X-Wing, my thoughts on what's coming for 2017

I've been playing mostly Starwars games of late, and all of those are from FFG's stable. I just wanted to put down my thoughts, in a series blog articles, on what I think we're likely to see on the tabletop, given all the recent additions to canon. First off I want to take a look at what ships might make it to X-Wing.

Mining Guild TIE

This has now been seen in two series of Rebels, so I expect it to make an entrance in X-Wing very soon, probably the next wave. It's relatively cheap to tool since it's just new solar panels on the existing TIE body, plus it makes some of the cards from Sabine's TIE more useful across all factions.

RZ-1 A-Wing

With both Ashoka and Hera having custom paint job A-Wings, these are potential fodder for inclusion in a future aces style pack. Given we've also seen a 2 seat trainer version of the A-wing in Rebels, it'd give the option for a refit giving a crew slot. There's also all the new pilots from Phoenix squadron to add, so there's some mileage there too for some named and generic pilots. That all said, I don't think we'll see these too soon though as we've already had an aces pack with an A-Wing, but who knows what may happen should they need to fill out a wave?

X-Wing (T-65)

I suspect an aces pack including one or two of these will be along shortly,  as people are calling for a fix for the aging starfighter to bring it up to spec on the current tournament circuit. With Rogue One we now have options for the Partisan paint scheme as well as Green and Blue wings. General Merrick would be a likely ace pilot, as would some named Partisans. Generics would be very easy to add for any of these schemes too.

Y-Wing

I'm unsure if we'll see one of these soon, a Blue Wing example could easily join a T-65 in an aces pack (we haven't seen a Rebel Y-Wing in an aces pack yet), and there are certainly suitable pilots from Rogue One. I'm 50% on this, I think chances are definitely higher if we see the combine X/Y-wing pack as "Heroes of Scarif" or similar.

B-Wing

The prototype B-Wing has featured in Rebels armed with a special weapon so this would give some scope to add it to the game. Like the A-Wing, it's been seen as an Aces example already, so personally I doubt we'll see this version released any time soon - but who knows, we've seen a one off TIE scheme.

Scum Epic Ship

Surely one of these must be on the way soon, could this be the missing SKU from the last release? An Action series transport or the Crusader corvette would be suitable size wise, and with the former, background is available in the EU with the Wilde Kaarde.

Scum Aces Pack

I think these will be a bit more difficult to produce given most of the S+V ships seem to come with the most well known pilots. Obviously it's not beyond FFG to create new pilots, but working from established materials tends to be their preference where they can. Darth Maul's Fang fighter would make an alternate scheme for one S+V ship (Protectorate starfighter) so we could see that, or maybe Black Sun versions of the M3 etc. I'm on the fence over whether we'll see these in 2017 though, just because this faction tends to get more ships each release as it is.

Delta Class Shuttle

I very much think this will make X-Wing at some point, but I doubt it'll be in the next couple of waves. We're about to get Kylo Ren's shuttle, and we already have the Lambda one, so I don't think this would be a good addition for Imperials at the moment.

Sentinel Landing Craft

These have made appearances in Rebels, and Hondo now flies one, so I think odds of one appearing are quite good. Given the comments on the Delta, I don't think they would add much to the Imperials at the moment, but Hondo's repainted example could easily slot into the S+V offerings.

Imperial Cargo Shuttle

Pretty much the same thoughts as for the Delta.

Death Trooper Transport

Again, cool but we're swamped with Imperial shuttles, but then again see my thoughts on the Striker.

TIE Striker

We didn't see this in the movie, but some of the books published since suggest this craft has a room for extra armaments, and a 2 man crew. This could give options for some title cards that represent variants, and these would open the possibility of an Aces pack TIE Striker plus the Death Trooper Transport since that mirrors the movie scene. Personally I don't think we'll see this in 2017.

Sheathipede Shuttle

This is the shuttle the Rebels acquired to replace the Phantom, and is of course an old Clone Wars design. I expect we'll see this added to the Rebels in the next few waves since they seem keen to add the Ghost crew piloting as many things as possible. It may get held back if they want to use it to add pilots from the later Rebels series.

Resistance Transport

While I personally have little interest in this ship, given we've had Kylo's shuttle I expect it to appear in 2017.

Edit 12/01/17

I realised there are a few ships from my scribbled notes I never added to this post - thanks to the guys on Facebook for jogging my memory.

Scurrg H6

Nym's bomber from Armada. Most fighters from  Armada have the 1/270 scale versions in X-Wing, but this is the one that doesn't. It'll come, I'm sure of it, but with the number of large base ships that the S+V faction has, I'd not expect it soon. (Nym being a pirate rather than a rebel)

Naboo N1

Leia flies one of these in the new canon comics, albeit only with 2 other named pilots. Given what we've seen from the ARC-170, this would work in much the same way, with maybe a single generic to fill in the reverse on the ship base card. I'm sort of 50/50 on this one appearing since the prequels are divisive in the fanbase, but it is a cool looking ship with some interesting options (lightweight fighter with a droid  slot).