I know Wave 8 just announced, yet I still can't help to speculating.

I think that the next 3 announcements will be for Wave 9 along with 2 S&V huge ships, and if I were a betting man, I would put my money on Wave 9 consisting of a Rebel large base ship, an Imp large base ship, and a single Scum small base ship. I would also wager that, like with the other factions, there will be a larger and smaller huge ship, with the smaller huge ship being accompanied with an alternative paint schemed fighter. Following those announcements, I believe FFG will finish off the balancing act with a 4th announcement being the S&V Aces kit consisting of 2 alternate paint schemed fighters.

Now to speculate as to what some of those ships will be.

Wave 9

Rebels large ship: ?

Imperial large ship: Hoping for a Skipray, but seeing as it's shorter then a HWK-290, it probably wouldn't be a big base ship.

Scum small ship: G1-M4-C Dunelizard fighter (without astromech capabilities).

Scum Huge Ships

Larger huge ship: Guessing it will be Hutt oriented.

Smaller huge ship: Guessing it will be Blacksun or pirate oriented.

Alternate paint small ship: Kihraxz fighter.

Aces

Ship 1: M3-A "Scyk" with Blacksun paint.

Ship 2: G1-M4-C Dunelizard with alternate paint. (will include title cards to upgrade the Dunelizard to the variant that carries astromechs and will give access to Salvaged Astromech upgrades)

If I'm right, this will create a balance of options in all ship sizes, and a balance in ships with alternate paint schemes accompanied with extra ship card options, across all three factions, with the only imbalance being the Rebels access to the Phantom. Because the Phantom must be taken with the Ghost and is used in part with the Ghost, I don't really consider it to be a true imbalance in ship options however.

If this is close to the path that FFG follows, then by the time it has all been released, things will be nicely balanced just in time for the release of ships from The Force Awakens shortly thereafter.

What do you think?

Actually now that I think of it, the non-astomech carrying Dunelizard is a 2 seater, where as the Astromech equipped variant is a single seater. It would be pretty cool (considering FFG even releases this ship, and I hope they do) if it could carry a passenger, but the title card that upgrades it to equip Astromechs was a cost 0 title and sacrifices the passenger seat.

Actually now that I think of it, the non-astomech carrying Dunelizard is a 2 seater, where as the Astromech equipped variant is a single seater. It would be pretty cool (considering FFG even releases this ship, and I hope they do) if it could carry a passenger, but the title card that upgrades it to equip Astromechs was a cost 0 title and sacrifices the passenger seat.

It'll take me a bit to dig it up, but we brainstormed a pretty good representation of it a while back before Wave 7 was announced.

Actually now that I think of it, the non-astomech carrying Dunelizard is a 2 seater, where as the Astromech equipped variant is a single seater. It would be pretty cool (considering FFG even releases this ship, and I hope they do) if it could carry a passenger, but the title card that upgrades it to equip Astromechs was a cost 0 title and sacrifices the passenger seat.

It'll take me a bit to dig it up, but we brainstormed a pretty good representation of it a while back before Wave 7 was announced.

I would like to see that. It's one of my fav fighters. On the 2 seater variant, the cockpit and nose remind me of an F4 Phantom.

Actually now that I think of it, the non-astomech carrying Dunelizard is a 2 seater, where as the Astromech equipped variant is a single seater. It would be pretty cool (considering FFG even releases this ship, and I hope they do) if it could carry a passenger, but the title card that upgrades it to equip Astromechs was a cost 0 title and sacrifices the passenger seat.

It'll take me a bit to dig it up, but we brainstormed a pretty good representation of it a while back before Wave 7 was announced.

I would like to see that. It's one of my fav fighters. On the 2 seater variant, the cockpit and nose remind me of an F4 Phantom.

ah, found it:

reworking in Strange Eons to actually have Scum card art etc

Actually now that I think of it, the non-astomech carrying Dunelizard is a 2 seater, where as the Astromech equipped variant is a single seater. It would be pretty cool (considering FFG even releases this ship, and I hope they do) if it could carry a passenger, but the title card that upgrades it to equip Astromechs was a cost 0 title and sacrifices the passenger seat.

It'll take me a bit to dig it up, but we brainstormed a pretty good representation of it a while back before Wave 7 was announced.

My POS of a phone won't load it. Will have to try tomorrow on the laptop. Thanks!

I would like to see that. It's one of my fav fighters. On the 2 seater variant, the cockpit and nose remind me of an F4 Phantom.

ah, found it:

reworking in Strange Eons to actually have Scum card art etc

Actually now that I think of it, the non-astomech carrying Dunelizard is a 2 seater, where as the Astromech equipped variant is a single seater. It would be pretty cool (considering FFG even releases this ship, and I hope they do) if it could carry a passenger, but the title card that upgrades it to equip Astromechs was a cost 0 title and sacrifices the passenger seat.

It'll take me a bit to dig it up, but we brainstormed a pretty good representation of it a while back before Wave 7 was announced.

My POS of a phone won't load it. Will have to try tomorrow on the laptop. Thanks!

I would like to see that. It's one of my fav fighters. On the 2 seater variant, the cockpit and nose remind me of an F4 Phantom.

ah, found it:

reworking in Strange Eons to actually have Scum card art etc

Oops. **** phone!

Dunelizard hijack!

Dunelizard hijack!

Sweet! Thanks

That's... not bad at all, actually. I quite like the scyk-style attack-2-until-you-buy-the-cannon shenanigans inherent.

Better yet, it still remains viable in the face of the Kithraxz. It's the cannon-hauler to the ace pitfighter.

Yeah, we designed it before the Kihraxz was a thing, I'm happy to see it didn't actually get stepped on.

If I'm right, this will create a balance of options in all ship sizes, and a balance in ships with alternate paint schemes accompanied with extra ship card options, across all three factions, with the only imbalance being the Rebels access to the Phantom. Because the Phantom must be taken with the Ghost and is used in part with the Ghost, I don't really consider it to be a true imbalance in ship options however.

The Assault Shuttle can be taken in lists separately from the VCX-100.

If the scum huge ship is a black sun ship, i would assume it would come with a new star viper small ship so they could give it a generic title to buff the unnamed pilots and I believe they will release a defender/x-wing ace pilot pack to fix those to pieces of relative crap.

Also, nice Dunelizard!

While Wave 7 might have reach ship equilibrium in terms of number of ships for standard play. But if counting pilots and large and small ships the factions will never be the same as Wave 3 had 1 imperil large ship and the rebels only had small ships.

Wave 8 definitely threw the numbers into wack with 2 S&V ship 1 Imperial ship and a rebel expansion pack that includes 2 ships 1 large 1 small, that can sort of be combined into a semi-voltron ship. With Epic they are releasing the imperial counterpart to the rebel transport that comes with 2 special painted TIES so almost like Epic players gets its own special edition core set.

But in terms of balance the question is what roles do the ships fit in. S&V finally get their own large base PWT ship with the ability to gain 3 firepower. The Rebels get an auxiliary firing arc and the S&V get the cloaking ability.

Curious about the scum aces thing, as it comes up quite a lot. To my mind the aces packs were a cool way of updating and improving on ships that were a bit limited, and opened up some great builds that are now some of the core of the game.

So my question would be - exactly which scum ships need this kind of lovin, in your opinion? I'm not experienced with scum too much, but I can't think of any ships that do, besides maybe the scyk.

Curious about the scum aces thing, as it comes up quite a lot. To my mind the aces packs were a cool way of updating and improving on ships that were a bit limited, and opened up some great builds that are now some of the core of the game.

So my question would be - exactly which scum ships need this kind of lovin, in your opinion? I'm not experienced with scum too much, but I can't think of any ships that do, besides maybe the scyk.

Well, several people on this board claim scyks are weak, though I have a friend who runs a mangler scyk swarm that does very well.

Don't see a lot of star vipers flying around, though many people seem to WANT to fly them.

Curious about the scum aces thing, as it comes up quite a lot. To my mind the aces packs were a cool way of updating and improving on ships that were a bit limited, and opened up some great builds that are now some of the core of the game.

So my question would be - exactly which scum ships need this kind of lovin, in your opinion? I'm not experienced with scum too much, but I can't think of any ships that do, besides maybe the scyk.

Well there is no question that it will likely contain at least one MA-3 Scyk. Now what else would it contain whether it contains one or 2 MA-3s, that is up for debate. It could contain anything from a Star Viper to a Z-95 Headhunter with Ndru's paint scheme. Or it could contain the new Kihraxz starfighter.

However one thing to consider is that there will also be 2 Epic packs out for Scum and Villainy if following the pattern that the other factions have. Also the common practice is to include a small ship with an alternate paint scheme which opens the door for more small ships such as more HWK-290 pilots, or more Z-95 Headhunter pilots. Aces is not the only pack to give new pilots and alternate paint schemes to already released models.

So my question would be - exactly which scum ships need this kind of lovin, in your opinion? I'm not experienced with scum too much, but I can't think of any ships that do, besides maybe the scyk.

I could see a Scum Aces pack featuring the Scyk and the Kihraxz - but introducing the Dunelizard and Vaksai as variants of the two ships, rather than just repaints.

I could also see a Scum "Ace" pack, with the YT-2000 and pilot cards for Scum YT1300's (based on the Outer Rim Smuggler stats, not the Falcon obviously...)

Actually now that I think of it, the non-astomech carrying Dunelizard is a 2 seater, where as the Astromech equipped variant is a single seater. It would be pretty cool (considering FFG even releases this ship, and I hope they do) if it could carry a passenger, but the title card that upgrades it to equip Astromechs was a cost 0 title and sacrifices the passenger seat.

I love the looks of that ship. But then they could also bring the Khiraxz version with the front maneiuering fins... That also looks nice!

Actually now that I think of it, the non-astomech carrying Dunelizard is a 2 seater, where as the Astromech equipped variant is a single seater. It would be pretty cool (considering FFG even releases this ship, and I hope they do) if it could carry a passenger, but the title card that upgrades it to equip Astromechs was a cost 0 title and sacrifices the passenger seat.

Correct me but was the Dunelizard not a different, more advanced versionof the Khiraxz?

Kind-of sort of. It's got the same cannon/torp/missile modular system, but also astromech/crew depending on version.

I guess they /could/ do a Dunelizard title with cannon+crew/mech, but it'd be better off as its own ship.

Actually now that I think of it, the non-astomech carrying Dunelizard is a 2 seater, where as the Astromech equipped variant is a single seater. It would be pretty cool (considering FFG even releases this ship, and I hope they do) if it could carry a passenger, but the title card that upgrades it to equip Astromechs was a cost 0 title and sacrifices the passenger seat.

Correct me but was the Dunelizard not a different, more advanced versionof the Khiraxz?

Kind-of sort of. It's got the same cannon/torp/missile modular system, but also astromech/crew depending on version.

I guess they /could/ do a Dunelizard title with cannon+crew/mech, but it'd be better off as its own ship.

I read Kihrazx as Scyk anyways~

Imperial large ship: Hoping for a Skipray, but seeing as it's shorter then a HWK-290, it probably wouldn't be a big base ship.

The Skipray's bigger than the HWK. The Wookiee gives a bigger size for the HWK based on a sourcebook that didn't do its research.

Skipray at 25m is DEFINITELY a large ship, especially as the Aggressor is.

If I'm right, this will create a balance of options in all ship sizes, and a balance in ships with alternate paint schemes accompanied with extra ship card options, across all three factions, with the only imbalance being the Rebels access to the Phantom. Because the Phantom must be taken with the Ghost and is used in part with the Ghost, I don't really consider it to be a true imbalance in ship options however.

The Assault Shuttle can be taken in lists separately from the VCX-100.

After reading the Wave 8 announcement again, I believe your right. For some reason the first time I read it I gathered the impression that the Phantom could only be taken as a Title upgrade in addition to the Ghost Title (as I think it should have been IMHO).