So, after a little while list building and playing from those lists, there are now two main play styles that seem settled on and a third we are working on.

Bare Bones

Squads of 100 or 200 points (or as near as you can get with an initiative bid).

No Elite Pilot Talents, no ship “class” Titles, no Modifications.

The ships are “Bare Bones” as the title suggests offering only two or occasionally three layers of upgrade synergy. Even a new player can build a list with a little guidance. Without the deeper layers of EPT’s and the “bandaid” fixes of the later title mods, (like Vaksai and Starviper Mk2) that over balance some ships and rob many of their uniqueness. Named titles on the other hand are intrinsic to many ship’s uniqueness.

The ships are all from the three original movies or early expanded universe, which also removes “Tech” upgrades with no TFA ships. They are also the more straight forward ships.

Empire; Tie: Fighter/Interceptor/Bomber/Punisher/Prototype/Phantom/Advanced/Aggressor/Defender, the Decimator and Lambda.

Rebel; X/A/B/Y and E wings, Z95, ARC-170, HWK-290*, VCX-100*, and Attack Shuttle and the two YT’s*.

Scum; Jump Master* (pre-nerf), GA-1, Scurrg Bomber, Aggressor*, Kihraxz, Z95 Head Hunter, M3 Scyk, HWK-290*, YV-666*, Fire Spray-31*, Star Viper*, Lancer* and Fang Fighter.

*Named out title ship options.

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Lets look at some of these stripped down ships compared.

The work horse, or front line fighters for each faction, capable of making a 3 to 4 ship squad, are the X Wing, the Kihraxz and the much maligned Tie Advanced. The Tie Fighter is synonymous with the Empire, but game wise these three are head to head.

All come in at 10 primary stats. The Advanced has the worst attack, but the best evade, the Kihraxz the lowest shields, but highest Hull, otherwise they are quite even.

In upgrades, the character of the ships comes out a little more. The Kihraxz has Illicit + Missiles, the X Wing offers Droid + Torpedoes, the Advanced only Missiles.

Action bars are a balancer here with all three having Target Lock, but the Advanced adding Evade and Barrel Roll, making up for others having slightly stronger upgrade options.

So far, factional character and balance.

Manoeuvres are also a point of departure. The X Wing and Kihraxz are both pretty solid, but predictable. Without many repositioning options (Pilot, Droid and Illicit options aside), squad tactics and good flying are vital. They all have a K4 turn and the slower two, a top speed of white 4, but the Kihraxz has a tricky K5. The Advanced shows it’s Tie roots here with a top speed of white 5.

Pilot wise, they all have stars and duds, but a 3 to 4 ship list can be made from each that is balanced and quite different. The X wing has the most pilot options, The Advanced arguably the strongest pilot in Vader and the Kihraxz a mix of elite, tricky and solid base line pilots.

I can see that problems were looming in the future for these ships with better builds, synergies and upgrades, but as is, they offer flavourful and different (enough) character. I strongly feel, this is the dynamic the designers were aiming for, before it all got out of hand.

Moving on.

Now, comparing the light “swarmy” fighters that make up the 5+ ship squads, The A-Wing, Tie Fighter and M3 Scyk. The Rebel ship is the dearest here, so it should punch a little higher and can just make a 5 ship list (in this form of the game). The Z95 technically also fits here for both the Rebel and Scum factions, but tends to play the role of a blocker or light missile platform.

Stats wise they all offer 2 attack and 3 agility, but the Tie is weakest with 3 hull/0 shields, the Scyk a little better with 2 hull/1 shield and the A Wing stronger again at 2 and 2.

To upgrades and the A Wing shows again why it has the higher base points cost offering the only one, a Missile slot. The Tie is the only ship without a Target Lock.

The A wing is fastest ship in this game, with a green 5 + Boost, the Tie a white 5 and the Scyk only a white 4 (it got faster in 2e).

In other manoeuvres, the A Wing offers Boost and K3 and 5-turns, the Tie a Barrel Roll and K3/4-turns, The Scyk a Barrel Roll and K3/5-turn.

The A wing is clearly in a slightly higher class, but is also dearer.

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Now, my favourites, the true Interceptors.

Rebels offer the A Wing that was covered above, which is now at a lower cost than it’s peers. The Empire offers the Tie Interceptor and Scum have the Fang Fighter. We will look at the latter two.

Stats wise, (ignoring the A Wing) we have two similar ships. The 3-3-3-0 and 3-3-4-0 stat lines of the Tie and Fang are very close. The A Wing offers a point of difference at 2-3-2-2.

Upgrades tell a different story. The Tie’s offer nothing, the Fang has Torps to match the A Wing’s Missiles. The Fang is probably the only ship in this form of the game suited to Advanced Proton Torps, which can be hard to deploy without speed and good re-positioning options, but offer some of the most devastating attacks available with the right pilots.

The Interceptor is the only ship on the roster that sports the Boost, Barrel Roll and Evade actions (this uniqueness goes away when most ships can add an Engine Upgrade or Vectored Thrusters. I love that Bare Bones lets ships keep the uniqueness the designers created for them). The Fang lacks an Evade option natively, but most of it’s better pilots have a “head to head, close range” Evade variant, which again helps with Adv Protons. With EPT’s and other Mods the Interceptor can be untouchable, as can the Fang if flown well, but without them, they are good arc dodgers, that can be brittle.

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One rung higher up are the E Wing, the Star-viper and Tie Defender, which are the “Superiority” Fighters or interceptors with bells on. These ships are in some way technologically superior to the mainstream front line fighters and more powerful than interceptors, but cost more for it. They are all considered too expensive in their original form to be competitive, but maybe in this form they will show their true value.

The Defender is a 3-3-3-3 ship and very well balanced. The 3-3-2-3 of the E wing offers a slightly more fragile option and the 3-3-4-1 Star Viper (like the Kihraxz) has the highest Hull at the expense of Shields, which is a 1e Scum pattern.

the E wings offers System, Torp and Droid slots allowing for a pretty powerful package and the only Droid + System combo. The Defender has an interesting Cannon and Missile combination allowing it to be fielded as a fast interceptor (3 can just fit a 100 pt list) or a fully tricked out gunboat. Both can push 50 points with a good pilot. The cheaper Viper only has a Torpedo option. The Viper is the only one in this form of the game with a Title option, giving it Illicit and Systems.

Manoeuvre wise the Defender has a Green 5, a Barrel Roll and the only white K-turn in the game. The E Wing sports a straight white 5, K3/4 turns and the only Evade action of the three (making up some for the lower hull), The Viper has a slower white 4 maximum speed, but has the slippery 3 S-Loop and Boost, effectively giving it speed 5 with options. In later 1e and 2e ships the S-Loop has becomes pretty run of the mill, but in 1e “Bare Bones” it is rare and edgy.

So, looking at the core fighters of the game, they seem to be, and to play, true to their original design concepts in a balanced and nuanced way. The character of each faction is intact. Games, especially competitive ones, tend to grow (or die) and with this growth comes change, which in turn brings balance issues.

Boost, Cloak and Evade actions, S-loops and Talon Rolls are rare, which makes them relevant and powerful. If you go “full noise” with upgrades, most of these unique features are nullified by upgrade options. Excluding Pilot, Title and Modification upgrades makes for a simple, but nuanced fleet, each ship with their place. Even ships considered poor in 1e like the Punisher might still have their role to play, offering System+ Boost and Payload options in a tough bruiser.

Pilots with inherent abilities become proportionately stronger by excluding EPT’s and they stick closer to their true character. Again, excluding EPT’s stops the “all pilots can do the same special thing cos’ they picket the same upgrade over and over” syndrome.

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Overall the numbers do tell a story of faction variance.

The Empire has 11 ship options, with all but two offering a Lock, 7 with Barrel Roll, 2 with Boost and 4 with Evade. Most have a K turn (the Defender has the only white one in the game) and only 4 have any red base moves. Their ace in the hole is the Phantom with Cloaking. Oddly, they average a little higher in Hull than the others, thanks to the Lambda, Punisher, Bomber and Decimator. The Empire has some excellent Pilots and Crew and only the Empire can use Unguided Rockets, giving them the “heartless barrage” vibe. They have no title ships, making them feel more “rigid” and conformist. Ships like the Interceptor are to be feared and the Punisher no longer scoffed at (as much). Even the Aggressor is looking pretty solid.

The Rebels are generally higher in shields, lower in agility and fire power. Their main weakness is that they only have 4 Barrel Roll, 1 Boost and 3 Evade manoeuvres spread over 12 ships (the E Wing is a standout with 2 of them), although all but 1 have a K-turn.

Pilots, Crew, Titles and Droids are their the biggest advantage here, as in the stories. X, B and Y Wings are strong, if predictable, the E and A wings are manoeuvre standouts and the teamwork heavy nature of a Rebel squad comes to the fore and the heavies are very strong.

The Scum faction are really flavourful and varied, with full Target Lock cover over all 14 ships, and rocking 6 Barrel Rolls, 2 Boosts an 5 Evades. On the whole, they have higher Hull, but lower shields, consistent fire power and mixed agility. In move options, there are the only (3) S-loop and (2) Talon Roll options, which make the slippery Scum, well, slippery.

Illicit and the often forgotten Salvaged Droid upgrades also add a level of unpredictability and Harpoon Missiles and Bomblet Generator are limited to Scum. Lots of Scum ships have useful titles, often making the generic pilot the odd one out and effectively adding several variations of the same ship.The Scum faction does what it should, offering a mix Empire and Rebel-like options with a villainous, unpredictable twist.

The gorgeous simplicity of the ships and their key options really starts to shine through.

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The more upgrade options that are added, the more diluted this becomes. Add Engine Upgrade and anyone can Boost, which became pretty standard for many ships. The same can be said for most mods, that give any ship the opportunity to steal another’s one unique thing, thus levelling the playing field and removing the subtle advantages. This is often the major cause of a mediocre or even solid ships falling away as their designed-in edge becomes less relevant.

In a nutshell;

Layer 1, all ships have their inherent and canon strengths and weaknesses.

Layer 2, (add Mods/EPT’s) all ships can effectively become other ships,

Layer 3, (add Titles for ship classes) ships effectively become better ships.

A good example of this is the Tie Aggressor, launched with Unguided Rockets and Twin Laser Turret which make this combo pretty strong, but in the meta are usually employed elsewhere. The Tie Punisher is similar. This thing has Boost (and Barrel Roll with one pilot), which is cool, until everyone else is equipped with Engine Upgrade.

The only real issue is the difficulty you will face making exactly 100 point lists with some ships without upgrades to fill the holes. Many ships, like the Tie Fighter and Interceptor, have no upgrades at all. Initiative bids become part of the squad building process.

Next up we will look at the Classic play style.