"X-Wing Wave 9 Ships Announced" Topic

FFG have just announced the Wave 9 ships:

ARC-170 Fighter (Rebellion)
Special Forces TIE Fighter (First Order)
Protectorate Starfighter (Scum & Villainy)
Shadow Caster (Large) Pursuit Craft (Scum & Villainy)

link

Very cool! thanks for sharing! I'm a bit confused about the inclusion of the ARC-170, but maybe it's going to appear in Star Wars:Rebels with the Alliance?

I didn't even consider that they'd make the Shadow Caster, very excited about that one!

Yeah, the blurb says that they're re-conditioned machines fighting for the Rebellion.

The TIE/SF is the two-seater job from 'The Force Awakens', with turreted primary weapons, missile option and a bit more shields.

I don't know the other two, as the animated Star Wars series are only available on extortionately expensive TV services in the UK (Sky Movies, I think?).

Thanks for the heads up.

Ships themselves see interesting, but the overall verbiage of the article has me a bit worried that we've seen the last of the 'old' EU designs and everything else from here on out will be movie/cartoon only.

-Will

EU…?

European Union?
End User?

Expanded Universe- this was the short-hand term for all of the 'other media' (novels, computer games, etc) that were set in the Star Wars Universe. A lot of the ships currently in X-wing come from there; the Z-95 Headhunter originated in some of the older novels, the TIE Defender comes from the TIE fighter computer game, and so forth. There's a lot of other Expanded Universe stalwarts that aren't in the game yet though, and now might never be.

-Will

Disney has declared that there will be no tiers of Extended Universe stuff as their was before. Everything is just Star Wars. Previous EU material is not 'canon', but they reserve the right to bring forward any of the material that they wish, at which point it becomes full Star Wars.

This is pretty good as they can just outright ignore a lot of very drekky writing. And so far they have been quite willing to bring forward ships and fighters and associated crew names for use in FFG's games. It looks like any previously existing fighter is still fair game for the game!

Cheers Will, thanks for the explanation.

I did actually read the 'Admiral Thrawn' series by Timothy Zahn many years ago, when an Air Force mate loaned them to me and thought they were pretty good. However, the follow-on books by another (forgotten) author were frankly rubbish and I stopped reading Star Wars stuff at that point. However, I loved the X-Wing PC games (flying the Falcon in to and out of the Death Star on X-Wing Alliance is one of my most memorable computer gaming moments).

The X-Wing Miniatures Game seems to have the majority of ships covered that I recognise from the X-Wing PC games, save the Imperial Assault Gunboat. I guess that a lot of the ones I don't recognise come from the animated series?

Yes, the EU was very uneven in quality, some great, some ok, some downright terrible! And when push comes to shove I think Disney probably made the sensible choice to reset the board. I seriously miss some of the old EU though. It's possible that old EU craft will re-appear, but I suspect it will be less likely now as new stuff is introduced; there's a new Rebel and Imperial fighter in Rouge One, for example, which I suspect will have priority.

Of course I might be totally wrong; the new Armada wave features the Interdictor, a fan-favorite EU ship.

Some stuff I would have liked to see for example would be the TIE Avenger, the Assault Gunboat, the T-wing, the Cloakshape, the DX-9 Assault Transport, the Sentinel Landing craft, etc. Right now all of the Epic-sized Scum ships would also have to be drawn from the EU.

-Will

I assumed that the Interdictor Cruiser was somewhat bigger than the 'Huge' ships in X-Wing.

Oh yeah, the T-Wing and the TIE Avenger – I'd forgotten those babies. :)

Oh yea, I just meant that if 'old EU' designs are still appearing in Armada then different 'old EU' designs might still show up in X-Wing. Nothing to do but wait and see!

-Will

[Geek Mode]

Wookiepedia reckons that the Interdictor Cruiser is 1,600m long, so that'll be a mere 6.666666m at 1/270th scale!

:)

I want one… :D

[/Geek Mode]

Sorry, I read 'Armada' and thought 'X-Wing'… :)

I was hoping for the troop assault/drop ships in this wave. Bummer. Hopefully in the next wave.

Mike

Actually, the Z-95 Headhunter originated in the WEG roleplaying game. It was based on an early concept sketch of the X-Wing.

Well, the Z-95 Headhunter story is a little more complicated than that. The *very* first time it's mentioned is one of the old Han Solo spin-off novels; Han Solo at Star's End. The Han solo adventures were published in 1979(!), before WEG even had the license. They were first illustrated (so far as I know) in the 1993 Han Solo and the Corporate Sector sourcebook. At this time it wasn't a cut-down X-wing but looked pretty different. At some later point (late 90's at the latest) some source (I don't know know which) made the connection that the X-wing was descended from the Z-95, and that point the depiction based on the discarded X-wing concept at became the primary imagery seen.

And that is your dive into the deep end of the Star Wars nerd-pool for today!

-Will

The interdictor WAS used in a Rebels episode – it was one of the show creators' favourite EU ships. It's had a tweak from its original look, but it's essentially the same thing.

Armada is a fleet scale game, where ships like the interdictor would be used. It's way too large for X-wing.

@chromedog: OOOH, I had not realized that. Good to know! Seems like it might only be Movie/TV/New Media stuff from here on out then, but if they keep going back to the 'Old EU' well I will not complain!

-Will