So I have been reading a lot of of the new star wars Comics and Books and wanted to get some discussion started about what would star wars miniatures look like if we added new factions to the game. If you have been reading the new "Fate of the Jedi" Series you will note that the "New Republic" is now the "GA" or "Galactic Alliance". Should there be a faction that would represent this part of the star wars universe? and If so what about the "Lost Tribe of the Sith" are they different enough to warrant their own faction? Also on the other end of the Star Wars History Timeline with the new comic series that has come out "Dawn of the Jedi - Force Storm" should there be factions to represent the "Je'Daii" and the "Infinite Empire" (I Know I would like to see "Xesh Force Hound" as a playable piece but he would not fit into any faction we currently have in the game.

Please comment and make suggestions I would love to hear what others think of this, even the creators of the V-Sets

With the Dawn of the Jedi Series it stats that it takes place thousands of years before the beginning of the Old Republic. So I think it could use its own faction as well as the Rakata AKA Infnite Empire. I know their isn't much out their at the moment but the Dark Horse Comics coming out are doing fantastic job providing us with some of that source material, even it takes another year or two to have a viable faction I think it would be great to get the ball rolling. but if not I think I would settle for the "Butch, The Flying Rancor" that you see in the comics as well

Sub-factions? Yes, please.

New factions? Ugh. No mas!

Yes!
I see the points about there not being enough to spread around but they just made a set of 50% fringe. So obviously three factions can't be hurting to bad. Also it's fine if it takes a few years to get a faction started and a couple more to get on it's feet. It was that way for the vong, and let's be honest they were never even truly viable until the post WOTC days anyways. The same could be said of the lesser five factions.
Now I'm all for sub factions and can accept the grouping of the nightsisters, GA, and even the lost tribe. But there is only three answers for the new dawn of the Jedi series:

A.)Attempt to mesh the Je'daii with the OR and the Rakata with the Sith?
This doesn't make sense for a host of reasons and you would have to give them all rival for the rest of the old republic, in that case they should just be a new faction.

B.)Ignore the series entirely.
Well being extremely lame, I could see this being the popular choice to take the easy way out.

C.) Create two new factions, one massive force armies and the other crazy force powers.
It would make the most sense canon wise and I believe that with the right amount of playtesting, one or even two new factions could be created. If the current designers are talented enough to save this game, bring balance to some awful factions, and have very few mishaps along the way. I believe that this can be done and it would better the game in the long run with even more diversity and faith after accomplishing such a task.

But maybe that's just my wishful thinking.

New sub-factions? Hell yeah

New factions? Please nooooooooooo!!

Well the Galactic Alliance is already a part of the NR faction, so i see no point in seperating those two.

The Sith faction is a mess really, spanning over thousands of years and including characters from several sith empires. But that being said, i'd probably vote for all sith-like cults and the like to be included in the sith faction as well (maybe Imperials/Separatists if they were involved with them, or even fringe). But i'd rather not see them as entirely new factions. It would be a little awkward.

As for the Dawn of the Jedi comics, i can understand people wanting to see characters from that era. But personally, i really hope that it will be ignored altogether. There is enough material for loads of new characters in the ~4000 year timespan we already have.
Also, it would take some time and effort to make them competitive. Even one or more theme sets devoted to them. And to be honest, i'd be more than a little upset to see some new faction 'steal' slots in the sets from the factions we already have.

It seems that most people are ok with just making them them a sub faction with a sort of rival. Again why not a new faction entirely? It's the same thing. And the Je'daii are not the good guys, they are a mixture of sith and Jedi so it doesn't fit for them to be an extension of the OR. And again with the slot stealing, this v set is 50% fringe. That says to me that the factions are roughly balanced now and eventually we will start running in circles with the factions we have. Maybe this moment isn't the best for a new faction. But in the long run it makes the most sense, the designers are capable of it and as for following the WOTC precedent, well they dropped the ball hard for most of this game's later life and their only design go with the lesser factions was "let's make then awful and almost never produce pieces for them". And the formula and design of the smaller five has really been a vset thing!

It's really, really not, though. More on that in a moment.



I can't speak for others, but my choice of wording was deliberate. I did not mention "Je'daii," but rather "the good guys from Dawn of the Jedi." Those characters are completely legitimate as "proto-Old Rep" pieces.

WotC set the stage when they allowed the Sith of the OR and LotF eras to mingle freely. Right call? Wrong call? Doesn't matter at this point. It's one of the foundational elements of the game. The factions are in some cases abstract, representational, and loose. There's no getting around it, and no reason to change things 10-15 sets in.



I respectfully submit that's an erroneous conclusion. While it's true that the factions DO seem to have achieved a good degree of balance--so what? I could be mistaken, but I think that the game designers have 2 goals:

1) Make sure all factions are competitive

2) Make sure each faction has multiple viable builds

The first goal has (currently) been achieved. The second goal is a never-ending pursuit. Consider, for example, the Old Republic. With the introduction of the new Bastila, then became competitive... but required Bastila. With the introduction of Carth and Atton, a viable shooter-based squad became an option (particularly when paired with Bastila). With the new set, we seem on the cusp of a playable droid-centric squad.

Is that "running in circles"? No, I think it's "giving players viable alternatives."

Additionally, I think it's a mistake to think that a large number of Fringe pieces means that the factions are balanced. If anything, I think it's the opposite. With a few exceptions, smaller, weaker factions have traditionally relied on the Fringe to help bolster their ranks.

Beyond that, the V-Set designers seem to be following the WotC trend of make one set out of every 4 or 5 very Fringe-heavy. In this case, it could be as simple as "We had a lot of good Fringe ideas that fit the theme of the set."



The biggest problem with a new faction is support. Specifically, let's consider the Infinite Empire for a moment, since I think that's the one for which the best case could be made.

How many pieces does a faction need to be able to stand on it's own? It'd say 20-30. I base that on two things: 20 or so was the initial offering for most of the "movie" factions in the first sets. Additionally, with the exception of the Vong and their "Nom-Bombs," most of them minor factions did not become competitive until they had about 20 pieces of their own to field.

The 20-30 is my rough guess, but even if it's high, let's say 15. And it's got to be the RIGHT 15.

How many distinct Infinite Empire characters can we create? That's the other part of support. The Vong, at least, had a 19-book series to rely upon, which included tons of documentation on their culture. The Infinite Empire? Probabaly less page count than Bollux and Blue Max or Ril Duel and his crew. There's simply not enough source material to merit a new faction, and what source material exists is designed for a specific (and, frankly, limited) audience.

I can only speak for myself, but coming up with new non unique pieces for the 9 non-Fringe factions is actually getting difficult, so Sithborg IMHO is correct. Most of the stuff I "create" lately has been Fringe and even the V-Set's seem to be veering towards that.

Sub Factions seem to be the way to go. WOTC created a Black Sun sub faction, and the V-Set's have started creating a Zann Consortium with several pieces; the problem as has been pointed out is having enough material in the EU to make a sub faction worth creating. How many pieces would a SubFac need for it to be considered viable? Six? Ten? Are there enough non unique pieces in each set worth making or will it be mostly uniques?

Ideas for sub factions

Black Sun (Enlarged.)
Hutt Cartel (Jabba's a good piece to start with, plenty of EU material and lately a Rodian clan group to help fill it out.)
Rakatan (Starting to fill out, may need another year's worth of the Dawn comic and the TOR game.)
Chiss (A younger Thrawn, some pieces using the current WOTC Chiss as basis for a military.)

Some other groups that have emerged in various EU storylines and even within the WOTC pieces ...

Pirate groups (Maybe centered on Point Nadir.)
Fringer's (Several non uniques already made within WOTC.)
Spacer's (There seem to be any number of groups based on space stations and asteroids.)

Groups centered on frequently used locales

Naboo
Gungan
Tatooine groups (Jawa's, Tusken's & Cantina groups.)

Again, how many pieces would there need to be to make a sub faction viable?

One piece does not a sub faction make .....

Wow I didn't expect this this much conversation about the idea of new factions. This is great though! I know at the moment their is no where near enough source material out there to start new factions that would be competitive, However I hope that as the Star Wars Universe continues to expand so does the game. One of the things that I have noticed with this game is the undying community support I know the game designers have people play test, would it be possible to maybe have a community project that could help design new factions or sub factions as the years progress and we get our hands on more and more source material? Just a thought?