Haha! I just realized that the paragraph I quoted was the same on both pages. I just went to those pages, searched for the word "original", and copied the paragraph. I'll have to read more carefully next time.

Mattr0polis said:

For sure, if the game survives long enough to totally mine the Galactic Civil War of all its elements, or if sales need a shot in the arm, they'll do a box for another era, complete with new faction symbols and the like.

The ideal scenario for me is that the game is that successful that we all play the hell out of it, and it warrants expansions like that, 3 years or so from now. We'll see how it goes though. Ultimately, I'll be shocked if Toronto gets a tourney scene, but if it does, I'll be there to lose horribly…

cleardave said:

That's what I see ultimately happening, though the factions themselves prevent a challenging issue of play balance. The Rebel Alliance and Imperial Navy factions would not exist in, say, a Prequel-era cycle, but the remaining four factions seem, to me at least, appropriate for any Star Wars era. Being fond of symmetry, though, I don't really like the idea of the Rebel and Imperial factions not expanding at the same rate as these other four. You could, theoretically, have Rebel- and Imperial-affiliated characters in a cycle focusing on the Rise of the Empire and the Jedi Purge, I suppose, and organize faction presence in that cycle in such a way so as to put these two factions ahead of the other four, with the following cycle looking more closely at the events of the Clone Wars, and the underworld involvements therein.

That's how I would do it, anyway.

You could just lightly sprinkle in extra cards for the Rebels and Imperials while starting up a 7th and 8th faction. But remember, it's a "7TH AND 8TH" faction, so the game would be pretty bloated at that point.

There's no reason not to toss in EU faves like Thrawn, Pellaeon, Dash Rendar, etc, because they can be easily looped into existing factions anyways. There's no reason that making an Exar Kun card would require another faction other than the Sith, and so on.

There's so much to draw on, and ways to categorize it all into the 6 factions that it shouldn't be a big deal. The whole fun of the SWCCG was taking the vibe of the movies, but having all these "what if" scenarios play out. Like using Vader's Obsession on Mara Jade to Epic Duel Luke out of the game in a Hunt Down deck.

So, while I'm not a huge EU fan, beyond say, the Thrawn stories from Zahn, it could all be worked in. There's so much content that the game will never really have to be "reaching" for something new. It'll probably die out long before then.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I was referring to the Republic and Separatists as the two new factions.

I mean, I suppose since the Rebel Alliance's full title is The Alliance to Restore the Republic, you could argue that Republic characters would be at home in a Rebel deck. But the faction would need a better name to encapsulate the two together, and once you've done that you've pretty much departed with the game's ostensible ties to the Classic era.

It's a costly predicament, to be sure. Personally, I wouldn't have made factions such an intrinsically vital feature to the game, for precisely this reason. But take that with a grain of salt as well, since I'm of the group that supports the eventual inclusion of other eras (starting, hopefully, with the New Republic era).

MarthWMaster said:

That's where it gets hairy though; there's Old Republic, which is "Order 66 and previous" and New Republic which is "everything Beyond Return of the Jedi", which is 2 Light Side factions there. So to balance that out, you'd need some kind of Dark Side factions to go with it. Imperial Remnant? The Vong, I guess. What would the "old school" faction be; the Separatist army? It would get pretty weighty, pretty fast.

Again, this is already in a game with 3 factions to choose from from the beginning. And really, it's more like 2, because apparently the first wave of packs and eventual box will likely be to flesh out the smugglers/scum factions.

I'm more interested in reading the details on how mixing factions works, which will probably inform how well this faction business will play out. It doesn't look like Netrunner, where the ID card has a very specific ability for the faction, but more like the Game of Thrones houses.

cleardave said:

At least with the demo decks/rules, the only thing is that at least 1 of the resources you pay for a card has to come from a card with a matching faction icon (except for neutral cards, which don't need any match). So if it stays that way, combining shouldn't be too hard as long as you don't go past 2 factions plus some neutrals. Beyond that, you might have real trouble getting up at least one objective to pay for your matching stuff.

I wonder if there's any rules to picking your faction card though, since that also provides 1 resource. I could see mixing 2 factions and taking the faction card of the more minor faction, and then mostly objectives of the more predominant faction, or some other variation, if that's possible.

And even if you do find yourself without a resource for one of your factions, at least those cards can be used in edge battles. I'm starting to like edge battles more and more. Wasn't a fan at first, but the idea of never being "stuck" with a card is really great.

Further on mixing factions; if you were running, at max, 4 factions for your side (ex: Jedi, Rebels, Scoundrels, Neutral), you would need to have a roughly even mix of faction objectives in your pile. From there, as best I can recall, you're drawing 3 off the top at random at the start of the game. Statistically, that could mean an average of one of each, but you're more likely to get a skew going that doesn't cover one of the 3 factions, so like mentioned, that faction becomes fodder for the Edge Battle.

It will be interesting to see if any of the block synergies become too diluted if you try and go all-in and mix everything, or if it sort of corrects itself mechanically. Being able to use your characters for Edge Battles when you can't pay for them certainly helps with dead hands, but that could also choke you out, deployment wise, as well.

So many possibilities…

I like the mechanic for the edge battles. But I still wish they were called something else. It's just that I don't recall the word "edge" ever being used in the Star Wars films, OT or PT.

cleardave said:

I've heard a few people say that to start the game it's: draw 4 objectives, pick 3.

So going with 4/3/3 objective split between 3 factions, you *could* have an ok shot of getting one of each, but you could also get screwed. But also, depending on how much stuff you run for each faction, you'll most likely still want/need to be able to play more than 1 card for certain factions each turn, so that might not even help.

2 factions plus some neutral (if needed) seems much more doable. But it will be neat to see the total possibilities and/or try to bend what isn't as efficient.

Games with a faction system generally fall into one of two types. The first type, seen in games like A Game of Thrones and Legend of the Five Rings, presents a strong economic incentive to play almost, if not entirely so, out of a single house/clan. The second type, which most of the LCGs embrace, encourages players to mix and match various factions to create an innovative blend of their diverse strengths. In most of the latter type I tend to stick to a single faction/color, as it gives me one less factor to keep track of while playing, allowing me to focus purely on winning. This kind of style won't be very fun to do right out of the box, since it looks like each side will have exactly ten objectives in the Core Set, but as monthly packs start to come out this should be less of an issue.

This is all assuming, of course, that they implement a rule that prevents Characters and Creatures from engaging Fighters and Capital Ships. I won't be playing if this does not turn out to be the case.