The informally announced Q1 Clone Wars Expansions

By Frimmel, in Star Wars: Armada

Given the new regarding movement of design to a new studio should we expect those four Clone Wars expansions? While the movement of design news explains all the wishy-washy regarding whether the Clone Wars Starter ships would see individual releases it does not clue us in to the next wave of ships for the Clone Wars factions.

I do not think I want the Clone Wars starters and squadrons without some sort of assurance those expansions will be released. While whatever might be down the road is down the road there is something of a clock on my needing to make a decision regarding this. Is anyone else on the fence about this as well without such an assurance? Is anyone else also considering cancelling their pre-order?

I'm pretty sure they're still coming out.

Nope, no reason it wouldnt come out. Not on the fence.

Here is a link to an interview with Steve Horvath from Asmodee:

TL;d...watch?

Wave 1 has already been approved in March and they always need at least 9 month for a release, so we'll definitely get it.

They also say that they've an ongoing plan for all 3 miniature games with Lucasfilm till 2023!

Good news: All three games are supposed to get content from "The Mandalorian".

FFG was already divided in two sections (miniature and Board/cardgames) since last year, so the move to AMG is not that surprising.

BUT: Be aware that the interview is 8 month old and was before we got hit by COVID.

Edited by KaLeu
20 minutes ago, KaLeu said:

Wave 1 has already been approved in March and they always need at least 9 month for a release, so we'll definitely get it.

Yes, well it seems there should have been a bit more of an announcement doesn't it? If only to help push the new starters and things. In light of the move it seems quite a bit more urgent at least to me. It seems reasonable that we'll see it. It also doesn't seem unreasonable that we won't.

23 minutes ago, KaLeu said:

They also say that they've an ongoing plan for all 3 miniature games with Lucasfilm till 2023!

Good news: All three games are supposed to get content from "The Mandalorian".

What is planned and what actually occurs aren't always similar.

I'd bet money (not a lot of money, but money) that the Q1 expansions will still be released on time (worst case scenario they get pushed to the last week of March). The new factions need these expansions to be competitive with the old ones, or even playable outside 200 point starter pack demo games (or shelling out an extra 300 dollars for Acc/Muni spam, but very few people are going to do that). If they delay the first wave, they risk losing the momentum of Clone Wars launch when people get bored of 2 ships per faction, and that can hurt potential sales and new playerbase growth in the long run.

I think its a bit more likely that there could be a content drought following the first wave of releases while the new teams get settled in, unless FFG has unannounced expansions well underway they can easily pass on to AMG. In this case, I could see individual releases of the starter ships being released with new titles/upgrades to fill the void without a ton of investment. I'm no economic analyst though.

8 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

Yes, well it seems there should have been a bit more of an announcement doesn't it? If only to help push the new starters and things. In light of the move it seems quite a bit more urgent at least to me. It seems reasonable that we'll see it. It also doesn't seem unreasonable that we won't.

What is planned and what actually occurs aren't always similar.

Yeah, but keep in mind FFG is notorious on missing deadlines, for both announcement/preview articles and product release. Sometimes it's out of their control - factory fires, pandemics, being bought and sold and axed' and merged', and other times I can only guess it is their fault - for example changing up the size of the upgrade cards probably took longer than anticipated.

With only 2.5 weeks left to go before CW launches, I did think we'd have a few more articles released / released earlier, and was expecting the Clone Wars q1 expansions a few days after Dec 4th.

There seems to be a lot of panic around all of this unless told I’m going to assume it’s business as usual. There have been a lot of people saying I’m going to get rid of my stuff if they change X-Wing, Armada or Legion. There is nothing stoping you from carrying on playing with what you have. no one is going to take any of your rules or models off you.

2 minutes ago, XR8rGREAT said:

There seems to be a lot of panic around all of this unless told I’m going to assume it’s business as usual. There have been a lot of people saying I’m going to get rid of my stuff if they change X-Wing, Armada or Legion. There is nothing stoping you from carrying on playing with what you have. no one is going to take any of your rules or models off you.

I'm not at all in that camp. I'm keeping my stuff. It is simply a question of whether I'll be getting more. If I get the Dec. stuff AND the Q1 stuff I'm good as I've got my game. Without the Q1 stuff I don't want the December stuff.

I think you're mischaracterizing this as "panic." It is prudence. The move makes it a bit more clear why there was so much waffling about the new starter ships getting individual releases - they really don't know what's going to happen. So what else don't they know about? What else have they been holding back? No formal announcement on this Q1 stuff looks a lot different in the light of the just announced move.

I don't suspect they're going to tell us it isn't coming. They've got to protect the release of the Clone Wars stuff presuming it is past the point of cancellation. They've taken pre-order for it. Cancelling that stuff is a lot different than simply not releasing stuff that was talked about in an eight month old video and again in the summer only in video.

36 minutes ago, Frimmel said:

I'm not at all in that camp. I'm keeping my stuff. It is simply a question of whether I'll be getting more. If I get the Dec. stuff AND the Q1 stuff I'm good as I've got my game. Without the Q1 stuff I don't want the December stuff.

I think you're mischaracterizing this as "panic." It is prudence. The move makes it a bit more clear why there was so much waffling about the new starter ships getting individual releases - they really don't know what's going to happen. So what else don't they know about? What else have they been holding back? No formal announcement on this Q1 stuff looks a lot different in the light of the just announced move.

I don't suspect they're going to tell us it isn't coming. They've got to protect the release of the Clone Wars stuff presuming it is past the point of cancellation. They've taken pre-order for it. Cancelling that stuff is a lot different than simply not releasing stuff that was talked about in an eight month old video and again in the summer only in video.

I wasn’t implying you were panicking quite a few FB groups I’m part of though there is just such nonsense going on. We haven’t been given a timeline yet AMG may not take over for 6 months for all we know. They would be silly to kick a loyal player base for all three games in the guts any change I would think and hope would be gradual.

I'm not at all concerned that Armada moving to AMG will disrupt Clone Wars Armada's scheduled releases, because this wasn't a rash decision; Asmodee has obviously been planning this for a while. That explains why there haven't been any new expansions announced for Armada, X-Wing, or Legion to be released after January 2021. The expansions that have already been announced will have the FFG label, and any new expansions announced will presumably have the AMG label. Asmodee has deliberately created a gap in their release schedule to facilitate the Star Wars games' transition to AMG.

That's probably why the second wave of Clone Wars Armada ships is being releasing so soon after the launch wave. Asmodee wants to get those last FFG Armada ships out ASAP and then have AMG take over for subsequent waves.

I suspect that will mean there will be a substantial gap in new Star Wars miniatures products after January 2021. There might not be anything new for Armada, X-Wing, or Legion until GenCon 2021 -- and by nothing, I mean nothing even announced. I think GenCon 2021 could be used as the grand unveiling of AMG's Star Wars games line-up, and those new expansions will be released in the latter half of 2021.

1 minute ago, Captain Corvid said:

I suspect that will mean there will be a substantial gap in new Star Wars miniatures products after January 2021. There might not be anything new for Armada, X-Wing, or Legion until GenCon 2021 -- and by nothing, I mean nothing even announced. I think GenCon 2021 could be used as the grand unveiling of AMG's Star Wars games line-up, and those new expansions will be released in the latter half of 2021.

Oh gawds, X-Wing and Legion players are going to literally die from lack of attention if that's the case.

Just now, Alzer said:

Oh gawds, X-Wing and Legion players are going to literally die from lack of attention if that's the case.

Yes, I'm sure they will poop their Pampers by the mere thought of having to wait 6+ months for a new release. 😭

Doubts above Wave 10? None. Doubts about Wave 11? Sure, who wouldn't, since we know so little.

Was Wave 11 (Clone Wars Wave 3) already planned, with AMG simply taking the baton and running with it? Or was Wave 11 planned and AMG has decided to scrap it to do their own thing? With Clone Wars being in development for at least two years (it was first teased at GenCon 2018, if I recall), I have to imagine that the team at least had a road map in place for the first several waves. But ultimately, only the insiders know. I'm anxious to hear more about what happens next, beyond the brief Q&A that was released.

1 hour ago, Captain Corvid said:

Yes, I'm sure they will poop their Pampers by the mere thought of having to wait 6+ months for a new release. 😭

Ahhhhhh.... finally an opportunity for us grizzled veterans of waiting (tm) to prevail! Let's show them how it's done! 🤣

Knowing production schedules, wave 10 is probably already made and awaiting paint or packaging or something.

If AMG is just now taking over the lines & If FFG did not hand over anything other beyond what's been announced then we might not see anything again until Gencon ( which would give me time to catch up on Legion). i hope we will see some cross faction stuff like Victory and Gladiators for the Republic.

5 minutes ago, solaria said:

i hope we will see some cross faction stuff like Victory and Gladiators for the Republic.

Why? You're scarcely the first person I've seen say such, but part of the fun is the factions being different.

1) why not? i like large fleet actions and they were part of the war.

2) i suck at doing repaints and for those of us who may not want to do a repaint it would be another way to have them in the open circle fleet.

3) the Corporate Sector Authority used Victory's and other ships with different weapons layout which leads to

4) New tactical challenge's to keep things fun.

I by no means want the fleets to be "cookie cutter clones" of each other. i would like some variety, some spice and while i could make my own cards thru Kuat Drive Yards i would prefer official ones when possible.

1 hour ago, solaria said:

If AMG is just now taking over the lines & If FFG did not hand over anything other beyond what's been announced then we might not see anything again until Gencon ( which would give me time to catch up on Legion). i hope we will see some cross faction stuff like Victory and Gladiators for the Republic.

Well, we already know that the Republic is getting the Pelta, and odds are good that it will get the Arquitens as well, so your wish will at least be partially granted.

I myself would love to see a new Scum faction that makes use of some (but not all) of the existing ships, but with different stats and upgrade bars. It could be a hodge-podge with a completely different personality from any other faction.

I agree with what was said above though regarding product news. I don’t think we’ll hear about anything we don’t already know about until GenCon. The question is: will AMG simply announce the next waves for their respective Star Wars games or will they plant a flag and say, “This is what we have planned for your favorite games. The future is bright.”?

I'm not concerned. If anything, this indicates that Asmodee wants to invest heavily into its Star Wars miniature games. FFG always had an issue of having way too many games, I think it's a good thing that Star Wars games get extra attention.

On 11/18/2020 at 6:46 PM, Frimmel said:

If I get the Dec. stuff AND the Q1 stuff I'm good as I've got my game. Without the Q1 stuff I don't want the December stuff.

Yep, pretty much my feelings exactly. However, I’d be surprised if Wave 1 isn’t almost ready already, so probably won’t be delayed by the move. Might be delayed by the pandemic though.

On 11/18/2020 at 6:25 PM, Flyinpenguin117 said:

I think its a bit more likely that there could be a content drought following the first wave of releases while the new teams get settled in,

Honestly, how is that any different from the last few years anyway? Content drought is Armada's standard state.