It's interesting the changes they made to escalation, though it's nice that it's now an official event. I wonder, they say all ships and upgrades must be used when coming from one round to the next... does that mean I can change pilots? (as in R1 I have a rookie, R2 I have Luke?)

No, otherwise the rules would mention it. What you're asking about has never been a part of the Escalation format.

But you used to be able to drop pilots and ships as long as you retained a threshold of the same points. Now you cannot drop a ship. ever. So that means that you're adding 30 points from R1 to R2... Which means for rebels adding 1 ship with LOTS of upgrades. For the Imps, they currently have "a bit" more flexibility, but not much... 30pts is 2.5 ties... so if they add 1... all they have left is 18 points for an alpha... or they could add one expensive ship... Note that this also means that you'll never be able to have a named Falcon unless you severely gimp yourself beforehand... or start with it in R1.

Now, if you were allowed to promote pilots within the same ship... you could start with something like... Red w/ R2D2 + Dagger w/ FCS + HLC. Then on Round 2, you can promote the Red into Luke (4pts) and then add Garven. Or... you could add an ORS, and then in R3 promote him to Han.

It's interesting the changes they made to escalation, though it's nice that it's now an official event. I wonder, they say all ships and upgrades must be used when coming from one round to the next... does that mean I can change pilots? (as in R1 I have a rookie, R2 I have Luke?)

No, otherwise the rules would mention it. What you're asking about has never been a part of the Escalation format.

But you used to be able to drop pilots and ships as long as you retained a threshold of the same points. Now you cannot drop a ship. ever. So that means that you're adding 30 points from R1 to R2... Which means for rebels adding 1 ship with LOTS of upgrades. For the Imps, they currently have "a bit" more flexibility, but not much... 30pts is 2.5 ties... so if they add 1... all they have left is 18 points for an alpha... or they could add one expensive ship... Note that this also means that you'll never be able to have a named Falcon unless you severely gimp yourself beforehand... or start with it in R1.

Now, if you were allowed to promote pilots within the same ship... you could start with something like... Red w/ R2D2 + Dagger w/ FCS + HLC. Then on Round 2, you can promote the Red into Luke (4pts) and then add Garven. Or... you could add an ORS, and then in R3 promote him to Han.

97pt bomber squad will get to choose NOT to have initiative. That is big.

Oh, they finally provided the big ship expansion rules! That's a win.

And am I missing something, or did the list of legal expansions vanish?

Not exactly. It turned into this:

Tournament Squad Pool

Legal Products

All Star Wars: X-Wing™ Miniatures Game components are legal for

sanctioned play unless they are marked with the epic icon (ships with the epic

icon ( ) next to the card title on the Ship card can be fielded only in Epic Play),

or temporarily banned from tournament play (such as when a product is

released in the midst of a tournament season).

Only official models, cards and tokens can be used in tournaments (proxies of

cards and ships cannot be used), and third-party range rulers and movement

templates must be agreed upon by all match participants before the game.

In North America, products are legal upon their release. Competitors outside

North America should check with their TO to determine which products are

tournament legal.

Components can only be modified as described under “Component

Modifications” on page 1. If the Star WarsTM Dice app is used, the app

must be displayed in full view of both players at all times.

This and other supported documents for FFG Organized Play can be accessed

from the FFG Organized Play Support Page: http://www.fantasyflightgames .

com/opsupport

So basically, everything is legal now once it gets released, except for the huge ships themselves, and anything that FFG bans because it's been released in the midst of a tournament season. So the X-Wing pilots and upgrades that come in the Rebel Transport will be legal for regional championships upon release unless FFG makes a separate decree banning them.

Has swarm tactics always been a may effect?

97pt bomber squad will get to choose NOT to have initiative. That is big.

Yes, you can build a squad to try and avoid initiative by going low now. That's awesome,

And am I missing something, or did the list of legal expansions vanish?

It has been changed to:

--ninja'ed--

Has swarm tactics always been a may effect?

Nope, I don't think so.

Has swarm tactics always been a may effect?

Nope. It was just now changed to May effect.

It's interesting the changes they made to escalation, though it's nice that it's now an official event. I wonder, they say all ships and upgrades must be used when coming from one round to the next... does that mean I can change pilots? (as in R1 I have a rookie, R2 I have Luke?)

No, otherwise the rules would mention it. What you're asking about has never been a part of the Escalation format.

But you used to be able to drop pilots and ships as long as you retained a threshold of the same points. Now you cannot drop a ship. ever. So that means that you're adding 30 points from R1 to R2... Which means for rebels adding 1 ship with LOTS of upgrades. For the Imps, they currently have "a bit" more flexibility, but not much... 30pts is 2.5 ties... so if they add 1... all they have left is 18 points for an alpha... or they could add one expensive ship... Note that this also means that you'll never be able to have a named Falcon unless you severely gimp yourself beforehand... or start with it in R1.

Now, if you were allowed to promote pilots within the same ship... you could start with something like... Red w/ R2D2 + Dagger w/ FCS + HLC. Then on Round 2, you can promote the Red into Luke (4pts) and then add Garven. Or... you could add an ORS, and then in R3 promote him to Han.

Or you save those points for the next round. It's a strange format, it'll prolly take some work.

Well, if you're talking Han, at 46 points, that means that you'd have to save 16 points, meaning you'd be running a 74 pt squad vs. a 90pt squad... Pretty much should be an auto loss... So that's not practical. It would work for BH, saving 3 points, but pretty much any named Firespray or YT would be impossible to add to the list, unless you could promote your pilot. I'll have to look further into the wording to see if there's any consistency that would imply one or another.

So basically, everything is legal now once it gets released, except for the huge ships themselves, and anything that FFG bans because it's been released in the midst of a tournament season. So the X-Wing pilots and upgrades that come in the Rebel Transport will be legal for regional championships upon release unless FFG makes a separate decree banning them.

Yep, figured I'd missed it Huh. That's going to be very interesting.

Unless I'm (again) missing something, things are legal unless they're on the banned list. It effectively changes everything from opt-in to opt-out, and FFG is the one who has to do it. Given their general plodding pace of posting just about anything, I'm curious to see how long it is until something hits the street and they don't get around to posting it to the "banned" list.

It's also going to be interesting to see when they do that. They seem to generally pretend that nobody ever breaks street date. It may be a small window, but (for example) many stores were selling Imperial Aces on the Friday, Thursday, or even Wednesday before the official Monday release. If they don't update the list until the release with one of their normally announcements, "Imperial Aces now available! And added to the tournament ban list!" it's going to be problematic.

I'm also not sure I like waiting for someone to get around to un-banning new stuff, but that's not really any different than what we've got now.

Really seems like this is a recipe for confusion. So many land mines...

R2-D2 with green maneuver overlaps APL. This used to be resolved in order of initiative, right? So this is not a clarification but an actual rule change.

I understand why they made ST optional. But why gunner? What was the issue with mandatory gunner?

A ship that performs the Daredevil action follows all
normal rules for executing a maneuver. Daredevil may
be performed even if the ship would overlap another
ship or obstacle; resolve the overlapping as normal.

Daredevil can be used to collide with other ships??

Is this new?

This is so just like made for Arvel ... ^^

Daredevil has always been a maneuver. So it could overlap. Unlike boost. That is not new.

A ship that performs the Daredevil action follows all

normal rules for executing a maneuver. Daredevil may

be performed even if the ship would overlap another

ship or obstacle; resolve the overlapping as normal.

Daredevil can be used to collide with other ships??

Is this new?

This is so just like made for Arvel ... ^^

Arvel couldn't take an EPT until the upgrade card allowed the slot for the other A-Wings was spoiled in the Rebel Aces pack. That was one of the first cards suggested for him - mostly to finally get him used I suppose.

I'm so glad they included the Expansion rules. Even though many of us have multiple copies of all the ships, not everyone does, and so they didn't have direct access to all the relevant rules until now!

Also, I have never had the supplemental rules on hand when I needed them. Now they are all in the same place.

I think what is most interesting is that the game is now making semantic distinctions to clarify the rules. Must vs. may, cost vs. result, resolving triggered effects, etc. etc. It's an important step in the maturation of the game.

There is nothing about "immediately" in the FAQ, is there?

Finally, a printed ruling on the interaction between FCS and Gunner. No more uncertainty from the naysayers. It works.

I don't get the part about Jendon. Jendon only gives his TL tokens to someone who already doesnt have any TL tokens, so does the new FAQ mean that if I already have a TL token I can discard it to get Jendon's TL token?

I don't get the part about Jendon. Jendon only gives his TL tokens to someone who already doesnt have any TL tokens, so does the new FAQ mean that if I already have a TL token I can discard it to get Jendon's TL token?

You are right. Seems like they changed that. Should be in the errata section.

Edit:

Assume the ship receiving the token has a weapons engineer:

If it currently has one TL it cannot get one from Jendon. If it has two it can discard one to receive one from Jendon.

Not sure I like the escalating tournament rule... Seems like it just complicates things.

I don't get the part about Jendon. Jendon only gives his TL tokens to someone who already doesnt have any TL tokens, so does the new FAQ mean that if I already have a TL token I can discard it to get Jendon's TL token?

You are right. Seems like they changed that. Should be in the errata section.

Edit:

Assume the ship receiving the token has a weapons engineer:

If it currently has one TL it cannot get one from Jendon. If it has two it can discard one to receive one from Jendon.

Having any number of blue tokens prevents Jendon ability from working.

I guess it has been simply an oversight from the devs.

I don't get the part about Jendon. Jendon only gives his TL tokens to someone who already doesnt have any TL tokens, so does the new FAQ mean that if I already have a TL token I can discard it to get Jendon's TL token?

You are right. Seems like they changed that. Should be in the errata section.

Edit:

Assume the ship receiving the token has a weapons engineer:

If it currently has one TL it cannot get one from Jendon. If it has two it can discard one to receive one from Jendon.

Having any number of blue tokens prevents Jendon ability from working.

I guess it has been simply an oversight from the devs.

It probably is an oversight. Nevertheless, I am under the impression that the FAQ overrides the card text.

It probably is an oversight. Nevertheless, I am under the impression that the FAQ overrides the card text.

So that would mean a ship with weapons engineer and one lock is at a disadvantage to a ship with one lock and no crew.

I think it means the whole restriction about having a blue target lock is out.

Some comments from the designers.