Games

Armada
Armada is a card game that is popular among the Hekayti warriors as it simulates a space battle between warring races. It can feature two to eight players who represent a different race that is given randomly at the start of the game. Players have the option of betting before they are dealt five cards that represent ten different ship types for the ten different races featured in the game. There are also different wild cards that have plus or minus values. After a discard round where players can swap up to three cards, there is an option of another betting round before the hands are revealed. The player with the highest point total in their hand is the game winner. For detailed info on the game rules, see the help topics in the next section.

Here is a breakdown of all the help topics found in this help file. You can go page by page or skip to that page by typing the related help command below.

Round Breakdown - +armada/help3

Cards & Values - +armada/help8

Strategies - +armada/help10

Commands - +armada/help13

Round Breakdown
A game of Armada begins when one person places a deck down and types +armada/start. The player who starts the game becomes the Grand Admiral and will be assigned a random race from the ten in the game. People in the area will be notified that a game is starting and can join by typing +armada/join. The Grand Admiral can also set the maximum bet during the joining round with the +armada/maxbet command.

Once one to seven more players join, they too are randomly assigned a race and then the Grand Admiral types armada/deal to deal out five cards to the players. Once the cards are dealt, the Grand Admiral will be prompted with the option to start the betting round or skip it with the commands +armada/startbet or +armada/skipbet respectively.

Throughout the game, the Grand Admiral will find themselves prompted to start the next round. The pace of the game is essentially controlled by the Grand Admiral. Should the players wish to skip the first betting round, the Grand Admiral will then start the discard round with the +armada/startdiscard command. However, should the players wish to bet, the first player will be prompted to bet.

The first better can either fold with +armada/fold or place their bet from 1 to the maximum bet set by the Grand Admiral with the +armada/bet command. The next player must then match or exceed the previous bet without going over the maximum bet. If there are two or more players left after the betting round, the Grand Admiral will be prompted to start the next round. If all but one player folds, the game ends.

What a player bets should depend upon the cards in their hand. Each player has a hand of five cards which might consist of five fleet cards of varying point values. Cards and their values are shown in a players hand which is viewed with the +armada/hand command. Card values are shown at the bottom of each card and totaled at the bottom of the hand. Fleet cards that belong to the assigned race of the player give a +5 point bonus. This is the first of many possible bonuses a player can get depending on the cards in their hand. For more info on combos and strategies, see help9.

Hands can also contain wild cards. There are 25 wild cards in the game and while some are beneficial to a hand, most are not. Beneficial wilds cards provide an Admiral with prototype components while harmful cards might plague an Admiral with hazards or equipment failures.

In the discard round, each player can discard zero to three cards in their hand. This is where most of the strategy of the game comes into play. Should a player have a hazard or failure card in their hand, it is wise to swap that card. Also, a player would likely want to keep their own race card as it gives them a +5 point bonus. Again, there are also several combos that could greatly affect the outcome of the game for a player. See help9 for more.

When prompted, a player discards their cards with the +armada/discard 0 for no cards, or +armada/discard [ ] for multiple cards. For example, if a player wishes to discard their first second and fifth card, they would type in +armada/discard 1 2 5. Once all the players have discarded, the Grand Admiral will be prompted to either start the last betting round or skip it.

If the maximum bet was reached in the first betting round, the last betting round will automatically be skipped and the Grand Admiral will be prompted to start the final reveal round with the +armada/reveal command. But should there be another betting round, it works the same way as the first round until all players have reached a common bet.

In the reveal round, the player with the highest point total will be announced as the winner and each player whether they folded or not will be told how much they owe them. Should there be a tie, the winners split the pot. Finally, the Grand Admiral will be prompted to clean up the cards and end the game with the +armada/end command.

Cards & Values
Armada uses a deck of 125 cards made up of 100 fleet cards and 25 wild cards. Each fleet card represents one of ten races and one of ten ship types and the card value is based on its ship type. The races of Armada are:

Aukami, B'hiri, Falari, Hekayti, Lotorian, Muscipulan, Pyracani, Ritikk, Squillid, and Thul.

The ship fleet types and their values in parenthesis are:

Fighters (1), Bombers (2), Shuttles (3), Picket Ships (4), Corvettes (5), Frigates (6), Destroyers (7), Cruisers (8), Dreadnoughts (9), and Carriers (10).

So, a few examples of fleet cards would be Aukami Shuttles (3pts), Ritikk Bombers (2pts), and Thul Cruisers (8pts).

As mentioned in the previous section, there are also 25 wild cards to make the game of Armada exciting and unpredictable. Wild cards range from detrimental hazard and equipment failure cards to beneficial equipment prototype cards. Failure cards have a penalty of -5 and hazard cards have a penalty of -10 or -20 for rare cards. Prototype cards have bonuses of +10 or +30 for the rare Superweapon Prototype. Will your armada be plagued by a black hole hazard? Or will it acquire a superweapon prototype and devastate your enemy's armada? Play a game and find out!

Armada Strategies
In Armada, there are several card combinations that can award a player point bonuses to their hand. In the start of the game, each player is assigned a race. There is a +5 bonus per card that is automatically given if a player receives a fleet card of his or her race. There are more bonuses listed below that require a little more luck and strategy from the player.

National Pride Bonus
This is very similar to the armada racial bonus but awards +5 for each racial pair, +15 for three of a kind, +30 for four of a kind, and +45 for all five cards of the same race. Matches do not have to be of the player's assigned race.

Warrior Strategy
A bonus of +20 points is awarded to a player if their hand contains one Fighters card and one Carriers card. Only one bonus is awarded even if the player has multiple fighter or carrier cards. So, it is wise for a player to keep only one pair in hopes of getting another type of bonus.

Logistic Strategy
This is similar to the Warrior Strategy but awards a +20 point bonus to a Picket Ships and Destroyers card combo. Only one Logistic combo bonus is awarded.

Diplomatic Strategy
This is similar to the above strategies but awards a +20 point bonus to a Shuttles and Cruisers card combo. Only one Diplomatic combo bonus is awarded.

The Fortvilet Gamble
Believed to be named after a famed Hekyati war hero, the Fortvilet Gamble is the ultimate strategy in Armada, and hence the most risky. It rewards a player for pitting their relatively weak armada against a much more powerful opponent. If the player's point total falls in a range of 10 to 15 inclusive, they get a bonus of 50 points! For this strategy to work, it is possible that a quick-thinking Admiral must use a detrimental hazard to their benefit. What route will you take to glory? Only the greatest Admirals can pull off the Fortvilet Gamble!

Armada Commands
If you have any questions regarding these rules or the game of Armada in general, direct them to Ashenmane in-game.