X-wing got a massive set of new stuff for Huge ships and epic play. You may ask, why does this matter to Armada? Note how every huge ship is now dual faction across the different eras. CR-90 is officially being used by the Republic and Rebels. With CW era coming to Armada, the idea of cross faction and cross era ship usage seems like a very real possibility. Getting all of the multi-faction/era stuff properly sorted out also helps to explain some of the delays we are seeing. No clue how this all works out in game play, just know that if my wishful thinking and fantastic hypotheses are correct, I am going to need a second job to pay for all the new toys I will be buying. (Assuming production keeps up with the demand. 😁)

Reading the epic X-Wing article made me think First Order and Resistance Factions are in the works. A ship conversion pack would be nice.

I’m not sure I’m excited for cross-faction ships. They are likely to cramp potential for unique play styles for factions. At least if they aren’t altered variants

I understand that the Republic will be an amalgamation of some empire and some rebel ships. You’ll have Gozanti, CR90, Pelta, Arquitens for a starter fleet for Republic.

I hope they are all new variants. Sure, it’s an Arquitens, but it’s now the Arquitens-class fleet cruiser and Arquitens-class patrol cruiser or something like that with different dice, stats, and upgrades. Then all my griping is irrelevant

Basically everything CIS will be new. So that’s not a worry.

I think the real good news here is that we may finally have a clear picture on the latest delay of the SSD.

They're marking the huge ships for Q4 release, odds are they're under pressure to meet that deadline with x-wing 2.0 being their money maker, who wants to bet they got bumped up the production queue? With a conversion kit for 5 of the largest models they make being issued as well as 2 of those 5 hitting the shelf in new packaging for Q4 (and the raider soon after), it probably would take some doing to meet those demands.

Makes sense to me anyways...

56 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I think the real good news here is that we may finally have a clear picture on the latest delay of the SSD.

They're marking the huge ships for Q4 release, odds are they're under pressure to meet that deadline with x-wing 2.0 being their money maker, who wants to bet they got bumped up the production queue? With a conversion kit for 5 of the largest models they make being issued as well as 2 of those 5 hitting the shelf in new packaging for Q4 (and the raider soon after), it probably would take some doing to meet those demands.

Makes sense to me anyways...

I was thinking the same thing.

The new 'wing' movement rules for X-Wing's Epic Play are interesting. Sounds like it will have some list-building impact, as well, by suggesting specific list builds...

Extrapolating how something like the combos here could work in Armada...

I'd love to see some sort of "standard" configurations. Possibly with a point discount on them to reflect they are not optimally min-maxed, but reflect the more common deployments.

IE., "Star Destroyer with standard fighter wing" - an ISD-I with 4x TIE Fighter squadrons, 1x TIE Bomber squadron, 1x TIE Interceptor squadron (all generics). This is canonically the 'standard' Imperial deployment, which should be common, but will absolutely never appear in this game because it is a terrible list with no synergy at all. If a 'standard build' card let you take that configuration for 150 pts instead of 162, though...?

1 hour ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I think the real good news here is that we may finally have a clear picture on the latest delay of the SSD.

What I took away was the opposite; if they're comfortable that they'll have the new X-Wing Huge ships out by Q4 (although that involves no new designing for the ships), that probably means that their last big production will be clear in time for that. They may want the SSD out the way before they switch their production over to X-Wing Huge.

However that's assuming that they're even using the same facilities for them both.

The Conversion Kits and Epic Expansions probably aren't that big a deal as they seem to be cardboard expansions, not needing the complicated assembly and painting that the actual ships do.

So this news makes me fairly optimistic about the SSD; that is may be out of production and in the packaging/shipping/distribution phase.

36 minutes ago, Grumbleduke said:

What I took away was the opposite; if they're comfortable that they'll have the new X-Wing Huge ships out by Q4 (although that involves no new designing for the ships), that probably means that their last big production will be clear in time for that. They may want the SSD out the way before they switch their production over to X-Wing Huge.

However that's assuming that they're even using the same facilities for them both.

Well, it's definitely possible. These assumptions are both based on the idea that they're using the same facilities. (which seems probable to me).

I would venture that if they're secure with the Q4 release schedule for the huge models in XW2.0, which they should be, then the model fabrication is already complete. (perhaps still being painted, as that may be a bottleneck in production, but definitely already injected and pre-assembled.) It would make more sense to me that the SSD production was halted before it started to meet these demands. Changing over the machines capable of making the parts for larger models like this takes time. It would also require all the follow up QA work. So to switch from the X-wing huge to SSD then back to X-wing huge, kinda doesn't make sense (they'd end up eating a bunch of down time), at least not to me. To me, it would make more sense to halt the SSD change over and keep the machines running the huge ships that are already set for production, get enough printed to meet demand, then switch over.


Of course, it's all speculation, but I know tool changes cause delays, and that can alter the release schedule of products. Especially on large scale production.

The X-Wing Huge should be a lot simpler to sort out as there's nothing new there, other than the shield/energy dials. They should know how long it will take to produce, and should be fairly confident in their production system.

I wonder if we can read anything into the Raider being delayed? When they announced X-Wing 2-Huge they teased all three ships, yet are only doing two for now - and the Raider was the most expensive (and, I think, largest) of the old lot. Perhaps they're using the same production line for the Raider and SSD, and the Raider is being delayed while they finish off the SSD?

As you said, switching from X-Wing to the SSD then back to X-Wing wouldn't make much sense, but they started on the SSD; so your way would involve switching from the SSD to X-Wing then back to the SSD. The more sensible option might be to be working on the SSD, switch part of to over to X-Wing (CROC and CR90) while finishing off the SSD with the rest, then when the SSD is done change the rest over.

4 hours ago, Grand Admiral Buford said:

X-wing got a massive set of new stuff for Huge ships and epic play. You may ask, why does this matter to Armada? Note how every huge ship is now dual faction across the different eras. CR-90 is officially being used by the Republic and Rebels. With CW era coming to Armada, the idea of cross faction and cross era ship usage seems like a very real possibility. Getting all of the multi-faction/era stuff properly sorted out also helps to explain some of the delays we are seeing. No clue how this all works out in game play, just know that if my wishful thinking and fantastic hypotheses are correct, I am going to need a second job to pay for all the new toys I will be buying. (Assuming production keeps up with the demand. 😁)

I think cross-faction is a great idea. I’d love a Rebel lucre-hulk and VSD is an obvious choice to cross over to Republic.

40 minutes ago, Grumbleduke said:

Perhaps they're using the same production line for the Raider and SSD, and the Raider is being delayed while they finish off the SSD?

It would be so beautiful if X-wing had to wait for us in any way...

I fear this means the ssd won’t be out until quarter 1 of 2020 but I’m a pessimist.

1 minute ago, ninclouse2000 said:

I fear this means the ssd won’t be out until quarter 1 of 2020 but I’m a pessimist.

That's a whole year of delay from it's first stipulated release time! 😅😂

11 hours ago, Muelmuel said:

That's a whole year of delay from it's first stipulated release time! 😅😂

Sir Toppum Hat would be completely losing it.

4 minutes ago, Audio Weasel said:

Sir Toppum Hat would be completely losing it.

He would be more cross than a Rail Road crossing sign!

15 hours ago, Grumbleduke said:

The X-Wing Huge should be a lot simpler to sort out as there's nothing new there, other than the shield/energy dials. They should know how long it will take to produce, and should be fairly confident in their production system.

I wonder if we can read anything into the Raider being delayed? When they announced X-Wing 2-Huge they teased all three ships, yet are only doing two for now - and the Raider was the most expensive (and, I think, largest) of the old lot. Perhaps they're using the same production line for the Raider and SSD, and the Raider is being delayed while they finish off the SSD?

As you said, switching from X-Wing to the SSD then back to X-Wing wouldn't make much sense, but they started on the SSD; so your way would involve switching from the SSD to X-Wing then back to the SSD. The more sensible option might be to be working on the SSD, switch part of to over to X-Wing (CROC and CR90) while finishing off the SSD with the rest, then when the SSD is done change the rest over.

Could be. Either way you cut it, I don't the the huge ships are unrelated to the SSD delay.

I am also seeing a chance to grow local communities a little more. X-Wing has always been a death match game but with the excitement around the new Epic rules from it's community (assuming they are objective based as advertised), the smaller fleet scenarios & full campaign in Rebellion in the Rim, and Clone Wars on the horizon this may be the best time to start recruiting new players into Armada.

1 hour ago, codytx2 said:

I am also seeing a chance to grow local communities a little more. X-Wing has always been a death match game but with the excitement around the new Epic rules from it's community (assuming they are objective based as advertised), the smaller fleet scenarios & full campaign in Rebellion in the Rim, and Clone Wars on the horizon this may be the best time to start recruiting new players into Armada.

In my town many X-Wing players enjoy watching our Armada games when we steal a table away from them during their weekly event. Many have told me they really like the idea and general feel of Armada, but that they cannot afford the cash or time commitment of another game.

Many miniature games are lifestyle games, and while both Armada and X-Wing are less so than most others (assembly and painting required!), they are still huge investments for most people overall. By adding in new Huge ships that get more interest in X-Wing, I think that just further locks these players into their chosen ecosystem.

That said, your thoughts may yet be valid for bigger spenders or true Star Wars nerds, and the thematic overlap between all these things does lend itself well to expanding people into Armada. Good luck!

9 minutes ago, TheBigLev said:

In my town many X-Wing players enjoy watching our Armada games when we steal a table away from them during their weekly event. Many have told me they really like the idea and general feel of Armada, but that they cannot afford the cash or time commitment of another game.

Many miniature games are lifestyle games, and while both Armada and X-Wing are less so than most others (assembly and painting required!), they are still huge investments for most people overall. By adding in new Huge ships that get more interest in X-Wing, I think that just further locks these players into their chosen ecosystem.

That said, your thoughts may yet be valid for bigger spenders or true Star Wars nerds, and the thematic overlap between all these things does lend itself well to expanding people into Armada. Good luck!

I completely agree it is a double edged sword. If done well the new X-Wing products might offer enough of the Armada experience or simply enough of something new that X-Wing players see no need to justify a second miniatures game. And with how FFG overlaps their designers the new product lines might be outstanding in each game but too similar when compared to one another. Even w/ everything happening in a short time period I expect it to still be a tough sell. Thanks for the well wishes.