I think a Sith Armada would work better as a third faction (there are numerous Dark Side users who kept separate from Palpatine's Empire, plus the lost Sith Armada), and would still be distinct from the Empire. It is also eminently possible that JJ Abrahms is going to introduce a new threat in Ep 7. He could just do the Empire as the villains, or do the Jacen = Palpatine route the books went down, but I honestly feel a Sith Empire hiding in the shadows of the galaxy would make for a more interesting story (especially if they still suck Jacen in).

I don't like the idea of the Vong like a lot of people so

How ever what I would like to see is some of the minor powers get some game time I would love to try a Chiss Ascendancy fleet against a Empire or Rebel one. Imagine a scenario where Garm Bel Iblis gets the jump on a small imperial task force with his 6 Dreadnoughts.

I think there are a lot of little powers in Star Wars that FFG could pull from to keep things interesting plus Pirates having capital ships is in the lore your just not gonna see a huge fleet of them.

The main issue with doing the lost Sith Armada is that AFAIK their entire fleet was basically frigate class or smaller. For a game like Armada they really need more variety IMO. Their entire capital ship fleet was pirated from other factions, mostly the CSA from what we saw.

I think we are far more liklely to see hirable "scum" ships to help bulk up Imperial or Rebel forces before we see a third faction

A huge eff no from me.

In all likelyhood we will see a pirate/scum and villany faction before anything else, a Hapan faction could also work well, but it is has a lot less support (novels, games, etc) as compared to pirates, rogue imps, black sun, etc. Vong on the other hand have lots of support in the lore and are widely known, but most everyone hates them (the Vong War series' went on for much too long in my opinion and were far to scattered in writing styles and quality).

In all likelyhood we will see a pirate/scum and villany faction before anything else, a Hapan faction could also work well, but it is has a lot less support (novels, games, etc) as compared to pirates, rogue imps, black sun, etc. Vong on the other hand have lots of support in the lore and are widely known, but most everyone hates them (the Vong War series' went on for much too long in my opinion and were far to scattered in writing styles and quality).

Given Armada is focused on capital ships, I don't know if we will see an entire scum faction as such, as interesting as that would be, as it would end up like being the Imperial Guard in Warhammer 40K, with players having to field bucketloads of low cost small ships as they wouldnt have many (if any) comparable ships larger than a frigate size. Having to buy 30 odd mini scum fighter and corvette sized expansion packs probably wouldnt sell well enough to make it worthwhile to produce them all. Having said that though it is very viable we could get neutral ships that can be hired by either side - like the neutral/pirate cards in Star Trek Attack wing, where any faction can use them but they have to pay more points. So we could see an small rebel force bolstering their flanks with a few "freelancers" to tackle an Imperial force

I don't want the Vong, thank you . But will happily take Clone War era!

Now THAT is a good idea. I'd buy into an additional series, just give us another starter kit with enough CIS and Old Republic ships to kick things off. Casual play could still mix up ships however they wanted, and if you made the CIS playable as rebels in casual play (I'm taking some liberties here I know) it would almost reverse the ratios of big ships to little ships on either side, so both sets of factions would have a somewhat even pool of each size ship to draw from. May be wrong on that based just on memory, but seems doable and rather cool actually.

I will Play Clone wars Era CIS in a heartbeat. I would even play Empire era CIS holdouts in a heartbeat. I want my CIS!

I haven't read enough of the New Jedi Order stuff to know if I would personally have an interest in the Yuuzhan Vong or not, but if there's a demand for them, they should get made.

I don't really get the mentality of "I don't like it, so it should never get made." You could always just not buy it.

It is a no for me regarding adding the Vong.

I would like to see other factions. The galaxy is a huge place and there can be independent groups that are neither for the Empire nor Rebellion. Maybe using some of the current ships, with different commanders and slightly modified stats and other unique to their group ships, especially fighters.

Mandolore maybe? Scum has a few organizations large enough to make it to the Armada table I'd wager, hell Black Sun built a giant Space Station, the Skyhook. Again the Clone Wars Era had the chance to setup some of that scum stuff with the animated series.

@Vlad, If there was a demand for them sure, make the Vong. But if you get a chance to read any of the books they are in (mind you I only read one before I said no thanks to the whole series) you might find that where the Prequels get flak for bad acting and a few stupid scenes, maybe a character or two, the Vong draw fan hate from their entirely bad design concept . Stories written around them were actually a decent quality. But in the end they just don't jive with the universe as an idea. They are actually the jihadist terrorist group in the Universe, which is funny since the Rebels of the Galactic Civil War have somehow got pegged with the terrorist moniker more than the Vong. Must be the limelight effect. But the whole Bio-tech-no-force-presence-extra-galactic-zealot thing just clashed too much with the grungy-tech-black-and-white-and-bounty-hunter aesthetic.

Which creates other problems too because in game design terms they shouldn't be able to cross over certain types of upgrades. Kind of difficult to put enhanced volcano drives on my CR-90.

EU still exists guys. Disney just re-titled it when putting out the reminder that it was NEVER canon.

Now I would love to see the Vong make an appearance. But if not, I can sculpt something and make some rules with my community here.

Mandolore maybe? Scum has a few organizations large enough to make it to the Armada table I'd wager, hell Black Sun built a giant Space Station, the Skyhook. Again the Clone Wars Era had the chance to setup some of that scum stuff with the animated series.

As much of a Mando fan as I am (and i toyally am), the Mandalorians had effectively no navy of any sort at this time. I mean....none. Their entire navy could be represented by a couple of squadron counters. Not even an exaggeration

Mandolore maybe? Scum has a few organizations large enough to make it to the Armada table I'd wager, hell Black Sun built a giant Space Station, the Skyhook. Again the Clone Wars Era had the chance to setup some of that scum stuff with the animated series.

As much of a Mando fan as I am (and i toyally am), the Mandalorians had effectively no navy of any sort at this time. I mean....none. Their entire navy could be represented by a couple of squadron counters. Not even an exaggeration

These are true facts.

I haven't read enough of the New Jedi Order stuff to know if I would personally have an interest in the Yuuzhan Vong or not, but if there's a demand for them, they should get made.

I don't really get the mentality of "I don't like it, so it should never get made." You could always just not buy it.

I think the issue here is the the whole EU of the Vong invasion was how they were a technologically advanced force that decimated the galaxy - which to bring into a game that has any hopes of balance between forces would just end up screwing it all up. Bit like trying to have a Star Trek themed version of Armada and then saying "Oh, lets add a Borg faction - that would be equal to the others".

I haven't read enough of the New Jedi Order stuff to know if I would personally have an interest in the Yuuzhan Vong or not, but if there's a demand for them, they should get made.

I don't really get the mentality of "I don't like it, so it should never get made." You could always just not buy it.

I think the issue here is the the whole EU of the Vong invasion was how they were a technologically advanced force that decimated the galaxy - which to bring into a game that has any hopes of balance between forces would just end up screwing it all up. Bit like trying to have a Star Trek themed version of Armada and then saying "Oh, lets add a Borg faction - that would be equal to the others".

Because THAT worked soooo well for WizKids. Amiright!?

Because THAT worked soooo well for WizKids. Amiright!?

Exactly :/

Because THAT worked soooo well for WizKids. Amiright!?

Exactly :/

Yup. You scored a direct hit on that one.

STAW always seemed more about selling minis than being a good, playable game. Gi-normous Borg cube and DS-9 station...

The SWXW CR-90 is tons better looking. Never having played the cube or station, I'm still prepared to bet the 90 is tons more fun in a game.

Because THAT worked soooo well for WizKids. Amiright!?

Exactly :/

Yup. You scored a direct hit on that one.

STAW always seemed more about selling minis than being a good, playable game. Gi-normous Borg cube and DS-9 station...

The SWXW CR-90 is tons better looking. Never having played the cube or station, I'm still prepared to bet the 90 is tons more fun in a game.

They got into a problem of power creep basically with STAW

I played a couple games with the station (not the actual model, the cardboard template they put out initially) it was ok, a curiosity

WizKids design philosophy has always favored sale of product and uses obvious unrestricted power creep to accomplish that goal. The old Dragon Ball Z CCG used the technique even more blatantly(and I think is even being reproduced with next to no update currently). Funnily enough the template station you got as an event attendee only, and the actual model station you got for winning the campaign(stupid restrictions, I don't care if there are surplus available for trade or eBay) are not the complete product you can now get off the shelf! So if you have those items, fine you get the cruddy mockup version, now you need to buy a normal one to have full content. What!?

I'm so beyond frustrated (exact term I want to use, not mad, pissed, or anything else) that WK got the license because I honestly would have bought into both franchises. I love both universes! And I'm fine with the models being out of scale too for Trek! The fact that there is a giant DS-9 game piece at the FLGS is constantly mocking me because I wont buy into a poorly built game is so irritating. DS-9 was after all the gateway for me into the Trek 'verse. **** cool giant DS-9 just mocking me

But hey, people bought the Trek game. it did sell. Continues to as well. WizKids knows the specific audience that they are selling to, and are building a game tailored to them. The other side of the coin would say they are doing a fantastic job of providing for their player base. Even if their own players got a hold of the Borg and were all like "Heyyy, waaait. Really? This is not okay guysss. Mmmmm and community/casual ban! Ta-da!" I even know of a other LGS that the owner of the store DID ban them from play in his tourneys. For a player type that enjoys power game type pieces? Day-um

WizKids design philosophy has always favored sale of product and uses obvious unrestricted power creep to accomplish that goal.

Yep, and whilst FFG has traditionally avoided such blatant creep in X-wing, a friend and I after a few games with the new Decimator and the prototype TIE Advanced cards coming up in the Raider expansion feel a bit disconcerted that these latest new expansions are very powerful - perhaps a bit too powerful, and that it is worrying if that will become a trend for future releases.

Fingers crossed that Armada does not suffer this from day one.

Well hell, look at the Phantom. It takes the Glass Cannon Interceptor roll and took it the point that it's not as much glass, and a whole lot more cannon. E-wing, Defender, Z-95 all seemed to hit their mark in terms of power level. Corran is a bit above the curve, Defender is a bit below in general, but that's right about where you want them. The Phantom drew ALLLL the hate for it's power level. Which is frankly fair. Personally you could of gone almost anywhere on that whole ships design and poked it, hell breathed on it funny, and it would of been a world more balanced. Or Super Dash. Or almost all of S+V stuff. From what I hear from the guys who have worked our FLGS for many many many years, seen it all pass their counter, listened to all the stories, is that FFG products are very consistently balanced for the first few expansions , and then they all start suffering from creep and cascade quickly into a broken mess. They said that almost a year ago when I was talking with them, and their words are proving prophetic. Which has me biting my nails. Looking at the new X1 and upgrades, yeah, I'm worried. I started worrying when I took a 70pt Fat Falcon against a 100pt Howl-swarm and almost won.

Honestly I think they aren't suffering from any kind of designer creativity problems per se. I think they are having the problems that Magic:TG's designers have: They now know how to play the game, and it's their gamer mind influencing their designer thought process. Take the Outrider. One, it's a cool ship from the lore. But with the Super Dash build? It has the maneuverability I want, the durability I can use to tank it up, action economy for days, and the best raw power gun on a turret, and I can go places you can't AKA asteroids. Every part of that build plays to the X-wing gamer skill set. It is a ship that takes full advantage of the things you were already doing in the game, and allows you to do most of them just better. Back to the Phantom, start with an interceptor, increase the maneuverability, cover the glaring weakness of no shields, give it a Passenger slot for almost no reason, and the awesomely powerful Sensor slot.

Which is funny because if you get a chance pick up a Phantom model and just stare at it from any angle and rotate it around every which way. If you were shooting at that things center mass, there isn't an angle where you don't hit something vital. Almost any center mass shot on the Phantom would hit either the cockpit, or the engine/service section. That's it. Hell you more often than not would miss the smaller profile fins since they are so small, if you were trying to ht them, why then is it as hard to crit them as an X-wing? What is phrase? #WeirdthingsIthinkabout?

I haven't read enough of the New Jedi Order stuff to know if I would personally have an interest in the Yuuzhan Vong or not, but if there's a demand for them, they should get made.

I don't really get the mentality of "I don't like it, so it should never get made." You could always just not buy it.

I think the issue here is the the whole EU of the Vong invasion was how they were a technologically advanced force that decimated the galaxy - which to bring into a game that has any hopes of balance between forces would just end up screwing it all up. Bit like trying to have a Star Trek themed version of Armada and then saying "Oh, lets add a Borg faction - that would be equal to the others".

As others have pointed out elsewhere on this board, by all rights, the Imperial Navy should outnumber and outgun the rebels at every turn. But they don't, because the game is based on a system of both sides bringing an equal point value worth of ships to the fight.

Why would that be any different for including another faction?