To avoid derailing another thread with this, and in the vein of previous such threads such as this one from the esteemed Vorpal Sword ( https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/132840-psa-there-is-no-pilot-named-chippy/ ), I present the following Public Service Announcement.

I've noticed the new BTL-A4 Y-wing title being abbreviated to BTL Y-wing quite a lot. That's fair enough, it's quicker than typing out the full BTL-A4 Y-wing. Except for one little problem.

All Y-wings are BTLs.

All the ships in Star Wars have fancy designations beyond their common name.

The Corellian Corvette or Blockade Runner is the CR90 Corvette, the Falcon is a YT-1300, Slave 1 is a Firespray-31, all TIEs have TIE/xx designations. TIE/ln, TIE/in, TIE/sa, TIE/ad, TIE/ph TIE/d, TIE/x1...

Rebel starfighter-wise:
X-wings are T-65 "X-wing" Space Superiority Starfighters.

A-wings are RZ-1 "A-wing" Interceptors.
B-wings have the rarely used A/SF-01 "B-wing" Starfighter.
The E-wing is the E-7 Escort Starfighter.

The Y-wing is the BTL Y-wing Starfighter.

BTL means Y-wing. There are three main variants. The BTL-B is the Clone Wars one. The BTL-S3 is the one with a turret gunner, used at the Battle of Endor. The BTL-A4 is a one seater variant. It locks the turret forward and can fire-link it with its laser cannons. Sound familiar?

Referring to a BTL-A4 as a BTL (to contrast "Y-wing") is like calling a Z-95 Headhunter a Headhunter to distinguish it from a Z-95. It's not actually differentiating it from the basic Y-wing because BTL and Y-wing are synonyms. If the firelinked Y-wing is a BTL then that suggests the normal Y-wing is not a BTL. (It's by elimination and by mechanics a BTL-S3.) It bears the implication that the "Warthog Y-wing" is set apart from the turreted variant by being a BTL.

It's not even much of a shortcut. BTL Y-wing is thirteen characters long, BTL-A4 Y-wing is sixteen. And if you've got to abbreviate it, A4 Y-wing is even shorter. If you don't care about theme much (and therefore don't care what a Y-wing's letter designation is) then the popular "Warthog" is even shorter.

We've got two Y-wings ingame, the firelinked Y-wing and turreted Y-wing. They're both BTLs.

On the upside, at least there aren't any BLT Y-wings flying around. Then the TIEs'd just gobble them up.

What's your point?

see it's not a problem

no one cares that all y-wings are BTL variants because the only BTL terminology that matters in this game is the BTL-A4 title.

What's your point?

That BTL doesn't mean BTL-A4. It's like abbreviating Carbon Dioxide to Carbon.

see it's not a problem

no one cares that all y-wings are BTL variants because the only BTL terminology that matters in this game is the BTL-A4 title.

A problem? No. OCD sent into overdrive every time I read it? Hell yes.

It's topics like this that make people always use btl to describe it. There are people who now know that it bothers someone so they will get to have some fun by making sure they reference it as the btl title.

save your OCD for squadron building

lord knows I don't have any to spare after making sure all my generics are symmetrical and I have the requisite higher pilot skill with repositioning abilities...all the **** time

Jakes with 3 FCS blues, engine Luke with twin Tactician B-wings, Soontir with double flechette cannon Deltas, Xizor with two ion thugs...

If people want to be spiteful about it or do it deliberately that's their choice but given this forum is mostly people who like Star Wars and like things being thematic I'm guessing most people simply didn't know.

If people want to be spiteful about it or do it deliberately that's their choice but given this forum is mostly people who like Star Wars and like things being thematic I'm guessing most people simply didn't know.

Or a lot of people know but still use "BTL" because "BTL-A4" is the only "BTL" that exists in the context in which it is being used. I certainly fall into that camp.

Except it's not. BTL's been in the game since Wave 1. It's written on the Gold Squadron Pilot card and on the back of the Y-wing blister.

I think btl rolls off the tongue better.

I've been saying A4 the whole time, because it's like all airplane marks, the last sequence is all that really matters for differentiating them.

And as everyone knows, "BTL" is an abbreviation for "Bacon Tomato and Lettuce", which is the way they eat BLTs in a galaxy far far away.

There has been a baconing. Have you felt it? The tomato. And the lettuce.

Except it's not. BTL's been in the game since Wave 1. It's written on the Gold Squadron Pilot card and on the back of the Y-wing blister.

THIS.

I for one was totally confused when the BTL-A4 card was first revealed, because I had no idea until then that, within the SW universe, there were one-seater Y-Wings. Or that there were variants at all. And because the vanilla Gold Squadron Y-Wing is called a BTL-A4 right there on the card!

Except it's not. BTL's been in the game since Wave 1. It's written on the Gold Squadron Pilot card and on the back of the Y-wing blister.

The fluff text on the GSP mentions the BTL-A4. That doesn't contradict what I wrote. As far as I know, there are no other BTL designations other than "BTL-A4" used in the context of this game.

We've got two Y-wings ingame, the firelinked Y-wing and turreted Y-wing. They're both BTLs.

We've got two Y-Wings in game. One belongs to the Scum faction and one belongs to the Rebels. Either can be taken with or without BTL. BTL-A4 is an upgrade card, not a ship.

The fluff text on the GSP mentions the BTL-A4. That doesn't contradict what I wrote. As far as I know, there are no other BTL designations other than "BTL-A4" used in the context of this game.

The Y-wing PS2 generic card does. BTL still doesn't unambigiously refer to the BTL-A4 Y-wing title card.

We've got two Y-Wings in game. One belongs to the Scum faction and one belongs to the Rebels. Either can be taken with or without BTL. BTL-A4 is an upgrade card, not a ship.

By that logic Slave 1 is not a ship. But I can say Y-wing Variant if you're happier with that.

"Either can be taken with or without BTL."

*cringes*

Thematically, a BTL is a Y-wing. A "Y-wing without BTL" is a Y-wing without Y-wing.

The fluff text on the GSP mentions the BTL-A4. That doesn't contradict what I wrote. As far as I know, there are no other BTL designations other than "BTL-A4" used in the context of this game.

The Y-wing PS2 generic card does. BTL still doesn't unambigiously refer to the BTL-A4 Y-wing title card.

If you are counting flavor text, BTL-A4 doesn't unambiguously refer the the title card either. BTL-A4 is still the only BTL in the game. One of these uses is in flavor text that I'd guess most people don't even know exists (I didn't until it was mentioned in this thread) and the other refers to an actual name of an upgrade card.

If I understand you right, "BTL-A4" could either refer to a Gold Squadron Y-Wing or it could refer to the BTL-A4 Title upgrade card. If that is the case "BTL-A4", "A4", and "BTL-A4" are all equally ambiguous.

Is this what happens when we don't get any FFG news for a couple of weeks?

A problem? No. OCD sent into overdrive every time I read it? Hell yes.

Personally I find your cavalier attitude to debilitating mental disorders more disturbing.

I don't know if anyone else is having trouble with the forum right now, but it's **** hard to have a good old fashioned Internet nerd fight when you hit "Post" and nothing happens.

We've got two Y-Wings in game. One belongs to the Scum faction and one belongs to the Rebels. Either can be taken with or without BTL. BTL-A4 is an upgrade card, not a ship.

By that logic Slave 1 is not a ship. But I can say Y-wing Variant if you're happier with that.

"Either can be taken with or without BTL."

*cringes*

Thematically, a BTL is a Y-wing. A "Y-wing without BTL" is a Y-wing without Y-wing.

What about the B-Wing/E2 card? How is it referred to in shorthand around here?

It's the same formula as BTL-A4: a title uses (for lack of a better description) a prefix/suffix combo, where the prefix is generic terminology applicable to all variants of the ship type, and only the suffix applies to the special upgrade ability.

B-wing/E2's a good example.

My point is that no one is confused by what people on these boards mean when they refer to a BTL Y-Wing. It's unambiguous because there is nothing else in the game that they would be referring to. Using the term to refer to Y-Wings in general would be the confusing usage of this term because only some people would know what you are talking about.

I can't dispute that BTL works if you strip the Star Wars out of the game. It's thematically really, really wrong in a way nicknames aren't though.

A problem? No. OCD sent into overdrive every time I read it? Hell yes.

Personally I find your cavalier attitude to debilitating mental disorders more disturbing.

Speaking as someone who's actually diagnosed with OCD, it's fine with me. I'm pretty cavalier about it, too.

What about the B-Wing/E2 card? How is it referred to in shorthand around here?

It's the same formula as BTL-A4: a title uses (for lack of a better description) a prefix/suffix combo, where the prefix is generic terminology applicable to all variants of the ship type, and only the suffix applies to the special upgrade ability.

I'd say that it is going to be different because if you use just the prefix you'd be using "B-Wing". For the most part, I think that is usually just referred to as "the title" or not mentioned at all because people just assume it's use when discussing crew on a B-Wing. Generally people will write "Tactician B-Wing" or "Keyan with Intel Agent" .

I don't think there is another non-unique title that has made as much difference between ships with it and ships without it as BTL-A4 had. All of the other titles simply add addiitional upgrade slots. Use of the title is obvious when the upgrade it allows is present. BTL-A4 uses all of the same upgrades but makes turrets work in adrastically different way. About the closest thing would be the Outrider title.