DISCLAIMER: I love FFG and I love their Star Wars games, not least the excellent Imperial Assault. Both campaign and skirmish modes seem to be doing incredibly well. This isn't intended to say that the game is broken, dying or failing. The sky ISN'T falling.

But there is a little problem with the game. It's not game changing, it's not game breaking. But it's plain odd and it's certainly frustrating and inconsistent.

Of course, I'm talking about the unequal distribution of deployment cards for units found exclusively in the boxed expansions such as the Core Set, Twin Shadows, Return to Hoth and the upcoming Bespin Gambit.

Context and Detail

The Rant

But what about Campaign play, that's why the cards are limited!

Forming a response to FFG

So my questions to you are:

- To what extent do you want to see a co-ordinated response to FFG about this issue?

- What can we as a community do about this, if anything?

- How should we go about trying to enact a simple change to the game that would increase the value of products, probably increase sales for FFG and also improve the options for skirmish (not that I'm saying they're narrow - just artificially limited)?

At the very least I would like to hear some sort of official response from FFG as to why they do what they do with the cards, their justification for artificially limited units etc.

I don't think it really hurts the campaign, but I can definitely see that it hurts the skirmish game.

I am interested to see if there is any type of response to this, have you sent this post in the form of an email?

From what I have been able to research in my community (roughly 650,000 population), everyone loves the game, but none are willing to invest the hundreds of dollars for a side of the game they don't ever plan to use OR can already use with their friend who has the big boxes. This is of course the campaign. FFG needs to address this if they want their skirmish to not only grow, but just survive. This could all be corrected with a skirmish style box being released alongside each big box. It would only need to include the necessary map tiles, figures, condition cards, command cards and appropriate number of deployment cards.

If that is to much to ask and FFG sees this as to much cost for acquiring customers, then at least please stop punishing your existing customer base and release card packs alongside each expansion that give us the necessary deployment cards to run 2 regulars or 2 elites without having to buy the big box. Or better yet, INCLUDE THEM IN THE BIG BOX!!

Pretty easy to solve: Alt art cards given out in OP events should be double sided - Elite on one side, Regular on the other.

This kills two birds with one stone: The component restriction for Campaign can be held up as those are not in the box; Skirmish player get a card that can be used for existing troops for either level.

To stave off the "...but there are no tournaments near me" argument - if you are not playing in sanctioned tournaments, why do you care if you have an official card? Just proxy away for home play.

Pretty easy to solve: Alt art cards given out in OP events should be double sided - Elite on one side, Regular on the other.

This kills two birds with one stone: The component restriction for Campaign can be held up as those are not in the box; Skirmish player get a card that can be used for existing troops for either level.

To stave off the "...but there are no tournaments near me" argument - if you are not playing in sanctioned tournaments, why do you care if you have an official card? Just proxy away for home play.

~D

Pretty easy to solve: Alt art cards given out in OP events should be double sided - Elite on one side, Regular on the other.

This kills two birds with one stone: The component restriction for Campaign can be held up as those are not in the box; Skirmish player get a card that can be used for existing troops for either level.

To stave off the "...but there are no tournaments near me" argument - if you are not playing in sanctioned tournaments, why do you care if you have an official card? Just proxy away for home play.

Im not sure if youre posting it as a suggestion or that it is what FFG is doing now. Reb Sabs is double sided with newest release kit.

~D

A suggestion.

Reb Sabs (and Royal Guard) are printed thusly due to the errata on both units. But it only makes sense to just take that idea further and make use of it for all units. All of the previous alt art troop cards were just for the Elite version. A minor change to double-sided cards is a simple and elegant way to address the OPs issue going forward.

I agree with the OP's frustrations.

I've gotten around that with the Elite Trandoshans due to cards from tournament kits, but that's not a solution as I would assume many don't have access to the tournament kits normally, and there's only a handful of kits a year, meaning the rate at which you could get those missing cards would take forever.

A suggestion.

Reb Sabs (and Royal Guard) are printed thusly due to the errata on both units. But it only makes sense to just take that idea further and make use of it for all units. All of the previous alt art troop cards were just for the Elite version. A minor change to double-sided cards is a simple and elegant way to address the OPs issue going forward.

~D

The idea of releasing a skirmish expansion with lots of figures has been floated before.

The idea of releasing a skirmish expansion with lots of figures has been floated before.

If they changed the model sculpts, Id buy it even just for campaign mode; to make my elite versions, those versions.

~D

That is an interesting idea and adds appeal to both sides of the game. Campaign players would want them for additional sculpts, skirmish players are happy to finally get what they need without buying multiple big boxes. And if you are like me and play both sides of the game then it is literally a win-win purchase.

That is an interesting idea and adds appeal to both sides of the game. Campaign players would want them for additional sculpts, skirmish players are happy to finally get what they need without buying multiple big boxes. And if you are like me and play both sides of the game then it is literally a win-win purchase.

~D

Yeah, I bought the stormtroopers box. I love alternate sculpts

What FFG should do is release a battle pack for each available unit. The way they are priced, FFG wouldn't lose money if someone would just buy the enemygroups that come in an expansion instead of the expansion itself. But I guess no-one would be angry if they are a little more expensive than the rest so that there is really no loss for FFG if someone just buys the enemies from one box seperatly.

They could also or instead release a skirmish card pack that just contains a lot of deployment cards, but I guess there are too little skirmish players for this game, so that FFG will keep releasing skirmish stuff through tournament kits (which aren't needed to be massproduced).

I agree with all of this. It's by far the most annoying thing about this game (and really my only problem with it).
As stated, it can also put off new skirmish players.

The game is actually a fair bit cheaper then X-wing for example, at a semi-competitive level, but not if you have to buy multiple core sets.

Not to mention that you then end up with even more tiles you don't need. It's hard enough to organized and sort through all the tiles without having extras floating around.

I also hate the idea that just to run a second regular 4pt Nexu, I need a whole $120+ core set.

I'd be happy with a card booster pack that double up on the core set cards. (best option)
I'd be happy with a reprint of the core sets to include more cards (for new players)

I'd be semi happy with extra A&V packs for all the units that are affected. This will cost me lots more and take time.

I do like that they are giving the FAQed cards out in tournaments, but it will take years to sort out the problem if that's the only avenue. You might get 3-4 promo cards per year.... even double sided that will take ages to fix all the stuff that's affected. Also this doesn't help new players at all, because if you miss a tournament, your only option becomes Ebay... which is downright terrible if you live somewhere with expensive postage.

A $10-$20 booster pack with extra cards for all those affected unit from all 3 core sets would be fantastic.

I wonder if the Bespin Expansion will have the same issue.... If it does, I think that's a fair sign that FFG doesn't care about this at all.

Here's what I support:

• All deployment cards with regular and elite versions should be double sided (Similar to the new Royal Guard cards). Past sets should be available as cheap boosters
• Packs of figures that already exist in full expansions are fine if combined with alternative scupts (however the alternative sculpts for the new Stormtroopers aren't different enough because they're still hard to distinguish from the originals)

If you're worried about hiding your open groups in a campaign: just put them under another card or in an envelope, etc.

But I don't think FFG sees this as a real issue so I don't expect any changes.

.

I wonder if the Bespin Expansion will have the same issue.... If it does, I think that's a fair sign that FFG doesn't care about this at all.

if it is similar to the Twin Shadows set then I'm guessing it will be the same, 2 heroes, 2 other types of units with 2 sets of minis each but with only 1 of each regular & elite deployment card.

I hope I'm wrong though, the wing guard look interesting as a scum trooper unit.

• All deployment cards with regular and elite versions should be double sided (Similar to the new Royal Guard cards). Past sets should be available as cheap boosters

The only bad part about this is that it requires people who campaign to have to use sleeves with a back color. In the end, it's a bit more cardboard, so I think all models should just come with an elite/regular version card like the expansions do. So in the boxes, you should have gotten basically double of every non-unique model. I think that equates to what...27 cards of regular, so 27 elite...not a whole lot IMO to make this happen.

~D

If you're worried about hiding your open groups in a campaign: just put them under another card or in an envelope, etc.

It would be handy to be able to decide on whether the open group is elite or regular at the moment I pull the card out of the envelope. I guess people with bad memory can use pen and paper to note down the open groups to make sure they are not accidentally switched.

Hey, what about another idea: the campaign people can print out single-sided deployment cards! That would make everyone happy! Yes? No?

If you're worried about hiding your open groups in a campaign: just put them under another card or in an envelope, etc.

It would be handy to be able to decide on whether the open group is elite or regular at the moment I pull the card out of the envelope. I guess people with bad memory can use pen and paper to note down the open groups to make sure they are not accidentally switched.

Hey, what about another idea: the campaign people can print out single-sided deployment cards! That would make everyone happy! Yes? No?

Lol, this was one of those moments I grabbed my keyboard to type furiously... Then I caught the sarcasm, lol

This problem could be easily fixed if they printed 1 additional double-sided card per unit type (except maybe for the Stormtroopers they need 2). Campaign players still use the supplied 1 sided cards (they can't even use the double sided one) and Skirmish players have the choice to run 2 regular or elite versions by using the 1 sided card and the corresponding side of the 2-sided card.

minimal cost, no potential to mix things up, does not effect campaign play.

If you're worried about hiding your open groups in a campaign: just put them under another card or in an envelope, etc.

It would be handy to be able to decide on whether the open group is elite or regular at the moment I pull the card out of the envelope. I guess people with bad memory can use pen and paper to note down the open groups to make sure they are not accidentally switched.

Hey, what about another idea: the campaign people can print out single-sided deployment cards! That would make everyone happy! Yes? No?

Lol, this was one of those moments I grabbed my keyboard to type furiously... Then I caught the sarcasm, lol

Honestly, that's not really a huge deal. Campaign isn't what's driving this issues. There's no competitive campaign. You can already proxy, print out, use tokens etc etc.... It's in competitive skirmish that you need all the official cards.

I don't mind double sided stuff, you can always just use another card on top to cover it or something.

Obviously a few extra normal cards is the best option, but I think we can easily make do with double sided. Hell. Just cover them with some paper and say there's 3 cards here, 2 imperial and 1 merc. Done problem solved.

Like I said, not ideal, but also not as big of an issue as the missing cards.

Or as DAMaz said above.... there could just be skirmish version (double sided) and a campaign version of every card. Less elegant perhaps, but the precedent is already there with Leia and R2D2 having 2 different versions.

I am interested to see if there is any type of response to this, have you sent this post in the form of an email?

From what I have been able to research in my community (roughly 650,000 population), everyone loves the game, but none are willing to invest the hundreds of dollars for a side of the game they don't ever plan to use OR can already use with their friend who has the big boxes. This is of course the campaign. FFG needs to address this if they want their skirmish to not only grow, but just survive. This could all be corrected with a skirmish style box being released alongside each big box. It would only need to include the necessary map tiles, figures, condition cards, command cards and appropriate number of deployment cards.

If that is to much to ask and FFG sees this as to much cost for acquiring customers, then at least please stop punishing your existing customer base and release card packs alongside each expansion that give us the necessary deployment cards to run 2 regulars or 2 elites without having to buy the big box. Or better yet, INCLUDE THEM IN THE BIG BOX!!

No I've not sent them an email. The whole point of this thread is to gather people's opinions and try to formulate a co-ordinated response. FFG won't pay attention to one guy, but they may if we get together.

And your comment on having to buy the big boxes is kind of a different issue. 99% of the time I play skirmish only, but I don't feel gouged by the boxed expansions - you get more figures and the tiles will eventually be required for missions anyhow. Plus I do play campaign very sparingly.

But let's not get side tracked - the issue here is the unequal distribution of deployment cards and subsequent artificial limitation of some units.

Pretty easy to solve: Alt art cards given out in OP events should be double sided - Elite on one side, Regular on the other.

This kills two birds with one stone: The component restriction for Campaign can be held up as those are not in the box; Skirmish player get a card that can be used for existing troops for either level.

To stave off the "...but there are no tournaments near me" argument - if you are not playing in sanctioned tournaments, why do you care if you have an official card? Just proxy away for home play.

This is an excellent solution.

Pretty easy to solve: Alt art cards given out in OP events should be double sided - Elite on one side, Regular on the other.

This kills two birds with one stone: The component restriction for Campaign can be held up as those are not in the box; Skirmish player get a card that can be used for existing troops for either level.

To stave off the "...but there are no tournaments near me" argument - if you are not playing in sanctioned tournaments, why do you care if you have an official card? Just proxy away for home play.

The only real issue I see here is you have to go to an OP event without the cards to field the units you want; to get the cards to field the units you want. Still; probably one of the easiest solutions for FFG.

Now the last point doesn't really work, just because someone might not be playing in official tournaments today it doesn't mean they won't want to later on. And what about the brand new players? They already missed the tournaments and have to go to ebay at best to find the cards. The official solution needs to be a card pack that anyone can go buy from the store. It provides the proper number of cards for each big box to do either 2 regulars or 2 elites, or whatever the number is, to make the options available.

I like the idea of releasing them at tournaments because it might help get people out, I just hate punishing those who start late as it will be seen as one more reason for them NOT to get into it.