I have two questions for the community, and although this seems to be a pretty basic topic I don't recall seeing a post about it since I started following here (which was around with the Airspeeder and AT-ST were announced).

First, what is everyone thinking that they are going to focus on? Where will your investment go, and which army are you interested in growing and strategizing with over time?

• Rebels
• Empire
• Both
• Not Sure

Second question for discussion, but I'm curious what people's predictions are on what faction will be the most popular? I assume we aren't looking at a 50/50 split... what do we think most players will be drawn to, and why?

I'll be buying both, but expect I'll be playing Rebels more.

The simple reason for is is that Empire seem WAY more popular locally, and since I like both fairly equally I guess that leaves me as Rebels!

Not sure what faction split will be like overall, but I suspect Empire will be more popular, though less unbalanced than my local scene. Maybe it's the British ing and all those wonderful English accents the Imperials have....

Even without regard to sticking to a budget when choosing one faction, I think the time needed to assemble and paint up all the units would still be reason enough to choose one. But I do have a budget to keep in mind so I will be choosing Rebels.

I agree Imperials will likely be more popular. At least with wave 1's Vader, AT-STs, and Speeder Bikes. Who knows what the future may hold.

But I like playing as heroes. And I think painting the Rebel units will be more fun as there's no set uniform like the Imperials have.

The real question is AT-ST or Airspeeder .... or, if you aren't good at painting, stormtroopers, if you are really good at painting and can't stand to paint yet another stormtrooper, rebels.

I'm personally leaning Empire, mostly because my friend who I am trying to convince to play is likely to lean towards Rebels. I also love the AT-ST, and Vader over Luke. However, I think that if they release Separatists or First Order, I'd want to hop to those factions. And then I'm stuck with all Dark Side factions haha.

Still, I think that the Empire are a far cooler looking army. So I think that's what I will end up building first, unless my buddy changes his mind. Ultimately, I will do what I need to do to entice him to try this game out with me. It would suck to have to play alone.

Stormies...and more Stormies....

Stormies on the ground.

Stormies in vehicles.

Stormies everywhere!

I will be collecting both equally. Most likely I will be playing rebels mostly since my son is an Imperial at heart.

I’m hoping they will do a scum faction like Xwing eventually

At this point I'm leaning towards playing as the Empire, mostly because I'm a bit more fond of speeder bikes and the AT-ST than I am of the AT-RT and the snowspeeder. However, I'm eagerly anticipating more choices for commanders. If one side ends up with a more enticing selection of commanders than the other, then this could easily sway my loyalty.

I would guess that the Empire will be more popular in general- it's the allure of the Dark Side...

I’ll be collecting both Empire and Rebels. I’m taking this on more like a new Hobby than a miniatures game. I enjoy making dioramas and assembling models. Both Factions will offer unique strategies and buy playing both will help from feeling stale.

Like others I imagine the Empire will be the most popular choice. The Rebels to me will have more interesting Commanders and unit types. Though the Empire truly kills when it comes to vehicles.

Empire here. Local interest seems to be leaning Empire heavy

I'll be collecting and playing both, mostly because I expect 100% (+/- 10% for margin of error) of my games to be against myself. I'm a tough opponent, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I plan to give myself a run for my money. It'll also be a good chance to practice my painting too, but my jerk of an opponent is the type to point out all the flaws, so that'll be fun --__--

For what it's worth, I expect my local meta to be EXACTLY 50/50, split right down the middle, so that's something at least. Not sure if it counts if I'm the one buying armies for all the players though.

I'm torn....

The lack of alien trooper model diversity in rebs for what they represent is pushing me towards stormies.

On the flip side, the conversion opportunities with IA could make it interesting (if i can convince my flgs group to allow it in tournaments)

Based on the info we have imo i see rebel lists being the play meta for wave 1 unless the atst gets some real teeth for not a lot of points.

5 hours ago, Ralgon said:

I'm torn....

The lack of alien trooper model diversity in rebs for what they represent is pushing me towards stormies.

On the flip side, the conversion opportunities with IA could make it interesting (if i can convince my flgs group to allow it in tournaments)

Based on the info we have imo i see rebel lists being the play meta for wave 1 unless the atst gets some real teeth for not a lot of points.

Can you elaborate on your assessment of the meta based on the info we have? What is making you think Rebels will have the edge?

6 hours ago, HadeusHawkyns said:

I'll be collecting and playing both, mostly because I expect 100% (+/- 10% for margin of error) of my games to be against myself. I'm a tough opponent, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I plan to give myself a run for my money. It'll also be a good chance to practice my painting too, but my jerk of an opponent is the type to point out all the flaws, so that'll be fun --__--

For what it's worth, I expect my local meta to be EXACTLY 50/50, split right down the middle, so that's something at least. Not sure if it counts if I'm the one buying armies for all the players though.

This post made me laugh. No local scene, eh? I found some local folks on Facebook, and have some board game-loving friends who I think will play if I provide the pieces. That's how I'm hoping to find other players. I hope you are able to have some similar luck!

People will go for the Empire for the same reason people go for WW2 Germans - they have all the butt-kicking kit.

1 hour ago, Copes said:

Can you elaborate on your assessment of the meta based on the info we have? What is making you think Rebels will have the edge?

This post made me laugh. No local scene, eh? I found some local folks on Facebook, and have some board game-loving friends who I think will play if I provide the pieces. That's how I'm hoping to find other players. I hope you are able to have some similar luck!

It's a lot of little things.

point advantage, a slight (and i mean very slight) dice % advantage, and mobility.

My biggest bugbear at the moment is triple rotary atrt + luke, with a side of troops to play the objectives. It's going to be the one of the 1st deathstar lists *sic* and i don't yet see a good imp counter to that much armor and firepower combined. In the meantime the troops hunker down near/on the objective in cover and cower behind that + their auto dodge.

10 minutes ago, Ralgon said:

It's a lot of little things.

point advantage, a slight (and i mean very slight) dice % advantage, and mobility.

My biggest bugbear at the moment is triple rotary atrt + luke, with a side of troops to play the objectives. It's going to be the one of the 1st deathstar lists *sic* and i don't yet see a good imp counter to that much armor and firepower combined. In the meantime the troops hunker down in/on the objective in cover and cower behind that + their auto dodge.

I just thought about that. And it is scary. But if you can play vader well and bring an at-st and dlt troopers you might have a chance

28 minutes ago, Jabby said:

I just thought about that. And it is scary. But if you can play vader well and bring an at-st and dlt troopers you might have a chance

Not so sure, that surge-> crit the rt has makes them insanely offensive averages wise, even without impact or the extra range of the tankbuster laser

17 minutes ago, Ralgon said:

Not so sure, that surge-> crit the rt has makes them insanely offensive averages wise, even without impact or the extra range of the tankbuster laser

Oh yh. Maybe 2 at-st + vader?

43 minutes ago, Jabby said:

Oh yh. Maybe 2 at-st + vader?

Yeah, but then you have very few points left for your troop requirement (the whole rebs being cost effective part), and risk getting outplayed to objectives.

Speederbike spam may be an answer, but it's going to have a much higher skill ceiling to use well.... and it still doesn't have quite the same offense, durability or access to commands without once again making them more expensive (comlinks and/or battle meditation).

Edit: One thought did just occur, and that is do mandatory moves count towards actions? If not, that may be undervaluing the bikes (but it also makes the airspeeder crazy good offensively compared to the at st until we get the secondary weps)

48 minutes ago, Ralgon said:

Edit: One thought did just occur, and that is do mandatory moves count towards actions? If not, that may be undervaluing the bikes (but it also makes the airspeeder crazy good offensively compared to the at st until we get the secondary weps)

That's correct, you can take two actions (including two move actions if you want) after the mandatory Speeder move.

Keep in mind that the AT-RT has a white defense die without a surge->block, while the other armored units (AT-ST and airspeeder) have a white defense die with surge->block. When damage does get through the armor the AT-RT is only going to block half as many. Or in other words, most anti-armor weapons are going to end up being twice as effective against the AT-RT.

I think the speeder bikes and airspeeder might be the best offensive units for each side, though they will no doubt take practice to use effectively. They have strong attacks, they're fast, and they always have at least cover 1. Plus the airspeeder has armor and is immune to melee so if you maneuver well it could take as much effort as an AT-ST to take down, maybe more. The speeder bikes have better offense than the AT-RT has long as they're at full strength, and should be able to take shots at the AT-RT while staying out of its front arc.

So while I agree that triple rotary AT-RT looks strong in general and especially against troopers, I don't know that it's going to be that bad.

And just to confirm what svelok said, in the Team Covenant demo video, when talking about the speeder bikes Alex Davy said, "They have what's called a compulsory move. When they activate, they have to perform a move at full speed, but it doesn't count against their actions."

2 hours ago, Ralgon said:

Yeah, but then you have very few points left for your troop requirement (the whole rebs being cost effective part), and risk getting outplayed to objectives.

Speederbike spam may be an answer, but it's going to have a much higher skill ceiling to use well.... and it still doesn't have quite the same offense, durability or access to commands without once again making them more expensive (comlinks and/or battle meditation).

Edit: One thought did just occur, and that is do mandatory moves count towards actions? If not, that may be undervaluing the bikes (but it also makes the airspeeder crazy good offensively compared to the at st until we get the secondary weps)

The mandatory move does not count as one of their two actions.

I think initially we will see more Imperial players because Storm troopers are frikkin cool. In the long run though we will see it round out more as people figure out that painting white sucks and is extremely difficult to get right. There's a reason in 40k you see very few White Scar marines, although lots of people using the faction rules. White is just an absolute PITA. Meanwhile camo, cloth, and fleshtones are super easy.

I'm going to Imperial, for several reasons..

1. I own imperials in Armada. I expect to do some linked games with Armada and Legion in the future.

2. I don't think the Rebels are as interesting. Storm Troopers will be more fun to play.

3. Vader. Nuff said.