Wait... are you thinking that if one of the ships to play epic has an 1:500 scale the other could be 1:600? hope no, I know the Empire ships are too large, but i hope they find something that they could make on the same scale.

Other thing: the Imperial II frigate looks great, but the numbers in Wookiepeia are correct? its say that can carry 72 TIEs, the same as an Imperial II SD which is 3 time bigger. I don't think so.

I hate the sliding scale. My X-Wings don't get smaller when they go up against larger ships, do they. I really hope FFG doesn't continue down this path. If a ship should be three feet long at the current capital ship scale, make it three feet long or don't make it.

If your going to have multiple scales for ships a sliding scale works better than just 2 discreet values, for a variety of reasons.

For example If you have a 1:600 scale for a Nebula-B, using the same scale on a GR-75 will make it look tiny compared to a X-Wing. Having a sliding scale allows you to slot in things much easier between scales without things looking weird.

Lets say you have a ship halfway between the GR-75 and the Falcon. If you use 1:270 it is going to be much bigger than it should be in relation to the GR-75 possibly 85% of the length of the GR-75, if you use 1:400 you will end up with a ship that is only a tiny bit larger than the Falcon. If you use a sliding scale and set it around 1:330 you will end up with a ship that is halfway in size between the two ships as it should be.

How long is your fantastic (!) Customs Corvette?

20.24in/51.4cm It's definitely close to the upper limit of a capital ship in this game, IMO.

I'm disappointed they even started a different scale for the transport and Tantive IV. I think the game would have been playable even with them at original scale. Sure we need a bigger board. But if you are adding different targetable sections to these ships and adjustable shields, I think the larger size plays well into the game mechanics, not to mention keeping the feel of the fighter perspective. It should take me more than a turn to pass a capital ship, even at full thrust.

The decisions FFG has made so far in the game have been great. What ships they have made, how they have caught the flavor of the Star Wars universe through the pilots and upgrades offered. The sliding scale concept is the first time I feel they have started to as rice the games integrity, even if it is for practicality. If they continue down this road, I'll drop out of the "Cinematic / Epic" side of things, as it just doesn't appeal to me. For those of you who want capital ships no matter what, enjoy your stunted versions. To each his own.

I'm not really a fan of sliding scales, welcome the 30cm diameter Death Star.

I hope they will stick with some scale levels at least and stop at some point. I don't have a problem with adding a capital ship level game, but then you need new rules and one x-wing would have to represent a squadron or some such.

I'm not really a fan of sliding scales, welcome the 30cm diameter Death Star.

I hope they will stick with some scale levels at least and stop at some point. I don't have a problem with adding a capital ship level game, but then you need new rules and one x-wing would have to represent a squadron or some such.

I'm not meaning a silly exponential sliding scale. I'm meaning something that makes some sense. I really don't think we should go above 1:540 (half size) and the Nebulon-B, Customs Corvetter, Vigil should be the top end of the scale... But a sliding scale as long as you keep in these constraints should look better than a 2 scale system (as it allows things between a Falcon and a Transport).

This would be an example of a sliding scale that I feel is sensible.

You left the most important part out of the diagram. Throw an x-wing in there next to the nebulon-b. That's where the whole sliding scale thing breaks down.

visually, as a collectible you could perhaps get away with such a scale, but functionally not.

Given, that the frigate is armed explicitly for use against starfighters, including its 24 TIE fighter (or what ever rebel analog) complement and each a dozen of laser canons and turbo-lasers, you really have to downscale it's strength to make sense in a game of single starfighters.

I would love to see the nebulon frigate, it has a nice visual, but I don't see it practical without distorting the strength differences beyond recognition.

As mentioned before, you could make a fleet level game use squadrons and capital ships and move to a symbolic scale (as in every ship/group is represented by a miniature of the same (or just functional/representative size classes: small medium large) size and you fit the rules to address the larger scope. But that would be more or less a completely different game.

possibly not Asgo, a lot of capital ship weapons are designed for Capital to Capital fighting not against smaller ships. As long as you split these off you could get a reasonable proximity to Firepower without nerfing the ship to much.

Well, basically I also dislike the idea of having different scales ... but I think Rodent made himself clear with this cool picrute, showing that it is feasible. Would you add our possible imperial candidates?

...

I found another ship for the empire ... though its not very remarkable nor iconic .... but its 180m in length

its the Kiltirin -class dungeon ship

I tried to but no decent side on pictures of them that I could find.. Scratch that, found Ansel version of the Customs Corvette and the Vigil.. And stuck in an Action VI and an X-Wing to go with them.

Fantasy flight has referred to the rules for the Tantive IV and Rebel transport as Epic Scale/Cinematic play style. At that scale I would imagine that each fighter would represent a small squadron to keep the power levels in check. Namely 3-4 attack dice for a turbolaser/heavy laser cannon is roughly in proportion to the 2-3 attack dice for a small squadron of fighters. This would keep things fairly simple and not require an overhaul of the existing tokens, pilot cards, etc.

As to scale the rebel ships aren't hard to pull off, it is the Imperial ships that pose the issue. To quote Grand Moff Tarkin, " I maintain that the effectiveness of the Star Destroyer stems from not only its massive firepower, but from its size. When citizens look at a Star Destroyer and then compare it to the craft which might be mustered to attack it, they have a tendency to dismiss such a notion as suicidal rather than approach the problem tactically." They are of just such an absurdly large scale that they must be shrunk down considerably to make them feasible to use and produce on a large scale. The Star Destroyer my group is using seems to be about the ceiling for practical use. At 1/2274 scale it still clocks in at just under a whopping 20 inches! lol Here is link for reference.

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/94293-were-going-to-need-a-bigger-boat/

Thanks, Rodent, for the work you put in this fantastic diagram. Whether we have different scales or fixed ones (to 1:500 )

It shows us that there are more large ships we could get in future. The Customs Fregate and the light cruiser would be awesome ... but there still is a ship might be worth of taken into account: The Hound's Tooth ... yeah its a large bounty hunter ship ... and thus its fighting for the Empire.

I'm not really a fan of sliding scales, welcome the 30cm diameter Death Star.

You'd need a scale of ~1:400000 for a 30cm diameter model

Even if the dreaded sliding scale put DS1 at a scale of 1:10000 you'd have a ~12 meter diameter model? That'd feel pretty big, probably over-sized for a 4x6 tabletop too...

OK, here are some Imperial ships I found that are 100m to 300m.

Assassin-class corvette 139.25m

Tartan-class patrol cruiser 250m

Lancer-class frigate 250m

Nebulon-B2 frigate 253.2m

Star Galleon-class frigate 300m

There are others, but these are the ones that stood out as being mostly used by the Empire and not super obscure.

The problem I have is that the Assassin is amazingly close to the Tantive and the Nebulon-B is most visually identified with the Rebels.

The problem I have is that the Assassin is amazingly close to the Tantive and the Nebulon-B is most visually identified with the Rebels.

Yes the EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate is most visually identified with the Rebels, but not the Nebulon-B2 frigate. Though it does look somewhat similar, it's not as glaring as the CR-90 and Assassin.

The problem I have is that the Assassin is amazingly close to the Tantive and the Nebulon-B is most visually identified with the Rebels.

Yes the EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate is most visually identified with the Rebels, but not the Nebulon-B2 frigate. Though it does look somewhat similar, it's not as glaring as the CR-90 and Assassin.

I would rather have ships like the Customs Corvette that feel far more imperial.

Yeah, the Imperial Custom Corvette would be a good choice, also adding the Imperial Customs frigate and the Guardian-class light cruiser to the game would open the door for a myriad of Imperial Customs type missions.

Not to sound narcissistic, but I'd love it if they used my Customs Corvette as a model for an official miniature. Maybe not quite as big as mine, but it would be great if they used the same shapes.

I agree, I prefer your proportions to Ansel's.

After reading the official announcement again, I guess Rodent is right about a non-fixed epic scale.

In the end, we decided these ships were simply too iconic and exciting to ignore, and we invented a new “relative” scale, carefully balancing each ship's playability against its presence on the table.

This statement can be interpreted that each ship comes with its own scale for a better playability.

So, if there are no moving parts wich can be ****** up, like on the shuttle, I am pretty confident that FFG will do a good job so the large ships will be both amazing on the board and good looking the shelf.

After reading the official announcement again, I guess Rodent is right about a non-fixed epic scale.

In the end, we decided these ships were simply too iconic and exciting to ignore, and we invented a new “relative” scale, carefully balancing each ship's playability against its presence on the table.

This statement can be interpreted that each ship comes with its own scale for a better playability.

So, if there are no moving parts wich can be ****** up, like on the shuttle, I am pretty confident that FFG will do a good job so the large ships will be both amazing on the board and good looking the shelf.

"relative scale" can be about anything, which I'm sure was the intention behind it, to prevent to be nailed to a certain set in stone scale. In the end it's probably a question what rules they are creating for the capital ships and less about the size of the models.

What I personally don't like about the sliding scales is, that you loose the relative size differences, something people who don't know better might not even notice. In a way it's worse than all models being the same size (with respective unique scales), because there you know it's a symbolic figure and don't expect one model to be a factor x.yz larger than the other.

For me it is a deviation more problematic than the similar discussions on using models from prequels/sequel and the general EU, but sure that's a matter of taste.

as for the models, itself I'm sure they will look great and with the right set of rules they will probably play well (which is for me the predominant factor), but it's a pity they abandoned a good idea.

Do you think there will be a Nebulon-B sometime? with 300m this would be a massive ship on the table (1:540 = 55,6cm)

Anyone able to identify the 2. rebel transport on this chart?

Well, basically I also dislike the idea of having different scales ... but I think Rodent made himself clear with this cool picrute, showing that it is feasible. Would you add our possible imperial candidates?

...

I found another ship for the empire ... though its not very remarkable nor iconic .... but its 180m in length

its the Kiltirin -class dungeon ship

I dig this one. Looks like it's full of potential...

And don't forget Hounds Tooth.

I say we go for a 1/270 Deathstar. Every single xwing player in existence could be playing a match on it's surface area at the same time and still have room. Awesome.