Maybe it's ultimately hype aversion, I dunno. There are some other logical reasons for why I'm hesitant about it though:

1. With only two ships per wave (and each wave being say, half a year apart at best), it's going to be a long time of clone-wars releases without anything vessels the GCW factions until they attain parity. Though FFG can up the content of each wave back to 4, I'm inclined not to think so, considering wave 1 was 4 ships... and it's been 2 ships ever since. Moreover, the delay of the SSD makes me think they're struggling with plastic production for Armada. Even so, two ships, long periods of time, only for the clone wars factions?

a. Could they release double-bases so that Clone-Wars era ships are backwards compatible with the CGW? This would probably be ideal, but it would also cut into the flexibility of both factions. We take for granted now that every Armada ship has two variants that are balanced... would we be willing to accept, say, a Venator that on the Empire side could never use that torpedo slot locked on the Republic side? While I don't hate the Clone Wars ships, I would rather prefer this solution so that I can pick and choose what I want while also stay flying ships for my preferred faction (empire).

2. Surely new packs and clone wars content packs are going to come with essential upgrade cards the GCW factions will need for parity. I don't want to collect ships I had no intention on flying simply for the cards. It was ideal in X-Wing when the Resistance and First Order could be folded into the Rebellion and Empire, respectively, and fly those craft in combined lists. But I left the game when scum dropped because 1, I didn't like those ships and 2. I didn't want the uphill slope of buying ships I never intended to fly. 3. Was because Armada came out.

Of course I also realize this is true: "You want to leave Armada because you don't want to buy the new faction ships for the cards? Okay, Bye!" But I don't want to be forced out of a game that I've enjoyed and been supporting for every wave since release.

3. I wouldn't want to be locked out of further ship content for my chosen faction to favor one that doesn't interest me. I'm sure the Rebels are loving having no ship releases while the SSD takes its time. How will Rebel players feel not having any ships/faction upgrades for even longer?

It just seems to me there are more problems then benefits doing the clone wars unless there's that 1a solution of making each release backwards compatible with the main factions.

I also am not that excited for a Clone Wars expansion...

I think it would be a bad move for FFG.

FFG hasn't prioritized Armada for a LONG time. And with X-wing and Legion adding new factions, I doubt Armada will actually be a priority any time soon. The clone wars factions don't fit with the OT factions at all, so they really need to be separate factions, but it would take 3-4 waves of material to get them even remotely competitive and that's while ignoring the current factions. That would take 1-2 years of no expansions for the Imps/Rebels while establishing the new factions. You're bound to lose more players than you'd gain with that sort of move.

Now I wouldn't mind seeing a few clone wars units brought into the current factions. The Imps could have some old Republic ships/squads that they pull out of the mothballs due to the escalating war, or some older stuff patrolling the outer rim. The Rebels would be willing to use anything they can get their hands on including some old Separatists ships. Something like that to give us the Clone Wars content without new factions would be good. It would scratch the itch of what people are looking for without risking anything.

I would've loved to see a campaign that has new ship variants for existing ships, or even a refresh pack of cards for the ships that need help. But hey, it's not totally out of the question either!

I join the pass on CW crowd. Although I think that some of the issues mentioned in the OP can be addressed by a different release approach, I have mostly thematic problems.

First, I do not like PT stuff and love to pretend that it does not exist. But more importently (as a lot of people on Vassal already know) mirror matches are a pain for me. The thought of games of fleet commander Vader vs. General Skywalker simply make me cry. The era hodgepodge of X-Wing I do not like. I hope Armada does not go the same way.

However, I have to confess that these reasons are purely subjective (I don't think that going CW will necessarily make the game worse) and I respect that the CW fans love to play in this era. I simply hope for selfish reasons that FFG's decisions will swing in my favour not in their's 😀

I would actually welcome Clone Wars factions into Armada. It would certainly mean slow/no Rebel or Imperial releases for quite some time, but I think the well is just about dry on those factions anyways, and likely the best source of new diversity (squadrons, officers, titles, commanders, other upgrades) could come from Campaign and Card packs anyways. Also, Clone Wars factions are far more likely, in my opinion, to actually bring entirely new players into Armada than anything else.

1 hour ago, Norsehound said:

I'm inclined not to think so, considering wave 1 was 4 ships... and it's been 2 ships ever since.

False. Wave 2 was also 4 ships, and 3/4 was 4 ships, obviously intended as a single wave and only announced separately due to supply issues. 5 was 2 ships and 2 squad packs, so it's just wave 6 and 7 that were only 2 ships.

While I have little interest in the actual lore of the era, I think the Clone Wars (I will not reference them as prequel trilogy by choice) could be interesting as they could more specialized factions. When watching the Legion part of the panel, though I don't play, I was interested that the Separatists are the "horde" faction with lots of cheap little guys. I could see their Armada faction as a One Ship; a Lucrehulk (still huge, but much smaller and cheaper than an SSD) with lots of droid squads. Sure, there are the other groups within the Separatists with more regular size ships, but I still see them as being mostly bigger. Meanwhile the Republic could finally fill in the currently underpopulated medium base ships along with some really powerful ace squadrons to push around.

(Also, FWIW, regardless of what I thought of the films, I still loved the capital ships and most of the fighters. So, I want the plastic!)

I will never not want to play this. (Black dice for days in this pic.)

I don’t care for them. There’s a reason why there not in service any more.

1 minute ago, Fuzzywookie said:

I don’t care for them. There’s a reason why there not in service any more.

One could say the same thing for Imperial Star Destroyers these days.

I take it back. They can add them. Faster games. I can destroy them quicker than the Rebels.

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

One could say the same thing for Imperial Star Destroyers these days.

I don’t think the rebels have anymore big ships. I’m pretty sure the last got destroyed in VIII.

1 minute ago, Fuzzywookie said:

I don’t think the rebels have anymore big ships. I’m pretty sure the last got destroyed in VIII.

In seriousness - it depends if you account for the Novelisation, which hints that Inferno Squad was still about, and was trying to secure Starhawks.

Well, I would rather have the new trilogy stuff. Integrates better into our current setup (like resistance and First Order did originally in X-Wing) and also I really want to field the hugely impractical and almost certainly speed 1 heavy bombers from Episode VIII. They're ridiculous, require the rest of your squadron points just to escort them, probably will all die before they even get to unload their big bombs, and are entirely thematic.

1 minute ago, Weyoun42 said:

Well, I would rather have the new trilogy stuff. Integrates better into our current setup (like resistance and First Order did originally in X-Wing) and also I really want to field the hugely impractical and almost certainly speed 1 heavy bombers from Episode VIII. They're ridiculous, require the rest of your squadron points just to escort them, probably will all die before they even get to unload their big bombs, and are entirely thematic.

Until your Star Destroyers don't quite fit in the Halfway point between an Imperial Star Destroyer and a Super Star Destroyer...

If they do Clone Wars for armada it would be a very silly move not to make certain ships (not so much fighters) multi faction.

A a republic/empire Acclamator just makes sense for example. It satisfies the new faction and they keep imperial players happy. It’s win-win.

Make different flavour ships for the 2 factions and boom, new players potentially enticed & existing players don’t feel neglected.

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

Until your Star Destroyers don't quite fit in the Halfway point between an Imperial Star Destroyer and a Super Star Destroyer...

It could probably get away with being a very outsized and point expensive large. Besides, I want the dreadnaught. Forget playability, I have more money than sense. (Just kidding; I don't have money.)

1 minute ago, Weyoun42 said:

It could probably get away with being a very outsized and point expensive large. Besides, I want the dreadnaught. Forget playability, I have more money than sense. (Just kidding; I don't have money.)

Its just going to seem Anemic versus the Imperial that its replaced...

I mean, there's a certain amount of Sliding Scale Forgiveness, but at least the SSD has a Base *more than twice the size* to give you the Impression that its Frakkin' HUGE.

Same Base Size? Its going to feel the Same... Not twice as Big...

1 hour ago, Norsehound said:

Maybe it's ultimately hype aversion, I dunno. There are some other logical reasons for why I'm hesitant about it though:

1. With only two ships per wave (and each wave being say, half a year apart at best), it's going to be a long time of clone-wars releases without anything vessels the GCW factions until they attain

Keep in mind that, of the ships we currently have, a number are already canonical Clone Wars-era.

• Victory-class Star Destroyer
• Arquitens-class Light Cruiser
• Pelta-class...well, it was a frigate, then

Cardboard, alone, could then be used to make all those work out of a new core set, which sets up the Republic with everything it needs for a solid wave 1 but fighters (which, granted, we have some matches on - but ideally the new factions would have new standardized colors). You'd only really need to add ships for Separatists, then.

Quote

2. Surely new packs and clone wars content packs are going to come with essential upgrade cards the GCW factions will need for parity. I don't want to collect ships I had no intention on flying simply for the cards.

That came up in the Adepticon Q&A - Legion is already moving to a model where you can buy card packs independent of models, so you can get cards your faction can use without having to go cross-faction. In the Q&A it was suggested that this is a probable path for Armada and X-Wing, too.

I think Clone Wars works better for Legion and Xwing than Armada.

I’d buy the heck out of a clone wars set of expansions for Armada!

Just add some ships that can be played in GCW like the Venator and the Lancer. Then add some CW card conversion kits for ships already released, like the Kitten, the VSD, the Pelta, the Gozanti, while you release a CIS-only wave with two ships and a squadron pack. Presto! Clone Wars! THEN you can release a new CWQ core set and a new wave of CIS ships.
Long story short: all FFG needs is a CIS expansion and some cards for ships already in play if they want to go minimalist.

Just my two cents though.

31 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

One could say the same thing for Imperial Star Destroyers these days.

Correct me if I'm wrong but these days ISDs are still in service within the Galactic Alliance and the Imperial Remnant.

Reskin All the current Republic ships we have and Don't add CIS. ez. done. We don't need CIS. Add Consular and Accumulator. Make card packs and give us new upgrades. if they did this, (make 1 more faction and a 10- card pack for each upgrade slot) then we will be good for a long time. We also need more TITLES. TITLES are essentially all we would need to make this game more interesting.