FFG Announces New Expansions & Games

No conspiracy. They're owned by a venture capital firm, which means immediate profits (discussed above). This is happening US economy wide and it's not surprising to see them leaning into previous successful content because of this imperative.

The main one I can speak to really specifically is the Armada thing. I'm glad to see them moving to Clone Wars stuff, which is very cool in general and much more colorful which is nice. But the product line is all over the place!

100 dollars starters *per side* for the capital ships as if this product hasn't been released before, containing dice, tools, and everything? But then on the flip side the very generous move of releasing the whole upgrade pack for cards for not too huge a price---people have been clamoring for this (rightly) for ages. It's hard to know what to think, I'll be checking it out to see how different the new sides are w/gameplay.

I did not know about the arham horror board game expansion that is *so* weird. The TI expansion looks like exactly what people who like TI would want---sounds like they will even be throwing some things in to mess with the base game stuff based on the little info here.

Just to close out, I'll be honest, I don't get the pessimism about this presentation here. It is a very conservative presentation, yes, in that it is just expansions and redesigns of existing material. But what is confusing to me is aren't a lot of these existing materials really well liked? Even around here? I mean, they were when they came out is my recollection? And they're all getting what look like pretty elaborate expansions and additions, and the ones that are perceived as not working as well (e.g. Descent) are getting whole new editions. And I mean Legion who cares but even that isn't universally panned even around here.
What more do people want from FFG? Is it the lack of original IP? That's the part I can get behind being a little critical of.

I feel like FFG takes a lot of unwarranted shit that should be aimed at much more poorly designed and unprofessional kickstarter material.

I feel like FFG takes a lot of unwarranted shit that should be aimed at much more poorly designed and unprofessional kickstarter material.

This is why I dual wield.

Agree Uba, we kind of knew it was coming. I was most excited by the announcement of a new expansion to Civilization New Dawn which is a genuinely excellent game.

My only issue with FFG is that I can't keep their product lines straight.

Their leveraging of two or three milieus so heavily makes their dozens of products hard to differentiate from each other. It's likely there's something here I'd really like, but I would need to spend the time to figure out what is what, and at the moment that looks more daunting than it should.

I wasn't trying to pile on, honestly. I'm just not impressed. Their entire business model at the moment is collectible stuff, which I don't do, and mostly licensed stuff; the biggest one of which (Star Wars), I'm relatively ambivalent on. I was a hardcore FFG fan several years ago. I took an interest in almost everything they did. I have virtually no interest in what they do now. Even when it comes to games that I still nominally have in interest in, like Arkham Horror stuff, it's collectible (strike 1), co-op (strike 2), and really kind of played out. Ask me to play Cthulhu Wars? I'm all about it. Ask to play yet another investigator digging into mysteries in the 1920s... Eh.

So, yeah. The one highlight would've been the TI4 expansion. But I have similar feelings. I played a TON of TI3. I traded it away a few months back because it just wasn't compelling anymore. I'm not about to throw down $250 for TI4 and the new expac, mostly because I don't have it to spend, but even if I did, I feel like I've been there, done that, to some degree. If I had the money and a regular opponent(s), I'd probably be all about Armada, in principle. But, again, collectible is just not a thing I'm doing anymore.

Nothing wrong with anyone else being geeked about their output, though. To Sag's point, I remember it was kind of hilarious in the original thread when someone put up a list of Star Wars games with one fake one and asked people to ID it. They do kind of blend together.

A thing that I have realized in 2020 as I've gotten into tabletop simulator and such is how hard people play these big FFG games, like hundreds of times. Moreso than a lot of releases, is my impression. I mean, I knew about like X-Wing but there is just a huge community banging away at some of these more minor games relentlessly finding seams and hungering for more content (and fixes in worst case scenario).

No argument there. I've played TI3 in person maybe a dozen times. I played in that website a very kind and selfless person set up several years back probably three dozen times, if not more; frequently with multiple games proceeding at once. (The site was trashed by a hacker and all info was lost. Wonderful people in the world...)

I really should get in more TTS games, especially these days. Apologies for bailing out on the regular stuff you've been doing. Just having some issues and now we're likely moving soon, so a lot of stuff getting in the way. There's also something that's a little less appealing these days about playing electronically. A huge part of gaming for me is the social factor (part of why I don't like either solo games or multi-player solitaire games) and that's tougher to enjoy on TTS.

It's all good. I'll be doing a bit less of it too because I'm back at the job next week planning lessons, figuring out how to do online in person simultaneously, etc so I totally understand.

jpat wrote: I think that some people on here might be underestimating the popularity of Clone Wars, etc.

I stand here happily castigated and agree with what you wrote.

Just to provide some context, my (tongue-in-cheek) comment was not in any way steeped in fandom or grumpy middle-aged nostalgia. In my career I have spent the last couple of decades supplying FMCG products to markets all over the world and I can tell you from my own experience that if you want to sell something with Star Wars branding then make it a picture of Darth Vader, or failing that C-3PO and R2D2 (both together, not on their own). Nothing else that any of the companies I've worked for have stuck on their packaging has been anywhere even remotely as successful. Clone Wars, Rebels, Prequels, Ren/Rey, I've seen them all flop and the cost of the licences plus the unsold product stuck into landfill just doesn't justify the outlay.

Going with Clone Wars / Prequels is probably enough to shift a few thousand boardgames though, and there is a draw here on Armada fans who have bought into it as a hobby that will also drive some sales. That specific targeting might be the reason that the price point is laughably far from accessible to passing trade; people interested in this as a product are very likely ready to part with this kind of cash for it, it's a different value stream. I could bore you to death talking about how people lose all sense of value perception when you put a high price tag on something and make the bottle heavier or the box bigger despite the same old shit being inside all that packaging.

I’ve noticed they have changed the Armada packaging a bit.
The order dials are now being sold separately, which is a money saving move on their part, but also is a redundancy reducer for customers.

As one of those idiots who still buys stuff for this game (even got a Super Star Destroyer), the amount of dials and tokens I have is wasteful.

I sympathize. A number of "system" games do this, but you can usually understand the reasoning. I had an insane pile of tokens for X-Wing, but if someone only bought a couple ships, they were probably going to need the majority of those Focus and Target Lock tokens. The one that's currently aggravating me is Star Trek: Ascendancy, where every faction has come with the same pile of warp lanes; none of which are really needed beyond the main box.

n815e wrote: I’ve noticed they have changed the Armada packaging a bit.
The order dials are now being sold separately, which is a money saving move on their part, but also is a redundancy reducer for customers.

As one of those idiots who still buys stuff for this game (even got a Super Star Destroyer), the amount of dials and tokens I have is wasteful.

It is comically wasteful. I don't mind this change at all. I don't know, the more I think about it I think the new fleets could be a really fun change. I'm just bummed they're selling them in 100 dollar starters, that's just rough as hell.

mezike wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: WTF, lets take a game that has more or less failed and relaunch it in a new product line spearheaded by TWO $100 starter sets, neither of which support two players.

...and for bonus points let's set it in the prequels, the least marketable part of the franchise. Or is this a sign that kids who grew up on the prequels are now the disposable-income targets for projects such as this? I've never felt so... obsolete. But in a good way.

They almost have no choice, really. The Clone Wars era is really the only film series that allows for parity battles and a really diverse set of mission capabilities for both sides. The Rebels and especially the Resistance always seemed like a shoestring budget type operation versus an overwhelming goliath (how DID the First Order build all that stuff???). So it doesn't surprise me that they keep going back to that well. I'm sure the board game folks WANT to jump ahead or back to a different period but no way is LucasArts/Disney gonna let some rando board game group define an era they might exploit commercially.

FFG dropped some info on Descent. It's app driven. Aaaaaaand there goes my interest.