So I saw this morning the SKUs for Rebel Aces and it got me thinking about their SKU numbering system and anything that could be inferred from it. So far we have the following:

I believe 20 was the tile set they abandoned.

2 weeks until Gencon, common baby don't let me down.

Wow. I wish I was you. I have to wait more than 3 weeks for GenCon.

2 weeks until Gencon, common baby don't let me down.

Wow. I wish I was you. I have to wait more than 3 weeks for GenCon.

Ok three weeks! I could have sworn it started on the 6th, but alas my brain was playing mnemonic dyslexia.

I believe 20 was the tile set they abandoned.

The tile set was announced way back in wave 2. I doubt they would have SKUed it so high. I dont think they ever gave it a sku as it was shelved when the saw other companies producing much better solutions for the same price.

Yup, 20 was the tile set. It would seem that W5 is just 2 ships, but I would have expected it to have originally been envisioned as 4 ships, and then they realized that they could break it up into 2 waves to keep the meta fresher longer.

As such, I would expect 25 + 26 to be "wave 6" (the second half of W5 that they're holding back), 27 + 28 to likely be the imp huge ships. (And 20 as the abandoned sku for the tiles). Note that there are only 4 skus in the gap, not 5.

2 weeks until Gencon, common baby don't let me down.

Wow. I wish I was you. I have to wait more than 3 weeks for GenCon.

Ok three weeks! I could have sworn it started on the 6th, but alas my brain was playing mnemonic dyslexia.

I believe 20 was the tile set they abandoned.

The tile set was announced way back in wave 2. I doubt they would have SKUed it so high. I dont think they ever gave it a sku as it was shelved when the saw other companies producing much better solutions for the same price.

Here's a link to a retailer that still has it "for sale"

http://www.atomicempire.com/item.aspx?item=138954

Notice on the right side under the add to cart button, the Product code: "Product Code: FFG SWX20 "

I believe 20 was the tile set they abandoned.

The tile set was announced way back in wave 2. I doubt they would have SKUed it so high. I dont think they ever gave it a sku as it was shelved when the saw other companies producing much better solutions for the same price.

The Transport and Tantive IV were announced at the same time. They're SWX11 and 22, respectively. They both were announced at the same convention that Wave 3 was released, which are SWX12 through 15, and a month before Imperial Aces, SWX21, was announced. So the order that we find out about SKUs and are sold SKUs doesn't really matter.

The SWX codes probably denote when products were originally conceived and put into the production and playtesting pipeline, but FFG clearly releases things in a different order. It's interesting to look at the differences.

Yep. Game expansions like these are planned long before they are ever announced. For instance, it is a safe bet to assume that Wave 6 and possibly even Wave 7 are already in development. Looking forward to whatever is on the horizon.

We've been banging around that list for months now. It always leads to endless speculation as to what will, or will not, be released.

Yep. Game expansions like these are planned long before they are ever announced. For instance, it is a safe bet to assume that Wave 6 and possibly even Wave 7 are already in development. Looking forward to whatever is on the horizon.

And the next "aces" style box.

When you break it down the codes are interesting for when they were released.

Thanks for posting this. It is very interesting. I can also confirm that any good company absolutely have their products set up months in advance of release.

I am sure that the BIG Imps are done and so is Wave Six.

They are SKUS that were stricken from the Imperial Record. We will speculate for years on who or what they were, but in the end the Emperor will never allow us access to such knowledge... expect obscure references in the background story.

Like in Episode 7 Luke will have a line similar to this:

"...and if we had not lost swx27 to the dark side...."

As a production coordinator myself, companies often make skus for products and abandon them as things change. It depends, but FFG may have associated a specific sku that is missing with a real retail ready barcode and then decided not to produce a real product--but the two are associated and thus the gap.

the list isn't worth discussing.

I'd say they'll release the Imp huge ship at Gencon (or at least show it off). Then pair it off with wave 5, hence why W5 is only two ships. They're doing us a favor by letting our wallets regrow between releases

As a production coordinator myself, companies often make skus for products and abandon them as things change. It depends, but FFG may have associated a specific sku that is missing with a real retail ready barcode and then decided not to produce a real product--but the two are associated and thus the gap.

the list isn't worth discussing.

Agreed.

I worked in a jet engine refurbishment facility photographing engines, which involved filing them according to their work order and serial numbers, and numbers like this which are used to track and catalog product really don't have any meaning beyond that. Trying to read into them some sort of pattern or use them to guess or predict what a new product will be is about as reliable as reading tea leaves.

Yeah that is what was said last time the topic came up. And sure.. it's not reliable to use it to predict the future, but not worth to discuss? Looking for patterns? Can't it just be fun to get a little insight in the way FFG has been setting up the game. To see that big ships were on the list for a long time already. To see that rebel aces was announced way earlier than ships thought of earlier. To see there is a gap and that that means that FFG at least had some more ideas for ships, which is good to know?

Some people get a kick out of endless topics discussing their list, some about doing the math, let some people get a kick out of speculation as well please.

Some people get a kick out of endless topics discussing their list, some about doing the math, let some people get a kick out of speculation as well please.

the list isn't worth discussing.

But clearly people have the question. Those who have not been around the forum for a long time, still need these discussions to have their hopes dispelled along with the rest of us.

Tangentially related question:

If a wave has only two ships, is it really a wave...?

Tangentially related question:

If a wave has only two ships, is it really a wave...?

Depends on how many I end up purchasing.

Tangentially related question:

If a wave has only two ships, is it really a wave...?

Depends on how many I end up purchasing.

I guess if we want to look at this myopically. I only got on board after Wave 3. When wave 4 came out, I only bought the Z-95s, as I just don't care for the other ships too much.

As such, I don't really think that I've had 'waves'. I guess I'm just living in a pond without tides.

When wave 4 came out, I only bought the Z-95s, as I just don't care for the other ships too much.

This was because of the Defender and Phantom not fitting Imperial military doctrine, right?

I was reading through one of the RPG sourcebooks earlier today, and I found a far more reasonable explanation (in the lore text for the prototype TIE fighter) for the Empire discarding their heavy Clone Wars fighter craft in favour of hordes of TIE fighters than "hordes of expendable pilots is more evil."

The explanation they had is that with the collapse of the CIS and the Empire in total control of the galaxy, they needed to patrol a lot more space to maintain order and Imperial presence, and quickly. The Clone Wars era heavy fighter craft like are much more expensive and much higher maintenance than the TIE fighter the Empire replaced them with. The reason the TIE is so lightweight and cheap is so that the Empire could effectively make enough of them to cover and secure most of the galaxy. For such a role the same number of heavier craft like the X-wing (which was supposedly originally intended for the Empire before Incom's design staff defected) simply weren't economically practical.

That's why the outnumbered, outfunded and outgunned Rebels somehow have better ships: the Empire's fully capable of fielding them but not everywhere at once. When the Rebel Alliance becomes a proper threat the Empire's got standardised TIE fighters everywhere and no shortage of them, so the more TIEs tactic works. Except, courtesy of defensive shields (and plot armour) it doesn't, hence Imperial development of tougher ships. From that standpoint, the Phantom and Defender make more sense. They're not a replacement for the TIE fighter (the TIE interceptor is), they're, like the TIE bomber, ships produced in much smaller numbers for specific role, in this case, dealing with much heavier military resistance than the pirates, smugglers and slavers the TIE fighter has been more than sufficient to deal with for the last 19 years.

I'd say they'll release the Imp huge ship at Gencon

Dreamers going to dream............

Release, no. Reveal, quite likely.

When wave 4 came out, I only bought the Z-95s, as I just don't care for the other ships too much.

This was because of the Defender and Phantom not fitting Imperial military doctrine, right?

Yes, correct. (YMMV)

I was reading through one of the RPG sourcebooks earlier today, and I found a far more reasonable explanation (in the lore text for the prototype TIE fighter) for the Empire discarding their heavy Clone Wars fighter craft in favour of hordes of TIE fighters than "hordes of expendable pilots is more evil."

The explanation they had is that with the collapse of the CIS and the Empire in total control of the galaxy, they needed to patrol a lot more space to maintain order and Imperial presence, and quickly. The Clone Wars era heavy fighter craft like are much more expensive and much higher maintenance than the TIE fighter the Empire replaced them with. The reason the TIE is so lightweight and cheap is so that the Empire could effectively make enough of them to cover and secure most of the galaxy. For such a role the same number of heavier craft like the X-wing (which was supposedly originally intended for the Empire before Incom's design staff defected) simply weren't economically practical.

That's why the outnumbered, outfunded and outgunned Rebels somehow have better ships: the Empire's fully capable of fielding them but not everywhere at once. When the Rebel Alliance becomes a proper threat the Empire's got standardised TIE fighters everywhere and no shortage of them, so the more TIEs tactic works.

I'm with you on all of this.

Except, courtesy of defensive shields (and plot armour) it doesn't, hence Imperial development of tougher ships. From that standpoint, the Phantom and Defender make more sense. They're not a replacement for the TIE fighter (the TIE interceptor is), they're, like the TIE bomber, ships produced in much smaller numbers for specific role, in this case, dealing with much heavier military resistance than the pirates, smugglers and slavers the TIE fighter has been more than sufficient to deal with for the last 19 years.

And here is where we differ (and that's perfectly fine). The years of the rebellion are not that long, and while the Empire's defeat at the Battle of Yavin was a shock to the system, the development of the Phantom and the Defender seem like a very bizarre response to the Rebel threat, outside of the video games' desire to create kewl ships.

(I'm sure that sounds disparaging. I'm letting you see into my reasoning, including my biases, so please take for granted that if these things tickle you, then by all means enjoy them.)

The Empire's problem in this counter-insurgency war is not victory on the battlefield - it's finding the rebels. Once they've found the rebels, then it's just a matter of drowning them in TIEs, which they have in plentiful supply. The Phantom and the Defender are just not solutions to the type of challenges that the Empire faces. Of course, massive bureaucracies have irrational responses to particular challenges, but they do tend to behave in bureaucratic ways, and the Phantom and the Defender also are not the sort of thing that a bureaucracy like the Imperial Navy would develop. The politics are just wrong for it.

Now, I'm sure that we can become inventive and contemplate exceptions and notions of how it could have been, but those tend to just abuse my suspension of disbelief.

Again YMMV.

In the meantime, I'm perfectly happy not buying the Phantom and the Defender, and if you're happy buying the Phantom and Defender, then all is well.

Not trying to get you to buy them, I just enjoy debating their place (or lack thereof) from a lore perspective.