the YV is what I imagined happened when the think-tank over at T.I.E inc saw Intel , threw their hands up, and just said

"**** it, make it slow and heavy and give it the best possible anti-squadron per cost. Hopefully, you'll just kill anything that tries to threaten the star destroyers...hopefully"

In my view, the only viable zero-squadron fleets after this wave are going to be speed-focused fleets where the defense vs. squadrons is basically "%*!@ you, I'm going speed 3-4 the whole game" and reducing their attack opportunities by repeatedly running away is the real defense.

Or, perhaps, a very raider heavy imperial fleet, but one can look at the raider as a somewhat beefier squadron, in many ways...

Agreed. Speed 3-4 Rogues with bomber (Firespray, Boba), or even non-bomber Rogues with two anti-ship dice (Han) will still be able to catch most Glads, Nebs, AFIIs, and ISDs with proper planning and maneuvering, but those will be costly (and, in some cases, unique). It will be interesting to see if Boosted Comms also helps to counter these speed demon builds. A Y-wing moving distance 3 can still cover a fair bit of ground, and if activation range is increased ~40%, even speed 3 might not be enough to escape. And then, of course, there's always the Rhymer ball...

I think that the new squadrons from Rogues and Villains will make the no-squadron build a very dicey proposition. The squadrons like Han Solo and Boba Fett can inflict a lot of damage on ships and with their hull values, and defense tokens, a no-squadron fleet will have a hard time killing them. You will see more of the regular fighter squadrons because a cheap squadron that can throw 3 or 4 blue dice at Han is going to be a lot more effective at countering him than costly ships who can throw only a couple of dice at him.

For example: Han Solo costs 26 points. He’s not a bomber but still he will move and attack every turn throwing a blue and a black die at your 110-point (without upgrades) ISD. Each turn that the ISD shoots at him it will roll a black and a blue die and only 1 out of 4 times is it going to roll an accuracy result. The most likely roll is 1 or 2 damage and Han will brace against 2 so you’ll average 1 point of damage a turn. He will probably survive the entire battle at that rate. During that same time he has probably been doing 1 or 2 points of damage per turn to you which at the very least is weakening your shields against the other enemy fire.

For just 22 points you can toss a pair of TIE Interceptors on him. They’ll each roll 4 blue dice with a re-roll for swarm. On average in a single turn they’ll each roll a couple of damage with a fair chance of getting an accuracy result as well. They will whittle down Han a lot faster than any ship-based anti-squadron fire. And if Han decides to shoot that them they have counter 2 so there is a chance of that much more damage inflicted on him.

Now is this actually the way it will work? I can’t say for sure because I haven’t tried it, but based on what I have read this seems logical. It’ll be fun to put it to the test.

I'm inclined to agree, as well. Even adding something like flight controllers for a pair of interceptors costs just two more points than Han, but offers more attack dice (10 vs. 4, plus counter dice), and twice the number of targets (2 vs. 1), at almost twice the speed. Sure you need a squadron command, but that seems a small price to pay for a chance to score 26 points.

So with the drop of the Rogues and Villains article ( https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/9/30/a-few-surprises/ ) and with their impending release in the stores, I am wondering if they will have an effect on the seemingly Ship-Heavy play styles that we have been seeing? Will they bring squadrons back into the fold somewhat?

Things like Bossk's ability to add an accuracy to his attack could help avoid defence tokens when attacking Ships or Squadrons with Scatter or Dengar's ability to increase the Counter values (or give a ship one to start) could make other squadrons stronger. I know many of the abilities are more directed towards squadrons but many of them seem quite interesting. I know I'll be picking up a pack and testing them out.

What does everyone think?

My prediction: ship-heavy build will remain popular and competitive. Squadrons of old were a bit too limited/costly - not exactly bad, but not essential. With wave 2 we have 400 points, but expensive large ships and more nice upgrades. Squadrons will be a tight squeeze - even more so given the huge cost of many of the new ones.

Ship heavy or ship only?

I tend to think ship only is more likely to be a thing than ship heavy/token fighter screen. I think anyone intending to use squadrons as a part of their gameplay is oing to have enough toys to easily bypass a "token" screen, and pick up points along the way.

So I think "ship only" is more likely to be a fleet model, unless the "meta" shifts enough that you just can't afford to do it.

I'm not a huge fan of all-ship. Maybe I'm a coward or maybe I'm just in love with snubs, but I (almost) always take a few :-D

ATM it's quite surprising what a deterrent a few squadrons can be, especially if backed up by some 2 dice AAA ships (and Warlord/H9). Yes, my 3 TIEs tend to die, but in return they delay the opponent's squadrons considerably.

At 400 points (or 300 for that matter) you can afford to lose a few squadron stands without any real impact on your MoV - they cost less than a ship that gets swarmed by bombers.

If R&V changes the equation, if they make my screen useless, I would rather try an all-ship fleet than stack up on squadrons.