Ok, with HotE on the boat and GenCon coming up, what do we think is next for IA?

(the correct winner will receive 1 like, from me, upon verification, so your prestige is guaranteed to increase by at least 1!!!!)

"The Liberation of Endor"

The Death Star has just exploded but the Rebellion has always been more Navy than Army. Rebel Operatives must facilitate the capitulation of Imperial loyalists on the Sanctuary Moon and prevent McGuffin thing from escaping off-world with the fleeing Imperial forces. The campaign could start on the forest moon and then, based on player success/failure, lead deep into the Imperial bunker network laden with booby traps or onto a fleeing Imperial starship that managed to break the blockade.

Going out on a limb here, but I think we're getting an announcement at Gencon about the app, and I think a blister wave is coming with it. Let's say, release in December.

Just to put something on the board, I want to say this blister wave is going to be a big one- 2 packs for each faction, and I think they're going to be packs that people will really want.

Guesses based on sort of a mix of more objective popularity from the recent poll and my own subjective opinion on what would fit in and be needed with this game.

Rebels:

Yoda

Rex

Merc:

4-LOM and Zuckuss

Skiff

Imperials:

(I don't think we'll get Mara Jade, being as she's Force User- which we're getting a lot of soon anyway- and Legends canon)

Thrawn

Death Trooper squad

I know the Mercs don't need a lot of help, but I'd really like a Cad Bane pack. His mobility and sharp shooting I think would be fun. And who doesn't want that big hat haha

11 minutes ago, wannabepudge said:

I know the Mercs don't need a lot of help, but I'd really like a Cad Bane pack. His mobility and sharp shooting I think would be fun. And who doesn't want that big hat haha

Dude, I want it so bad. A Cad Bane pack is probably my most wanted thing right now.

I didn't put him on my prediction because I don't think his appeal is wide enough yet, at least not for me to in all good conscience include him in my "Packs everyone would want" prediction. But I'd be so down for that.

1 hour ago, subtrendy2 said:

Going out on a limb here, but I think we're getting an announcement at Gencon about the app, and I think a blister wave is coming with it. Let's say, release in December.

Just to put something on the board, I want to say this blister wave is going to be a big one- 2 packs for each faction, and I think they're going to be packs that people will really want.

Guesses based on sort of a mix of more objective popularity from the recent poll and my own subjective opinion on what would fit in and be needed with this game.

Rebels:

Yoda

Rex

Merc:

4-LOM and Zuckuss

Skiff

Imperials:

(I don't think we'll get Mara Jade, being as she's Force User- which we're getting a lot of soon anyway- and Legends canon)

Thrawn

Death Trooper squad

I like this. First of all. I'm glad you reposted the poll. I had taken it, but hadn't seen the summary results. Super cool. I also think that a blister pack is likely gonna come before the next box expansion. While I appreciate the polls, I think that we're most likely to see Rebels and Rogue one themed blisters.

I think your Thrawn/Death Trooper idea is pretty solid but I don't see them together in the same pack so it'll probably be one or the other, more likely the Death Troopers (2-pack) .

For mercs there aren't really any that Rebels/Rogue One specific unless we go with some of the Mando characters. My guess is either the 4-lom/Zuckus combo or a new creature for the Mercs.

For Rebels, I'm gonna guess Sabine/Zeb combo pack . I feel like all of these picks are pretty safe and I won't mind being surprised!

Edit: I just thought of Hondo as a potential Rebels-themed Merc. Still thinking 4-lom/zuckus are more likely.

19 minutes ago, VadersMarchKazoo said:

I like this. First of all. I'm glad you reposted the poll. I had taken it, but hadn't seen the summary results. Super cool. I also think that a blister pack is likely gonna come before the next box expansion. While I appreciate the polls, I think that we're most likely to see Rebels and Rogue one themed blisters

Oh, nice! Yeah, the results were really interesting.

Rogue One or Rebels definitely seem likely. They're another thing that I'd consider a strong possibility, but much like Bane, didn't fit my particular theme of packs that would be especially requested.

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I think your Thrawn/Death Trooper idea is pretty solid but I don't see them together in the same pack so it'll probably be one or the other, more likely the Death Troopers (2-pack) .

Sorry for any confusion- I was predicting two packs per faction. I guess I just thought that we'd get a larger wave than usual to coincide with the app. But yeah, if it came down to the two, I'd absolutely rather have Death Troopers.

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For mercs there aren't really any that Rebels/Rogue One specific unless we go with some of the Mando characters. My guess is either the 4-lom/Zuckus combo or a new creature for the Mercs...

Edit: I just thought of Hondo as a potential Rebels-themed Merc. Still thinking 4-lom/zuckus are more likely.

Definitely. The final ESB bounty hunters seem to be pretty popular on here, but Hondo would be a really solid Rebels pick.

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For Rebels, I'm gonna guess Sabine/Zeb combo pack . I feel like all of these picks are pretty safe and I won't mind being surprised!

I like that, and I think that combo packs for Rebels characters are the way to go. We already have Hera/Chopper, and if we ever get Kanan or Ezra I'd imagine they'd be grouped together, too. While Sabine and Zeb seem a little more like a wild card pairing, I still think that having them together would help sales, while apart they may not sell as many units. Plus, it's always fun to "double or nothing" on ally gains during the campaign.

I'm thinking the next blister packs will be Rebels-focused, since we've seen Hera and Chopper already and we're getting the AT-DP in HotE.

For the Alliance, maybe Kanan and Sabine. Possibly Zeb instead of Kanan.

For the Empire: Kallus, and either the Seventh Sister or Fifth Brother. Thrawn would be nice, but I don't think he really fits IA. Offhand I can't think of any other villians from the show. Maybe Gar Saxon?

For Mercenaries: Fenn Rau, perhaps? Maybe Hondo could go here..

Two Packs for Rebels: Kanan&Ezra + Zeb&Sabine

Rebels spoiler

I don't think we'll get a boxed expansion announcement, but rather another standalone figure wave.

• Kanan Jarus & Ezra Bridger Ally Pack
• Agent Kallus Villain Pack
• Zuckuss & 4LOM Villain Pack

Ok, so probably rebels/R1 blister packs and maybe some old-school cannon figures. Now, IF we get an app....what would it be called/themed?

My understanding is two fold. 1) the Descent app was based on a new campaign (i.e. maybe a 16 mission story) that utilized 2) all the expansion that a player owns. Do I have that right and if so, what would we expect the app to look like? The more I think about this, the more challenging this seems. For instance, would the app have the option to send players to an ice planet (and therefore have an ice-planet story mission) if the player owns RtH? But if they don't it sends them to another forest planet????

6 minutes ago, RogueLieutenant said:

I don't think we'll get a boxed expansion announcement, but rather another standalone figure wave.

• Kanan Jarus & Ezra Bridger Ally Pack
• Agent Kallus Villain Pack
• Zuckuss & 4LOM Villain Pack

Wait, on the podcast you said Sabine and Zeb. Get your story straight!

2 minutes ago, VadersMarchKazoo said:

Now, IF we get an app....what would it be called/themed?

If it had the opportunity to use all tiles (grass, desery, snow, city, etc) then I think we'd want a campaign themed around a planet with a relatively broad ecosystem.

I think The Liberation of Naboo could be a fun one!

We could also use the tiles to go to other places, particularly places as well, such as mixing up some of the darker Bespin and Coruscant tiles to make Corellia, or mixing some Jabba's Realm and Twin Shadows to make a Jakku map. In fact, a post-Endor Core World Liberation/ Fall of the Empire campaign might actually be the way to go.

15 minutes ago, VadersMarchKazoo said:

Ok, so probably rebels/R1 blister packs and maybe some old-school cannon figures. Now, IF we get an app....what would it be called/themed?

My understanding is two fold. 1) the Descent app was based on a new campaign (i.e. maybe a 16 mission story) that utilized 2) all the expansion that a player owns. Do I have that right and if so, what would we expect the app to look like? The more I think about this, the more challenging this seems. For instance, would the app have the option to send players to an ice planet (and therefore have an ice-planet story mission) if the player owns RtH? But if they don't it sends them to another forest planet????

You could almost think of it as being similar to what IA does in a standard campaign. The main story used only tiles/villains from the core Descent box, and there were also a whole bunch of side missions that used that content as well. However, each of the other physical expansions that you owned opened up more side missions, and those missions could use the content from those boxes. The monsters in all of the missions (side and story) could come from any of the expansions that you owned.

Also, they released a second Descent campaign focused on one of the expansions. So that would be like if the first digital campaign's story used only the core tiles but then they released a second digital campaign focusing on the hoth tiles or whatever.

7 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

We could also use the tiles to go to other places, particularly places as well, such as mixing up some of the darker Bespin and Coruscant tiles to make Corellia, or mixing some Jabba's Realm and Twin Shadows to make a Jakku map. In fact, a post-Endor Core World Liberation/ Fall of the Empire campaign might actually be the way to go.

I like this. Certainly a good deal of planet hopping is in order. (How about allowing the app to incorporate all the X-wing/Armada items you own too to accommodate the planet hopping (that 4 walls within 4 walls).

It made me realize that this is a pretty huge undertaking. Just from a mission tiles perspective. You figure that each campaign is normally 12 missions. The app would need to accommodate players that only have the core set, so at a minimum it will need 12 core set missions (probably more like 14-16). Then you'd think that they would want at least one mission from each expansion (tile type). To me that would mean

1-2 from Bespin,

1-2 from City (HotE),

1-2 Ice planet,

2-4 desert (TS + JR).

So coupled with the 12 -16 from the core set, that's like 17-26 missions that they would need to develop for the app. And then make them fit into a cohesive story in a VERY dynamic way. Seriously, this is probably at least one of the reasons this has taken a while.

1 minute ago, ManateeX said:

You could almost think of it as being similar to what IA does in a standard campaign. The main story used only tiles/villains from the core Descent box, and there were also a whole bunch of side missions that used that content as well. However, each of the other physical expansions that you owned opened up more side missions, and those missions could use the content from those boxes. The monsters in all of the missions (side and story) could come from any of the expansions that you owned.

Also, they released a second Descent campaign focused on one of the expansions. So that would be like if the first digital campaign's story used only the core tiles but then they released a second digital campaign focusing on the hoth tiles or whatever.

OK, that seems much simpler. to me that would suggest the long-awaited Endor campaign since the core box tiles would fit that theme perfectly.

A regular full-length campaign is intro + 10 missions. You only get to 12 and above if you trigger forced missions.

(I usually add that for me personally that is 1 or 2 missions too long, while 4-mission minicampaigns are too short to really learn your heroes or playing against them, and both of these contribute to my extended minicampaigns. I have yet to try shortened full campaigns, although I have discussed them.)

This is assuming the app campaign works in any way similar to other campaigns. That may not be the case.

For instance, let's say the app starts out with 11 missions, all of which use only core tiles. Boom, that's a playable campaign. Not a very variable campaign, but it's playable, and I think it's absolutely fair for players who have invested more in this game to have a far more diverse experience.

So, maybe each expansion could also get its own side mission. That adds 5 more missions once HotE is out.

Then, I'd hope that some of the more underplayed or overcosted allies or villains (such as Chewbacca, Lando, Boba Fett, Vader, etc) and some of the newer, non campaign allies and villains (Hera, BT1, Obi Wan, GI, etc) are featured more organically in some missions, too.

Finally- and this is really just a bit of a wishlist as opposed to anything realistic- I think a large scale battle mission would be cool- perhaps a Jakku one featuring a large number of tiles from Core, TS, and JR. App could automatically grant the Rebels a certain amount of troopers (depending on what they own, up to one r and one e) and allies (depending on if the ally was likely to be at the battle- so if someone owned Jedi Luke, for instance, but probably not Ahsoka). Then, it could scale the Imperial starting groups as well. So, assuming the only objective is for one side to eliminate the other (not ideal, but easier to scale) the Empire would get 6 threat worth of units for a single Rebel trooper group. Threat would be accumulated for everything the Rebels own, then assigned to various groups the Empire owns. Should make for what could be one of the most interesting and insane campaign missions possible.

We can get an ineffectual trio in Saw, Galen(Sad Mads), and Krennic. 1 pt meat shields that mope around the battlefield , but provide passive VPs for as long as they're on the board.

I'd like Hondo and Rex for sure.

1 hour ago, VadersMarchKazoo said:

Wait, on the podcast you said Sabine and Zeb . Get your story straight!

Yeah just now though I remembered there will probably be a lot of force user love in the next wave, so bringing in two more force users might fit. maybe.

17 minutes ago, RogueLieutenant said:

Yeah just now though I remembered there will probably be a lot of force user love in the next wave, so bringing in two more force users might fit. maybe.

So you're predicting that Force Users dethrone the Hunters this year at Worlds? Sorry, I'm pretty sure it's going to be nothing but Jawa spam lists in 2018 (and Ewoks in 2019).

I'd imagine that the app campaign (as others have said) will utilize core set tiles, and bring in enemies from expansions as open groups in the various missions. Ownership of expansion sets will open up or unlock more side adventures that utilize newer tiles.

Hopefully they'll be able to mine some of the storylines from Rebels and the books in the new canon for missions or a campaign. Would like to see the heroes trying to stop the Imperial culling of Force-sensitive children (an expansion of the Grand Inquisitor's "Cornered" mission), or attacking Imperial depots to disrupt supply, etc.

I also wonder if the Skirmish side of the house will see any love? Not sure how that would work...unless it's a bit like the Delve in Descent? One can hope.

Interesting. I kind of predict the opposite, that Force Users will be big in the HotE wave, but we won't get many for a while after that.

If the app has any Skirmish support, all I can see is maybe have a fancy scoreboard/initiative tracker and maybe a library of the maps/missions.