Star Wars: Emperor’s Black Bones, FFG Announced a Ton of New Stuff for Legion and Armada
Let’s talk about all the new Legion and Armada sets announced at Gencon. You better sit down.
Last week I made some predictions for what FFG might announce at Gencon this year. Now that their seminar has come and gone it’s time to look at what all was announced. Today I’ll be looking at the Legion and Armada announcements from the Con. I’ll being giving just my initial thoughts on things today. Even thought the convention goes through the weekend I wouldn’t expect any big reveals this week, though in the past FFG has dropped some big news the week or two after Gencon.
Legion- More Terrain 
One of my random guesses for Leigon announcements was a real line of terrain. Now that didn’t quite happen, but FFG did announce two two terrain sets, the crash escape pod and the Imperil Bunker. Both of these come with new mission cards and the like, and the escape pod has C-3PO and R2-D2. I’m going to say I was kind of right about this one, because it is terrain, but isn’t really a whole line. FFG still seems tied to only release terrain sets that act as the center points of battles, rather than generic Star Wars buildings and the like. It’s still a cool move.
Legion- The Clone Wars Rages
Last week I also said it felt like Legion needed some kind of big announcement to keep its momentum. I wouldn’t really say we got that this year. There was no shocking moment or blow your socks off reveal. We did get the announcement of 6 new Clone Wars expansions, which I think is the most expansions they’ve announced at once, and two of them are large tanks, so they certainly want to keep the momentum going.
For the Separatists they’ve announced Count Dooku, B2 Super Battle Driods and thw AAT tank. I’ve got to say my predictions on the next CIS units were pretty spot on as these were all on my list. These are all good choices for the CIS and seem to bulk out the forces. You’ve got a second commander, alongside Grevious, who seems more focused on manipulating units rather than brute force. You’ve got a second Corps units that’s more traditional and heavy than the B1s. Lastly you’ve got the big old heavy ATT tank, clearly the centerpiece of the army and a fantastic looking model.
For the Republic side of things my guesses weren’t as good. Right now we are getting Captain Rex, Phase II Clones and the Saber tank. Of these only Captain Rex was in my list, though I have suggested the Saber tank before. Like the CIS we can see the Republic has gotten a second commander, a second Corps unit and a heavy tank. Rex seems a good choice, and is going to be very different from Obi-Wan, as he’s a ranged fighter. It’s a solid choice. I figured Phase II Clones would come at some point (you don’t make Phase I and not make Phase II) but am surprised they are out so early. They don’t seem all that different from Phase I Clones, and I would rather have gotten ARCs, but I’m sure all in good time. The Saber I am super happy with. It’s a great looking model and fun fast tank.
Over all I am really happy with the new Legion announcements. They are pushing the game and working hard to get the two new factions fleshed out quickly. In particular the ATT And Saber tank are great looking models and look significantly larger than other Legion models we’ve seen. We also know these new models are moving to a harder plastic and sprue system. It’s more hobby focused and leads to better quality models, so all for the good.
Armada- Wave VIII 
If there was one thing that really surprised me at GENCON it was the announcement of Armada Wave VIII and what’s in it. I was really expecting them to show off Clone Wars ships, which they didn’t, instead opting to show off the Starhawk and Onager Star Destroyer. Now we did know that they had some more Galatic Civil War Era ships planned for this year, so this really should have been on my radar, and the Starhwak makes some sense. The Onager though I don’t think was on anyways predictions lists. Still these are two interesting ships that might point the future.
The also showed off the SSD next to other ships
The Starhawk was the first major capital ship built by the New Republic after the Battle of Endor. It’s a very heavy ship, and looks to be the largest and most powerful ship in the Rebel fleet. It also brings some nice variety to a Mon Cal dominated capital ship line. One interesting thing about it is that as far as I know there were no official depictions of the Starhawk so I think the design is an FFG original, and I really dig the kind of Neb-B look. The Onagar is also an intresting ship. Its kind of a prototype Empire ship, featuring a scaled down Kyber-Crystal cannon, making it a very mini-Death Star. In game they’ve said this gives the ship a crazy frontal attack, and one that out ranges all other guns. This looks to really shake up the meta. The ship had only been mentioned in one minor reference book, but the idea of this kind of ship has been around for a while. What’s really interesting about both of these is they have life spans after the Galactic Civil War. The Starhawk is apparently still in use during the Sequel Trilogy and used by Resistance Allies. At the same time the Resistance suspects that the First Order either has Onagars or used similar tech in some of their ships. So these could be a stealthy way of launching First Order and Resistance/New Republic factions.
Let us know what you think of these up coming releases, down in the comments!
