Option 3 for me, in that these are new factions that cannot be played with or against existing factions. Sorry, I don't like Option 2 at all, and the idea of CIS vs Empire or Republic vs Rebels bugs me in the same way that a game featuring a battle between WW2 Japanese and WW1 Germans would. My feelings are the same with the ST era.

All the same rules. Just new core sets. Non-unique upgrade cards can be used in any of the eras but otherwise start releasing ships and characters from scratch (obviously you can reuse and repaint a few of the models).

I’d welcome other eras, but they should be self-contained. “Don’t cross the streams.”

There are historical periods in this setting.

On 17/11/2017 at 5:34 PM, The Jabbawookie said:

So, robot and spider admiral make sense... But who on earth is “racist Asian alien admiral?” The only other admirals I can think of are Neimoidians...

Given where Rebels left things with Kalani, I actually think an officer/commander card would make perfect sense.

I'm a little late to the party but...

https://armadashipyards.com/2015/12/12/general-kalani/

And, more generally:

https://armadashipyards.com/home/separatist/

Though that was all developed in the wave 2 era so a lot of it needs updating/tweaking...

On 11/17/2017 at 4:55 AM, 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...”

"Anything not nailed down is mine.
Anything I can pry loose isn't nailed down!"
- Old D&D 3.5 supplement

On 11/16/2017 at 4:42 PM, dominosfleet said:

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.

The 'third faction' idea is possibly the best path.

FWIW, there is some precedent for that, in the form of the Corporate Sector Authority (from the 1970s novels, and where we got our first references to Victory-class Star Destroyers and Z-95s). While the non-canon/EU sources did the most to flesh out this group, it does survive in canon - being referred to as far back as the Clone Wars, and even in the new novels had covertly been supporting the First Order.

Given how the 'Most Wanted' expansion introduced Scum to X-Wing with a few ship model repaints, but new base plates (and ship cards) for the new faction, that could work the same for this CIS-holdover-plus-Corporate-Sector-Authority thing.

Give them alternate base plates for:

• Victory-class Star Destroyer*
• Arquitens-class Light Cruiser*
• Gozanti-class flotillas*
• CR90 Corvette
• Hammerhead Corvette
• Pelta-class*
• Z-95 squadrons
• Y-Wing squadrons
• YT-2400 squadrons
• YT-1300 squadrons
• Firespray squadrons (although given all the others are in 'Rebel' colors, maybe include these WITH the expansion, in that same color plastic?)

* Given new base plates and ship cards, no reason you couldn't make tweaks to the stats or upgrade bars of these ships, too, to further distinguish them from their existing versions.

That would be a reasonably impressive starting point, so...add a totally-new ship model with the kit (Munificent-class cruiser?) alongside some net-new squadron types, and you've got a viable third faction ready to go.

I get some people want this, it's just that when you mention prequels the general attitude is usually negative and if it feels shoehorned into a game it'll just be that feeling will be exacerbated. I personally feel like Armada can't really take that hit right now. Seems there's a lot of folks out there struggling to get groups going for this game. The general taint of the prequels most likely won't help.

I will stand by my thoughts that the prequels would lend their material better to a game like Dropship, where zooming around the map in troop carriers to take objectives is the overall idea. That seems to match the majority of the Clone Wars saga to me than trying to come up with enough ships to justify the era.

To each their own, of course. Cause really if it's for Armada I'm still going to buy it

I really don't believe the fanbase of Armada could withstand introducing 2 new factions. And I think the game would absolutely die if you stopped production on the current factions and started a new era.

Many people collect 1 faction, and they have thousands of dollars invested into the game.

If FFG stopped Armada, and started Armada 2.0, a lot of those people would feel burned and just quit.

If FFG adds 2 new factions to the game, it would take at least 2 waves full of just those factions to give them anything useful so existing factions would get nothing for a year or more and just fade away as they lose interest.

If FFG tried to run 2 versions of Armada simultaneously, there wouldn't be enough supporters of either to keep the game going and activity would drop. With a drop of activity, you have a drop of sales. Let's even assume every local meta chooses a version and sticks to it. The fan base is splintered and sales are split between two versions, yet FFG has to produce twice as much material costing them much more in development.

If FFG tried to introduce two new factions, while they also expanded current factions, the really hardcore people that buy into all factions and collect everything would get burnt out. These tend to be the superfans that do a lot of the organizing of events, sharing of units/cards at events, and are the stable players that show up for everything. Burn them out and participation starts to dwindle.

This leaves one option. Introduce new factions as part of the existing factions. The most obvious path for that is using Ep7-9. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel for OT stuff as it is. Ep7-9 allows them to add new material that is similar to the existing material. The factions also blend together well and are obvious.

If you try to incorporate PT stuff, you run into many obstacles. There is no clean way to blend them into the existing stuff. Beyond that, there is a lot of bad blood in regards to the PT material that could cause a drop in sales. It's risky, and Disney doesn't like risks.

I am of the firm opinion that we will see PT era ships. It's just a matter of time untill there is no more low hanging fruit (not in OT, ST, or tv shows they've produced). Then and only then will PT era ships appear. Even the it's a tough call because the old EU is full of ships that give massive design freedom allowing the model designers freedom. The latter will depend on Disney's thoughts on the old EU and how much they want to cannonise.

3 hours ago, kmanweiss said:

I really don't believe the fanbase of Armada could withstand introducing 2 new factions. And I think the game would absolutely die if you stopped production on the current factions and started a new era.

Many people collect 1 faction, and they have thousands of dollars invested into the game.

If FFG stopped Armada, and started Armada 2.0, a lot of those people would feel burned and just quit.

If FFG adds 2 new factions to the game, it would take at least 2 waves full of just those factions to give them anything useful so existing factions would get nothing for a year or more and just fade away as they lose interest.

If FFG tried to run 2 versions of Armada simultaneously, there wouldn't be enough supporters of either to keep the game going and activity would drop. With a drop of activity, you have a drop of sales. Let's even assume every local meta chooses a version and sticks to it. The fan base is splintered and sales are split between two versions, yet FFG has to produce twice as much material costing them much more in development.

If FFG tried to introduce two new factions, while they also expanded current factions, the really hardcore people that buy into all factions and collect everything would get burnt out. These tend to be the superfans that do a lot of the organizing of events, sharing of units/cards at events, and are the stable players that show up for everything. Burn them out and participation starts to dwindle.

This leaves one option. Introduce new factions as part of the existing factions. The most obvious path for that is using Ep7-9. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel for OT stuff as it is. Ep7-9 allows them to add new material that is similar to the existing material. The factions also blend together well and are obvious.

If you try to incorporate PT stuff, you run into many obstacles. There is no clean way to blend them into the existing stuff. Beyond that, there is a lot of bad blood in regards to the PT material that could cause a drop in sales. It's risky, and Disney doesn't like risks.

Who said the blending had to be clean?

giving the Rebels the Pelta, and Imperials the Arquitens wasn’t exactly a clean blend, but it worked and made sense.

We know a lot of Republic hardware ended up in the Empire’s stockpiles; we have seen Imperial Venators, refited Acclamators, and even the Carrion Spike as Tarkin’s personal ride for awhile.

likewise we know Sepertist material was used by the Rebels both in Legends canon and new.

Blending doesn’t have to be perfect. But it can be done in a way that will work for our needs.

...orrrrrr, again, don't do 2 new factions, and just do 1. Leave the game set in the 'Rebellion' era (-ish, I mean, obviously TFA stuff will be coming some day), and just have a third faction for unaligned systems and sectors, using mostly Clone Wars-era refits from both sides. We canonically have the Corporate Sector Authority, already, that would work for that. And the various guilds (Mining Guild, notably) appear to exist as independent entities, as well. (IE., Leia's assumption in ESB that Lando was part of the Mining Guild when he told her they were not part of the Empire or Alliance) So just chuck all the "cool" Clone Wars-era stuff you want into that faction, and done!

I'd rather they place the Clone Wars factions into their own fleets. I don't think it would splinter interest, and I think with a large first wave you could have the factions mostly competitive even if it was only a couple builds right off the bat, considering that there already quite a few upgrades available that are not faction specific. From then on if you alternated OT and PT waves you could also stretch out the remaining OT content for a while.

42 minutes ago, GunNut said:

I'd rather they place the Clone Wars factions into their own fleets. I don't think it would splinter interest, and I think with a large first wave you could have the factions mostly competitive even if it was only a couple builds right off the bat, considering that there already quite a few upgrades available that are not faction specific. From then on if you alternated OT and PT waves you could also stretch out the remaining OT content for a while.

Plenty of people that play the game seem to play both current fleets, if only because armada doesn't have that much to it. thousands of dollars for 1 fleet? what game of you playing. Maybe I'm forgetting something but for a pretty sizable fleet this was what i came up with. I

930 in a game like 40k is around 1 box of space marines so I'm pretty happy with the general cost of aramda. i totally understand not wanting to invest in both fleets but i don't think it's cost prohibitive to do so per say(obviously on an individual basis maybe but as far as wargames go this ones still on the cheap end).

Edit: Sorry i meant to quote Kman

Edit Edit: all of this assumes full retail too. It's "easy" to find armada 20% off, btw if you have a barnes and nobel around you they're doing 50% off it right now if anything is left there.

On 12/4/2017 at 10:20 AM, kmanweiss said:

I really don't believe the fanbase of Armada could withstand introducing 2 new factions. And I think the game would absolutely die if you stopped production on the current factions and started a new era.

Many people collect 1 faction, and they have thousands of dollars invested into the game.

If FFG stopped Armada, and started Armada 2.0, a lot of those people would feel burned and just quit.

If FFG adds 2 new factions to the game, it would take at least 2 waves full of just those factions to give them anything useful so existing factions would get nothing for a year or more and just fade away as they lose interest.

If FFG tried to run 2 versions of Armada simultaneously, there wouldn't be enough supporters of either to keep the game going and activity would drop. With a drop of activity, you have a drop of sales. Let's even assume every local meta chooses a version and sticks to it. The fan base is splintered and sales are split between two versions, yet FFG has to produce twice as much material costing them much more in development.

If FFG tried to introduce two new factions, while they also expanded current factions, the really hardcore people that buy into all factions and collect everything would get burnt out. These tend to be the superfans that do a lot of the organizing of events, sharing of units/cards at events, and are the stable players that show up for everything. Burn them out and participation starts to dwindle.

This leaves one option. Introduce new factions as part of the existing factions. The most obvious path for that is using Ep7-9. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel for OT stuff as it is. Ep7-9 allows them to add new material that is similar to the existing material. The factions also blend together well and are obvious.

If you try to incorporate PT stuff, you run into many obstacles. There is no clean way to blend them into the existing stuff. Beyond that, there is a lot of bad blood in regards to the PT material that could cause a drop in sales. It's risky, and Disney doesn't like risks.

This seems a bit extreme, but I understand the root of what you're getting at: the community isn't robust enough to support a sudden change. I also agree with it.

Still, it's not impossible.

How about a box set with two capital ships and fighters from the Clone Wars Era and a campaign that fits them into the New Hope era?

It could be an outer rim campaign based on the two regular factions fighting with limited (and outdated) resources along with the previous waves of Armada ships "arriving" later. This would be an easier way to introduce these than a sudden and jarring method.

Option 2.

Then, once enough ships are out, a Clone Wars campaign box or card pack with a bunch of Republic and Separist title and officer cards. A lot of your ship buys could then do double duty.

10 minutes ago, wangka said:

Option 2.

Then, once enough ships are out, a Clone Wars campaign box or card pack with a bunch of Republic and Separist title and officer cards. A lot of your ship buys could then do double duty.

From a business perspective, having you pay once for two uses is a poor concept. ?

Why make this more difficult than it has to go with option two and apply the ships properly to their individual fleets. Separatist ships to Rebel fleets as they appeared in the comics and books and republic ships to Imperial fleets as they were predecessors and thus in the same Army. As much as I would like to see more ships come in the game this would be the easiest method and the most cost-effective

2 hours ago, Babylon1036 said:

Why make this more difficult than it has to go with option two and apply the ships properly to their individual fleets. Separatist ships to Rebel fleets as they appeared in the comics and books and republic ships to Imperial fleets as they were predecessors and thus in the same Army. As much as I would like to see more ships come in the game this would be the easiest method and the most cost-effective

The only problem with this, as noted above, is with uniques, particularly people like Jedi and good senators. What force does Obi-wan go in? How about pre-fall Anakin? Yoda? Pre-empire Tarkin? Grievous? It's a tough question. I think there is little doubt Grievous would feel weird in a rebellion fleet, and Obi and Yoda would feel outright WRONG in an Imperial fleet. I say just make clone wars era factions, but have them like they did with TFA in X-Wing. Republic fights with rebels (despite that rebels used old CIS ships) and CIS fight with Empire. It's more thematic that way, as in reality those were the (ostensibly) light and dark side forces, respectively.

Why not make the ships dual-faction and the cards single faction? There could even be different ship cards for the different eras, e.g. 2 Imperial Venator cards, 2 Republic, so every faction gets different options. So long as the silhouette matches, we know what it’s compatible with.

5 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

From a business perspective, having you pay once for two uses is a poor concept. ?

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Selling additional title/hero cards, perhaps as a part of a Clone Wars campaign, is a poor concept? Players can stick with original factions, but have the option of paying more to expand the game? This is like option #2 with additional revenue stream?

2 minutes ago, wangka said:

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Selling additional title/hero cards, perhaps as a part of a Clone Wars campaign, is a poor concept? Players can stick with original factions, but have the option of paying more to expand the game? This is like option #2 with additional revenue stream?

Whereas selling them standalone with duplicates of the ship is standard practice, as it involves more overall profit.

This is shown with the X-Wing “veteran” packs style.

The Corellian conflict, I give you, was a good precedent the other way,but we have to see which concept wins out in repeatability, since that seems to be Veterans

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

This is shown with the X-Wing “veteran” packs style.

Does this mean we get X-wing’s release schedule, too?

47 minutes ago, Admiral Theia said:

The only problem with this, as noted above, is with uniques, particularly people like Jedi and good senators. What force does Obi-wan go in? How about pre-fall Anakin? Yoda? Pre-empire Tarkin? Grievous? It's a tough question. I think there is little doubt Grievous would feel weird in a rebellion fleet, and Obi and Yoda would feel outright WRONG in an Imperial fleet. I say just make clone wars era factions, but have them like they did with TFA in X-Wing. Republic fights with rebels (despite that rebels used old CIS ships) and CIS fight with Empire. It's more thematic that way, as in reality those were the (ostensibly) light and dark side forces, respectively.

Except both of the Clone Wars factions were run by Smith Lords.

The Clone Wars weren’t about Good vs. Evil. It was about the Sith turning everyone against each other so they could take over and rule everyone.

The CIS has legitimate grievances about the Republic being corrupt. The Republic had a legitimate reason to preserve the union. The people on the bottom of both sides were manipulated into fighting by the evil people at the top. Plus a lot of manufactured troops on both sides who obeyed without question.

It’s not as clear cut as the OT.

6 minutes ago, GrandAdmiralCrunch said:

Except both of the Clone Wars factions were run by Smith Lords.

Just your average, generic, Smith Lords. They fought the Joes of the light side.

25 minutes ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

Just your average, generic, Smith Lords. They fought the Joes of the light side.

I guess since they are on the dark side that would make them blacksmiths.

1 hour ago, GrandAdmiralCrunch said:

Except both of the Clone Wars factions were run by Smith Lords.

It’s not as clear cut as the OT.

Hence the term "ostensibly" in my first post :-P