FFG announces - Imperial Assault

Barnes, I'll do $50 shipped.

How about this one then?



Now, Descent 2.0 out of the box is complete. There's plenty of game in there and I'm betting this one will be like that. Of course they'll be expansions - There's already two in the box!

"As an added bonus, the Luke Skywalker Ally Pack and the Darth Vader Villain Pack are both included in the Imperial Assault Core Set. Each pack contains a sculpted plastic figure, alongside an additional campaign side mission and two new skirmish missions using a common map."

The LCG's and XWing and Armada are all subscription purchases.
This, Descent, Talisman...They aren't.

The first group I could argue that without keeping up to date you're at a disadvantage. The second group not at all though.

So, I think it is possible to get tons of play out of this base game and not buy anything else to go along with it. But then awesome photos get posted as do rules and resolves are weakened.

metalface13 wrote: Slightly off topic, but what I'd really like to see is a corridors/skirmish game with some RPG elments. Like Necromunda meets Space Hulk.

That is something I'd buy in an instant.

There's a line between buying more product for a game/system you enjoy, and having to have every last thing ever made for something in order to keep up with it.

Every system game released recently and releasing in the near future (many of which are very good) makes it harder to get fully into the other ones.

There comes a saturation point where a consumer just feels overwhelmed by the sheer amount of product. I'm afraid FFG has not only hit that point, but went straight past it with their hyperdrive running full strength.

All of these things end up pushing toward the so-called "lifestyle game," which means that people are only going to buy & play one, maybe two.

And that's fine. Lifestyle games are great fun to dive deep into. However, when you start releasing multiple lifestyle games that target *the same audience*, they can't all sell well.

I hope that I'm wrong and that X-Wing keeps going strong and Armada & Imperial Assault do extremely well, because they all look like amazing games and systems. However, when you're a gamer who loves Star Wars, there's no way to be wholly into X-Wing, Star Wars LCG, Armada, Imperial Assault, Edge o/t Empire/Age of Rebellion/Whatever of the Force RPG and any other little game that gets stuffed into the SW license.

It's just not sustainable.

I thought you were all for serialized games and that's how game companies are going to thrive in the future.

Maybe I'm misremembering something you said before, but it kind of feels like you're changing your mind a lot.

No, I mentioned up there that I do think they're a good thing in principle, but my point is when EVERYTHING you're putting out is one, then it's an issue. And you are going to start cannibalizing your own sales. Might even drive people off when they're thinking "do I want to get on this treadmill?" when they're already on four or five others. Like, I'm looking at these new SW games and I'm thinking more about the COST of them and whether or not I want to get on the mill with them than I am about PLAYING them.

And to be honest, getting back to older games that were single purchases kind of makes me miss the days when MOST games were one-off purchases, not "core" sets. But there again, this is the day and age of Kickstarter, so $300 games are common and it makes sense for companies like FFG to fight back with low-cost expansion lines.

Really, the SW game I'm most excited about from FFG is the $12 card game they've got coming out based on CIA vs. KGB.

What Phandec said, to the lettter.

I appreciate they want to get their money's worth out of their license, but at some point you start feeling like the mark in a con.

I've tuned out. I'm not able to keep them separate in my mind, so I'll wait a year or two and see what is still being played.

S.

Michael Barnes wrote: I also do not like the notion of buying YET ANOTHER system from FFG. I've supported the serial release thing, I think it's a good idea in principle...but when EVERY FUCKING THING YOU RELEASE is the start of a new LINE of products...it becomes a BURDEN.

Wait... No, seriously, wait... I had something for this.

Eh, Phandec and metalface beat me to it.

EDIT:

Michael Barnes wrote: And to be honest, getting back to older games that were single purchases kind of makes me miss the days when MOST games were one-off purchases, not "core" sets.

You're killing me here.

Have there ever been decent Star Wars minis before this?

Actually the West End Games miniatures ruleset was very good. I might have the company wrong now that I think about it. But it wasn't a boardgame, but a full minis game.

The thing is, I love SW, I love games. So I want to get completely into X-Wing, and I did. I spent A LOT of money to do so, and I've got a big collection of ships. I _adore_ it. I was going to dip out after the next big ships, but the Scum and Villany stuff looks cool and I like having a third side. So I'll go in for those too.

But here comes Armada, and I'd like to get into that too because it looks neat. And when I get into a game, I like to have ALL of it. I do not to not have the expansions or additional content because I want the full range of possibilities. So I'm looking at a HUGE investment to get into that, if I decide to.

Yet I do, as Sag mentioned, feel something like a mark. X-Wing is only two years old and there's already a completely different system out? And for two years- almost since the game first came out- I've been saying "hey, it'd be great if they developed the system a little more with a scenario book or additional materials and development". Instead, they put out a WHOLE NEW GAME. I kind of feel like an idiot, because now there's TWO SW miniatures games that are out there, and I really can't afford to get into both how I'd like to. Total first-world problem, but I feel like the game I've invested in already is lessened by there being this all-new thing that ISN'T really just Wings of War with TIE fighters.

But oh, wait. Here's YET ANOTHER $100 board game! That will have $60 expansions! I totally feel overwhelmed, and not in a way where I'm thinking "how am I going to afford these awesome games" but in a way where I'm thinking "fuck this shit, fuck FFG, I'm taking my money elsewhere." It does get to a point where a company can stop respecting its consumer's ability to buy their products, and I kind of feel like that's what's going on here. It's almost like those new car commercials that make it seem like ANYBODY can afford to buy a new car.

I could just be happy that I have both Epic Duels and the OT Risk. And if I want to spend $100 on another SW game, I could buy the old Assault on Hoth game or even Queen's Gambit.

Now, if they release a rethemed Tonga Bonga with Ewoks, they have my money without question.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that not everyone has this hyper-awareness of games that I'd say many of us have here. So from our view it does look like saturation and endless expansion. It does look like a "con".

But for the Munchkin fan that likes Star Wars, here's a product for them. For the RPG player, here's a product for them.

In playing Attack Wing, I've met plenty of people that play that game exclusively. And could care less about the Descent expansion and that's assuming they know anything about it.

My buddy loves games, he's the one that got me involved. I asked him if he saw the announcement for Imperial Assault, he didn't. He loves Descent, it's one of his two dozen games he has (no expansions mind you for Descent). There are others out there like him.

These games, like it or not, aren't targeted at us, the hyper-aware crowd, the people that already have tons of games that don't get played or a concise shelf of favorites that need to be unseated.

The goal is to get that Munchkin player, that XWing player, that RPG'er...And get them to buy into one and like one product line because that's all they really want.

I'm kind of having a mini Friday Freakout here, bear with me...

How many of you guys would rather see a really solid SINGLE PURCHASE (with maybe even a couple of expansions down the road), 2-4 player 90 minute SW game retailing for $60 than either Imperial Assault or Armada? Maybe even a simple wargame. Maybe even a DISKWARS game with Star Wars units. How many of you WANT, as game players and consumers, another core set retailing for $100 and requiring additional purchases or another dungeoncrawler retailing at $100?

Unless there's something already in development, FFG is really missing the boat by not having something more accessible and less expensive with the SW license.

Although we may all feel that FFG is milking the Star Wars license too hard, it looks like they are expecting to making huge money off these games, especially once the next movie arrives. FFG is probably trying to aim at least one Star Wars game at each kind of gamer (wargamer, miniatures gamer, card gamer, board gamer, etc.), rather than expect every gamer to plunk down money for every Star Wars game. They certainly did a good job of selling Lord of the Rings games.

EDIT: VonTush beat me to the point.

Now if you can just figure out which game is which you're all set. I want a ship game so I buy . . . Imperial Armada, right? Alliance Assault? If I can see them all with pictures I can figure it out!