It doesn't really screw anything up. I would guess some people are disappointed because they wanted something else (new mechanics, imperial huge ships, tie advanced fix, etc.)...

Can some please point out to me exactly how a 3rd faction £#~!{¥ up the game on the tabletop?

It's not like the "ships are from 2 different eras in the timeline so you can't have a Naboo Fighter vs a TIE Defender(despite the fact it's only been like 20-25 years or something between the end of Episode 3 and the end of RotJ in a universe where light saber tech is like 1000 years old or more). I doubt you'll be able to have a combo of Rebels/Imperials and pirates as a fleet in anything but maybe epic play and even then if it's ok with your opponent.

Cant argue with that.

i wouldnt be surprised if a seperate rules and tokens set became available.

I initially only wanted to fly A wing and just fly rebel (until i realised how 'challenging' A wings were) to play against mates. I had no intention of getting imperials, didnt really want an x wing...

Now look what i got myself into, check my sig file... far more than i ever really need to use.

Well, I hope I get the job I'm interviewing for, tons to preorder for this wave.

The nice thhing about a third faction is that it allows hem more room to add waves without running out of ships. The next two waves could be say 2 fringe, 1 Imperial, and 1 Rebel, to catch fringe up. And they can stary putting out dual-faction ships from the start- say a Skipray for Imperial/Fringe with a fringe Mara Jade pilot. An old ARC-170 for Fringe/Rebels.

And there are tons of options for interesting ships for Fringe thanks to Galaxies and the X-Wing series-

Cloakshape

Toscan fighter

T-Wing

Dunelizard

Kimogila

Vigo Transport as a Large

Baudo-class Yacht as a Fringe/Rebel Large

IPV-1 would make for a good Fringe/Imperial Huge ship scaled like the Medium Transport.

1.) Yes Y-wings are very connected to the crime world, that's why the Rebels use them.

2.) That is not A Virago. The Virago is a specific StarViper. The ship shown is a StarViper (this is getting really annoying everyone calling it a Virago).

A new wave usually is 4 new ships and that's it. This wave is 3 new ships (already more than wave 5) with repaints and new pilots to 2 old ships, new cards for yet two more ships. This means plenty of new pilots, lots more play testing, new upgrades, balancing a whole new faction, and making it all compatible with the current game. Exact opposite of lazy IMO.

I've been a fan of Star Wars since reading Heir to the Empire back in the early '90s and playing the X-Wing computer game for DOS. So I am very happy to see Z-95s and Y-Wings in the third faction. As others have mentioned, I'd also like to see a conversion for the YT-1300 and/or YT-2400.

The Scum & Villainy faction opens up opportunities for so many more fun and classic ships, and also gives us opportunities for more Epic scale ships too. I just hope they can keep everything balanced.