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.

Even if the Scum don't necessarily require any fixes, I think they will still release a S&V Aces just to bring up their options in ship cards closer to what the other factions have. Also it would probably sell, which is incentive for FFG right there.

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.

No reason why an S&V Aces kit, or huge ship accompanied with a fighter re-release, couldn't provide upgrades that would improve the playability of the StarViper. I may be wrong about this, but I don't recall any other organizations using the StarViper other than Blacksun. Since Blacksun designed and used exclusively the StarViper, I think an alternative paint scheme on it wouldn't make much sense, which is why I don't think it will see a re-release.

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 was wrong and edited the post. The Dunelizard was a hravier version of the Scyk while the Vaksai was the heavier variant of the Khiraxz.

The Dunelizard is just modeled after the Scyk, but is quite different in both functionality and appearance. The Scyk is a light interceptor which I think is best suited as an arc dodger. The Dunelizard is a medium fighter which would funtion as a jouster. Plus using it as I described, or as Tipperary has presented it, gives it something original in the way of having the option of either an Astromech or Crew. Plus I think it just looks badass and has Scum written all over it.

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).

They could have implemented it that way, I think. But I can imagine at least two good reasons not to:

(1) It would have been the only ship in the game that could only ever be fielded in a specific combination. That takes choices away from players, which is usually a bad thing.

(2) The only way I can think of to do it would have been to give the Phantom pilots all a cost of "--" (like the Nashtah Pup Pilot). That means either there's only one pilot, which would be another first, or it would require them to find a number of pilot abilities that were all exactly the same strength. Personally I think the relative strength of the IG-88s demonstrates how hard that is to do.

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

So the HWK-290 isn't 29 meters then? Well that makes me more hopeful for seeing the Skipray's release then. However, it would probably be a 100 point list on it's own, if it's playability was truly reflective of it's capabilities.

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

So the HWK-290 isn't 29 meters then? Well that makes me more hopeful for seeing the Skipray's release then. However, it would probably be a 100 point list on it's own, if it's playability was truly reflective of it's capabilities.

29m for the HWK comes from an old RPG guide iirc, those things were famous for just eyeballing lengths or adjusting based on what they wanted to use a ship for. Comparison with reference points in DF/JK puts it significantly shorter, at ~17m. Pretty close to the X-Wing model.

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).

They could have implemented it that way, I think. But I can imagine at least two good reasons not to:

(1) It would have been the only ship in the game that could only ever be fielded in a specific combination. That takes choices away from players, which is usually a bad thing.

(2) The only way I can think of to do it would have been to give the Phantom pilots all a cost of "--" (like the Nashtah Pup Pilot). That means either there's only one pilot, which would be another first, or it would require them to find a number of pilot abilities that were all exactly the same strength. Personally I think the relative strength of the IG-88s demonstrates how hard that is to do.

Not necessarily. They could have set it up so that taking the Ghost title gives you the option of taking the Phantom title option which could have had a point cost of it's own that in turn gives you the choice of selecting one of the different Phantom ship cards at zero cost. You would pay the ships cost with the Phantom title. The toughest part would be coming up with pilot skills for the different pilots that would all reflect the same cost. But they could have made that easier by just narrowing down the options to 2 or 3 pilots, rather than 4. I think it would have just been better for keeping balance of choice across the factions, given they follow my predictions with the next releases. At the end of my prediction, this would have given all 3 factions 8 small ships, 4 large ships, 2 huge ships, and 3 alternate paint small ships with accompanying new ship cards/pilots (the only imbalance being the Phantom).

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

So the HWK-290 isn't 29 meters then? Well that makes me more hopeful for seeing the Skipray's release then. However, it would probably be a 100 point list on it's own, if it's playability was truly reflective of it's capabilities.

29m for the HWK comes from an old RPG guide iirc, those things were famous for just eyeballing lengths or adjusting based on what they wanted to use a ship for. Comparison with reference points in DF/JK puts it significantly shorter, at ~17m. Pretty close to the X-Wing model.

I believe it. I own most Star Wars RPG manuals going back from the WOTC d6 system up to Saga edition and have found a number of inconsistencies over time.

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.

Even if the Scum don't necessarily require any fixes, I think they will still release a S&V Aces just to bring up their options in ship cards closer to what the other factions have. Also it would probably sell, which is incentive for FFG right there.

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.

No reason why an S&V Aces kit, or huge ship accompanied with a fighter re-release, couldn't provide upgrades that would improve the playability of the StarViper. I may be wrong about this, but I don't recall any other organizations using the StarViper other than Blacksun. Since Blacksun designed and used exclusively the StarViper, I think an alternative paint scheme on it wouldn't make much sense, which is why I don't think it will see a re-release.

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 was wrong and edited the post. The Dunelizard was a hravier version of the Scyk while the Vaksai was the heavier variant of the Khiraxz.

The Dunelizard is just modeled after the Scyk, but is quite different in both functionality and appearance. The Scyk is a light interceptor which I think is best suited as an arc dodger. The Dunelizard is a medium fighter which would funtion as a jouster. Plus using it as I described, or as Tipperary has presented it, gives it something original in the way of having the option of either an Astromech or Crew. Plus I think it just looks badass and has Scum written all over it.

The chin radiator on the Lizard reminds me of the early Hawker Tempest (the ones that had no radial engines) and to me that means if they ever bring it out...

TAKE MY MONEY!

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).

They could have implemented it that way, I think. But I can imagine at least two good reasons not to:

(1) It would have been the only ship in the game that could only ever be fielded in a specific combination. That takes choices away from players, which is usually a bad thing.

(2) The only way I can think of to do it would have been to give the Phantom pilots all a cost of "--" (like the Nashtah Pup Pilot). That means either there's only one pilot, which would be another first, or it would require them to find a number of pilot abilities that were all exactly the same strength. Personally I think the relative strength of the IG-88s demonstrates how hard that is to do.

Not necessarily. They could have set it up so that taking the Ghost title gives you the option of taking the Phantom title option which could have had a point cost of it's own that in turn gives you the choice of selecting one of the different Phantom ship cards at zero cost. You would pay the ships cost with the Phantom title. The toughest part would be coming up with pilot skills for the different pilots that would all reflect the same cost. But they could have made that easier by just narrowing down the options to 2 or 3 pilots, rather than 4. I think it would have just been better for keeping balance of choice across the factions, given they follow my predictions with the next releases. At the end of my prediction, this would have given all 3 factions 8 small ships, 4 large ships, 2 huge ships, and 3 alternate paint small ships with accompanying new ship cards/pilots (the only imbalance being the Phantom).

I'm sure there would probably still be an imbalance in options for ship cards across the factions, but those differences would be minor.