So I recently read the book "Before The Awakening" which deals with the backstory of TFA's new leads Rey, Finn and Poe, with the latter being the most interesting one as it's chalk full of additional info about The Republic, Resistance and The First Order. By now some of you might already know that the Republic uses T-85s instead of the slightly older T-70 which the Resistance use in the film but there is another very interesting tidbit in the book, namely that the Resistance has capital ships.
It does not explicitly mention how big or small the Resistance fleet is but it does specifically name 2 ships; Mon Calamari cruisers Home One and Echo of Hope. I thought this was cool as it makes sense that the Resistance would've retained some old warships from the Galactic Civil War era and it also gives them a little more teeth as opposed to what we were lead to believe is a small militia force made up of only starfighters. Just wanted to put this out there since most fans are (rightly) assuming that Leia's new Resistance is pathetic compared the Rebel Alliance in ANH and also cuz this makes it more likely we'll see both Resistance and First Order warships in Armada.
Bonus info - The First Order in the book still uses ISDs alongside the newer Resurgent class SDs as well as Nebulon-K Frigates and other assortment of smaller support ships. I wonder how the new frigates defer from the older Nebulon-Bs. Please feel free to discuss:)
Capital Ships of The Resistance (Spoilers)
Interesting so for the resistance we could have the T70 and a modified Mon Cal Cruiser and for the First Order we could have the Resurgent Class and Nebulon K which FFG might design like they did with the Raider.
Nebulon-Ks are actually in service with the New Republic, not the First Order. Leia explicitly says (half jokingly) that she didn't want any. She notes she didn't feel they had solved a shielding problem that had cropped up during development. The First Order was using Lancer class frigates.
Edited by TruthinessThe First Order in the book still uses ISDs alongside the newer Resurgent class SDs as well as Nebulon-K Frigates and other assortment of smaller support ships. I wonder how the new frigates defer from the older Nebulon-Bs. Please feel free to discuss:)
Maybe they are K shaped? I wish I was kidding.
On ok, so the Resistance/New Republic could get a Nebulon K, T-70, and a Mon Cal Cruiser with one card that has the Echo of Hope.
Ther First Order/ Empire could have the Resurgent Class, Lancer Frigates, and either first order ties or kylo Rens command shuttle.
Nebulon-Ks are actually in service with the New Republic, not the First Order. Leia explicitly says (half jokingly) that she didn't want any. She notes she didn't feel they had solved a shielding problem that had cropped up during development. The First Order was using Lancer class frigates.
[edit: Sorry, I meant third encounter.]
Edited by WraithdtThen we might see them made for the FO especially considering that the Resistance doesn't want to use them.
Could see TIE/SF as well, though I wonder how they'd function differently on paper... maybe Bomber? Counter 1?
Double checked and I wasn't mistaken. FO uses Neb-Ks too. It's part of the attack force during Poe's second encounter with the FO.Nebulon-Ks are actually in service with the New Republic, not the First Order. Leia explicitly says (half jokingly) that she didn't want any. She notes she didn't feel they had solved a shielding problem that had cropped up during development. The First Order was using Lancer class frigates.
[edit: Sorry, I meant third encounter.]
Considering that the Neb-B was also used heavly by both sides its nice to hear that.
The First Order in the book still uses ISDs alongside the newer Resurgent class SDs as well as Nebulon-K Frigates and other assortment of smaller support ships. I wonder how the new frigates defer from the older Nebulon-Bs. Please feel free to discuss:)
Maybe they are K shaped? I wish I was kidding.
In the classic Tie Fighter and X-wing vs Tie F pc games the Nebulon-B Mark II is sorta shaped like a K and it didn't look half bad.
If you pay real close attention to the Hosnian system sequence you can see several ships that look similar to Mon Cals. Maybe when it gets a home release I'll be able to pick out more.
Edited by ImpStarDeucesThe Nebulons will sell ships to anyone with credits 
The First Order in the book still uses ISDs alongside the newer Resurgent class SDs as well as Nebulon-K Frigates and other assortment of smaller support ships. I wonder how the new frigates defer from the older Nebulon-Bs. Please feel free to discuss:)
Maybe they are K shaped? I wish I was kidding.
In the classic Tie Fighter and X-wing vs Tie F pc games the Nebulon-B Mark II is sorta shaped like a K and it didn't look half bad.
this one?
The art book has some cool concept pics which I could see being fleshed out and being made canon.
Here are some pics I found: http://imgur.com/gallery/3a8Oq
Edited by admiralcrunchI am not looking forward to the Dreadnought. Looks like a pig in space.
Some of the concept designs are interesting... not sure how many of them should be considered Canonical, but plenty of things for Mel (or any other modeler) to do if they wanted to make more FA ships.
There are some interesting sub-designs in the fleet destruction snapshot... among them, one is a flat winged ship with a DP-20 cockpit and the other has a CR-90 head mated to a vertical engine set taken from the Consular class.
Some of the concept designs are interesting... not sure how many of them should be considered Canonical, but plenty of things for Mel (or any other modeler) to do if they wanted to make more FA ships.
There are some interesting sub-designs in the fleet destruction snapshot... among them, one is a flat winged ship with a DP-20 cockpit and the other has a CR-90 head mated to a vertical engine set taken from the Consular class.
I doubt they are canonical at this point, but they may go the same road as the Victory Class Destroyer which came from an ISD Concept made for ANH.
Edited by admiralcrunchDepending on what Disney will allow from the concept art, Armada might get alot of warships from the Force Awakens. Especially for the First Order.
While the New Republic seems to still uses Nebulon Bs and Liberty Class Mon Cal Cruisers.
On a side note, the Warhammer is an interesting vessel and would make an excellent capital ship for the resistance.
Edited by jarmus mrawnThe art book has some cool concept pics which I could see being fleshed out and being made canon.
Here are some pics I found: http://imgur.com/gallery/3a8Oq
I hope the art team continues to explore these designs further for EpVIII. Some of these look quite promising.
Concerning TFA, I'm glad they settled on the final design of the Resurgent Class SD we got in the film. The other hollowed out Star Destroyer designs look too sci-fi-ish to me, with the exception of the 4-pronged design. That one looks bad-ass!
Depending on what Disney will allow from the concept art, Armada might get alot of warships from the Force Awakens. Especially for the First Order.
While the New Republic seems to still uses Nebulon Bs and Liberty Class Mon Cal Cruisers.
On a side note, the Warhammer is an interesting vessel and would make an excellent capital ship for the resistance.
As a precaution we shouldn't take any designs used in concept art pieces as literal interpretations of the final product. Concept art is a fluid process that involves a lot of exploration of design before ending up with a final look. A lot of the classic ships you see in these pieces are just stand-ins and mock-ups of actual ships. Their purpose is more for the artist to explore composition, mood, lighting and color rather than a showcase of final designs. Take the X-wing for example; in much of the artworks the old T-65s were used as a stand-in for T-70s most likely because they didn't have the final approved design until late in pre-production.
Edited by WraithdtNebulon-Ks are actually in service with the New Republic, not the First Order. Leia explicitly says (half jokingly) that she didn't want any. She notes she didn't feel they had solved a shielding problem that had cropped up during development. The First Order was using Lancer class frigates.
Bad Leia rejecting the sucessors to my favorite OT capital ships
Depending on what Disney will allow from the concept art, Armada might get alot of warships from the Force Awakens. Especially for the First Order.
While the New Republic seems to still uses Nebulon Bs and Liberty Class Mon Cal Cruisers.
On a side note, the Warhammer is an interesting vessel and would make an excellent capital ship for the resistance.
Some, like the Frigate V-head and the first destroyer concepted, could be believed as other ships in the universe even if they didn't ultimately appear. I can believe that first destroyer is a lighter escort to the Resurgent, and the V-Head is maybe one of the newest model CR hull design. The small TIE Boarding pods in the Boarding Craft ship are also interesting. I can believe in all of these ships having some degree of canonicity even if they did not apepar on screen, because there is so little of new ship designs that we do see.
It's like making more of all the background ships in the new Trek movies. Interestingly, I didn't know Ryan church was a designer on The Force Awakens, but some of those star destroyer designs are telling. They almost scream like predecessors to the Vengence from Into Darkness... itself a "Federation" Star Destroyer of sorts.
Depending on what Disney will allow from the concept art, Armada might get alot of warships from the Force Awakens. Especially for the First Order.
While the New Republic seems to still uses Nebulon Bs and Liberty Class Mon Cal Cruisers.
On a side note, the Warhammer is an interesting vessel and would make an excellent capital ship for the resistance.
As a precaution we shouldn't take any designs used in concept art pieces as literal interpretations of the final product. Concept art is a fluid process that involves a lot of exploration of design before ending up with a final look. A lot of the classic ships you see in these pieces are just stand-ins and mock-ups of actual ships. Their purpose is more for the artist to explore composition, mood, lighting and color rather than a showcase of final designs. Take the X-wing for example; in much of the artworks the old T-65s were used as a stand-in for T-70s most likely because they didn't have the final approved design until late in pre-production.
Indeed, though some of these alternate-explorations look too good to just be discarded for the final Resurgent design (though some of them are, the red destroyer and second destroyer with hooks instead of tractors don't look good to me). That first destroyer especially looks small enough not to fit Finalizer's role, but serve as the Victory Star Destroyer did for the original trilogy by being born out of a concept drawing.
I hope for the sake of some Star Wars production out there that something could happen with these designs. I'd like to see them come back for a fleet battle in future episodes. As another incidental fact from Trek... concept ships in that Abrams production have made it to screen in future installments. The red-hulled Excelsior was designed for 2009, but didn't appear until the sequel where it showed up in a spacedock scene. So there is at least some precedent somewhere of concept art finally becoming real.
I'm sure in the new movie Admiral Ackbar exclaims "That's half our fleet!" when another T-70 get's shot down...
The problem is pretty every major Resistance group in Star Wars has at least a couple of warships so either Leia's Resistance is one of the, if not the, weakest, major Resistance movement ever seen in canon or Ackbar was referring to the attack force when he said fleet not every ship the Resistance has.
Well maybe we wont see any, so far as the new movie showed the entire republic fleet was destroyed in orbit. That said maybe in the next films we could see some cool things like abandoned empire ships (fingers crossed for ssd) in secret empire instalations like the Maw.
Wait the rebels used a t65 xwing and the new ones are t70. So where tmdid the t85 come from?