It's pretty obvious, really, why we didn't get the Imperial "Huge" ship announcement everyone expected

By xanderf, in X-Wing

Obviously, as those who follow the EU closely know, the Empire does have ships in the size-range (more or less) of the Tantive IV, so FFG *could* have used those...

But, why would they? It would require interest in the EU - a level of acceptance of the EU that (notably), many on these forums just don't have. The Tantive IV and Rebel Transport, in contrast, are selling to not just X-Wing players, but fans of the Star Wars 'canon' universe in general.

So, yes, FFG *could* release an EU-only 'huge ship'...but they'd be cutting their audience in half.

So why do that? Why not wait just a couple months for a pile of new Imperial ships in this scale to appear IN CANON.

Recall the new series coming up...

...note, particularly...

1:36 - Imperial Gozanti cruiser under attack

1:44- Imperial Gozanti dropping off some AT-PTs

1:46- Imperial Gozanti launching TIE Fighters

Just one example, but the series is introducing SEVERAL new Imperial ships in this scale...and none are "EU". This is 'film canon', here. The exact type of thing you can release a product for that gamers will buy and fans of the film and TV series, but nothing else will also buy.

So...yeah, it would only make sense for them to wait until this is actually being watched by everyone. Indeed, it's entirely possible Disney *required* FFG to wait on releasing these designs.

"HERE IS A SHIP FROM THE SHOW GUYS GO BUY IT!" -FFG in a couple of months. Perhaps even one.

Basically. I've been saying this for a while.

Does it change your calculus to consider that the LEGO Ghost is already on store shelves?

So...yeah, it would only make sense for them to wait until this is actually being watched by everyone. Indeed, it's entirely possible Disney *required* FFG to wait on releasing these designs.

That effing little mouse.....

What should be obvious is that no company is going to abandon any part of a game that accounts for something like a THIRD of their sales and is on of the most successful games EVER.

It amazes me that I have any need to point that out to people...

Edited by KineticOperator

That's probably the most rational argument. It syncs up with what I was anticipating as well, which is new cards for an Imperial fighter à la the Rebel Transport. While we're speculating, I'll admit I think it's either the Advanced or the Bomber coming with the Gozanti.

I think the fact the FFG didn't announce Imperial Huge ships has more to do with the full schedule. The announcement of Star Wars Armada, Star Wars Imperial Assault, and Wave 6 was enough Star Wars for now. Heck, even that has some fans worried about their wallets. I think it will be a short time from announcement to release on the Imperial Huge ships, maybe showing up in the late winter or early spring of next year.

So...yeah, it would only make sense for them to wait until this is actually being watched by everyone. Indeed, it's entirely possible Disney *required* FFG to wait on releasing these designs.

That effing little mouse.....

...Is very good at marketing.

Does it change your calculus to consider that the LEGO Ghost is already on store shelves?

I'm well aware products for this series are starting to hit store shelves. Heck, there's already a 'Guide To...' book with ships and vehicles from it out.

But it's only really a start, and so far focusing entirely on the 'main cast' characters and ships.

The Imperial Cruiser is obviously going to be a substantial part of the series...but it's not the "star". You put out "star" products first, give them some breathing room to hit their sales targets, before you put out the "supporting cast" products.

IE., the suggestion that this might not have even been FFG's choice. "Don't release 'supporting cast' products that will cannibalize sales from the 'star' products until more time has passed"

The only problem I see with the Gozanti is that it's a little over half the size of the CR90. So I'm not sure how "epic" it'll look next to a Devastator, unless the Rebels show has it as a different size than the wiki.

(looks at 3/4 of Wave 4 being put onto the reprint schedule)

Yup, EU totally kills sales of a model.

The only problem I see with the Gozanti is that it's a little over half the size of the CR90. So I'm not sure how "epic" it'll look next to a Devastator, unless the Rebels show has it as a different size than the wiki.

Eh, depends on your source. If you scale the thing properly next to a TIE Fighter vs the images, it's very much CR90 size at 1/270 (which is, granted, not the scale the 'huge' ships to date are at - but it IS the fighter scale).

The size Wookiepedia quotes for it is pretty obviously far smaller than it could possibly be.

I would love a Gozanti. But I'd love a Vigil cruiser too.

DEEP BREATH

STOP TRYING TO MAKE REBELS HAPPEN (PANT) ITS NOT GOING TO

Does it change your calculus to consider that the LEGO Ghost is already on store shelves?

And it's a very fun ship to build - especially with the Phantom plugged into the back. This is a mechanic I'd like to see incorporated into the game as (possibly) extra attacks to the rear. Although the Ghost already has a turret.

I saw a post of a Black Sun Gozanti from the EU.

I am not a betting man, but if I were, I would guess that an Imperial version of a Gozanti (if released) would be dual purpose as Imperial/S&V.

I feel that S&V came first to set a precedent of repurposed/dual faction shops. Wave 6 gives the new faction parity out of the gate due to access to existing ships.

I expect some kind of release for huge ships that gives S&V access to one of the existing Rebel ships and one of the to be announced Imperial ships.

Rebel huge ships were announced at Gen Con last year and didn't arrive until mid spring. That would put it at nearly the end of season 1 of Rebels next year.

Also, if you look at the product numbers of ships you can see the huge ships were in the works a looong time compared to other releases.

I find your conclusions lacking.

Edited by perniciousducks

DEEP BREATH

STOP TRYING TO MAKE REBELS HAPPEN (PANT) ITS NOT GOING TO

And your reasoning behind this statement? Either give a reason, or realize it is a distinct possibility. I'll venture to say it is a very real possibility, by virtue of the fact that they came out with a 3rd faction, which was heralded by some and a surprise to others.

This appears to be more speculation than anything else, to be honest.

Could any future Imperial Huge ships be a TIE in with the upcoming Rebels series? Possibly. But it's hardly the only reason why FFG have not announced any further Epic play expansions yet.

For all we know, they could still be collating and analysing player feedback following the release of the two Rebel Epic scale ships, and looking at what needs to be improved, and how - after all, the Epic version of the game has only been playable for 3 months.

The only really obvious reason there has been no word on Imperial Huge ships is that there is simply nothing for them to announce yet.

I want to have a regular Star Destroyer for X-Wing. Is that at all possible/realistic? I mean, how big would it have to be? How many Points? 300?

I want to have a regular Star Destroyer for X-Wing. Is that at all possible/realistic? I mean, how big would it have to be? How many Points? 300?

If I may quote the esteemed Millennium Falsehood on this particular subject:

I really think the people who want a scaled-down Star Destroyer in this game are doing a major disservice to the design.

First of all, it's a MASSIVE warship. The ship is designed, in filmatic terms, to look like an enormous city in space. It's got thousands of tiny little lights representing windows, and according to the fluff it has over 31,000 crew. The vessel is 1.606 kilometers long, and has a volume of at least a 1,000,000 cubic meters, likely more (I'm guestimating).

The vessel also apparently has many HUNDREDS of guns, if you go by the weapon densities seen in the original trilogy. I can't remember where I put the analysis I did on this, but last time I checked the Star Destroyer has several scenes where a small section of the hull had at least 6 or 7 lasers on it (mostly from the Empire Strikes Back scene where the Falcon attacks the Star Destroyer). Stretching it out over the entire length of the trench yielded a result of over 200, based on the area of the section seen in the film, with a somewhat lower density on the hull surface.

According to the fluff, this ship is designed to be able to reduce a world to a lake of molten rock in a matter of hours. Considering the light turbolasers were able to completely vaporize asteroids that approached upwards of 40 meters in a single shot, and even passed through slightly smaller rocks, this is hardly surprising.

The shields are also extremely powerful. I know, I know, one of the ships in TESB had its conning tower destroyed by an asteroid. But in a previous scene you can see an asteroid which was traveling at extreme speed impact the ship with nary a scratch. The entire event was absorbed by the shields and armor. And if you think about it, the shields and armor need to be at least as strong as the weaponry in order to maintain combat for any length of time with other warships.

Finally, its fighter compliment . . . do I really need to state the obvious that most of us would have to pool our fighter reserves with at least ten other people to equal the number of fighters seen on this ship?

Now, that being said, compare it to the Corellian Corvette:

It's a ship which is 160 meters long (roughly 1/10 the length and 1/100 the volume). It has two turbolasers and four laser cannons. It has a crew of, at most, 165 people. No fighters, light-duty capital shields (certainly around the same "hardness" as the asteroid the ISD vaporized in TESB).

There is no comparison between these two.

So I can't comprehend why you would *want* to put an ISD in this game, besides cool-factor.

And yes, it is a cool ship. I love it!! I have Star Destroyer wallpaper on my work computer and a model of one on my shelves. I plan on getting one of those massive resin kits when I can afford it, because I want a gargantuan 38" model of it.

Would I want it in X-wing, though? No, because it would need to be reduced to a MUCH smaller shape to even fit on the table.

But why stop at just discussion? Let's look at the real problem here. With pictures! Yay! :D

First, here is an Epic Scale table, with all available miniatures:

Image1.png

That should give you a good indication of the size-relationship between the table and the miniatures. I scaled these as closely to the actual scale of the minis as possible, but there's only so much I can do when I don't know the actual figures off the top of my head for their sizes. But you can see they're a reasonable approximation.

Now, here's a Star Destroyer in the same scale as the Corellian Corvette Huge Ship scale:

Image2.png

Yeesh!! Talk about a monster, eh? It's much smaller than it would be if it were in scale with the Small Scale and Large Scale miniatures, but it's still a monster of a model!! There's no possible way FFG would be willing to make a model this size. Well, maybe . . . if they wanted to go bankrupt from people not being able to afford one (the CR90 is $90 . . . I can easily see a miniature this size being over $1500). Plus, does that look like it would fit on the table? Nope. Not a chance. I doubt it could even support its own weight if it were made of resin, even hollow-cast resin. And of course, lighter models would be even less likely to be able to support their own weight. Let's just forget a model this big, okay?

Now, how about a model that's about six feet? Let's take a look:

Image3.png

Now THAT's much better, isn't it? Except it isn't. With a model this big, where is it going to move? It can't move forward at all. It can turn and wipe out everything on the battlefield, but that's a **** move in the extreme. Not only that, what's the different between this and a cardboard token? None. Both will sit at the edge of the battlefield and do nothing except serve as a gun platform, which isn't that fun, at least to me. And if I wanted a gun platform game, I'd play Battleship. I want a game where my minis MOVE! That's the whole purpose of a flight combat game: your ships and vehicles need to move. For the most part. Granted, there are space stations and such, but they're more of a strategic element rather than a combat element.

Let's try one more size: two and a half feet:

Image4.png

There we go! That looks really good! We can move around the board, with some difficulty, and even shoot! Perfect solution, right?

Well . . . no.

We're talking about scale as well. It's still going to be a monster to pay for. The volume is roughly eight or nine times that of the CR90, and the complexity much more so. It would likely be in the $500-700 range, minimum. Sure, you could save up that much, I suppose. Not all of us have that much disposable income, though. I've been saving up for a $500 Star Destroyer model for five years now. I still haven't got it. There have been too many expenses along the way that come first: doctor bills, car repairs, speeding tickets, and many other things. Not to mention all my X-wing miniatures! But cost aside, would this be a good representative to one of the Empire's signature vessels? Look at the comparison between the CR90-scaled behemoth and the "ideal" size:

Image5.png

Those models are right next to each other. Can you honestly say the tinier one accurately represents the presence a Star Destroyer is supposed to have? If you think so, I have some beach-front property in Arizona to sell you. It's not even a tenth of the size and scale it's supposed to be, yet I'm supposed to believe that it's going to represent a massive, mile-long warship? Please. If I wanted no scale consistency, I'd play Attack Wing.

This isn't so much of a problem with FFG producing such a miniature as it is with the people who want to play it, though. You guys who want one aren't thinking about it logically or whether it would even be *fun* to play! Furthermore, you're not showing such an iconic ship the respect it deserves. You just see a cool ship and think, "The Rebels get a big ship, and so should the Empire! And what better ship than the Star Destroyer?" But that's not smart or logical. It's just typical 10-year-old logic that bigger=better. And while I admit I've built large models of the Star Destroyer and other ships in the past, I know better than to try and game with them because I know they're ungainly and extreme-special case. I shouldn't have to explain the problems with this idea. And of course, you can shrink a Star Destroyer down, but then you have the problems I outlined above, with pictures.

It's just an all-around stupid idea . . .

In short, Armada really is the place for Star Destroyer scale ships. However, I believe the general consensus on the forum was a stated size of 300 meters or less could be acceptable within Epic play - so long as FFG continues to adopt the sliding scale method they've used so far with the Transport and the Corvette. So although it's unlikely we'll see an accurate representation of a Star Destroyer, the Imperials do still have options available...

Edited by FTS Gecko

Exactly what i've been trying to say on several threads

Huge ships as stands are fun but xwing is a 'dog fight' game, its not a fleet action/capital ship game.

It makes sense to use xwing for dogfights and armada for fleet actions.

Dont use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

right tools for the job etc etc.

Yup it means buying into a new game if you want epic imperial ships but it makes much more sense and i think if you really want to command even interdictor size SDs its they sensible game to play.

Yup it means buying into a new game if you want epic imperial ships but it makes much more sense and i think if you really want to command even interdictor size SDs its they sensible game to play.

So rather than being angrily certain that FFG has canceled the Epic line, you're approvingly certain? (Not a rhetorical question; I'm trying to confirm my reading of your post.)

If that's so, then you still face the same problem the angrily certain people do: there's no evidence at all that FFG has done so. We simply have no information--the same no information we had prior to GenCon. You can't reasonably jump from "no announcement yet" to "no announcement ever".

The visual guide to star wars rebels states the imperial gozanti is 63.8 m long. This puts it 30 m shorter than the gr75, and close to twice the size of the decimator. Still in line to be epic scale.

It should come with a regular TIE.

I want to have a regular Star Destroyer for X-Wing. Is that at all possible/realistic? I mean, how big would it have to be? How many Points? 300?

If I may quote the esteemed Millennium Falsehood on this particular subject:

I really think the people who want a scaled-down Star Destroyer in this game are doing a major disservice to the design.

First of all, it's a MASSIVE warship. The ship is designed, in filmatic terms, to look like an enormous city in space. It's got thousands of tiny little lights representing windows, and according to the fluff it has over 31,000 crew. The vessel is 1.606 kilometers long, and has a volume of at least a 1,000,000 cubic meters, likely more (I'm guestimating).

The vessel also apparently has many HUNDREDS of guns, if you go by the weapon densities seen in the original trilogy. I can't remember where I put the analysis I did on this, but last time I checked the Star Destroyer has several scenes where a small section of the hull had at least 6 or 7 lasers on it (mostly from the Empire Strikes Back scene where the Falcon attacks the Star Destroyer). Stretching it out over the entire length of the trench yielded a result of over 200, based on the area of the section seen in the film, with a somewhat lower density on the hull surface.

According to the fluff, this ship is designed to be able to reduce a world to a lake of molten rock in a matter of hours. Considering the light turbolasers were able to completely vaporize asteroids that approached upwards of 40 meters in a single shot, and even passed through slightly smaller rocks, this is hardly surprising.

The shields are also extremely powerful. I know, I know, one of the ships in TESB had its conning tower destroyed by an asteroid. But in a previous scene you can see an asteroid which was traveling at extreme speed impact the ship with nary a scratch. The entire event was absorbed by the shields and armor. And if you think about it, the shields and armor need to be at least as strong as the weaponry in order to maintain combat for any length of time with other warships.

Finally, its fighter compliment . . . do I really need to state the obvious that most of us would have to pool our fighter reserves with at least ten other people to equal the number of fighters seen on this ship?

Now, that being said, compare it to the Corellian Corvette:

It's a ship which is 160 meters long (roughly 1/10 the length and 1/100 the volume). It has two turbolasers and four laser cannons. It has a crew of, at most, 165 people. No fighters, light-duty capital shields (certainly around the same "hardness" as the asteroid the ISD vaporized in TESB).

There is no comparison between these two.

So I can't comprehend why you would *want* to put an ISD in this game, besides cool-factor.

And yes, it is a cool ship. I love it!! I have Star Destroyer wallpaper on my work computer and a model of one on my shelves. I plan on getting one of those massive resin kits when I can afford it, because I want a gargantuan 38" model of it.

Would I want it in X-wing, though? No, because it would need to be reduced to a MUCH smaller shape to even fit on the table.

But why stop at just discussion? Let's look at the real problem here. With pictures! Yay! :D

First, here is an Epic Scale table, with all available miniatures:

Image1.png

That should give you a good indication of the size-relationship between the table and the miniatures. I scaled these as closely to the actual scale of the minis as possible, but there's only so much I can do when I don't know the actual figures off the top of my head for their sizes. But you can see they're a reasonable approximation.

Now, here's a Star Destroyer in the same scale as the Corellian Corvette Huge Ship scale:

Image2.png

Yeesh!! Talk about a monster, eh? It's much smaller than it would be if it were in scale with the Small Scale and Large Scale miniatures, but it's still a monster of a model!! There's no possible way FFG would be willing to make a model this size. Well, maybe . . . if they wanted to go bankrupt from people not being able to afford one (the CR90 is $90 . . . I can easily see a miniature this size being over $1500). Plus, does that look like it would fit on the table? Nope. Not a chance. I doubt it could even support its own weight if it were made of resin, even hollow-cast resin. And of course, lighter models would be even less likely to be able to support their own weight. Let's just forget a model this big, okay?

Now, how about a model that's about six feet? Let's take a look:

Image3.png

Now THAT's much better, isn't it? Except it isn't. With a model this big, where is it going to move? It can't move forward at all. It can turn and wipe out everything on the battlefield, but that's a **** move in the extreme. Not only that, what's the different between this and a cardboard token? None. Both will sit at the edge of the battlefield and do nothing except serve as a gun platform, which isn't that fun, at least to me. And if I wanted a gun platform game, I'd play Battleship. I want a game where my minis MOVE! That's the whole purpose of a flight combat game: your ships and vehicles need to move. For the most part. Granted, there are space stations and such, but they're more of a strategic element rather than a combat element.

Let's try one more size: two and a half feet:

Image4.png

There we go! That looks really good! We can move around the board, with some difficulty, and even shoot! Perfect solution, right?

Well . . . no.

We're talking about scale as well. It's still going to be a monster to pay for. The volume is roughly eight or nine times that of the CR90, and the complexity much more so. It would likely be in the $500-700 range, minimum. Sure, you could save up that much, I suppose. Not all of us have that much disposable income, though. I've been saving up for a $500 Star Destroyer model for five years now. I still haven't got it. There have been too many expenses along the way that come first: doctor bills, car repairs, speeding tickets, and many other things. Not to mention all my X-wing miniatures! But cost aside, would this be a good representative to one of the Empire's signature vessels? Look at the comparison between the CR90-scaled behemoth and the "ideal" size:

Image5.png

Those models are right next to each other. Can you honestly say the tinier one accurately represents the presence a Star Destroyer is supposed to have? If you think so, I have some beach-front property in Arizona to sell you. It's not even a tenth of the size and scale it's supposed to be, yet I'm supposed to believe that it's going to represent a massive, mile-long warship? Please. If I wanted no scale consistency, I'd play Attack Wing.

This isn't so much of a problem with FFG producing such a miniature as it is with the people who want to play it, though. You guys who want one aren't thinking about it logically or whether it would even be *fun* to play! Furthermore, you're not showing such an iconic ship the respect it deserves. You just see a cool ship and think, "The Rebels get a big ship, and so should the Empire! And what better ship than the Star Destroyer?" But that's not smart or logical. It's just typical 10-year-old logic that bigger=better. And while I admit I've built large models of the Star Destroyer and other ships in the past, I know better than to try and game with them because I know they're ungainly and extreme-special case. I shouldn't have to explain the problems with this idea. And of course, you can shrink a Star Destroyer down, but then you have the problems I outlined above, with pictures.

It's just an all-around stupid idea . . .

In short, Armada really is the place for Star Destroyer scale ships. However, I believe the general consensus on the forum was a stated size of 300 meters or less could be acceptable within Epic play - so long as FFG continues to adopt the sliding scale method they've used so far with the Transport and the Corvette. So although it's unlikely we'll see an accurate representation of a Star Destroyer, the Imperials do still have options available...

While that's all true it still would feel awesome to have some sort of Star Destroyer or V-Shaped Huge Ship on your side as an Imperial player. But all the points made are quite valid...