Potential 3rd Armada Faction talk always comes down to the same problems, the main one being the amount of dedicated Waves needed to get this Faction competitive. The second problem is the predicted neglect of the Empire and Rebellion while this Faction gets off the ground. The third problem is who else in the galaxy during the Galactic Civil War besides the Imperials and Rebels would have an actual fleet of warships?

The Corporate Sector Authority handles all these problems well I think. The CSA buys/bought military surplus from the Empire/Republic, and manufactures local designs like the IRD-A starfighter and Marauder-class corvette. Notably, the CSA fleet includes VSDs, Nebulon-Bs, Dreadnaught heavy cruisers, CIS salvage, and even some ISDs. So the startup time of the CSA is reduced by using currently released ships, which saves Rebel and Imperial players some cash. All FFG would have to do is release CSA upgrade packs to easily create a fleet of 5+ ships right off the bat. This also means that the 2 current Factions are not left out for long if at all, since some ships like the Dreadnaught could be used for all. The CSA is also fully Canon, and later aids the First Order economically and potentially militarily.

Now I'm not necessarily saying I want a 3rd Faction, but the Corporate Sector Authority is the best candidate in my opinion.

Never mind.

Personally I am against a faction with 0 name or brand recognition. Yes, I have never ever heard of this before. And I actually read some books from the new canon others have not.

I mean we have 4 other rather big possible factions, so why on earth would we need a third faction a lot of people would not even recognize or care about? Which 14 year old would go: "Yeah CSA!"?

Child Support Allowance?

10 hours ago, Doppelganger said:

Personally I am against a faction with 0 name or brand recognition. Yes, I have never ever heard of this before. And I actually read some books from the new canon others have not.

I mean we have 4 other rather big possible factions, so why on earth would we need a third faction a lot of people would not even recognize or care about? Which 14 year old would go: "Yeah CSA!"?

I recognize the CSA, but agree with you that it takes a real fan to know what it is.

But I'm not sure what 14 year olds have to do with this. They are not the target audience for this game, nor will they be in the coming 5 years.

...

3 minutes ago, JadinED said:

Interesting idea, unfortunately the Empire stepped in and took control of the CSA early on. Any CSA vessels are for protecting the shipping lanes. The spice must flow! A 3rd faction for the Galactic Civil War era just doesn't fit. Now, if we went to the Old Republic era, you have the Republic, Sith, and Mandalorians at a minimum. Those make much more sense for 3 faction conflicts.

8 hours ago, Woobyluv said:

Interesting idea, unfortunately the Empire stepped in and took control of the CSA early on. Any CSA vessels are for protecting the shipping lanes. The spice must flow! A 3rd faction for the Galactic Civil War era just doesn't fit. Now, if we went to the Old Republic era, you have the Republic, Sith, and Mandalorians at a minimum. Those make much more sense for 3 faction conflicts.

Is this from a new Canon book? Most of my knowledge of the CSA is from Legends where aside from an Imperial tithe the CSA ran their own show.

I wouldn't mind getting the CSA but I'd rather get them as part of a campaign or special scenario play than as a full fledged faction. Maybe a mini core set with a Marauder, a freighter flotilla, and some IRD fighters. The rest would all be cardboard including CSA ship cards for the Vic, Neb, and CR-90.

I guess as a 3rd faction the Corporate Sector is too unkown, but it could be a good idea for a homebrew campaign, as the Corporate Sector was invaded by Grand Moff Zsinj. Would be easy to incorporate Rebels, give the CSA access to some older ship types like the Victory or the Light Cruiser and maybe some other ships mentioned above (could be from Shapeways etc.).

13 hours ago, Megatronrex said:

I wouldn't mind getting the CSA but I'd rather get them as part of a campaign or special scenario play than as a full fledged faction. Maybe a mini core set with a Marauder, a freighter flotilla, and some IRD fighters. The rest would all be cardboard including CSA ship cards for the Vic, Neb, and CR-90.

Hm, interesting idea - but since you're the one arguing for it, it must be bollocks.

I do like the Marauder and the idea of more freighters in the game, but the IRD fighers are really unstarwarsy ugliness.

I really do think that they're missing the boat by not doing more campaign boxes like the Corellian Conflict.

(Edit: hooray for British profanity not being recognized by FFG's automated censorship!)

It's a shame that KDY is currently down (hosting issues), otherwise I'd show you the CSA content that I'm building.

Posting here so that I have the thread starred so I know to come back to it in the morning.

EDIT: of COURSE it just came back up as soon as I posted this...

a nyways: here's the fan expansion: http://kdyards.com/expansions.view.php?id=1851

contains such glorious ships as this:

or squadrons like this:

It still needs playtesting and much more content (such as more upgrades), but it's kind of #5 on my priority list.

On 7/28/2018 at 7:04 AM, Piratical Moustache said:

Is this from a new Canon book? Most of my knowledge of the CSA is from Legends where aside from an Imperial tithe the CSA ran their own show.

An "Imperial Tithe" is control. Just because you are permitted to "do your thing" does not mean you can do whatever you want. If they openly sold to the Alliance, the leaders would have been replaced very fast. Not that it's a surprise, but it's just fascist dictatorship on display.

I thought why not link this video to show a potential roster in Armada for the CSA.

This game is basically my Armada wishlist in terms of ships.

Now would any of you guys be up for a young Lando messing around in the Corporate Sector for a movie premise, maybe with Han and Chewie too as a reference to the old novels by Brian Daley? I think that the CSA would both be a great homage to the past, while also fitting modern antagonist trends in films.

I was a big fan of the EU & I’d like more factions but even I only came across the CSA in passing.

I still favour Republic/CIS if I had a choice.

7 hours ago, ISD Avenger said:

I was a big fan of the EU & I’d like more factions but even I only came across the CSA in passing.

I still favour Republic/CIS if I had a choice.

I agree with you on both points, the main reason I suggested the CSA as a playable faction is that FFG could rapidly create the CSA by using currently released ships with a faction upgrade kit. That way the exclusive Rebel or Imperial players don't have to sit through several CSA Waves to get the new faction running. Basically any older vessels or Imperial surplus would be available to use, resulting in an interesting conglomerate faction I think. Then all FFG would have to due is release some exclusive ships/squadrons like Invincible-class heavy cruisers, Lucrehulk-class battleships, Marauder-class corvettes, and IRD-A starfighters and you have a complete faction ready to go in 1-2 Waves.

Fun fact (at least to me) is the Victory Star Destroyer was first mentioned by name as part of the CSA in Han Solo's Revenge, and Canto Bight (Cantonica ) was a part of the Corporate Sector.

also:

Hapes Hapes Hapes!

never gonna happen, but an individual can dream.

22 minutes ago, ThatRobHuman said:

also:

Hapes Hapes Hapes!

never gonna happen, but an individual can dream.

You never know, the Hapes Consortium is Canon on the galactic map, and the Resistance is looking for allies in Episode 9...

I know! The Yuuzhan V...

? ...just kidding.

I think I could get behind a CIS/Republic expansion direction before I could get on board with a third faction. UNLESS...

They made the scum faction small, very unique, fast and silly. I want smallish glass cannons, lots of corvette/frigate options and plenty of new ideas for the boarding party mechanics. I don’t want a fleet of pirate dreadnaughts the size of ISDs. I would prefer a hard limit of one or two medium sized “pirate king flagships” surrounded by a swarm of lackeys and nothing in the large or larger size.

56 minutes ago, Bakura83 said:

I know! The Yuuzhan V...

? ...just kidding.

I think I could get behind a CIS/Republic expansion direction before I could get on board with a third faction. UNLESS...

They made the scum faction small, very unique, fast and silly. I want smallish glass cannons, lots of corvette/frigate options and plenty of new ideas for the boarding party mechanics. I don’t want a fleet of pirate dreadnaughts the size of ISDs. I would prefer a hard limit of one or two medium sized “pirate king flagships” surrounded by a swarm of lackeys and nothing in the large or larger size.

So the biggest pirate ship should be between the Assault Frigate and Victory in size and power? Yeah that seems right, an Imperial Star Destroyer grade warship would seem out of place.

The fighters could be all over the place in quality from Uglies to top of the line StarVipers depending on the Pirate Commander.

10 minutes ago, Piratical Moustache said:

So the biggest pirate ship should be between the Assault Frigate and Victory in size and power? Yeah that seems right, an Imperial Star Destroyer grade warship would seem out of place.

The fighters could be all over the place in quality from Uglies to top of the line StarVipers depending on the Pirate Commander.

Yes. And I’d really only like 3 max medium weight ship options, a fighter-pusher, a bruiser and a support/buffer ship. Ideally limit players to one or two medium slots, and yes, everything from crap to platinum in terms of squadrons.

The bruiser could be a sleek, high-tech bespoke warship from the Zann Consortium or something mandalorian, or even Hutt. The fighter pusher could be a repurposed Trade Federation battleship, the support ship sounds like it would be something repurposed, like a mining vessel, transport hulk etc.

Then we have the C-Roc for the corvette or flotilla role, and maybe even some sort of “desperate allies/privateer’s mark” rule where you could bring along one Rebel or Imperial ship.