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Uncharted Systems: Expanding Tile Types in IA



Heart of the Empire was recently released (and I'm impatiently waiting for my order to arrive), so Imperial Assault players are now getting access to a wide variety of new goodies- new missions, units, command cards, the works!

One of the exciting new additions of this campaign, though, is the setting- Coruscant!  Previous campaigns have featured some really exciting locales, such as Hoth, Bespin, and Tatooine, but Coruscant is a far more urban environment that we've seen before. 


The core game came with four basic terrain types.  The two exterior types were desert and forest, while the interior types were what is commonly referred to as Mercenary Interior (the brownish tiles) and Imperial Interior (the blueish/grey tiles).  With few exceptions, all terrain types that have since been introduced have fallen in as a bit of subcategory to these four types- both thematically, and compatibility-wise.  For example, a list might look something like this, including the Heart of the Empire components:

1. Forest

  • Swamp (JR)

2. Desert

  • Rancor Pit (JR)

3. Mercenary Interior

  • Bespin Interior (TBG)
  • Coruscant Interior (HotE)

4. Imperial Interior

  • Bespin Maintenance Shafts (TBG)
  • Coruscant Streets (HotE)

If you're not following me yet, consider one of the existing maps, such as ISB Training Grounds:


In the above excerpt from that map, there are several Bespin Interior tiles.  They're the ones that are a much lighter color- Bespin was a beautiful city among the clouds after all. The Mercenary Interior tiles are the darker color- in fact, sometimes they even look kind of grimey.  You'll notice how the Bespin tiles tend to be the main tiles on the map (fitting, since this map came out with the TBG expansion) but also note how they tend to be connected by the Merc tiles.  To ensure for compatibility, the edges of Bespin tiles where they connect eventually feature the Merc design instead- that way, they can be connected with both Bespin and Merc tiles and not look messed up, even though both tile types seem so different. 

It's actually a pretty smart design philosophy.  This allows them to utilize a lot of the core box components, even when the components are actually a little different.  Obviously there is one big glaring exception (the Snow and Snow Interior tiles from Return to Hoth), but I like to think that if at all possible, FFG will continue to try to use this method if at all possible, as it requires them less tiles to be produced.

A few ideas that they could still roll with for tile subtypes:

Forests


Palm Forests


Scarif, Rakata

May have to have a gradient on the tile to slowly and gradually turn to the darker green of the core box's forest tiles the closer it gets to the tile edge.  




Coniferous Forests

 Endor, Kashyyyk
Should be pretty easy to do.  Plus, treehouses!




Plains

Naboo, Dantooine

Again, should be pretty easy.  Plains tiles could be a little more green with less "dirt" on them.




Desert


Garbage

Ord Mantell, Lotho Minor

The "lanes" between the trash pile tiles on these planets could conceivably be sand.  The tiles themselves could be a total mess (in the best way possible), and could allow for a new type of difficult terrain, via trash mountain.


Red World


Geonosis, Dathomir, Korriban

Like the Palm Forests, I think our Desert connector edges will need a bit of a gradient from the darker red to the more traditional sand color, but I think this could work.



Beach


Scarif, Kashyyyk, Rakata, Endor

Beaches are begging to be made, along with huge sections of difficult terrain via water spaces!



Mercenary Interior


Rebel Ship Interior


Tantive IV, Mon Calimari Cruiser

Much like how Bespin was brighter tiles, we'd be looking to mesh white walls and grey floors with the darker Merc tiles.



Stone Architecture


Theed, Canto Bight

This could also be used for both interiors and exteriors for more classic architecture.



Ruins


Yavin IV, Ach-To

Would look a lot like Stone Architecture, but more weathered.  Maybe throw in a vine or two for good measure!


Sewers


Coruscant, other urban worlds

Lots of difficult terrain (yuck!), merc tiles would work great for this!




So, for whatever reason, I'm really drawing a blank on useful tiles for Imperial Interior.  We could have Star Destroyers or Death Star, but that's kind of been done before (could use some fleshing out, though).  I guess an Imperial factory, but again, we'd just need a few tiles added to what we already have. 

If you have any ideas for Imperial Interior, drop a comment to let me know!

Also, I'd like to acknowledge that I think, like Hoth, some locations that I'd like to see simply have to break this formula.  Some that come to mind- Mustafar and Sullust.  We'd need a rocky/magma tile set for that.  Also, we may want a more dedicated Water tile if we're ever going to get on Calamari.

Anyway, here's to hoping we get news about anything soon.  Even though IA has been a little slower this year, we've almost always had something in the pipeline, so I'm optimistic about more news soon.




May the Force be with you!

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- Thomas







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