Back in early 2020, after massive layoffs, Steve Horvath gave an interview with Team Covenant at the GAMA Trade Show to address the future of Asmodee North America and FFG. He talked about Atomic Mass Games, the RPGs moving to Edge, and gave the first hints of FFG separating it’s board and card games and it’s miniatures games. The Miniatures games were separated into a new studio called Fantasy Flight Miniatures.
My conception of what the FFM logo may have looked like.
They worked for nearly all of 2020 on products for games like X-Wing, Armada, and Legion. Many of the expansions that are coming out now, have John Shaffer listed as “Head of Studio”. This might have surprised some as FFG’s Head of Studio has been Chris Gerber since Andrew Navaro left at the end of 2019. John Shafer was in fact head of studio for Fantasy Flight Miniatures, a dedicated gaming studio.
It is strange, that in November of 2020 this studio was dissolved and everyone was told that they were merging into Atomic Mass Games, under the guise of “Needing a dedicated miniatures studio”. Why not simply have FFM absorb Atomic Mass Games? We talk about this in the latest episode of Double Crit!
Would you like to play a game? A Forgotten Dream is a brand new experience unlike anything I’ve ever done before! It’s an interactive adventure that you help contribute to directly!
Each chapter will follow a team of heroes through their adventures in the Star Wars Universe – and in much the same way that you would make choices in a Role Playing Game, you can leave character choices in the comments!
RPG-Level Supporters on Patreon can also add suggestions and will vote on multiple choices after each chapter! Then everyone gets to watch the next episode and vote on more choices! Where will the story take us?
The story so far:
Your team was contacted by Axe Lorras, a VIP of the Disphasia Fabric Company. He hired the whole team for a top secret mission to the forbidden world of Geonosis, to collect Geonosian Silk – a material so rare, you’ve never even heard of it before. He also wanted you to be on alert for “Anything else that looks valuable” – whatever that might mean. The team suspects that Disphasia Fabric Company deals in more than just fabric. The team arrived on Geonosis without incident – and upon finding a warehouse with some interesting containers and still-active computer terminals, the team was interrupted with a flash of light! Suddenly Imperial Stormtroopers had them surrounded and stun bolts were fired from all directions.
Ever wanted to change up your Armada game a bit? Secret Fleet is an alternative ruleset that has players keep their equipped upgrades and personnel secret! Once an upgrade is used it finally gets revealed! Imagine the possibilities!
Recent Reviews of Wave 10 have hit the internet and we’ve now finally got all the cards from Armada’s Wave 10 spoiled! Video breakdown shenanigans will continue, but for now I’ve gone ahead and cleaned up the card capture from video reviews and I’m posting the pictures here:
This year for April Fool’s Day, I had been preparing for awhile, the best possible use of those tiny little FFG Proof of Purchase tokens they give you in every expansion! Here’s the video!
If you liked the video and want the files to try and do this yourself – here are some of them!
Graphic for the full 6′ x 4′ image. Sample of the individual sheets I printed out to go on foam board terrain pieces!
You are free to use these for non-commercial purposes – and I’d love to see what you guys come up with! Be sure to tag me on social media and post pictures in discord!
It was a busy weekend full of streaming, and at the end of it all we have lots of updates for all of our favorite games!
Video Recap of Ministravaganza 2021
Legion
Star Wars Legion easily had the biggest showing – with lots of details on the new A-A5 Speeder Truck and the LAAT/le heavy vehicles getting ready to come out soon. But in addition to those reveal we also got tons of info on an entire new Kashyyk wave, including Grandmaster Yoda himself! Wookiees were confirmed to be dual faction, which not only bring the classic wookiee design that the rebels have seen, but also introduce a new ranged configuration to run wookiees! Lots of art was spoiled for almost everything in this new wave!
X-Wing
X-Wing was also not without surprises! In addition to spoiling the rest of the pilots from the upcoming squadron packs, we got a preview for a new Huge ship! The Trident Class Assault Ship, otherwise known as the Mechanical Squid of Doom, is coming as a dual faction huge ship for both the separatists and scum! It was also teased that the Razor Crest, from The Mandalorian, will eventually be making it’s way to X-Wing with a new piece of teaser art! It was also mentioned that the Razor Crest is pretty far out in terms of release date, so don’t hold your breath!
Armada
Unfortunately, Armada didn’t get any hints of future content past the Wave 10, it’s next big release slated for an April release. We did however, get some additional previews of 3 cards for each expansions pack. This will at least give the Armada community something to talk about in the mean time – but the lack of a dedicated Armada developer felt like a gaping hole in this entire weekend for me, as Armada is by far my favorite game and now it feels like it’s in a troublesome spot for new content.
Marvel Crisis Protocol
MCP got a nice slice of news, with a new Spider-Man focused wave coming soon, featuring classic villains like Kraven the Hunter and Mysterio, and an all new Amazing Spider-Man! Plus some teases for future X-Men releases in the way of Omega Red!
It was a weekend filled with lots of painting and hobby streams, and also a handful of spoilers – all in all pretty exciting! Let’s see what happens in September during Gen Con, when they are gonna try and do this again for MiniStravaganza 2!
To close out 2020, I’ve ranked my top 10 Miniatures of 2020! As I’ve done previously, I’m only concentrating on miniatures that I cover, and it helps that I can post unboxings for each of them! Here’s my video breakdown!
Top 10 Miniatures of 2020 Video
And if you’re interested in direct links to any of the mentioned products and their individual unboxings – Here is that list!
Links to the products listed:
Monster Fight Club Trees – https://youtu.be/U1w8XzXnQ9A Legion Terrain – https://youtu.be/CkEU4H-etII He Man – https://youtu.be/nUp0ENebd60 Skeletor – https://youtu.be/XjHNfwxFU-M Clone Wars Squadrons – https://youtu.be/hgcSk8Y0b6I Munificent – https://youtu.be/-OW6XNx-6lY ETA-2 w/Docking Ring – https://youtu.be/wXdGUyUoXB0 Magneto – https://youtu.be/ek5iVvv41fM TIE Brute – https://youtu.be/umHhK8MfBPg Clan Wren Mandos – https://youtu.be/H-IN9QyHJ0g Thanos – https://youtu.be/K1Ho4kMdw24 Wolverine – https://youtu.be/CMO9sVL100g ARC Troopers – https://youtu.be/_q99QXNuHwo Darth Maul – https://youtu.be/G0acFmJ8Ec0 Starhawk – https://youtu.be/GNW_M0E2OUA
Ahsoka Tano is one of the most popular characters in all of Star Wars, and is expected to finally show up in live action this season in The Mandalorian Season 2! Let’s take a look at her lightsabers from Galaxy’s Edge!
In a shocking announcement on Nov 16th, 2020, Atomic Mass Games announced via social media that they would be taking over Production and Development of 3 Star Wars Miniatures games previously done by Fantasy Flight Games; X-Wing, Legion, and Armada.
This comes as a huge surprise to virtually all of us. Atomic Mass Games was only recently introduced to the world during 2019’s In Flight Report, a special event at Gen-Con in which FFG announces all of it’s big games and expansions for the year. Later that year, we got the release of Marvel Crisis Protocol, which has been hailed as a huge success, in the ease and quality of it’s gameplay, and in both it’s art and miniatures. Some had predicted that AMG would eventually be taking on more miniatures games at some point, but I doubt anyone predicted it would have happened this fast, with Marvel Crisis Protocol only being out for one year.
Making the transition from Minnesota (FFG) over to AMG’s Seattle based offices is Simone Elliott, who will take over as the Head of Studio for Atomic Mass Games. Simone has been heavily involved with licensing for all of the Star Wars games that FFG has made for several years. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her at a few convenstions over the years and I’ll say that I feel it’s a smart move and we’re in good hands. Will Shick will be assuming the role of Head of Product Development. While this might seem like a step down from previously being Head of Studio, it’s still very nearly at the top and it seems like with triple the games suddenly thrown on them, it’s probably also a smart move to divide up responsibilities among upper management.
So What does this all mean for us, the players?
In short – Hopefully not much. While it’s too early to tell exactly what impacts will be felt, there are a few bits of information we do have currently.
The Good : AMG is a miniatures-focused studio. Hopefully this change will allow growth of these games to be more refined, and possibly even allow them to Embark on new ideas that were potentially too difficult for FFG. Additionally, both FFG and AMG are still under Asmodee, so most aspects shouldn’t change in terms of purchasing and distribution. There are also likely some new miniatures games in the pipe, indicated by another press release on the 17th. Games are also open to changes, (Which could be good or bad, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see on that front).
The Bad : Moving these games away from FFG could mean a potential loss in depth. Many of the teams for various games all were able to work together. One of the things that made these games great was the cross collaboration with individuals who were explicitly board-game developers, and NOT miniatures gamers. This gave some of the developers perspective and allowed these games to appeal to a MUCH wider audience than typical mini-wargamers. Plus change in itself inevitably inspired fear and doubt. In an already difficult year, this has alot of people worried.
The Ugly : Unfortunately alot of people, many of which I’m friends with, did not retain employment during this transition. This just outright sucks and while I’m not going to name names… they are in my thoughts.
The Hope: That’s right I added a 4th “Bold” section! The hope here is that this new studio will remain faithful to what we love about these games. We as a community have been reaching out to Atomic Mass Games in large numbers, and they have at least in the past, been very receptive to their community. That is a GOOD thing! Hopefully it continues! Simone is also a huge Star Wars fan and has been a part of these games forever! I feel like if these games had to go ANYWHERE, this was the best place possible. It’s ok to be worried, but don’t lose faith! This could quite possibly be the best thing to ever happen to these games!
There are plenty more questions to be asked and hopefully answered. What about Future Products already in production? What about things still in development? What about Playtesting? Will we see a change in production materials? Same Plastic? Who are the development teams going to be? Will they give us an introduction?
I’ll admit I was starting to worry about how I was going to divide my time between Atomic Mass Games and FFG at the next Gen Con, but for now it seems like all of my favorite miniatures games are now under the same studio and that makes things simpler for now at least!
