I was excited to read the press release giving us a first hint of how Cinematic Play will work. I have been messing around with some sort of home-brewed campaign system for a while now, and it just doesn't seem to satisfy what I want out of a game. I know that most of us here enjoy playing X-Wing for the sake of moving the ships around and blowing each other up, but the idea of the game taking place in a larger context appeals to me.

Which brings me to the future of the game. I was reading some of the guesses for Wave 4, and I noticed that some of you are against fighters that aren't as powerful as what we have now. I can see your point, but isn't the other alternative ships that become progressively so powerful that our existing miniatures become obsolete? Having a Z-95 might not be such a bad thing if you can survive the first few missions, then upgrade to something else...

Where would you like to see the game go? EU? Prequels? Wait for Episode VII and go there? Or should FFG spend more time releasing pilot cards for existing minis (or perhaps even repaints of existing minis), along with more developed Cinematic rules or Campaign rules?

You may be interested in this completely uninformed speculation thread: http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/88920-how-about-a-wave-4-completely-uninformed-speculation-thread/

I think the problem people have with the Z-95 is not that it's rubbish, it's that it fill an almost identical role to the TIE fighter. It's really important as the game expands that the two forces retain individual feels. One thing the Imperials do is fast, cheap, maneuverable ships. Now I don't see this as an issue that stops the Z-95, but you would have to be careful, my suggestion is overpoint it slightly, but give it a reduction on the cost of it equiping missiles. This means that rather than filling the position that the TIE/Ln does it plays very differently and keeps the feel of the Rebels, that of a cheap missile delivery system.

I'm kind of looking forward to the Z-95. I think there's a place for it, IF it slots right into that gap between the X-Wing and TIE. It's more like mid-high teens in cost, into the low 20s for named pilots, it's got 2 attack, 2 agility, probably 3 hull and a single shield, but can carry a missile or something. Then I think there's a nice niche for it.

I also think we'll see the Outrider at some point, and the Rebels are currently down 2 big ships to 1. ; ) I have mixed feelings, because on the one hand I love the design of the 2400 and would love to see it on the table. On the other hand, making it different enough from the 1300 is an issue.

I was excited to read the press release giving us a first hint of how Cinematic Play will work. I have been messing around with some sort of home-brewed campaign system for a while now, and it just doesn't seem to satisfy what I want out of a game. I know that most of us here enjoy playing X-Wing for the sake of moving the ships around and blowing each other up, but the idea of the game taking place in a larger context appeals to me.

Which brings me to the future of the game. I was reading some of the guesses for Wave 4, and I noticed that some of you are against fighters that aren't as powerful as what we have now. I can see your point, but isn't the other alternative ships that become progressively so powerful that our existing miniatures become obsolete? Having a Z-95 might not be such a bad thing if you can survive the first few missions, then upgrade to something else...

Where would you like to see the game go? EU? Prequels? Wait for Episode VII and go there? Or should FFG spend more time releasing pilot cards for existing minis (or perhaps even repaints of existing minis), along with more developed Cinematic rules or Campaign rules?

I would love to see what kind of campaign rules you are using? Would you be wiling to share?

I'm kind of looking forward to the Z-95. I think there's a place for it, IF it slots right into that gap between the X-Wing and TIE. It's more like mid-high teens in cost, into the low 20s for named pilots, it's got 2 attack, 2 agility, probably 3 hull and a single shield, but can carry a missile or something. Then I think there's a nice niche for it.

If I am not mistaken, you **** near just described the A-Wing.

Well **** near except slower and less maneuverable and cheaper...

With only a single shield I dare say a Z-95 is more vulnerable to a single shot crippling compared to an Awing, particularly with lower agility. It really could fill a niche between the TIE and Xwing, and just as the TIE Adv is it can be overpriced to suppress a spam of them.

I'm not opposed to the inclusion of the Z-95 and the TIE Defender, allowing either side to enjoy limited benefits of the other. The Rebels allow a limited swarmer and the Empire finally gets a decent-quality assault fighter.

I would expect the Z-95 to come around 15 points minimum, allowing the Rebels to fly 6 of them. Stat-wise I'd expect 2 across all categories, and maneuvering options similar to an X-Wing. Upgrades would be a missile slot with EPTs on higher skilled pilots.

The drawbacks are obvious compared to the A-Wing; lesser agility and restricted movement options. However, being cheaper they can help fill out Rebel lists with bodies and better match the quantity of ships inherent in Imperial Lists. They can become cheaper missile platforms for an alpha strike if flying Prototype A-Wings with missiles is too pricey of an option. However they pay for it, since their hit points and agility are not going to let them live long. I find this appropriate given how fragile the Z-95 seemed in the flight simulators (my strongest point of reference FWIW).

The TIE Defender on the other hand would have 3s across the board, perhaps fielding at most 3 decent ships, great maneuvering options but expensive. This lets the Empire finally fly Elite builds that have some staying power. The Imperial player can also move fewer ships on the table now without resorting to large ships.

In both cases either side gets to enjoy some tactics of the other, but trying to behave like the other side will never be as good. A z-95 swarm for instance will never be as powerful as a true TIE Swarm but at least it would be competitive.

Have no idea what the other ships could be. I'd hope the Rebels get the Baudo space yatch myself, since I feel the 2400 would behave very similar to the 1300. I think the Baudo is also a better Shuttle counterpart than the 2400.

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I think what I would ask from Fantasy Flight regarding the direction of the game are more missions and greater meta play. Single-play matches are well and good, but it would be nice to have greater variety of play-modes so it's not just whomever has the better TIE swarm in a tournament. I don't know how well a campaign system could work- I haven't encountered a campaign system yet that really appealed to me- but It would be a nice thought for Fantasy Flight to contemplate.

The new capital ships making an impact on such a campaign system would be a good thing too. But, I still don't see Star Destroyers / Cruisers (REAL capital ships) being practical on the play table. In fact if I were designing such a campaign I'd make these ships unapproachable in whatever space they were, but difficult/impossible to impact campaign scoring. They'd just be spawn points for the players...*Shrug*

Lady Luck.

_{@RealGenius: Thanks for the link. I've actually stayed up on that thread. My intent in posting this was not to rechew old soup, but to speculate on what FFG is going to do to keep people interested in this game. Fighter vs Fighter battles are a lot of fun (we all think so, or we wouldn't be here ). What is next?}

_{FFG announced the Cinematic Play that will be coming out with the Corvette and the Transport. This shows me that they are thinking about it, too. If you think of historic air battles, there were very few times that air forces met just to grind each other down (though attrition was an operational tactic that was used during WWII). Usually, there was a reason for air combat, such as escorting a bombing mission, or causing a diversion, or intercepting a bombing mission, etc. I would like to see FFG come up with something besides point-based battles, as I am interested in the story behind why the fighters are fighting .}

_{@Rodent Mastermind, CrookedWookie, Marvingardns and Norsehound: I can see that from a purely point-based point of view, there is little desire for a Z-95. But according to many stories that have been written about the EU, the rebels had them and used them. I'm interested in seeing if the Z-95 can accomplish a mission without having to obliterate the enemy force. Maybe that's too much in the realm of an RPG?}

_{@Daeglan: My "rules" for a campaign are very basic - I'd love to hear other ideas. They basically go something like this:}

_{- Choose 300 points worth of fighters, upgrades and droids. You must have 150 points of non-unique pilots. Choose a rookie or equivalent; give him a name.}

_{- Now divide your 300 points into three groups. Totals for individual groups can be more than 100, but you can only use pilots, upgrades, and droids from your pool of 300 that you chose earlier. Label the groups "1", "2" and "3"}

_{- You and your opponent now play three consecutive games, your "1" vs his "1", your "2" vs his "2" etc. It's probably better to use a scenario rather than a force-on-force, though the missions are up to you and your opponent.}

_{- Ships which leave the board edge during play are only considered destroyed if it is NOT your own board edge.}

_{- The winner of the series (2/3 wins or greater) gets bonus points for pilot development. (This is the part I haven't really nailed down yet!) Points are awarded to non unique pilots for surviving (1 point), hitting a target (2 points) and destroying a target (5 points).}

_{Winning a scenario gives 1 bonus point per surviving pilot. Winning the series gives and additional 2 bonus points per surviving pilot. Pilots whose ship was destroyed have a two in six chance of succesfully ejecting and being rescued. A pilot who masses 10 points gets to be upgraded from Rookie to Red (or equivalent). I haven't gotten to the point where a pilot would go from a named but non-unique to a unique Ace, or how you many points it would cost to earn skills.}

_{Besides the published scenarios, I've tried to come up with a few variations, like Escort a ship from one side of the map to the other (possibly using a bigger playing area), Data Raid (special ship with 0-cost sensors must spend three consecutive turns within firing range of target satellite to pull a data dump), ID and destroy a defector or spy, capture an important shipment (scoring Ion hits on three consecutive turns), then tractor it by being within a 1 template of the target at 1 speed for 2 turns, maybe).}

_{I know there are plenty of holes here. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, ideas, critiques...}

I'm expecting, from the next normal wave at least, a new type of upgrade. We got the System upgrades this time, so I'd expect a few new ships and versions of these, and then something new- maybe a set of beam type weapons (tractors, jamming, gravity wells) depending on these fit with the new ships.

I think it's fair to assume more EU will begin appearing. They tested the waters with the HWK from Dark Forces/Jedi Knight (the first among many of the Star Wars games), so next we might see something from the X wing/Tie Fighter range, probably a TIE Defender, maybe an assault or missile gunboats (anything else is probably just too obscure). I personally hope they delve into the books somewhat, adding the Baudo space yacht to get us away from the YT style. They seem to be aiming for, and reaching, the people who loved Star Wars beyond the films, and mixing in those classic games and novels will please many fans.

I think the EU will be a great source of new starfighters until episode VII, and their new Large scale ships and cinematic battles released alongside to keep interested those who prefer to stick to the movies rather than the EU

Many of the replies here seem to refer only to the type of ships that might be released next. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how the game might evolve.

Or is that what you all are trying to say - that you think that the only direction in which FFG will take this game is more and more ship releases?

Scenarios and campaigns is where the game has to go if it is going to last a long time. Missions and such will give people a reason to buy stuff they otherwise would not. A ship that isnt good in a dog fight might be just the ticket for a mission. Blood bowl is still going strong even without active support simply because of the joy of playing in leagues which then feeds in too the tournament's etc. The cinematic stuff seems like an attempt in this direction but not sure how far this takes it.

Assuming this game continues to do well, and I see no reason that would not be the case, I foresee expansions into related but not necessarily compatible areas. For example, we are going to get Cinematic and Epic play, using big ships. While related, these modes are different and will have ships that aren't technically compatible with "Standard" X-Wing play. Similarly, I could see expansion into Battle of Hoth style speeders and ground warfare, maybe even skirmish level ground fighting at some point. The Star Wars universe is every bit as broad and well developed as the 40k universe, there is no reason why this game could not spawn a series of well-designed miniatures games that share a common creator and theme.

_{@Rodent Mastermind, CrookedWookie, Marvingardns and Norsehound: I can see that from a purely point-based point of view, there is little desire for a Z-95. But according to many stories that have been written about the EU, the rebels had them and used them. I'm interested in seeing if the Z-95 can accomplish a mission without having to obliterate the enemy force. Maybe that's too much in the realm of an RPG?}

Uh, I was actually encouraging the Z-95. From a purely points-based view it enables the Rebels to have more guns in their lists and try to match TIE swarms for numbers of attacks each turn. It is vulnerable and won't last long, but there it is.

I believe the game will continue to have future fighter releases, but FFG is starting to release interesting supplements while they continue to do so. Large ships and cinematic play I think is just the beginning. I want to see more of what cinematic play is about before writing an opinion about where the game is really going to go.

Yeah how did I get dragged in there? I was saying I thought the Headhunter could potentially fill a nice niche for the Rebels.

@ Norsehound and Crookedwookie: My bad for not being more explicit - I was trying to add my $.02 to your conversation about the X-95, not imply that I disagreed with everything you said.