Unlike the other thread, this thread isn't about ******* but rather contemplating if and how best to have clone wars ships.

I see three possible ways to have clone wars era ships.

1. Introduce 2 new factions to armada, the CIS and the Republic.

2. Add the ships to the existing factions.

3. Make a separate game.

I think the second or third option make the most sense in terms of balance. Trying to hamfist 2 new unique factions this late into the game is folly. There's only so much variety available with 4 hull zones, 3 dice, and 3 ship sizes. To try and make a 3rd and 4th faction with their own unique play styles would result in them being either overpowered, underwhelming, or just plain gimmicky.

http://www.strawpoll.me/14360460

I'm squarely in option 2. I just want to be able to use them with the existing factions, but when we get enough we can play a tech tree campaign!

I think option 2 is the most likely and i hope to god they do start adding clone wars ships.

I think a rebel venator is 100% more likely than a imperial venator for a couple of reasons.

1) with the introduction of the quasar the imperials now have a proper carrier - the venators main role. Why would FFG release a imp venator that does the same thing as the Quasar?

2) the venator could be the rebels second medium base (base size i aint gonna argue over lmao) as a carrier with a bad manouver chart and poor offensive, yet decent hull and high squadron for under 100pts.

3) the venator is another space triangle but its destinctive and easily different from the victory class or ISD. Plus already comes with a red/orange paint job

4) and released alongside could be a new imperial ship like:

- Vigil -class corvette

- Secutor -class Star Destroyer

-

Im sure i can come up with more but my internet seems to be failing so ill cut it short and edit this again when i can.

I don't think you could every introduce an entirely separate factions. We have over 10 ships for each faction right now and 10 squadrons. Even if you put out a wave of 4 ships and a squadron pack for the new faction, you'd likely feel like you are lacking in options. On top of that, you'd be basically asking for players to drop $250 minimum just to play that faction. And then you'd need a couple more waves just to catch up.

Due to that, any new factions would have to either be fully included in an existing faction and never broken out, or temporarily added to an existing faction with the idea of eventually breaking them out.

The temporary option has it's own pitfalls. Lots of people only collect one faction. They would want to continue to expand their faction only to have FFG cut that faction free later on making half their collection worthless. If FFG kept this intention secret and dropped a bomb after a couple waves, people would be pissed. If they announced it at the release of the new faction, people would have to decide between being weak by not purchasing the new stuff, or bite the bullet and buy stuff that they eventually won't use. Plus, the game would develop around the combined factions. The meta, the upgrades, the commanders would all need to be designed around the combined factions, and then, they'd get pulled apart. This could create all sorts of unforeseen issues. Consider this, think of all the overpowered combos you could make by combining Empire and Rebel forces now. Upgrades, ships, commanders, and squads that can cross the lines. Things would be overpowered, and would need to be nerfed to balance the game....but then pull them back apart and suddenly those nerfed elements are underpowered. The extra development needed to consider all that is likely beyond FFG (keep in mind that we are getting 1 wave this year and get virtually no articles).

This makes the most likely scenario the one where the new factions are forever blended together. And this makes the New Trilogy content more likely than Clone Wars Era. The faction lines and content are much clearer. Clone Wars era stuff leans Imperial as the Republic became the Empire. But the Separatists didn't really become the Rebellion. So you'd effectively be adding a bunch of stuff to the Imps and not having much to add to the Rebels.

Option 2 sounds like the most convenient for the buyer, but there are some really awkward snags because things just didn't split cleanly lore-wise. The Pelta and the Arq are on opposite sides right now, and Gozantis are used by the CIS. Either you have Jedi officers/commanders for the Empire or Separatist warships next to ISDs. Plus the immersion might be affected pretty severely. I really love TCW, but I'd have reservations about playing a Rebel/CIS list with Bail Organa and Ahsoka against... an Imperial/Republic list with Bail Organa and Ahsoka. Honestly I think option one is the one FFG is most likely to go with, but they'd have to be really optimistic about demand for a pretty niche product. I know I'd bite the bullet and go multi faction, though.

I don't think there should be a republic faction, the ships just aren't different enough. I'd like a faction of CIS to be found in the "unknown" regions of space and I'd like to see the third faction be introduced from that. as has been stated before, SW tech doesn't advance much so I don't see the CIS not being able to hold up decently. The strongest thing the Republic had going for them in general were the Jedi.

I think theres still a suite of galatic civil war era ships yet to be released that i want to see before clone wars stuff

A Clone Wars expansion could be the way to go, so that it uses the same rules, but is played separately from the existing game. There's certainly enough capital ships from the CW to sustain at least 5 waves, if not more.

But as much as I'd like to see a Venator or some CIS ships, I do wonder if Clone Wars ships would sell as well as the OT ones. I've only recently started buying Armada, but part of the appeal was seeing that beautiful ISD model and wanting to collect OT-era ships. None of the CW-era ships have that same appeal for me. I'm thinking they'd be less attractive for new players wanting to join the game.

4 hours ago, Captain Warden said:

A Clone Wars expansion could be the way to go, so that it uses the same rules, but is played separately from the existing game. There's certainly enough capital ships from the CW to sustain at least 5 waves, if not more.

But as much as I'd like to see a Venator or some CIS ships, I do wonder if Clone Wars ships would sell as well as the OT ones. I've only recently started buying Armada, but part of the appeal was seeing that beautiful ISD model and wanting to collect OT-era ships. None of the CW-era ships have that same appeal for me. I'm thinking they'd be less attractive for new players wanting to join the game.

I honestly like the Venator’s design more than the ISD. I think you’re right though; the demand just isn’t there. Maybe trickle in CW- era stuff. Imperial V-wings and Venator, Rebel ARC-170s, etc. Once enough content makes its way in naturally, FFG can make some small releases focusing on cards, and boom! Clone Wars.

While I would be a huge supporter of an official clone wars era for Armada, there is one big issue I have run into doing fan made clone wars factions.

The CIS has jack for small ships. They are all medium to large other than the troop transports from Phantom menace.

That makes building options very limited.

4 minutes ago, cynanbloodbane said:

While I would be a huge supporter of an official clone wars era for Armada, there is one big issue I have run into doing fan made clone wars factions.

The CIS has jack for small ships. They are all medium to large other than the troop transports from Phantom menace.

That makes building options very limited.

Hardcells, Gozantis, maybe Trident assault craft, the aforementioned landing craft, those Zepplinlike Umbaran warships? I’ll admit some of these are a bit of a stretch.

That's the thing, most that exist are Flotilla scale ships. Imagine trying to build fleets where you are only allowed to use Flotillas, medium and large ships, but the opposite faction has the full range at their disposal.

It might sound like a small pool of options, but remember the Empire only has three non-flotilla small base ships. Hardcells and C-9979s could be small bases, and that’s two down already. Add in extra flots and that’s pretty good for the first few waves. The Republic is the side I’d worry about; they only really have one large, iconic ship but tons of small ships. So they both have shortcomings to some degree.

I'll continue to say it: Separatist remnants.

Most of the Republic stuff like Arquitens, Venator, and Gozanti are already represented or fits in the Imperial fleets. I would put it all there no problem.

The Rebels have a few ships still left and there's probably more that can be de-mothballed.

Most of the separatist ships don't fit the ideology of the rebels, but it's been mentioned before that there was pockets of separatists that kept fighting after the war ended.

10 minutes ago, ricefrisbeetreats said:

Most of the separatist ships don't fit the ideology of the rebels

I always figured the Rebel ideology when it came to ships was somewhere between:

“Whatever isn’t nailed down”

and

“Beggars can’t be choosers...”

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

I always figured the Rebel ideology when it came to ships was somewhere between:

“Whatever isn’t nailed down”

and

“Beggars can’t be choosers...”

Yeah, yeah. I'm writing at work. I meant separatist admirals and characters.

They could take the ships and dump them in the rebel pool, but that does mean that we'll miss out on robot admiral, racist Asian alien admiral, and spider admiral.

Seriously, are there any memorable characters from the prequels? I can't remember anyone's name for the life of me! lol.

1 minute ago, ricefrisbeetreats said:

Yeah, yeah. I'm writing at work. I meant separatist admirals and characters.

They could take the ships and dump them in the rebel pool, but that does mean that we'll miss out on robot admiral, racist Asian alien admiral, and spider admiral.

Seriously, are there any memorable characters from the prequels? I can't remember anyone's name for the life of me! lol.

Spider Admiral was Trench... And later Trench2.0

I mostly remember because of the way Admiral Yoularen acted with him - fear and respect to his signature style.

Just now, Drasnighta said:

Spider Admiral was Trench... And later Trench2.0

Yeah him! I thought that guy was pretty cool looking. The robot guy was in Rebels, too. Not General Grievous.

5 minutes ago, ricefrisbeetreats said:

Yeah him! I thought that guy was pretty cool looking. The robot guy was in Rebels, too. Not General Grievous.

Then after that clarification - Robot guy was a member of a series of SuperTactical Droids. There were a few of them.

All as nameless as the rest of the Separatist droids.

So no wonder you don’t remember his name - he never had one.

We would have to have more ships released in option 2 manner first, but when enough are released, I could see them releasing some thing like Most Wanted from X wing. An expansion that had all of the cards necessary to convert old ships to the new faction. So Imperials could use Arquitens, but so could the Republic.

30 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Then after that clarification - Robot guy was a member of a series of SuperTactical Droids. There were a few of them.

All as nameless as the rest of the Separatist droids.

So no wonder you don’t remember his name - he never had one.

His name was Kalani. And he was pretty cool.

8 minutes ago, Jabby said:

His name was Kalani. And he was pretty cool.

Really? Where did that come out?

(always happy to stand corrected ?)

10 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Really? Where did that come out?

(always happy to stand corrected ?)

Clone Wars cartoon.

Almost all the character development, that makes the prequal era memorable, came from the cartoon.

****, they gave Captain/General Tarpos, (the gungan with the mustache wiskers things) a truly noble death. Sacrificing himself to capture General Grevious.

1 hour ago, Drasnighta said:

I always figured the Rebel ideology when it came to ships was somewhere between:

“Whatever isn’t nailed down”

and

“Beggars can’t be choosers...”

Whatever isn't nailed to a beggar?

8 minutes ago, cynanbloodbane said:

Clone Wars cartoon.

Almost all the character development, that makes the prequal era memorable, came from the cartoon.

****, they gave Captain/General Tarpos, (the gungan with the mustache wiskers things) a truly noble death. Sacrificing himself to capture General Grevious.

It it confirmed that it was the same SuperTactical Droid in Rebels?

I guess it could be based on the Planet in question, but I havn't done that research myself.