And of course, all this will happen, because despite the naysaying and the doomcalling of Wave 3 just being Flotillas...

WE WILL STILL BE HERE.

A poor wave 4 release would probably be the breaking point for the community. Wave 3 was pretty disappointing in size, even if it will be great for the game. However, two small releases in a row will solidify the opinion of many of those who are wavering on Armada because of perceived FFG neglect. Wave 3 could potentially be a blip. If wave 4 is the same, it becomes a pattern.

Eh. Wave 4 could be Whatever.

I won't know what I'm really missing, gameplay wise, until I've played the heck out of Wave 3.

In no hurry.

I'm with you on this, but I do understand why some people are disappointed and concerned. Regardless of how you look at it, wave 3 is smaller than previous waves. Yes it's potentially a big change to gameplay, and for their size they're certainly punching above their weight in terms of impact. But it's still a wave of two small base ships, compared to wave 1 (two new ships plus two packs of fighters) and Wave 2 (four new ships plus a pack of fighters) that were significantly bigger.

People are entitled to question what this means for future releases, given that Armada is still a relatively young game. If it's not seen to be growing, then few will be keen to get on board, and many will leave for other games that are evolving more dynamically. I'm certainly not saying that the hysteria was justified - far from it. And I really do think that Armada will continue to grow; I doubt it will prove as widely popular as X wing, but I think it will maintain a strong and loyal fanbase of serious gamers.

What I'm trying to get at is that wave 4 needs to indicate what we can expect from FFG for future releases. If they're going for more of a trickle model (which I'm all for - makes it easier to eke out my funds!), then I think they need to maintain interest with more regular releases. If, however, they're going to release some larger and some smaller waves, that's fine too. But the issue with wave 3 was that it caught us by surprise - based on previous releases, we were expecting much more. I simply think FFG need to manage expectations.

Eh. Wave 4 could be Whatever.

I won't know what I'm really missing, gameplay wise, until I've played the heck out of Wave 3.

In no hurry.

I'm with you on this, but I do understand why some people are disappointed and concerned. Regardless of how you look at it, wave 3 is smaller than previous waves. Yes it's potentially a big change to gameplay, and for their size they're certainly punching above their weight in terms of impact. But it's still a wave of two small base ships, compared to wave 1 (two new ships plus two packs of fighters) and Wave 2 (four new ships plus a pack of fighters) that were significantly bigger.

People are entitled to question what this means for future releases, given that Armada is still a relatively young game. If it's not seen to be growing, then few will be keen to get on board, and many will leave for other games that are evolving more dynamically. I'm certainly not saying that the hysteria was justified - far from it. And I really do think that Armada will continue to grow; I doubt it will prove as widely popular as X wing, but I think it will maintain a strong and loyal fanbase of serious gamers.

What I'm trying to get at is that wave 4 needs to indicate what we can expect from FFG for future releases. If they're going for more of a trickle model (which I'm all for - makes it easier to eke out my funds!), then I think they need to maintain interest with more regular releases. If, however, they're going to release some larger and some smaller waves, that's fine too. But the issue with wave 3 was that it caught us by surprise - based on previous releases, we were expecting much more. I simply think FFG need to manage expectations.

"Intensify management of expectations, I don't want another wave 2 delayed release situation again."

[releases 2 ship wave manageable by distro] "Intensify management of expectations!"

"TOO LATE!"

They could repackage fighters with more aces/veterans, to fill out some sku's and bring a bit more diversity. Kind of like the Imperial/Rebel Aces and Veterans packs in X-wing. That wouldn't require new models (although they could sneak in new things like Phantoms, Defenders, Lambda's, E-Wings, K-Wings, etc, but that would defeat part of the advantage of reboxing existing models with new cards). I still think there is going to be another small release later this year; a pair of ships and/or another squadron release (or two or three). Moving to 6-month mini-releases is a much better way to do things anyways.

Part of me is still wondering if the missing SKUs are customized imperial & rebel command dials.

If all Wave 4 is 1 stand of Tie Defenders, I'll be SUPER PUMPED!

They could repackage fighters with more aces/veterans, to fill out some sku's and bring a bit more diversity. Kind of like the Imperial/Rebel Aces and Veterans packs in X-wing. That wouldn't require new models (although they could sneak in new things like Phantoms, Defenders, Lambda's, E-Wings, K-Wings, etc, but that would defeat part of the advantage of reboxing existing models with new cards). I still think there is going to be another small release later this year; a pair of ships and/or another squadron release (or two or three). Moving to 6-month mini-releases is a much better way to do things anyways.

I think they could do an aces pack with new aces for some of their extra fighters. For example a new Horton Salm Y-Wing, Lando YT-1300, Corran Horn E-Wing, and the Ghost.

The Imperiale could do something similar, with a Defender, Decimator, new Advanced hero, and a new Bomber hero.

My take: not enough tiny Asian hands to paint your star destroyers.

For kids by kids.

Wasnt Coran Horn an xwing pilot?

Y'know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was nothing fleet support related in Wave 4.

That would give them opportunity to see how the Wave 3 Fleet support went down/reacted/messed with the playspace, and then tweak it in Waves 5 and/or 6...

Rather than all-in on a double shot.

Wasnt Coran Horn an xwing pilot?

And a Jedi in Luke's new Jedi order.. My two favorite parts of Star Wars Jedi and xwings

I know for me the single solitary reason why I jumped into Armada was because I walked into my game store and seeing the brand new ISD which had just launched sitting in a box. The little voice inside my head said, "How much money is being able to feel like the admiral of an ISD worth?" 3 ISD's later, my response was evidently whatever FFG wanted to charge. I left the store a poor but happy man and have loved Armada since.

Conversely, I can't imagine there are hordes of people who have watched the evacuation of Hoth scene a gazillion times that spend their nights dreaming of the exciting life of piloting a transport. In that sense, I feel Wave 3 just doesn't pack that same excitement factor for me. I'd like to see some of that return in Wave 4, with some larger ships that can inspire a sense of scale, rather than more small ships which can make Armada feel like a larger scale X-Wing.

Thematically I agree with what others have said about needing more medium based ships, especially on the Rebel side of the game. I feel, correct me if I'm wrong, like the Rebels were always using whatever they could get their hands on to fight the Empire.

If this game stays centered arround the Galactic Civil War I think the Rebs should eventually get the winged MC80, but after that I can't think of another large based ship they should have. Maybe Rouge One will give us one, or possibly Rebels Season 3.

I want a winged MC80...baaaaadly.

My a-wings need a serious carrier.

I hope wave 4 isn't another pure support wave. Honestly I find one pure support wave instead of mixing the support ships with some combat ships to make a wave annoying. Also I'm having trouble thinking of medium ship classes that would be support ships other then maybe the Immoblizers. Every other good support craft candidate I can think of ls a small base size.

My take: not enough tiny Asian hands to paint your star destroyers.

This is not that far off the mark. Toy painting jobs in China are almost all done by women. Because of the cancelling of the only child policy this year, the number of female employees currently on their 6 month state-mandated maternity leave is enough to either drive up wages or create a bottleneck in the supply of tiny plastic toys. Pretty much every 30-40 year old woman with one child who can afford to have another child is pregnant right about now. China looks like a baby farm. Hence making a wave that is easy to paint for this year is a **** good idea actually, and you can complain all you want about an 'undersized' wave but at least you're getting something.

Also, gloaty comments about Asian factory workers are a real **** move. Try to limit that.

My take: not enough tiny Asian hands to paint your star destroyers.

This is not that far off the mark. Toy painting jobs in China are almost all done by women. Because of the cancelling of the only child policy this year, the number of female employees currently on their 6 month state-mandated maternity leave is enough to either drive up wages or create a bottleneck in the supply of tiny plastic toys. Pretty much every 30-40 year old woman with one child who can afford to have another child is pregnant right about now. China looks like a baby farm. Hence making a wave that is easy to paint for this year is a **** good idea actually, and you can complain all you want about an 'undersized' wave but at least you're getting something.

Also, gloaty comments about Asian factory workers are a real **** move. Try to limit that.

Genuinely interesting discussion in this thread about the wider economic effect of seemingly unrelated policy decisions in China.

I know that this is forum chat and you can't verify the validity of people's assertions from their posts alone. It just raises issues that I would have never considered.

Reminds me of Freakonomics.

I honestly doubt that a nation-wide maternity leave by chinese women is a solid explanation. The company I am employed with builds ships in china (not toy ships, merchant ships), and almost all administrative work and a lot of the equipment suppliers rely on women as their main work force. If this spontaneous lack of womens' hands to paint or assemble tiny stuff would be a thing of such magnitude, I guess I would have been swarmed with price alteration statements by now. Which I havent.

Not saying that this might not be a factor of some kind, but it definitely does not explain tiny wave 3 as per my opinion.

Really? Blaming the slowdown in Armada on pregnant Chinese women....

Wow...

I just... don't even know how to respond to this...

I sure FFG wants to get Armada stuff out as quickly as they can, X-wing might be more popular but new ships will still fly off the shelves. My only guess at why X-Wing stuff is being produced more is that those contracts were already in place before a bottleneck.

This thread lacks real punch, so here goes:

Everything is part of an insidious plot, seemingly masterminded by the Illuminati, but really it's Palpatine's clone pulling the strings.

Really? Blaming the slowdown in Armada on pregnant Chinese women....

Wow...

I just... don't even know how to respond to this...

I know virtually nothing about this kind of thing personally, and really have no strong opinion either way, but I do know that D503 lives and works in China, so 1) he has a much better perspective on the goings-on over there than most of us here, and 2) he's not just making wild-ass ignorant claims.

This thread lacks real punch, so here goes:

Everything is part of an insidious plot, seemingly masterminded by the Illuminati, but really it's Palpatine's clone pulling the strings.

Palpatine's Clone = Christian T. Petersen

I felt mentioning the other issues employers are facing in China redundant as Reinhold had already addressed them earlier in the thread, so I thought I would mention an issue which is a daily concern for us. We have 12 Chinese support staff at our school. 5 are currently pregnant or on maternity leave. Only one of those is a first child.

I don't have nationwide statistics as a lowly teacher, but my weekly dinner routine nowadays consists of sitting at a table of managers who are in production of garments and fabrics (trained female work) are figuratively sh**ing kittens about not being able to get enough product out, while the heavy industrial and engineering managers (male industry) are sitting over the other side of the table pointing fingers and laughing at them.

This may only be a Chengdu issue, but I doubt it. Whichever town specialises in the creation of tiny plastic spaceships (there will be one, with over a million people in it) will likely be facing similar issues, as well as a host of others aforementioned.

So next time you claim someone is "Blaming the slowdown in Armada on pregnant Chinese women", perhaps you can give a thought to the world outside your gaming table, and the incredibly complex global process that goes into the creation of your toys. There are incredibly powerful men whose name you could not pronounce, who make minor policy decisions that have an effect on the balance of supply and demand of materials, labour and transport that go into the creation of a product such as FFG's. Focusing on ridiculing an aspect of this process that you had not previously recognised as important is about as inappropriate as claiming that FFG should discount their products because of the low oil price.

If you want to focus on something truly ridiculous: When I buy an FFG model, it goes China - USA - Europe - China, and that is cheaper than me being able to simply buy it in the country in which it is made. We live in a brave new world

Fixed that for you.