I know some are not interested in the Clone Wars, and others are only interested if they can use them with their current fleets but this is for those who are excited about Clone Wars era ships being given their due and what we can expect! I could ramble on defending Clone Wars era aesthetics of military (I can not defend those movies) or how having some more factions makes miniature games often stronger (but too many leads to issues) both financially for the company and growth in player base and ideas, but I want to instead just speculate on what we might/should see.
First some numbers, because I like numbers. Empire has 8 unique ships right now, rumored to have 10 by the end of the year. Rebels have 10 unique ships and will have 11 by the end of the year.
So what ships are in the Prequel movies (I may miss a couple, especially in the Republic Navy)?
Confederacy of Independent Systems Navy: Lucrehulk, Providence-class, Recuscent-class, Munificent-class, Diamond-class (background shots during Battle of Geonosis, also called Commerce Guild Starship), C-9979 Landing Craft and Hardcell-class Transport. Giving us 7 ships, with one of them being huge! That Lucrehulk has the diameter of the SSD FFG will be putting out... someday.
Republic Navy: Venator, Acclamator, ISD, Pelta and Consular-class. 5 ships.
Well there have been two cartoon shows set during this period, but we'll ignore Tartatovsky's since Disney seems to be doing that as well for the most part. This adds quite a lot but I think certain ones stand out more than others.
CIS: Class Type B (will need a better name), Subjugator-class (has problem of also being around the size of the SSD), Umbaran Support Ship (could also use a better name) and the Trident Class Assault Ship.
Republic Navy : Arquitens and Paladin-class are the real standouts from the cartoon show. Though CR-90 also makes an appearance.
From books and video games is where we get some more old classics added in with the possibility of Victory Star Destroyer for the Republic, and others that are mostly still in Legends, though that hasn't stopped FFG in the past.
Honorable mention of the Dreadnaught and Gozanti because it seems according to Wookieepedia that everyone used those, because why not. By everyone I mean CIS, Republic Navy, Empire and Rebels.
So looking over all this the ones I think are likely and/or ones I want to see are:
CIS: Providence-class, Recuscent-class, Munificent-class, Diamond-class, Umbaran Support Ship, Trident Class Assault Ship. I am torn between the C-9979 and the Class Type B as being the Gozanti/G-75 for the CIS.
Lucrehulk is just too big for the game, though the command/battle sphere alone is possible. Also Lucrehulk and/or the Subjugator rely heavily on the SSD selling very well and for Clone Wars era to sell very well. The problem is this list is only 7 ships (8 with just the Lucrehulk sphere). Two of them are flotillas, the Trident Class being an attack flotilla and then dealers choice on the C-9979 or Class Type B as the support flotilla.
Republic Navy: Venator, Acclamator, Arquitens, Pelta, Paladin-class, Consular-class...
After that I think a Victory or ISD might be likely. Perhaps the Gozanti or CR-90... You see the interesting problem here. The Republic Navy quickly becomes this faction with four or five fresh sculpts and the rest are just repaints with new upgrade cards for ships that the molds already exist. This is great for FFG because that is probably four or more molds they can reuse and not have to pay for new molds which is one of the most expensive parts of making plastic minis. I mean you could end up having this faction quickly become very much a hodge podge of ships from factions that exist plus the four or five new ones. What will be their support flotilla? The Consular-class is a possibility but there are combat versions of it, but it could be trusty G-75s or Gozanti.
Anyways, I've been thinking about this. I am sure many people who are much more knowledgeable about this either from a game perspective or their encyclopedic knowledge of the Prequels have thoughts about how and where this could go. How can we get these two navies to the same number of ships as the Empire will have by the end of this year, which hopefully is 10. We're aiming for 10. And the Subjugator and Lucrehulk can't really be counted unless they make theLucrehulk only the diameter of an ISD which is really shrinking that thing and/or the Subjugator a kilometer shorter than it is. Also can you imagine a Subjugator on the field? How many blue dice do those side arcs have? I mean the answer is “All, all of the blue dice”, but really how many is that? Also the side arc has range but its all ion. Its a Red die of range but with what are typically seen as blue dice effects.
The other question is, I think they will do a new starter box, probably like they are for Legion, so what should the forces in that box be? What would grab peoples attention right away? Same format as Imperial vs. Rebel of one medium vs. two smalls? Both of these factions iconic ships are medium or large I feel. Discuss.