Yes, el guapo!

In all seriousness, we have gone from having one product in (delayed) production to having a number: 1 huge ship, 1 Campaign, 2 GCW ships, and 2 new factions. Our game, which a very short time ago seemed to be on life support, looks to have content coming out on a consistent basis for the foreseeable future.

My question for everyone here is...what are you looking forward to the most? Why?

I’ll go first.

It is a hard choice for me between the new campaign and the 2 GCW ships. But I have to go with the campaign. It has the opportunity with upgrade cards to “fix” some ships. We know it already has a victory title what else could be in there? I’m hoping for something to boost generic squads and more titles fo some of the lesser used ships like the Pelta or Assault Frigate.

I'm looking more into the two new factions.

Why?

My tought are that they will "speed" release many clones extensions like they are doing with legion "pace will not go slower" as they said for legions.

New factions will recquired lot of ships. So lots of expansions.

The campaign and GCW ships are what appeal most to me. If they add the option to allow CIS/Republic ships into Rebel/Imperial factions, then certainly i'll be interested. However i have not yet decided if i'll take the plunge into additional factions.

It's weird, because yeah the game seems to have been on life support for a while. Living, but...FFG certainly didn't seem to know it.

And then all this, and it's like...holy crap. New campaigns? SO MANY new upgrades? Nevermind the SSD we've known has been coming since wave 3 by the SKU alone, more ships and factions??

I don't even...

What changed?!

I guess...I dunno, did maybe the X-Wing 2.0 and Legion launch really consume everything FFG had to put towards Star Wars miniatures, and since all games are now on 'regular release' cadence we're going to see this rate going forward?

3 minutes ago, xanderf said:

It's weird, because yeah the game seems to have been on life support for a while. Living, but...FFG certainly didn't seem to know it.

And then all this, and it's like...holy crap. New campaigns? SO MANY new upgrades? Nevermind the SSD we've known has been coming since wave 3 by the SKU alone, more ships and factions??

I don't even...

What changed?!

I guess...I dunno, did maybe the X-Wing 2.0 and Legion launch really consume everything FFG had to put towards Star Wars miniatures, and since all games are now on 'regular release' cadence we're going to see this rate going forward?

Well as the shunned stepchild, it's refreshing to see some love directed towards us 🙂

23 minutes ago, xanderf said:

I guess...I dunno, did maybe the X-Wing 2.0 and Legion launch really consume everything FFG had to put towards Star Wars miniatures, and since all games are now on 'regular release' cadence we're going to see this rate going forward?

From the schuttlebutt. Yes, Xwing 2.0 really pushed back Armada content, they share they same factory because it's the only factory that produces pre-painted miniatures.
Will we see new waves every other article like with Xwing, doubtful and I don't think we'd want to see such craziness upending Armadas game balance (with known concerns) but I think we can be hopeful about 2 waves a year again instead of 1?

6 minutes ago, Karneck said:

From the schuttlebutt. Yes, Xwing 2.0 really pushed back Armada content, they share they same factory because it's the only factory that produces pre-painted miniatures.
Will we see new waves every other article like with Xwing, doubtful and I don't think we'd want to see such craziness upending Armadas game balance (with known concerns) but I think we can be hopeful about 2 waves a year again instead of 1?

That is always what I have assumed also. I would be down for 1.5 to 2 waves per year.

Honestly, I love me some new minis, but I think I'm most looking forward to the campaign. 2 words: new objectives

I actually kind of think a lot of this stuff is pretty far out. I wouldn't expect the clone wars stuff until at least may or june of next year at earliest, maybe even as late as november or december.

Sure it may seem like we have a lot coming up, but it's more that we're just aware of things coming up as opposed to having radio silence and I'm VERY happy about that. Communication was what we as a community were asking for so we knew the game wasn't dead, we have that and I look forward to the continuation and growth of the game now.

GOOD JOB FFG, THANK YOU. I don't mind if things get pushed back, I just want to know they exist.

Yes better communication is half the battle. FFG have improved lately but there is still room for improvement.

As I’ve said many times before, while I’m not opppsed to CW stuff, I hope they don’t neglect original factions. And there are very obvious ways to not do so.

Assuming every player wants & can afford to buy into new factions would be an error.

Making the new core set a bit less pricey would be sensible as well.

Honestly, between the SSD and finally being able to play the CIS in Armada... it's a close call.

13 hours ago, xanderf said:

It's weird, because yeah the game seems to have been on life support for a while. Living, but...FFG certainly didn't seem to know it.

And then all this, and it's like...holy crap. New campaigns? SO MANY new upgrades? Nevermind the SSD we've known has been coming since wave 3 by the SKU alone, more ships and factions??

I don't even...

What changed?!

I guess...I dunno, did maybe the X-Wing 2.0 and Legion launch really consume everything FFG had to put towards Star Wars miniatures, and since all games are now on 'regular release' cadence we're going to see this rate going forward?

Legion just launched new factions, which will mean a maintained constant expansion rate for another year at least.

X-wing is in 2.0 mode and having to re-release everything from 1.0 and they just added new factions. Those new factions don't have much for ships so they will need to keep production running pretty high there.

I honestly don't see them freeing up a lot of resources any time soon.

SSD has been on the drawing board for 3 years now.

I'll believe the change when I see it. FFG is notorious for delays, and Armada has definitely received the short end of the stick in that category several times over. I don't see how they can rapid release new factions to get them to parity with the existing factions while maintaining a solid release schedule for X-wing and Legion. We're looking at a nearly 2 year break between waves right now.

I'm hopeful, but I'm not holding my breath.

1 hour ago, kmanweiss said:

I don't see how they can rapid release new factions to get them to parity with the existing factions while maintaining a solid release schedule for X-wing and Legion.

If I were FFG (and I'm not) I would release one of the clone wars factions before the other. One wave with 2 ship packs and some fighters then soon after another wave of 3 ships. This will get that faction not up to party but able to compete with the Rebels and Imperials.

Then the year after do the same for the other CW faction. It wouldn't fit in with the new starter set model we see in Legion but gets playable competitive factions out sooner.

The expansion, because new missions. I mean, all these things are going to be super cool, but some will be cooler than others.

I'll have to go...

1. Campaign - new titles, upgrade, objective, and unique squads. Huge value there.

2. 2 new GCW expansion - because it is my favorite SW era.

3. Clone Wars - New influx of interested players is always a good thing.

4. SSD- it's cool and all but I think it will see diminishing play time quickly.

Caveat - I will buy them all on the day they are released so take that for what it is.

Finally for those that want a cheaper Core, I don't think it's happening (although I think an Essentials pack would be better). FFG just announced the Legion Clone Wars Core and it's gonna be $100. Get ready for a dual faction $90-$100 Core for Armada.

In answer to the title, no because I am unlikely to use the word plethora.

To comment on the production concerns, we now know of two games that are done for FFG...both Imperial Assault and Runewars have gone the way of the dinosaurs. From the outside looking in, it would appear to me FFG was taking a serious inventory of their game lineup and armada may have been something they were considering chopping...clearly we survived and in a big way. We may have still seen some modest support with campaign boxes and the like, but honestly I think they are running out of material for GCW era and they were discussing “do we continue into another era with the other games or do we let armada stay a GCW game and cease production of new ships”. I wouldn’t be shocked if Disney helped this decision along considering the massive popularity of their cartoon work in the Star Wars realm and the return of the clone wars cartoon. These of course are totally my assumptions and based in 0 discernible fact.

That said, as someone who loves this game and the tactical depth it plays at, I honestly couldn’t be more excited. There are always complaints about game length and squadron play, but ultimately to cut any of those layers of depth out would change the game into something I just wouldn’t love as much. This is space chess, on crack, riding a Pegasus, with a laser cannon in one arm and a princess in the other, all in a universe filled with good and evil space wizards determined to destroy each other....and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The new factions could be setup to give us the ability for some of the materials to crossover(pelta, arquitens, Vic), the 2 new GCW ships could also be crossover candidates and really quickly we could be looking at 2 new viable factions in competitive play when you add a core and a wave of expansions that includes a fighter pack per side. I say all this to say I think our game is in a great place and I’m equal parts excited for all of it. Parity may take a bit of time, but there is going to be so many new ways to play that I can see myself very satisfied for a very long while.

16 hours ago, mathay86 said:

To comment on the production concerns, we now know of two games that are done for FFG...both Imperial Assault and Runewars have gone the way of the dinosaurs. From the outside looking in, it would appear to me FFG was taking a serious inventory of their game lineup and armada may have been something they were considering chopping...clearly we survived and in a big way. We may have still seen some modest support with campaign boxes and the like, but honestly I think they are running out of material for GCW era and they were discussing “do we continue into another era with the other games or do we let armada stay a GCW game and cease production of new ships”. I wouldn’t be shocked if Disney helped this decision along considering the massive popularity of their cartoon work in the Star Wars realm and the return of the clone wars cartoon. These of course are totally my assumptions and based in 0 discernible fact.

That said, as someone who loves this game and the tactical depth it plays at, I honestly couldn’t be more excited. There are always complaints about game length and squadron play, but ultimately to cut any of those layers of depth out would change the game into something I just wouldn’t love as much. This is space chess, on crack, riding a Pegasus, with a laser cannon in one arm and a princess in the other, all in a universe filled with good and evil space wizards determined to destroy each other....and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The new factions could be setup to give us the ability for some of the materials to crossover(pelta, arquitens, Vic), the 2 new GCW ships could also be crossover candidates and really quickly we could be looking at 2 new viable factions in competitive play when you add a core and a wave of expansions that includes a fighter pack per side. I say all this to say I think our game is in a great place and I’m equal parts excited for all of it. Parity may take a bit of time, but there is going to be so many new ways to play that I can see myself very satisfied for a very long while.

First off, Runewars and IA haven't been getting new content either, so they weren't plugging up the production line in a way that can now free resources for Armada. Dropping them makes NO difference to production. X-wing and Legion are both in expansion phases of their games that rival their initial releases. That doesn't leave a lot of room for anything else which is why NOTHING else was getting releases.

If FFG was willing to dive into the EU with Disney's approval, there is a TON of GCW era content to utilize. Beyond that, moving into the new trilogy would be an easier task as you wouldn't need entire new factions. They new trilogy factions could just be tacked onto the current factions with little to no complaint. If you go that way there is already a TON of content available...more so than what is available for the Clone Wars era for that matter. Doing slow production releases of material over time is clearly more sustainable for them than a big push of new factions which will require a lot of dedicated production time over a long period of time and straight up competition for that production time against two other games that have bigger player bases. It's not hard to figure out who will get delayed if push comes to shove.

My concern is that marketing and development may be writing checks that production simply can't cash.

Clone Wars Era may or may not revitalize the player base. I'd guess that it will drive away as many players as it attracts (major focus shifts for games like this do that to the player base). But if the Clone Wars Era factions get tons of delays and products are never in stock, and it takes them a long time to get to a competitive level with the current factions....well, then even the new players will be disgruntled.

I'm hoping for the best, but with FFG's track record, I'm worried that they might be biting off more than they can chew.

On 4/16/2019 at 2:03 AM, mcworrell said:

Yes, el guapo!

In all seriousness, we have gone from having one product in (delayed) production to having a number: 1 huge ship, 1 Campaign, 2 GCW ships, and 2 new factions. Our game, which a very short time ago seemed to be on life support, looks to have content coming out on a consistent basis for the foreseeable future.

My question for everyone here is...what are you looking forward to the most? Why?

Not a “plethora”, no. But certainly more than a smattering.

SSD is too most exciting, Campaign 2 next.

To paraphrase a common explanation for slowed Armada production: "Legion and X-wing have taken up all the plastic miniature production bandwidth."

This has been repeated so often that it now seems to be generally accepted. But we don't know whether it is true or not. So folks now appear to be speculating on what the ramifications of their speculative explanations will be on new content that is entirely speculative.

1) We don't know why Armada went through a dry spell for content.

2) We don't know exactly how FFG plans to release new factions for Armada. In fact, I don't think FFG has even stated that there WILL be new factions. Only that Clone Wars-era content is coming to Armada.

Therefore, we certainly don't know how FFG's unknown plans for new factions will be affected by the unknown reason for Armada's content dry spell.

And THAT is why we shouldn't NOT1 be hyped about the announcement of Clone Wars factions for Armada.

1-I thank my wife for demonstrating to me every day that "shouldn't NOT" doesn't mean exactly the same thing as "should."

46 minutes ago, RobertK said:

.

2) We don't know exactly how FFG plans to release new factions for Armada. In fact, I don't think FFG has even stated that there WILL be new factions. Only that Clone Wars-era content is coming to Armada.

They said during the Q and A session after the announcements that they would be new factions.

22 hours ago, RobertK said:

To paraphrase a common explanation for slowed Armada production: "Legion and X-wing have taken up all the plastic miniature production bandwidth."

This has been repeated so often that it now seems to be generally accepted. But we don't know whether it is true or not. So folks now appear to be speculating on what the ramifications of their speculative explanations will be on new content that is entirely speculative.

1) We don't know why Armada went through a dry spell for content.

2) We don't know exactly how FFG plans to release new factions for Armada. In fact, I don't think FFG has even stated that there WILL be new factions. Only that Clone Wars-era content is coming to Armada.

Therefore, we certainly don't know how FFG's unknown plans for new factions will be affected by the unknown reason for Armada's content dry spell.

And THAT is why we shouldn't NOT1 be hyped about the announcement of Clone Wars factions for Armada.

1-I thank my wife for demonstrating to me every day that "shouldn't NOT" doesn't mean exactly the same thing as "should."

Production bottlenecks are a known issue for FFG. They've addressed it several times over the years. They basically only have 1 company they deal with in China to produce all their plastic components for all of their games. They've tested many other companies but have never been happy with the final products. Basically there is only one factory that produces products that meet FFGs quality expectation. They have flat out stated that this restriction is why they occasionally have supply/stock issues and can't just quickly get reprints produced because they have to fit it into the production schedule in a way that doesn't disrupt the flow of new products.

We've also seen this play out multiple times over the years. They never seem to be able to mainline more than 2 product lines at a time. Non-miniature based games that contain a lot of plastic get released during lulls in other releases.

Unless this issue has been suddenly addressed, you're going to have 3 product lines that are all in an expansion phase fighting over only enough production to support 2 of those product lines.

I wonder if the reason they are moving to a harder plastic for Legion is to address their production capabilities? Maybe they found a different production facility but the requirement is to move to harder plastic and sprues?

On 4/16/2019 at 2:03 AM, mcworrell said:

What are you looking forward to the most?

Imperial Assault getting the same treatment!