I don't think there is a need for minor factions or subfactions. It would be in the case the PT would be added to the game. I like this bipolar state of game the same way I like it in the OT. And I tolerate Scum :-)

The theme is not something that can be forced upon someone. If you want to fly the squadrons that attacked the Death Star, you can. If you want to play Black Sun, you still can. You can run Cartels in S+V. You can make Resistence list. But I would hate if you would tell me that I can't have Poe and Tycho in the same squad.

But adding Minor Factions would be a great way to introduce:

• Mandalorians
• Corellians
• Hutts
• Black Sun
• Ohnaka Gang
• Nightsisters

The game already does this. They're called Subfactions. And, as has been said, all the ones you mentioned could be subfactions of the Scum primary faction.

Of course, the problem here is that the game already has a bunch of ships belonging to those subfactions, because when FFG made them, they didn't know Subfactions would be a thing. Much like Imperial Boba.

I'll get behind anything that gives me more ships.

Im sure FFG can find away to siphon off more of my moneys :-D

But adding Minor Factions would be a great way to introduce:

• Mandalorians
• Corellians
• Hutts
• Black Sun
• Ohnaka Gang
• Nightsisters

The game already does this. They're called Subfactions. And, as has been said, all the ones you mentioned could be subfactions of the Scum primary faction.

Of course, the problem here is that the game already has a bunch of ships belonging to those subfactions, because when FFG made them, they didn't know Subfactions would be a thing. Much like Imperial Boba.

But right now the subfactions are only thematic. They have no mechanical function, only fluff. Now of course for the Resistance and 1 ^st Order subfactions there is not enough ships to justify restricting them off as such to where they have to be whole or mostly 50% of their faction. Also if there were such restrictions players would simply switch to the original subfactions and just use the TFA subfactions as attachments.

However it is a bit harder with the Scum as they have ship expansions that come with what could be both subfaction types. The Kihraxz ship has both Cartel Marauder (as in Hutt Cartel) and Black Sun Ace (non-unique). The ships in the Resistance and 1 ^st Order are separate from the ships in the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire.

But right now the subfactions are only thematic. They have no mechanical function, only fluff.

And that's how I like them.

We really don't need any faction blending, besides balance it'd make the game an awful homogenised grey mess.

As for sub factions they don't need much (if any) mechanical support. We might see some crew that's not backwards compatible.

E.g. New Leia which is Resistance only but frankly I'd be sceptical.

Another candidate for a Minor Faction is an actual Miner Faction.

As seen in the latest Rebels, the Mining Guild:

Pfft, Scotland, Wales, that other place, it's all the same to us English!

Ahh,

That place that spoils the view when you're driving between Edinburgh and Cardiff. I've heard of it.

Cheers

Baaa

I hear it is a grim and terrible land, all smoke stacks, and strange people. Peering out from the top of the mountain it all looks too flat and clearly doesnt get nearly enough rain.

But right now the subfactions are only thematic. They have no mechanical function, only fluff.

And that's how I like them.

Gotta agree there. A few more mandolorian ships (say the new fighters from rebels) and there will be enough mando themed scum to run a mandolorian list. No special rules. No special dificulty ballancing.

If someone wants to run a themed list, Like lothal rebels (to pick a random example from the conversation above which I am already tempted by), or what not they can, with a spot of repainting. And if it would cross current factions, or you want to use named pilots but call them something else, then they can as a cassual fun thing. (Once had a great "Father & Son" fight with Vader, Luke and their generic wingmen allied against a bounty hunter and imperial ties sent by the empire to stop them. Was a laugh).

Wave 9 is delivering 2 more Mandalorian ships. When combined with the Firespray, Scyk and possibly, Star Viper, we have ourselves a Mandalorian Subfaction.

In games like Warmachine, army lists meeting certain criteria receive extra bonuses. If this were applied to X-Wing, eligible squad lists could receive a free upgrade. Or a one-time-use bonus attack or defense dice. Or extra points to spend on more Mandalorian ships. Or something else. But it would make for more interesting theme-filled list building.

I hope not. We don't want to find ourselves in Attack Wing territory.

Mark Rosewater, the current Magic head designer has often said that it's a missed opportunity not giving spells in the game different subtypes (Like say, a Fireball spell and a Flaming Sword enchantment would both have the 'Fire' subtype), which would have opened up a lot of design space for new cards. To go with my example, you could then have a Pyromancer card that made Fire spells cheaper or more powerful.

A similar thing could have worked very well in X-Wing. Imagine that a pilot card could have a 'Squadron badge' in the corner. In the case of Rebels and Imperials, you would have actual units with their own badges. The 181st, Black Squadron, Rogue Squadron, Obsidian Squadron. At that point, you have a signifier that a card can key off that is 'Future proofed'.

The problem currently is that if you wanted to make an upgrade for say, Rogue Squadron, that would benefit any relevant pilots in your squad, you would have to call them all out individually. But if you could just tie it to the squadron badge, then it wouldn't matter if say, Corran Horn or Ibtisam were later released flying an X-Wing. Suddenly you can just put the badge on that card and they are included in the party.

The squad signifier can be used in a lot of different ways. You could have an upgrade card with the same badge on it, restricted to only pilots of that squadron, or you can have upgrade cards or pilot cards that call out squadrons in specific ways to hand out buffs to relevant ships.

For example, Howlrunner could have been a much more competitively costed, or her ability could have been a lot stronger if it only affected members of Obsidian Squadron (OSP, Night Beast and Winged Gundark). If we ever see more members of Obsidian Squadron, they would automatically be included in the list.

For Scum and Villainy, you can then break it up into thematic factions - Mandalorians, Black Sun and the Hutt Cartels are the current obvious ones, but there are plenty of candidates for different factions to add. Again, not every ship needs to have a squadron, for example if you look at the Scyk the Cartel Spacer should be a Hutt ship, but the others would be independent.

It is probably too late to retrofit something like this into the rules, but it wouldn't be impossible. You could, for example, release a new wave with Squadron markings in place on the pilot cards, but with each ship include a sticker sheet with the appropriate symbols to modify your existing pilot cards and instructions for which ships to include into with squadrons.

As a new player (late to the party as usual!) and only really having the films as background rather than extensive knowledge of the cannon I view the three existing factions as basically Imperial, Rebel, the rest. Sure they are labelled Scum and Villainy but I think it's the best way to give everyone what they want in the short term.

To me the base two factions are pretty restrictive in what you can have, maybe the Imperial more so than the Rebel. As you can always come up with a reason for a mercenary to be flying with the Rebels. It's not quite so clear for the Empire as whilst they undoubtedly would use mercenaries for work that they either didn't want to be associated with (internal politics and assassination attempts perhaps) or didn't want to waste resources on it's not like they have to worry about their image or gaining votes in any upcoming election!

In a non tournament setting I'd have no problem with a game where my opponent uses S&V (or even the other main factions) to represent a criminal cartel or a smaller sovereign power from the story arcs or their imagination. Within reason I'd also let them mix and match ships between factions if that was necessary and prompted by the background rather than a desire to build a 'broken' list by, for example, wanting Palp as crew in the Falcon with Soontir and Poe as the supporting aces!

I love tournament play but I have no idea why people seem to forget that non tournament play is limited ONLY by the players. The rules DO NOT have to be strictly enforced in a setting where two people want to have some fun playing plastic-space-ships.

Its all in your head. You can (after next wave hits) freely play Mandalorian only fleet led by Boba Fett, or whoever floats your boat. You can even take only Z-95, Y-wings and ARC( without title) and imagine you are playing clones in slone wars. Sky is the limit.

we got subfactions already but those were at print. I think it is a little hard to make subfactions retroactively.

I was thinking more "Younglings" for the Rebels, Cadets for the Imperials and Jawas/Ewoks for Scum.

there was only ever 1 / 2 (depending) Ewoks ever written in to a Ship. It was an X-wing.

a story made up by Wes Janson to Wedge Antillies... it came to a point where it was such a myth that Wedge in combat tried to scare off the enemy by strapping a stuffed ewok toy to his chest and strike fear in to the enemy forces (it worked)....

the myth of that Ewok gained so much plausibility that it caused scientists to attempt to make an ewok capable of piloting an X-wing all by himself.

They enhanced their intelligence, and gave him prosthetics to allow him to reach the controls... it did work, i forgot both of their names. but it worked.

(i know this because my fiancee would only fly a ship in which an Ewok could pilot, causing me to do research on it. turns out Wedge is 1/2 an Ewok pilot.)

I think the fake ewok was Kettch (Wraith squadron?), and the one the Zhinj warlord guy made was something like Kolit or Kolot

I don't think there is a need for minor factions or subfactions.

There already is sub factions in the game.

Could use some help with these! Any info would be helpful.

Binayre Pirates

Kath Scarlet: Firespray 31 leader of the Binayre Pirates in the Corellian sector during the GCW

Z-95: Binayre Pirates

Black Sun Syndicate

Starviper: exclusive, Xizor title Virago, Guri, Vigo and Enforcer

Kihraxz fighter: exclusive?, Talonbane Cobra, Graz, Ace and Marauder

Y-wing: Syndicate Thug

Z-95: Black Sun Soldier

Hutt Cartel

M3-A Interceptor: Serissu, Laetin A'shera, Vet and Spacer

Firespray 31: Boba Fett title Slave 1

Aggressor: IG-88B

Jumpmaster 5000: Dengar

G-1a Starfighter: Zuckuss

G-1a Starfighter: 4-LOM

Y-wing: Drea Renthal and Syndicate Thug

If Scum gets subfactions (which I would like), it will probably be after Wave 13. I want Black Sun and Hutt Cartel (I guess we would need all new cards with new faction symbols, big headache for designers)

would that actually bring anything to the game?

Could use some help with these! Any info would be helpful.

Binayre Pirates

Kath Scarlet: Firespray 31 leader of the Binayre Pirates in the Corellian sector during the GCW

Z-95: Binayre Pirates

Black Sun Syndicate

Starviper: exclusive, Xizor title Virago, Guri, Vigo and Enforcer

Kihraxz fighter: exclusive?, Talonbane Cobra, Graz, Ace and Marauder

Y-wing: Syndicate Thug

Z-95: Black Sun Soldier

Hutt Cartel

M3-A Interceptor: Serissu, Laetin A'shera, Vet and Spacer

Firespray 31: Boba Fett title Slave 1

Aggressor: IG-88B

Jumpmaster 5000: Dengar

G-1a Starfighter: Zuckuss

G-1a Starfighter: 4-LOM

Y-wing: Drea Renthal and Syndicate Thug

Kihraxz pilot Cartel Marauder would go with the Hutt Cartel. While the Kihraxz was supposed to be exclusive to the Black Sun, other mercs/criminal groups got their hands on them.

Boba Fett was a pure independent, never really allied to other groups during the Galactic Civil War, unless you consider his re-forming of the Mandalorians later still canon (Legends now). He did form his own Syndicate which included Bossk, Dengar, Latts Razzi, and Asajj Ventress during the Clone Wars.

The IG-88s were independent bounty hunters/assassins. No formal affiliations to any one group, though they worked for several cartels/criminal organizations.

Bossk, Zuckuss, and 4-LOM would belong to the Bounty Hunters Guild, as would Dengar. Boba Fett briefly joined, but that was to destroy the Guild from within for Prince Xizor.

The Most Wanted Z95's and Star Viper can be used to create a fleet in Black Sun colours,

The Kirhaxz and Scyck for Hutt Cartel,

The F31 and Protectorate fighter form the Mandalorians.

And if you go for the Rusty Bucket look;

Scum Y-Wing, HWK-290, and YV-666

If Scum gets subfactions (which I would like), it will probably be after Wave 13. I want Black Sun and Hutt Cartel (I guess we would need all new cards with new faction symbols, big headache for designers)

would that actually bring anything to the game?

actually... NOTHING.