Forgive me if this has been covered.

I am looking forward to the Clone Wars Armada stuff with cautious optimism. I’m not personally as interested in the source material, but more Armada is good. Anyway, my biggest fear is that we’ve seen the last of the Galactic Civil War-era expansions (at least, probably) for a while. Do we know yet if the generic upgrades we get with the CW ships are going to be compatible with the GCW stuff? That is, if they give us new, non-unique Turbolaser or Defensive Retrofit (or whatever) upgrades, can we use them in the Imperial and Rebel fleets we’re already flying? I haven’t ever played X-Wing, or any other miniatures games, so I lack context. But I’m hoping that if there are balance issues after this last GCW wave, they’ll be able to address them in a sort of sideways manner by throwing us the occasional bone via upgrades we can put on our GCW ships. Is this likely? Have they said anything officially on the subject?

As long as a card doesn't have a faction symbol, any faction may use it.

So if Clone Wars gives us new Turbolasers and Defensive Retros, you can stick them on your Rebel of Imp ships.

But theoretically they could make say a non-unique "boarding" upgrade that's thematically linked to jedi, and give it the Republic icon. Then only the republic ships could use it. Or something something droid, that has the Separatist symbol.

Both X-Wing and Legion have stepped into the clone wars by now. Given that both of them are made FFG too, we can extrapolate a lot from them. So far none of them has put the existing factions on hold and instead just released more new faction than old faction stuff. Upgrades will be shared, although there's hope that there will be a lot of reprints in the CW expansions to not force players of those factions to buy the old stuff (esp. given the limited availability of several expansions).

4 hours ago, Green Knight said:

As long as a card doesn't have a faction symbol, any faction may use it.

So if Clone Wars gives us new Turbolasers and Defensive Retros, you can stick them on your Rebel of Imp ships.

But theoretically they could make say a non-unique "boarding" upgrade that's thematically linked to jedi, and give it the Republic icon. Then only the republic ships could use it. Or something something droid, that has the Separatist symbol.

Yes, I understand the system. I was just wondering if they were likely to slap an icon on the new (generic) upgrades which limited them to “Clone Wars-era only” ships or something.

1 hour ago, LennoxPoodle said:

Both X-Wing and Legion have stepped into the clone wars by now. Given that both of them are made FFG too, we can extrapolate a lot from them. So far none of them has put the existing factions on hold and instead just released more new faction than old faction stuff. Upgrades will be shared, although there's hope that there will be a lot of reprints in the CW expansions to not force players of those factions to buy the old stuff (esp. given the limited availability of several expansions).

So it doesn’t sound like they’re likely to do the thing I hope they don’t do. Great!

15 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

So it doesn’t sound like they’re likely to do the thing I hope they don’t do. Great!

They previously said on stream that their intent was to nit only ramp up the release schedule to fill out the new factions quicker, but additionally try to adhere to the legion idea of alternating 2-4 new faction, 1 old faction in release scheduling.

But everything is up in the air until it starts.

I hope we get a third campaign style box for the Empire and Rebels before the clone wars starts. I'd like to see squadron 2 pack get their second ace and unique squadron.

25 minutes ago, Grathew said:

I hope we get a third campaign style box for the Empire and Rebels before the clone wars starts. I'd like to see squadron 2 pack get their second ace and unique squadron.

Doubtful - since the clone wars initial release was shevduked for the end of the year, and we just got RitR... I’d be less surprised if a campaign or pack plugging that gap would be the par of the first GCW release after the clone wars release....

... but that’s crazy unfounded speculation on my part.

36 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

I was just wondering if they were likely to slap an icon on the new (generic) upgrades which limited them to “Clone Wars-era only” ships or something.

I am pretty sure that they will implement some new Icons or Keywords that will only apply for the CW ships or squadrons - like DRIOD, FORCE or similar...

4 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

Doubtful - since the clone wars initial release was shevduked for the end of the year, and we just got RitR... I’d be less surprised if a campaign or pack plugging that gap would be the par of the first GCW release after the clone wars release....

... but that’s crazy unfounded speculation on my part.

But after a while, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for CW campaigns. So much material. Go Ani! Go Ashoka! Go Obi!

What are people's plans once the Clone Wars arrives? Do you plan to invest in both factions? One faction? Neither?

I am not the biggest fan of the prequel era, but I could see myself investing in the Separtists, both for gameplay and thematic reasons. I prefer to have a story hook for my at-home matches, and it's easy enough to imagine a rogue, cut-off Separatist fleet of battle droids duking it out with Rebels and Imperials (as seen in the Star Wars: Rebels episode, "The Last Battle"). Either way, I think the Separatists might be worth it for the "space donut" alone -- that thing is sure to look amazing on the table (I also have a suspicion that we'll see the Subjugator as a Huge ship with double Ignition arcs, which would be awesome).

10 minutes ago, Rmcarrier1 said:

What are people's plans once the Clone Wars arrives? Do you plan to invest in both factions? One faction? Neither?

I am not the biggest fan of the prequel era, but I could see myself investing in the Separtists, both for gameplay and thematic reasons. I prefer to have a story hook for my at-home matches, and it's easy enough to imagine a rogue, cut-off Separatist fleet of battle droids duking it out with Rebels and Imperials (as seen in the Star Wars: Rebels episode, "The Last Battle"). Either way, I think the Separatists might be worth it for the "space donut" alone -- that thing is sure to look amazing on the table (I also have a suspicion that we'll see the Subjugator as a Huge ship with double Ignition arcs, which would be awesome).

All of it.

Yep, all of it.
Especially if there’s any love for the Alliance/Empire in the new stuff. Gimme dem upgrades and new Objectives!

I know there’s a lot of hope that some of the ships could be released as dual-faction Republic/Empire or [insert new faction here]/Rebel ships, too. Is there any precedent for this in X-Wing or Legion?

2 hours ago, Rmcarrier1 said:

What are people's plans once the Clone Wars arrives? Do you plan to invest in both factions? One faction? Neither?

I am not the biggest fan of the prequel era, but I could see myself investing in the Separtists, both for gameplay and thematic reasons. I prefer to have a story hook for my at-home matches, and it's easy enough to imagine a rogue, cut-off Separatist fleet of battle droids duking it out with Rebels and Imperials (as seen in the Star Wars: Rebels episode, "The Last Battle"). Either way, I think the Separatists might be worth it for the "space donut" alone -- that thing is sure to look amazing on the table (I also have a suspicion that we'll see the Subjugator as a Huge ship with double Ignition arcs, which would be awesome).

All of it with the sepratists taking priority.

Just now, Cpt ObVus said:

I know there’s a lot of hope that some of the ships could be released as dual-faction Republic/Empire or [insert new faction here]/Rebel ships, too. Is there any precedent for this in X-Wing or Legion?

X-Wing Second Edition Epic Play has dual-faction ships (but just one ship model shared across both factions - i.e., no unique repaints for each).

11 minutes ago, Rmcarrier1 said:

X-Wing Second Edition Epic Play has dual-faction ships (but just one ship model shared across both factions - i.e., no unique repaints for each).

That’s cool. I’m betting the Rebels would be happy to use a salvaged cruiser without repainting it first. And the Empire continued to use Acclamators & Venators through the early part of the GCW, right? No need to repaint those.

I would actually be sort of annoyed if they tried to sell us repaints just to get the alternate faction cards. I thought the Chimaera was a bit of a bummer in that respect.

X-wing has a few.

The Y-wing is both Rebel and Scum, for example.

Rebels also have access to TIE Fighters.

Then there is the Falcon/YT-1300. In different versions available to 3 factions.

ARC is both Rebel and Republic.

But it's a short list really.

14 hours ago, Green Knight said:

As long as a card doesn't have a faction symbol, any faction may use it.

So if Clone Wars gives us new Turbolasers and Defensive Retros, you can stick them on your Rebel of Imp ships.

But theoretically they could make say a non-unique "boarding" upgrade that's thematically linked to jedi, and give it the Republic icon. Then only the republic ships could use it. Or something something droid, that has the Separatist symbol.

As they will most likely be releasing a new core set they could just stop any cross over all together at 400pts, meaning if the upgrade comes in a CW box it can't be used in the OT game.

They could also say the opposite and have things like Venators in OT games for different stats to reflect age etc

7 hours ago, EbonHawk said:

As they will most likely be releasing a new core set they could just stop any cross over all together at 400pts, meaning if the upgrade comes in a CW box it can't be used in the OT game.

They could also say the opposite and have things like Venators in OT games for different stats to reflect age etc

They could do either of those.

But I think it both unlikely in the extreme.

Oh, I dunno... there’s nothing stopping them from selling us a Venator with “Republic Cruiser” and “Imperial Refit” cards. They could fiddle with the dice and squadron values and points cost a bit, as they always do, and give all the Imperial-only players some incentive to pick up a ship. Just seems smart to me.

54 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Oh, I dunno... there’s nothing stopping them from selling us a Venator with “Republic Cruiser” and “Imperial Refit” cards. They could fiddle with the dice and squadron values and points cost a bit, as they always do, and give all the Imperial-only players some incentive to pick up a ship. Just seems smart to me.

Thing is, why wait for clone wars if that was going to happen?

Nebulons, Quasar (with Phoenix Nest title)... There was plenty of opportunity.

The issue isn’t a thematic one, it’s a gameplay one.

Design has an intent to keep each faction distinct in its own right. At the point you start crossing you start diluting - which totally can work thematically, don’t get me wrong, but it disarms the incentive for entire faction play more than it encourages single box pickup “on the long term”.

Generally speaking.

If they were to change them up to keep factional differences in a meaningful way, the changes are so blatant and different that it may as well amount to a Chimaera style release in the end.

2 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Oh, I dunno... there’s nothing stopping them from *selling us a Venator with “Republic Cruiser” and then selling a new upgrade pack for the “Imperial Refit” cards. They could fiddle with the dice and squadron values and points cost a bit, as they always do, and give all the Imperial-only players some incentive to pick up a ship. Just seems smart to me.

4 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Oh, I dunno... there’s nothing stopping them from selling us a Venator with “Republic Cruiser” and “Imperial Refit” cards. They could fiddle with the dice and squadron values and points cost a bit, as they always do, and give all the Imperial-only players some incentive to pick up a ship. Just seems smart to me.

Because, based on how FFG actually operates, this doesn't happen.

It's not impossible.

Just extremely unlikely.

22 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

Doubtful - since the clone wars initial release was shevduked for the end of the year, and we just got RitR... I’d be less surprised if a campaign or pack plugging that gap would be the par of the first GCW release after the clone wars release....

... but that’s crazy unfounded speculation on my part.

It doesn't need to be a full campaign, just the squadron 2 uniques and aces. Maybe another round of upgrade cards. It just feels wierd to do rouges and villans than not finish the civil war squadron packs before moving on to the clone wars.

Anyway I'm hoping we get to see some cross faction ships mostly a republic Victory, Pelta, and Arquitens. Empire Venators would be cool, but I don't see where they would have a place beside the ISD. The ISD 1 for example can be a squadron 5 carrier with boosted comms. Add any of the token generation officers to the Empire and you can get squadron 6 out of it. For the cheaper options you have Harrow to be mini-Squall and Squall both comming in tens of points lower. Unless there is a niche I'm not seeing in the Imperial Carrier options, I doubt we will get Venators for the empire.

26 minutes ago, Grathew said:

Unless there is a niche I'm not seeing in the Imperial Carrier options, I doubt we will get Venators for the empire.

I think there is a very big hole in imperial large ships: The broadside large ship. That would be a nice "niche" the Venator would fit in perfectly.

1 hour ago, LordCola said:

I think there is a very big hole in imperial large ships: The broadside large ship. That would be a nice "niche" the Venator would fit in perfectly.

You aren't wrong, but I don't feel that is something the empire should have. Also I think the Venator should be a double arc ship akin to the Mc75, something else missing in the empire's large ship line up.