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.

There are other things they said they wouldn't do that they did anyway. I think it's possible we'll see more factions at some point.

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.

That's exactly the design I hope they go for. The appearance in the 90's Decipher CCG and again in Star Wars: Empire at War are probably my favorite depcitions.

It's worth pointing out—similar to the X-Wing/Z-95 argument—the idea that the Defender has better [insert stat here] than [insert craft here] doesn't need to be represented 1:1 by the game mechanic.

Let's say a Rebel ship has a shield strength of 500 megaunits (totally made-up) and an Imperial counterpart has a shield strength of 450 megaunits. The Rebel ship can be said, in fluff text, to have better shields than the Imp. But if it has a shield value of "2" in this game, the Imp will probably have the same value.

The Z-95 has worse "everything" than the X-Wing, except cost. That doesn't necessarily mean subtracting whole integers from Attack/Agility/Shield/Hull.

The Defender is, according to fluff, better than most starfighters. That doesn't necessarily mean adding 1 to every highest stat in the game. They can make it a 3/3/2/3 or something, make it expensive, and still not cause any disservice to the existing EU fiction.

It's worth pointing out—similar to the X-Wing/Z-95 argument—the idea that the Defender has better [insert stat here] than [insert craft here] doesn't need to be represented 1:1 by the game mechanic.

Let's say a Rebel ship has a shield strength of 500 megaunits (totally made-up) and an Imperial counterpart has a shield strength of 450 megaunits. The Rebel ship can be said, in fluff text, to have better shields than the Imp. But if it has a shield value of "2" in this game, the Imp will probably have the same value.

The Z-95 has worse "everything" than the X-Wing, except cost. That doesn't necessarily mean subtracting whole integers from Attack/Agility/Shield/Hull.

The Defender is, according to fluff, better than most starfighters. That doesn't necessarily mean adding 1 to every highest stat in the game. They can make it a 3/3/2/3 or something, make it expensive, and still not cause any disservice to the existing EU fiction.

Exactly!

With the imperial aces expansion being repaints, I have no doubts that Wave 4 will be all new EU ships. Otherwise they wouldn't be releasing the ace sets. It satisfies both types of fans.

They only need to use the EU to fill out a wave or two. After that the new Rebels CGI animated show and eventually Ep VII will start providing new ships.

The problem with the Clone Wars isn't that the movies weren't that good, it's that the Confederacy as a faction is uninteresting. The Republic did have a lot of neat spacecraft, which would be perfect as early imperial ships. I doubt we'll see them though unless they are used that way in the Rebels CGI show.

When it comes to TIE Defender stats I've always figured you can basically take an Interceptor and give it 2 points of shields along with some upgrade slots and have a Defender. The bar could gain the target lock and give up roll or boost and you could drop the dial down a level but the core should still be 3 attack, 3 defense, and a net 5 in hit points between hull and shield. I know the Y and B Wings are tougher than that but I never took the Defender to be that strong and those two rebel fighters really lack the maneuvering of the TIE.

For those who are talking about third factions, I would like to see the following expansion pack:

Tie ugly miniature (the one with the tie fighter cockpit and the y-wing engines. Totally bad a*$).

Pilot base x2: rebel pilot/rebel hero & pirate/mercenary

Large base x1: Chewbacca w/Lambda shuttle and/or pirate/mercenary for firespray and/or pirate/mercenary for YT1300.

By purchasing the expansion pack above, assuming one already has the bigger ships, you would have three new ships in a different faction. People would also be inclined to buy said big ships if they didn't already, FFG. ;-) The Z95 Headhunter would also be an option for fringe units, although not as cool looking as the tie ugly

IMO mercenaries or pirates could be used by either existing faction or as stand alone forces.

Defenders would be great, but I think that the point value would have to be the great equalizer.

Corellian Pilot, skill 9. 88 points.

I really hope to see the following.

Tie Defender: Should be similar to the B-wing in loadout but with very different turning options

Tie Avenger: Would be very similar to the rebel X-wing balance wise

Assault Gunboat: Should be similar to Y-wing

IG-2000: A-wing manueverability, not sure on loadout

Mist Hunter: Support ship

Punishing One: Solid fighter

Hound's Tooth: Similar to Falcon

Wild Karrde: Support ship

Z-95: Rebel Tie Fighter

Squadron Packs: Lots of Pilots for the Rebels, less so than ships for the imperials.