful FFG insert, you’re left with something more like…
Yeah. That’s no fun.
Even worse, it’s practically a death sentence for the game. Because when it takes 20-30 minutes or more just to find all the pieces you’re looking for, it severely limits when you can get Star Wars: Armada to the table. I considered briefly making an insert; but between the open window in the box of the base set, the fact there was no way I could make an insert to accommodate all the ships I’d purchased (and have yet to purchase), and the still fresh memory of my lost chunk of thumb – I figured I’d better get professional help.
Thankfully, someone is already on top of the Star Wars: Armada storage problem. Feldherr is a German game accessories company that not only makes carrying bags and generic foam inserts to transport all kinds of minis, they have a line of inserts that work with their Maxi bags, specially molded to hold specific Armada ships – from the base set all the way up to the recently released Victory-class Star Destroyer and Home One ships.
The inserts are perfect, deep enough to protect your large ships completely. The Victory-class insert comes with an shallow extra tray so that you can fit its base and cards. The command dials all fit with the ship. There’s so much room, in fact, that I shoved all my command dials in the one tray, even though there is room for the dials with most of the large and medium ships in their respective trays. This works for me since I won’t be taking my fleet down to my FLCS to battle; but if I wanted to, I could set it up so that all of the components for each of my ships was in an easy-to-grab package that contained just the ship and all of its accessories.
For the smaller ships, especially, I really appreciate the custom molded inserts. Plucking out shapes to fit the oddball outlines of the Rebel fleet would be an exercise in frustration. Most inserts also have space to include the base, command dial, speed dial, and assorted tokens and upgrade cards for the ship. Or, you can do what I did and shove all the cards and tokens together to make room to store more squadrons (of which I officially have too many).
The Star Wars: Armada set, includes a hard plastic organizer to fit all your dice, command tokens, and other assorted cardboard bits. It’s an absolute life-saver. After spending five minutes trying to find a spare command token during our last game and getting that LEGO-level panic where you know something is there but you just can’t see it; having all the cardboard bits discretely separated is deeply satisfying. The organizer doesn’t fit the range or maneuver tools, but you can stick those and the manuals in the front pocket of the Maxi bag.
The bag itself is very nice. It’s sturdy, with a solid handle and convenient shoulder strap. It’s got a striking red interior, which works nicely from a functional sense. Since it contrasts with the grey inserts, finding something at the bottom of the bag isn’t a problem. You can fit the organizer and six to seven insert trays (depending on depth) in the Maxi. Once you’ve zipped everything in, nothing shifts or moves around in the inserts. So your ships are safe to store and transport. If you have leftover trays (which I do) you can fit two-to-three inserts (depending on their depth) in the original box.
Now, my OCD-horror show pile of components looks like this:
And I can breathe a little easier getting the mats out for another session of Armada. I’ll probably pick up another Maxi bag and additional inserts once more ships come out and I start painting the squadrons (they’re unpainted…a horrible travesty that will be amended).
You can pick up a Feldherr set with the bag, organizer, and set of inserts that will safely store the ships and components that come with the core game. Alternately, you can purchase sets for specific waves or Empire or Rebel factions (though those don’t come with the organizer). If you just want to protect a few ships, you can buy individual trays as well. A lot of the newer items you can get on Amazon; but if you want the core set, get it directly from the Feldherr site (the price is being driven up on Amazon by third party sellers).
Happy organizing!
