Lit Fantasy Flight Games and the Star Wars TCG

Frankly, I could see damn near any PT ship fitting in the scum faction, since it is not like pirates and mercenaries have the most up to date equipment anyway. In particular I could see scavengers fixing up droid fighters to use - you run into quite a few of them in Star Wars Galaxies.
And speaking of Galaxies, I would love to see a Belbullab-22

 

At least they have a precedent with the VicStar, Assault Frigate, and MC30 frigate of using EU ships. Everything else (save the Raider corvette) appears in official canon. The Dorneans are fairly likely to eventually appear, but I'd love for more classic designs from the EU, especially since they are running out of canon capital ships to use.

As a longtime Rebellion player, I'd go crazy if they released designs from that. Granted they're pretty obscure to most fans these days, but they would look great in Armada.

--Adm. Nick

 

Finally gonna run a game scenario today inspired by WEG's Darknon Station. Add in some escaped Ro Hypa from Mataou, some Black Sun Intrigue, and a delusional mourning Station Commander, and we're hopefully in for loads of fun.

 

It's not hard to tick off Ender, all you have to do is say you like FFG stuff even though you don't play the games.

 

And that you're confused by its canonicity which appears to be conflicting.

Or you wish they'd include more clone wars stuff for the art.

 

I literally only buy these for the Separatist pinup models.

 

Rise of the Empire, the expanion to Rebellion, is now officially out! https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/8/31/no-turning-back/

I picked up my copy from the local Board Game Barrister, though unfortunately I might not get a chance to try it out until next week as the friend I usually play it with is rather busy at the moment. Oh well, that just means more time for me to come up with a killer strategy.

For those interested, someone over at the BoardGameGeek forums posted pictures of all the cards. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1840263/expansion-out-full-list-cards-please

 

The new Destiny 2 player box is out today and available at Target. Picked it up this morning - some fun cards in it and a great starter if you haven't played yet.

 

Hmm. Seems like the Raddus and Resurgent class could be done as a wave of oversized Large ships (not Epic scale, but bigger than Home One/ISD) in Armada fairly easily.

 

So after my campaign ended, we're back with the first GM (having basically been through an extended masterclass on the system ) running an Edge game.

I wanted to go Smugger: Thief because unlike D&D, my preferred SW classes are scoundrel types. I wanted someone who'd retired from thieving after hitting the Canto Bight casino and making enough to get out, to fund a business in the outer rim making high end furnishings from enormous coral and shell fragments buried under the sands of his new, mostly desert, homeworld. But, the thrill of the score and the chase was slowly eroding his new found contendedness in legitimacy.

The basis was a more likeable Michael de Santa/Townley from GTA V, plus I'd played like 500hrs of Payday 2 as a Ghost stealth build. I wanted that kind of sneaky thief. However, looking at what role gaps we had in the party, I went Smuggler: Pilot upfront and I'll move across to Thief later.

Build is:

Brawn 2
Agility 3
Intellect 2
Cunning 3
Willpower 2
Presence 3

Career skills + Ranks:
+1 Astrogation (yellow, green, minus setback from talents)
+1 Perception (yellow, green, green)
+2 Piloting (space), (2 yellow 1 green) (I can do planetary piloting at 3 green)
+2 Skulduggery (2 yellow 1 green)
+1 Stealth (bonus racial skill) (yellow, green green)
+1 Streetwise (yellow green green)
+1 Ranged (light)(bonus racial skill) (yellow green green)
+1 Knowledge: Underworld (yellow green)

Talents :

I only had enough for Galaxy Mapper (hence minus setbacks on Astrogation), but after 1hr of session 0 play I got 5xp which went into Full Throttle.

The skulduggery ranks are useful here, because it'll deepen my use to the party beyond just flying well. I might move over to thief after session 1 or 2, giving me a wider range of talents to chose from.

Obligation: There's 10 cost each group obligation to a Hutt cartel, and I took an additional 5 to a player. Order 66 generally warns against this, because it's often done in a stupid way. I set it up so I was part of the group after I owed the player a HUGE favour - his character saved me during the aforementioned heist, and I promised if she ever needed a thief or pilot, whatever the job, I owed her. I then disappeared to the outer rim and 2 years later, she finds me... the obligation means I'm forced to go along with the group's decisions, which can often be stupid, withour questioning them if she has agreed to them. Given my general lack of faith in them at this stage, it works well to consider the strain obligation gives. I want to be able to pay it down and then invoke the motivation to get back "in the game".

The reason Order 66 recommends you don't have obligation to another player is - obligation is a burden. You want to get rid of it, so if it's a player then as soon as you can you're trying to... get rid of that player or get rid of yourself from the group. You need to a) not confuse obligation with motivation, and b) make sure the obligation doesn't create a rod for your back later.

i.e. "I have a life debt" = motivation. "It's my kid brother/sister" = motivation. "I owe you one big favour and after that, I'm out from under that" = obligation.

Mini wise, I am using my custom "Alliance Smuggler" mini, which you can see here: http://robjedi.blogspot.com.au/2017/05/star-wars-imperial-assault-rebel.html

Oh and weapons wise, I found this:

TT24 Holdout from Beyond the Rim.

TT24 Holdout Blaster
Skill: Ranged [Light]
Damage: 6
Critical: 3
Range: Medium
Encumbrance: 0
HP: 0
Special: Stun Setting,
Indexes: BtR:26

It's basically a blaster pistol disguised as a holdout. Given my character's background, it suits him well - a nice, effective choice in specialised, technically proficient weaponry.

The next step will be for me to build out my homestead to represent the business I run. I had this idea when I was on the beach at Waikiki; finding two small fragments of shells which fit to form a throne-like shape (I was busy looking for bits of pumice to throw at bastard birds who came too close, see) and thinking what if an RP character lived on a world that was once ocean, but is now mostly desert, and deep under the sand were this exquisite fragments of shell, some large enough to fashion into tables and chairs. And those fragments required skill to locate and extract, much less to shape into usable objects. Their rarity and composition would be such that wealthy people from all over the galaxy would want a table and chairs, or a bed, fashioned from them. The kinds of people who would spend the money most spend on a car in our world on a dining table.

To assuage the DM's worry, I said that I clearly kept business and criminal enterprise separate, so I'm not relying on additional wealth. The reason we're statting it up is because it may be used as a bolt hole later on.

 

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/9/8/finish-what-you-start/

 

I'm already dreaming about the day that Armada has a wave with the Raddus, the Resurgent-class, the new bombers, T-70 X-wings, A-wings, and new FO TIE's...

--Adm. Nick

 

I'm pretty sure that they will move in that direction as soon as we have some good Republic/Resistance capital ships to chose from.

 

Raddus and Resurgent would make a decent 2 ship wave. No real need for a larger base size even, as they could just make slightly taller stems for them so overlapping is less an issue. Hull around 18-21 or so, a couple 10 dice arcs, shield dials go up to 6, while the max we have seen on one facing now is 5 for Liberty. Throw in some fighters like they did Chimaera- at the scale they are at, T-70 and TIE/FO would be just different dials and cards, not models. Add a pair of B/SF-17s plus new dials to make a T-70 Xwing to Raddus, and a pair of TIE Silencers and some FO dials to the Resurgent.

 

Pity that this wasn't out ten years ago to avoid the Viscount/Executor discrepancy. Who's brilliant idea was that again, particularly when the Super Star Destroyers were upped to 19,000 m in length?

 

Blame Starships of the Galaxy Saga Edition (and Starship Battles) :

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Miniatures:_Starship_Battles

for the idea that Viscounts needed to be nearly the size of the Executor - they wanted an "Executor counterpart" and chose the Viscount despite the fact that there was nothing in NJO suggesting that the Mediator (with the Viscount being twice the size) was anywhere near large enough. The Mediator was only "larger than" a 1.6 km Vong ship, with no size given.

 

Essential Guide to Warfare made the Viscount prototype 3 kilometers in length (though there are those that still debate that it's rubbish despite the fact it is a set size), that meant to me to interpret the Mediator-class as ~1,500 meters in length.

To be honest, having 19,000 meter long warships - even about 20 of them built in a short space of four-ten years - was never seen as sustainable to me (not even a 12,000 meter length). I prefer my Super Star Destroyers at ~8,000 meters in length.

Oh well, at least that no one will be trying "Executor" counterparts anytime soon after that debacle.

 

Executor was never meant to be 8 Km, that was a chain of misunderstandings that grew and was unfortunately codified by WEG. When a civilization can build multiple moon sized space stations, a 19,000 meter ship is easily feasible.

The Viscount Resize was also a mess, a rare misstep by Fry and McEwok in EGtW.

 

We also have the Maxima A-class heavy cruiser, which we have a canonical image of too. They could easily sustain a Sequel Trilogy wave that had two large base and two medium/small base ships. The Nebulon-K, despite being shown as part of the FO fleet, could just as easily be a New Republic design that they used due to it being originally part of the private defense forces of Centrist worlds.

In terms of starfighters, we have plenty to sustain a wave as well. The T-70 X-wing, new A-wing, B/SF-17 bomber, and Resistance transport are all good choices. For the First Order, the TIE/FO, special forces TIE variant, TIE Silencer, and troop transporter all would fit well in the game as well.

I'd frankly be surprised if we didn't get additional Resistance/New Republic ships revealed in TLJ. I don't see the heavy cruiser Raddus being all alone. I'm sure there will be at least a few escort ships, we'll know for sure in three months!

--Adm. Nick

 

Don't... just don't talk about the WOTC starship battles game. I bought a case, played it once, and never again. We still occasionally play the minis combat game, so that should tell you all you ever need to know.

 

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/9/12/gm-guide-making-characters-memorable/

 

I don't often agree with you in this thread, but this 100%. The WOTC starship battles game was just atrocious. Which was particularly annoying/disappointing as the character minis were so fun.