I don't see swarms going away. I do see swarms changing flight tactics a lot to get away from these new anti-swarm toys. Honestly it would be amazing to be able to fly 2-3 ship uber squads and having a snowballs chance in hell against a bunch of wet behind the ear rookies that outnumber you 2 to 1.

I couldn't agree more 13713!

Although this has been touched on above, I don't think formation flying is being punished so much as flying solo is becoming plausible. Personally I like the change. High PS pilots have always appealed to me most in this game since the first wave. I didn't like how it was basically impossible to be successful on a consistent basis with the pilots who were supposed to be the best in the galaxy. These new cards are just encouraging players to try "lone wolfing" and such, to add a different, but equally successful, approach to the game.

After seeing recent developments in Wave 4 and beyond, such as Blount / Munitions Failsafe with Assault Missiles, Phantoms, Ruthlessness, Oicunn and such, I cant help but wonder why is close formation flying being punished so hard currently?

Ask those poor British boys who flew Hurricanes against the Germans......

Although this has been touched on above, I don't think formation flying is being punished so much as flying solo is becoming plausible. Personally I like the change. High PS pilots have always appealed to me most in this game since the first wave. I didn't like how it was basically impossible to be successful on a consistent basis with the pilots who were supposed to be the best in the galaxy. These new cards are just encouraging players to try "lone wolfing" and such, to add a different, but equally successful, approach to the game.

I totally agree. The more variety of 100 point lists that become viable the better.

Virtually everything on here is a subjective opinion. That's a fact.

Well that's, like, your OPINION, man.

Don't be fatuous, Magadizer.

I think he was quoting the Big Lebowski actually.

So was he...

Lone wolf vs swarm. High PS vs Low PS. Codex creep. Power creep. Everyone hates the new thing that doesn't fit in their list or make their list hard to win with anymore.

Unlike other games I like FFG's way of doing things. Release new upgrades that make older stuff valid again. Unlike some other miniature games that just continue to make earlier stuff more obsolete.

Now lets get the advanced back in the game and have people ***** about it after they have be asking for it for awhile now.

Advanced is coming. Have faith.

Honestly I love this game, but a little part in me dies everytime I see 4 rookie pilots out there, or Howl and 6 academies, instead of Wes, Wedge and Luke, and Darth Vader and his Black Squadron. I hate the proliferation of noobie ships that was Wave 1-3. There was a bit of low PS hate in wave 4, and there will be much more in wave 5 on.

Difficult choices is what makes a game good. For too long people would say, "Ok I am playing 82 points of Imperials, what do I take?" (being that the first 18 points was a given you were taking Howlrunner.) I have a friend who has not fielded a list without Howlrunner in it in almost 2 years now. EVERY LIST.

This game needs change, and improving the viability of elite pilots is a refreshing step in the right direction.

Watch the Battle of Yavin again, specifically before the main part of the trench run starts. Other than the line of six TIEs coming in initially, the battle is pretty much being fought one on one, with Wedge or Biggs or Luke flying in at the last moment to save the other one.

It's not a big gob of X-Wings flying straight at a big gob of TIE fighters. I like that individual, and elite, pilots will be taking back their rightful place in this game.

This also means that 30+ points for a single ship is not a dirty desire anymore. I can come clean and admit that I like expensive all my eggs in one basket fly by the seat of my pants and with the permission of lady luck become victorious against all odds.

I like Tie Defenders and Phantoms, and it will be cool to see more lists with specialty small ships zipping around being large pains in your opponents behind.

I cant help but wonder why is close formation flying being punished so hard currently?

Personally, I think Biggs is a boring, frustrating constraint on the game's design, and he needs to go die in a fire. Howlrunner is better, but she still restricted the development of Imperial play for a long time.

This. I cannot wait to unleash some Ion Torps on Biggs with my Bombers and lay a wall of hate with Siesmic charges as the stupid rebel formation helplessly flys right into them.

I cant help but wonder why is close formation flying being punished so hard currently?

Personally, I think Biggs is a boring, frustrating constraint on the game's design, and he needs to go die in a fire. Howlrunner is better, but she still restricted the development of Imperial play for a long time.

This. I cannot wait to unleash some Ion Torps on Biggs with my Bombers and lay a wall of hate with Siesmic charges as the stupid rebel formation helplessly flys right into them.

Make it a wall of proton bombs and watch the XXBB die in a blaze of blue fire as their shields do nothing.

It's not, it's just not as encouraged. You still need to stick together to use a lot of abilities, but if a broken combo shows up the enemy can now break out the AoE.

Formations are still good to get max use out of your abilities, but you can't rely completely on them.

I cant help but wonder why is close formation flying being punished so hard currently?

Personally, I think Biggs is a boring, frustrating constraint on the game's design, and he needs to go die in a fire. Howlrunner is better, but she still restricted the development of Imperial play for a long time.

The voice of sense. They aren't killing formation flying or anything else, they are just giving opponents counters. You can still fly that way, and effectively, but now there are a few more tools for your opponents as well. Every good thing need a countermeasure for balance.

Basically the game has short range buffs and thus people started flying in blobs, so FFG's added a load of benefits to not flying in blobs too. Rather than killing off formations, it's making formation and flanker equally viable.

(Battle of Yavin, approach to the Death Star)

Red 11: "Porkins, pull up!"

Red 6: "I can hold it!"

Red 11: "I know you can hold it courtesy of R5-D8 and Hull Upgrade but if you don't pull up you'll be out of range of Biggs's Range 1 effect!"

Red 6: "I'm fine, Nameless Generic Rookie! Actual combat effects exist in a completely planar state unaffected by vertical position!"

Red 11: "Copy, Red 6. Incidentally, why are we only bringing three X-wings on this attack?"

Red 6: "Some sort of "100 point limit" command has. We've got a whole hangar of X-wings and Y-wings back at base but we can only bring an arbitrary headcount of ships."

Red 11: "Strange. You'd think -"

(Flash of green light, blaster fire, sound of red dice being rolled)

Red 3: "Hold formation. So long as you fly slowly forward in a completely predictable manner they can only hit me and how hard I am to hit is completely unaffected by how I fly."

Red 11: "TIE fighters incoming! They seem to be, um..."

Red 3: "I don't have a visual courtesy staying exactly one Range Increment behind you two at all times. What do you see?"

Red 11: "I count six, no, seven! They appear to be creeping slowly towards us in some sort of giant block, almost like a line of ground vehicles. The one at the back has some sort of stealth field."

Red 3: "All craft prepare to focus fire on the TIE fighter with the stealth field in the middle of the giant block that's furthest away and has a load of other TIEs in front of it."

Red 6: "Copy, Red 3."

Red 11: "Wait, what?!"

(flash of green blaster fire, a giant octahedral die bounces off of Red 11's canopy)

Red 11: "Red 6, are you all right?"

Red 6: "Ain't got a scratch, Red 11. The fighters are all shooting at Red 3 despite him being by far the most difficult target. Prepare to fire at the cloaked TIE that's somehow flying evasive while keeping rigid and slow formation with the other TIEs."

(flashes of red blaster fire as the X-wings open fire. Porkins' shots miss their mark but somehow don't hit the other TIEs, Rookie Pilot's shot hits Howlrunner without hitting the TIE directly in front of her. Somehow.)

Red 11: "Direct hit! Knocked out that stealth device!"

Red 6: "Of course you did. I missed because of the TIE's evasive maneuvers causing it to suddenly stop flying evasive when you fired."

(Red 11 blinks several times.)

(flashes of green fire and red dice)

Red 3: "AAARGH!!! Curse you green d-"

(Red 3 disappears in a fireball outright.)

Red 6: "Well, I guess that makes us both game. Break formation!"

Red 11: "But you were saying -"

Red 6: "Red 3 can no longer somehow take shots for us while behind us. Veer off and prepare to make koiogran maneuvers."

Red 11: "TIE fighter in my flight path!"

Red 6: "Don't worry, that's fine. It's only if they're at the exact end of the arbitrary template of movement you take before firing that you have to dodge 'em."

(flashes of green fire)

Red 6: "I'm hit! And again! And again!"

Red 11: "I'm fine! I seem to be much better at evading shots than you are!"

Red 6: "Don't count on it, rookie! Those green d maneuvering thrusters are fickle things!"

Red 11: "These TIEs are flying like they're fresh out of the academies but they seem to be incredibly reliable shots!"

Red 6: "It's the one in the middle, if they fly dangerously close then their targeting improves almost as much as if they had a target lock."

Red 11: "Why don't they have targeting computers? Aren't those standard equipment?"

Red 6: "I suppose the Empire wanted to make them a bit different."

(Red 11 diverts his full attention to his koiogran turn.)

Red 6: "Open fire!"

(the X-wings open fire and Howlrunner's TIE fighter bursts into flames is removed from the field)

Red 11: "Now those TIEs are shooting like drunk Aqualish!"

Red 6: "Yeah, they don't like you either."

(another TIE explodes is manually removed from the universe)

Red 11: "I count five TIEs remaining!"

Red 6: "We're still in with a shot at this, rookie!"

(Red 6 takes damage equal to his hull value)

Red 11: "Jek!"

(The surviving TIE fighters begin turning for another pass. Red 11 grits his teeth, and realising he can't take them all, arms his proton torpedoes and sets his engines at full blast for the Death Star trench. After crossing a mysterious white line his suddenly X-wing explodes for "fleeing the battlefield.")

I was attempting to make some sort of point with this post but I forgot what it was.

Star Wars has always been about big names and big heroes. The rank and file are important too, but I'd way rather see a few big names on the table a little more often.

Hey look all those soldiers are standing in formation.....let's build a gatling gun.

You can't do that you are breaking how war is supposed to be fought.

(Sadly the British Army clung to this theory way too long)

Hey look all those soldiers are standing in formation.....let's build a gatling gun.

You can't do that you are breaking how war is supposed to be fought.

(Sadly the British Army clung to this theory way too long)

Eh.

It is my general understanding that the Vickers was pretty sweet.