The Hoth Cycle begins!!!!

WOW! I really didn't expect such an announcement so soon!!!

 They always have previews at least 3 months in advance to allow pre order from retailers. 

 We now know that we'll have another Vader and maybe another Wedge (depending if there is a Wedge Antilles in the core set) in this Force Pack.  And the Force Pack will include between 5 and 6 new objective and maybe more.

Well, what I meant was I'd expected to have had the core set in my sweaty little hands before the first cycle was announced! 

There is alot of announcements and articles coming out so they are getting this ready for release which is a great thing

Jvirtue55 said:

Oh yes! It makes me feel like it's finally going to happen!!

spalanzani said:

spalanzani said:

That would have meant no first cycle till March. Now we are looking at February which is right on track with all of the other LCG's as there is usually a 1 month break after a major release like a core set or deluxe expansion, sometimes longer if the core sets sell out fast like with Android: Netrunner.

I am excited they started with Hoth. They are my favorite scenes from the movies.

Speeders and AT-ATs and Wampas, oh my!

The Products page for this says that it contains sets 37-42.  So we've got 6 new sets past the 36 sets in the core game.  They've already stated 10 new sets per box (60 card box, same as usual).  So that means 4 sets in double, and 2 sets that are "unique."

 I was really hoping that the scum & villainy / smugglers and spies expansion would be one of the first products released. Maybe such a box won't exist, or maybe it will be in the middle of the Hoth cycle. I can't wait to see how this develops.

 Generally the larger box sets will take between 3 and 6 months before they come out. 

Wow, we are just on information overload the last week or so. So exciting!

Honestly a little surprised they started with Hoth, and more specifically how focused the cycle as a whole will be. I wonder if this will be par for the course for the cycles, or if other cycles will be a bit more diffuse in their themes. I like the idea of this: the Endor cycle, the Cloud City cycle, the Jabba's Palace city, so on and so forth. Does this mean that the Core Set is pretty focused on the A New Hope, and so we'll see cycles progressing roughly through Empire and Jedi?

I'm curious to see how this whole Hoth mechanic plays out, particularly as it sounds like the mechanics are mainly focused on the Rebel Alliance and Imperial Navy factions. Are the pods for the other four factions completely disengaged from this Hoth theme, or will they play into it as well? And with six pods to a Force Pack seeming to be what the distribution model is (two unique pods, four duplicate pods), how will they be spread out for the factions? In other LCGs, there's pretty much always a few cards for every faction, but we might see packs that don't cover a given faction at all.

One concern I have over this Hoth mechanic is that it sounds like it could be something we'll have to wait for the whole cycle to be complete to really utilize. I'm reminded of the City plots from the King's Landing cycle in AGOT, a set of plot cards that all interact with each other in important ways; when you have all of them, they can be quite powerful, but just one or two aren't going to do you much good. Will the Hoth objectives be worth playing right away, or will we need more packs? And is this first pack going to be pretty Rebel and Imperial focused in order to get enough Hoth cards out into the card pool right off the bat?

Questions, I got 'em! Can't wait for the game to finally be here. Fingers crossed they'll release the rule book this weekend.

Budgernaut said:

Budgernaut said:

Smugglers and bounty hunters will probably make up a lot of the deluxe expansion, which would really help kick off the Empire cycle after Hoth and finish up any  New Hope themes(like metric tons of jawas).  If so, my guess is that Dagobah and Cloud City will be lumped in together. Is there enough material to get one cycle each out of them? Maybe, and then transition with another deluxe expansion into two to three cycles of Jedi..with lots of ewoks. How long does FFG have the license for again?
Or maybe I'm completely wrong and the theme will be based on Shadows of the Empire material.
I know I am getting way ahead of myself, but I am excited.

Edit: Apparently I wanted to respond to you twice for emphasis.

Anyone else happy they've stuck with Force Packs, and not gone for some other option?

One of the interesting things I noticed in Nate's preview here was the fact that, when an objective passes to your opponent, your opponent seems to have control of them? I wonder if this will be expanded upon to give your opponent greater benefits from having your objectives on his side of the table, or something. It's an interesting idea, anyway.

I'm also really interested to see how they can expand upon the first forty minutes or so of the film into a six-cycle pack. I didn't realise there was that much stuff! Hopefully they'll be delving into the EU for this at any rate, so maybe we'll get a Dash Rendar before the cycle is up?

Seems to me like the objective card to the rear of the two-card fan where they discuss how Force packs work, that is a Jedi objective (the colouring seems to be tan, like others that have been previewed), though I don't know if that'll be an objective in this pack. At least it won't be exclusively a two-faction-per-pack thing, maybe. Though that could be a good thing for some people who prefer to only get the cards they want. Being a completist, I don't really care either way… 

Seems like the game is off to a flying start, anyway, even if the core set isn't even out yet! I am thrilled in my little corner of Wales 

Budgernaut said:

Same here. Does anyone remember when Assault on Ulthuan was released in relation to the Corruption Cycle for Warhammer, by any chance?! 

EDIT: checking through the news page for Warhammer, Assault on Ulthuan was announced as released between the fourth and fifth packs of the first cycle for that game. What bearing that will have on this game, I have no real idea, but just wanted to share the fruits of my (admittedly easy) research on that…