I think Scum would work better as a bunch of mini-factions with good intrasynergy - i.e. Pyke units have good rules between themselves, but basically no interaction with Hutts, Mandos, etc. to the point of not even giving them orders.

Interesting idea!

Taking inspiration from Imperial Assault, here are what I see as possible options for a mercenary / scum and villainy faction. These ideas are pretty similar to lists by others on this forum.

I have some issue with tusken raiders and jawas being part of the faction but FFG has already shown they consider the mercenary faction to be a catch-all for non-affiliated characters.

Personally I think that the various criminal organizations like Pyke Syndicate and Black Suns don't have enough to meaningfully differentiate them to include.

Commanders

Jabba

Maul

Hondo Ohnaka

Operatives

Boba Fett

Bossk

IG-88

Core (Corps?)

Hired Guns

Weequay Pirates

Tusken Raiders

Special Forces

Transdoshan Hunters and Trandoshan Hunters Strike Team

Gamorean Guards

Jawa Scavengers

Mandalorian Enclave

Support

Tusken Raiders on Bantha

Swoop Bikes

Heavies

Speeder Skiff

Rancor

12 hours ago, Caimheul1313 said:

I'm just checking, but by non-canon you mean the old EU, not the current comics/cartoons/etc right? I'm just making sure we're on the same page.

Yeah, there were a lot of old books, games and comics with gangsters, robbers and the galaxy's worst that was running around. Anyone remember Reelo Baruk?

But even now, after Disney's acquisition, if you watch the Clone Wars, Rogue One, Mandolorian, Han Solo, play the games (read the comics nowdays, a lot of them are about side characters and bounty hunters) I'm not counting the Newquels or whatever which are all about Rey and Kylo.

I could totally be blinded by bias, but I see more scum and villainy than I do Imperial named characters. They usually have a few named characters (Kallus or Inquisitor or Thrawn for example in the Rebels cartoon) that they use throughout the entire series, but way more sinister gangsters or grey characters with just as big a part in the story or re-occurring roles

Azmorigan, Cikatro, Lando, Hondo, Ketsu, Pyke criminals, Mining Guild guys, Bendu, there's more I'm not remembering after not watching that series for several years.

5 hours ago, Vector Strike said:

I think Scum would work better as a bunch of mini-factions with good intrasynergy - i.e. Pyke units have good rules between themselves, but basically no interaction with Hutts, Mandos, etc. to the point of not even giving them orders.

I have no problem with this if they do it right.

I think it's fair to say that in the grand scheme of Star Wars the various crime organizations are side stories. That's why I think the subfaction model would work so well for them. Commanders and Special Forces ranks would showcase the distinct units for each organization. The Corp and Support ranks would include generic hired guns usable by any subfaction. Operatives and Heavies would have a mix of generic and subfaction-specific units. Qi'ra, for example, works exclusively for Crimson Dawn, while Boba Fett might work for anybody willing to pay. Maul himself might have a special ability (Shadow Collective) that allows him to mix and match subfactions.

On the subject of Tusken Raiders, I still think they'd be better represented by a Conditions Battle Plan card than as part of a faction. Perhaps each player gets to place a unit of Tusken Raiders and each round the player who deployed them makes them move and attack a non-Tusken Raider unit?

26 minutes ago, GooeyChewie said:

On the subject of Tusken Raiders, I still think they'd be better represented by a Conditions Battle Plan card than as part of a faction.

[Angry grunts and howls intensify]

1 hour ago, Darth Sanguis said:

[Angry grunts and howls intensify]

They could do a kit like the Downed AT-ST but with Tusken Raiders and a Bantha.

That would probably be the only one of those I would buy, just to proxy it as my Themed Scum army.

My hope is that they've already developed some of these and just haven't announced them yet. They could have all of this ready to go and get them caught up as a full faction assuming they could get their distribution stuff figured out.

I'm confused why FFG has such a hard time getting product to the people who want to buy it, but other Asmodee product lines have zero problems (maybe they just do a better job hiding their inefficiencies, but other games have release dates known months in advance and meet those dates and they're all part of Asmodee).

24 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

They could do a kit like the Downed AT-ST but with Tusken Raiders and a Bantha.

That would probably be the only one of those I would buy, just to proxy it as my Themed Scum army.

My hope is that they've already developed some of these and just haven't announced them yet. They could have all of this ready to go and get them caught up as a full faction assuming they could get their distribution stuff figured out.

I'm confused why FFG has such a hard time getting product to the people who want to buy it, but other Asmodee product lines have zero problems (maybe they just do a better job hiding their inefficiencies, but other games have release dates known months in advance and meet those dates and they're all part of Asmodee).

I don't think we are likely to see scum until clone wars are more established at the earliest. So right now I would assume playtesting is focused on the future GCW and CW releases planned for now and next year.

A Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game is also distributed by Asmodee, and they have WORSE issues than FFG. The release dates are often a surprise, stuff is announced then disappears, not enough supply in many areas... It's a mess which is a shame as the game is very good in my opinion. I've also seen stuff for Marvel Crisis Protocol sell out with a lack of restocks for awhile, so I guess I'm unclear what games exactly you mean.

FFG also has the issue of contending with licenses, which can delay or change the release dates, especially as they have to wait for final external approval on every piece of art and possibly the "flavor" of the rules as well.

1 hour ago, Caimheul1313 said:

A Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game is also distributed by Asmodee, and they have WORSE issues than FFG. The release dates are often a surprise, stuff is announced then disappears, not enough supply in many areas... It's a mess which is a shame as the game is very good in my opinion. I've also seen stuff for Marvel Crisis Protocol sell out with a lack of restocks for awhile, so I guess I'm unclear what games exactly you mean.

interesting. I've never seen or had any problems getting either of those ever from anywhere in the states (I mean locally or from online stores I buy from) Those were 2 I was thinking of.

I guess you never know how good you have it until someone tells you otherwise.

2 hours ago, buckero0 said:

interesting. I've never seen or had any problems getting either of those ever from anywhere in the states (I mean locally or from online stores I buy from) Those were 2 I was thinking of.

I guess you never know how good you have it until someone tells you otherwise.

I am also stateside, but I don't know if it's that I'm more active in those forums so I see the issues more, or what.
The other thing about MCP in particular is that each player only "needs" a single copy of any models they want. You can't include 3+ of a single character, so an equal number of MCP boxes will fulfill the needs of more customers than Legion of ASoIaF. I've still heard of people having trouble finding specific models at their FLGS, but that could be a result of the store not ordering replacements.

For Song, I've seen the products go out of stock really fast, and not always released at the announced time. My store gets some in, then once they sell out won't get more for months. So it might just be the faction(s) you are buying in particular? A number of them haven't had new releases for awhile. I've see product on the shelves of my FLGS prior to the official release date for the US, or at least what people think is the release date. Then you also have stuff like Night Watch Heroes 2 which leaks and is (as far as I know) officially confirmed, but then disappears.
Which isn't unlike the Legion Madalorian tie in that was announced, without any details as to what that tie in would be...
EDIT: Is not analogous, the "announcement" I am remembering was just a "we plan to incorporate this in the future for Mandalorian."

1 hour ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Which isn't unlike the Legion Madalorian tie in that was announced, without any details as to what that tie in would be...

It wasn't really announced to the public. It was just one slide in an industry presentation. Given that even in normal times the design/production process takes 12-18 months, I'm not surprised we still haven't seen anything.

1 minute ago, arnoldrew said:

It wasn't really announced to the public. It was just one slide in an industry presentation. Given that even in normal times the design/production process takes 12-18 months, I'm not surprised we still haven't seen anything.

An industry presentation which was streamed online, so effectively, that's announcing it to the public. If I recall correctly, that was specifically slated to be out at the end of this year per the announcement... But it is likely due to current circumstances as opposed to just general delays.

12 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

An industry presentation which was streamed online, so effectively, that's announcing it to the public. If I recall correctly, that was specifically slated to be out at the end of this year per the announcement... But it is likely due to current circumstances as opposed to just general delays.

It wasn't streamed, as far as I remember. The only sources had cell phone pictures they took of the screen at the front of the room. That was explicitly not for the public. Also, no timeline was given. I think it said something about 2019 on the slide that was mistakenly left over from copying the previous slide.

3 minutes ago, arnoldrew said:

It wasn't streamed, as far as I remember. The only sources had cell phone pictures they took of the screen at the front of the room. That was explicitly not for the public. Also, no timeline was given. I think it said something about 2019 on the slide that was mistakenly left over from copying the previous slide.

Huh, I could of sworn there was some website streaming it (unaffiliated with FFG). Still, unless everyone attending signed an NDA, then anything announced there should have been treated as being announced to the "public." Regardless, hard to find information on it now after all the Clan Wren stuff has been released (as well as all the 3rd party 3D printed models.)

@arnoldrew Found the thread I was referencing, looks like i remembered the Q4 from the Armada announcement from the same panel. So the situation is not analogous for Night's Watch Heroes 2, since that was at least a confrmed product as opposed to "something we would like to create."

Until they can fix their supply issues with current products Legion and Armada especially. I don’t want to see any more pressure put of the supply chain by adding even more products they can’t keep supplied.

10 minutes ago, XR8rGREAT said:

Until they can fix their supply issues with current products Legion and Armada especially. I don’t want to see any more pressure put of the supply chain by adding even more products they can’t keep supplied.

That is unfortunately never going to happen. New stuff is constantly coming out only months apart (and outsells reprints) so short of a complete stop on new product, FFG is always going to be playing catch-up.

...more wookies...

I think a scum&villainy faction would be a lot of fun and has lots of content to mine from. But I just can’t fathom WHY they would wage war with the other factions. Scum is often portrayed in conflict with one another and now they suddenly all band together to wage war(!?) on the empire or CIS? I find it so ridiculous that I don’t really want to see them appear at all.

Look if they decide to do scum they should just do them as a dogs of war style army. Lots of different units that be taken by certain other factions but can also be run as their own army.

1 hour ago, Tris87TJ said:

Look if they decide to do scum they should just do them as a dogs of war style army. Lots of different units that be taken by certain other factions but can also be run as their own army.

Dogs of War were very niche and a personal favorite of mine, but I think that's a terrible idea. GW never paid any attention to Dogs of War after printing that one sheet, so they were always terrible and their rules were always 3-4 editions outdated.

1 hour ago, Tris87TJ said:

Look if they decide to do scum they should just do them as a dogs of war style army. Lots of different units that be taken by certain other factions but can also be run as their own army.

The other issue here is that many of the units don't have a second faction that they suit.

(I know I've said this before, so sorry for the repetition)

I feel like if FFG would embrace Skirmish as a game type, you could have Kill Team style battles with smaller factions. This would allow for indigenous units to come into the game without having to be able to field full 800pt armies. Some of these could be compounded to work with other factions (wookiees work with the republic, Umbarans work with CIS, etc.) but wouldn't be required to. Maybe they can be run but don't rally have direct synergy.

I think it would be cool to see smaller armies like Gungans with about 4 units and just enough variety in upgrades to keep them fun. The problem is that they wouldn't be up to snuff for tournament play, but honestly I think they'd get sales off of things like Gungans, Wookiees, and Ewoks. Then you could apply the same to a Scum faction so you can choose to just play smaller scale Pykes or Crimson Dawn, but they could be a larger faction as well.

45 minutes ago, evo454 said:

I feel like if FFG would embrace Skirmish as a game type, you could have Kill Team style battles with smaller factions. This would allow for indigenous units to come into the game without having to be able to field full 800pt armies. Some of these could be compounded to work with other factions (wookiees work with the republic, Umbarans work with CIS, etc.) but wouldn't be required to. Maybe they can be run but don't rally have direct synergy.

I think FFG is honestly understaffed or out of their element in general and I always feel like they are struggling to get things done. I don't know if its the personality type they've hired (they have certain strengths, and weaknesses) and/or if its purely a numbers thing (they need 14 people to do everything we would normally expect and they only have 9 people performing those tasks for example)

The last 4 games I've played have all been skirmish and I love the game. If FFG was going to actually support their games, as a gaming company though, they would have to do a serious rebalance for the skirmish game (they struggle getting the 800pt game balanced) and they would need to add some skirmish specific or modified scenarios to the mix.

That being said, if they can continue to sell their product, a mercenary faction will appear in the next couple of years, and will probably be impossible to purchase because they will underproduce it and dump half of the product into the ocean. It will probably be months between releases as well and completely frustrating but fun to play