FFG has been relatively quiet about Clone Wars Armada ever since Virtual GenCon (which is never a good sign IMO), but traditionally, FFG posts Previews for their upcoming product within a month of their scheduled release dates. Since the Clone Wars Armada expansions are supposed to be released December 12, 2020, that would mean the Previews will probably be posted sometime in November .

Considering everything that will be going on in November -- The Mandalorian Season 2, 2nd Wave of COVID-19, Xbox Series X & Playstation 5 launches, US Pres election fallout, Black Friday, etc. -- it might be difficult to cut through all the noise, which is why I think that FFG would be smart to do their Clone Wars Armada Previews a little early, in October .

What do you think?

Also, since Wave 2 of CWA is scheduled to be released in Q1 2021, possibly as early as January, hopefully FFG will be posting a reveal article/video of Wave 2 soon .

Theyve already said they wont do early reveals, late november december

I think we might see the upgrade card pack and dials "preview" first. Hoping October, if not then I suspect they will reveal eveything in November.

November, one month out. As for wave one (or two, I don't count the starters as a "wave") it depends on the true release date. I am doubting it will be January, I suspect February if we are lucky but likely March. They don't want to cut into Starter sales by going too fast. I would suspect a reveal article late December for the first wave, unless the actual release date is January then November.

Either way I hope more people pick up this game. Seems to be dead right now in my area (Central Ohio)

4 hours ago, Thrindal said:

November, one month out. As for wave one (or two, I don't count the starters as a "wave") it depends on the true release date. I am doubting it will be January, I suspect February if we are lucky but likely March. They don't want to cut into Starter sales by going too fast. I would suspect a reveal article late December for the first wave, unless the actual release date is January then November.

As I said, I think November will be a poor choice to post any Previews for Clone Wars. Ignoring the political crap, the launch of Xbox Series X/S and Playstation 5 will presumably dominate gaming-related news for November, so if FFG posts any previews for their upcoming products -- not just Clone Wars Armada -- it probably won't get much attention and won't translate to higher sales on release (which is mostly the point).

I don't know how CWA pre-orders are going everywhere, but at my LGS, they have "10+" stock for all Clone Wars pre-orders, whereas pre-orders for upcoming X-Wing and Legion expansions are down to single digits or sold out. So it definitely couldn't hurt for FFG to make more of an effort to promote Clone Wars Armada. If they continue to remain radio silent, they're setting up CWA for failure.

I'm uncertain whether the Venator/Providence/Recusant/Pelta are Wave 1 or 2. I think the longer the wait is between the CW Starters release date and the Venator/Providence release date, the more likely the latter will be classified as Wave 2. For GCW Armada, the Core set was released first and then the rest of Wave 1 was release a month later. So if the Venator/Providence are released in January , they'll probably be classified as Wave 1. Based on leaked information, the expected release date is January -- and the same source got the CW Starters release date correct.

Hopefully FFG will post the Venator/Province reveal soon. I think the Venator will get the most attention, while the Providence will be a close second, and revealing them will boost launch sales of the CW Starters.

22 minutes ago, Revan Reborn said:

As I said, I think November will be a poor choice to post any Previews for Clone Wars. Ignoring the political crap, the launch of Xbox Series X/S and Playstation 5 will presumably dominate gaming-related news for November, so if FFG posts any previews for their upcoming products -- not just Clone Wars Armada -- it probably won't get much attention and won't translate to higher sales on release (which is mostly the point).

I dont think it's the same market share. There really isn't a direct proof or relationship such that "if vidya game, no minis games" or vice versa. People might not have money for both but that's not the same thing.

People who were going to buy CW armada were going to no matter if the new Nintender comes out tomorrow.

22 minutes ago, Revan Reborn said:

If they continue to remain radio silent, they're setting up CWA for failure.

What? How are they radio silent? This is what they always do, the article will appear in November is my guess.

21 minutes ago, geek19 said:

I dont think it's the same market share. There really isn't a direct proof or relationship such that "if vidya game, no minis games" or vice versa. People might not have money for both but that's not the same thing.

People who were going to buy CW armada were going to no matter if the new Nintender comes out tomorrow.

There is definitely overlap between video gamers and board gamers, and unless you're filthy rich, they do compete for our disposable income. Existing Armada players are already invested in the game so they're far more likely to allocate money to buying the upcoming Clone Wars Armada expansions, whereas the new players that FFG/Asmodee are clearly coveting are less likely to budget money for buying the Clone Wars Starters after the next-gen consoles are released.

Also, as I explained, all the hype surrounding the XBSX and PS5 launch will drown out everything else -- my prediction is that there will be an noticeable decline in activity on this forum and the FFG website will receive fewer views in November because many gamers are preoccupied with the new consoles and games. If that's the case and FFG dogmatically posts its Clone Wars previews in November, I don't believe it will achieve as much as it could if they post it in October.

The reason why FFG waited for GenCon to reveal Clone Wars Armada was because they wanted as much attention on board games as possible, so why wouldn't the same logic apply to the expected CWA Previews? If FFG posts them when there's less competition, they'll surely gain more attention than in November.

21 minutes ago, geek19 said:

What? How are they radio silent? This is what they always do, the article will appear in November is my guess.

I've never considered "this is why they always do" as a valid argument for anything. Businesses are always interested in making more money and the best way to achieve that is attracting more customers. Attracting more customers is accomplished by product awareness and "hype", which is accomplished by advertising and promotion. So if FFG refrains from doing that until November -- remaining radio silent in October, like they'd done for all of September and most of August -- then they're not generating any interest or hype about Clone Wars Armada. And when they finally do it November, my prediction that all of their promotion efforts will be drowned out by the noise from everything else happening in November.

I don't think that the PS5 and Xbox Series X will cause problems for the release of Clone Wars Armada, mostly because Sony and Microsoft lost their stock in 5 minutes to scalpers.

4 hours ago, Piratical Moustache said:

I don't think that the PS5 and Xbox Series X will cause problems for the release of Clone Wars Armada, mostly because Sony and Microsoft lost their stock in 5 minutes to scalpers.

I didn't mean that Clone Wars Armada would be competing directly with the next-gen consoles being released in November; what I said is that they will be competing for everyone's attention .

Think back to the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One in November 2013: Can anyone remember any news stories, gaming or otherwise, that happened at that time (without using google)?

That's my point: The hype about next-gen consoles launches tend to drown out everything else. And let's be real , there could be a lot more serious real-world issues dominating the news in November.

If the goal of FFG's product Previews is to inform people while simultaneously promoting their products, with the ultimate goal of boosting sales when those products are released, if everyone is distracted by other news going on in November, FFG's expected Clone Wars Armada Preview will fail to accomplish anything. It would be akin to if FFG posted the announcement of the CWA Preview on their site's News section, and then they buried under 20 new articles for other games, so the CWA Preview was immediately pushed to page 2 or 3. That's basically what I'm talking about, but for all of the news that will happening in November.

In comparison, October should be relatively quiet and would be an ideal time, not only for Previews of the Clone Wars Starters, but to reveal the Venator and Providence expansions, and hopefully announce their expected release date.

I’m willing to bet that FFG will put the articles out about two hours before I share them on my discord servers where I talk armada.

I seriously doubt that politics or video games will have any impact on ffg or armada. People who are interested in mini games will be paying attention. I have over 40 years experience in this hobby/industry and never have I seen any gamers who let the real world disrupt their interest in gaming. They may not have the money, but they ALWAYS notice when new stuff comes out. Same thing with auto and motorcycle enthusiasts, shooting/hunting enthusiasts, crafters/sewing (mom sews and such) all know and follow their interests regardless of the outside world, it is a mental escape from that crap which is why the clones will be noticed and hyped by every player and wanna be player as soon as something gets released, either in social media or stores.

The only video game I see effecting FFG sales for anything, is Squadrons increasing sales of XWing stuff. Maybe articles late October, based on when in December the core sets come out. I know personally, I am putting money aside for the Separatist set first, but I also have a deployment slated for next year so I will be saving big purchases of new Xbox and Republic stuff until I return.

If anything, Squadrons and Mandalorian may increase interest in the realm of miniatures gaming to some degree, but what increases it more, is just going out and playing games. Two of us in NC started a Middle Earth Battle Companies campaign, and that exploded into 10 people playing because you didn't need much to start. We are starting a narrative campaign soon here which won't require new players to buy stuff. Hopefully that increases interest in the area. Once CW comes out, I plan on running a hexgrid map campaign here as well, task force format to again, keep the buy in low.

Honestly, the thing that hurts Armada the most, is that the damage deck is locked behind a $100 buy in, $75 if you are lucky with a sale. I plan on getting some made with our local store's logo on the back, to help ease that cost for some.

On 9/27/2020 at 12:39 PM, Church14 said:

I’m willing to bet that FFG will put the articles out about two hours before I share them on my discord servers where I talk armada.

@Church14 do you really think you’ll be able to wait 2 whole hours?

2 hours ago, bkcammack said:

@Church14 do you really think you’ll be able to wait 2 whole hours?

No. I’m assuming that I just won’t see the articles right away.

7 hours ago, Church14 said:

No. I’m assuming that I just won’t see the articles right away.

Call yourself a fan

On 9/27/2020 at 10:42 AM, Grand Admiral Buford said:

I seriously doubt that politics or video games will have any impact on ffg or armada. People who are interested in mini games will be paying attention. I have over 40 years experience in this hobby/industry and never have I seen any gamers who let the real world disrupt their interest in gaming. They may not have the money, but they ALWAYS notice when new stuff comes out. Same thing with auto and motorcycle enthusiasts, shooting/hunting enthusiasts, crafters/sewing (mom sews and such) all know and follow their interests regardless of the outside world, it is a mental escape from that crap which is why the clones will be noticed and hyped by every player and wanna be player as soon as something gets released, either in social media or stores.

I 100% agree that people interested in miniatures gaming will be paying attention to FFG's News, regardless of what else may be nominating the mainstream news in November.

However, I think most of the people actively posting in the Armada section of this forum are already sold on Clone Wars Armada; meaning we've bought our pre-orders and are just waiting for the CWA expansions to be released in December. It's unlikely that any us will change our minds and cancel our pre-orders. Therefore, the CWA Previews are not for us -- at least not in terms of product promotion . Yes, we certainly want more information about the upcoming CWA expansion -- that's origin of my suggestion for FFG to post sooner -- but it's not going to effect our purchasing decisions.

FFG's product Previews aren't solely to inform committed customers (Asmodee would never waste money on glorified online tutorials), they're intended to spread awareness to other people and attract new customers, which FFG/Asmodee are definitely coveting with Clone Wars Starters. That's why the product Previews are traditionally timed one month before the product's release date: to spread awareness and generate hype leading into the release in hopes of boosting sales. However, potential new customers are less likely to be following Armada-related News as intently as the rest of us; therefore, it's less likely they will notice the CWA Previews in November with everything else going on.

Therefore, the product Previews won't accomplish the supposed goal of attracting new customers; they'll only inform existing customers (presumably revealing more new ship/squadron/upgrade cards and possibly new rules). If the Previews will only inform, not promote, what is the point in withholding them until November? The new CWA content must be finalized by now and it's too late to change anything before the December 12 release date, so FFG could Preview the CWA expansions at any time and share that information with the Armada players who want it. FFG is just choosing to wait until a month before release because that's what they've traditionally done.

If FFG/Asmodee wants to attract new customers to Armada with the Clone Wars products and make more $$$, repeating what they've always done is unlikely to achieve that. And it's even less likely to work this time because of all the distractions expected in November.

If FFG stubbornly sticks to tradition, the predictable result will be that there won't be a significant increase in Armada sales when CWA launches in December; the Armada sales figures will be the same as they've always been: a distant third to X-Wing and Legion's sales. And FFG/Asmodee will only have themselves to blame for their unimaginative, dogmatic marketing practices.

What exactly would be the harm if FFG/Asmodee actually tried something new and bold to promote Armada?

How old are you?

The potential harm is that you peak your interest too early....so by the time you have product to sell people have moved their attention on to other things.

There’s only so much they can preview about the core set before people say “oh that’s not news, they said that same thing last month”.

27 minutes ago, Maturin said:

The potential harm is that you peak your interest too early....so by the time you have product to sell people have moved their attention on to other things.

As I've said repeatedly, anyone who isn't already aware that Clone Wars Armada is launching in December probably isn't going to hear about it if the expected Previews are posted in November. There's going to be too much noise with everything else going on; non-Armada players will not be paying attention and won't know about Clone Wars Armada until after the release date, if ever -- which renders the Previews entirely irrelevant.

Based on what's happened for the releases of Armada, Legion, and X-Wing products over the past year, anyone who doesn't pre-order the new products, probably won't get them at launch because they sell out so fast, and they usually aren't restocked for months , sometimes years .

Regardless whether FFG posts the CWA Previews in October or November, if those potential customers aren't convinced to pre-order the upcoming Clone Wars expansions immediately after they see those Previews (by clicking the Asmodee store links at the bottom of those webpages), they probably never will. And regardless if it's over a month or only a couple of weeks before CWA's launch, if they don't pre-order, their attention will move on other things -- just like you said -- and they won't end up purchasing CWA.

The difference is that non-Armada players are more likely to see the CWA Previews if they're posted in October than if they're posted in November. Whether they pre-order CWA is out of our hands.

27 minutes ago, Maturin said:

There’s only so much they can preview about the core set before people say “oh that’s not news, they said that same thing last month”.

Traditionally, FFG's Armada Previews consist of a reveal of a few previously unseen cards, breakdowns of the ships and squadrons, gushing about how awesome the ship/squadron models look, and basic recommendations on how to use the new items. Then they have a quick demo battle with the new ships, squadrons, commanders, cards, etc., and it takes around 90 minutes. That's what I think we'll get in the Preview for the 2 Starters and 2 Squadron Packs.

However, FFG could do an entire Preview for the Upgrade Card Collection, because they've previously said they've updated 18% of the cards. I don't know the exact number of Armada upgrade cards that exist -- I'll guess 150 -- so 18% is 27 cards that FFG could reveal and talk about. And realistically they'd only need to cover 10 cards to make a worthwhile Preview video. Or FFG could make a multi-parter to cover all the updated cards in the UCC.

The Dial Pack could either be included with the UCC Preview, or a separate short article or video, mostly to explain why so many Pass Tokens are included in the Dial Pack. Presumably there will be a rules update regarding ship activations and the Pass Tokens, so I think a separate video for the Dial Pack is justified, even if it's only 5 minutes long.

That's 3 distinct Preview videos that wouldn't contain redundant information.

If FFG chose to, they could post more game demo videos. Supposedly there are 2 Commanders in each faction Starter, so they could make a 2nd game demo video and showcase the 2nd pair of Commanders. And a 2nd video would probably feature different squadron Aces. And of course the battles will be different, so a 2nd game demo video wouldn't be redundant either.

However, FFG doesn't need to produce all Preview content themselves. Whenever the Previews are posted, the Armada community is going to go nuts and post tons of content on YouTube and the internet. The earlier FFG posts the CWA Previews, the more time the Armada community has the spread awareness and generate hype, which will almost certainly translate to pre-orders or launch day sales.

Finally, FFG could release Print-&-Play PDFs for at least some of the new Clone Wars cards and bases, and let the Armada community test them out. If the YouTubers who create Armada-related content got access to Print-&-Play versions of CWA, I'm certain they'd produce numerous videos promoting Clone Wars Armada, and spread awareness a lot further and more effectively than just FFG posting their official Previews on their website.

If FFG posted CWA Previews in October and then released Print-&-Plays, it would give the Armada community more time to spread the word, and I bet that each Armada YouTuber would post at least one video per week until December.

I don't think there's any "risk" by releasing Print-&-Plays for CWA before the launch date. It won't negatively impact sales because a) Other board game makers have done this for years and it doesn't seem to harm their sales; b) Most Armada players have already bought their pre-orders and they're not going to cancel them just because Print-&-Plays are available; c) No self-respecting Armada player is going use P&P cards and bases and substituted ships and squadrons after CWA launches; they're going to buy the CWA expansions; and d) Prospective Armada players won't have the ships, squadrons, bases, and all the other accessories necessary to play Armada, so FFG wouldn't lose potential new customers because of Print-&-Plays either.

I think October Previews and Print-&-Plays would all would work in FFG and Asmodee's favour, and it would be a significant improvement over what they traditionally do (and don't do 🙄 ) to promote their upcoming Armada products.

Fun fact: however much is written in this thread will not in any way impact FFGs release and preview schedule.

I'm on record with having a ton of problems with how FFG handles releases/community outreach, but they are following their own established precedent and have even thrown us a few extra bones this time around in terms of the Gencon stream and letting Unnamed have a couple free spoilers, and letting us know whats coming in the next wave. I don't expect them to deviate here. I just hope they finally get this stuff out for the holidays, instead of once again missing them and doing a Q1 release.

I have it from an astoundingly trustful inside source that FFG/Asmodee shareholders intentionally push back publishing articles, and even release dates of product, for Armada by a week each time someone posts asking about releases or updates. It's some sort of sick social experiment they're running for the deep state.

33 minutes ago, Madaghmire said:

I just hope they finally get this stuff out for the holidays, instead of once again missing them and doing a Q1 release.

I put money on a 2021 release.

Can't have an armada wave without a delay 😇

9 hours ago, Green Knight said:

Fun fact: however much is written in this thread will not in any way impact FFGs release and preview schedule.

Second fun fact: no matter how many times you state your opinion it doesnt make it fact.