Hi guys

i'm new here so please don't flame me if this has come up loads before, i had a quick lurk but missed it if it has.

A lot of the EU backstory has mercenary groups and pirates using mixed fleets of older ships.

I think this would be cool for the game as extra factions always liven things up.

Background wise i've never felt that comfortable with Boba Fett always being escorted by TIEs (I'd imagine any thugs he employed would have their own similar ships) and in the back story Kath Scarlet fights *against* the empire more than for them.

We discussed this on a UK group and came up with the following, so what do you think.

MERC/PIRATE LIST

Core rules:

Merc lists are 10 per cent weaker than a rebel or imperial list to compensate for the ability to min max abilities and get 'the best of both worlds. so in a 100 point game a merc force gets 90 points to choose from

No named rebel or imperial unique titles, characters, crew or droids

Initiative: Initiative, if not governed by scenario goes with the player who has the most points left from their total. so if you've spent 100 points out of your 100 but i've spent 88 out of my 90 I get INIT

Ship list:

The fleet consists of

Y wings

z95

YT1300

YT2400

Firespray

HWK

Lamda Shuttle

TIE/ln

TIE/bomber

One ship in each fleet may be a 'Pirate Ace'. This is a unique character from either side given a new name (biggs darklighter for example becomes 'Rogan Josh, Pirate Prince) and may fly their owntype of ship. This reflects that while most Pirate/merc ships will be old hulks the leader will have looted something good... The EU references pirate A wings which are as new as it gets!

Alternatively the 'ace' may be generic and fly

X wing

Tie Int

A Wing

B Wing

So what do you guys think?

and hi from a veteran UK gamer who is new (three months or so) to this game but not to FFG, i play a lot of the 40k RPGs.

I basically think that a 'neutal faction' would really improve the game. This is a 'quick fix' but if FFG did a 'bounty hunter' list I think it would make tournys a little more interesting and less odd as you'd remove a third of the 'rulesy' but 'fluff free' rebel vs rebel games or imp vs imp games.

It also puts in window for 'scratch building' as you could make a modular ship parts pack to sell, you build your ship out of engine, hull, cockpit, weapon parts (like a clip together model kit) but it fits one of several generic templates like 'pirate fighter', 'pirate bomber' and 'pirate interceptor' etc.

Hi Gadge, and welcome aboard! Given your interest in a third faction you might be interested in seeing this particular post on boardgamegeek, which features a rather large collection of homebrew rules for pirates, renegades & EU ships...

I haven't seen a lot of backlash when someone mentions Pirates as a possible third faction, and there's nothing to stop you from house ruling some Pirates. Your list of Rebel/Pirate ships looks good, but not sure about the Lambda and the TIEs. But, the more the merrier, I always say!

Nice one, cheers. I'll have a look at that and thanks for the welcome. I'll update my profile in a bit!

Hi Gadge, and welcome aboard! Given your interest in a third faction you might be interested in seeing this particular post on boardgamegeek, which features a rather large collection of homebrew rules for pirates, renegades & EU ships...

Oh my, that is quite impressive.

Just skimmed through the ships and some of them look great, certainly what i had in mind with regards to a merc force having lots of older or less common ships on a scale between fighter and freighter.

Id add the Corporate Sector IRD definitely. they were sold to any system governor and half of them just flogged them to pirates

Oh my, that is quite impressive.

Just skimmed through the ships and some of them look great, certainly what i had in mind with regards to a merc force having lots of older or less common ships on a scale between fighter and freighter.

While I'm at it, I should point out that you really need to check out the links in our friend Gosric's signature there as well...

I added Lamda as in the EU the rebels have a fleet of captured ones and i can't see why Pirates wouldnt use them for boarding parties or for merc landing ships for ground forces.

TIEs... well it's the oldest 'true' imperial ship and again you see EU pirates and mercs with captured ones and 'uglies' made up of TIE parts so there would in theory be means of getting them.

Its almost as if i could feel a disturbance in the force....

Like millions of voices all crying out for a bounty hunter faction....

I don't think you need to house rule a 3rd faction any more...

Yup, i was hoping and had a suspicion this would happen so thought i'd test the water before everyone started whinging about combined lists.

For me it seemed the logical thing to so to be able to sell the same model with repaints and upgrades and get IMP players into rebel ships and vice versa.

Easy to start a '2nd force' if you've already got elements of it in your main one.