7 hours ago, ScummyRebel said:

I’m sure it will come someday after they start to really flesh out the Clone wars factions. I imagine it would drop about the same time as the “subfaction” concept begins to appear with second line stuff for the older factions.

Also depends on how they roll it out. Neutral forces in SW miniatures games have been botched more times than not.

9 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

Also depends on how they roll it out. Neutral forces in SW miniatures games have been botched more times than not.

I think the problem with them is they try to make them a “catch all” for the non-obvious factions, and then have difficulty balancing them in realistic parity between themselves and other factions in the game.

I don’t have any other context besides x-wing, but at first they were nobodies then they got way too many cool toys for no cost. Then the dark days of the 1.0 JM5K reigned.

They've gotten better in 2.0. They were a little bonkers at the beginning but they are settling in place now.

I think for Legion there are two ways to go about this:

1. Truly neutral units that fit into any army. Challenges are balance and how they don’t subvert the flavor of that army.

2. Multiple “neutral” sub factions with specific rulings on which can interact (for example, the Hutts shouldn’t be able to run Black Sun assassins but could easily hire Hondo’s Pirates). The upside is super cool thematic battles with the scum of the galaxy. The downside is super complex list building for the neutral faction to make sure it stays compliant with compatible sub factions.

2 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

1. Truly neutral units that fit into any army. Challenges are balance and how they don’t subvert the flavor of that army.

That could work and not make them a faction at all. Start putting multiple faction icons on certain cards. Don't make any of the corps or commander so you'll always need 4 units from your "real" faction. So give us a squad of mercs for the fun of painting a bunch of ANH/ROTJ aliens but make them special forces or support. Keep all the heroes as operatives. Etc.

5 hours ago, TauntaunScout said:

That could work and not make them a faction at all. Start putting multiple faction icons on certain cards. Don't make any of the corps or commander so you'll always need 4 units from your "real" faction. So give us a squad of mercs for the fun of painting a bunch of ANH/ROTJ aliens but make them special forces or support. Keep all the heroes as operatives. Etc.

Ok, so running with that...

FFG, revisit my Hondo thread and give us a Hondo operative with entourage for a Weequay pirate SF unit modeled after his thugs.

15 hours ago, TauntaunScout said:

That could work and not make them a faction at all. Start putting multiple faction icons on certain cards. Don't make any of the corps or commander so you'll always need 4 units from your "real" faction. So give us a squad of mercs for the fun of painting a bunch of ANH/ROTJ aliens but make them special forces or support. Keep all the heroes as operatives. Etc.

that could work, but i still think we will see some of the major crime characters like Jaba and Maul. They, especially Jaba, don't fit with the other factions.

On 6/18/2019 at 2:31 PM, jcmonson said:

that could work, but i still think we will see some of the major crime characters like Jaba and Maul. They, especially Jaba, don't fit with the other factions.

We'll surely see *Darth* Maul for the CIS, though.

But what exactly is Jabba going to do on a legion board? Villain laugh at the Z-6 squads?

Just now, aniron said:

We'll surely see *Darth* Maul for the CIS, though.

But what exactly is Jabba going to do on a legion board? Villain laugh at the Z-6 squads?

Drop endless galactic credit tokens?

11 minutes ago, GreatMazinkaiser said:

Drop endless galactic credit tokens?

Taskmaster 1 (action) - Place one bounty token on an enemy unit within range 2-3.

Cartel - friendly special forces units and operatives gain Bounty 1 while this model is in play.

I guess....

On 6/17/2019 at 9:50 PM, TauntaunScout said:

That could work and not make them a faction at all. Start putting multiple faction icons on certain cards. Don't make any of the corps or commander so you'll always need 4 units from your "real" faction. So give us a squad of mercs for the fun of painting a bunch of ANH/ROTJ aliens but make them special forces or support. Keep all the heroes as operatives. Etc.

I think I'd like them to go further and actually restrict the number of mercenary/scum units you can take. Maybe one for each unit type (corps heavy etc), or maybe a maximum %age of the overall army.

If they are supposed to be a small part, then they should be a small part, to keep it more of a Rebel/Empire list with a couple of different units rather than risk it looking like 4 DTL/Z6 squads and a generic commander in a Scum list.

Of course, if it becomes a full faction then all bets are off!

15 hours ago, aniron said:

But what exactly is Jabba going to do on a legion board?

I am as against it as anyone, but Jabba has been in 2/3 of prior SW miniatures games. One of those was an FFG game. He’ll show up eventually if there’s nothing else for them to do.

21 hours ago, aniron said:

We'll surely see *Darth* Maul for the CIS, though.

But what exactly is Jabba going to do on a legion board? Villain laugh at the Z-6 squads?

Darth Maul wasn't ever part of the CIS though. The CIS formed in 24 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin), eight years after the Battle of Naboo (32 BBY). It wasn't until 20 or 19 BBY that Maul was found and his mind was put back together, leading to him founding the Shadow Collective in 19 BBY, which is the only direct involvement he had in the Clone Wars.

Pulling the strings, otherwise provide a buff to surrounding units, add an additional Bounty token during the game, pass out aim tokens, etc etc. There's lots of things that a Commander could do without having to directly attack.

43 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Darth Maul wasn't ever part of the CIS though. The CIS formed in 24 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin), eight years after the Battle of Naboo (32 BBY). It wasn't until 20 or 19 BBY that Maul was found and his mind was put back together, leading to him founding the Shadow Collective in 19 BBY, which is the only direct involvement he had in the Clone Wars.

We know. So does FFG. The number of people who care is significantly less than the number of people who want him in the game, so they will probably just put him in the CIS like they did with X-Wing.

1 hour ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Darth Maul wasn't ever part of the CIS though. The CIS formed in 24 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin), eight years after the Battle of Naboo (32 BBY). It wasn't until 20 or 19 BBY that Maul was found and his mind was put back together, leading to him founding the Shadow Collective in 19 BBY, which is the only direct involvement he had in the Clone Wars.

Pulling the strings, otherwise provide a buff to surrounding units, add an additional Bounty token during the game, pass out aim tokens, etc etc. There's lots of things that a Commander could do without having to directly attack.

Yes and by all rights he should've been properly dead considering that he combined being cut in half with the traditional Disney death... but that never stopped anyone from doing something that makes no sense.

We got the Emperor; we'll get an intact Darth Maul for CIS.

Yes. People wanna collect their favorite toys. I never liked Darth Maul but the truth is there’s a market for every. Single. Star Wars character. Given that the game lasts long enough that’s the only reason they need.

2 hours ago, arnoldrew said:

We know. So does FFG. The number of people who care is significantly less than the number of people who want him in the game, so they will probably just put him in the CIS like they did with X-Wing.

So does Disney, the license holder that FFG has to run everything by, and who might care and might say "No." And not everyone knows since the movies themselves don't make it clear that the Trade Federation dispute is seperate from the actual Clone Wars, and people keep claiming Darth Maul was part of the CIS. Also, he is also part of the Rebels if I recall correctly, as a crew upgrade. Plus it's less "Maul is part of the CIS" and more "Darth Maul is a possible pilot for this ship that is part of the CIS," which is different to "this model which is ONLY Maul is part of the faction."

52 minutes ago, GreatMazinkaiser said:

Yes and by all rights he should've been properly dead considering that he combined being cut in half with the traditional Disney death... but that never stopped anyone from doing something that makes no sense.

We got the Emperor; we'll get an intact Darth Maul for CIS.

To be fair, The Clone Wars cartoon "revived" Maul before Disney purchased the franchise, so Lucas is more to blame than Disney.

19 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

Yes. People wanna collect their favorite toys. I never liked Darth Maul but the truth is there’s a market for every. Single. Star Wars character. Given that the game lasts long enough that’s the only reason they need.

And there is a perfect way for FFG to release Maul during the Clone Wars and keeping to current canon: Releasing him as a commander for the Shadow Collective, which would also be the "mercenary/scum/criminal" faction.

Is it still possible that FFG/Disney just release him as part of CIS because he was fighting a couple of Jedi at the same time as Trade Federation droids were fighting Naboo pilots and Gungans? Well yeah, they do what they want. What I'm trying to point out is that for the Clone Wars Era, it makes more sense to have him as part of a different faction, so it's at least somewhat likely he ISN'T released as part of the CIS, and instead we get Asajj Ventress, who would fill a similar role in Legion of "Force wielding operative/Commander for CIS who isn't Dooku."

@Caimheul1313:

Oh yes, I know Darth Maul's inexplicable survival was a Lucas/Filoni/whatever problem, I was just referencing the Disney death trope...

3 minutes ago, GreatMazinkaiser said:

@Caimheul1313:

Oh yes, I know Darth Maul's inexplicable survival was a Lucas/Filoni/whatever problem, I was just referencing the Disney death trope...

Ah, okay, I misunderstood. Now if was truly Disney, he would have just fallen, not been bisected first :-P.

2 hours ago, GreatMazinkaiser said:

@Caimheul1313:

Oh yes, I know Darth Maul's inexplicable survival was a Lucas/Filoni/whatever problem, I was just referencing the Disney death trope...

Inexplicable is the new normal in Star Wars.

3 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

Inexplicable is the new normal in Star Wars.

Hardly new, Lucas has been putting "inexplicable" stuff in Star Wars for awhile, such as how Han Solo can move his head fast enough to avoid a blaster bolt, or why he felt it necessary to make the original theatrical release nearly impossible to find on modern media. Here's hoping that with the Fox buyout Disney makes the original theatrical cuts at least available on Disney +.

50 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Hardly new, Lucas has been putting "inexplicable" stuff in Star Wars for awhile, such as how Han Solo can move his head fast enough to avoid a blaster bolt, or why he felt it necessary to make the original theatrical release nearly impossible to find on modern media. Here's hoping that with the Fox buyout Disney makes the original theatrical cuts at least available on Disney +.

“New” is relative. But the old outliers are now just normal stuff.