I think everyone considers it a foregone conclusion that we'll be seeing a Clone Wars iteration of this game, and that it will be compatible. Essentially leaving us with four factions, even though anachronistic pairings would be very weird.

But what I'm wondering about are third factions. It's never sat well with me that the Firespray is an Imperial ship, especially since it seems to be flown by mercenaries with no true allegiance, and would probably never been fielded offensively with TIEs anyway. Same with the YT-1300. And let's face it, the Headhunter is also a civilian model, and the Y-wing is a Clone Wars veteran could have gotten into everyone's hands by now.

My idea is a faction for what can be summarised as "pirates", though they would be well suited to represent any independant outfit, mercenary group, black marketeers, criminal syndicates (Black Sun, I'm looking at you), Mandalorian clans. And of course, the Hutts. I'm talking real underbelly stuff, scum of the galaxy. Lots of civilian ships, obscure alien models, maybe some uglies, even some stolen or outmoded military gear with eccentric and inadvisable modifications. It would be quite easy to print packs of pirate pilot cards for some of the existing ships, perhaps with a few odd quirks. Headhunters refitted for torpedoes, for example.

The aethetic I'm going for is one with all the underfunded ragtag mix-match of the Rebels but with little to none of the accompanying virtue, and all the cold brutality of the Empire with but none of its military operation values and priority sourcing. Brigands. Scoundrels. Scruffy-looking.

Existing models that I think would be most comfortable in a pirate faction would be:

Firespray-31

YT-1300

Z-95 Headhunter

HWK-290

BLT Y-wing Starfighter

Not including Clone War legacies, possible other pirateships could include:

YT-2400

Jumpmaster 5000

Kihraxz Assault Fighter

Uglies

Hornet-class Interceptor

CloakShape Fighter

Skipray Blastboat

Preybird-class starfighter

AEG-77 Vigo

Miy'til Starfighter

Another thread here recently indicated that there is a lot of love for the TIE Scout, which is the only TIE model I know of that was made available to the civilian market, so that one is also a possibility.

Naturally, fanmade uglies made from FFG parts should be tournament legal, especially since constructing and showing off the most outrageous monstrosities may be the only real benefit to using them.

Now, I think it's fair to say that my influence with the game designers at FFG is at an all-time low, so I ask the fans, is this a good idea? An old idea? A staggeringly bad one? What other ideas and recommendations do people have?

I think everyone considers it a foregone conclusion that we'll be seeing a Clone Wars iteration of this game

Um, no?

What he said ^

Uh oh, I see where this is going. Updating instances of "everyone" with "me".

We aren't getting a third faction. And I think FFG is pretty set against factions sharing ships anyway. Distinct factions are a benefit. They were pretty clear that this is a Rebels vs Empire game.

Well sure. But I also think Chess would benefit from a third faction. 500 years is a long time to wait for expansions.

Love the idea of a pirate or merc faction. Even if it never makes the tournament circuit, mix'n'match squadrons could make for some wicked fun games nights. I'd like to propose the following (that I stole from GW): If it fits a narrative & both players agree, go for it!

I'm betting we will see a whole new space battley game at some point. Though I doubt it'll focus on the Clone Wars. Disney has been fairly mum on that whole bit of the universe, and has scrapped most things involved with it.

I'd imagine it'll be a fleet battles thing. Zoomed out and focused on massive battles.

We aren't getting a third faction. And I think FFG is pretty set against factions sharing ships anyway. Distinct factions are a benefit. They were pretty clear that this is a Rebels vs Empire game.

Of course, it seems like most players like the 6-asteroid-100pnt-death-match, and that's the easiest for FFG to support, and keeping it to two factions.

Well sure. But I also think Chess would benefit from a third faction. 500 years is a long time to wait for expansions.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1d1e/?srp=6

The thing is, FFG will run out of ships, and then pilots. That means no more expansions, which is boring for us and unprofitable for them. The clone-war era is a rich mine for new rules and ships in a parallel game (as are atmospheric battles), as well as for old legacy ships in the current one. The main issue would be finding a way to make droid starfighters play and feel differently from piloted starfighters. Something that could be explored in the current game with Droid TIEs, which are one of the few TIE variants left that are different enough yet sensible enough to seem worth making.

Well sure. But I also think Chess would benefit from a third faction. 500 years is a long time to wait for expansions.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1d1e/?srp=6

I stand corrected. Now all they need are new pieces and a troop-selection meta-game.

The HWK should also be a merc ship. Kyle Katarn, the HWKs most notable pilot, even worked for the Empire first. I have been a proponent for a third faction since the games inception, leaning most strongly towards the Zann Consortium. I feel an additional faction could only help the game, especially if that faction has its own quirks effecting the meta.

I also enjoy the increased freedom for miniature customisation that pirates offer. Have you seen the YT custom jobs people have made? Beautiful.

I think, personally, that FFG will have enough ships to tide them over until the new movies, considering Rebels is likely to add a few more to the list, and the new flicks are likely to contain a veritable ton of new ships. I imagine they will have lots of new ships, for marketing purposes at the very least, but also just for new things for us to see. This seems like a much more likely path to new content then the Clone Wars.

Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the prequels far more then I think most folks did. Well, not the first film, but I digress. I'd love to see some content from them, but if it occurs, I think its likely to be whole new products.

I would love to see a "Fringer" faction that has access to various independent type ships as well as some older stuff but that can't take the mainstream fighters like TIEs or X-Wings, but it seems unlikely to happen.

On the other hand, I would also really like to see a compatible (or at least similar) game set in the Twilight Imperium universe, which is actually a really good setting and already has more than a dozen distinct factions to draw on. But that is another conversation.

Well sure. But I also think Chess would benefit from a third faction. 500 years is a long time to wait for expansions.

Try this one. Actually looks pretty good and includes (among other innovations) 6 different "factions".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_2:_The_Sequel

Considering FFG is starting to make up pilots (Echo and Whisper) and putting pilots in ships that we have no real evidence of (Corran in an E-wing), I don't think we have to worry about FFG running out of pilots. They haven't even started to reuse pilots.
And with repaint packs, I wouldn't worry too much about not having enough ships, especially with Rebels and Episode VII around the corner.

And really, starting a third faction has plenty of difficulty, especially the longer we go without one. How do you introduce a faction and have it be a viable option compared to the other 2, who are both sitting at 16 different ships. Again, you can't allow them to use older ships, because you kill a faction's distinctiveness. And I think how FFG has handled various ships so far is pretty clear that we won't see cross faction ships.

Also, wasn't the Moldy Crow more Jan Or's ship? She was the one who piloted Kyle around, thus it should be Rebel.

*sniff sniff*

uhg. Smells like Troll in here...

I'd like to propose the following ( that I stole from GW ): If it fits a narrative & both players agree, go for it!

I would watch was I was saying if I were you...

Your gonna wake up their lawyers!

Considering FFG is starting to make up pilots (Echo and Whisper) and putting pilots in ships that we have no real evidence of (Corran in an E-wing), I don't think we have to worry about FFG running out of pilots. They haven't even started to reuse pilots.

And with repaint packs, I wouldn't worry too much about not having enough ships, especially with Rebels and Episode VII around the corner.

And really, starting a third faction has plenty of difficulty, especially the longer we go without one. How do you introduce a faction and have it be a viable option compared to the other 2, who are both sitting at 16 different ships. Again, you can't allow them to use older ships, because you kill a faction's distinctiveness. And I think how FFG has handled various ships so far is pretty clear that we won't see cross faction ships.

Also, wasn't the Moldy Crow more Jan Or's ship? She was the one who piloted Kyle around, thus it should be Rebel.

The Lambda shuttle came with three unique pilots. And yet the films only ever depicted one named character flying the shuttle. His name? Chewbacca.

EPT: Casual.

Considering FFG is starting to make up pilots (Echo and Whisper) and putting pilots in ships that we have no real evidence of (Corran in an E-wing), I don't think we have to worry about FFG running out of pilots. They haven't even started to reuse pilots.

And with repaint packs, I wouldn't worry too much about not having enough ships, especially with Rebels and Episode VII around the corner.

And really, starting a third faction has plenty of difficulty, especially the longer we go without one. How do you introduce a faction and have it be a viable option compared to the other 2, who are both sitting at 16 different ships. Again, you can't allow them to use older ships, because you kill a faction's distinctiveness. And I think how FFG has handled various ships so far is pretty clear that we won't see cross faction ships.

Also, wasn't the Moldy Crow more Jan Or's ship? She was the one who piloted Kyle around, thus it should be Rebel.

The Lambda shuttle came with three unique pilots. And yet the films only ever depicted one named character flying the shuttle. His name? Chewbacca.

EPT: Casual.

Episode III: Sidious tells his assistant to have Captain Kagi prepare his shuttle.

The thing is, FFG will run out of ships, and then pilots. That means no more expansions, which is boring for us and unprofitable for them. The clone-war era is a rich mine for new rules and ships in a parallel game (as are atmospheric battles), as well as for old legacy ships in the current one. The main issue would be finding a way to make droid starfighters play and feel differently from piloted starfighters. Something that could be explored in the current game with Droid TIEs, which are one of the few TIE variants left that are different enough yet sensible enough to seem worth making.

Well sure. But I also think Chess would benefit from a third faction. 500 years is a long time to wait for expansions.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1d1e/?srp=6

I stand corrected. Now all they need are new pieces and a troop-selection meta-game.

I think everyone considers it a foregone conclusion that we'll be seeing a Clone Wars iteration of this game

I don't. I think it's incredibly unlikely actually, given the direction Disney's taking things.

Considering FFG is starting to make up pilots (Echo and Whisper) and putting pilots in ships that we have no real evidence of (Corran in an E-wing), I don't think we have to worry about FFG running out of pilots. They haven't even started to reuse pilots.

And with repaint packs, I wouldn't worry too much about not having enough ships, especially with Rebels and Episode VII around the corner.

Well Whisper might not be a FFG innovation:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dina_Whisper

I'm still thinking an expansion that takes it atmospheric and into the ground game wouldn't be the worst thing I'd ever heard of.

I know most TIEs perform like crap in atmosphere, but that's why there are AT-ATs and AT-STs.

I could see that. Make all white turns red, and all green turns white to represent Atmospheric flight being harder. Instead of Asteroids have weather conditions. Clouds treat all ships inside like they are one range increment further away. Roll 1 dice. On a critical lose one shield or recieve an Ion Token. It could be fun.

But I don't think the ground units fit well into flight path...