We will see more Tie Advanced, which is a problem for those who loathe seeing Lord Vader's ship being desecrated, but not a problem for game balance. I won't touch Autothrusters, because that would be betting on my opponent fielding turrets.

I think you're quite overselling my position. I said I'm not complaining, and I still enjoy rebels but the viable lists they can field don't fairly compare. Hardly sky is falling stuff.

I don't have any strong allegiance to either faction, but it seems obvious to me that the empire has a much more varied bag of tricks. Best cheapest ship, the phantom is without equal, and I'd agree that the falcon is better than the decimator, but not by much and only until Autothrusters comes along.

Trickery???? Nah not the Empire............we would never do that

BREAKFAST!

I had nice spicy sausage and smoked ham gravy on 12 grain (good for you) toast, with a pot of nice-ass coffee with dat sugar and cream.

... wuz good too!

I had coco pops for breakfast but i may have some crumpets with butter on them and a coffee in a minute.

I've ran out of bacon but i did have egg and beans on toast yesterday, that was good!

Well as die hard Imperial player. I belive we are where we need to be as soon as the Raider gets released. I still see this game balanced... I mean we are just now getting a huge ship and it had to be created from original concepts from FFG and also had the liberties of a thumbs up from Lucas's crew to get the go ahead on making it for this game.... we just now got our first turret ship which still pales in comparrison to the Falcon. So honestly I think we are about even on the kids with the cool toys role. I still belive that everyhing is in balance with this game. Both sides have more than enough options on how to build a list and play the game and in the end of it all sometimes that doesnt matter its all about how you play the game.

Rebels have long been the kings of synergy and shields. (Action passing, pilot abilities that work well together)
Imperials have long been the kings of maneuverability and numerical superiority.

These have stayed fairly constant through the waves - although more and more features of the other side have dripped through. In general, those are still core to the identity of each faction.

We will see more Tie Advanced, which is a problem for those who loathe seeing Lord Vader's ship being desecrated, but not a problem for game balance. I won't touch Autothrusters, because that would be betting on my opponent fielding turrets.

Vader? Its all about that Marek Steel.

I think a couple of 'advanced' fits in nicely.

There were suppposed to be trial squadrons and a few star destroyers had them before production was switched to the interceptor.

In some of the LFL still artwork from ROTJ you can see an advanced in a dogfight around death star 2.... clearly not vaders as he was too busy having a family argument and trying to get luke to tidy his bedroom.

I think there's an interesting conversation to be had about overall balance and differentiation between factions. Rebels used to have the market cornered on action economy - particularly focus, 3 attack turrets, tough and high-attack brawlers in the b wings while empire had cheap swarm able ties, high maneuverabulity flankers and bombs. Those differences are less today and soon will be gone, but in such a way that the empire does almost all of them thst much better. It'd a good time to fly with imperial, and this trend will improve.

Discuss

Rebels still have Astromechs. B-wings stole the Empire's Barrel Roll, A-wings the boost and when SnV hits Rebels will be able to use the Empire's bombs as well (which are several orders of magnitude more effective against the no-shield low-hull Imperial ships than Rebels).

It's true that FFG seems to be taking huge chunks out of the uniqueness of each faction, but to say this only comes at the advantage of the Empire is simply not true. The Rebels have benefited immensely from nibbling on Imperial unique tricks themselves, and will continue to do so.

Soon the Empire will grow with Rebel playes turning to the darkside with all the HATE! LOL!

And then we can rule the galaxy together as... erm.. well random people on the internets who like the same game ...

Astromech Driods.

Most of them are insane. you say rebels are loosing their flavor, I'm saying they have nothing to worry about.

you feel the X and B wings aren't good? i might not have played many games, but I'm pretty sure b wings with HLC are pretty **** good.

Not sure i agree with you on academy pilots being the best. the z95 bare bones dude is the same cost, does give up an evade, but has a better maneuvering dial, 2 shield and 2 hull, and spits out the same firepower with one higher piloting skill. seems pretty good and maybe even better at the same points value.

you say interceptors are amazing, but they are REALLY expensive for an A wing with one less attack dice, no shields (which are clearly better than hull in EVERY case) and outside of Soontir Fel, i have yet to hear of interceptors seeing lots of use, although it is worth mentioning that i am new and am learning as fast as i can.

i cant say i agree with E wings as being overcosted either. Corrine horn is a monster and their other named pilots aren't bad either.

The firespray 31 is an ok ship, but remember, its not as durable as the rebellion counter parts, either in stats of the upgrades you can give it.

the lambda is good, don't get me wrong, but you do understand that a b wing by itself is almost its match and far more agile on the field and arc dodging a shuttle isn't impossible by any means. the lambda is a 5 hull 5 shield monster, the b wing has 5 shield and 3 hull (or 3 shield and 5 hull, cant remember right now).

lets not even talk about upgrades and about personal. 3PO, R2, Luke, Lando, Chewie, and frankly, the list goes on for miles...

i know you said you weren't complaining, but thats like saying "with all due respect", saying that doesn't exonerate you of the statements your making or what their meaning is, and in your post, it sounded like a lot of complaining.

I agree with most of this however 2 things stood out. 1st ewings not being over costed. Don't get me wrong they are good ships but they are most def. over costed. I forget the exact points but it's at least 2-4 I believe.

The 2nd point is about firesprays. They really have no rebel counterpart and kind of sit in a league of their own. The closest thing to it now would be the the yt2400 but even that is a stretch. It's also one of the most durable ships in the game and is a bargain at 33 points. The falcon gets 3 more hp but at the cost of an evade dice and 9 extra points.

Not trying to pick your post apart by any means but you mentioned being a new player and all so thought I would point those out. There's some excellent threads on point efficiencies and I believe there's one in the pinned topic I'm not sure. Def. check it out though.

As far as the OP is concerned, honestly it might seem like the empire is overpowered now but it's not. Yes auto thrusters make squints viable again but squints were never very cheap to begin with and now auto thrusters just makes them 2 points more expensive which means 20 points for a base squint. Also auto thrusters helps but will still force squints to fly smart. It's not an auto win by any means it just helps with green dice not being so mean sometimes especially with a ship as fragile as a squint. The tie adv. as well NEEDED a buff. There are plenty of lists that will do great against these new upgrades and if anything it just adds more options and levels the playing field. In my experience the empire has had the short end of the stick so I'm really looking forward to seeing how this changes things. I'm also a neutral party and fly both sides equally. Just give it time and try new things, figure out what works for you and what doesn't. Maybe try and fly as rebels as much as you can against the empire to develop some new strategies or combos that work well to limit the new upgrades your leery about. Just my 2 cents is all.

And then we can rule the galaxy together as... erm.. well random people on the internets who like the same game ...

We ain't that random... some of us ain't random anyhow.

Rebels have plenty of amazingly awesome ships, they're just completely over-shadowed by the nonsense that is turrets (which auto-thrusters really won't hurt that much)

Boohoo

You heard me boozyhoo

So, I understand the nature of forums, and that anonymity breeds hyperbole.

I am quite sure it doesn't meet the definition of "trolling" but I do acknowledge that this thread may be very slightly sensational or mildly inflamatory. It's an effort to stimulate conversation. I haven't said anything I don't mean, nor attacked anyone, but I think people are reading too much into the impact of my post rather than its intended message.

You were also typing in the most annoying of "X=OP!! + Sky = falling" tradition, even if you weren't presenting it as quite so hyperbolic.

I think there's an interesting conversation to be had about overall balance and differentiation between factions. Rebels used to have the market cornered on action economy - particularly focus, 3 attack turrets, tough and high-attack brawlers in the b wings while empire had cheap swarm able ties, high maneuverabulity flankers and bombs. Those differences are less today and soon will be gone, but in such a way that the empire does almost all of them thst much better. It'd a good time to fly with imperial, and this trend will improve.

Yes, there's an overall balance discussion to be had, but I think it would have been worthwhile for you to have acknowledged that the Worlds meta puts rebels still as more popular than Imperials, and so if there's going to be a shift, it will first have to pass the point of parity.

As an Imperial player, I'm not complaining about the previous situation. I love my Imps. Regarding the Decimator, I was realy excited to get it, but... I don't know, it just doesn't seem as much fun, and I've been doing pretty well against the Decimator with my old bombers and TIEs. Also, a lot of the people in my locale are flying the Decimator, and I don't like to follow the crowd.

But, my personal story aside, I agree with others that Wave 5 wasn't any more of a boost for the Empire than it was for the Rebellion. Sure, not we're getting a Huge ship with a boost to the TIE Advanced, but I'm not convinced that this will necessarily make the Empire predominant.

You would have done your original post and title a lot of good by arguing that we may be looking at parity, rather than the Empire being OP. That would have probably brought out some better debate than people rolling their eyes at yet another "X=OP!! + Sky = falling"-thread.

Dash and fat Han still own the empire and even the new advanced. Which at its core is just a 3 atk ship that requires a target lock. What makes a fat Han good is that it ignores ~2 hits a turn on a durable ship with a reliable reroll able 3 atk. Which makes dash good is its a 4 atk ship that's incredible evasive for it's size and highly durable. Nothing in the adv fix will change this. The empire still has some of the least played ships in he game. The bomber is now likely the worst ship in the Meta. With more upgrades on the way for ywings, interceptors and awings, hwks, well before the advanced fix I seriously doubt the Rebels will have anything to worry about and fully expect rebels to continue dominating torunaments with thier large base ships in the foreseeable future.

The bomber is now likely the worst ship in the Meta.

Hey! Lay off my Bomber!!

I don't think so. I fly TONS of bomber lists. My locals ask me if I'm feeling well if I don't have a majority of my list consisting of bombers. I might say that it's the least appreciated ship, but I know there are quite a few people who have the same bomber love I do. Oh, and go take it up with the people who assert that it's the X-wing that's the most UP ship now.

After the proximity mine fix, the bomber can no longer be considered the worst of anything

After the proximity mine fix, the bomber can no longer be considered the worst of anything

True, but it IS a bit more of a pay-to-play item then, given how rare the prox mine is.

Give us two weeks and we will see people complaining about how the rebels are OP due to some spoiled upgrade card.

We imps became OP when the tie defender arrived, your just slow catching on OP.

Seriously though how does making two under used fighters worth taking again sudenly unbalance the game?

Did you see doom and gloom threads when rebel aces improved the a-wing and gave use two decent b-wing pilots, no.

How utterly ridiculous can you get.

Oh, and go take it up with the people who assert that it's the X-wing that's the most UP ship now.

Did the Y-wing get a buff when I wasn't looking?

Terrible reading comprehension and juvenile, hyperbolic reactions are clearly becoming op as well.

Some of you guys are quite silly.

Its been said before, but it bears repeating.

In a direct, one for one comparison, I think Imperial looks better than Rebels. However, Rebels have a lot of synergies and abilities that don't calculate well in a direct comparison.

Vive la difference. I'm glad they are different, the factions. The asymmetries are what make it interesting to me. I also enjoy the uncertainty of the maneuver phase and trying to out fly my opponent.

I am a little concerned, as mentioned earlier, about "differences" leaking through the various factions. A 360 turreted Imperial ship, a cheap 12 point filler Rebel craft, and so forth. But FFG has been really good with their expansions and keeping the game evolving. Yes, there's power creep, and that's inevitable, but it's still a blast and I love playing.