Have never played the game with "vanilla" ships only. Is it balanced?

Seems like tons of fun. Lots of campaigns do this.

Where you're only allowed 1 unique ship for a commander.

Or Vidla Crucible, which bans uniques.

Its rather fun.

Played 5 Gammas with Seismic yet?

Well im thinking that it would take out alot of the unpredictability of the game, but instead provide more chess like tactics. No "cheese" just plain stats.

It depends on which faction you are playing if removing unique cards (not just pilots) from the selection does impact you.

For Imps not much really changes without unique cards on the board; all the "regularities" for flying and list building that are in effect in a normal still apply. It's not really suprising since most synergy in Imperial list does not stem from pilot abilites (except Howlrunner, Jonus, Vessery and the unique Lambdas) but the player's abilites and choices.

For Rebels it is a huge deal; large parts of faction "regularities" in list building are gone since you loose a slew of effects due to the list synergies that are in the pilot abilites. Basically Rebels then have to learn a different kind of list building that takes a page from what Imperials have to do every game; once that is learned everyhting is fine.

EDIT: the unpredictability of the game doesn't decrease this way, it increases; a lot of pilot abilites take away problems with cold dice for you (e.g. Howlrunner) or hot dice for your opponent (e.g. Wedge), without them you will have to face the dice as they come.

EDIT2: the Phantom might get more than a tad unbalanced with its PS5 pilot, since only the RGP is would shoot before it; easy fix would be to eliminate ACD from the selection as well

It depends on which faction you are playing if removing unique cards (not just pilots) from the selection does impact you.

For Imps not much really changes without unique cards on the board; all the "regularities" for flying and list building that are in effect in a normal still apply. It's not really suprising since most synergy in Imperial list does not stem from pilot abilites (except Howlrunner, Jonus, Vessery and the unique Lambdas) but the player's abilites and choices.

For Rebels it is a huge deal; large parts of faction "regularities" in list building are gone since you loose a slew of effects due to the list synergies that are in the pilot abilites. Basically Rebels then have to learn a different kind of list building that takes a page from what Imperials have to do every game; once that is learned everyhting is fine.

I guess proved by Paul Heaver who goes out to win consistently with 2 vanilla-ish B-wing and 2 X-wings.... ?

I'm a big fan of generics you may lose ps but you gain numbers, last week used a three ship build all generics two defenders and a firespray against coran horn a b-wing and a pair of z-95s he got to shoot first and took a few shields off the spray then I focused him down before he could double tap.

End of the game both defenders had a shield left and the spray had two remaining but I'd wiped out his guys.

So yeah just using generics works just fine.

Generics are strong. The points you spare on pilots you can invest in hardware, which means more firepower and more hitpoints. If you are good enough to outguess and outmaneuver an opponent with higher pilot skills, you win.

Lists of 8 ties or 8 z95 are successfull for a reason.

To be honest pilots are more of an upgrade than an actual ship. All the ships have the same stat with the exception of the pilot skill. Only 4 generic ships can have a veteran upgrade slot, Black Squadron Tie Fighter, Saber Squadron Tie Fighter, Royal Guard Tie interceptor Pilot, and Green Squadron A-wing.

To be honest I see allot of generics especially when using multiple expensive ships such as 4 B-wings or 2 YT-1300s. Also there is an advantage to having low pilot skill for use as blockers.

We play with generics more than named. We're big narrative players and like named characters to be there for a reason.

If wedge and howlrunner turn up to *every* fight it gets a bit silly.

We tend to have one 'hero' or two and the majority as generic ships.