Here ya go, folks.

Hey, at least we got our 9th article for Spirit of Rebellion. Hurray.

Seriously, there's a "Force Speed" card and its art is of the most famous of all speedy force users... Boba Fett...

I think that pretty well illustrates the quality of that game.

edit: To be fair, Luke's disembodied arm (no, not that one) is coming in from offscreen. Can't tell if that makes it more or less of a mess.

4 minutes ago, subtrendy said:

Hey, at least we got our 9th article for Spirit of Rebellion. Hurray.

Seriously, there's a "Force Speed" card and its art is of the most famous of all speedy force users... Boba Fett...

I think that pretty well illustrates the quality of that game.

edit: To be fair, Luke's disembodied arm (no, not that one) is coming in from offscreen. Can't tell if that makes it more or less of a mess.

Yeah, the Force Speed is referring to the Jedi that's fighting Boba, not Boba himself...

Also, I think I missed something - can anyone explain all the hate for Destiny? It seems like a pretty fun game (I've only played once and don't own anything). Is it just that it's taking attention from IA?

3 minutes ago, Stompburger said:

Yeah, the Force Speed is referring to the Jedi that's fighting Boba, not Boba himself...

Also, I think I missed something - can anyone explain all the hate for Destiny? It seems like a pretty fun game (I've only played once and don't own anything). Is it just that it's taking attention from IA?

I've played a lot of CCGs and it seems like a waste of the Star Wars license. It's not terrible, it's just pretty clumsy and should have been much better than it is. You can certainly enjoy it, but there are just a lot of examples out there that do what it does, but better.

37 minutes ago, Stompburger said:

Yeah, the Force Speed is referring to the Jedi that's fighting Boba, not Boba himself...

Also, I think I missed something - can anyone explain all the hate for Destiny? It seems like a pretty fun game (I've only played once and don't own anything). Is it just that it's taking attention from IA?

Yeah, still kind of a funky way to illustrate the card.

But yeah, I definitely talk more smack on Destiny than I really mean. I get the appeal of CCGs- I'm a longtime MTG fan, myself. It's always just a bummer (minor annoyance in my otherwise decent life) to see so many Star Wars pics on articles, only for it to be yet another Destiny update. Just call me an Arconan, because I'm addicted to salt.

Ah, just like old times - another week passes, another week with no news...

...am trying to be positive but so far 2017 has been very disappointing on the IA front. We've hadn't one blister wave announced, and so far 2 of the 3 preview articles. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's it I think? Not a single developers interview type article, or list building, or anything.

Even if we accept that IA isn't a top tier game (now with Destiny on the scene) it feels pretty disappointing to not hear anything else.

Sorry folks, trying not to be grumpy! But really would like to see a bit of IA love.

2 hours ago, Stompburger said:

Yeah, the Force Speed is referring to the Jedi that's fighting Boba, not Boba himself...

Also, I think I missed something - can anyone explain all the hate for Destiny? It seems like a pretty fun game (I've only played once and don't own anything). Is it just that it's taking attention from IA?

Caveat: I have only played a few games of destiny. That being said:

The system itself is actually really good. I like the mechanics, the speed of play, the back and forth between players can be a lot of fun. Giving everyone the "discard to reroll" is a great way to mitigate the inherent emphasis on luck in a dice game.

That being said, I have a few issues with it.

1) The game doesn't feel like Star Wars to me. You can slap any IP on this and you wouldn't know the difference. Granted this is a case with many licensed games, but IMHO as awesome as many of FFGs Star Wars games are, the card games fall flat theme-wise.

2) I personally hate the cards and the design/layout of them. The art is fine enough, I guess, but the design and layout of the cards feels clunky and ugly to me. The cards often have less information on them than (for example) Arkham Horror cards and yet the AH cards are just far more attractive and evocative. This one is purely personal taste, of course.

3) The distribution is a disaster. Characters (especially good ones) are higher up in the rarity scale, and to play an elite character you need to somehow pull that exact rare or legendary twice. Now, I know that this is just par for the course for a CCG game, but I've gotten attached to the LCG system. If you can stay on top of releases, $15 a month is negligible and even if the final outlay isn't that much different, it feels like it's cheaper because of not having that $100+ buyin (except for multiple cores).

EDIT: Also, the final outlay is nowhere near the same. To get a full playset of every single dice and card in Awakenings you need to buy at a minimum 120 boosters, 4 starters, and have the Dark One's Own Luck (to get exactly 2 of every dice and no extras beyond that). For LCGs, the box for the cycle and the 6 cycle packs ($120 at MSRP) gets you the full playset for the cycle, and it's spread out over 6-7 months.

Edit 2: you need less than 120 boosters, I didn't count all the dice you double up on from getting multiple cores (like Jedi Robes, BB8 and TIE Fighters). You still need a lot.

I'm reserving my grumpiness for May the 4th (or really May the 5th). If both Celebration and May the 4th roll by without IA news I'd be a little bummed. In the meantime, I'll try to stay on the light side...

3 minutes ago, FatherTurin said:

Caveat: I have only played a few games of destiny. That being said:

The system itself is actually really good. I like the mechanics, the speed of play, the back and forth between players can be a lot of fun. Giving everyone the "discard to reroll" is a great way to mitigate the inherent emphasis on luck in a dice game.

That being said, I have a few issues with it.

1) The game doesn't feel like Star Wars to me. You can slap any IP on this and you wouldn't know the difference. Granted this is a case with many licensed games, but IMHO as awesome as many of FFGs Star Wars games are, the card games fall flat theme-wise.

2) I personally hate the cards and the design/layout of them. The art is fine enough, I guess, but the design and layout of the cards feels clunky and ugly to me. The cards often have less information on them than (for example) Arkham Horror cards and yet the AH cards are just far more attractive and evocative. This one is purely personal taste, of course.

3) The distribution is a disaster. Characters (especially good ones) are higher up in the rarity scale, and to play an elite character you need to somehow pull that exact rare or legendary twice. Now, I know that this is just par for the course for a CCG game, but I've gotten attached to the LCG system. If you can stay on top of releases, $15 a month is negligible and even if the final outlay isn't that much different, it feels like it's cheaper because of not having that $100+ buyin (except for multiple cores).

I'm not a big fan of CCGs either - to me the added fun of opening packs is not worth the money you are throwing away with duplicates you don't need. And the fact that you need to spend a ton of money to be competitive. I much prefer games where I can buy the whole experience - or whatever parts of the experience I want - for a fixed price. I'm not sure if the CCG model is an inherently abusive business model, but it sure feels like one...

I do really like the mechanics though - I mean, I play IA, so I can get on board with rolling dice

1 hour ago, Stompburger said:

I'm not sure if the CCG model is an inherently abusive business model, but it sure feels like one...

I mean, that's pretty much the intent.

With IA, I buy a figure pack and I know exactly what I'm getting. With MTG, I can buy as many blisters as I can and still might not get the cards I need... so it's back to the blisters to give WOTC more of my money.

That's why, with CCGs, I do all my shopping online. If I can get the card I'm looking for for only 5-10 dollars, that'll save me from having to buy a ton of blisters.

6 hours ago, Stompburger said:

I'm not a big fan of CCGs either - to me the added fun of opening packs is not worth the money you are throwing away with duplicates you don't need. And the fact that you need to spend a ton of money to be competitive. I much prefer games where I can buy the whole experience - or whatever parts of the experience I want - for a fixed price. I'm not sure if the CCG model is an inherently abusive business model, but it sure feels like one...

I do really like the mechanics though - I mean, I play IA, so I can get on board with rolling dice

You and FatherTurin have nailed all the reasons I don't like Destiny. It's Star Wars art slapped on a generic card and dice game. It's a CCG. I have heartache, as said by Stompburger with CCGs. I know someone else said it weeks back, when I hear secondary market, I cringe. So for me, there is no appeal at all, and frankly I find the dice hokey.

Secondary market combined with the fact there is no product makes the game a bit of a joke to me right now. I had entertained the idea of jumping in with a starter, even as early as last week, but then I said to the guys at my LGS, "How can I buy a starter with no blister packs to expand my deck till June?" They had no answer lol. It's embarrassing for them as well. SoR hits next week, but that isn't wave 1, so you are counting on stacking your deck with wave 2 cards. Every game has power creep, but they will definitely make sure wave 1 cards are still viable/desired to drive that secondary market. IA gains no profit from it, but the popularity of it helps drive the game. Just not interested in chasing a product for a chance to play, it should always be the other way around.

Also, sad times about no new news

X-Wing starts off the week with another fluff article, it would be great to see some of these for IA :/ Even an article about using IA combined with X-Wing would be great exposure for the game. I feel like with all the Destiny and RuneWars rush people are starting to forget about IA. They've got a new fast paced Star Wars IP skirmish game that has the CCG crack attached to it and a new miniatures game with a fresh new system that draws on the strengths of the super popular X-Wing and has a decently fleshed out IP behind it as well. I have actually been surprised over on the RuneWars forum how interested with the Lore everyone is.. but then it makes sense as Terrinoth has a long history of games and characters.

27 days since our last IA preview and 108 days since the last IA announcement, April 4th and January 13th 2017, respectively.

I don't even need to go back and look at the other games to realize all of them are destroying us in those categories, even the LCG has us beat now lol.

Some fluff might be nice. I know that I wouldn't mind something like that.

Kinda surprised the Jawa article was that long ago. Kinda makes me feel vindicated in my frustration

Ya it seems like two weeks is kind of the bench mark between previews, so we are at double that as of tomorrow. But I think they were saving Hera/Chop so they could have something to preview the week before release which is also standard, always having those previews drop closer to release date to build hype. I do wonder if something got boggled in the schedule though because this wave has been way out of character.

3 hours ago, FrogTrigger said:

Ya it seems like two weeks is kind of the bench mark between previews, so we are at double that as of tomorrow.

Not really, dates have always been unreliable. Many previews have been a week apart, to months apart, and in some cases even two previews on the same day. For example Bespin had two previews on the day the stuff was available in stores, with the release announcement a week late... Quite honestly, based on FFG's track record for articles, you can't assume anything.

As far as the smaller waves go, 2 weeks seems to be pretty key:

Boba to R2 to Kayn, 2 weeks between each preview.

Wookies to Troopers to Hired Guns, 2 weeks between each preview.

Smuggler to Bantha, 2 weeks between each preview.

Hoth and Bespin are a bit all over the map, but Hoth had 1 week between most with 2 weeks leading up to Dengar and the ISB/Bossk were two weeks after Blaise.

Grand Inquis wave was 1 week apart.

JR was 1-2 weeks between spoilers with Jabba being over 2 weeks.

0-0-0 to Jawas, weeks between the previews.

So 4/7 waves 2 weeks was pretty consistent and even within those 3 other waves it was for the most part on that 1-2 weeks separation between SOME Of the articles. Given that we only have 3 figures for this wave it makes sense they are more spaced out than the bigger or smaller boxes. I am not saying it is science, but it does appear they have a pattern they -try- to stick to.

Preview for IA is next, should arrive in couple of hours

17 minutes ago, AleksDj said:

Preview for IA is next, should arrive in couple of hours

What makes you say that?

Is that optimism?

Staging server?

lol, lets call it sixth sense

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/5/2/drawn-into-the-fight/

I told you, sixth sense

Nice!

I really like the mission for those two. I've been saying for a while that ally/villain acquisition missions should actually feel like you're working to gain the allies trust or rescue them, rather than just completing a mission alongside them. Seems like they're really embracing that with Hera and Chop.

Very well written article so far, now lets see these command cards..