Well, the title kinda says it all. I am actually curious as to the answer from both a lore perspective as well as mechanically.

because in space there is no gravity?

They are speed 2 even though they are supposed to be as fast as X-Wings if not a bit faster.

They also kept it pretty balanced by having 1 heavy, 1 counter, 1 general purpose, 1 Escort

B-Wings not being Heavy is a Reward for the Rebel Player, for when he actually successfully chases an enemy Squadron he wants to down with them... You can't just run away.

Seriously though, giving them heavy would probably also give them a points break, and that would probably start to make other Squadron choices even more questionable.

This way, everything has its place.

B-Wings not being Heavy is a Reward for the Rebel Player, for when he actually successfully chases an enemy Squadron he wants to down with them... You can't just run away.

Seriously though, giving them heavy would probably also give them a points break, and that would probably start to make other Squadron choices even more questionable.

This way, everything has its place.

They are just big-boned.

because the "B" in B-wing stands for "Badass"

also "beast"

and "best"

in lore: they're slow, but they can spin (it's a neat trick)

B-Wings without heavy is to make them the definitive capital-ship escorts. If they had Heavy enemy fighters could dance past them and the B-Wings would have difficulty keeping up. By making them not-heavy it means you can form picket fences around your capital ships and screen them from enemy fighters easier, as well as being a threat to capital ships.

They are speed 2 even though they are supposed to be as fast as X-Wings if not a bit faster.

They also kept it pretty balanced by having 1 heavy, 1 counter, 1 general purpose, 1 Escort

[trivia pendantry]Faster? The X-wing games made them close to the same speed (90 speed units vs 100 speed units), but that's very much the exception.

The original intent was that they were very much the slowest of the Rebel Fighters- Screen notes from Episode VI indicate that of the "squadrons" involved in the Battle of Endor, only the Falcon was slower.

As to why the Falcon will be faster... Nobody gets that one right, for some reason. [/Trivia pendantry]

Given the number of times it's called fast: "the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy" "the fastest ship in the fleet" etc - maybe those screen-notes don't have much bearing on the finished product?

It's fastest because of the Hyperdrive

TIE fighters don't seem to have a problem making passes. Anyone ever consider Han was full of it?

For some reason they made them slower then X-wings. In the past the Y-wing was the slowest of the Rebel fighters. Like a lot of cannon it has been contradicted and simply ignored over the years. So long story short it is an assault fighter, not a bomber. Its role is clear as a heavy shielded well armed attack ship. It is supposed to be rather capable in a dogfight.

It's fastest because of the Hyperdrive

The falcon was actually very slow with its normal engines it just had a really fast (and unstable) hyperdrive.

They went on a diet. You're so nice to notice. :-D lol

For some reason they made them slower then X-wings. In the past the Y-wing was the slowest of the Rebel fighters. Like a lot of cannon it has been contradicted and simply ignored over the years. So long story short it is an assault fighter, not a bomber. Its role is clear as a heavy shielded well armed attack ship. It is supposed to be rather capable in a dogfight.

It was designed for anti-captial duty and to replace the Y-Wing. It didn replace the latter because the B-Wing design was pretty bad. Prone to failure, hard to build and mantain and to fly. It had a good top speed on the paper, but once it powered its shields and/or weapons the Y-Wing was a faster choice.

It had a good top speed on the paper, but once it powered its shields and/or weapons the Y-Wing was a faster choice.

Must have been something with the fact they'd removed half of its goddamn bodywork... Lot of weight to shed on them Ys.

It's fastest because of the Hyperdrive

Which wouldn't be particularly relevant to participation in the Battle of Endor though.

The whole reason the Y-wing wasn't completly obsoleted by the B-wing was because the Y-wing still had three things going for it: speed, reliability, and ease of use/less intensive training.

So it would have to be slower than Y-wings for it to make sense in this game. But the B-wing is stull manuverable. If you try to break off, it can spin around and plant a shot on your back, so you can't really disengage without assistance without getting killed.