First thought: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
SO AWESOME.

Okay, that out of the way, here's some analysis:

Split along A-Wings and B-Wings, ehh? Interesting...

A-Wing Pilot: Jake Farrell:

After you perform a Focus action or are assigned a Focus token, you may perform a free Boost or Barrel-Roll Action

This guy is officially Turr Phennir on Steroids, and I will fly him alongside Garven Dreis and Kyle Katarn 6 days a week and twice on Sunday.
Also, he's the first A-Wing that can Barrel Roll without Expert Handling, which is awesome.

B-Wing Pilot: Keyan Farlander:

When attacking, you may discard a Stress token to turn all {Eyeballs} into {Hits}.

This guy is officially Soontir Fel on Steroids.
Seriously?!? Stress = Offensive focus, and is discardable???

Definitely my new favorite Hypermobiler, hands down.

Two more pilots (one of each) are forthcoming, but I couldn't read their cards, and don't know enough about them to guess.

Moving along: Two new rebel-only crewmen: Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors. Don't know what they do yet, but I'm thoroughly excited, knowing their source media.

And then there's the new other upgrades:

Enhanced Scopes

A 1 point systems upgrade that lets you move as a lvl 0, and shoot as normal.

I can't even wrap my mind around how excellent this will be. You get first move on an unchanged board, an Action assuming you didn't run into anything, and probably a first shot as well. You did put this on Ten, right?

Prototype Veteran

A-Wing Title. Your upgrade bar gains 1 EPT slot. You cannot equip two identical EPTs.

Yay, Arvel can finally pick up an EPT!
Also, WHAT?! DOUBLE EPT?
Keep in mind, this lets you potentially take Opportunist and Expose, giving your GSP 5 dice at R1. And every other sort of nonsense imaginable. I am in love. It isn't even a unique title!

Chardaan Refit

A-Wing only Missile-slot. This card costs negative 2.

And now the A-Wing is beautiful. You can run 6 of these monsters in a fleet now, if you wish, 'cause this ain't unique either. You could also run 5 of those Prototype Veteran Green Squadrons, each with 3 points worth of double EPT. I'll go with VI + Expert Handling for the lulz.

Also, my Roark + Swarm Tactics fleet is actually a workable fleet, now that the GSPs cost 17 each without missiles (19 with ST). I can run 4 of them alongside Roark with an Ion Turret in a 100 point game, and all would shoot as level 12s....

Time to go mad scientist away from the computer now. Can I pre-order 12 of this expansion?

First thought:

B-Wing Pilot: Keyan Farlander:

When attacking, you may discard a Stress token to turn all {Eyeballs} into {Hits}.

This guy is officially Soontir Fel on Steroids.

Seriously?!? Stress = Offensive focus, and is discardable???

Definitely my new favorite Hypermobiler, hands down.

My first thought? I was already tired of seeing B-Wings and thought they were underpriced. This is just wrong. Is George re-writing the story again? He really must want the Rebels to win.

After this preview the tie Phantom better crap evade tokens. I knew being an imperial player I had a reason to collect a bunch of A wing and give them custom paint jobs!

Kyle looks like he says "After you remove a stress token from your ship, you may assign a focus token....."
That's all I could make out with the blurriness and other cards being in the way

To be fair - if Keyan is using PTL, he's not using his red maneuvers - so he loses the positional advantage - given all the red on the b-wing dial, while if Fell is using PTL - he's only cutting out K-turns. so I would expect the PTL soontir to be able to outmaneuver the PTL Keyan - (assuming no other upgrades). FCS ought to be killer on Keyan.

To be fair - if Keyan is using PTL, he's not using his red maneuvers - so he loses the positional advantage - given all the red on the b-wing dial, while if Fell is using PTL - he's only cutting out K-turns. so I would expect the PTL soontir to be able to outmaneuver the PTL Keyan - (assuming no other upgrades). FCS ought to be killer on Keyan.

First thought:

B-Wing Pilot: Keyan Farlander:

When attacking, you may discard a Stress token to turn all {Eyeballs} into {Hits}.

This guy is officially Soontir Fel on Steroids.

Seriously?!? Stress = Offensive focus, and is discardable???

Definitely my new favorite Hypermobiler, hands down.

My first thought? I was already tired of seeing B-Wings and thought they were underpriced. This is just wrong. Is George re-writing the story again? He really must want the Rebels to win.

Because the meta is just FLOODED with players flying expensive named pilots.

Oh, wait...

Chardaan Refit

A-Wing only Missile-slot. This card costs negative 2.

And now the A-Wing is beautiful. You can run 6 of these monsters in a fleet now, if you wish, 'cause this ain't unique either. You could also run 5 of those Prototype Veteran Green Squadrons, each with 3 points worth of double EPT. I'll go with VI + Expert Handling for the lulz.

I LOL'd with this, I would play it for the lulz as well.

WhatwhaatWHAAAATTT????

The A-Wings get a fix that the Advanced would NEED? DOUBLE EPT???

B-Wings with a CREW SLOT?

Unbelivable awesome pilots??

This renders the IMPERIAL ACES a pile OF POOPOO

ARE THE DESIGNERS NUTS?

Now its official: THEY LOVE THE REBELLION MORE!

Because the meta is just FLOODED with players flying expensive named pilots.

Oh, wait...

Which is why we got an upgrade that enables a 6-ship A-wing swarm!

Oh, wait...

I don't think anyone would question that named pilots needed a bit of a boost. I think most people who are concerned about what we're seeing here have two concerns:

1. The pilot abilities feel VERY lopsided. With only one real exception Imperial Aces were all lackluster, on a generally lackluster ship, and did very little to fix the problems most people perceive with the Interceptor. On the flip side, we've got 6 new Rebel pilots at a run, all of whom are impressive to absolutely awesome abilities.

2. This imbalance (real or just perceived) is going to make Imperial named pilots even less attractive in comparison to the Rebels. That means their only option to deal with increasingly capable Rebels will be numbers, and players are actively pushed towards the swarm.

XanderF pointed out the cost difference between Jake and Vader is about 6 points to get even capabilities. Vader has more flexibility with his actions, true, but by most reads it seems that abilities are only barely factored into the cost if at all.

I hope this is a giant JOKE!

If the DEFENDER and the PHANTOM won't be competitive ships ... I'll defect ... or even QUIT ...

I mean ... WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? ... We have already 2/3 or the players playing Rebels !!!

Do you want to HAVE 90% OF THE PLAYERS PLAYING REBELS???

They ALREADY HAVE THE BETTER SHIPS

Yeah play as a REBEL ... this is MAINSTREAM!!! You must be stupid to play Empire ...

oh man ... seems like we have already reached the best days of the game ... now its going downhill ...

I love the Tie Defender, I'll get the Defender for sure.

i think they want us to use less named pilots overall. have 1 or 2 named guys with an escort of unknowns

After sleeping one night over my feelings are even stronger that I don't like a bit where this game is going. I liked idea of repaints, but the new aces shold have been like giving tricky options, (like Imperial Aces IMO did) but not this kind of stuff which has already been seen on Transport in a bit lesser extent. I'm wondering if there has been changes in FFG staff responsibilities? I mean with these latest announcements X-Wing don't feel anymore that kind of greatly balanced game, with some small mishaps, as it has been?

If Defender and/or Phantom would be super ships (which I doubt, -no, actually I hope not), it would not be any better if they render others obsolete. The changes are way too game-changing. B-wing crew slot for starters.

Probably from now on I'm bying only some ships for theme based missions/dogfights with friends, but not all as I was planning before.

I mentioned in another thread I'm pretty sure they have play tested these new pilots and ablities/upgrades.

We don't know whats coming in the future. I wouldn't worry.

Just focus on what you like and evade your perceived negatives.

Precisely, it's impossible to know the future meta or how all this announced stuff will affect the meta. We've had good balance thus far, I don't expect that to suddenly change.

WhatwhaatWHAAAATTT????

The A-Wings get a fix that the Advanced would NEED? DOUBLE EPT???

B-Wings with a CREW SLOT?

Unbelivable awesome pilots??

This renders the IMPERIAL ACES a pile OF POOPOO

ARE THE DESIGNERS NUTS?

Now its official: THEY LOVE THE REBELLION MORE!

Rage post? TheRealStarkiller take some meditation time in the Sith Battle Sphere!

I hope this is a giant JOKE!

If the DEFENDER and the PHANTOM won't be competitive ships ... I'll defect ... or even QUIT ...

I mean ... WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? ... We have already 2/3 or the players playing Rebels !!!

Do you want to HAVE 90% OF THE PLAYERS PLAYING REBELS???

They ALREADY HAVE THE BETTER SHIPS

Yeah play as a REBEL ... this is MAINSTREAM!!! You must be stupid to play Empire ...

oh man ... seems like we have already reached the best days of the game ... now its going downhill ...

Someone needs to cut down on the caffeine.

Kneejerk reactionary post is kneejerk reactionary.

Wow so much knee jerk panic happening and all before we get to see what come with the 2 empire super ships that I can't wait to get my hands on.

I hope this is a giant JOKE!

If the DEFENDER and the PHANTOM won't be competitive ships ... I'll defect ... or even QUIT ...

I mean ... WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? ... We have already 2/3 or the players playing Rebels !!!

Do you want to HAVE 90% OF THE PLAYERS PLAYING REBELS???

They ALREADY HAVE THE BETTER SHIPS

Yeah play as a REBEL ... this is MAINSTREAM!!! You must be stupid to play Empire ...

oh man ... seems like we have already reached the best days of the game ... now its going downhill ...

Howlrunner thinks your panic is cute.

you guys do realize imperials are getting the tie defender right. and i don't believe any pilots have been revealed for it. People are so quick to jump on stuff before you see how anything plays out. Aces just dropped and every says its bad. This probably wont even be released till fall.

Yes the awing got what it needed which is awesome espically the way they went about it other then actually changing the cards.

We can all expect the tie advanced to get its just desserts eventually.

WhatwhaatWHAAAATTT????

The A-Wings get a fix that the Advanced would NEED? DOUBLE EPT???

B-Wings with a CREW SLOT?

Unbelivable awesome pilots??

This renders the IMPERIAL ACES a pile OF POOPOO

ARE THE DESIGNERS NUTS?

Now its official: THEY LOVE THE REBELLION MORE!

they just stay true to the source material

on the other hand, given that the Imperium is really successful at creating black holes for military funding they might just have been cut off from further investments. Honestly, I wouldn't give them any money for building any ships or let's say Death Stars given their track record.

First thoughts,

-Farlander's ability is too good (with PtL) on a B-Wing platform, even if you don't destress its a win-win.

-They reduced the cost of Arwel via the Title card, now if only he could take the Enhanced Scope he'd be perfect.

-Jake Farrell - whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!§

rabble rabble rabble rabble .... rabble rabble

rabble rabble rabble rabble .... rabble rabble

signed