The Weekender: Star Wars Legion Announced & Our Gen Con Experience
August 26, 2017 by stvitusdancern
Welcome to the Weekender... IN AMERICA, BABY!
Weekender Podcast Download
We're booshed after Gen Con and what better way to relax with a Weekender in the States with our favourite American correspondents, the Dames of Games; Dawn & Gianna.
Speaking of Gen Con, who wants prizes? We have a HUUUGE list of prizes to give away this year from the fine vendors at Gencon:
- Ninja Division: Rail Raiders, Super Dungeon Arena & Ninja All Stars
- GCT Studios: Rise Of The Kage, Dockyard Expansion & Bushido Profile Cards
- Warsenal: Spider District Tower
- Corvus Belli: Manga Miniatures Set
- Everything Epic: Gen Con Swag Bag
- Steamforged Games: Blacksmith’s Guild Team
- Tabled Forged Games: Kettu + Iron & Ale
- DGS Games: Starter Set Of Choice
- Gale Force 9: Expansion Packs For Ferengi & Cardassians + Con Exclusive Naked Mal (Firefly) & D&D Collector’s Miniatures
- 4Ground: Fyreburgh Fort & Treasure Chests
- Kingdom Death: Seasonal Monster Dice & Exclusive Miniature
- Catalyst Games: Dragonfire
- Hawk Wargames: Battle Fleet Of Choice
- Shapeways: Custom Dice By Chuck
- Flying Frog Productions: Beli’al Shadow King
- Wyrd Games: Malifaux Nightmare Set
- Mantic Games: Walking Dead Core Set
- CMON: Skarrd Starter Bundle With Starter Set & Cards
- Ares Games: Sword & Sorcery
Note, we do not encourage smurf accounts to get a head of yourselves in the comments. *Looking at you, Ben.*
Star Wars: Legion Announced
With Fantasy Flight Games announcing Star Wars: Legion, we can't just sit back and ignore this piece of awesome, if only Warren and Lloyd were here to join in on the excitement. We got some time to demo the game at Gen Con and discuss what we would like to see from it in the future. What are you looking forward to most in this awesome beginning to what will hopefully be the next huge game in tabletop?
Gen Con 50
As you well know, get your comments into the live blog to win those awesome prizes, we can't describe how much we're emotionally destraught that Gen Con is over and we can't wait to get back next year!
Kicktarters
This week we have 3 neat looking Kickstarters to empty your wallets, I'm not sure which one I want more!
- Unstable Unicorns by Ramy Badie
- Adventure Gaming Mats by SEDA Interactive
- Coins to Fantasy RPG by The Copper Kingdom
Tune in tomorrow for our amazing XLBS episode of the Weekender where we'll be talking in depth about our experience and loot at Gen Con 50 this year. Check out the website's 7 day free trial and come on over to support us at Beasts of War.
Have an excellent Weekender!
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"AMERICA BABY!"
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That is a lot of prizes, and a heck of a read!
Love the idea of hosting from the studio stateside.
Happy Weekend!
whoa that was one heck of a read for prizes. then again was a great year to go to gen con
Happy US Weekend
Woo hoo, sounds like gen con was fun!
Wow I wish I was there
Need to catch up on my Gencon coverage, so much stuff coming out at the moment. Undercided on legion as i don’t really want another game, but so tempting. Have to say that the Rogue One atoll would be a great board, and the idea of a character strike force vs the legions of storm troopers appeals. I do wonder with the sad news about Spartan and Tor if that range of products will see more gaming companies facing difficulties. @brennon is unhealthily obessed with the George Lucus money grab trilogy, but it does offer some good armies, even if… Read more »
BoW Studio Manager confirms SWL bootcamp…
Exciting Recruitment Opportunity…An internet miniature gaming and review site are looking to hire a new studio manager………………
I have not yet been able to make it over to a bootcamp yet, but I have watched them through the Blogs and they look like an absolutely amazing time with some fantastic people. That, combined with the value that the bootcamps provide in what you actually get and my love of this IP, means that I am really hoping the stars align perfectly to allow me a chance to get over there if/when this happens.
Say it with me now … SWL Bootcamp, SWL Bootcamp, SWL Bootcamp!!!!!
Hey, he said he wanted to gauge interest 🙂
LOL!
It’s the Weekend!
Wot – even on ‘Merica?
On the SWL vs 40K front – yes I can see the thinking however… just how many SWL factions are they going to be able to put out? I think that’s an important factor in terms on variety and therefore longevity of the game. Will GW feel the pinch at SWL launch? Probably they’ll feel the “air being sucked out of the room’ for a couple of months, but so will the rest of the Industry, especially smaller players. I know it’s a bit simplistic but I don’t think it’s coincidence we’ve seen the likes of Spartan and Tor go… Read more »
It depends on what license FFG have, but in the original trilogy you have empire, rebels, bounty hunters and indigenous forces. If they are allowed to expand into the other films you can double that and if they have broad access to the expanded universe double that number again. Even the original trilogy would be enough to sustain a game for a long time, just look at the second world war gaming. The key will be how they market it and the cost if building a big force makes GW look like the budget alternative that may put many off
The SWL rulebook says two factions. If they stick rigidly to two armies then that is an issue, but if they treat them as umbrella factions it isn’t. If FFG are smart they’ll slant the game in such a way you can recreate the movies, something which GW got very right with LotR. If they’re not smart they’ll make the games straight-up troop spam battles. Hoth and Endor are two obvious theatres the game can do, but it should also allow for characterful battles in the likes of Mos Eisley, Cloud City, and Jabba’s Palace. There’s little evidence that success… Read more »
I would suspect Spartans games rules and figures would have a completely different target audience to GW. I also don’t get SWL being in direct competition to 40K,again I think the target audience is different.SWL is just another 28mm sci-fi game based on a well known IP. But time will tell
I totally agree. I don’t see SWL as a direct competitor for 40K based on IP or army builds. Although I am not sure that the target audiences are completely different since I am a fan of both IPs. However, that said, the competition is likely to come in the form of cost and player budgets. With SWL being the new “shiny”, I may be more likely to give my money over to that system for a while, rather than to 40K. This is especially true if I can get a reasonable force of Rebels and Imperials for the price… Read more »
From what I observed and have been told by a couple of store owners, revenues in June-July were good msinly due to 40k relaunch, but sales of other systems were a lot lower than usual as multi-system customers diverted most of their spend to GW. (Experiences from other sellers welcome)
Not saying that’s the root cause, but may have been the final straw. Anyone that got to a ‘couple of bad months and we’re screwed’ position may have hit that scenario.
There’s an obvious temptation to view Spartan and Tor’s decisions to cease trading as being part of the same trend, though they’re actually two different things. Spartan’s debts caught up with them, and as they say in their statement their finances had actually improved over the last year, just not enough. We could speculate on why they were in debt to begin with, but it’s clear this is not a recent thing. Tor were a different type of company to Spartan. The latter has directors, employees, a large range of products, and a major license, whereas Tor was one guy… Read more »
can’t get enough of those ‘kicktarters’…
Great show! Looking forward to see more starwars stuff myself. I will have too look though you gencon coverage. Ive been moving to a new place, so i had no internet connetion. And now its time to catch up ;D But sounds like you had a great time. Sounds like it should be on my travel to list ! Mind youself Bow you are on that list too The thing i love about starwars is you can use all kinds of table to, arabic lookin cities, forrest, almost medivel, to ruins, and so on. So getting a table ready should… Read more »
Watch all the Gen Con videos and WOW; have to save up and somehow persuade the wife that we need to go. Also another great show everyone.
think there is a lot of scope for different themed forces. ewoks army with the special rule home field advantage were could perhaps spend points and special terrain and traps, a wookie army would be awesome .then there is an option for a jabba the hut force or even the little robed guys from the desert in the first film .forgotten their name
Jawas
gencon is a must be there for me – maybe next year….
Could not agree more. I live in the states, but have never taken the chance to go. And, compared to Ireland, Florida isn’t really that far from Indiana.
It’s a wonderful convention. If you get the chance, you should go – four fabulous days of gaming @andrax
Happy Weekend!
Oh boy, Star Wars Legon sounds awesome, very very tempting, Clone Wars era expansion, Wookies? Hell Yes! But first, Rebels or Empire? Boot Camp? Consider my interest engaged 😀 Great Show!
The US studio is looking great – a very polished Weekender! Looking forward to XLBS! Star Wars Legion is heading to the top of my ‘to play in 2018’ list but it’s not GW that’ll be losing its share of my wallet. I’ve gotten back into 40k due to 8th and once my armies are up to full strength I intend to carry on playing. We’re in an age of multiple game systems but there is a limit to how many games one person/group can focus on. For me it’s the other, smaller, games on the ‘to play’ list that’ll… Read more »
Oh yeah and if you run a SWL bootcamp you’re going to have to find a way to run a bigger one!!!
Now you’ve planted the seed..a Star Wars Legion Bootcamp 😎
This. Would. Be. Epic!
It begins to appear GenCon justifies a trip to the US of A..
A Star Wars Gungan army is the main reason why I would get into Star Wars: Legion. Yes, they are silly. But an army of them just looks cool.
I want big dinosaurs!
And getting to play Jar Jar (and annoy the hell out of your opponent) is just the icing on the cake 🙂
Gorram it @tmsmnns ! 😉
They would be a pretty fun army to play I imagine – especially if you re-created the Droid battle from Episode One.
As bad of those films were they did give you a lot of battle options.
Happy Weekend, I hope everyone in the states is managing to keep the worst of the weather at bay. As for Star Wars Legion I hope they at least bring out a scum and villainy faction, like in x-wing. The idea of a Hutt led army with a few dozen Mandolorean’s at his back sounds awesome to me.
There was some really great reporting from GenCon with lots of interesting details on upcoming releases.
For Star Wars: Legion the Rogue One characters, settings and the range of troops, ships,vehicles and settings would be tremendous. Mass battle but with objectives – it does not always have to be stealing the Death Star plans – it could involve breaking someone out of prison or sabotaging some other Imperial or rebel facility.
2 factions? What about the Scum & Villiany from W-Wing? Jabba, bounty hunters and all the other sects and feral inhabitants who welcome strangers by shooting at them.
ATAT in that scale – oh Hell yes.
Happy weekender! The Star Wars game is gonna be a massive hit l!
Weekender USA! Dawn, Gianna, Live Ben, love it!
Star Wars on the tabletop is the biggest news in ages.
Ben’s right: themes are the way to go. E.g. 40k Imperium could be considered a faction, but one with such variety. Less so for chaos, much less for xenos, but strongly themed forces are possible.
Other than the vehicles is there a reason for those with Imperial Assault minis to change to this new range. I understand there is a slight model size change but nothing that will stand out too much.
For me, it is the idea of more detailed miniatures and the fact that there is much more diversity in the sculpts giving a sense of individuality to each miniature. The main reason this appeals to me is that, for the early stages of its release, I expect the numbers of different unit types to be limited. Therefore, I suspect that this will mainly be a skirmish-level game for me. The individuality of sculpts makes each model feel more personal and, therefore, I might be more careful in how I use them. As opposed to a game like 40K or… Read more »
You’d need the cards at the very least – but you could probably source them from online somewhere if you wanted to try it out.