9 minutes ago, Mburnaugh64 said:I can agree with that but does it go beyond that issue? Is it Asmodee giving FFG a budget limit to what they can do? We don’t have all the facts in any case when there is a parent company.
Thats fair I guess when I say ffg I mean the whole updation so asmodee as well. Cause at the end if the day money is left the on table
4 minutes ago, Tirion said:Thats fair I guess when I say ffg I mean the whole updation so asmodee as well. Cause at the end if the day money is left the on table
Again I hole heartedly agree! But in the end I believe FFG has their hands tied. Parent companies like Asmodee are looking for the next dollar forgetting the rest! Look at WOTC and the MTG thing with all the over priced sparkling product. This is Hasbro telling them more cash more cash! In the end they are only driving the secondary market. The initial take is more important then the after take. In all the gaming world how many games have gone out of print when companies could sell more of current product just to release the “next best thing”?
Whether to blame Asmodee or not, I have no clue. All I know is that since the very beginning of this game, FFG has shown me two things:
1) That they can design one **** of a kickass game that’s super fun.
2) They are really universally terrible at almost everything that goes along with that. They can’t effectively market, hype, stock, or support their games.
But they’re so good at “1,” that I forgive them for “2.”
4 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:Whether to blame Asmodee or not, I have no clue. All I know is that since the very beginning of this game, FFG has shown me two things:
1) That they can design one **** of a kickass game that’s super fun.
2) They are really universally terrible at almost everything that goes along with that. They can’t effectively market, hype, stock, or support their games.
But they’re so good at “1,” that I forgive them for “2.”
You know how right that is!!! I actually had ordered the expansion to Fallout from them just as the protests happened up there. Two post offices were burned down and my package was lost. It took me a month of emails, tweets, calling the Asmodee corporate offices but finally they sent me another one. So yes I forgave them! Love their games!!!
2 minutes ago, Mburnaugh64 said:You know how right that is!!! I actually had ordered the expansion to Fallout from them just as the protests happened up there. Two post offices were burned down and my package was lost. It took me a month of emails, tweets, calling the Asmodee corporate offices but finally they sent me another one. So yes I forgave them! Love their games!!!
Oh man! Glad you eventually got your game!
Getting back into Armada after a couple years off, and this is a real problem. $170 on Amazon for a mc30? $140 on eBay for the Arquiten? This needs to change.
2 hours ago, Gadsden said:Getting back into Armada after a couple years off, and this is a real problem. $170 on Amazon for a mc30? $140 on eBay for the Arquiten? This needs to change.
Unfortunately you have to be patient and wait, with this virus stuff, factory delays from China etc it’s a big problem. FFG is usually slow to restock anyway now it’s just crazy!! if you have a local B&N check there as I know there is an MC30 at the Coral Gables Florida store. Other then that zilch. There is a small sellection of items on the Asmodee store and a small sellection on Atomic Empire in North Carolina.
https://www.atomicempire.com/Item/List?txt=Star Wars armada&cat=-1
Edited by Mburnaugh6415 minutes ago, Mburnaugh64 said:Unfortunately you have to be patient and wait, with this virus stuff, factory delays from China etc it’s a big problem. FFG is usually slow to restock anyway now it’s just crazy!! if you have a local B&N check there as I know there is an MC30 at the Coral Gables Florida store. Other then that zilch. There is a small sellection of items on the Asmodee store and a small sellection on Atomic Empire in North Carolina.
https://www.atomicempire.com/Item/List?txt=Star Wars armada&cat=-1
I don't think it's justified to blame the COVID-19 pandemic on Armada's stock shortages (or Legion or X-Wing). That was a pre-existing problem. I haven't been able to get more Arquitens for over 2 years, I only recently was able to buy a Quasar Fire expansion (which sold out a few days later), and I haven't been able to find a MSRP-priced Rogues & Villains expansion for over a year.
I realize that stock availability can vary by region, but in general, there's definitely an Armada product shortage and it's a chronic problem that I attribute to FFG prioritizing Legion and X-Wing over Armada. Probably X-Wing more than Legion because I'm certain that the Chinese factories (or the machines) that print Legion miniatures are different than the ones that print Armada ships -- but could be the same as the ones that print X-Wing ships.
Also, I bet that the Chinese factories that do print Armada products are 100% allocated to Clone Wars Armada products, so it's unlikely we'll see restocks of existing Armada products until after the Clone Wars expansions are released, hopefully on-schedule in December.
...
Although, it kinda doesn't matter about Armada products being in-stock because it's a very bad idea to try to play Armada with random people, particularly if you live in the U.S. Playing Armada on Vassel or TTS is the safe and smart way to do it, and Armada stock shortages aren't a problem with those digital games.
It's a shame that FFG/Asmodee doesn't have a official Armada game app. It would be perfect in the current situation.
1 hour ago, Revan Reborn said:I don't think it's justified to blame the COVID-19 pandemic on Armada's stock shortages (or Legion or X-Wing). That was a pre-existing problem. I haven't been able to get more Arquitens for over 2 years, I only recently was able to buy a Quasar Fire expansion (which sold out a few days later), and I haven't been able to find a MSRP-priced Rogues & Villains expansion for over a year.
I realize that stock availability can vary by region, but in general, there's definitely an Armada product shortage and it's a chronic problem that I attribute to FFG prioritizing Legion and X-Wing over Armada. Probably X-Wing more than Legion because I'm certain that the Chinese factories (or the machines) that print Legion miniatures are different than the ones that print Armada ships -- but could be the same as the ones that print X-Wing ships.
Also, I bet that the Chinese factories that do print Armada products are 100% allocated to Clone Wars Armada products, so it's unlikely we'll see restocks of existing Armada products until after the Clone Wars expansions are released, hopefully on-schedule in December.
...
Although, it kinda doesn't matter about Armada products being in-stock because it's a very bad idea to try to play Armada with random people, particularly if you live in the U.S. Playing Armada on Vassel or TTS is the safe and smart way to do it, and Armada stock shortages aren't a problem with those digital games.
It's a shame that FFG/Asmodee doesn't have a official Armada game app. It would be perfect in the current situation.
Rogues & Villains. Amazon. $19.03.
FYI, Rebel and Imperial Squad 1 packs are available in the FFG Store.
16 hours ago, Admiral Calkins said:Rogues & Villains. Amazon. $19.03.
Thanks, but shipping, import fees, and currency conversion would make it ultimately cost more than a VSD or Home One expansion.
Getting a 2nd Rogues & Villains pack is a want, not a need, so I only want to pay MSRP for it, and support my LGS, if possible. I've been patient this long, I can wait a little longer for a restock.
One thing that hurts product availability here in the US lately other than corona is the fact that the distribution chain has changed. Asmodee stopped using alliance as a their distributor here (which is a good thing), and has become a distributor themselves (hopefully a good thing??).
Most product in all their games has been going out of stock leading up to this changeover that took place this month. There have been relatively new X-Wing and legion products our local store just wasn’t able to order for a month and half at least while alliance still had distribution rights. I believe Asmodee just was not sending new stock to them the last couple of months since they were going to be taking over distribution themselves. On a related note though, I've played X-Wing since 2013, there have always been things that people want and sell out quickly only to fetch more on secondary markets. Hopefully some of these supply issues will decrease with the parent company now being the sole distributor in the US.
I hope that the FFG supply shortage will be resolved now that Asmodee has taken over distribution -- but if it doesn't improve, or gets worse, Asmodee will only have themselves to blame.
I mentioned the problem of buying an Arquitens in a previous comment, which I know is a rampant problem for Imperial players. What I'm wondering -- and concerned about -- is if and when the Arquitens is released as a Galactic Republic ship expansion, will that make the Arquitens shortage better or worse?
Because then there will be two different expansions for the same plastic ship model (although the Republic version will probably have a different paint job), meaning it's more likely that there will be shortages of one or both of those Arquitens expansions. I think that FFG would be smart to make the Republic Arquitens a cross-faction ship by including the Imperial Arquitens ship cards, upgrade cards, and cardboard bases in it.
On 7/6/2020 at 12:09 AM, Mburnaugh64 said:
nvm. didnt read ahead
Edited by JKShulenburgOn 7/20/2020 at 6:32 PM, Revan Reborn said:I hope that the FFG supply shortage will be resolved now that Asmodee has taken over distribution -- but if it doesn't improve, or gets worse, Asmodee will only have themselves to blame.
I mentioned the problem of buying an Arquitens in a previous comment, which I know is a rampant problem for Imperial players. What I'm wondering -- and concerned about -- is if and when the Arquitens is released as a Galactic Republic ship expansion, will that make the Arquitens shortage better or worse?
Because then there will be two different expansions for the same plastic ship model (although the Republic version will probably have a different paint job), meaning it's more likely that there will be shortages of one or both of those Arquitens expansions. I think that FFG would be smart to make the Republic Arquitens a cross-faction ship by including the Imperial Arquitens ship cards, upgrade cards, and cardboard bases in it.
You kind of hit on it at the end there but I have a theory that one POSSIBLE reason for the shortage of some ships is because they will also appear in Clone Wars era factions. This includes the Arquitens, Pelta, VSD, Gozanti and possibly more. Because maintaining SKU's can become an issue for any company they MAY be repackaging the ships as dual faction, so one Ship then ship cards for each faction, Separate Ship tokens if needed, and Unique faction locked upgrades like commanders, officers, and titles.
All said and done though I really hope that FFG is getting ships ready for re-release, dual faction or not, for the launch of Clone Wars. It only makes sense from their perspective and from a player perspective.
I say this being a long time player that is well stocked on ships. The only way to grow the player base is to get stock back out there and we all benefit when there are more players.
Edited by ThrindalFirst I’m not trying to say that this has not been a problem with reprints on any game (look at Arkham Horror LCG most products are out of stock on the LGS level) BUT Asmodee has been cracking skulls, money is the issue and my thoughts are the handling is FFG all together. The fact that Andrew Navarro “stepped down” is a big part, question is did he step down or was he asked to leave?? the thing to most consider is the MONEY! And it effects all their games. Look what happened with 2.0 X-Wing rereleases the Saw’s Renegades, Tie Reaper and the huge Raider. FFG claimed they were “not printed” a couple weeks before release due to too much 1st edition stock. Now mysteriously they are back up for preorder on Cool Stuff and other sites. Looking at the Asmodee store these 1st edition items are now out of stock. So they need to move product which sets back everything to be reprinted. As I said before it’s the next thing that will be printed first.
Game Nerds has the Chimera Expansion pack for $40 USD for anyone who wants a ISD
https://www.gamenerdz.com/star-wars-armada-chimaera-expansion-pack
On 7/5/2020 at 10:15 AM, flatpackhamster said:The notion that I am going to go and spend £75 on spaceships I won't ever use just to get a couple of cards is so totally cock-eyed I can't conceive of it as a business model. Especially - ESPECIALLY - when they can't even put sufficient stock on the shelves to get new players in to the game.
This is something X-wing 2.0 did that Armada could seriously learn from by having all upgrades cards easily available and not 'locked' into 1 ship.
Like **** I can remember a guy who spent £50 on a liberty when it first came out just to get 1 Skilled First Officer for his tournament list....
On 7/6/2020 at 4:32 AM, Revan Reborn said:I agree. The Armada stock shortage is unfortunate and disappointing. It's never a good thing when customers want to buy a company's products but they can't because of stock shortages. Every customer who can't buy an Armada expansion is a lost sale for FFG. It's inconceivable why FFG would allow that to happen.
The only explanation I can think of is that the Chinese factories that print all of FFG's products have limited capacity and they're prioritizing Legion and X-Wing expansions over Armada. Another factor could be the few production lines that are allocated for printing Armada products have probably been used for Clone Wars Armada, which is why there haven't been restocks of existing Armada expansions.
Yes, Asmodee UK is out of stock of X-wing and Armada per my last email to them. Which is quite big considering its both games.
On 7/17/2020 at 7:46 PM, Revan Reborn said:I realize that stock availability can vary by region, but in general, there's definitely an Armada product shortage and it's a chronic problem that I attribute to FFG prioritizing Legion and X-Wing over Armada. Probably X-Wing more than Legion because I'm certain that the Chinese factories (or the machines) that print Legion miniatures are different than the ones that print Armada ships -- but could be the same as the ones that print X-Wing ships.
There's a lot of competition for the machines, and priority - even within Armada itself - is going to go to new content over reprints of existing. Isn't that one of the things that almost killed Destiny back in the day? Not having enough supply for legacy ships sucks, but not having sufficient supply for everyone who wants CW Armada content would do serious damage. I don't have any particular insights into their process, except for this announcement back in November...
QuoteReprints of early ships: November 29 (locked in): Rebel Fighter Pack, Imperial Fighter Pack, Dice Pack, Imperial-class Star Destroyer, and Raider-class.
Upcoming (scheduled, not set in stone): Core Set, Imperial Light Cruiser – December Nebulon-B Frigate, Assault Frigate Mark II, Gladiator-class Star Destroyer, Rogues and Villains, Interdictor-class Star Destroyer, Imperial Fighter Squadrons II – March
It seems like reprints were pretty active up to that point. There's currently nothing in the queue, and it's reasonable to think that might be corona-related.
On 6/25/2020 at 9:39 PM, scipio83 said:The price is driven by buyers in all of those cases. If people weren’t willing to spend $40 for an arquitens, stores wouldn’t be able to price them so high. Demand exceeds current supply, so prices go up.
I don't like this take because it's an *artificial* demand being created by speculation. We've had this discussion before, though.
It's unfair to ask FFG to, essentially, overproduce Arquitens and oversaturate the market in order to prevent something like this. Arguably, FFG's "right move" would be to increase MSRP on the Arquitens to $40 and produce exactly the same amount as they have been. FFG *chooses* to continue to sell them at $20 for their own reasons, not least of which is to encourage new players to join the game.
I think we can agree that economies do not operate in a moral vacuum. People are perfectly justified in calling out Empire games for profiteering, regardless of whether it's "not illegal" or whether "it takes two to tango."
12 hours ago, rasproteus said:There's a lot of competition for the machines, and priority - even within Armada itself - is going to go to new content over reprints of existing. Isn't that one of the things that almost killed Destiny back in the day? Not having enough supply for legacy ships sucks, but not having sufficient supply for everyone who wants CW Armada content would do serious damage.
This video provides insight on a probable reason why there's an Armada product shortage from the head of Asmodee Publishing himself:
Based on this video, it seems like Asmodee is more concerned about their games sitting in distributors' warehouses, unsold, than producing enough supply to meet the demand, so they're deliberating under-producing Armada and their other board games.
The interview was back in early March before the COVID-19 was acknowledged as a pandemic, and I don't think they made any reference to it in the video, which means that what they were talking about was Asmodee's production and publishing philosophy unrelated to COVID-19-caused supply shortages.
Logically, if Asmodee had been reprinting Armada products before the pandemic hit, even if shipping was delayed by the shutdown, that stock should've arrived by now. But aside from a limited amount of Imperial Light Carrier expansions being restocked a month or two ago, there hasn't been any other Armada restocks -- not even a second batch of Onagers and Starhawks.
12 hours ago, rasproteus said:It's unfair to ask FFG to, essentially, overproduce Arquitens and oversaturate the market in order to prevent something like this. Arguably, FFG's "right move" would be to increase MSRP on the Arquitens to $40 and produce exactly the same amount as they have been. FFG *chooses* to continue to sell them at $20 for their own reasons, not least of which is to encourage new players to join the game.
FFG/Asmodee wouldn't be "over-producing" Arquitens expansions, it would be producing enough to meet the demand. Imperial players have been trying to get Arquitens for over 3 years. I'm only aware of 2 Arquitens restocks after the initial December 2016 release: the first was in December 2018 and the second was January 2020, which coincided with the Wave 8 release. And both restocks sold out in a matter of days. That's not "over-producing"; that's not even meeting demand.
I strongly disagree that the "right move" for FFG/Asmodee is to increase the MSRP on the Imperial Light Cruiser expansion to $40. The Arquitnes is a small ship and it comes in a small plastic package, therefore it's priced at the $20 Armada tier just like CR90s, Neb-Bs, and Raiders. Doubling the price to $40, which is the same as large Armada ships, would be completely unjustifiable. That would be Asmodee profiteering on their own product instead of producing sufficient Arquitens expansions to meet the demand.
There's no reason for Asmodee not to produce a ton of Arquitens because it's also a Clone Wars ship; even if every Imperial players was finally able to get all the Arqs they wanted and there was suddenly a surplus of Arqs on store shelves, they could be re-purposed into Republic Arqs. They could either be recalled and repackaged; or, more practically, FFG could produce a simple Republic Arquitens card-&-cardboard conversion kit so customers could buy the Imperial Light Cruisers and the Republic Arq kit, and use them as Republic Arqs. And Imperial players that also wanted to play as the Republic would just need to buy the Republic Arq conversion kits to use the Imperial Arqs they already own for the Republic.
5 hours ago, Revan Reborn said:Based on this video, it seems like Asmodee is more concerned about their games sitting in distributors' warehouses, unsold, than producing enough supply to meet the demand, so they're deliberating under-producing Armada and their other board games.
Respectfully, I watched the video and that's not what he said at all. He said that there are sometimes 100 different games released every week and that no retailer could stock them all - let alone be widely-purchased - and that as a result, many of those games just sit on shelves in stores or at distribution. His philosophy, paraphrased, was to release fewer games, but support them more heavily. That would imply more expansions and corporate support for the games tha they do release.
5 hours ago, Revan Reborn said:FFG/Asmodee wouldn't be "over-producing" Arquitens expansions, it would be producing enough to meet the demand. Imperial players have been trying to get Arquitens for over 3 years. I'm only aware of 2 Arquitens restocks after the initial December 2016 release: the first was in December 2018 and the second was January 2020, which coincided with the Wave 8 release. And both restocks sold out in a matter of days. That's not "over-producing"; that's not even meeting demand.
I strongly disagree that the "right move" for FFG/Asmodee is to increase the MSRP on the Imperial Light Cruiser expansion to $40. The Arquitnes is a small ship and it comes in a small plastic package, therefore it's priced at the $20 Armada tier just like CR90s, Neb-Bs, and Raiders. Doubling the price to $40, which is the same as large Armada ships, would be completely unjustifiable. That would be Asmodee profiteering on their own product instead of producing sufficient Arquitens expansions to meet the demand.
This was a response to someone else, and I am afraid that I was not clear: one of the proposed solutions to "scalpers" was to simply produce more Arquitens expansions (as an example). For some practical numbers, let's say there are 500 players out there who want to purchase an Arq, but there are five stores who will buy up to 100 of them to mark up and resell at double MSRP. That would imply that there's a market for 1000 expansions, but if there are enough reprinted to satisfy the demands of the 500 players, then the stores may recognize that the market demand is met and not buy any. In that scenario, FFG has now overproduced 500 Arquitens which 1) cost them money, 2) need to be warehoused, and 3) could have been a different expansion that would have sold.
In a free-market capitalist scenario, a company could potentially address the issue by raising the price (to $40) - it's generally better to sell half as many at double the price - and while it would unfortunately cause issues for players, it would also potentially eliminate the "scalpers" from the market by both doubling their risk and lowering the return. I wasn't suggesting that they do this, it was part of the broader point of how a company might address the issue of scalping.
5 hours ago, Revan Reborn said:There's no reason for Asmodee not to produce a ton of Arquitens because it's also a Clone Wars ship; even if every Imperial players was finally able to get all the Arqs they wanted and there was suddenly a surplus of Arqs on store shelves, they could be re-purposed into Republic Arqs. They could either be recalled and repackaged; or, more practically, FFG could produce a simple Republic Arquitens card-&-cardboard conversion kit so customers could buy the Imperial Light Cruisers and the Republic Arq kit, and use them as Republic Arqs. And Imperial players that also wanted to play as the Republic would just need to buy the Republic Arq conversion kits to use the Imperial Arqs they already own for the Republic.
That's certainly clever, assuming there are plans for a CW-era Arq, but that's a very specific solution to a very specific problem. It ignores all of the other expansions that are facing the same kinds of issues.
12 hours ago, rasproteus said:Respectfully, I watched the video and that's not what he said at all. He said that there are sometimes 100 different games released every week and that no retailer could stock them all - let alone be widely-purchased - and that as a result, many of those games just sit on shelves in stores or at distribution. His philosophy, paraphrased, was to release fewer games, but support them more heavily. That would imply more expansions and corporate support for the games tha they do release.
All I heard was corporate-speak to justify Asmodee's questionable decisions.
There might be 100 different games released every week, but they're not all Asmodee games. Asmodee shouldn't care if other publishers' games sit on retailer shelves or take up space in distributors' warehouses; only if their games do. If Asmodee consistently makes great games, retailers will stock their games and they will sell, whereas other publishers' games will sit on the shelf. So my take away from what he said is "There are sometimes 100 different games released every week... and we at Asmodee don't believe we can compete with them, so we're going to release fewer games to minimize our losses."
That's basically conceding defeat instead of doing something to try and win.
Also, where's the evidence that Asmodee is supporting their games "more heavily" now that they're releasing fewer games? We all know there's an Armada stock shortage, which has been going on for more than 6 months -- and years for expansions like the Imperial Light Cruiser. Legion generally has more in-stock, but mostly older, less popular expansions, like expansions for Core set units, Snowtroopers, and Fleet Troopers; and Commanders, which players only need one of. Whereas it's incredibly been difficult to find Death Troopers for more than a year. And the newest expansions (B2, Phase 2 Clones, and CW vehicles) are virtually all sold out. That means that Asmodee isn't producing enough products -- and they can't use COVID-19 as an excuse because this problem has been going on for years.
It would be different if Asmodee reduced the number of games they released AND there was steady supply of restocks, so customers could always buy what they wanted. That would mean Asmodee's new production philosophy was working, there'd be nothing to criticize, and I'd give credit where credit is do. However, that's clearly not the case.
12 hours ago, rasproteus said:This was a response to someone else, and I am afraid that I was not clear: one of the proposed solutions to "scalpers" was to simply produce more Arquitens expansions (as an example). For some practical numbers, let's say there are 500 players out there who want to purchase an Arq, but there are five stores who will buy up to 100 of them to mark up and resell at double MSRP. That would imply that there's a market for 1000 expansions, but if there are enough reprinted to satisfy the demands of the 500 players, then the stores may recognize that the market demand is met and not buy any. In that scenario, FFG has now overproduced 500 Arquitens which 1) cost them money, 2) need to be warehoused, and 3) could have been a different expansion that would have sold.
It's my understanding that retailers don't buy directly from Asmodee; they all source products from a distributor. And distributors generally don't show favouritism to any one retailer in their supply chain. Therefore, if 1 retailer out of 50 tried to order 300 of the available 500 Imperial Light Cruiser expansions, the distributor would not fulfill that order. They'd ship 10 ILCs each to the 50 retailers they supply.
Furthermore, I don't understand why products sitting in a warehouse or on store shelves for any amount of time is such a terrible problem for the board game industry, because it's not for most other industries. Sure, products taking up valuable space and gathering dust for years is bad. But if a retailer ordered 20 ILC expansions, immediately sold 15 of them, and the remaining 5 took a few months to sell, that's not a problem. Retailers would rather have products to sell than not. And distributors should carry a stock surplus in their warehouses so they can fulfill new orders, rather than always having to order more from the supplier and forcing the retail store to wait. Again, there's a difference between holding stock that never sells versus stock that just hasn't sold yet, but will in a matter of weeks or months.
There's a reason why Amazon is one of the few retailers that still has Armada products: They order and carry enough Armada products in their warehouses to fulfill long-term demand. Whereas board game shops and their distributors seem to only order enough stock to fulfill pre-orders and maybe a few extras, and if and when they sell out, they've got nothing for months. That's not good business. Customers will just buy products from Amazon instead.
12 hours ago, rasproteus said:In a free-market capitalist scenario, a company could potentially address the issue by raising the price (to $40) - it's generally better to sell half as many at double the price - and while it would unfortunately cause issues for players, it would also potentially eliminate the "scalpers" from the market by both doubling their risk and lowering the return. I wasn't suggesting that they do this, it was part of the broader point of how a company might address the issue of scalping.
Profiteering is not pro-consumer and is a example of one of the worst aspects of free market capitalism. You seem to be more concerned with countering "scalpers" than Armada players being able to get expansions for a fair price. It's simple: If Asmodee produced enough Imperial Light Cruiser expansions to meet the demand, customers would only buy them from retailers at the MSRP and there wouldn't be scarcity that scalpers could exploit.
12 hours ago, rasproteus said:That's certainly clever, assuming there are plans for a CW-era Arq, but that's a very specific solution to a very specific problem. It ignores all of the other expansions that are facing the same kinds of issues.
This is a unique problem with the Imperial Light Cruiser -- and the Imperial Light Carrier, to a less extent (presumably because there's less need for multiple Quasar Fire carriers). Historically, there haven't been supply shortages of CR90s, Neb-B's, or Raiders -- there are only shortages now because all Armada products are sold out. It's far more common for players to run multiple CR90s than multiple Arqs, so I think that Asmodee has really dropped the ball with ILCs.
A cross-faction Arquitens expansion will solve the problem now and in the future. It's a far better idea than Asmodee reprinting the ILC, then releasing a Republic Arquitens expansion in Clone Wars Armada Wave 3 or later, and risk having the same Republic Arq stock shortage problem for years, while unsold ILCs sit on the shelf.
I think it's understandable that a company doesn't want to see warehouses full of stock they can't sell. That's sunk money. However in my opinion (the opinion of someone who hasn't ever operated a business which sells actual lumps of stuff to people), FFG made a rod for their own back with their sales model. Scalpers can scalp because the only way to get all of the cards is to buy ships you don't want or need.
I've written before that I think they should operate a print-on-demand service for cards from their website and I am certain that this would solve the majority of the problems with price gouging.
Onagers are back in stock in the uk, at several stores. Some also have Assault Frigates.
Probably not in large numbers though.