From their email-

April Fools’

It is traditional on this day to tease and confuse people by having fictitious and spurious stories appear in the guise of having a bit of fun.

The creative team came up with a few ideas that would set tongues wagging but all of them seemed very obvious, so I decided to try something a little different. I am taking the opportunity today to tell you ten things that Battlefront Group has planned of which half are true and half are not. The ensuing discussion and speculation will hopefully be taken for what it is, fun, and at least let you know some things that until today you were not aware of.

1. We are making a 15mm Captain America figure with special rules so he can join US forces in Flames Of War.
2. We have the rights to produce the Star Wars tabletop miniatures game now that the Wizards of the Coast license have expired.
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June.
4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months.
5. Our next big thing is going to be a Pirate vs. Ninja skirmish game in 30mm.
6. To help improve morale in the Battlefront offices, all staff is being given a uniform consisting of a black shirt with silver skulls on the lapels and pink piping.
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on.
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war.
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world.
10. German forces will soon be able to add the Ark of the Covenant to their lists as a special occult unit.

Have fun with this and remember five things on this list are 100% true but five are not, so don’t hold me to everything the next time we meet.

~ John-Paul.

My thoughts on these possibilities are here on my blog.

Point 10 would have to come with the special rule that the allies gain a free "meddling archeologist" and if the Ark is lost, the German player has to melt all nearby units

Point 1 would be very cool, as long as they also produce Bucky, Skrulls and Fury's Screaming commandos

endtransmission wrote:Point 10 would have to come with the special rule that the allies gain a free "meddling archeologist" and if the Ark is lost, the German player has to melt all nearby units

Point 1 would be very cool, as long as they also produce Bucky, Skrulls and Fury's Screaming commandos

Sgt Rock can beat up Nick Fury and all the Howling Commandos with 1 hand tied behind his back

Cap and the Ark are exactly the sort of thing that would get me interested in a WW2 game.

My guess as to which is true (based on past comments and actions from BF) are:

4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months.
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June.
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on.
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war.
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world.

Leaving:
1. We are making a 15mm Captain America figure with special rules so he can join US forces in Flames Of War.
2. We have the rights to produce the Star Wars tabletop miniatures game now that the Wizards of the Coast license have expired.
5. Our next big thing is going to be a Pirate vs. Ninja skirmish game in 30mm.
6. To help improve morale in the Battlefront offices, all staff is being given a uniform consisting of a black shirt with silver skulls on the lapels and pink piping.
10. German forces will soon be able to add the Ark of the Covenant to their lists as a special occult unit.

However, the star wars item is verrrry interesting as it is extremely 'out there' and is quite possible as a result of it being so crazy, and also perhaps because it is item #2 - trying to make it as significant/noticeable as possible without giving it 100% prominence.

There could be some announcements on Marvel/Disney and Lucas' corporate sites if these rumours are true.

Wait and see what Battlefront have to say tomorrow.

Pretty cool if they did get the license.

I doubt the Captain America figure though.

Maybe the whole thing is actually a joke ? That'd be a nasty decoy...
So, 6 is obviously as a joke, who in his right mind would wear pink pipings ?
5 ? Ahahahahah. 'Nuff said.
1, 10 and 9 are remotely possible but seriously unlikely. 1 and 10 don't fit, and 9 might be a possibility if they had gotten a license, but why release that kind of accessories if you don't have a whole line dedicated to super heroes and stuff first ? It might be a GF9 only thing, though. Possible, but unlikely.
Which leaves us with 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8.

4 seems, unfortunately, very possible. Dissapointing, but understandable. And plausible.
3 somewhat less so, still, I can believe some kind of deal where you got Osprey bonus while buying WA. Ok.
8 is a bit of a surprise, but they have already released plane minis, and I doubt they're seeing much use given the current FoW balance, so it could be a good excuse to sell more planes. Definitely plausible.
7 is more involved. I'd love to see a decent casual WW2 fleet combat game that's better designed than Mongoose's Victory at Seas, but that would mean starting a whole new line from scratch, unless they'd partner with another mini maker (like the very decent GHQ). Believable, but I'd like to hear more about it.
2 is totally out of here, and yet if it's not true, that means something is true in the 1, 9, 10 set. "I'll believe it when I see it".

Of course, it could all be a hoax, and then BF gets the April's fool troll award.

15mm mass Star Wars battles like Hoth and the various Clone Wars battles? I'll take 5 please.

legoburner wrote:My guess as to which is true (based on past comments and actions from BF) are:

4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months.
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June.
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on.
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war.
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world.

You're probably right about those, though it sounds incredible boring to me. I want Cap!

1. We are making a 15mm Captain America figure with special rules so he can join US forces in Flames Of War.

HA! I guess JP noticed who was leading my army when he stopped by the shop last year.)

I heard there was going to be something to do with starwars and GW . Staff at my local Gw said something about it hmmm.

Well, 3, 7, and 8 seem to be no-brainers to me. I thought that Osprey Books were pretty big, so I've got my doubts about 4. But maybe I'm confusing them with Jane's. If 4 is true, then it's a toss-up to me of whether it's 2 or 9 that is true. (Although if 9 is true, there's no reason why 1 shouldn't be true, too.)

Death By Monkeys wrote:Well, 3, 7, and 8 seem to be no-brainers to me. I thought that Osprey Books were pretty big, so I've got my doubts about 4. But maybe I'm confusing them with Jane's. If 4 is true, then it's a toss-up to me of whether it's 2 or 9 that is true. (Although if 9 is true, there's no reason why 1 shouldn't be true, too.)

Depends on what the book is about. If you look at the campaign or tactic books--they're the size of the White Dwarf anniversary issues or a Codex.

The actual force books that look at specific units or vehicles are about the size of a normal White Dwarf issue.
So I could see it, either way.

Hasn't Battlefront stated before that they were pretty much staying away from the Pacific theatre? Besides, I can see the jump from infantry/tanks to airplanes, if only because they've already dabbled with aircraft minis. WWII Naval combat, however, is a whole other animal and incredibly difficult to do on a scale that doesn't require using the floor. Unless of course you abstract it down to the point that is Axis & Allies: War at Sea.

5, 6, 7, & 10 seem very unlikely. Which just leaves 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, & 9.

4 kind of throws me though. I'm not sure why Early War would cause delays. Maybe because there were more tiny factions that Hitler rolled over before they really had much of a chance? Or maybe the difficulty is trying to make balanced forces out of armies that were pretty one-sided in favor of the Germans?

1 & 9 sound cool but doing super heroes seems more like a leap for Battlefront than doing Star Wars, which could slip right into the FoW rules pretty easily.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

HudsonD wrote:Of course, it could all be a hoax, and then BF gets the April's fool troll award.

Now that would just be cruel

Too many of the things on this list are cool. They can't all be April Fools gags. (I hope)

Please God let number 2 be true. Please please please.

I'd be down for a Star Wars miniatures game. If they just modified the FoW rules a little bit it would actually be pretty plausible. I would prefer 28mm to 15mm though.

Star Wars?

Does anyone still care about it after the beatings it (and we!) took from Movie #'s 1, 2 and 3?

MAYBE if they only concentrated on #'s 4, 5 and 6...

Alpharius wrote:Star Wars?

Does anyone still care about it after the beatings it (and we!) took from Movie #'s 1, 2 and 3?

MAYBE if they only concentrated on #'s 4, 5 and 6...

I still care...

A 15mm army of clone troopers, a 4 man team base of jedi knights, a legion of easy to paint droids with all their cool features led by a lightsaber wielding droid general?

That would look very nice on the table top and in my display cabinet. The amount of source lighting techniques I would have to learn are encouragement enough.

Safe to say, I will be buying it if it is 15mm scale and if it does exist.

Platuan4th wrote:

Alpharius wrote:Star Wars?

Does anyone still care about it after the beatings it (and we!) took from Movie #'s 1, 2 and 3?

MAYBE if they only concentrated on #'s 4, 5 and 6...

I still care...

I cared until they turned the Mandalorians into pacifists.

Then you don't know enough about Mandalorians
A lot of the Mandalorians who were involved in training the clone army were very upset by the treatment of the clones proper, and wanted to establish a sort of "refuge" for them.

They'd fight to protect it, but would you really go about advertising that you're basically forming a giant nation of deserters who might be okay with doing mercenary work?

That's frankly why I liked the "Republic Commando" novels. Mandos aren't thugs or murderers. They've got their own codes of honor and their own culture.

Kanluwen wrote:Then you don't know enough about Mandalorians
A lot of the Mandalorians who were involved in training the clone army were very upset by the treatment of the clones proper, and wanted to establish a sort of "refuge" for them.

They'd fight to protect it, but would you really go about advertising that you're basically forming a giant nation of deserters who might be okay with doing mercenary work?

That's frankly why I liked the "Republic Commando" novels. Mandos aren't thugs or murderers. They've got their own codes of honor and their own culture.

He's talking about Duchess Satine and her followers, not the Republic commando novels - which are awesome.

I've not seen that specific episode of "Clone Wars" I gotta admit.
Did they do something radically different or was it an attempt at a "peacekeeping force"?

Kanluwen wrote:Then you don't know enough about Mandalorians
A lot of the Mandalorians who were involved in training the clone army were very upset by the treatment of the clones proper, and wanted to establish a sort of "refuge" for them.

They'd fight to protect it, but would you really go about advertising that you're basically forming a giant nation of deserters who might be okay with doing mercenary work?

That's frankly why I liked the "Republic Commando" novels. Mandos aren't thugs or murderers. They've got their own codes of honor and their own culture.

No, no I like the RC books, I like them alot and I like that aspect of the Mandalorians and how Death Watch were the thugs and murderers

Kanluwen wrote:I've not seen that specific episode of "Clone Wars" I gotta admit.
Did they do something radically different or was it an attempt at a "peacekeeping force"?

They literally make them Pacifists, they despise war, call Jango Fett an average Bounty Hunter (he was Mand'alor) and claim they have no idea how he got the Armor. They make Death Watch the only group of Mandos that resemble how they were. Oh did I mention they claim the Mandos gave up on war and their warrior ways 300 years prior to the Clone Wars. Which would mean the Mandalorian Civil War never happened which means Jango's family is never killed, which means he never became Mand'alor (or Mando'ade in that matter), which means Dooku never leaves the Jedi Order and a Clone Army is never created.

Weird.

But Jango was on the whole a very "meh" Bounty Hunter, and a fething terrible Mandalore

They may have fixed most of that whole, undoing continuity thing, but maybe not.

Yeah Jango was pretty terrible.

i care if they stay with 25/28mm so i can use my existing SWM. if they change the scale to 15mm or any bigger, i'll pass.

Would drool for Republic Commando models.

15mm Star Wars by Battlefront? Please be true. /swoon

warboss wrote:i care if they stay with 25/28mm so i can use my existing SWM. if they change the scale to 15mm or any bigger, i'll pass.

I feel like doing the same scale as the old one might make the people who already own SWM stuff more willing to pick up a copy of the rules. "Well, I already have Grievous and a buttload of droids." Though I guess they might also want to start totally fresh and make it seem as different as possible.

Darth Badguy wrote:

warboss wrote:i care if they stay with 25/28mm so i can use my existing SWM. if they change the scale to 15mm or any bigger, i'll pass.

I feel like doing the same scale as the old one might make the people who already own SWM stuff more willing to pick up a copy of the rules. "Well, I already have Grievous and a buttload of droids." Though I guess they might also want to start totally fresh and make it seem as different as possible.

Maybe but what about those of us that have the OLD metals(20mm, I think, I'd have to find them), hmm? Are we left out in the cold(again)?

Darth Badguy wrote:

warboss wrote:i care if they stay with 25/28mm so i can use my existing SWM. if they change the scale to 15mm or any bigger, i'll pass.

I feel like doing the same scale as the old one might make the people who already own SWM stuff more willing to pick up a copy of the rules. "Well, I already have Grievous and a buttload of droids." Though I guess they might also want to start totally fresh and make it seem as different as possible.

For that very reason, a new SW minis game will almost certainly be a different scale. What company in it's right mind would put out a game with miniatures in the same scale as the however many millions of WotC figures that are already are out there? It would be commercial suicide. Unless they had some sort of proprietary base like the 'clicky' games.

*shudder*

I hope not.

They could be smart and make it compatible for diferent scales

Alpharius wrote:Star Wars?

Does anyone still care about it after the beatings it (and we!) took from Movie #'s 1, 2 and 3?

MAYBE if they only concentrated on #'s 4, 5 and 6...

Another reason why I think a FoW Star Wars game would be a good fit. Just like WWII FoW, it could have 'eras'. Instead of Early War, Mid War, & Late War, you could have Clone Wars era, Rebellion era, etc.

And yes, 1,2,3 stink out loud and I'm embarrassed to call them Star Wars movies. The CGI Clone Wars cartoon is quite good, however, and has redeemed that part of Star Wars for me. The Clone Wars era certainly has the amount of units necessary to make a good army scale game. Rebellion era might have a harder time unless Battlefront was given some range to create some more vehicles and equipment for the Rebels. Of course there's always captured equipment too.

Sign me up for a a trade Fed. droid army...

ROGER ROGER...

Jack of all games wrote:

Alpharius wrote:Star Wars?

Does anyone still care about it after the beatings it (and we!) took from Movie #'s 1, 2 and 3?

MAYBE if they only concentrated on #'s 4, 5 and 6...

Another reason why I think a FoW Star Wars game would be a good fit. Just like WWII FoW, it could have 'eras'. Instead of Early War, Mid War, & Late War, you could have Clone Wars era, Rebellion era, etc.

And yes, 1,2,3 stink out loud and I'm embarrassed to call them Star Wars movies. The CGI Clone Wars cartoon is quite good, however, and has redeemed that part of Star Wars for me. The Clone Wars era certainly has the amount of units necessary to make a good army scale game. Rebellion era might have a harder time unless Battlefront was given some range to create some more vehicles and equipment for the Rebels. Of course there's always captured equipment too.

You sure you mean the CGI series and not the Genndy Tartakovsky series which was totaly awesome, and had the best Greivous ever. Oh and the awesome Arcs.

They're both good.

To a degree I'll agree with you H.B.M.C, but there are somethings I can't abide, Mandalorians being Pacifists is one, the other is an Emo Darth Vader.

Anakin isn't emo in the Clone Wars. He's positively chirpy. Far better than his flesh and blood counterpart.

And it wasn't all Mandalores, it was some of them.

The emo was directed at the movies.

I know it wasn't all of them, they just undid alot of fluff about the Mandos with that move.

Its like the Wolf of Fenris or when they screwed over Chaos.

Eh, I think the Wolf of Fenris is rather easily explained when one looks at the relatively low leadership of the SW codex as a whole.

While I'd love a 15mm Star Wars game, I don't think I'd have to time to get into for quite a while.

You mean it makes sense that a group that doesn't fall to Chaos and believes strongly in their packs and brotherhood suddenly turning to Chaos, because they dont want to die.

BrotherStynier wrote:They literally make them Pacifists, they despise war, call Jango Fett an average Bounty Hunter (he was Mand'alor) and claim they have no idea how he got the Armor. They make Death Watch the only group of Mandos that resemble how they were. Oh did I mention they claim the Mandos gave up on war and their warrior ways 300 years prior to the Clone Wars. Which would mean the Mandalorian Civil War never happened which means Jango's family is never killed, which means he never became Mand'alor (or Mando'ade in that matter), which means Dooku never leaves the Jedi Order and a Clone Army is never created.

Is that from the new Clone Wars series? I haven't seen it yet. Wouldn't suprise me though I they fethed up some the canon. Happens all the time since Lucas got into makingthe prequels

Ratbarf wrote:Would drool for Republic Commando models.

Jack of all games wrote:For that very reason, a new SW minis game will almost certainly be a different scale. What company in it's right mind would put out a game with miniatures in the same scale as the however many millions of WotC figures that are already are out there? It would be commercial suicide. Unless they had some sort of proprietary base like the 'clicky' games.

"Can you get that crumb off the battle field?"
"Erm ... that's Joda."
"Oh ... nice paint job!"

Its really annoying tbh, Lucasfilm allows all this third party stuff to stand as cannon, then George like some headless baboon stomps all over it, as he's the 'creator' or the universe and what he says goes.
Even though many of the pieces they have allowed others to create stood head and shoulders over George's own work.

In other news, has anyone found out if there is any truth in this potential April fool/rumour out of interest.

Because seriously, I've heard some good things about FoW, but I have no one to do WW2 stuff with. (Tis a no go with the wife as she finds games set on the era distasteful) of course if they do a Star Wars version, I'm all over it.

Hell, If I don't have a huge fully painted AT AT force with snowtroopers v's rebels with matching battle board with 6months of figures being released. Someone start checking Morgues, because I'm a dead man.

If this turns out to be true, I would jump on this bandwagon fast.

GG

Lets hope for rules compatability

Anpu42 wrote:Lets hope for rules compatability

Well played.

Battlefront Minis wrote:five things on this list are 100% true but five are not

What I'd prefer (don't care which will be true):
1. We are making a 15mm Captain America figure with special rules so he can join US forces in Flames Of War.
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world.
10. German forces will soon be able to add the Ark of the Covenant to their lists as a special occult unit.

6. To help improve morale in the Battlefront offices, all staff is being given a uniform consisting of a black shirt with silver skulls on the lapels and pink piping.

- a "comics" pseudo-historical expansion would be fun and cool. So would SS uniform shirts.

What I don't care about:
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June.

- As I don't get Wargames Illustrated, I'm not excited over a free book.

4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months.
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war.
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on.

- really, I think FOW is just fine, and doesn't really need planes nor boats. But if BF can make them *fun*, then that'd be awesome.

What I'd rather not...
2. We have the rights to produce the Star Wars tabletop miniatures game now that the Wizards of the Coast license have expired.
5. Our next big thing is going to be a Pirate vs. Ninja skirmish game in 30mm.

- Star Wars, Pirates & Ninjas are old hat.

My only issue with a Star Wars miniatures game in that scale is that I doubt anyone would play anything else besides Empire or Republic. While you have a similar issue with any World War II game, people still want to play as US or British. I don't see many people wanting to play as Rebel Alliance when they could be fielding AT-ATs and the like.

If you play as Rebels, you get teddy bears and Jar-Jar. What's not to like?

Hopefully they wont make and Old Republic Era, as much as I like the Mandos they'd probably be the only thing played from then. Unless people got to use Sith Revan.

I want to do a Gungin army just to anoy peaple

Anung Un Rama.

Where did you FIND those!!!!

Man I cried when Sev bought it at the end of Republic Commando.....

Star Wars Minatures from Wizards of the Coast. Your probably best off if you try to get them seperatly from a site like Troll and Toad. They even have all 4 commandos in stock.

Or you could find a store where people play it and offer them something else in return.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Pretty cool if they did get the license.

I doubt the Captain America figure though.

Aha! I'm ahead on this one.

Going by what I've heard of the FoW rules (never got around to trying it out) I could see them making a small-scale mass-combat game work for Star Wars.

Although going by their current model standard, it would mean uber-cool vehicle models supported by rather dodgy infantry...

I never understood what's so great about games scaled this small. You can hardly convert anything and you need a crapload of new terrain as well.

Though I have to admit, adding Star Wars to the mixture would prbably change my opinion on that.

I'm guessing 1,5,6,9,10 are false

Anung Un Rama wrote:I never understood what's so great about games scaled this small. You can hardly convert anything and you need a crapload of new terrain as well.

Though I have to admit, adding Star Wars to the mixture would prbably change my opinion on that.

The appeal is to have larger scale battles in a smaller space, with figures that paint up quicker. Also, a lot of people don't give a damn about converting - before multipart plastic kits were really prevalent, it wasn't that commonplace. It's also the primary scale for a lot of gamers.

Personally I love the customization and room for personality that converting gives me with 28mm models, but I'm down with 15mm too.

Brother SRM wrote:Also, a lot of people don't give a damn about converting - before multipart plastic kits were really prevalent, it wasn't that commonplace.

It was fairly common, just a royal pain in the ass.

Brother SRM wrote:The appeal is to have larger scale battles in a smaller space, with figures that paint up quicker. Also, a lot of people don't give a damn about converting - before multipart plastic kits were really prevalent, it wasn't that commonplace. It's also the primary scale for a lot of gamers.

That's why Epic is so popular and selling like hot cakes

Kroothawk wrote:That's why Epic is so popular and selling like hot cakes

Well how could it not? When you have a company like GW giving Epic reasonably-priced models and tons of support, it's naturally going to sell well.[/sarcasm]

In all seriousness, I think a 15mm Star Wars game could sell quite well. Obviously, Battlefront doesn't have the kinds of capital to market or produce it that GW or WotC do, but if they market the game well and give it good rules support, I think a Star Wars miniatures game focusing on large-scale battles over skirmishes could be very popular in an, admittedly, niche market.

I'm just mad that Battlefront is getting us all riled up about something that's probably not even going to happen. Though I gotta give them credit for the greatest April Fools' joke I've ever seen.

One of the biggest problems I foresee is the lack of factions. It's really just Rebellion vs Empire and Clones vs Separatists. It's a bit easier to pull smaller factions into it when doing skirmish level like WotC's game, but more difficult when you're talking army scale.

And I'm not sure about the whole capital thing. Yes, Battlefront is not as big as GW or WotC is. Not questioning that. But they have been very aggressive this last year in acquiring Wargames Illustrated magazine and Gale Force Nine. Something like Star Wars (or superheroes) would pop them out of the purely historical market and could give them a large stake of the fantasy/sci-fi miniature market as well.

Jack of all games wrote:One of the biggest problems I foresee is the lack of factions. It's really just Rebellion vs Empire and Clones vs Separatists. It's a bit easier to pull smaller factions into it when doing skirmish level like WotC's game, but more difficult when you're talking army scale.

I get what you're saying (and I'm sure that Rebellion and Clone Wars eras would be most popular), but the beautiful thing about Star Wars is that the continuity has 5000 years of history that are, most important, mutable. With something like Flames of War or a Napoleonic-era gaming, where historical accuracy is important, the combatants, units, and battles are pretty much set. You can't make up a new tank for the Americans to have or say that China fought in the European theater. For Star Wars, however, all it takes is a book written and that changes. You can introduce new weapons, combatants, units, etc. without much difficulty, as Star Wars has a longstanding history of the retcon. Combined with the fact that you can form units and platoons from different alien species (all with different rules), and I think that a lot of the monotony could be easily averted.

But I'm getting too hopeful and should probably stop checking this thread. Dang it Battlefront!

Paladin Blake wrote:I get what you're saying (and I'm sure that Rebellion and Clone Wars eras would be most popular), but the beautiful thing about Star Wars is that the continuity has 5000 years of history that are, most important, mutable. With something like Flames of War or a Napoleonic-era gaming, where historical accuracy is important, the combatants, units, and battles are pretty much set. You can't make up a new tank for the Americans to have or say that China fought in the European theater. For Star Wars, however, all it takes is a book written and that changes. You can introduce new weapons, combatants, units, etc. without much difficulty, as Star Wars has a longstanding history of the retcon. Combined with the fact that you can form units and platoons from different alien species (all with different rules), and I think that a lot of the monotony could be easily averted.

But I'm getting too hopeful and should probably stop checking this thread. Dang it Battlefront!

This is very true and would be awesome! After all, the Rebels would definitely need some filling in in the ground war area.
It would just require Lucasfilm giving Battlefront enough creative license to fill in.

During the Rebellion, the Rebels went incredibly out of their way to avoid pitched ground battles--explicitly because they didn't have the manpower or the weaponry to actually do them.
I could see the Rebels doing commando raids, or having lots of air cover from fighters like X/Y-Wings.

Now, what I'd love to see though in tabletop form?
"Legacy" era.

Paladin Blake wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:That's why Epic is so popular and selling like hot cakes

Well how could it not? When you have a company like GW giving Epic reasonably-priced models and tons of support, it's naturally going to sell well.[/sarcasm]

Agreed, I often wondered if GW deliberately attempted to kill Epic with its last release. It must have taken real talent to sell a game that poorly.

15mm scale AT-ATs? Yeah, I'm up for that.

GW killing Epic? The problem is that pretty much everybody who wanted to play Epic already had their armies, so there wasn't much in the way of follow-on sales.

Just like every other Specialist Games product. True skirmish games with small buy-in mean short lifetimes.

Jack of all games wrote:One of the biggest problems I foresee is the lack of factions. It's really just Rebellion vs Empire and Clones vs Separatists. It's a bit easier to pull smaller factions into it when doing skirmish level like WotC's game, but more difficult when you're talking army scale.

These are the Wizards of the Coast game's factions:

Old Republic
Sith (includes great Sith war stuff through Darth Krayt Legacy stuff)
Mandalorians (ancient comic book era through Boba)
Republic (pretty much prequel era)
Separatists
Rebels
Empire (episode III through Legacy's Roan Fel)
New Republic
Yuuzhan Vong
Fringe (neutral faction available to all others, includes Jabba, bounty hunters, ugnaghts, wookiees, and all kinds of other stuff)

There's lots of factions, but the ones that weren't in the movies got a lot less attention than the big four. It'd probably be like that again, since I bet most casual gamers don't know or care what the hell a Yuuzhan Vong even is.

The only problem I can foresee for a SW-based game is the same problem that every Rebellion-era SW-based RTS game has had - coming up with units for the Rebels.

Be it Force Commander, Rebellion, Empire at War or even the Age of Empire clones, the Rebels would always have their roster filled with made up tanks and hover vehicles that were never seen before (or since) in any other SW product.

It's the reason I never played those games as the Rebels. The Empire always had the iconic Star Destroyers the various ships based around that, the various AT-XX based vehicles, various types of Storm Troopers and loads of variant TIE Fighters, and the lesser escorts ships that have existed in various mediums and so on. The Rebels have their fighters and a couple of ships and... and... yeah... made up hover-tanks and ships that we've never heard of. It's hard to play a SW game - a universe so rich in imagery - and try to play a side that has unfamiliar imagery.

H.B.M.C. wrote:The only problem I can foresee for a SW-based game is the same problem that every Rebellion-era SW-based RTS game has had - coming up with units for the Rebels.

Be it Force Commander, Rebellion, Empire at War or even the Age of Empire clones, the Rebels would always have their roster filled with made up tanks and hover vehicles that were never seen before (or since) in any other SW product.

One possible antidote is making the rebels largely elite infantry based. They're spec ops guys who can jam up enemy tanks & walkers and have a lot of unique characters like Luke and Han who can kill big, sweaty fistfuls of stormtroopers on their own. That's actually how they play in the WotC game, though most powergaming squads for any faction are a bunch of expensive ($-wise) "very rare" unique characters who can alpha strike the enemy team.

Darth Badguy wrote:These are the Wizards of the Coast game's factions:

Old Republic
Sith (includes great Sith war stuff through Darth Krayt Legacy stuff)
Mandalorians (ancient comic book era through Boba)
Republic (pretty much prequel era)
Separatists
Rebels
Empire (episode III through Legacy's Roan Fel)
New Republic
Yuuzhan Vong
Fringe (neutral faction available to all others, includes Jabba, bounty hunters, ugnaghts, wookiees, and all kinds of other stuff)

There's lots of factions, but the ones that weren't in the movies got a lot less attention than the big four. It'd probably be like that again, since I bet most casual gamers don't know or care what the hell a Yuuzhan Vong even is.

And with two kinds of gravel you can proxy the epic fight Javas against Ewoks (led by Master Joda)

Darth Badguy wrote:These are the Wizards of the Coast game's factions:

Old Republic
Sith (includes great Sith war stuff through Darth Krayt Legacy stuff)
Mandalorians (ancient comic book era through Boba)
Republic (pretty much prequel era)
Separatists
Rebels
Empire (episode III through Legacy's Roan Fel)
New Republic
Yuuzhan Vong
Fringe (neutral faction available to all others, includes Jabba, bounty hunters, ugnaghts, wookiees, and all kinds of other stuff)

There's lots of factions, but the ones that weren't in the movies got a lot less attention than the big four. It'd probably be like that again, since I bet most casual gamers don't know or care what the hell a Yuuzhan Vong even is.

Even after that breakdown, there is potentially further you can go with it. The Old Republic faction covers over a thousand years of 'history'
The Sith faction incorporates the Old Republic Era (covering again a thousand years or so), the Clone Wars-ish era and the Legacy era
Mandalorians, as pointed out, includes several different eras.
And Fringe includes any number of races that could easily be fleshed out into stand-alone factions. As does the Republic faction, for that matter... at the very least, Gungans and Naboo could easily be separate armies from the standard Republic roster.

Wookies could be done too seeing as quite a few of their vehicles were created in Revenge of the Sith, you can also draw on both of the Clone Wars series, (best star wars series movies included was the original drawn animation Clone Wars series) and various comic books. That should allow for more factions fleshed out in a similar way to Lord of the Rings where the only really fleshed out movie/bookwise factions are Gondor, Mordor, and Elves.

JohnHwangDD wrote:GW killing Epic? The problem is that pretty much everybody who wanted to play Epic already had their armies, so there wasn't much in the way of follow-on sales.

Just like every other Specialist Games product. True skirmish games with small buy-in mean short lifetimes.

OT.. but Epic died from GWs "Pump and Dump" sales philosophy. For the first 2 editions of Epic, it sold very well. The figures kept getting better and better (for some jaw dropping detail see the most recent chaos marines). The problem was they released the game, splashed it in WD for a month… then nothing ever mentioned of it again (slight exaggeration, but only by the smallest margin). The dropped the game from their line up when times were lean and GW was being restructured.

Starwars models would be cool if they were well made.

Hutt faction would work

Also those ones who ride rancors around in battle, force witches or something, they'd look pretty mean on a tabletop.

These are the most likely six...

2. We have the rights to produce the Star Wars tabletop miniatures game now that the Wizards of the Coast license have expired.
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June.
4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months.
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on.
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war.
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world.


I have my doubts about star wars being one of the 5. That is not a cheap license by any means, and GL is very protective about what is done with his license (meaining that it may prove difficult to come up with more/new factions for use in the game).

Also, after the clone wars, large ground battles seem to be pretty much nonexistent, and before that they haven't ever really been the focus of the story, so I have my doubts as to whether or not they will be able to pull it off.

Legacy era had some fairly large ground battles, as did the Yvethan and post-Galactic Civil War era.

Yeah, but post-Galactic Civil War (including Yvethan and Legacy) are known only to a smaller subset of star wars fans. Tabletop gaming is a very niche market as it is, setting up your business to appeal to an even smaller subset of that market is setting yourself up for failure.

Also, another thing to strike down the star wars theory, think about some of the recent star wars video games produced... specifically think about the titles... to me that just screams its an april fools joke....

I don't know. An Old Republic tie-in mini game would probably work, assuming TOR sells well. There's an entire setting of symmetrical fighting (soon-to-be) well-known to millions of gamers. Not necessarily likely, but plausible.

chaos0xomega wrote:and GL is very protective about what is done with his license (meaining that it may prove difficult to come up with more/new factions for use in the game).

I disagree. See Star Wars Galaxies(tons of Jedi running around during Rebellion Era), many of the novels, and pretty much every other SW VG, too.

Quite the opposite, Lucas seems to give everyone with the license pretty loose reins to do what they want as long as they don't mess with the story canon of the movies.

Platuan4th wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:and GL is very protective about what is done with his license (meaining that it may prove difficult to come up with more/new factions for use in the game).

I disagree. See Star Wars Galaxies(tons of Jedi running around during Rebellion Era), many of the novels, and pretty much every other SW VG, too.

Quite the opposite, Lucas seems to give everyone with the license pretty loose reins to do what they want as long as they don't mess with the story canon of the movies.

To be 100% fair to GL:
"Galaxies" wasn't his idea to let Jedi roam wild. That was Sony/Verant when the game started hemorrhaging players.

Kanluwen wrote:

Platuan4th wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:and GL is very protective about what is done with his license (meaining that it may prove difficult to come up with more/new factions for use in the game).

I disagree. See Star Wars Galaxies(tons of Jedi running around during Rebellion Era), many of the novels, and pretty much every other SW VG, too.

Quite the opposite, Lucas seems to give everyone with the license pretty loose reins to do what they want as long as they don't mess with the story canon of the movies.

To be 100% fair to GL:
"Galaxies" wasn't his idea to let Jedi roam wild. That was Sony/Verant when the game started hemorrhaging players.

I know, hence why I disagreed with his statement that Lucas is protective about it and why I stated that they pretty much have free reign over the license.

Once you have the SW license, you can do almost anything you want as long as you don't mess with the movie based story.

Misunderstood you then

From what I understand, at least in regards to how the "Force Unleashed" team talked about it:
Any idea has to go through George first. Provided he likes the basic pitch, he then gets involved and helps guide it along.

Kanluwen wrote:Misunderstood you then

From what I understand, at least in regards to how the "Force Unleashed" team talked about it:
Any idea has to go through George first. Provided he likes the basic pitch, he then gets involved and helps guide it along.

FU was a LucasArts game, not a licensed game, though.

Platuan4th wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Misunderstood you then

From what I understand, at least in regards to how the "Force Unleashed" team talked about it:
Any idea has to go through George first. Provided he likes the basic pitch, he then gets involved and helps guide it along.

FU was a LucasArts game, not a licensed game, though.

True, but some of the members of the team had also worked on licensed games and mentioned it was the same.

Platuan4th wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

Platuan4th wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:and GL is very protective about what is done with his license (meaining that it may prove difficult to come up with more/new factions for use in the game).

I disagree. See Star Wars Galaxies(tons of Jedi running around during Rebellion Era), many of the novels, and pretty much every other SW VG, too.

Quite the opposite, Lucas seems to give everyone with the license pretty loose reins to do what they want as long as they don't mess with the story canon of the movies.

To be 100% fair to GL:
"Galaxies" wasn't his idea to let Jedi roam wild. That was Sony/Verant when the game started hemorrhaging players.

I know, hence why I disagreed with his statement that Lucas is protective about it and why I stated that they pretty much have free reign over the license.

Once you have the SW license, you can do almost anything you want as long as you don't mess with the movie based story.

Having done hours upon hours of research on this very subject for my business management courses, I can tell you that you are entirely incorrect on your analysis of how things work. Your example is also a poor one. Lucas agreed to let the SWG team include playable jedi on the condition that access to them be limited so that they would be 'rare.' That is precisely what the dev team did, however it was done via a flawed concept.

As for how it became the way it is now, I have no friggin idea, but I'm not sure Lucas and co. have really been paying SWG much attention at all given how poorly its done.

As for whether or not its a lucasarts game or not... its a moot point. All SW games are published by Lucasarts, thus making them more or less a Lucasarts game. If Lucas and/or his IP managers see something they don't like they stop it or get it changed. Granted im sure they give a certain amount of leeway now and again, especially with the canon system they have in place, but Lucas retains a lot of oversite over his stuff. Thats pretty much how he got to where he is today.

And in case you guys didn't get it in my previous post, there is a video game known as Star War Battlefront (and a sequel, Star Wars Battlefront 2). Hence the reason why I think #2 is unlikely... its just a very clever pun (more or less)

...No REALLY?
There were TWO games with "Star Wars" and "Battlefront" in the title?
My God, you've stumbled across the Rosetta Stone of April Fool's!

We know it's a joke, Chaos. We're just speculating on how cool and how it would be done if it were true.

chaos0xomega wrote:And in case you guys didn't get it in my previous post, there is a video game known as Star War Battlefront (and a sequel, Star Wars Battlefront 2). Hence the reason why I think #2 is unlikely... its just a very clever pun (more or less)

Just because the company is called Battlefront, does not mean that the game would be called Star Wars Battlefront. If this is one of the April Fools' falsehoods, I don't think it had anything to do with the name of the video game.

Kanluwen wrote:Now, what I'd love to see though in tabletop form?
"Legacy" era.

Really I read the thirst 3 TPBs and I didn't get the feeling it would work well as a setting for a large war game.

Anung Un Rama wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Now, what I'd love to see though in tabletop form?
"Legacy" era.

Really I read the thirst 3 TPBs and I didn't get the feeling it would work well as a setting for a large war game.

Try reading the Cade Skywalker comics. There's plenty of material that is hinted at that'd be neat to see.

I wonder which Osprey book they'll include with that mag.

Kanluwen wrote:

Anung Un Rama wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Now, what I'd love to see though in tabletop form?"Legacy" era.

Really I read the thirst 3 TPBs and I didn't get the feeling it would work well as a setting for a large war game.

Try reading the Cade Skywalker comics. There's plenty of material that is hinted at that'd be neat to see.

Yeah, I read a bunch from that, but imo it would work much better as a skirmish system like, well, Star Wars miniatures than a large battle game like on in 15mm scale would be.

True enough.

Either one would be awesome in my view.

If it was in 28 mm like GW it would probably work best, as you could run it like a Skirmish game and then if you wanted big battles simplly Apocalypse it. An AT AT wouldn't be waaaaay much bigger than a Mumakil from LotR, so I think it could definately work on that scale. On 15 mm you're looking at large scale battles almost all the time, so really the only ones that most fans would know about would be Hoth, maybe a few from the Battlefront series, the less stupid ones like Rhen Var etc.

15mm for Star Wars means you can do *all* of the stuff in *both* of the movies:
- Stormtroopers clearing a Blockade Runner (small)
- Mos Eisly & Death Star hunts
- Hoth (large)

As an intro fight, you have Jedi vs Rancor.

I mean, c'mon, Star Wars is only two movies...

Kroothawk wrote:And with two kinds of gravel you can proxy the epic fight Javas against Ewoks (led by Master Joda)

There's actually an issue of the old Marvel Star Wars comic that's kinda like that. Topless Robot makes fun of it here: http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/09/the_11_least_necessary_star_wars_comic_book_storie.php

Ratbarf wrote:If it was in 28 mm like GW it would probably work best, as you could run it like a Skirmish game and then if you wanted big battles simplly Apocalypse it. An AT AT wouldn't be waaaaay much bigger than a Mumakil from LotR, so I think it could definately work on that scale.

The current AT-AT is about 12" tall, although it's possibly a fraction under-scaled.

On 15 mm you're looking at large scale battles almost all the time, so really the only ones that most fans would know about would be Hoth, maybe a few from the Battlefront series, the less stupid ones like Rhen Var etc.

... and large chunks of the Clone Wars.


Thinking about it, for a traditional wargame, rather than the current collectible one, it would make the most sense to focus on an era at a time. Given the current hype over the Clone Wars, that would make the most sense as a starting point.

JohnHwangDD wrote:15mm for Star Wars means you can do *all* of the stuff in *both* of the movies:
- Stormtroopers clearing a Blockade Runner (small)
- Mos Eisly & Death Star hunts
- Hoth (large)

As an intro fight, you have Jedi vs Rancor.

I mean, c'mon, Star Wars is only two movies...

I disagree with you there. If I play a scenario as small as a Stormtroopers on board a Blockade Runner I want it to be 28mm scale or at least larger than 15. I just can't imagine games like in small.

Depends on how big of a blockade runner you want, I guess.

There are plenty of ground based vehicles and weapon platforms that would be easy enough to make in 28mm.

If there ever is a Star Wars miniature game that isn't played on a board with grids then I really want it to be 28mm. Multie-part Storm Troopers would be five types of awesome.

Ignore things like AT-ATs. Biggest things should be AT-ST.

God I can't believe I'm actually thinking about this.
If they got the license it will just be the current Star Wars miniature game

AT-43.CO.UK wrote:If they got the license it will just be the current Star Wars miniature game

Not necessarily. There are two likely (IMO) ways for it to go: Either someone picks up the licence and buys the current CMG off WotC, or someone picks up the licence and produces a regular miniatures game in a completely different scale.

Less likely would be someone picking up the licence and producing a different CMG (I see that as less likely because the CMG customer base has too much invested in the current game, and mostly isn't likely to look favourably on a completely different collectible system that forces them to start over) or producing a regular miniature game in anywhere near 28mm (which would be close enough for people to use the widely available and cheaper collectible minis instead of buying new minis... and so would be commercial suicide).


If it's picked up as a regular miniatures game, I would see it as being in 15mm and concentrating on large scale battles (or simply centring on vehicles), or 45-54mm and concentrating on infantry skirmish, with perhaps a scattering of smaller vehicles and gribblies.

Or it could go completely against everything we're discussing and be fleet battles!

Kanluwen wrote:Or it could go completely against everything we're discussing and be fleet battles!

Star Wars Fleet Battles? Great idea.

Perhaps they could call it "SFB" for short?

Heh.

All I know is that if they released a BFG scaled fleet battle game, where I can deploy B-Wing bomber squadrons in an asteroid field to ambush the Executor in the Hoth asteroid belt.

I would buy so much of that game, I can't put it into exact words.

I don't know why BF couldn't do something akin to B5 Wars in the FA scale.

Fighter wings would be multi-based, like FoW infantry, and Capitol ships would be mono-based like FoW tanks...

The problem with doing Star Wars naval battles is that the scale is awkward. There is so huge a difference in size between the average starfighter and a Star Destroyer that it's pretty much impossible to have them both on the same table and have them in any sort of reasonable scale.

(And yes, I realise that it's possible to make a game that simply ignores scale. WotC already did that with their space battle expansion, and I personally hate it. Grr.)

As I see it, to keep everything to scale, it would need to be either
- a starfighter game, with capital ships just showing up as rules boosts (barrages, refueling/rearming areas, etc) rather than as models.
or
- a capital ship battles game, with starfighters just showing up as counters or as attack and/or defence bonuses for the capital ships. Although even then scale is tricky when you have things like the Corellian Corvette going up against the kilometre-long Imperial Star Destroyer and the 17(?)km-long Super Star Destroyer.

Although it did occur to me the other day that you could sort of combine the two by having two boards. On the main board, you would manoeuvre capital ships. When those ships get close enough to deploy fighters, you switch to the starfighter board and fight out the dogfight...

Not perfect, but a possible solution.

yeah, the scales were WAY too off in the wotc game. i'd be fine with some scale difference but i don't want shuttlecraft larger than republic cruisers like in the wotc game. the fighters would have to be epic 40k/ B5 fleet action scale so that you get a whole squadron on a single base and to scale with one another. the capital ships could then be in scale with each other and on bigger bases. that would work for me.

Well if you look at the great AOG B5 ships, they werent in size comparison either.

Cause we all have the show for that.

Star Wars has the same advantage. We all kno the correct size from the movies. so we could have ISDs etc. mono base and TIEs multibase.

If you wanna go actualy size, theyre just papercuts. Drek on the battlefield. Which they sometmes are in the movies ^^.

If you wanted a to scale naval game on a 6 by 4 board the ships would be the size of pennies and the fighters would be just little dots on a base. The movies show the ships getting ridiculously close to each other for a space battle, even for a modern naval engagement they are waaaay to close together for the kind of combat you see in the films. They generally fight in knife fight range, or much more like 18th century warships than the massive space battleships/carriers that they are. The best this was ever represented in a game of any type for star wars was the X-Wing vs Tie Fighter in which you could ocassionaly wait up to half an hour to reach the incoming fighters after you wiped out the initial wave that always seemed to start right on your doorstep. But even then, the ships were way to close, as the fighters in that game didn't actually go all that fast.

Ratbarf wrote:If you wanted a to scale naval game on a 6 by 4 board the ships would be the size of pennies and the fighters would be just little dots on a base. The movies show the ships getting ridiculously close to each other for a space battle, even for a modern naval engagement they are waaaay to close together for the kind of combat you see in the films. They generally fight in knife fight range, or much more like 18th century warships than the massive space battleships/carriers that they are. The best this was ever represented in a game of any type for star wars was the X-Wing vs Tie Fighter in which you could ocassionaly wait up to half an hour to reach the incoming fighters after you wiped out the initial wave that always seemed to start right on your doorstep. But even then, the ships were way to close, as the fighters in that game didn't actually go all that fast.

Revenge of the Sith's space battles with capital ships?
The Republic fleet jumped as close as it could to ensure that the Confederacy's ships+leadership couldn't get out(Palpatine allowed Grievous to get away, however).
Return of the Jedi's battle around the Death Star?
The Rebels, again, got in as close as they could for a reason. When they were in that close it was an attempt to make the gunners on the Death Star hold their fire for fear of hitting their compatriots.

You seem to think that it would all be sublight, when unlike BFG or any other "space" games, they could easily work FTL into the game mechanics(just make it so it can't be used near Interdictors or planets).
I'd love to see the Thrawn Pincer or Ackbar Slash on a tabletop. I really would.

So basically you want Star Wars themed Homeworld?

Are you referring to the PC game "Homeworld"?

Because maybe I would like that, but I'd far far rather being able to sit and paint some models and play a beer & pretzels game with some friends

Kanluwen wrote:

We know it's a joke, Chaos. We're just speculating on how cool and how it would be done if it were true.

You sure about that? Apparently not:

Jack of all games wrote:
Just because the company is called Battlefront, does not mean that the game would be called Star Wars Battlefront. If this is one of the April Fools' falsehoods, I don't think it had anything to do with the name of the video game.

chaos0xomega wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

We know it's a joke, Chaos. We're just speculating on how cool and how it would be done if it were true.

You sure about that? Apparently not:

Jack of all games wrote:
Just because the company is called Battlefront, does not mean that the game would be called Star Wars Battlefront. If this is one of the April Fools' falsehoods, I don't think it had anything to do with the name of the video game.

Of course this thread is wild speculation. That's a given. But until Battlefront confirms it to be untrue, the rumor has enough plausibility to warrant discussion. Could the connection to the Star Wars: Battlefront series be the joke? Of course. At the same time, it isn't entirely impossible to imagine BF picking up the Star Wars license because, let's face it, some company is going to. So unless you have some knowledge into the subject that has been heretofore unmentioned, your speculation about the truth or falsity of the items on the list is no more or less accurate than ours.

Jack of all games wrote:From their email-

April Fools’

It is traditional on this day to tease and confuse people by having fictitious and spurious stories appear in the guise of having a bit of fun.

The creative team came up with a few ideas that would set tongues wagging but all of them seemed very obvious, so I decided to try something a little different. I am taking the opportunity today to tell you ten things that Battlefront Group has planned of which half are true and half are not. The ensuing discussion and speculation will hopefully be taken for what it is, fun, and at least let you know some things that until today you were not aware of.

1. We are making a 15mm Captain America figure with special rules so he can join US forces in Flames Of War.
2. We have the rights to produce the Star Wars tabletop miniatures game now that the Wizards of the Coast license have expired.
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June.
4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months.
5. Our next big thing is going to be a Pirate vs. Ninja skirmish game in 30mm.
6. To help improve morale in the Battlefront offices, all staff is being given a uniform consisting of a black shirt with silver skulls on the lapels and pink piping.
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on.
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war.
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world.
10. German forces will soon be able to add the Ark of the Covenant to their lists as a special occult unit.

Have fun with this and remember five things on this list are 100% true but five are not, so don’t hold me to everything the next time we meet.

~ John-Paul.

My thoughts on these possibilities are here on my blog.

1 - See #9

2 - hmmm, this possibly could be cool.

3 - Meh.

4 - Meh.

5 - hmmm, ok?

6 - "Pansy Division" groupies?

7 - hmmm, always had a bit of interest in FoW.

8 - See #7.

9 - This could be cool if done in limited quantities. Being able to field Hell Boy, Namor, Human Tourch or Capt. America, amongst other appropriate properties, would be sweet and actually make me consider playing.

10 - Get out! That would be awesome...but only, as someone else suggested, there was a meddling archeologist or Hell Boy.

The idea of a Star Wars version of FoW would be sweet and I think it could be easily done. Yes you might have to have factions who existed in separate eras fight but who cares, not I. I personally would love to see an army for the Black Suns or any one of the criminal factions.

Sorry, ProtoClone, I don't see them putting Hellboy or rather, HellBABY at that time period into a WW2 game.

Are you referring to the PC game "Homeworld"?

I meant a table top version of it, as the PC game does have instantaneous light travel, and a tactic of mine was light speed jump right underneath them then kamikaze all my stuff into the enemy mothership...

Okay, that's not really anything new though.

X-Wing v. TIE Fighter, you could slingshot fighters right into capital ships via FTL. I played with a group of guys and we'd always assault Star Destroyers with that tactic using a B-Wing squadron.

Like kamikaze it or just to get in close and destroy point defense?

Ratbarf wrote:Like kamikaze it or just to get in close and destroy point defense?

B-Wings are capital ship killers.

So, we'd jump in destroy the bridge and then jump out to rearm and do it again.

Huh, I should try that the next time I play it, havn't played it in like a year. But this is getting really off topic.

You need a really, really good squadron of people to work it out with.

However, it's TOTALLY on topic!

Because fighters in Star Wars don't engage just other fighters or warheads or light escorts.
We've got the TIE Defenders/Bombers, the B/K-Wings, Skipray Blastboats, etc which all had a very unique role:

They were made to hunt capital ships.

honestly I didn't know you could have in theater FTL jumps, when ever I hit the FTL button it just went off in a random direction and then I ended up back at base.

Ratbarf wrote:honestly I didn't know you could have in theater FTL jumps, when ever I hit the FTL button it just went off in a random direction and then I ended up back at base.

You can't in Single Player, you can in multi player.

so....

any definitive answers as to which are true ? anything from battlefront ?

It was an april fool joke but people hijacked this thread to talk about star wars video games and such. Strangely this was never closed.

tl:dr APRIL'S FOOL

Well, half are true and half are false. Battlefront having the rights is within the realm of possibility.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I realize that this thread hasn't done much but wishlist, but it probably shouldn't be locked until we get some sort of resolution from BF.

Did they ever mention when that would be?

Well here's one of them confirmed- http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2010/04/15/35318

The Early War delay has been confirmed as a hoax, and the book will be released in August. Hell yeah !

http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=1910

Looks like the uniform bit could be true.

The last line of HudsonD's link wrote:P.S. - A photo of a member of staff in their new uniform will be coming soon but we are having trouble finding a suitably attractive candidate.

They also mentioned Pacific being in the works. Maybe their naval combat game is a board game?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
What we have so far:

1. We are making a 15mm Captain America figure with special rules so he can join US forces in Flames Of War. (Unconfirmed)
2. We have the rights to produce the Star Wars tabletop miniatures game now that the Wizards of the Coast license have expired. (Unconfirmed)
3. A free Osprey book with be given away with every issue of Wargames Illustrated in June. (Confirmed)
4. Early War has proved to be much more work than we expected and we have to move its release back by six months. (False)
5. Our next big thing is going to be a Pirate vs. Ninja skirmish game in 30mm. (Unconfirmed)
6. To help improve morale in the Battlefront offices, all staff is being given a uniform consisting of a black shirt with silver skulls on the lapels and pink piping. (Hinted at)
7. Having looked at the Pacific theatre, we have decided to make a naval game to go along with the Flames Of War books we are working on. (Hinted at)
8. We have a World War Two aircraft game almost finished so you will be able to dogfight your way through the war. (Unconfirmed)
9. As part of a new license deal we will be releasing themed dice and gaming sets for the greatest comic book heroes in the world. (Unconfirmed)
10. German forces will soon be able to add the Ark of the Covenant to their lists as a special occult unit. (Unconfirmed)

Have I missed anything?

a little OT but, can someone point me at any 40k scale Star Wars minis? if there any exists. (can't find anything except ugly wotc ones)

penek wrote:a little OT but, can someone point me at any 40k scale Star Wars minis? if there any exists. (can't find anything except ugly wotc ones)

The WotC ones are 28mm. There were some 25mm or so ones from West End Games but that was in the 80s.

penek wrote:a little OT but, can someone point me at any 40k scale Star Wars minis? if there any exists. (can't find anything except ugly wotc ones)

Well, there is Knight Models. Just heard about them the other day myself. They do mostly 70mm showpiece miniatures, but they do make four 30mm Star Wars minis..

Original trilogy: Han, & Luke
Prequels: Obi-Wan, & Anakin

Not really enough yet to be viable for gaming, but they are awesome sculpts!

Jack of all games wrote:

penek wrote:a little OT but, can someone point me at any 40k scale Star Wars minis? if there any exists. (can't find anything except ugly wotc ones)

Well, there is Knight Models. Just heard about them the other day myself. They do mostly 70mm showpiece miniatures, but they do make four 30mm Star Wars minis..

Original trilogy: Han, & Luke
Prequels: Obi-Wan, & Anakin

Not really enough yet to be viable for gaming, but they are awesome sculpts!

Holy hell those are nice.

I still think its an odd choice for an aprils fool if it does indeed turn out to be false.

April fools are meant to be partially funny, not tick off fans because it would have been one of the best things ever.

If we're concerend about support ships againstlrger Cruisers & the like, Fighters in Full thrust are disgustingly effective when engaging cruisers.

So I see no problem with making fighters weak against big ships, quite the opposite. A mass of small torpedo bombers would overwhelm the Point Defense of most large ships.

Wait, are you bringing up X-Wing vs Tie Fighter or are you going back to Tabletop Game Rules?

Tabletop I meant, sorry guys.
I was just trying to point out that Fighters don't have to be anti-torpedo/bomber/other small craft shields for larger ships.

I don't expect anyone to believe me, but Battlefront is indeed producing a Star Wars miniatures game. They won't be revealing any details until after August.

Tanus wrote:I don't expect anyone to believe me, but Battlefront is indeed producing a Star Wars miniatures game. They won't be revealing any details until after August.

Ooooh a tantalizing rumor!
Now, I'm not the type to immediately doubt, but I do try to remain skeptical. So, how do you know this?

I'm interested to know the answer since the "I heard it from a Red Shirt at my local GW store" answer does not apply here.

Jack of all games wrote:

Tanus wrote:I don't expect anyone to believe me, but Battlefront is indeed producing a Star Wars miniatures game. They won't be revealing any details until after August.

Ooooh a tantalizing rumor!
Now, I'm not the type to immediately doubt, but I do try to remain skeptical. So, how do you know this?

I'm interested to know the answer since the "I heard it from a Red Shirt at my local GW store" answer does not apply here.

Hehehehe, well it's kind of like that. I'm close friends with a few of the guys at Battlefront. The game is indeed being developed and will be in 15mm scale.

If this is true, they have a new customer, 100%

If it isn't, I'll be hunting you down like a dog Tanus.

Tanus wrote:Hehehehe, well it's kind of like that. I'm close friends with a few of the guys at Battlefront. The game is indeed being developed and will be in 15mm scale.

Well assuming that it's true, that's an extra large order of Awesomesauce for me. Can you tell me one more thing Tanus? The one thing, besides scale (so happy its 15mm), that I'm curious about is if it will be Original Trilogy or Prequel Trilogy, -or- will it be both much like Battlefront does with WWII (Early/Mid/Late War)?

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:If this is true, they have a new customer, 100%

If it isn't, I'll be hunting you down like a dog Tanus.

I'm with you Morathi! Excited as all get out.. but I'm polishing my bolt pistol just in case

I would guess that it would start with the Clone Wars, and add in other factions through later expansions.

seems odd to specifically wait till Aug to announce something as big as Star Wars... and not be going to Gencon.

Cyporiean wrote:seems odd to specifically wait till Aug to announce something as big as Star Wars... and not be going to Gencon.

Have they said they aren't coming to Gencon? They very well could be since they went to the GAMA trade show this year. Especially if they are going to release something as big as a Star Wars game.

I believe the delay is due to them not being able to make an official announcement until the WotC license actually expires. Which is in June or July.

insaniak wrote:I believe the delay is due to them not being able to make an official announcement until the WotC license actually expires. Which is in June or July.

Ah, I had not thought of that. Though it would be awesome if they came to Gencon anyways.

Woot, Ill actually have money by like September so this is going to kick ass!

Is it true!!?? Please tell me its true that star wars is going to battlefront.

If Battlefront actually does a 15mm Star Wars game, I will likely crap my pants with delight. Assuming it's not pre-painted, that is.

Of course, I already love their WW2 stuff, so I don't even know what I'd do with myself.

Hordini wrote:
Of course, I already love their WW2 stuff, so I don't even know what I'd do with myself.

You could have your Nazis fight the Empire! Stormtroopers vs. Stormtroopers!

Well, maybe. I guess it would depend on the rules.

I'm more interested in Stormtroopers vs. Rebels! AT-ATs and AT-STs and E-Webs vs. airspeeders and commandos and other assorted stuff.

personally, i'm not interested in star wars in 15mm. while i could see some others wanting to do the mass vehicle battles, the size doesn't lend well to the characters in the same battles.

I think 15mm would look fantastic. Rows and rows of stormtroopers, full bases of jedis with source lighting, etc.

Though I'm first to admit, yoda in 15mm would be tiny!

"Size matters not, ... Look at me. Judge me by size, do you?"






Sorry, had to.

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:"Size matters not, ... Look at me. Judge me by size, do you?"

Sorry, had to.

Only "small" dudes say that.

Those of us who've got a bit of heft & girth where it counts, well, we let our size do it's own talking!

I'm calling shenanigans.

And if Battlefront got the license, I wouldnt say thats a good thing. That is a very very expensive license to purchase, most companies in the industry cannot afford it, and those few that can... well, if it doesn't work out for them, the entire company will go under. I rather enjoy playing FoW, thank you, I dont want to see it disappear because of a potentially poor business decision.

chaos0xomega wrote:I'm calling shenanigans.

And if Battlefront got the license, I wouldnt say thats a good thing. That is a very very expensive license to purchase, most companies in the industry cannot afford it, and those few that can... well, if it doesn't work out for them, the entire company will go under. I rather enjoy playing FoW, thank you, I dont want to see it disappear because of a potentially poor business decision.

So a company should never expand into new ventures? I have to say I disagree about it being a bad business venture. Let's face it, Star Wars is still huge and will continue to be for a long time. Of the three wargame companies that could probably handle the license, I would say that Battlefront or Privateer would be the ones to handle it the best.
Also, I wouldn't get antsy just because the line went stagnant for WotC. First off, besides the main characters, what gets fans most excited about Star Wars? The vehicles. Which WotC did very little with (though they did do pretty good with what they did). A 15mm scale game would be able to accomodate so many more.
Secondly, while I did collect the WotC prepaints myself, I never played the game. It was way too simple and abstracted for my tastes and I think a lot of other wargamers felt the same.
Finally, I think there are a lot of us out there that hate collectable games. If I want a Boba Fett, I don't want to have to shell out $50 for him on eBay.
I believe Battlefront can come out with an awesome ruleset. They certainly know how to handle a large stock line and also give support to thier players.
One last thing that I think makes this a good move- With the exception of several small (but very cool) miniature companies that are doing it, 15mm sci-fi is a relatively untouched game market. Unlike 28-35mm which is getting more and more full.
Is it risky? Sure. But so are all new ventures and just staying safe with what you already have leads to stagnation.

I was just thinking, and this is pure speculation, but does anyone think that it's a possibility that Battlefront has the Star Wars license, but rather than doing a ground combat game, they'll come out with a non-prepainted space combat game? With fighters and cruisers and Star Destroyers and all that stuff? Kind of like Battlefleet Gothic, Full Thrust or Starfleet Battles, but for Star Wars? I know someone else already did a Star Wars space combat game, but it was pre-painted and collectible, so Battlefront's version could have it's own appeal.

I love the space combat in Star Wars, so I think a ground combat or space combat Star Wars miniatures game would be equally cool.

Hordini wrote:it's a possibility that Battlefront has the Star Wars license, but rather than doing a ground combat game, they'll come out with a non-prepainted space combat game?

With fighters and cruisers and Star Destroyers and all that stuff? Kind of like Battlefleet Gothic, Full Thrust or Starfleet Battles, but for Star Wars?

I think it was mentioned in this thread sometime earlier, and I'd welcome BF cleaning up WW1 aces of the skies in the same way they cleaned up WW2 ground combat.

Of the list, BFG is the current gold standard of playability, while SFB is mired in decades-old junk. Both are capital ship oriented, so moving things towards dogfighting would be quite interesting. X vs Tie to start, cheap and fun.

In the cannon though its mostly about starhips engaging at range and then fighters attempting to break through other fighters to kill the cap ships up close is it not? That could cause a greater focus on the fighters while still allow the Capital ship spam that everyone loves.

One more unusual star wars thing is that the current issue of (historical focused) Wargames Illustrated has a review of a large historical convention, but also includes two snapshots of a star wars game that was being played. The game is not battlefront produced, but the pictures were distinctly out of place in the otherwise completely historical focused review. In recent memory, there have been a couple of 40k pictures from a painting contest once, but other than that (and adverts) the magazine has not covered anything not historical related in the past.

legoburner wrote:One more unusual star wars thing is that the current issue of (historical focused) Wargames Illustrated has a review of a large historical convention, but also includes two snapshots of a star wars game that was being played.

Got a link to those?

BFs license prohibits them from advertising the game before WotCs license expires