Dude! Wow! They did it!

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/7/14/expand-your-battlefield-1/

We can now buy official IA skirmish maps! This is awesome. They've heard the requests, and now they've responded! I'm definitely a fan.

And here is a copy/paste of the last paragraph of the article:

The battles of the Galactic Civil War are already raging around you, and there’s no time to waste. Dive into the fray with three Imperial Assault Skirmish Maps and protect your tiles at your next big tournament. You can pick up your Imperial Assault Skirmish Maps at your local retailer today!

• Training Ground Skirmish Map
• Nelvaanian War Zone Skirmish Map
• Coruscant Landfill Skirmish Map

This is awesome!

But...but...now I have to pay £20~ every time they change a map...

Really hope this means they will change at most 1 map per rotation.

Also where they hell are we going to store all these maps!

I don't play Imperial Assault, but this is just cool since I know people have been asking for it. Great to see they are listening.

According to FFG

You can pick up your Imperial Assault Skirmish Maps at your local retailer today!

They lie!

My local retailer knows nothing of these wonderful items!

According to FFG

You can pick up your Imperial Assault Skirmish Maps at your local retailer today!

They lie!

My local retailer knows nothing of these wonderful items!

I imagine we'll be waiting even longer in the UK/Europe...

At least this gets round the problem of people calling over the TO because your opponent does not have the map tiles now.

Also makes it a lot easier for new players to get into the game as well due to the cost. Its just a WIN-WIN all round.

Its likely that while these are "available to pick up" what they should have said was "available to order" as these are likely print on demand items, much like how the Bespin and DSII mats were done for X-Wing.

Does this actually make the buy in any less?

Previous

- Core Set $75

- Hoth $45

- Troopers $12

- Leia $8

= $140

New buy in:

- Core Set $75

- New Mats $75

= $150, except now you're missing the tiles from Hoth, and you've missed out on all those minis too

I need more like-buttons. Best news in a long time!

OK, the price is a downer. 25$ vs 5$ for IBSH maps printed on PVC.

This is awesome!

But...but...now I have to pay £20~ every time they change a map...

Really hope this means they will change at most 1 map per rotation.

Also where they hell are we going to store all these maps!

I don't think it will be a requirement to play competitively, will it?

Regardless, VERY cool. This will go a long way in strengthening the competitive scene.

I don't know if I'll buy all three, but I'll probably get one. Which map is the best?

I think this is good news for all.

However: Ibsh seem better because they're more compact and have the scenario rules written on them. https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/186906-pre-assembled-skirmish-maps/

Also: the character art on each side is great but why not have the art from the pack the map came with? i.e. Leia should be on Nelvaanian War Zone Skirmish Map right? Okay maybe not a Bantha on Coruscant...

My local games retailer is the Fantasy Flight Games Center, and they do not have them in stock....yet.

As they are now allowing printed maps, you can get your own printed for around £4-5 each. This is why it is now cheaper. It wont be if you are using ffg ones. but now printed ones are legal so you don't need to buy Bantha etc just to have access to the tiles for the relevant maps.

As they are now allowing printed maps, you can get your own printed for around £4-5 each. This is why it is now cheaper. It wont be if you are using ffg ones. but now printed ones are legal so you don't need to buy Bantha etc just to have access to the tiles for the relevant maps.

Would the unofficial maps be considered proxies?

They are only allowing ffg printed maps to be legal, the only 3rd party stuff you can use is tokens. Though I don't think a TO Will mind which printed maps you use as long as it isn't at nationals or above.

Besides a TO could buy these at cost and use them to run multiple tournaments, which would make it very newbie friendly.

According to FFG

You can pick up your Imperial Assault Skirmish Maps at your local retailer today!

They lie!

My local retailer knows nothing of these wonderful items!

Now it says "order" instead of pick up.

Well I love that FFG is listening to the community.

That part is awesome.

The rest of this news? Not so much.

$25 each is a lot. In Australia these will probably retail around $40AU.

Map setup is not a $75USD problem.

Maybe if they were double sided.... but that's still a bit much honestly. And it's not like you won't be buying the expansions anyway. You need the figures and cards.

It's an expensive solution to very minor problem. Paper or vinyl printed maps for $5 would be awesome.
Or just allowing 3rd party ones would be a great start.

Also, this probably means that they will only rotate one map each time. I really dislike that. It's going to take 15 years to get through all the current maps at this stage. Even if half of them aren't balanced properly, that's still 7 years before you see the same map again.

For those of us who play a lot of tournament focused skirmish, we can get burnt out on the same map pretty quickly.

It doesn't mean that they'll only rotate one map at a time.

If they sell a lot of maps it might encourage them to rotate more maps.

Brilliant! Though I wish they'd make them double-sided and rotate two maps at a time.

While I quite like that they are finally selling these I have a couple of observations.

1. Why doesn't the character artwork reflect the character pack that the map comes in? (No Leia or Bantha artwork on the Leia or Bantha maps.)

2. Why aren't the missions rules on the map? (ibsh has spoiled us, also Thank You ibsh you have continually done amazing work.)

I want to say "ouch" about the pricing but I'm not familiar with the pricing of the mousepad material. Speaking of material, if I were to invest in these, this will take up no small amount to storage space compared to a flatter material such as vinyl.

FFG board room: "We have a very successful game here. How can we get more out of it without giving them more plastic or having to think up more missions?"

"Uh S-Sir, couldn't we g-give them what they already have?"

"You're joking right?"

"N-No Sir, we could give them preprinted versions of the skirmish maps."

"Yes...And if we priced them at $25 a pop, they'd think they were saving money, and they would be, but they'd have to buy everything all over again if they want the figures and command cards!"

"Sir, what about this Ibsh who has beat us to the idea, but at a much discouted price?"

"Sick Agent Mickey of the Disney Security Bureau on him! I like your thinking on the subject, Johnson, I can see you going places."

"Thank you, Sir, I have another idea. We should release 6'x3' mats for Armada for $99.95 one could be Yavin and space field, and the other one could be Endor and space field!"

While I must admit I am genuinely enthused about the mats I think this is a big swing and a miss from FFG for a few key reasons:

Cost, quite frankly the cost of these mats needed to be about half the current cost to really bring down the entry fee of sanctioned event play (as clearly described by Jonboy in the Cost breakdown in a post above), especially as the mere presence of these will inhibit the usage of other considerably cheaper 3rd party alternatives (big shout out to Ibish for his elegant & efficient maps) through FFG restrictions potentially.

Efficiency, as mentioned above there seems to be a lot of wasted space on the mats and while they look pretty the extended edges are likely too small to contain all counters, dies, deployment card & command cards to be effective. All it has done is add additional unnecessary cost to the product. Coming from a country that uses Metric measurement is 26 x 26 inches some form of standardised dimension for manufacturing at all or is this just some form of arbitrary measurement?

lifecycle usage, this really ties in with the cost vs. usage but the actual timeframe usage of these mats is in the end quite short regardless of some opinions regarding the rotation policy. Only 9 months of active usage for any give mat (under the current rotation timing) really isn't much time for all but the most enthusiastic skirmish player to justify the costs. I doubt they will sell too many Training grounds mats with players knowing full well that in 3-4 months its going to rotate out of competitive circulation.

Delayed release, similar to X-wing (but not to the same extent), FFG have left releasing this product too late to release to the market considering it has been something the players have been asking for since the inception of competitive skirmish. Many 3rd party solutions to this problem have been in use for long enough and cheap enough that these new mats are unlikely to be the solution to the problem.

FFG board room: "We have a very successful game here. How can we get more out of it without giving them more plastic or having to think up more missions?"

"Uh S-Sir, couldn't we g-give them what they already have?"

"You're joking right?"

"N-No Sir, we could give them preprinted versions of the skirmish maps."

"Yes...And if we priced them at $25 a pop, they'd think they were saving money, and they would be, but they'd have to buy everything all over again if they want the figures and command cards!"

"Sir, what about this Ibsh who has beat us to the idea, but at a much discouted price?"

"Sick Agent Mickey of the Disney Security Bureau on him! I like your thinking on the subject, Johnson, I can see you going places."

"Thank you, Sir, I have another idea. We should release 6'x3' mats for Armada for $99.95 one could be Yavin and space field, and the other one could be Endor and space field!"

Yeah I bet that is sorta like how it went down. Lol!

I'm a bit surprised at the cost of $25 per map too. I was thinking somewhere around $10-15 per map, and I'd be happy to pay that. I think I'll get the Coruscant Landfill map (hopefully before or at GenCon) and see how much I like that.

We play enough IA skirmish at home that I'm pretty sure we'll get full value for these maps anyway, even at $25 per map. But the thing is, we already have Nelvaan and Training Ground (thank you again, Ibsh!), so I really can't see myself spending money on those maps.

I've got Ibsh's copies of all the current maps in rotation as I ordered mine last week but I'll probably spend out on the Coruscant one. As others have stated, I think it's a bad idea to buy the Training Ground one given it's likely to rotate out in 3 months so I can't see that one selling many at all...