I wanted to hear your guy's opinions on the idea, whether you want an additional Faction or not. To be clear I don't mean the Republic and CIS, or the Resistance and First Order being added to Armada. I think that if those Factions are used they'll be a separate "version" of Armada, where the upgrade cards and balancing are scaled differently, and interplay between the Empire and First Order for example doesn't work. I could be wrong about that, but I don't see FFG attempting to balance a Munificent against an ISD and against a Resurgent, with upgrade cards available across all Factions.

What I am asking is do you want a 3rd Faction going up against the Empire and Rebellion? Do you think that it would meaningfully add to Armada?

I think a 3rd Faction would create potentially more variety in tournaments as a positive effect, and the obvious negative being FFG's already slow release schedule being a bigger liability with 3 Factions to plan for.

I will also admit that I don't know how many independent groups exist in Canon, I come at questions like these with a Legends mindset.

Sure! I think the Federation from Star Trek would be a great addition to the game! /sarcasm.

I don't think we can even begin the discussion without saying who the third faction is, since the character of that faction will depend upon whether it's a good addition or not. Especially if that faction should be so contrary to what is already in existence- this is that argument for the Yuuzan Vong to appear in the game isn't it?

A new faction would be nothing but exciting and new I think, until you realize the hit it's going to take on getting the new content you enjoy. I'm opposed to it because out of, what, half a year there's only two ships? A new faction at this point has a lot of catching up to do to hit parity with the existing factions- potentially meaning nothing but ships from that faction for the next couple of years.

I'm not excited to see that, especially with Resistance around the corner giving us new content for the FO-Res wars. That parity could work by giving new FO-Res ships to the Empire and Rebellion until theres' a population big enough for them to stand on their own. Honestly if the Republic/CIS is going to happen, that's going to be the best route for it. Right now only the Republic could possibly pull ships out of the game, with the Pelta/Arq/Victory being the only ships now that can be added to the Republic. CIS doesn't have any of their canonical ships to pull from in the game, unless FFG decided to wave their hand and define some ships for the CIS (which, to my knowledge, never were).

13 minutes ago, Norsehound said:

Sure! I think the Federation from Star Trek would be a great addition to the game! /sarcasm.

I don't think we can even begin the discussion without saying who the third faction is, since the character of that faction will depend upon whether it's a good addition or not. Especially if that faction should be so contrary to what is already in existence- this is that argument for the Yuuzan Vong to appear in the game isn't it?

A new faction would be nothing but exciting and new I think, until you realize the hit it's going to take on getting the new content you enjoy. I'm opposed to it because out of, what, half a year there's only two ships? A new faction at this point has a lot of catching up to do to hit parity with the existing factions- potentially meaning nothing but ships from that faction for the next couple of years.

I'm not excited to see that, especially with Resistance around the corner giving us new content for the FO-Res wars. That parity could work by giving new FO-Res ships to the Empire and Rebellion until theres' a population big enough for them to stand on their own. Honestly if the Republic/CIS is going to happen, that's going to be the best route for it. Right now only the Republic could possibly pull ships out of the game, with the Pelta/Arq/Victory being the only ships now that can be added to the Republic. CIS doesn't have any of their canonical ships to pull from in the game, unless FFG decided to wave their hand and define some ships for the CIS (which, to my knowledge, never were).

No I am not arguing for the Yuuzhan Vong in Armada (despite enjoying the NJO novels) as they can't share generic upgrades, are introduced long after the GCW time period, and are a topic of skub for Star Wars fans.

What I could be excited for as a potential 3rd Faction includes:

1. The Hapes Consortium

Pros: Unique ship designs, lore, could bring in more diversity in-game and in the player base

Cons: Barely Canon at the moment, and the only ships/squadrons known are Hapan Battle Dragons, Nova-class battle cruisers, Beta Cruisers, Miy'til starfighters, Miy'til assault bombers, and X-Wings.

2. Corporate Sector Authority

Pros: Upgrade packs could convert most of your existing Rebel and Imperial ships into a conglomerate faction, with some domestic designs like the IRD-A starfighter. Is part of Canon, having interactions with the eventual First Order.

Cons: Low name recognition to casual fans. Some people also don't want to play a Faction that stands for unregulated galactic capitalism.

3. Chiss Ascendancy

Pros: The Chiss are fan favorites, a very popular addition to Star Wars lore is obviously Thrawn. With little to no descriptions/pictures of their ship designs, FFG would be the ones to flesh out details about the Chiss Navy. The Raider-class corvette proves they can develop awesome custom ship designs.

Cons: FFG would aside from the Nssis-class Clawcraft be designing ships from the ground up, as neither Canon or Legends have extensively detailed the Chiss Navy.

There is some examples of what I'd personally like, although there are more examples I could provide later. On a somewhat related note FFG needs more consistent news and releases, Armada is not a tiny niche of the miniature wargaming market, this community has been in the top 5 bestsellers list since 2015.

I don't believe there is ever going to be a third faction in Armada. This is both a balance issue and a name recognition issue. It would be extremely difficult to balance (assessing) at least seven waves of new ships and squadrons against what we currently have. This is why I partially agree with you first post that CW or ST factions should be in their own separate Armada games. The second issue is name recognition, especially to the casual fan that FFG would like to draw into the game. Of the three you mentioned, the only one that has any name recognition is the Chiss Ascendancy, and this would only be for fans of Heir to the Empire or the recent Thrawn books. Whenever I hear of a new faction that someone wants to see in the game, I try to picture the faction's name and logo on the expansion pack. Everybody knows what the Rebels and the Empires logos are, yet I would have to look up every single faction mentioned (unfortunately, even the Vong).

Zahn Consortium would be fine.

Just for the record, the Chiss Ascendancy is now canon (check the latest Thrawn comic), fits the timeline and we’ve actually have a design for one of the capital ships (I’m not gonna link it because discussion kind of went sideways on it but if you want to see it check out my post history).

I doubt there will be, and I'm very much ok with that.

Still hasn't stopped me crafting my own 3rd faction with Mel's ships.

I do not want a third faction. I do not think there are enough ships that are not in the Empire or the Rebellion to make a faction if you ignore the prequel eras.

That being said, Republic and CIS factions would be great additions to the game. They easily have enough capital ships and fighters to be on par with the Empire and Rebellion.

Put me down as a hard no against a third faction, unless it's for a third and forth faction involving the Republic and Seperatist.

I don't think it is a case against more factions, but to put it straight a case against which ones?

Now true all the smaller criminal/neutral factions have been rolled into on for into some games like X-wing as a third but for games with a larger scope like Rebellion making a " Hutt Cartel " of " Black Sun Syndicate " seems to be odd, yet even when they do it like the " Zahn Consortium " in E@W:FoC it still seem a bit odd how a criminal empire could become the dominant power in the galaxy outliving the Empire and simply drop it all for fear of the Alliance.

Now with 2.0 adding in all these factions from other eras it does seem like a better idea to put them in. However it does seem odd and out of cannon when cross era factions collide, in a way they are more out of place than a typical mirror match . But it makes more sense in large scope games to have Republic battle it out with Empire over entire systems.

I think the middle ground that gets very little attention in gameplay is the idea of minor factions (aka micro factions). These can serve as smaller factions that a Main faction could hire pr could all team up together to form a combined faction. So here is my list of factions.

Original Factions (the ones we have now)

• Galactic Empire
• Rebel Alliance

Main Factions (possible future factions for Armada)

• Galactic Republic
• Confederacy of Independent Systems
• 1st Order
• The Resistance

Minor Factions (smaller factions that can either combine or join a main faction)

• Mandalorian
• Jedi Order
• Sith
• Hutt Cartel
• Black Sun Syndicate
• Zahn Consortium
• Crimson Dragon (even though I don't care for that floppy movie)
• Wookies (they got a space ship)
• Gungans (pending space travel)
• Ewoks? (okay this is stretching it a bit)

The minor factions may have only a single ship and a couple of squadrons but they could add in their own flavor to list building. Now this might have to wait until 2nd edition when FFG puts in a way to correct certain imbalances. But it could work. Maybe if Sith is too strong with 1stOrder they could be taken off the list as legal allies.

I would argue that the game doesn't need any more factions. I honestly don't. Mostly because there is no real viable third faction left as with the Mouse takeover they are not canon any more (so we can't expect them to be made) and those who left have not enough canon material to be a third faction (Hutt cartels) or would make no sense in Armada-scale battles (Chiss, scum).

Now... A brand new "core set" for the Clone Wars era would make sense, but I think the Republic couldn't be distinctive from the Empire to worth the effort investing into it. So the Republic would be only a rebrended set of expansions for the Empire really. And it would make it silly if the Republic could be played against the Empire. The CIS have some interesting ships and a possibly distinctive concept (droids) but they would be a completely standalone faction then with no real counterpart. As I explained above, the Republic would be basically an Imperial expansion, while the CIS can not be Rebellion expansion (at least not if "reasonable" still means anything to Disney or FFG). So we would have a boosted up Empire, an ignored Rebellion and a CIS which would make no sense against playing anything.

And finally, thanks to the Mouse's greed and megalomania FO/Res ships wouldn't fit anywhere into Armada gameplay. They are way too big, ridiculously overgunned and make no sense whatsoever anyway. They would only work as a completely separated version of Armada, with no interaction with the current factions. But then they wouldn't have enough ships to make two well-rounded factions, plus I very much doubt it that enough players would invest into a brand new Armada game.

The only faction I'd like to see is a pirate/merc aka scum faction.

Only want a scum faction if it’s going to be limited to small/medium ships, I don’t want to see scum flying massive 10,000+ crew monstrosities that take whole planets worth of infrastructure to build and maintain. Plus I think adding a 3rd faction that plays very differently would be a nice addition. Small, fast, agile, and a few glass cannons that can hit well above their size but die horribly if they make a manoeuvre mistake.

Second choice would be republic/seperatists both as two new factions, preferably added in such a way that any fleet could play against any other fleet at least competetively if not exactly lore-compatible.

My third choice is nothing rather than anything from the new movies. They are creatively bankrupt cesspools in terms of ship design.

In my eyes Armada doesn't need a third faction. In other games you have factions for different play styles. In Armada each Commander grants you a different sort of flavor and mechanism. Combine this with the possibities granted in different fleet types (at least three: MSU; Fighter heavy; big ships). It's a huge difference to play Motti ISDs, Sloane Aces, Jerjerrod VSDs and Arquitens, or Thrawn allrounders, Screed MSU, ... Even if you only lean on Imperial side you have quite a range of possibilities. At it will even be more variation with Emperor and SSD in near future.

I don't see Armada gaining much with a faction featuring lots of weird ships, squadrons and uniques only known to some comic book enthusiasts. (For example: If I saw it right, there are only 3 named characters including Thrawn and 1 ship for whole Chiss Fleet.)

If there has to be more factions it should be prequal stuff. I already wrote down my two cents about that.

I can’t see it happening.

While I like the Chiss, I still think it’s a bit too niche.

Id personally favour the old EU Confederation led by Turr Phennir. This had Bothans, Corellians etc. But again, probably too niche & old EU as well.

If anything do an ‘unaligned’ ‘faction’ that can either do a full fleet alone or join existing factions. I guess this way you could do the odd Mandolorian ship, next wave Corellian, next Zaan Consortium etc etc

As I’ve posted before in other threads, I’d also buy space station models, especially if they were given cards and could be added to your fleet.

While I agree with those saying Armada doesn't NEED a new faction(this game is incredible as is), It's pretty easy to tell that Republic and CIS will be here eventually and will each be there own faction.

X-wing will have 7 factions when prequel stuff comes out. Legion will have seperate prequel factions. Imperial assault doesn't have a prequel announcement, but it does have 3 factions. Armada will be the one Star Wars mini game with 2 factions.

I don't think it's beyond FFGs capabilities to make Republic and CIS stuff unique. CIS doesn't share any ships with the civil war factions and the Republic shares some ships, but has a ton of unique squadrons and characters.

My hope for when they do start releasing these ships is that they put a lot of cool faction-specific upgrades(officers and titles mostly) in each set, but not introduce any new non-faction specific upgrades. Reusing the current upgrade cards in new sets gets around the "I have to buy everything for all factions" style that's current part of the game.

I just don't think FFG is willing to put the resources together to support new factions/faction AND support the current stuff.

I still think the best way to do it is launch whats left, capitalship wise, for the current factions. Empire gets whats left of the republics roster of ships, rebels get the CIS ships. Then launch a conversion kit and fighter pack to make the two new factions independant. Let players paint up their republic ships, but dont force it as they could still be used for empire ships.

6 hours ago, Bakura83 said:

Only want a scum faction if it’s going to be limited to small/medium ships, I don’t want to see scum flying massive 10,000+ crew monstrosities that take whole planets worth of infrastructure to build and maintain. Plus I think adding a 3rd faction that plays very differently would be a nice addition. Small, fast, agile, and a few glass cannons that can hit well above their size but die horribly if they make a manoeuvre mistake.

It's not too hard to imagine certain criminal organisations would be able to field large ships. The Hutts obviously as they are pretty much a small empire by themselves, the Mandalorians have sizeable shipyards capable of constructing large ships. Even some of the criminal syndicates control effectively dozens of worlds, with enough resources to buy and maintain large ships. Just not tens of thousands of them like the Empire. I believe one of the old books even had a privateer in it that captained an old captured ISD.

I would like it if they had a distinct play style, fragile yet heavy hitting would make sense.

Not to mention ISD crew size is likely that large to keep crew operational 24/7, with multiple shifts throughout the day and plenty of extras incase of sickness or injury while aboard. The size is that way for a reason. Naval vessels dont just stop because its the normal night cycle.

But pirates might have a lesser crew, less shifts, hide the ship for periods of time. Ect.

If there is a third faction I think it should be a MERCENARY faction...Fighters, small and flotilla class ships that can be used by either side or separately if you wanted to make that pirate group you've always dreamed of.

Personally i prefer 2 factions. Take all the oddball ships and squadrons left (Mandalorians, Hutts, Hapes Consortium, yada yada yada), field them as independent ships/squadrons that can be fielded as Rebels via a "Privateer" card or Imperials via a "Mercenary" card.

On 8/19/2018 at 3:16 AM, Bakura83 said:

Only want a scum faction if it’s going to be limited to small/medium ships, I don’t want to see scum flying massive 10,000+ crew monstrosities that take whole planets worth of infrastructure to build and maintain. Plus I think adding a 3rd faction that plays very differently would be a nice addition. Small, fast, agile, and a few glass cannons that can hit well above their size but die horribly if they make a manoeuvre mistake.

Second choice would be republic/seperatists both as two new factions, preferably added in such a way that any fleet could play against any other fleet at least competetively if not exactly lore-compatible.

My third choice is nothing rather than anything from the new movies. They are creatively bankrupt cesspools in terms of ship design.

Oh I agree about the movies.

But the ships, squadrons and other things are fine. It is just like X-wing when discussing prequel ships. The main argument for not letting them in the game was the movies sucked to which I agree but the ships are still cool.

Anyways I am working on a I guess you could call it a Star Wars Alternate Timeline or maybe an alternate universe, whatever. The whole idea is to make a setting where all 6 major factions exists in the same galaxy so you can have a narrative as Anikin Skywalker faces of against Kylo Ren. Using the same names, roughly the same positions (who is related and who isn't and why they chose their affiliation) but hopefully with a better story that isn't written by some angsty young adult who is getting their shakspear paper mixed up with their gender studies report.

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

Oh I agree about the movies.

But the ships, squadrons and other things are fine. It is just like X-wing when discussing prequel ships. The main argument for not letting them in the game was the movies sucked to which I agree but the ships are still cool.

Anyways I am working on a I guess you could call it a Star Wars Alternate Timeline or maybe an alternate universe, whatever. The whole idea is to make a setting where all 6 major factions exists in the same galaxy so you can have a narrative as Anikin Skywalker faces of against Kylo Ren. Using the same names, roughly the same positions (who is related and who isn't and why they chose their affiliation) but hopefully with a better story that isn't written by some angsty young adult who is getting their shakspear paper mixed up with their gender studies report.

Yes, yes, you hate a thing. I'm glad you have an opinion, can you try reiterating your point without enough salt to choke a deer with?