What do you guys think of the idea of releasing a Premium Core Set? The idea being that it includes all high quality acrylic templates, range rulers, tokens, and dice, plus a damage deck and nice set of asteroid minis. You don't get any ships, ship cards, or upgrades with it -- so you either pick it up if you're serious about upgrading your play material, or it's a way to get into the game while immediately customizing your ships if you don't want to get an X-wing and two TIEs -- so you could buy a Premium set and Scum ships to start as Scum-only.

I think I'd pay $60 for a product like this if it included an appropriate amount of tokens.

I think that FFG has been hesitant to release items like these because they are items used as prize support. Not saying I wouldn't go for it, just saying it is unlikely.

The production overheads against 'units sold' would mean something like this would put FFG out of business.

Cardstock is cheap to produce and easy to correct errors in .

Plastic injection moulding costs a lot of money to set up, resin cast takes time and requires very stringent quality control.

its a nice idea but the actual cost of producing a set would be ridiculously high so your 'trade price' would probably be at least $60 and the price you got it as a customer double that.

You just wouldnt shift enough units to make your money.

Also it would have to be mail order only as no store is going to give up their store shelf space for a second version of what is essentially the same game and which they might sell two of if they were lucky.

Thats my opinion as someone who has worked in wargames marketing for some time.

$60 for no ships? It better have a metric TON of the absolute best quality stuff in it. For that price, I can get every acrylic piece I would ever need, in whatever colors I would like, with my name engraved on the range ruler and movement templates, and still have enough left over for a StarViper on Amazon.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but the price would either need to be justified by the quality of and amount of content, or would need to come down by about a third for me to buy in for that.

I, for one, would love official acrylics to be released in this manner. I doubt it will happen, but I'd certainly buy it. I'd imagine they would be different shades, to distinguish them from promo tokens

what would make a more sensible release, and you wont see it for the 'rack/shelf space' issue (shops only have so much frontage for a game, at GW each race could only have ten or so 'codes/items' as you just cant stock it all otherwise) would be to have an 'expert' rulebook.

This would be a hardback version of the rules, with FAQ additions all put in the right places and all printed scenarios and come with three or four A4 card sheets with punch outs of all the existing core components, rulers, templates PLUS debris fields and scenario tokens.

That would allow someone who only wanted to play S&V, or only Rebels or whatever to pick up the 'experts' rulebook and then add ships to taste from the range, dice from the dice pack etc.

All you're adding there is the size of a magazine to your display stands and most gaming stores stock A4 sized rulebooks.

But at the moment the FFG model is very clever.

You buy a core set and you intend to collect say 'only imperial', but most people then find out they want a second core set for cheap extra ships and enough dice to play easily... then you find you've accidentally got 2/3rds of the other faction so buy a few imperial or rebels ships as a 'back up force' or 'in case a mate comes over'.

Before you know it you're buying twice the amount of stuff you intended to.

I know i intended to buy four awings and a core set.... just look at my sig to see how that ended up.

I have a feeling im not alone.

I wouldn't object to seeing a Premium Core Set that contained all of the wave 1 ships, plus all of the wave 1 expansion pilots and upgrades - maybe a sprinkling of some of the better upgrades from later waves - Engine Upgrades, Advanced sensors, Predator, the BTL and X1 titles.

As for an official FFG acrylic set, a while back people wanted official FFG playmats .... nuff said

The only good looking official acrylic tokens are the Proximity Mines, and the Target Locks. Everything else looks bad and is annoyingly one sided. Even the acrylic cloak tokens have this dumb overly ornate border around them.

Everyone in my area loves those acrylic Focus tokens. That pastel green color is miserable and every time they set one down they have to flip it right side up.

I managed to get the evade tokens last year and I love them.

Yes they are only onesided but that dark green is lovely

I'd pay for that in a heartbeat.

The production overheads against 'units sold' would mean something like this would put FFG out of business.

Cardstock is cheap to produce and easy to correct errors in .

Plastic injection moulding costs a lot of money to set up, resin cast takes time and requires very stringent quality control.

its a nice idea but the actual cost of producing a set would be ridiculously high so your 'trade price' would probably be at least $60 and the price you got it as a customer double that.

You just wouldnt shift enough units to make your money.

Also it would have to be mail order only as no store is going to give up their store shelf space for a second version of what is essentially the same game and which they might sell two of if they were lucky.

Thats my opinion as someone who has worked in wargames marketing for some time.

Why would it be doable for competition prizes etc but not for sellable products? Other companies make premium replacement equipment. FFG could even do it on their own Print on Demand service.

I think it's a cool idea could FFG's supply lines handle it :-P

Id love it if they would put out an asteroids and debris pack, tourney legal mins. That would look so good on the table.

Core Set exists for drawing in new players, plus the acrylic swag is for prizes, so they wouldn't release it in Core.

If I recall correctly, didn't FFG already address this topic (selling official FFG acrylics)?

My understanding anyway was those items were something that would remain available only through tournament/organized events.

what would make a more sensible release, and you wont see it for the 'rack/shelf space' issue (shops only have so much frontage for a game, at GW each race could only have ten or so 'codes/items' as you just cant stock it all otherwise) would be to have an 'expert' rulebook.

This would be a hardback version of the rules, with FAQ additions all put in the right places and all printed scenarios and come with three or four A4 card sheets with punch outs of all the existing core components, rulers, templates PLUS debris fields and scenario tokens.

That would allow someone who only wanted to play S&V, or only Rebels or whatever to pick up the 'experts' rulebook and then add ships to taste from the range, dice from the dice pack etc.

All you're adding there is the size of a magazine to your display stands and most gaming stores stock A4 sized rulebooks.

But at the moment the FFG model is very clever.

You buy a core set and you intend to collect say 'only imperial', but most people then find out they want a second core set for cheap extra ships and enough dice to play easily... then you find you've accidentally got 2/3rds of the other faction so buy a few imperial or rebels ships as a 'back up force' or 'in case a mate comes over'.

Before you know it you're buying twice the amount of stuff you intended to.

I know i intended to buy four awings and a core set.... just look at my sig to see how that ended up.

I have a feeling im not alone.

A hardback rulebook or an all-in-one rules app would be VERY nice.....I realise there's multiple PDFs but I'd just like a good, and version controlled, edition that's at my fingertips with ALL the rules in. No more questions on if the Epic FAQ affects Cinematic gameplay, or exactly when in the timing "Add this top step 3" is....to be honest I want something like PP's War Room. You put down some cash, it unlocks all the ship cards, if you want you can use it to track damage in a game, build lists in it, everything is on the latest errata version, and there's a definitive reference section accessible by clicking on appropriate sections of cards.

I'd pay for that in a heartbeat.

I second this.

It doesn't have to be acrylic. Plastics and even some metals are cheap(aluminum and nickel alloys for instance) to manufacture. look at a game like ticket to ride that comes with a ton of plastic train cars. FFG could easily have tokens manufactured in that type of plastic, maybe in a more sculpted relief style, color coded and with built in stands for much less than acrylics. That way you get some nicer tokens, target locks, numbers, and templates and the prize acrylics would still be desirable. Also you could pick your kit by faction which could have faction specific colors for movement templates, numbers, and faction logos on the tl. Plus you could always repaint them since thry are plastic.

Don't you dare make my acrylic prizes look less impressive!!

I have started looking at my cardboard components recently thinking, yeah, they need upgraded. So far I won Cloak tokens and Bomb tokens but that's it. I REALLY want more opportunity to win Focus/evade/target lock and movements. My 1-straight is about to bite the dust as it is. :/