With the release of S&V we now find ourselves in a unique position. We now have a third faction whose 'agenda' often follows the highest bidder for requested/required services according to fluff and lore.

That being said has, anyone thought about developing house rules for incorporating S&V shops into their Imperial or Rebel lists for casual play?

I know the FireSpray already comes in Imperial flavours, but swapping it out for the S&V could be interesting.

My idea for this premise follows these rules:

1) Only one non-faction ship may be substituted into a list.

This represents the general Lone Wolf attitude of the inhabitants of the S&V faction

2) S&V ships may be substituted into Rebel or Imperial lists for an additional squad point cost.

Small base = printed cost + 5 points

Large base = printed cost + 10 points

For any ship already existing within a faction, using it's S&V alternate only incurs a half penalty against the listed values rounded up in the case of half points.

The additional points represent the S&V pilots retainer/fees charged for services rendered.

3) Rebels and Imperials can not mix factions in this fashion.

Representative of fundamental opposition of ideals and creeds.

4) Ships are only able to utilise upgrades if they meet the upgrade requirements - i.e. faction/ship restrictions, no illicit upgrades on Imperials or Rebels etc.

Any thoughts, suggestions or improvements?

Instead of commenting on those house rules I'll just say what I think needs to be done and you can judge for yourself:

1. Out of faction ships should be limited to no more than X% of your squads total points or one ship if that ship is greater that X%.

2. Out of faction ships will pay a premium to be used.

3. Faction based upgrades are maintained.

In part 1 I'm thinking X = 30% but certainly shouldn't be more that 50% at which time you basically switch the base faction. It would take a little bit of testing to figure out what the right penalty would be but I do believe that +5/+10 points are way too high. Just going +2/+4 may be a better starting place with the half penalty allowance when factions share a ship type.

I do see where mixing Rebels and Imperials could be a problem but I could almost see both being used by the Scum although that can run into my 1st-point. Mixing Rebels and Imps also makes some sense if you think about it as stealing the other sides ships; how else do the rebels end up with a Lambda shuttle

I was showing my friends the game and we played a normal game first. They teamed up as the rebels in an X wing and A wing vs my two tie fighters. they had fun learning the basics with that. Then after that game, i decided to spice it up. my collection is not large on imperial ships (only tow ties :/), so i decided to make up a mission. I gave them each a B wing along with the first ships they used and i added a X wing and Y wing to my ties. The mission was for them to take back one of the stolen rebel ships from the empire! It was a lot of fun seeing then decide which ship to keep alive and which one to destroy. I would add more to that mission to spice it up. The possibilities with this X wing game are limitless, your imagination is the only creative limit when forging a narrative!

To keep things simple, I'd say that when mixing factions decrease your Points Cap by 15. And you may only use up to 40 pts including upgrades for auxiliary forces.

Adding X% to the cost of a ship would indeed be preferable to X points, as it wouldn't be right for a simple Z95 to pay the same premium as a StarViper. Seeing how much a few points difference can make, a 10% tax is probably more than enough - making the cheapest unique pilot (Leeachos) 17 rather than 15 points (all totals rounded up), while bigger ships are looking at a 4pts increase in cost.

Not sure about the limit.. both having just a single ship, as well as no more than Y% of a list sounds fine.

For Team Epic games, I feel it should be possible for 1 player to have Rebels/Imperials, and the other a full Scum fleet.

Having cross faction ships cost 10% more (rounding up) may make some sense but then you've basically committed to a +2 to +5 cost anyway. Just having a fixed cost is easier to figure and we already know how big a deal simply having something cost +2 or +3 points more can be.

another option would be what they used to call a pirate tournament. You could bring only non-unique ships, but mix and match however you wanted. It was a fun way to change things up. this was pre scum of course.