So far, I've been playing mostly with named pilots. I've probably flown a couple of Academy pilots and one list had two Black Squadron pilots, but that's it. I bought two copies of Rebel Aces hoping to fly 4 Interceptors with PTL but so far, I've really only flown with named guys.

I like my upgrade cards as well so most of my lists are 3-ship and 2-ship ones. I fly exclusively Imperials (not enough time/games for me to branch out into Rebels) and my favorite ships are Interceptors and Phantoms.... Echo, Lorrir, and Fel in particular. I think Oicunn might have a good chance but he's currently too expensive (same for Tie-Ds) with the upgrades I want.

My main weaknesses are turrets and insanely-high HPs. Ion cannon turret, Han-Shoots-First, or anything with higher-than-me pilot skill means I'll most likely be losing that match. Han+C3PO+Luke? I might as well walk away. My strength lies in arc-dodging and high PS.... I had Echo take out 3 B-Wings by herself (she's a "she," right?) on one game!

Today, I've realized I have another weakness --- Rebel swarm lists. I've seen and fought against Imperial swarms before and I'm usually okay since Imps are really squishy, but Rebels take a few rounds to take out and that means they can soak up my shots and still live long enough to fire back.

So now, I am wondering if I should fly with cheaper, no-named pilots as well? This would mean just one "fancy" ship (and most likely not as tricked-out as I would like) and then 2 or 3 (or more!) dirt-cheap ones. Can someone tell me what the advantages are with flying with no-name, no-ability pilots?

Often its really just a matter of more guns on the table, more firing arcs to cover your bases and also the added bonus of being able to use some of your ships as blockers to fence your opponents into a kill box.

Also Green dice are horribly fickle, more guns = more chances for the greens to fail.

I had Echo at R3 behind an asteroid, My opponent lands 2 hits and I roll 4 blanks and 2 eyeballs (with no focus).

Also flying with generics sometimes shows you that they are often just as effective as their unique alternatives and sometimes you just get more bang for your buck and you realise that the points you pay for some special abilities really isn't worth it.

B-Wings are the most typical in this sense as up until Keyan Farlander came out neither of the 2 previous unique pilot abilities were worth their additional points over the standard Blue or Dagger Squadron pilots.

There are a few things that are good for using either more pilots or ones without EPT's.

Academy Pilots are great to block your opponent's ships. Nothing like an agile ship that can just stick in their craw and mess all their plans up. If you know where they are going to be and if you can stop them from getting an action, then you can kill them quicker. Your best bet for this is with a cheap Academy Pilot. I like going with one or two in my Imperial lists for this fact.

Ever have bad luck on your green dice? Ever lose the game on one roll? Try going with more ships. If you flub one die roll, it doesn't mean the whole game is lost. The more ships you have the more this is true. Same for attacks. If you have your uber attack ship set up, but flub your rolls, then you are seriuosly hurt. If you have a bunch of 2 shot Tie Fighters, you might be surprised at the number of 2 hits you get and the times your opponent fails to block them.

I might suggest flying with the 6 named Tie Fighter Pilots without EPT's. They can be fun to fly on their own. They all have mid-high PS skills. Their own abilities make them useful. They can be used by a finesse flyer to good effect.

I find it interesting that we're having posts like this, when what 6 months or so ago the question was "What can we do to make Named pilots worth taking?"

Well.. the OP has only been playimg a month... time and experience will show him what he needs to do.. admittedly, I am amused by it as well..

admittedly, I am amused by it as well..

But this isn't the first time I've seen this brought up. The meta has changed and PS matters a lot more than it did before Wave 5. The Phantom with ACD and VI being a bit part of that.

the phantom with ACD is the sole reason that this PS war started. however, now that it has taken effect, it is oddly self perpetuating.

The Empire has some of the best no-name generics in the game. The Academy Pilot is the standard for which all other ships are measured against. It's cheap, it has a ton of agility to evade shots, it's somewhat durable for the price, and overall it makes great filler on any list. It will almost always put out way more damage than it costs to field it. If I'm sitting at 9-10 points left on a given build, I find it's always better to look at what I can drop to fit an Academy Pilot in than it would be to find 9-10 points worth of upgrades for the rest of my ships.

Edit: If anything, the meta has shifted a bit too hard the other way. Now, the tendency is either the really high PS or the really low. It's the mid-range guys in the PS4-7 range who need the most help.

I always prefer named guys with lots of upgrades to nameless guys with no upgrades because named guys are just more fun to play with. More variability in games.

Unfortunately that's not always the most viable, though the game is swinging back towards high PS guys being the way to go.

I always felt that being good with the chumps took skill, while leaning on the crutch of special abilities was too easy.

I've always taken the opposite stance - preferring generics over names guys. Mostly, I do this to set my own course thematically and not have Wedge or Corran die every time I play. However, in game it pays dividends to have redundancy for to account for those *@#! green dice as well as just to make your opponent fight an uphill battle against your higher hit point total.

I have not flown Empire but having flown against them a lot, I would find it hard to spend more points to get the same fragile ship (Tie fighters & interceptors especially). I like lists that add in a single named character to help eliminate / reduce the gap between generics and unique pilots. HWKs are great for this. On the Imp side, I've seen lots of Ties supporting a heavy hitter. This has been a solid strategy.

RogueLieutenant: I will confirm that you have at least one listener to Jodo Cast. Perhaps you guys can expound upon some of the relationships between different pilots that are not obvious to everyone - such as Cracken & Jan Ors. I like your niche as bringing Star Wars lore to the masses. It is different from all the other podcast discussing the in game elements.

I always felt that being good with the chumps took skill, while leaning on the crutch of special abilities was too easy.

Alternatively, having more ships makes for an easier domination, while the special abilities reward people willing to show up with less firepower and survivability.

I love the mini-swarm, so I always use both.

The named characters bring the wacky and awesome abilities with the tendency to shoot first. The no-name generics are the meat of the list, there to facilitate the workings on the named characters generally by blocking the enemy (no action --> less defense and less offense to worry about). If they're ignored...well, I've never not been impressed by the amount of damage 3-5 two dice ships do against a single target.

While I use both elite pilots and generics, I tend to run more generics. more guns, shield, and hull. PS certainly matters, and there are some powerful ACE pilots out there, but flown right, generics can often hold their own if the points are equal. you end up with more firing arcs as well, and it is easier to get ships where you need them. try running some generic lists without any rockstars and see what you think. they certainly have their weaknesses, but more guns, more arcs, more movement options, and more total hit points is hard to argue with. As stalin said: Quantity has it's own quantity. See also: Tie swarm with all academy pilots plus howlrunner, or even just 8 academy ties.

I've been playing since August this year although if you do count the actual number of days I've spent playing, then yes, I've probably only played a month or so. I've not kept up with the forums though, so apologies for the amusement.

I do see the point of more guns and firing arcs, but I thought that if I had high PS, I could get out of most arcs and so the extra guns of the enemy would be useless without targets. I have hated the green dice a lot and prefer not to roll them at all... I've rolled 5-6 greens with all blanks a couple of times.

I think the main thing I've not liked about el-cheapos especially the Tie Fighters is that I'd end up losing one or two so I figured I might as well field "better" pilots and see if I can keep them alive. I guess with my games so far, well, I might as well lose a couple of el-cheapos than lose Echo. Plus I did like the additional "flavor" the abilities/upgrades added to the table. However, I'm trying to be a little more competetive this time and win a few more fights so if that means a little less interesting lists, well, let's see what it can do!

I think I'll try a few lists with just one hard-hitter and then 3-4 generics.

I find a good mix works for me rexler plus mini swarm is a monster and now with lone wolf I can put howl in there to boost the tie and make them even more lethal.

I have a friend who packs his lists full of named rebels and he goes against my superior numbers and loses.

There's a balance to be struck, you blow up a generic tie my plan survives, I kill wedge and you lose a major chunk of your force.