So, I am predominately a rebel player in X-wing, and proud to be one (the only in my circle of friends).

However, looking at Armada... I feel compelled to play as the Empire. Screw the CR90's and Assault Frigates (Although the Neb-B's model looks gorgeous) and screw the Gladiators. I WANT THOSE TRIANGLES.

Problem is, EVERYONE in my group feels the same way. Are we doomed to only have Empire vs Empire match-ups, or will there be a way to have Rebel Victory Destroyers as well as the Imperial ones?

I guess it doesn't matter in casual play, because unlike the X-wing game, you actually see the rebellion with a mishmash of ships both home-brewed and others stolen. In the X-wing game rebels predominately used their own ships cause it is quite easy to produce fighter wings compared to capital ships. And they considered most of the Empires ships inferior due to lack of shielding. This is the opposite in Armada.

So, I guess what I'm trying to get at here, is this:

Judging at what we know now, would it be unbalanced to have Imperial players using Nebulon-B's or Rebels having a captured Victory Star Destroyer? If so, then I feel like there will often just be slugfests in-between Imperial warlords and the rebel minis just gathering dust.

WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE THE VICTORY LOOK SO GOSH DARN COOL?!?

I really wish we would get some more info already. Last month they dropped this bomb on us, and there has been nothing but silence since GENCON. Spoil the Commanders already...the wave 1 expansions...missions...upgrade cards...a rulebook...ANYTHING at this point would be well received and appreciated.

Let us know if units are faction specific like in X-Wing or if we can have Rebel Vic-Stars, and Imperial Neb-B's.

I agree with you Mr. admiralcrunch.

I will also say that unless FFG does a good job in balancing, my group will experiment with cross faction ship battles (so it is not always an imperial vs imperial game, cause that might get stale) and limit things that do not seem to fit. Not change stats, but impose limitations to either upgrades or commanders or provide things like "No more than One may be chosen".

Thank you Mr. Corellian Corvette

The nice thing is thematicly, all the core set ships were used extensively by both the Rebels and Empire. The big question remains, will they be exclusive?

It doesn't matter as much for casual play but a great deal for tournament play, which a lot of people go by for casual games.

GIVE US OUR SPACE DORITOS!!!!!!

This waiting, it's horrible.

I always under the impression that the Nebulon-B frigates were stolen Imperial ships when used by the rebels. I've always liked the idea of Imperial Nebulon's.

Nebulon-Bs were initially designed to counter Rebel star-fighter raids, but they were often captured (or defected) and became a staple of the Rebel fleet.

I always under the impression that the Nebulon-B frigates were stolen Imperial ships when used by the rebels. I've always liked the idea of Imperial Nebulon's.

Basically. Most of the Alliance's Nebulon-Bs were either ships that were captured, or whose crews defected. Other possible sources for Alliance Nebulons are illegal copies made in outlaw or Alliance shipyards, under the table purchases from KDY, and donations from the defense fleets of worlds allied with the Alliance either covertly or overtly.

And so far the only listed ship class I know of which is probably faction specific in setting IMO is the Assault Frigate Mark II. While there are no definite reports of Gladiators in Rebel hands there were a number stolen from port or captured by pirates. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those eventually ended up in Alliance hands, nor would I be shocked if the Alliance captured some themselves or gained a few through defection. (Gladiators are the smallest Star Destroyers I know of and their crews are only a little bit larger then that of the Nebulon-B which we know were often captured by, or defected to the Alliance.)

Nebulon-Bs were initially designed to counter Rebel star-fighter raids, but they were often captured (or defected) and became a staple of the Rebel fleet.

Yeah originally though I believe that's been retroconned to be that the Nebulon-B was designed to counter Separatist raiders either during the Clone Wars or during the heavy fighting with Separatist remnant forces that followed the foundation of the Empire. They now entered service only a few months after the foundation of the Empire, and thous long before the Alliance, or the resistance movements which led to the Alliance got organized enough to be much of a threat.

Much like how the Lancer class Frigate was retroconned from being designed in response to the Battle of Yavin to entering service in the last days of the Clone Wars.

GIVE US OUR SPACE DORITOS!!!!!!

This waiting, it's horrible.

Patience, young padawan.

I will also say that unless FFG does a good job in balancing, my group will experiment with cross faction ship battles

Using Imperial ships in Rebel lists or Rebel ships in Imperial lists won't likely work well. You'll run into the same kind of issues if you tried to do that in X-Wing. Namely that each faction is balanced based on the ships and upgrades for that faction. You break that and the rest of the game will have a much greater chance of being broken in other ways.

I understand your love of the Empire. I too favor the Empire for these types of games.

But that being said, if everyone else is going Empire, I'd bite the bullet and go Rebels. It'll likely give you a lot more interesting things you'll be able to do.

I have a feeling the Empire is going to be favoring 1-2 slow ships supported by some fighters, while the Rebs are likely going to have all kinds of neat synergy things they'll be able to pull off with their smaller, more nimble ships.

Also, if everyone else is going Empire, and they are facing off against each other, they'll get lots of practice fighting Empire lists and you'll be able to throw them for a loop with new strats every time you face them.

We almost never see Nebulon-Bs in the hands of the Empire anymore. Not in Empire at War, not in the older Rebellion game...

only place I can remember seeing them outside the novels is in the flight simulators, along with Imperial CR-90s.

So I'm only hoping that the Empire will have a chance to run starships that they actually built. The number and frequency of Nebulon-Bs showing up exclusively in Rebel hands would encourage me, as a Moff, to discontinue the design. Simply for the superstitious belief that crews manning them are more than half likely to defect.

Fortunately the empire has the superior Nebulon-B2 design to fall back on if the Empire wants an analogue and FFG is willing to oblige us.

IIRC, the Star Wars PocketModel game came with several Imperial Nebulon-Bs. That gives me hope, lol. I know, deluded. The Interdictor would be interesting as well.

Yeah the Pocketmodels game actually had more Imperial Nebulon-Bs then Alliance Nebulon-Bs if I remember correctly (I would have to dig my Pocketmodels stuff out of my game dresser to be sure d its basically blocked off my boxes ATM.) In fact I'm thinking that the only Alliance Nebulon-B in the game was Redemption, AKA the medical frigate from ESB. I always thought they would have probably come out with more Alliance Nebulon-Bs if they had been able to finish the planned sets rather then being discontinued during their Clone Wars focused series of sets. (They only released two of a planned three The Clone Wars cartoon related sets before losing the license, and had two more expansions set for release after the Clone Wars Trilogy)

What was really weird though was the utter lack of any MC80s or Alliance ships larger the Nebulon-Bs. All of the other factions got Destroyers or Battleships. I'm guessing that would have been changed with either the Secret Weapons or Galaxy at War Expansions had come out along with more Galactic Empire Star Destroyers (There were two Imperial class Star Destroyers that I know of but the Republic had at least five different Venator class Star Destroyers while the Separatists had at least 3 Providence class Destroyers and at least 3 Lucrehulk-class battleships

Not entirely true, the rebels did get the errant venture in pocketmodels.

Ahh I never owned an Errant Venture of my own I thought It was one of the factionless ships. Its still very weird that the Rebels got that rather then Liberty or Defiance, or one of the other MC80s which appeared in the EU

Mon Cal's are round, which makes them quite a bit harder to design for a pocketmodel game. For the Errant Venture, all they had to do was print a star destroyer red.

Perhaps but it seems like many of those problems would occur with the nose section of the Nebulon-Bs as well

i think we can count on seeing an interdictor.

I guess it depends on where the next focus for wave 2 is. I think Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari cruisers are certainly possible now that the basic fleet ships are out there and both of them are really iconic.

Perhaps support ships, like the GR-75 and I dunno, the Gozani? are next? Armada is most likely going to have '75s because they did appear at Endor in some capacity.

The wonder also is if they're going to make another fighter pack for each side. You basically have everything you need in both sets... unless X-Wing large ships start appearing?

I am thinking Wave 2 will be MC80s(+ maybe MC40s) and ISDs (+ maybe a smaller picket type ship, Lancer/Carrack for example)

Edit: That would give the Rebellion a large 2 Mediums and 2 Smalls and the Imperials a Large 2 Mediums and a Small (unless they do an unbalanced wave 2 and release both imperial smalls I suggested [or any other small] to counteract the core set/wave 1 imbalance)

I guess it depends on where the next focus for wave 2 is. I think Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari cruisers are certainly possible now that the basic fleet ships are out there and both of them are really iconic.

Perhaps support ships, like the GR-75 and I dunno, the Gozani? are next? Armada is most likely going to have '75s because they did appear at Endor in some capacity.

I've always suspected that the Alliance modified some of their GR-75s into light warships for raiding, and maybe escort ops though I honestly can't recall if examples of any such craft appear in Legends/EU. It wouldn't be that hard IMO since unless things have changed the GR-75s are basically mobile frames for hauling collections of small cargo and passenger pods. In theory it should be possible to create pods that carry weapon systems, and ammunition or power generators to allow the weapons to function. I might be wrong though since I have no clue how big these pods are and how much can fit in one.

If there are any warship modded GR-75s we might see those, not so sure about the regular ones though since they have maybe one blue dice per arc. The only way i could see the regular ones appearing in Armada is as part of a scenario since the only times they are likely to be on the battlefield is when they are trying to get out with the rest of the fleet trying to cover their escape, or a case where the Alliance is literally throwing every ship it possesses that has any weapons at all on it and can reach the battle zone into the fight. (Endor being the latter of course with every ship that can reach the battle one being the entire Alliance Navy.) I could be wrong though.