With the addition of the larger ships for the rebels preparing to be released will there be a Lancer Frigate for the imperials or somthing more exciting like the Tie Defender

Not really bothered about the tie defender, the interceptor fills the advanced imperial fighter role nicely.

I know a lot of people had fun with the tie fighter PC game, but the defender never grew on me. It was just too good compared with everything else. I'd really prefer to limit games to ships from the films and not have some eu rubbish p***ing all over iconic x-wings and tie fighters.

Lots of new pilots, rather than ships are what I'm after now!

Unfortunately, if it just kept with the models in the movie here, the game would die. You need new ships to mix up the meta.. And hell I'm not the most rabid Star Wars fan, but certains ships like the Defender and the Z-95 pinged on my radar, and I'm sure many people will recognise them.

Just my opinion, obviously.

Hopefully big ships, new missions and things like narrative play can keep things interesting, and new pilots, skills, mods and titles in with the repaints will also help mix up the meta.

A lot of eu stuff is just not as well designed as the movie ships. More generic sci if than Star Wars.

I want my 30 different ships! I think balance is very important to the game, but I'm not really concerned about redundancy. If the YT-2400 is only slightly different from the YT-1300, it may not evolve the meta of the game, but I'd still enjoy the chance to sport one on the gaming table. Don't break the rules for the sake of a new ship, but sometimes that asthetics of the ship would be enough. If nothing else, new ships may be a vehicle to get additional upgrade cards that currently would require ships of a type that most players are unwilling to purchase in multiples.

A lot of eu stuff is just not as well designed as the movie ships. More generic sci if than Star Wars.

I agree with this sentiment, there is a lot of dodgy EU. But there is a lot of wonderful stuff. I would love playing a Hutt Consortium or Black Sun fleet, having a 3rd faction would mix things up a lot. The Defender and the YT-2400 are iconic in their own right. I think it's just a case of looking at the EU with an Editors eye and picking the decent stuff.

The Lancer Frigate was supposed to be 250 m long. How would that ever make it into the game? Even at 1/2 game scale (1/540th) it would be over 18" long, and ugly as sin.

As far as other snubfighters, only FFG knows for sure until they are announced. A TIE Defender is a pretty safe bet since it's a popular EU ship. However, it's pretty over powered in the video game, so they may have to avoid it for balance reasons.

I'm hoping for a Chiss Nssis-class Clawcraft myself. I don't think it really offers anything as far as gameplay/game meta, but **** that thing looks cool. It's much later than the game time frame tho.

the Chiss Nssis-class Clawcraft is a beautiful model, but like the Predator it's a bit late in the timeline.. which is a shame as I wouldn't mind seeing a Predator.

Also could there be the addition of a third faction such as the Yuuzhan Vong or the Black Sun

My impression from the designers was that no new factions. This is a Rebel vs Imperial game, and that is how they balance the game. And I doubt they are going near the NJO era, especially with its existence in doubt.

Say what you will about the pacing, dialogue, jar jar, and acting in the prequels, there is some good Star Wars design there and I'd prefer to see some of those ships before Chiss claw craft and computer game ports. If the rebellion used y-wings then arc170s, v19 torrents and v-wings should be fair game. Tie fighters vs droid starfighters would also be fun.

One of my favorites is padme's star skiff from episode 3; I'd much rather have that on the board than the mouldy crow*.

*not trolling, dark forces 2 was epic!

A pirates/fringe faction would be a good way to introduce older ships without going full on clone wars with the game.

My impression from the designers was that no new factions. This is a Rebel vs Imperial game, and that is how they balance the game. And I doubt they are going near the NJO era, especially with its existence in doubt.

I know they have said this, but tournaments have already ended up having Rebel vs Rebel and Imperial vs Imperial matchups. And there are only so many of the cool ships they can shoe horn into one side or another. A Pirate/Black Sun/Consortium faction would make a lot of sense, even if quite a few of their ships could be use by one side or another.

We can hope they come to their senses. There is definitely enough interest on this board or others to suggest that people would like a 3rd faction. It comes up at least once or twice every week.

Not really bothered about the tie defender, the interceptor fills the advanced imperial fighter role nicely.

I know a lot of people had fun with the tie fighter PC game, but the defender never grew on me. It was just too good compared with everything else. I'd really prefer to limit games to ships from the films and not have some eu rubbish p***ing all over iconic x-wings and tie fighters.

Lots of new pilots, rather than ships are what I'm after now!

How about lots of both!

While I'm a big fan of the Interceptor, a TIE Defender would be good for this game in a lot of ways. Most of the customization options for Imperial players are tied up in their large ships. In fact, 13 of their 14 upgrade icons are on the Firespray-31, Lambda Shuttle, and TIE Bomber, and many people haven't gotten their Wave 3 ships yet. All Rebel ships have some sort of upgrace icon, and most have two or more, so they don't have to rely on alternate pilots to change things up.

Also, with slight changes in ship dials and action bars, it isn't hard to differentiate between similar ships.

- For example, a TIE Defender has 4 laser cannons (Firepower 3), and is a very agile dogfighter (Agility 3).

- It isn't significantly bulkier than other TIEs (Hull 3), but as a continuation of the TIE Advanced/Avenger series it has integral shields (Shield 2).

- It has a living pilot (Focus Action), a targeting computer (Target Lock Action), belongs to the TIE series (Barrel Roll Action), and has powerful engines (Boost Action).

- However it isn't quite as nimble as its predecessors, (no Evade Action).

- It also mounts a pair of ion cannons (Weapon Upgrade) and a warhead launcher (Missile Upgrade), and is the product of more than a decade of Imperial research (Systems Upgrade).

- It's fast, but to keep it different from the TIE Interceptor we'll give it the TIE Advanced's dial.

- It's more capable than any other small ship out, but not as durable as a Firespray-31. Maybe a little more capable than a stock YT-1300 (Point Cost 27-30).

Pretty unique, both for Imperial fighters and the game as a whole. Powerful (and rightly so), but by no means the be all and end all. It can move fast and boost like the Interceptor for slashing attacks, but can't burn stress as easily. Lack of evade means it can't avoid damage with annoying regularity.

I struggled a little more with its counterpart, the E-Wing, since I didn't want it to directly outperform the X-Wing in the way you're concerned about, but here goes:

- It mounts 3 laser cannons (Firepower 2...see below) and handless similarly to an X-Wing (Agility 2).

- Although well-armored, it has maintenance problems (Hull 3) but modern shielding (Shields 3).

- It has a living pilot (Focus Action) and a targeting computer (Target Lock Action).

- The cannons are powerful, but tempermental (Weapon Upgrade, for a HLC), it carries torpedoes (Torpedo Upgrade, only one of them for role balance with the Y-Wing), it has advanced electronics (System Upgrade), and an astromech slot (Astromech Upgrade).

- Slightly faster than the X-Wing, so use the X-Wing dial with a red 5-speed straight maneuver. Move all green maneuvers up one speed bracket (it's a high-speed attacker more than a turn-and-burn craft) which leavevs the 1-speed greens to the X-Wing and B-Wing for variety.

- Actually a weaker fighter without upgrades (HLC to represent the unreliable laser cannons), probably about as capable as an unupgraded Y-Wing (Point Cost 16-18, which increases to 23-25 with a HLC upgrade).

Similar to the X-Wing, but it handles differently enough to fill different roles.

Say what you will about the pacing, dialogue, jar jar, and acting in the prequels, there is some good Star Wars design there and I'd prefer to see some of those ships before Chiss claw craft and computer game ports. If the rebellion used y-wings then arc170s, v19 torrents and v-wings should be fair game. Tie fighters vs droid starfighters would also be fun.

One of my favorites is padme's star skiff from episode 3; I'd much rather have that on the board than the mouldy crow*.

*not trolling, dark forces 2 was epic!

Agreed about the prequel.

Made some of my own interpretations of prequel starfighters. Might put them up later if I remember to.

When I saw the TIE-Defender for the 1st time on the 'Tie-Fighter' game series, I must admit that I hated the ship. It looked to me as one of the ugliest things floating on space.

However, with the time passing, a warm love for the machine started to grow on me... Furthermore, all the succesive artists that drew depictions of it kept polishing it and embellishing it, to the point of me really wanting to have this unique triangular simmetry ship avaliable for this game.

If I'm not mistaken, Ansel Hsiao's has drawn the most modern canon depiction of it.

the Chiss Nssis-class Clawcraft is a beautiful model, but like the Predator it's a bit late in the timeline.. which is a shame as I wouldn't mind seeing a Predator.

The Clawcraft's first appearance is 19 ABY, the Predator is 130 ABY. It's a pretty big difference. They made it in the last books published before the NJO series started (The Hand of Thrawn Duology, Specter of the Past , and Vision of the Future ).

(Thanks wikia!)

Joker Two, love those stat blocks. I'd like to see the E-Wing statted up like that.

Joker Two, love those stat blocks. I'd like to see the E-Wing statted up like that.

Thanks! I tried to keep it from being a direct upgrade to the X-Wing, and the 2-speed greens with Firepower 2 + Weapon Upgrade really makes it handle different, even if statistically it's almost the same.

What about, instead of a third faction, there were ships meant to add context to the game? Like civilan ships, assorted 'pirate paints'/uglies, cargo containers, transports, 3D asteroids, etc? That would add a lot to the game without changing things. Placing 3D asteroids or transports onto the field would make the game look awesome and surely introduce new mechanics that affect play itself. Civilian ships would provide more robust objectives. They could even be "flown" like the fighters by the respective players but not count towards the 100pt limit, allowing for such missions to be universal but given an individual flair depending on what you choose to take into battle.

For example, pirate uglies or repaints could be flown by a third non aligned player or, say they were hired by the rebels, be flown by one player in addition to his list. Rebels attack a shuttle defended by Imps. They enlist pirates for help. Rebel player will fly their list and the prescribed pirate list. If the Imps can destroy 3 fighters of either side or combination thereof,the pirates automatically lose their nerve and retreat, leaving the Rebel fighters outnumbered for the duration of the mission.

Merely adding more robust accesories would keep it Rebel-Imp, leave the balance, and still add to the game.

What about, instead of a third faction, there were ships meant to add context to the game? Like civilan ships, assorted 'pirate paints'/uglies, cargo containers, transports, 3D asteroids, etc? That would add a lot to the game without changing things. Placing 3D asteroids or transports onto the field would make the game look awesome and surely introduce new mechanics that affect play itself. Civilian ships would provide more robust objectives. They could even be "flown" like the fighters by the respective players but not count towards the 100pt limit, allowing for such missions to be universal but given an individual flair depending on what you choose to take into battle.

For example, pirate uglies or repaints could be flown by a third non aligned player or, say they were hired by the rebels, be flown by one player in addition to his list. Rebels attack a shuttle defended by Imps. They enlist pirates for help. Rebel player will fly their list and the prescribed pirate list. If the Imps can destroy 3 fighters of either side or combination thereof,the pirates automatically lose their nerve and retreat, leaving the Rebel fighters outnumbered for the duration of the mission.

Merely adding more robust accesories would keep it Rebel-Imp, leave the balance, and still add to the game.

i agree looking at other objective based craft.

what about combat satelites, little turrets floating in space.

imperial probe droid pods, even if they are cardboard, the rebels need to destroy them before they exit the oposite table edge

or how about the landing craft used in Empire at war? these would be great objective pieces.

I'd even like a Senator's shuttle I didn't have to paint myself and that only costs around $15.

Good topic, but if you like the Defender like I do, there are some models out there. Here are mine I got from eBay and then painted.

One thing i wondered if the new ships came from those that exist between ep III and ep IV.

When i look at the pilots, many of them died in 0BBY, so its seems that the time line of the game is before that date and after the ended of the clones wars.

Speaking of things from the TIE fighter computer game, how about Assault GunBoats or a Missile Boat? Handy for taking out the Corvette and Transport that the Rebels are getting.

Good topic, but if you like the Defender like I do, there are some models out there. Here are mine I got from eBay and then painted.

I really want to see in the game, thanks for the picture, greettings.