Why wouldn't bikes fit? We're getting dewback.

Why wouldn't bikes fit? We're getting dewback.

Dewbacks move a whole lot slower than speeder bikes. I'm not a real fan of any mounts in a game with this small of a scale, frankly, but some slow moving ones work... I guess.

And AT-STs, Banthas, and Rancors don't fit because of the scale of the game, but we have them.

Bikes are simply too iconic, we're going to get them.

And AT-STs, Banthas, and Rancors don't fit because of the scale of the game, but we have them.

Bikes are simply too iconic, we're going to get them.

I don't know... I'm not sure how they would deal with the speed. They would be totally broken if they were as fast in the game as they are in the movies. Scout troopers for sure, but I don't know how they'd manage to do the bikes...

The difference between speeder bikes and large creatures/vehicles is the movement. All of those things are reasonable at the speed levels the game uses. Speeder Bikes aren't - they can't just make them movement 20 and call it a day, and if they don't make them fast what's the point? Then do you give them complicated special rules to represent their movement, or do you just let them move like a person (Which is ridiculous). Do you make maps just to let them actually move around? How does it effect skirmish?

There's just too many logistics problems with bikes to implement them in a logical manner. Everything else we've seen can pretty much be squinted at and it makes sense. Bikes can't be without totally compromising them.

Well we have dewback riders now that are a 2 space size and get speed 5 + 2 free movement points at the start of the activation.

We have Banthas and Nexus that can beast tamer for an effective move of 10 and 12.
I don't think it would be unreasonable to have a speeder bike with speed 6-8. It would have to be a fairly weak unit... and maybe something like "can't interact or special action if a move was performed this activation" perhaps.

Or "surprise attack" and be similar to a nexu pounce"

Or have speed 5, Mobile and "turbo boost". Double action gain 14 movement points. Use them as a second turn initiative alpha strike perhaps.

Movement alone doesn't make something overpowered.

Something like that could go a long way in helping some armies deal with backline support units. I think that would be great for the game... More things to think about and you have to be careful about holding terminals and how you use Gideon/C3PO or Jabba or officers.

I don't know... I'm not sure how they would deal with the speed. They would be totally broken if they were as fast in the game as they are in the movies. Scout troopers for sure, but I don't know how they'd manage to do the bikes...

Certainly they will need to be fast. I don't know how they'll manage to do it either, but FFG has shown remarkable cleverness in capturing the feel of specialized units, in all their games, without making them broken or unplayable.

Nobody could figure out how they were going to add interdictors into armada either, but they came up with 3 different abilities that all captured the flavor of a ship whose only real purpose in the fluff was to hang back out of the combat and keep ships out of hyperspace. Same with tractor beams and docked ships in x-wing. Lots of people wanted them, but nobody could figure out how they might be implemented, but FFG did it.

Speeder bikes are probably THE signature imperial unit in Jedi. FFG will figure out a way to give us a unit of them that is fun, not broken, and that still feels like speeder bikes.

give them speed, but a very weak gun (like 1 red die+2 accuracy) and they can't interact unless they've moved less than __.

Something to keep them from going indoors during campaign games seems like a good idea as well.

Sorry still not seeing how they could implement a vehicle that travels something like 100mph with near instantaneous acceleration into a game were a guy sprinting 20 feet is pretty quick.

My bet is that somehow the idea of them is incorporated into a campaign mission (capturing a speeder as an objective, or defeating an enemy before he reaches one or else there would be more reinforcements, but I doubt we'll see a unit because the scale is such that their speed wouldn't make sense (perform a move action to move any number of spaces in a straight line?).

-ryanjamal

Movement = 0. Special ability - once per activation you may move to any space within line of sight. You may perform an attack on any figure in between with a RB ranged attack.

Speed? Check. Firing on the fly? Check.

What's the problem?

Movement = 0. Special ability - once per activation you may move to any space within line of sight. You may perform an attack on any figure in between with a RB ranged attack.

Speed? Check. Firing on the fly? Check.

What's the problem?

The Problem:

"you may move to any space within line of sight."

That is an incredibly powerful ability and it would redefine the metagame unless it cost enough to be totally unplayable.

My bet is that somehow the idea of them is incorporated into a campaign mission (capturing a speeder as an objective, or defeating an enemy before he reaches one or else there would be more reinforcements, but I doubt we'll see a unit because the scale is such that their speed wouldn't make sense (perform a move action to move any number of spaces in a straight line?).

-ryanjamal

More like "perform a move action to move straight forward. If the final space is external You leave the board and withdraw from the mission. if the final space is interior, hit a wall and die."

My bet is that somehow the idea of them is incorporated into a campaign mission (capturing a speeder as an objective, or defeating an enemy before he reaches one or else there would be more reinforcements, but I doubt we'll see a unit because the scale is such that their speed wouldn't make sense (perform a move action to move any number of spaces in a straight line?).

-ryanjamal

More like "perform a move action to move straight forward. If the final space is external You leave the board and withdraw from the mission. if the final space is interior, hit a wall and die."

Nice :-) I like the idea of them having insane movement, but for each four spaces they move, they have to roll a white die. On an X result, they explode at the end of the four spaces, dealing a red die's worth of damage to the figure in that space.

-ryanjamal

Movement = 0. Special ability - once per activation you may move to any space within line of sight. You may perform an attack on any figure in between with a RB ranged attack.

Speed? Check. Firing on the fly? Check.

What's the problem?

The Problem:

"you may move to any space within line of sight."

That is an incredibly powerful ability and it would redefine the metagame unless it cost enough to be totally unplayable.

It's not all that great. If anything, it's overly limiting. Line of sight is broken by figures and some terrain, so they cannot fly through trees or AT-ST's to get where they are going. If they want to attack more than a flyby, then they have to be in position to have line of sight on a figure either at the start or end of their activation which leaves them open to attack.

This is entirely thematic, and makes this unit either a speedy-shoot-on-the-fly unit or an immobile turret. Again, not sure where this design would fail (except that the unit would be difficult to use effectively... but then it's supposed to be that way, right???)

Don't forget texting while jetbiking: https://imgur.com/gallery/yWIPJDW

Movement = 0. Special ability - once per activation you may move to any space within line of sight. You may perform an attack on any figure in between with a RB ranged attack.

Speed? Check. Firing on the fly? Check.

What's the problem?

The Problem:

"you may move to any space within line of sight."

That is an incredibly powerful ability and it would redefine the metagame unless it cost enough to be totally unplayable.

It's not all that great. If anything, it's overly limiting. Line of sight is broken by figures and some terrain, so they cannot fly through trees or AT-ST's to get where they are going. If they want to attack more than a flyby, then they have to be in position to have line of sight on a figure either at the start or end of their activation which leaves them open to attack.

This is entirely thematic, and makes this unit either a speedy-shoot-on-the-fly unit or an immobile turret. Again, not sure where this design would fail (except that the unit would be difficult to use effectively... but then it's supposed to be that way, right???)

I don't know; LOS is pretty flexible in this game. You would be able to move very quickly around the map, and if nothing else be a major frustration for your opponent because they wouldn't be able to keep up with you.

As I've said before, FFG needs to put out an Armada type ground game. IA is just to small a scale for speederbikes. Even in SWM, while it was more doable, they were very slow compared to their movie counterparts in order to work on the map. An ATST, while taking up a large foot print, is just a big canon with limited movement. It works, albeit barely. But something that moves like a speeder, to me, is just not doable. Though, I'm pretty sure it will get implemented somehow.

I kinda hope we don't see a general Han or Leia.

I'm sure we'll see another Han and Chewie version as a "fix" to their way overcosted original. Leia is fine as she is so don't hold your breath, it could be a while.

That's pretty much the only reason I'd want new versions of them. Though, honestly, I'd just as happily take an updated deployment card for them without a new mini.

Personally, I'm kind of in the camp of the small box being Endor and DS II, a sort of Nature vs Machine kind of thing.

For that reason, I think Ewoks will be included and on the Rebel side. I guess logically that's a little off, but I think the majority of people would view Imperial-aligned Ewoks as a little odd. Maybe they can be like the Jabba's realm heroes and be Rebel in the campaign, but have Merc deployment cards in skirmish?

As far as allies and villains go- if we don't get General Han/ a new Chewie, I wouldn't mind an Akbar mini. He's not typically thought of as a "ground hero", of course, but I think that would be pretty cool. Wickett would makes sense too, I guess.

For villains, I think we'll see a speeder bike captain who could double as a regular bike, as someone here already suggested. An Emperor's hand heavily based on Mara Jade (kind of like how RoGu Champ is heavily based on Jax) would be fantastic. I expect Yoda and Palpatine will both be released in a separate wave at some point, but not with this box.

As far as actual components in the box, I imagine we'll get a very Imperial heavy round to balance out the Merc heavy Jabba's Palace. I think we'll see scout troopers and maybe some Imperial Engineers.

For heroes, I mean, that's much tougher to try to predict. I do like the idea earlier of a hacker hero for the Machine theme- a duros would be really cool, or maybe a kaminoan. For the "Nature" themed hero, maybe a Nautolan with bonuses for speed in difficult terrain..

We could get a small box set of Death Star II .

Death Star II Box Set : (12 figures)

x3 Chiss Snipers

x3 Chiss Snipers (elite)
x2 Imperial Droid Guards

x2 Imperial Droid Guards (elite)

x2 Rebel Heroes

Death Star II Exp Packs:

x1 Lando Calrissian, General of the Alliance

x1 Mara Jade, Hand of the Emperor

x1 Darth Vader, Dark Lord

And then the next big set would be Endor

~D