Can't quite believe they messed up the faction banners with the characters... but hey, it's a new mat at least

GOOD MORNING, ITS FRIDAY!

It is getting to be a more exciting time of year. A lot of FFG's late year releases have all come out now, so we're getting a more blank slate again. Regardless of Imperial Assault, it's exciting to think of all of the new possibilities of products that could be announced.

Of course, that doesn't mean we won't not get 3 Legion articles in a row today, still.

41 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

It is getting to be a more exciting time of year. A lot of FFG's late year releases have all come out now, so we're getting a more blank slate again. Regardless of Imperial Assault, it's exciting to think of all of the new possibilities of products that could be announced.

Of course, that doesn't mean we won't not get 3 Legion articles in a row today, still.

1. How to Make a Useful Birdbath from the Legion Starter Set Insert Tray
2. How to Watch Paint Dry on your Legion Miniatures
3. How to Scrape the Bottom of the Legion Box for Preview Article Ideas

Just to brace everyone: Rumor has it the Legion rules will be released today so prepare yourselves for at least one article (all joking aside...).

3 hours ago, Smashotron said:

GOOD MORNING, ITS FRIDAY!

I presume this is how you got your username?

2 hours ago, Zerker said:

1. Stomping Into Battle
2. How to Watch Paint Dry on your Legion Miniatures
3. How to Scrape the Bottom of the Legion Box for Preview Article Ideas

UPDATED

Now that we have a new map, someone buy my collection.

I actually want AT-RTs for rebels now.

9 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

I actually want AT-RTs for rebels now.

Wouldn't it be neat to get Rex on one as a Rebel ally?

14 minutes ago, FSD said:

Wouldn't it be neat to get Rex on one as a Rebel ally?

Like a Rebel Terro?

Oh look, an article where they interviewed the four people who still play Runewars.

Seriously though, good to see that game still getting some love. Gives me hope for us, for some reason.

Updated prediction for 2018 - Some time in March we get an announcement of a new full length campaign for the app which will have an April or early May release. Also possible we get a blister wave that is released by June. I'm also gonna say that by end of 2018 we will have another (perhaps final) big box expansion that will also have its own blister wave.

My reasoning - it would mirror the 5 year plan that Descent has pretty closely. Put out the Core Box, and then alternate small and big boxes for 6 months over the next two years. After that Descent put out 3 small boxes over 2 years. 3 small boxes is basically the same amount of content as 2 big boxes (HotE and a hypothetical 2018 big box). FFG may have to spend more on playtesting and including more missions, but they save money by shipping less, and probably make more per unit so it's kind of a wash. Year 4 also sees the release of the app (where we are now), which continues into Year 5.

Just out of curiosity, here's the Road to Legend history:

App released- May 12, 2016

Kindred Fire campaign released- June 10, 2016

New side quests added- September 12, 2016

The Delve added- October 17, 2016

Seeds of Corruption added- January 16, 2017

Trials of Frostgate- September 28, 2017

So, I know it seems like the app just came out not that long ago(at least, to me), but I guess it isn't beyond the realm of possibility to get new stuff soon.

With Descent, though, I'd almost say that Kindred Fire was the first real app campaign whereas the IA app shipped with one. I wouldn't really expect anything on the same one-month delay that they had (especially since the first month of post-release IA app development was probably all focused on adding in the expansion deployments). My guess would be something more along the lines of the 5-month wait time between the release and the Delve, or even the 8-month lag between the two main campaigns.

With all that said, though, I'm expecting the new physical content to be announced annnnnnnny time now

4 minutes ago, ManateeX said:

With Descent, though, I'd almost say that Kindred Fire was the first real app campaign whereas the IA app shipped with one. I wouldn't really expect anything on the same one-month delay that they had (especially since the first month of post-release IA app development was probably all focused on adding in the expansion deployments). My guess would be something more along the lines of the 5-month wait time between the release and the Delve, or even the 8-month lag between the two main campaigns.

With all that said, though, I'm expecting the new physical content to be announced annnnnnnny time now

The Descent app shipped with a 4 mission mini-campaign I believe.

1 minute ago, Pollux85 said:

The Descent app shipped with a 4 mission mini-campaign I believe.

It did come with one, but it played as more of a tutorial than a full campaign. The IA one is a lot more fleshed-out than that one was.

The tutorial campaign was just side missions strung together with a bit of flavour text I believe. Kindred fire was the first actual campaign and wasn't it a full campain? Our IA campaign is quite short so while it is its own entity maybe we will get another longer campaign in the next few months.

I might be off-track but I don't quite follow the Descent/Imperial Assault comparison when it comes to IA's "death" prediction. I am aware that IA is the "legitimate child" of Descent from a game play point of view. Does that bound IA to repeat the same planing Descent followed in terms of new releases? I mean IA is branded with "Star Wars" on it, a potentially more lucrative brand than Descent so why stop?. Of course, I don't want FFG to "throw out" of the factory crappy IA material just because they can put Star Wars logo on the box as a buying incentive to get more money from us (anyway they haven't done that so far, releasing only high quality material) but at the same time, I feel the potential lifespan of IA because of Star Wars licensing, is way beyond Descent. All that to say that it's not because Descent got X amount of large box and Y amount of blisters that IA should receive the same treatment. I don't buy that. Even if IA and Descent release schedules are similar so far, I don't see FFG stopping producing IA materials just because they have reached the "limit" imposed by Descent, especially if the sales are good. I see the end of IA new release stuffs on the day FFG won't be able/wont want to renew the Star Wars license, if it makes sense.

19 minutes ago, IanSolo_FFG said:

I see the end of IA new release stuffs on the day FFG won't be able/wont want to renew the Star Wars license, if it makes sense.

That's a good point! As much as we complain about them, all of those Destiny/X-Wing/Legion articles may actually be good for our game after all. I can't see FFG wanting to give up their Star Wars license anytime soon.

Basically I think it's a pretty simple formula - as long as enough people are buying IA that they're making back money above their production costs, I don't see any reason for them to stop.

Also, it’s been said in the past but worth repeating - the app was a fairly significant investment of time and resources for FFG. Why bother with a 18+ month investment of something outside your normal competency (building an app), if you have thoughts of killing said product one or two years later? That really doesn’t make any sense.

17 minutes ago, ManateeX said:

Basically I think it's a pretty simple formula - as long as enough people are buying IA that they're making back money above their production costs, I don't see any reason for them to stop.

B/c they think they can make more doing something else. We know that many of the people who were working on IA are finishing up Legion. Why? Because FFG thought it would make them more money, and so IA releases have slowed down a bit.

57 minutes ago, IanSolo_FFG said:

I might be off-track but I don't quite follow the Descent/Imperial Assault comparison when it comes to IA's "death" prediction. I am aware that IA is the "legitimate child" of Descent from a game play point of view. Does that bound IA to repeat the same planing Descent followed in terms of new releases? I mean IA is branded with "Star Wars" on it, a potentially more lucrative brand than Descent so why stop?. Of course, I don't want FFG to "throw out" of the factory crappy IA material just because they can put Star Wars logo on the box as a buying incentive to get more money from us (anyway they haven't done that so far, releasing only high quality material) but at the same time, I feel the potential lifespan of IA because of Star Wars licensing, is way beyond Descent. All that to say that it's not because Descent got X amount of large box and Y amount of blisters that IA should receive the same treatment. I don't buy that. Even if IA and Descent release schedules are similar so far, I don't see FFG stopping producing IA materials just because they have reached the "limit" imposed by Descent, especially if the sales are good. I see the end of IA new release stuffs on the day FFG won't be able/wont want to renew the Star Wars license, if it makes sense.

It's definitely not a perfect analogy. IA is by no means bound by what happens to Descent.

But it's a tempting comparison to make, all the same, and it's really all we have to go on right now.

14 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

It's definitely not a perfect analogy. IA is by no means bound by what happens to Descent.

But it's a tempting comparison to make, all the same, and it's really all we have to go on right now.

The financial balancing act of Descent and IA must be fundamentally different though. While I don’t doubt that IA sales are higher than Descent, the licensing costs must be substantial.

IA will remain relevant until either Disney pull the plug (because they believe they can make more money elsewhere) or the licensing costs become too onerous for FFG to bear in lieu of naturally decreasing sales. This second assumption assumes that the licence for IA is “individual” rather than bound in with all the other Star Wars properties (because of the Hasbro cross over)? Just a guess of course

Descent can, however, keep chugging along at a lower sales rate until the interest in it dwindles completely (in which case we can probably expect a third edition ?)

13 minutes ago, Suhawk75 said:

The financial balancing act of Descent and IA must be fundamentally different though. While I don’t doubt that IA sales are higher than Descent, the licensing costs must be substantial.

IA will remain relevant until either Disney pull the plug (because they believe they can make more money elsewhere) or the licensing costs become too onerous for FFG to bear in lieu of naturally decreasing sales. This second assumption assumes that the licence for IA is “individual” rather than bound in with all the other Star Wars properties (because of the Hasbro cross over)? Just a guess of course

Descent can, however, keep chugging along at a lower sales rate until the interest in it dwindles completely (in which case we can probably expect a third edition ?)

Yeah, I don't know the intricate details of the licensing, but I understand that while Hasbro has the rights to board games, FFG has rights to miniature games.

I don't think that there are rights for each individual game, but rather it's implied as an umbrella term. Maybe that's how we can get slightly sketchy exceptions like Rebellion, which would've arguably is a board game.

But again, I can't say for certain.