This is the big one! If you’ve been following us on twitter or facebook, you already have an idea of just how much there is to talk about following the Fantasy Flight Games In-Flight Report at GenCon 2016!
Tabletop Games
Let’s get started with a couple of smaller items. First, they announced that in 2017, they are projecting to have mobile app support for Imperial Assault! This would, again, closely follow the model previously set by their similar fantasy game Descent. They released Descent: Road to Legend on mobile and PC platforms in order to assist and supplement the tabletop game, not to replace it. The hope is that the app will allow for quicker setup and smoother play. Screens from Descent: Road to Legend give us some idea of what we might get with the IA app.
They also announced, for next year, that they would be holding another X-Wing System Open tournament. They made mention of the great success that this inaugural year’s was, but they also made sure we knew that some of the criticisms of the tournament had been heard and taken to heart. Specifically, they will be holding multiple U.S. system tournaments. Last year’s only had one U.S. tournament, with multiples within relatively close proximity within Europe.
After that little bit of housekeeping, they talked a bit about their new Star Wars card and dice game, Destiny, which we looked at within the context of the preview from last week. They went more into detail about some of the worries about it, including how, as a collectible card game, it might impact their Living Card Game line. They gave very solid assurances that their dedication to developing and supporting LCG’s would not be eroded at all by having this other card game format in their stable.
We’ll be talking extensively about Destiny in upcoming episodes, so we’ll move on to this year’s product announcements!
First up was Armada Wave V. This wave will include the big ships Phoenix Home for the Rebels and the Light Cruiser for the Imperials, along with the Rebel Fighters squadron pack II and Imperial Fighters squadron pack II.
I got to play my first game (well, a demo) of Armada right before the Report, so I am actually very excited to see where this game goes! We’re starting to see both more ships from the Rebels TV show as well as ships from the X-Wing minis game, such as the Ghost and the Decimator, respectively.
Next up was the announcement of new Imperial Assault allies and expansions! In this latest wave of IA, we get a new large expansion, same size as Return to Hoth, entitled Jabba’s Realm. This expansion is a return to Tatooine, and includes a larger campaign and adds greatly to the skirmish game.
Oh, yeah. There’s a rancor.
Imperial Assault news didn’t stop there as we got more ally and enemy packs. This group features Alliance Ranges (a 3-pack of Endor soldiers), Captain Terro (a dewback-riding Stormtrooper officer), Jabba the Hutt (the FASTEST character in the game! No, not really), and a NEW Luke Skywalker (Return of the Jedi Luke)!
And then we got this:
So, Wave X of X-Wing will be out later this year and includes the Quadjumper (which got blown up on Jakku, forcing Finn and Rey to take the Falcon), Sabine’s TIE Fighter (from season 1 of Rebels), and Kylo Ren’s Upsilon-class shuttle.
The Quadjumper joins the Scum faction and its pilots include Simon Pegg’s Unkar Plutt and features new TFA-inspired Upgrades.
Sabine’s TIE features her special paint job that makes it stand out from the other TIE’s that have already been released. On top of that, it brings TIEs to the Rebel Alliance!
The Upsilon-class Shuttle is the Force Awakens version of the lambda shuttle and has both pilot and crew cards for Kylo Ren. Both of Kylo’s cards introduce a new card type: Conditions. They did not go into any depth at all on what that means, but it has already been found online. Basically, you apply a timed effect to an enemy’s ship besides just dealing damage.
That’s it for the actual announcements from GenCon 2016! We’ll definitely be getting into each of these individual items in much greater detail over the next several weeks. Also, if you want my first-hand immediate impressions of everything above, be sure to check out our special GenCon episodes.
Actually, I almost forgot to mention the preview that was released on Wednesday this past week. This was not really touched on much in the FFG Report, but it deserves mention. This preview shines a light on the Star Wars The Force Awakens RPG Beginner Game and the role that the GM plays. Again, these boxes are designed for beginners, so while some of us certainly know how a GM does his/her thing, this will hopefully get some RPG-curious people to take a look.
Video Games
No big announcements on the video game side, but we can’t go without mentioning that Chapter 16 of The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire, The Battle of Odessen, will be releasing on August 11th! This will wrap up the Fallen Empire campaign and likely set up the next campaign, Knights of the Eternal Throne.
