I feel they need to add at least a third faction. I fear it will be the traditional catch all 'Scum and villainy' we keep seeing. I hope for something a little more intricate though.

11 minutes ago, Sk3tch said:

I feel they need to add at least a third faction. I fear it will be the traditional catch all 'Scum and villainy' we keep seeing. I hope for something a little more intricate though.

Yep, they could do a Scum and villainy general group but id also like to see more specifics, such as a Hutt Faction or anything from SW.

They could even do a system where some units can fight for their own side and also in a Scum and Villainy Army maybe (with some thought behind it)

Neutral units would be awesome I think, bounty hunters, Mandolorians, pirates, and maybe even something like a rancor and handler unit. Add a little more customization to an army.

2 hours ago, HelHound said:

Neutral units would be awesome I think, bounty hunters, Mandolorians, pirates, and maybe even something like a rancor and handler unit. Add a little more customization to an army.

Alternately if the Neutral units are very powerful, then you end up seeing them in every Rebel and Imperial army, making all armies look similar as opposed to just all Rebel or all Imperial armies.

I don't think FFG has taken that approach with any of their miniature games, they typically keep units restricted to single factions in order to give each faction a unique feel/playstyle.

On 1/15/2018 at 4:56 AM, Orcdruid said:

Not every army needs every unit type. The ewoks lack heavies and the gungans lack special forces. Both of them were able to field effective armies and defeat the "real" factions.

FFG's previous track record? There only other infantry mini's game is Runewars and it has 4 faction's at 1 year old. X-wing and Armada aren't in the same boat. When it comes to space combat the tactics of the different movie factions don't really seem all that different. On the ground however you have the diversity needed to break the groups up into the proper factions for the game.

I believe X-Wing and Armada are in exactly the same boat. The debate seems to be how many factions are supported by the source material. There are plenty of units that are outside of Rebel or Empire, but I don't know if there are so many that you could have multiple factions could be a comprehensive army (caveat: An army that is recognizable on the table as Star Wars based). I'd still prefer a general scum faction than an army made of a handful of recognizable units and a whole lot of obscure/fluff.

But that's just me and we all have are own opinions and in the end FFG is going to do what they have already planned even if every member on this board came to a single unified consensus.

1 minute ago, Jouster said:

I believe X-Wing and Armada are in exactly the same boat. The debate seems to be how many factions are supported by the source material. There are plenty of units that are outside of Rebel or Empire, but I don't know if there are so many that you could have multiple factions could be a comprehensive army (caveat: An army that is recognizable on the table as Star Wars based). I'd still prefer a general scum faction than an army made of a handful of recognizable units and a whole lot of obscure/fluff.

But that's just me and we all have are own opinions and in the end FFG is going to do what they have already planned even if every member on this board came to a single unified consensus.

Agree 100%. Darth maul's crime syndicate was made up of Hutts, mandalorians and black Suns. Criminal factions have to work together to influence things on a scale like the empire or the rebellion.

This however is predicated upon FFG limiting themselves to purely the time frame of the Galactic civil war. If they expand to include the Clone wars (doubtful I know, but still), they could include the Droid/Genosian army and the Clone army. Additionally, there is the possibility of the First Order and Resistance depending on if the next trilogy movie includes more ground battles.

The Hutts and the Droids definitely have enough for their own recognizable army, but you are right about the other Factions.

The Hutt Cartel:

Commander: Jabba the Hutt, Bib Fortuna

Corps: Hutt Cartel Thug, Mercenary

Support: Gamorrean Guard

Spec Ops: Boba Fett, Greedo, Dengar, IG-88, 4-LOM

Heavy: Rancor

Droid Gorta:

Commander: Supper Tactical Droid Kalani

Corps: B1 Battle Droid, B2 Super Battle Droid

Support: STAP, Droideka

Spec Ops: Buzz Droid, BX-series Droid Commando

Heavy: Vulture Droid, AAT

Those are possible lists that could be used with the Hutts leaning toward the Empire and the Gotra leaning toward the Rebels. I personally think that a single "Scum" faction doesn't cover the nuances in the star wars universe.

There are canon versions of Mandalorians on both sides. Given how popular (and subsequently financially lucrative) Mandalorians are, I expect FFG to give the fans what they want and include the canon Mandalorians for both sides.

Empire - Imperial Super Commandos (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Super_Commando)

Rebels - Journeyman Protectors (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Journeyman_Protector)

I don't really like the idea of oddball units like that for the traditional imps/rebels. Armies would start to become weird unrecognizable hybrids and not resemble what we remembered so fondly from the movies. This is one reason why I miss the Vong. They were weird but at least they were unique and enough of a power in the universe to warrant being their own faction. I would rather see Mandalorians become their own faction rather than be rolled into the existing two.

I could see Mandalorians ending up as part of "Scum," but not so much their own army. We do not yet know exactly how many options we are going to get with Rebels and Imps, but I'd imagine it's going to be a bit much for the Mandalorians to come close to matching.

Rebel armies are by definition hybrid, as they are assembled from whatever equipment they could literally beg, borrow, or steal, with members from myriad worlds with their own specific type of blaster/armor. Look at their fleet designs compared to the fairly uniform Empire.

As to a Seperatist Droid army wishlist, I would expect the Dwarf Spider droid in the heavy slot instead of the Vulture droid, Magnaguard as elites, and potentially Grevious/Dooku as a commander

1 minute ago, Caimheul1313 said:

I could see Mandalorians ending up as part of "Scum," but not so much their own army. We do not yet know exactly how many options we are going to get with Rebels and Imps, but I'd imagine it's going to be a bit much for the Mandalorians to come close to matching.

Rebel armies are by definition hybrid, as they are assembled from whatever equipment they could literally beg, borrow, or steal, with members from myriad worlds with their own specific type of blaster/armor. Look at their fleet designs compared to the fairly uniform Empire.

As to a Seperatist Droid army wishlist, I would expect the Dwarf Spider droid in the heavy slot instead of the Vulture droid, Magnaguard as elites, and potentially Grevious/Dooku as a commander

Grievous would be so awesome. He would have to be the ultimate melee unit in the game but no force powers. I think that if they want to add separatist and republic factions that is fine. Both are already fully fleshed out with lots of troop and vehicle options. Resistance and first order I am a little more hesitant about. Neither one has shown much in the way of units that would be different than gcw. I don't think that Hutts, mandalorians, black Suns out pyke syndicate merit their own faction in the least. None of them have the breadth of options individually for this style of game. Legion differs from 40k in that it does not tie specific tactics to factions but rather your Commander and troop choices. Each new unit they release plays off of and interacts with each previous unit in interesting ways. If they start pushing mini factions then those factions will most likely be tied to a specific play style rather than offering an interesting palette of options.

14 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

As to a Seperatist Droid army wishlist, I would expect the Dwarf Spider droid in the heavy slot instead of the Vulture droid, Magnaguard as elites, and potentially Grevious/Dooku as a commander

True those would be good options for a Clone Wars era droid army. My list is designed to use only Droid units that have been seen in the GCW era. Most of those come from the book Thrawn, but a few are from other sources like Rebels and the comics.

Given that the weapons/armor are all treated the same way there is no reason to limit themselves to solely GCW.

The First order we have seen significantly more of militarily than the Resistance in the movies+comics, so it depends on if the last movie or upcoming comics have more ground battles, or if the announced new trilogy takes place in the same time frame. First order I think at least could be added fairly easily. A combined "Scum" faction would have sub-themes, such as Weequay pirates (Hondo commander anyone? ) and mandalorians. Less thematic cohesion, but judging by X-wing, it's in the realm of possibilities.

"Dooku taught me your Jedi ways." Proceeds to spin two arms like fans.

A general scum faction makes a lot of sense to me. Commanders could be Hondo, Vizhago, Azmorrigan, Jabba, old man Maul or Boba Fett. Troopers could be weequay pirates, human mercenaries, black sun soldiers or ig-rm thug droids. Specialists could be mandalorians, trandoshan slavers, gammorean warriors and bounty hunters. Support could be swoop bike gangers and heavy units could be skiffs or hover tanks. This would be a pretty well rounded faction but none of those individual parts can really stand in its own as a faction.

I think jetpack Manalorians would make interesting support units, but we'll see what FFG does once/if they get around to adding faction(s).

23 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Given that the weapons/armor are all treated the same way there is no reason to limit themselves to solely GCW.

The First order we have seen significantly more of militarily than the Resistance in the movies+comics, so it depends on if the last movie or upcoming comics have more ground battles, or if the announced new trilogy takes place in the same time frame. First order I think at least could be added fairly easily. A combined "Scum" faction would have sub-themes, such as Weequay pirates (Hondo commander anyone? ) and mandalorians. Less thematic cohesion, but judging by X-wing, it's in the realm of possibilities.

"Dooku taught me your Jedi ways." Proceeds to spin two arms like fans.

True, but for whatever reason FFG hasn't pulled things that have only showed up in the Clone Wars era. There would be ways to do it both ways, and I would love to see the Clone army with all of the equipment.

5 minutes ago, jcmonson said:

True, but for whatever reason FFG hasn't pulled things that have only showed up in the Clone Wars era. There would be ways to do it both ways, and I would love to see the Clone army with all of the equipment.

Rumor has it that Disney doesn't want anything released relating to the prequel era. The veracity of the information is questionable, but... *shrug*.

I'm a massive fan of the Mandos and whilst they would be a small faction (I see no reason not to have them part of a scum faction as long as I can still run a force of them) they would be highly elite so a 800pt force may only be your commander and three troops they would be capable of standing up to any other force. The Mando troops would be pretty cheesy in that they would have high defence, high offence, high mobility and crazy weapon options (like every dude in the unit could buy and anti armour weapon) they would still face the same challenges all highly elite low model count armies in all games face to help balance them out.

The main selling point of all this is there wouldn't be a huge investment on FFG's part in that they would only need to produce maybe one unit box set and a handful of commanders, something that could be repeated with a few other factions too like the ewoks, tuskan raiders and wookies. These mini faction could also have an additional unit card allowing them to work for the main factions where applicable thus doubling (or there about) the sale value as it opens the market up on them.

On 1/16/2018 at 11:57 PM, Caimheul1313 said:

Rumor has it that Disney doesn't want anything released relating to the prequel era. The veracity of the information is questionable, but... *shrug*.

I've heard that a few times which is why I was really surprised the AT-RT was in the game. Does that show up outside of the Clone Wars? The Hasbro toys of it had clones on the package and the Lego of it came with the clone turbo tank.

Mandalorians - on both Rebel and Empire side - are pretty well moved on to SW: Rebels era now, rather than being considered "Prequel" exclusively as so much, as well - so they have that going for them as well.

33 minutes ago, Jouster said:

I've heard that a few times which is why I was really surprised the AT-RT was in the game. Does that show up outside of the Clone Wars? The Hasbro toys of it had clones on the package and the Lego of it came with the clone turbo tank.

It's in Battlefront II as a Rebel vehicle.

Scum makes sense, if you think about it this way: desperate for supplies a Rebel transport is forced to stop at a major black market, only the Cartels are more interested in the bounty on their head than the credits they carry.

An Imperial Garrison been made on a remote world with a lucrative spice market. The Hutts have hired mercaneries and bounty hunters to work with their thugs to make the imperials “disappear” and make it look like an accident.

Make the Merck’s a mix of thugs with elite units, with troops relying more on tricks with gear than straight on assaults with a few exceptions of smaller elite squads like trandoshans. They have fast and cheap armor, like skiffs and pirate tanks. And their commanders are generally bounty hunters. Maybe weaker on unified command, but some cool tricks, and focused much more on the objectives than defeating the opponent since they tend to have either low health or defense

I kinda want scum and villainy as a faction that either faction can use.

2 hours ago, Lickintoad said:

It's in Battlefront II as a Rebel vehicle.

Ahh.. thanks, I'd forgotten about that. Still, at least this shows Disney isn't opposed to EVERYTHING introduced in the prequel era.