Would be seriously imbalanced if the Rebels got to benefit off of the new faction release while also getting Aces and a ship in Wave 5.

*facepalm*

The forum is going to be fun for the next few months, isn't it?

I find it thematically appropriate that Rebel players seem to be more accepting than Imperial players, just in general.

Rebel Scum, Bounty Hunter Scum, Pirate Scum. Don't see much difference to begin with honestly.

Yeah, nobody's asking for the Y-wing to get a boost that makes them change up the meta like the Phantom did. Just something that gives it a role other than Dutch and/or ICT carrier, while still being competitive and unique. That's not going to tip the scales in the Rebel's favor, it's just going to give them a little more diversity in their lists.

So I just realized something about S&V Y-wings. Since Imperials never had access to astromech slots, FFG never made the unique astro's Rebel only. I suspect that they don't intend for R2-D2 to be riding along with pirates and slavers, so I imagine one of three things will happen:

1) They errata unique astromechs to include "Rebel only." Simple, but has the downside of people possibly bringing illegal lists to tournaments and being DQ'ed because they didn't see the FAQ.

2) The S&V Y-wing loses the astromech slot in exchange for a crew slot, bomb slot, or cost reduction, and astromechs remain Rebel-exclusive. It'd be a shame, especially since it would probably mean no new astromechs in the box, but it could be a good way to give S&V a unique flavor.

3) They do nothing. R2 learns the ropes of looting and pillaging.

R2 learns the ropes of looting and pillaging.

R2 learns the ropes of looting and pillaging.

Yep, you've convinced me. #3 is the only acceptable option.

I've just thought of something else.

Slave-1 and Mouldy Crow titles.

Since you have to have the Hawk and the Firespray to make use of the conversions in this box and those two titles are not faction specific, wouldn't it be redundant to include them?

My guess:

The Y-wing will only have S&V pilots, and it will swap out the astromech for a crew slot. It may offer a new turret, that the rebels can benefit from too.

Z95 will just be new pilots, and maybe a new missile, or that slot will be changed to a crew or cannon.

The HWK conversion will just be new pilots, bases and dials.

The Slave-1 will be the same except it will have the current pilots on new S&V cards. Hopefully Fett will have a different ability.

Any post wave 6 releases for rebels or empire will be aces style packs. New ships for those factions will halt until the Rebels cartoon has aired, and introduces new ships, and when they're added to x-wing a new group or players with join because the watch that show. Then a bunch of old curmudgeons will grumble about quitting the game.

I did talk with some of the FFG staff and they did mention that we should see a new turret weapon with this.

I really like the idea of a third faction overall. But with two of S&V ships being repaints of Rebel ships, it will most likely boost Rebels as well, with new goodies for those ships. This is a problem in my opinion, as far as balance goes. What do you guys think?

I think you're ignoring the bit that says Most Wanted will also have a "conversion" for the Firespray, which implies it will get some new stuff too.

Of course, it's possible we'll get some "This upgrade can only be applied to Firespray-class ships" stuff. I rather doubt it, though.

Outside of that, just looking at the upgrade slots it has, anything that arrives in the Firespray conversion kit is going to be useful in a LOOOOOT of ships. (Crew? Missiles OR torpedoes? Nevermind the cannon slot, which now has a home in a 360-degree-arc in the Rebel fleets...)

So while it's true there are certainly other ships that would benefit from obvious upgrades to the Y-Wing...there aren't MANY:

• It features an astromech slot, which is still fairly unusual - only three ships have one of those, so far, including the Y-Wing. Annnnnd...all are Rebels. So far. 'Scum and villainy', introducing ANY new astromechs for it's Y-Wing, will potentially boost all of those ships.
• The 'turret weapon' slot is so far used in only two places (Y-Wing and HWK-290...oh, both of those are 'scum and villainy' ships...AND 'Rebel' ships...same as astromechs). Anything new introduced there is going to be obviously a big boon to those two hulls, as well.

Of course, the Firespray does feature the bomb/mine slot - although I haven't usually seen those weapons used to great effect, they have...so far...been only the purview of the Empire. So I could see something showing up, here (buzzdroid swarm?), that ends up providing benefit for the Empire as well as 'scum and villainy', but...

Overall, it seems upgrades to the ships in the new faction will help Rebels more.

Overall, it seems upgrades to the ships in the new faction will help Rebels more.

You may be right. But, you may be wrong. At this point we simply don't know anything either way, so any claim made by anyone is baseless speculation. Most of us want our Y-wings to be better, and that may or may not happen for the rebels in the new wave. Any changes could very likely be S&V only, or it could benefit rebels, too. We simply don't know.

Would be seriously imbalanced if the Rebels got to benefit off of the new faction release while also getting Aces and a ship in Wave 5.

I wouldn't worry. Though I do agree that it seems rebels have had the most attention, in fact I almost never see play Imperial anymore at tournaments. However, I'm betting that the Most Wanted pack will not only have new Slave pilots for the third faction, but might also have an upgrade or two with the Firespray in mind. Most things that come out DO have cards for all factions, so don't worry too much.

I'd expect one ship-specific upgrade for the z-95 and Y-Wing each, be it a title, modification, or whatever. I'd also expect one or two upgrades that are specific to the SaV Faction. The rest will be a free-for-all pretty much. It's in everyone's best interests to provide all sides with awesome upgrades in just about every single expansion. This way we get more goodies, and FFG sells more product. Everybody wins!

On this case, we know as much as John Snow does. Hold your pants.

Jon Snow didn't hold his pants, and now he's a hero.

i wonder if that new turret weapon hands out stress instead of ion tokens?

On this case, we know as much as John Snow does. Hold your pants.

Jon Snow didn't hold his pants, and now he's a hero.

But he still knows nothing.

i wonder if that new turret weapon hands out stress instead of ion tokens?

Maybe a flakk turret that stresses and interferes with missles/torpedoes

2-dice turret that works like Gunner would be pretty neat.

I really like the idea of a third faction overall. But with two of S&V ships being repaints of Rebel ships, it will most likely boost Rebels as well, with new goodies for those ships. This is a problem in my opinion, as far as balance goes. What do you guys think?

I think you're ignoring the bit that says Most Wanted will also have a "conversion" for the Firespray, which implies it will get some new stuff too.

Of course, it's possible we'll get some "This upgrade can only be applied to Firespray-class ships" stuff. I rather doubt it, though.

Outside of that, just looking at the upgrade slots it has, anything that arrives in the Firespray conversion kit is going to be useful in a LOOOOOT of ships. (Crew? Missiles OR torpedoes? Nevermind the cannon slot, which now has a home in a 360-degree-arc in the Rebel fleets...)

So while it's true there are certainly other ships that would benefit from obvious upgrades to the Y-Wing...there aren't MANY:

• It features an astromech slot, which is still fairly unusual - only three ships have one of those, so far, including the Y-Wing. Annnnnd...all are Rebels. So far. 'Scum and villainy', introducing ANY new astromechs for it's Y-Wing, will potentially boost all of those ships.
• The 'turret weapon' slot is so far used in only two places (Y-Wing and HWK-290...oh, both of those are 'scum and villainy' ships...AND 'Rebel' ships...same as astromechs). Anything new introduced there is going to be obviously a big boon to those two hulls, as well.

Of course, the Firespray does feature the bomb/mine slot - although I haven't usually seen those weapons used to great effect, they have...so far...been only the purview of the Empire. So I could see something showing up, here (buzzdroid swarm?), that ends up providing benefit for the Empire as well as 'scum and villainy', but...

Overall, it seems upgrades to the ships in the new faction will help Rebels more.

This. And I am not saying that the game will be unbalanced and that The Empire is doomed and that the sky is falling, etc. I just wish that when they released new products, the Empire got more options to use in a competitive enviroment. Of the S&V ships we know of 3 of them are Rebel ships currently and one is Empire. So each of those ships should get a bump, which is good. It just seems with each new wave, product, etc. they introduce more stuff that will make flying a Tie Swarm effectively harder and harder. And I don't even play a tie swarm, but it is hard to get an Empire list that uses point as efficiently. And I know that the Empire recently got the Phantom and will soon be getting the Decimator, but while good, both these ships are/will be easy for a good player to get around. The Phantom lives and dies on staying out of arcs, having a higher PS so they can recloak, staying unstressed, and rolling good green dice. Enter a million turrets and high PS ships and the Phantoms have a really bad day.(additionally all those things destroy Interceptors too, and since everyone is scared of Phantoms, they are kinda nerfed too) And as far as the Decimator goes, yeah it has a turret and high hit points, but of its 16 hit points only 4 are shields and the rest is hull. All that means is that it will get less and less effective as the crits pile up. And with 0 evades and Ehtan Abot(or whatever his name is) that will not take long. Now if the Decimator had been 8 shields 8 hull, then we would be talking! I know that I am complaining a little, but I just feel that a third faction that shares 3 ships with another faction lends itself to boosting that faction in the long run. It just irks me. I play all the time, almost exclusively Empire, and while I am not a wizard or anything, I win more than I lose, so I am not just complaining because I have some desire to win more or everytime.(Well I do, but who doesn't?) I just want the game to get back to when maneuvering and planning and having skill mattered. The Rebels lately(read since the epic ships release) IMO have been essentially "easy mode" and winning just by out playing an opponent with Empire has become harder and harder. I want skill to matter and the way the game is heading, it seems to me, that is becoming less and less the case.

Fixed forward ion turret. Gives the y wing 5 attack but only three can count as hits.

On a more serious note I'm curious to see what the new z95s look like. I routinely play all four zs which probably makes it the only ship besides the tie fighter and b wing that I use more than two versions of. Maybe they'll run renamed reprints?