Star Wars Battlelore.

I know, I know. supporting your local game store is optimal, but circumstances differ for everyone.

I would support my local game store...if I had one!

For years I've been wanting to find a gaming store near me where people play the games I enjoy, but alas it has always eluded me. Therefore Coolstuff and MiniMarket and Amazon have been my defacto gaming stores.

Selling products in pieces is part good business practice, part price reduction for the core content. Like microtransactions, it might be overpriced when the cost of all content is totalled, but it allows the consumer to pick and choose what they want.

Using Descent as an example, you can get a surprising amount of content with just the core game. There are multiple paths through the base campaign and you need to play the campaign at least twice to use all the heroes. If you think the amount of content is a turn-off, the first thing you should remember is that nobody is expecting you to buy all of it! I always play with the base game first, then purchase more content as the group plays more.

Finally, if your group does play a lot, but you personally can't fund all the expansions you want, you could split the purchase of the content among your group .

Selling products in pieces is part good business practice, part price reduction for the core content. Like microtransactions, it might be overpriced when the cost of all content is totalled, but it allows the consumer to pick and choose what they want.

Using Descent as an example, you can get a surprising amount of content with just the core game. There are multiple paths through the base campaign and you need to play the campaign at least twice to use all the heroes. If you think the amount of content is a turn-off, the first thing you should remember is that nobody is expecting you to buy all of it! I always play with the base game first, then purchase more content as the group plays more.

Finally, if your group does play a lot, but you personally can't fund all the expansions you want, you could split the purchase of the content among your group .

An interesting note on those thoughts... I have all of the box expansions for Descent but I've never once been tempted to get the Lieutenant packs. They just never had enough screen time for me to want to drop money into the minis. A.I. can no doubts be played the same way, but the Star Wars folks tend to be more completionist and collector oriented so I don't see them escaping as easily.

An interesting note on those thoughts... I have all of the box expansions for Descent but I've never once been tempted to get the Lieutenant packs. They just never had enough screen time for me to want to drop money into the minis. A.I. can no doubts be played the same way, but the Star Wars folks tend to be more completionist and collector oriented so I don't see them escaping as easily.

Star Wars Battlelore.

that would actually work game mechanics wise.

But if they must copy beloved franchises, let them copy Lord of the Rings as well. I wouldn't mind a LotR Descent game. With Imperial Assault there'd be SciFi and Fantasy. That would be awesome. A LotR Battlelore would also work great.

Twilight Imperium would probably not work. there are too many unique races and it would not fit thematically since all races start out the same. in Star Wars the Empire outnumbers the rebels etc.

So we might as well start speculating. Do you think the first large expansion will be the Battle of Hoth? Thats what I am betting on.

So we might as well start speculating. Do you think the first large expansion will be the Battle of Hoth? Thats what I am betting on.

So we might as well start speculating. Do you think the first large expansion will be the Battle of Hoth? Thats what I am betting on.

Either hoth or jabbas palace. I want a rancor! Oh and jabba!

Hoth seems like a no-brainer. Maybe Endor if folks don't react violently to the idea of an Ewok mini or two.

Endor would be good. Ewoks and speeder bikes or Ewoks on speeder bikes

Dark Forces for big campaign box, please.

Dark Forces for big campaign box, please.

+1

And +1 to The Forest Moon of Endor too.

Dark Forces for big campaign box, please.

Cannot be overstated!

I'm one who wanted to play Descent but held off on it and once Imperial Assault was announced, I knew I was doomed to the Dark Side. My copy is all paid off and awaiting the boats to arrive at Australia. This year will be a very happy holiday period

I'm not fussed with the price the game could cost. I went ga-ga over X-Wing but decided it wasn't for me in the end as I didn't get as much playtime out of it as I wanted and with my growing Star Wars RPG collection, IA is a no brainer.

So is it smart to preorder the expansion packs with the starter pack? In order to save on shipping I want to order them together but if there is a huge difference in release dates it would hold up me getting the starter on release.

The base game is "on the boat", the ally and villain packs are still "in development". I wouldn't, and haven't, put them on the same order if you want the game close to release.

I thought i would put this here for those of you who have not seen it let.

Credit to Jayven

"Lo and behold, FFG comes out with the goods The Skirmish, Rule Reference and How to Play PDFs are up on the site!"

Link

I'd like to see some Droid Packs (beyond IG-88) in the future. Astromechs and such. Plus, Greedo, and Boba Fett, and the handful of other famous Star Wars bounter hunters of course. To add to the growing scum of the universe.

I printed out the PDF's, and read through them last night. What struck me is that you must field a full Mercenary unit of 40 points in a skirmish game. You can't mix affiliation types. Right now only IG-88 fits in that category. So be on the lookout for a ton more add-on packs to fill out this category. In addition the rules talk about a cryptic "Time Period" so look for more expansions from the prequels, and from the sequels. Like it or not the expansion packs are here to stay.

I printed out the PDF's, and read through them last night. What struck me is that you must field a full Mercenary unit of 40 points in a skirmish game. You can't mix affiliation types. Right now only IG-88 fits in that category. So be on the lookout for a ton more add-on packs to fill out this category. In addition the rules talk about a cryptic "Time Period" so look for more expansions from the prequels, and from the sequels. Like it or not the expansion packs are here to stay.

You can use a Temporary Alliance card in squad-building, which allows you to use 2 units from another affiliation in your squad. So if I'm understanding it right, you could, as an example, field a Mercenary squad that includes Fenn and Diala.

I printed out the PDF's, and read through them last night. What struck me is that you must field a full Mercenary unit of 40 points in a skirmish game. You can't mix affiliation types. Right now only IG-88 fits in that category.

Actually, the Trandoshans and Nexu are Mercenary units as well. It's still not a whole lot, but there are a few. Looking at the spoilers, it seems a squad using the 2 Nexu figures, 4 Trandoshan figures, and IG-88 will get you to 39 points.

Yep, they also mention this:

Here is what I've found to be an extremely helpful post from ChristianP over at BGG. He was able to get a copy at Essen a few weeks ago and started sharing some info with us. This info is from page 5 of that thread ( http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1253677/unboxing-photos/page/5 ). I've bolded the Skirmish Upgrade Cards.

Complete list of deployment cards
Format: name (copies in box, (unique) regular/elite/ugrade, figures granted per card, point cost)

Rebel Alliance:
- Chewbacca (1x, unique elite, 1 figure, 15 pts)
- Han Solo (1x, unique elite, 1 figure, 12 pts)
- Luke Skywalker (1x, unique elite, 1 figure, 10 pts)
- Fenn Signis (1x, unique regular, 1 figure, 9 pts)
- Gaarkhan (1x, unique regular, 1 figure, 8 pts)
- Diala Passil (1x, unique regular, 1 figure, 7 pts)
- Rebel Trooper (1x, regular, 3 figures, 6 pts)
- Jyn Odan (1x, unique regular, 1 figure, 5 pts)
- Rebel Saboteur (1x, regular, 2 figures, 5 pts)
- Gideon Argus (1x, unique regular, 1 figure, 3 pts)
- Mak Eshka'rey (1x, unique regular, 1 figure, 3 pts)
- Rebel High Command (1x, unique upgrade, -, 2 pts) [Draw 1 additional Command card each round.]
- Balance of the Force (1x, unique upgrade, -, 1 pts) [Additional 3 Command card points.]

Empire:
- Darth Vader (1x, unique elite, 1 figure, 18 pts)
- General Weiss (1x, unique elite, 1 figure, 16 pts)
- Royal Guard Champion (1x, unique elite, 1 figure, 15 pts)
- AT-ST (1x, elite, 1 figure, 14 pts)
- Royal Guard (1x, elite, 2 figures, 12 pts)
- Stormtrooper (1x, elite, 3 figures, 9 pts)
- E-Web Engineer (1x, elite, 1 figure, 8 pts)
- Royal Guard (1x, regular, 2 figures, 8 pts)
- E-Web Engineer (1x, regular, 1 figure, 6 pts)
- Stormtrooper (2x, regular, 3 figures, 6 pts)
- Imperial Officer (1x, elite, 1 figure, 5 pts)
- Probe Droid (1x, elite, 1 figure, 5 pts)
- Probe Droid (2x, regular, 1 figure, 3 pts)
- Imperial Officer (2x, regular, 1 figure, 2 pts)
- Temporary Alliance (1x, unique upgrade, -, 1 pts) [include up to 2 deployment cards of Mercenary affiliation.]

Mercenary:
- IG-88 (1x, unique elite, 1 figure, 12 pts)
- Trandoshan Hunter (1x, elite, 2 figures, 10 pts)
- Trandoshan Hunter (1x, regular, 2 figures, 7 pts)
- Nexu (1x, elite, 1 figure, 6 pts)
- Nexu (1x, regular, 1 figure, 4 pts)
- First Strike (1x, unique upgrade, -, 2 pts) [After setup both players receive 4 victory points]
- Devious Scheme (1x, unique upgrade, -, 1 pts) [After setup, choose your deployment zone. Opponent must deploy first.]
- Temporary Alliance (1x, unique upgrade, -, 1 pts) [include up to 2 deployment cards of Rebel affiliation.]

As a long-time Star Wars Miniatures player, I can't say enough how much I LOVE the upgrade cards! Simply genius. Notice how you can add Mercs to Imperial squads, but not to Rebel squads (though you can add Rebels to Merc squads).

@thereisnotry

Thank you for that information!

Personally, of that list...I'm not exactly sure the reasoning for First Strike , unless it's just to speed the game along (which doesn't seem like any fun to me).

@thereisnotry

Thank you for that information!

Personally, of that list...I'm not exactly sure the reasoning for First Strike , unless it's just to speed the game along (which doesn't seem like any fun to me).

It's not really my information, but I was happy to share the link and content.

As for the value of First Strike, I wonder if certain squads will have different "ideal speeds" for play. That is, maybe some squads will be slow at the start, but have the durability to win a long battle, while other squads will be quick at the start and then begin to weaken toward the end of the match. If that's the case, then First Strike would definitely benefit the latter squad build. But all of this is inference; we'll have to wait for the game to be released and some games to be played before we know for sure.