Su'cuy, X-wing players! Finally; we move away from the sequel trilogy; and really sink our teeth into the best of the Disney-era Star Wars content, and things that it sounds like every faction and era can look forward to.
We've got a lot of incoming information, and lots of big things to look forward to. I'm going to be watching the VOD later (it's still processing on Youtube), but I have cards and dials from Facebook and Twitter, so we'll start there. I will say, though; that this is the wave
Firstly, a ship I know we've all been waiting for: the ST-70 Assault Ship. Or; for those who are like me and didn't realize that it had an actual ship designation... the Razor Crest.
This thing is confirmed to be on a Medium base; and this dial is pretty impressive for a Medium-base Scum ship. K-turn, Stop and Tallon Rolls all on the one ship! Only downside is the intense lack of blue; but it's Scum. There will be shenanigans. Just the way The Mandalorian would want it. His ability is also pretty nice as a lancing duelist; though no word on slots so far.
Of course, where Din goes, Grogu comes with him...
Firstly, a nice triple faction unique crew. Secondly, TWO FORCE WITH INNATE HATE. You won't want to bring him on anything squishy, or on any ship with a Jedi pilot since you lose the Force recharge altogether; but already this is a pretty awesome little package. Though, for such a valuable target; The Child has an extra little balancing issue...
Yeah; you bring Grogu, you're really paying for it. Two enemy ships, chosen by the opposing player, get free locks for attacking his ride. On a whole? I'm liking the design space, especially having atypical Force regen and the whole +2 pool thing. It's not something you'll see being run on, say, a Kanan VCX or a Ventress Lancer; but for a non-Force sensitive pilot, Grogu offers consistent mods.
This is the bigger surprise to me. I love this. I oh-so-very love this. I've been waiting for the Kromr'k since 2nd edition started; and having the Gauntlet show up alongside the Razor Crest is the kind of thing that makes this Mando'a proud. The dial is, admittedly, a little bland. Sure, you have a stop... that's really it. But in exchange, every pre-Resistance era faction gets it. I'm calling Maul as a pilot for one, I'm calling Ezra as the pilot for the Rebels, I like how versatile Bo-Katan is... we've got a lot of work ahead of us, but This is the Way of the Fandom editors. Gotta keep up.
As an extra bonus for Scum... how do you feel about having commando teams in space?
Unlike Buzz Droids, we've got a "Remote" here that can move under it's own power and gives you two turns of shooting at mid range at a low but still reasonable initiative. After they are done shooting, then if the enemy hasn't killed them, seems like they hang around as a kind of mobile terrain piece, Straining anything that flies over them. Interesting to see how they play.
The next two images, I'm not fully sure about context for. Apparently they're working on Scenario packs, as well as alternate win conditions and objectives, likely things akin to Legion or a Games Workshop skirmish system; but until I watch the VOD, I won't be able to give better context for. Still; it's good stuff, I'll just clarify in my followup post afterwards.
So, we have a new partially limited TIE Fighter with a Scum-like ability; and we have one of Scum's iconic aces jumping faction with a new ability for the same ship. Both of these are really interesting, and I love that Fenn Rau taps into the Rebel offensive support playstyle so naturally; it pairs really with with Concordia. Remember when the Rebels had limited options for I6 aces on good combat platforms, and it felt like the only really good option was Wedge...? Those days are long gone. The TIEs are cool as well; decent initiative and the ability to make your opponent choose between taking a red token or shedding a green. It's kinda Scummy; but it's a toy that could be a very useful tool for some Imperial archetypes.
Last image is the first event Quick Build card I've seen in ages... and a confirmed design error haha.
They got the bullseye and forward arc attacks the wrong way around. Because of course they did. Not much I can really say about this aside for that, it's a Quick Build. Just need time to dig into it; but I haven't played much with QBs so I'm not sure how this one stacks up. Little unnerved by the lack of visible threat on it, though.
Finally, to sum things up, since I caught the final five minutes of the livestream; they are working on a narrative campaign mode that sounds to me very much like Path to Glory from Age of Sigmar, or Crusade from 40k; but with a unique twist to it - we get to build our own pilots and upgrades in the process. Obviously this is something we'll see being developed over a very long period of time; so the details they gave were vague, but they did say "build your own cards" and "can be used in casual games", so... we'll see. The final point was another long-term one, it's confirmed that they will be working through the remaining 1.0 ships and converting them to 2.0 packs. This will be, of course, a long-term ongoing project, but we have a lot more to look forward to. The fears about an Armada-style pause are ill-founded, and between the reveals for Legion (Scum! Mercenaries! Maul's Mandos!) and these for X-wing, I'm at least feeling a little more confident with AMG. I'd just love it if they finally turned the lights on with a new website and proper communications for the Star Wars games, rather than the "All Crisis Protocol all the time" setup they have atm.
Expect a follow up in a couple of hours; just me touching on anything I've missed and giving more concrete details after I catch up on the VOD.