If there is to be a third faction it'd be neutral ships I'll bet.

This. Usable by either side. What could be more balanced???

3rd faction eminent. I mean, what else could a 2 ship wave, the Scych fighter, and the starviper appearing in a squad builder portent?

New faction/ neutral faction 2 ship "wave" followed by all other waves being 1 rebel, 1 empire, 2 3rd faction ships and aces style packs 3 times a year. First aces in this new line is the Firespray with cross faction pilots!

To everyone who says no, I have a question for you.

Let's say you're an executive at FFG. Someone brings to you the idea of adding another faction to X-Wing, now a primary product produced by your company. This person says that it may cause balance difficulties, it will require more development time, some people may leave the game. However, we have shown the market is more than willing to bear the cost of EU products. If we produce a third faction, which we have already started producing content in another product line which is definitely more than willing to accept, we stand to make a ton of money. So much so, that this game could ultimately become a serious competitor to other miniatures games.

If you were told this, would you say "no, X-Wing is rebel/Empire and will only ever be that!" or would you say "I want that money delivered to my house in a dump truck please!"

It doesn't have to be a third faction. Mercenaries and pirates would make more sense as a "colorless" neutral ship pool both sides can add to their lists.

To everyone who says no, I have a question for you.

Let's say you're an executive at FFG. Someone brings to you the idea of adding another faction to X-Wing, now a primary product produced by your company. This person says that it may cause balance difficulties, it will require more development time, some people may leave the game. However, we have shown the market is more than willing to bear the cost of EU products. If we produce a third faction, which we have already started producing content in another product line which is definitely more than willing to accept, we stand to make a ton of money. So much so, that this game could ultimately become a serious competitor to other miniatures games.

If you were told this, would you say "no, X-Wing is rebel/Empire and will only ever be that!" or would you say "I want that money delivered to my house in a dump truck please!"

Those are the kinds of questions I would ask....pandering to vocal forum fan boys would rank very low on my priority list.

For what it is worth I wouldn't want to see a 3rd faction simply because star wars is about the rebellion (vile though they be) and the empire. Smugglers, pirates, and criminals are pretty already covered by the rebellion...

I like the 2 faction format...that was what star wars was about

Edit: site is not mobile friendly....stupid phone

3rd faction shouldn't impact anyone who doesn't want to play with or against 3rd faction.

I didn't like mirror matches for a long time and won't do it for casual play.

3rd faction shouldn't impact anyone who doesn't want to play with or against 3rd faction.

I didn't like mirror matches for a long time and won't do it for casual play.

Unless, you know, we would like the new cards...

I really don't see why these shouldn't be incorporated into the existing factions...like the bounty Hunters smugglers and criminals we have now...

You have to consider this from a business perspective, you have a limited pool of ships from films and EU for the two factions you have, but an almost limitless number of pirate and mercenary ships.

Do you search the bottom of the barrel for the next few years for obscure ships, or introduce a new faction with more design space allowing you to keep the game fresh?

The X-Wing designers love smugglers, fringers, bounty hunters, mercs, pirates etc. Just look at their rpg books.

The X-Wing designers love smugglers, fringers, bounty hunters, mercs, pirates etc. Just look at their rpg books.

Those aren't the same people. Also, those elements round out the world building and are important for an RPG as they are characters, etc..that the PCs are more likely to interact with regularly.

No.

Neg-a-tory also!

The X-Wing designers love smugglers, fringers, bounty hunters, mercs, pirates etc. Just look at their rpg books.

Do not tempt me... all of them cool books and cards... ahh!

I'm more opposed to the third faction because that's an entire new faction I have to pay for.

Shame on you Nannah!

3rd faction eminent. I mean, what else could a 2 ship wave, the Scych fighter, and the starviper appearing in a squad builder portent?

New faction/ neutral faction 2 ship "wave" followed by all other waves being 1 rebel, 1 empire, 2 3rd faction ships and aces style packs 3 times a year. First aces in this new line is the Firespray with cross faction pilots!

DAT!

Jason "Jay" Little was a lead designer for X-Wing Miniatures Game and Edge of the Empire.

Jason "Jay" Little was a lead designer for X-Wing Miniatures Game and Edge of the Empire.

Sure, but the statement of yours I responded to sounded like present tense, which isn't the case anymore.

I really just want some non-empire ships to fly along side my firesprays, so if they just add some Hutt or Black Sun ships to the empire, that works for me. It does see dumb to me that we already have a pitate, Kath, flying with the empire, but thats not going to change.

I do see a lot of potential in a pirate faction, that focuses on disabling ships and uses different tactics. In epic scenarios, they could be raiding imperial and rebel transports, or hijacking ships in standard play, but these can be done in casual games by just mixing the available factions to pair firesprays with headhunters and HWKs.

As for a neutral faction, I think it sounds good on paper but that might have a greater change of creating imbalance and limiting design space than a seperate faction would. I'd like to see a neutral spaceport/ spacestation being added to epic play however.

I see a lot of people saying that a third faction wouldn't be balanced and whatnot, but there are tons of balanced games out there with five or six factions. It just comes down to good game design, which FFG is known for.

This aversion to a third faction comes across as a lack of faith in FFG to do their jobs. Jobs they're good at.

I find your lack of faith disturbing

I prefer to keep it two factions. The game is the battle between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. To date bounty hunters, pirates, and smugglers have been aligned in the game to one of the two factions. I see no reason why FFG won't continue to give us cool mercenary ships within those same two factions.

The X-Wing designers love smugglers, fringers, bounty hunters, mercs, pirates etc. Just look at their rpg books.

Those aren't the same people. Also, those elements round out the world building and are important for an RPG as they are characters, etc..that the PCs are more likely to interact with regularly.

Well they should think about making them for us RPGers or we will find another place to buy models to represent those ships, also I want some three way battles

To everyone who says no, I have a question for you.

Let's say you're an executive at FFG. Someone brings to you the idea of adding another faction to X-Wing, now a primary product produced by your company. This person says that it may cause balance difficulties, it will require more development time, some people may leave the game. However, we have shown the market is more than willing to bear the cost of EU products. If we produce a third faction, which we have already started producing content in another product line which is definitely more than willing to accept, we stand to make a ton of money. So much so, that this game could ultimately become a serious competitor to other miniatures games.

If you were told this, would you say "no, X-Wing is rebel/Empire and will only ever be that!" or would you say "I want that money delivered to my house in a dump truck please!"

And you have this market data? I am not that interested in what a few very vocal forum posters are posting. have we put out studies and focus groups? Get in touch with our flgs partners and have them poll their customers. How much more will our market share in the miniatures gaming space increase? Keep in mind we have just dedicated new resources to armada... Would it be worth the cost of development and list players? We are know for putting out quality games...can the resources we have dedicated to this currently handle this?

Those are the kinds of questions I would ask....pandering to vocal forum fan boys would rank very low on my priority list.

For what it is worth I wouldn't want to see a 3rd faction simply because star wars is about the rebellion (vile though they be) and the empire. Smugglers, pirates, and criminals are pretty already covered by the rebellion...

I like the 2 faction format...that was what star wars was about

Edit: site is not mobile friendly....stupid phone

Your point of view is skewed because you are a fan and that is your mistake. There is risk to producing the product and FFG will evaluate whether that risk (which includes the cost of gathering the proper resources to produce it) will be offset by the gains. This is called cost-benefit analysis and I bet they have already run these numbers.

By the way, they didn't just dedicate new resources to Armada. Again, you are seeing this like a fan and not a business. They have been working on Armada for quite some time. That means while you have been enjoying waves 3 and 4, they were also working on this other game that they only just announced.

From a business perspective, they will evaluate whether the market will bear a new product. They've already found that the market will bear $100 huge ships, players buying multiples of ships to get multiples of the cards, multiple core sets, and that there is an interest in third factions (from the LCG).