The Hoth Cycle begins!!!!

WOW! I really didn't expect such an announcement so soon!!!

They always have previews at least 3 months in advance to allow pre order from retailers.

We now know that we'll have another Vader and maybe another Wedge (depending if there is a Wedge Antilles in the core set) in this Force Pack. And the Force Pack will include between 5 and 6 new objective and maybe more.

Well, what I meant was I'd expected to have had the core set in my sweaty little hands before the first cycle was announced!

There is alot of announcements and articles coming out so they are getting this ready for release which is a great thing

Jvirtue55 said:

Oh yes! It makes me feel like it's finally going to happen!!

spalanzani said:

spalanzani said:

That would have meant no first cycle till March. Now we are looking at February which is right on track with all of the other LCG's as there is usually a 1 month break after a major release like a core set or deluxe expansion, sometimes longer if the core sets sell out fast like with Android: Netrunner.

I am excited they started with Hoth. They are my favorite scenes from the movies.

Speeders and AT-ATs and Wampas, oh my!

The Products page for this says that it contains sets 37-42. So we've got 6 new sets past the 36 sets in the core game. They've already stated 10 new sets per box (60 card box, same as usual). So that means 4 sets in double, and 2 sets that are "unique."

I was really hoping that the scum & villainy / smugglers and spies expansion would be one of the first products released. Maybe such a box won't exist, or maybe it will be in the middle of the Hoth cycle. I can't wait to see how this develops.

Generally the larger box sets will take between 3 and 6 months before they come out.

Wow, we are just on information overload the last week or so. So exciting!

Honestly a little surprised they started with Hoth, and more specifically how focused the cycle as a whole will be. I wonder if this will be par for the course for the cycles, or if other cycles will be a bit more diffuse in their themes. I like the idea of this: the Endor cycle, the Cloud City cycle, the Jabba's Palace city, so on and so forth. Does this mean that the Core Set is pretty focused on the A New Hope, and so we'll see cycles progressing roughly through Empire and Jedi?

I'm curious to see how this whole Hoth mechanic plays out, particularly as it sounds like the mechanics are mainly focused on the Rebel Alliance and Imperial Navy factions. Are the pods for the other four factions completely disengaged from this Hoth theme, or will they play into it as well? And with six pods to a Force Pack seeming to be what the distribution model is (two unique pods, four duplicate pods), how will they be spread out for the factions? In other LCGs, there's pretty much always a few cards for every faction, but we might see packs that don't cover a given faction at all.

One concern I have over this Hoth mechanic is that it sounds like it could be something we'll have to wait for the whole cycle to be complete to really utilize. I'm reminded of the City plots from the King's Landing cycle in AGOT, a set of plot cards that all interact with each other in important ways; when you have all of them, they can be quite powerful, but just one or two aren't going to do you much good. Will the Hoth objectives be worth playing right away, or will we need more packs? And is this first pack going to be pretty Rebel and Imperial focused in order to get enough Hoth cards out into the card pool right off the bat?

Questions, I got 'em! Can't wait for the game to finally be here. Fingers crossed they'll release the rule book this weekend.

Budgernaut said:

Budgernaut said:

Smugglers and bounty hunters will probably make up a lot of the deluxe expansion, which would really help kick off the Empire cycle after Hoth and finish up any New Hope themes(like metric tons of jawas). If so, my guess is that Dagobah and Cloud City will be lumped in together. Is there enough material to get one cycle each out of them? Maybe, and then transition with another deluxe expansion into two to three cycles of Jedi..with lots of ewoks. How long does FFG have the license for again?
Or maybe I'm completely wrong and the theme will be based on Shadows of the Empire material.
I know I am getting way ahead of myself, but I am excited.

Edit: Apparently I wanted to respond to you twice for emphasis.

Anyone else happy they've stuck with Force Packs, and not gone for some other option?

One of the interesting things I noticed in Nate's preview here was the fact that, when an objective passes to your opponent, your opponent seems to have control of them? I wonder if this will be expanded upon to give your opponent greater benefits from having your objectives on his side of the table, or something. It's an interesting idea, anyway.

I'm also really interested to see how they can expand upon the first forty minutes or so of the film into a six-cycle pack. I didn't realise there was that much stuff! Hopefully they'll be delving into the EU for this at any rate, so maybe we'll get a Dash Rendar before the cycle is up?

Seems to me like the objective card to the rear of the two-card fan where they discuss how Force packs work, that is a Jedi objective (the colouring seems to be tan, like others that have been previewed), though I don't know if that'll be an objective in this pack. At least it won't be exclusively a two-faction-per-pack thing, maybe. Though that could be a good thing for some people who prefer to only get the cards they want. Being a completist, I don't really care either way…

Seems like the game is off to a flying start, anyway, even if the core set isn't even out yet! I am thrilled in my little corner of Wales

Budgernaut said:

Same here. Does anyone remember when Assault on Ulthuan was released in relation to the Corruption Cycle for Warhammer, by any chance?!

EDIT: checking through the news page for Warhammer, Assault on Ulthuan was announced as released between the fourth and fifth packs of the first cycle for that game. What bearing that will have on this game, I have no real idea, but just wanted to share the fruits of my (admittedly easy) research on that…

spalanzani said:

While that is an interesting concept, and something very in keeping with the mythology, I believe you may have misunderstood. What it sounds like to me, is that the Light Side player will have his Hoth objectives, and the Dark Side player will have his. Both sides will have cards that look to see who currently has more Hoth objectives on the table. Thus, if you find you have an equal or lesser number of Hoth objectives than your opponent, you are encouraged to "battle for Hoth," represented by focusing your attacks on his Hoth objective(s). There is the possibility that Hoth objectives themselves may change ownership during play, but this is not necessary for driving home the struggle over the system.

I'm beginning to see the value in the set-based production. It's really an ingenious way to capture the tone of galactic conflict, without the need for a dozen cards cluttering the table. It's also a broad concept to build upon, in that objectives can represent anything, not just planets like Hoth, but long-term goals, Force-sensitive ideologies, and so forth.

spalanzani said:

I'm not sure what you are referring to. Where does it talk about objectives passing to your opponent?

MarthWMaster said:

You are most likely entirely right! It was very late, and I was very excited

Darksbane said:

I may have misinterpreted! Reading this:

While the light side controls more of the planet than its foes, their new Hoth objectives grant them protection from dark side assaults, advantages in edge battles, and other benefits.

in conjunction with this:

A number of light side effects, like that on the Hoth Operations card, are dependent upon the light side player controlling more Hoth objectives than his opponent.

made me think that the light side player only will have Hoth objectives, which the dark side player can "capture" (half-remembered mechanics that involve the text on the Princess Leia card) objectives for their own nefarious purposes. In the cold light of day, however, I have since seen this:

additional Force Packs will introduce more Hoth objective sets to the environment for both the light side and the dark side,

which really flies in the face of what I was thinking last night. Please disregard my previous, over-excited ramblings

There will likely be a Darth Vader and/or a Luke Skywalker set in this cycle, since it's the game's post-Core debut. I wonder if they will have identical gameplay but alternate artwork from their predecessors, new gameplay, or both? Personally I'm hoping at least one or the other will play the same, mainly because I want to see the precedent firmly set for familiar cards showing up in different sets. I like to think that the way sets work shall make it possible for the same cards to have greater longevity, and while I'm sure we will eventually see characters with different gameplay (Luke Skywalker in A New Hope should hardly be the same card as Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi or later, for example), I would prefer not to see them go out the door with alternate-play duplicates. I wish they would have gone with subtitles for unique cards (à la Call of Cthulhu) in order to eliminate the frustration of trying to discuss choices between versions of a card by set name (à la A Game of Thrones). Ah well.

Anyway, it will take some time adjusting to set-based deckbuilding in the first place. We shouldn't have to decide which version of Luke to play right away, too!

One thought that occur to me after some pondering on this hoth cycle is that FFG will have to be very careful. Much of the point seems to be to have "more" hoth objectives among your three on the table to attain some powerful bonuses and that in turn adds theme to the hoth struggle.

As far as I understand these cycles are usually six sets, I'm a little concerned that you could eventually build an entire objective set with nothing but hoth objectives (taking duplicates of sets into account), thus rendering the struggle for "most control" moot by always guaranteeing three hoth objectives in play.

Let's hope that they have considered that :-)

AshesFall said:

I'm sure that will be an issue during the cycle. Of course each Hoth objective a player keeps in his stack will dictate a portion of his deck's contents, and there is likely a balancing factor involved with this. There could be consequences for playing entirely within the theme. Still, I hope this is not a game that will crucify you for doing so.

AshesFall said:

All that aside, how cool will it be to play an all Hoth light side deck?

qwertyuiop said:

I was already planning on doing the same.