There seems to be a trend that several ships are only competitive with a generic pilot or in some cases a named pilot only. Please keep in mind that I do not think this is the case with all ships. The TIE fighter for example has great ships at every level. I'm simply listing ships that I think are only competitive with generics and ships only competitive with named pilots. As always there are exceptions and this is my opinion only. Good players can fly any of these ships and do well with them. But for those of us who at times have to rely on quality ships I think they need to keep in mind the list below. Let me know what you think.

REBELS

B-wing - generic > named pilot

Y-wing - generic > named pilot

X-wing - generic < named pilot

E-wing - generic < named pilot

Z95 - generic > named pilot

YT1300 - generic < named pilot

EMPIRE

Tie Defender - generic < named pilot

Tie Interceptor - generic < named pilot (Imperial Aces should've had the elite slot for all aces)

Tie Bomber - generic > named pilot

SCUM

Z95 - generic > named pilot

Honestly it's more likely that in the 100 pt tournament or even casual setting most people have a sense of what is effective for its cost. The named B Wing pilots for example are very expensive for either a sub part ability like Ibitsam or cost alot to actually trigger their ability like Ten Numb.

Alot of the generics that don't see alot of table time in tournament play scale really well into epic format such as X Wings and even E wings. That being said some Named pilots are not liked for 100pt grinders excel at Epic like Etahn Ebaht and Captain Jonus.

Note that the Y and B are victims of flawed, early design (note the lack of using epts)

The yt1300 generic is an abbreation especially

There's also TLTs making 1 agi, no defense and low mobility characters scarce while generics can justvoutdice TLTs

OfC, swarms did the same exact thing so no change there

Some ships have more for the pilots to take advantage of, some have less for the aces. It's reasonable to me.

Ships with popular generic pilots tend to be efficient for their points. They will push out less efficient ships that fill the same role. for an example of this, look at the Blue Squadron B-Wing and the Rookie Pilot.

Pilot abilities can make up for some of the lack of efficiency in generics. Some named pilots lose the efficiency that their generic pilots had once you pay for their ability, increased PS, EPT, and other upgrades. It's easy for a 22 point B-Wing to be worth it's points. It's much harder for a 40+ point Keyan Farlander to do the same.

There seems to be a trend that several ships are only competitive with a generic pilot or in some cases a named pilot only. Please keep in mind that I do not think this is the case with all ships. The TIE fighter for example has great ships at every level. I'm simply listing ships that I think are only competitive with generics and ships only competitive with named pilots. As always there are exceptions and this is my opinion only. Good players can fly any of these ships and do well with them. But for those of us who at times have to rely on quality ships I think they need to keep in mind the list below. Let me know what you think.

REBELS

B-wing - generic > named pilot

Y-wing - generic > named pilot

X-wing - generic < named pilot

E-wing - generic < named pilot

Z95 - generic > named pilot

YT1300 - generic < named pilot

EMPIRE

Tie Defender - generic < named pilot

Tie Interceptor - generic < named pilot (Imperial Aces should've had the elite slot for all aces)

Tie Bomber - generic > named pilot

SCUM

Z95 - generic > named pilot

If you have time could you list the other fighters in the game? I want to see what you think of the TIE Punisher.

There seems to be a trend that several ships are only competitive with a generic pilot or in some cases a named pilot only. Please keep in mind that I do not think this is the case with all ships. The TIE fighter for example has great ships at every level. I'm simply listing ships that I think are only competitive with generics and ships only competitive with named pilots. As always there are exceptions and this is my opinion only. Good players can fly any of these ships and do well with them. But for those of us who at times have to rely on quality ships I think they need to keep in mind the list below. Let me know what you think.

REBELS

B-wing - generic > named pilot (it's a lumbering cow and fitting it makes it x2 times expensive)

Y-wing - generic > named pilot (when you're capped at 2 damage per turn why pay more?)

X-wing - generic < named pilot (new X-wings have boost => require high PS)

E-wing - generic < named pilot (useful only with ability combos)

Z95 - generic > named pilot (DERP PS named)

YT1300 - generic < named pilot 2 attack dice. and PS9 with epic boosting abilities? You guessed that

EMPIRE

Tie Defender - generic < named pilot BOTH ARE OVERPRICED

Tie Interceptor - generic < named pilot (Imperial Aces should've had the elite slot for all aces) (boosing is a PS race)

Tie Bomber - generic > named pilot (you fight with ordnance)

SCUM

Z95 - generic > named pilot (DERP PS named)

IF the ship can get cool PS8+ pilots and can use boost efficiently (ability still can be used)

it's a generic<named

If the ship has plainly good basic abilities and doesn't require upgrade combo shenanigans it has generic>named

If you have time could you list the other fighters in the game? I want to see what you think of the TIE Punisher.

I think he's just listing the ones where there's a clear disparity.

Punisher generics suffer from could-have-been-bomber-itus

That or Advance if AC is involved

There seems to be a trend that several ships are only competitive with a generic pilot or in some cases a named pilot only. Please keep in mind that I do not think this is the case with all ships. The TIE fighter for example has great ships at every level. I'm simply listing ships that I think are only competitive with generics and ships only competitive with named pilots. As always there are exceptions and this is my opinion only. Good players can fly any of these ships and do well with them. But for those of us who at times have to rely on quality ships I think they need to keep in mind the list below. Let me know what you think.

REBELS

B-wing - generic > named pilot

Y-wing - generic > named pilot

X-wing - generic < named pilot

E-wing - generic < named pilot

Z95 - generic > named pilot

YT1300 - generic < named pilot

EMPIRE

Tie Defender - generic < named pilot

Tie Interceptor - generic < named pilot (Imperial Aces should've had the elite slot for all aces)

Tie Bomber - generic > named pilot

SCUM

Z95 - generic > named pilot

If you have time could you list the other fighters in the game? I want to see what you think of the TIE Punisher.

If I didn't list a ship it is because in my opinion the generics and named pilots are both competitive. I haven't used the Punisher but from what I've seen - generic < named pilot. Redline it pretty good.

Punisher generics can work. With AS they're the only generic that can change where a reveal bomb is dropped prior to moving ("Genius" and Bombardier having different effects).

Way I see it overall is the factions have baseline generics as a standard. If a ships generics cannot match said standard, then some upgrade combination or the named pilots better be good.

This baseline is almost entirely based on jousting value

For the empire, its obviously Tie Fighters keeping the gates. The scimitar bomber is actually REALLY close ito jousting value to the academy fighter

Fixed Advance IMO are quite excellent (tempest AC) and limited testing has made me respect the Juke Relay Omega Squadron. The Tie ln ironically overcomes itself with the black squadron w/crackshot

For rebels, we got Zs and Bs

The TLT y breaks away with a below par jousting value thanks to the turret and 2ndary weapon advantage. The Xwings will soon have integrated to bump them up to Bwing efficiency

Awings with charidan arent as efficient and serve a different purpose (blocking!)

Scum doesn't have enough yet, just Zs and the upgraded Ys with ICT BTLs and titleless TLTs. Misthunter awaiting testing upon release

If a ship's generic cannot match that level of efficiency, you're probably going to see its character variants more often than not

The strong generic ships (namely high agi) will also sometimes have powerful characters

Stabber/curse/wampa/howl

Zeta A/epsilon L/omega L

Strum/Juno/vader

The low agi aces, even with amazing abilities ala keyan, are difficult to make work

Punisher generics can work. With AS they're the only generic that can change where a reveal bomb is dropped prior to moving ("Genius" and Bombardier having different effects).

Genius actually works well only with Kavil. because PS7-9 and can boost away after the payload is dropped.

Or alternatively a DERP Y with Genius in Epic

As long as a ship has a role to play at all, I have no gripes.

Honestly, your chart there shows that it varies from ship to ship. Which is exactly how it should be.

I completely (an respectfully) disagree about the usefulness of Scum Z-95s. I use Binayre Pirates, Black Sun Soldiers, and N'dru Suhlak. They all have uses. The only one I haven't used is Kaa'to Leachos. So I think this is a case of a articular qbility being difficult to make use of rather than a case of generics or named pioots being better than the others. I mean, have you tried Glitterstim/Cluster Missile/Lone Wolf N'dru? He gets two 4-dice attacks with focus on both and a blank reroll on both attacks. That's brutal! But even just a 19-point Lone Wolf N'dru can put in some work for cheap.

Really though, it's not an issue of generic vs named pilots. It's an issue of differing roles favoring different load outs.

Ships that rely on arc-dodging favor high-PS (aka "named pilot") builds. Imagine if you swapped the PS on Soontir and an Alpha Squadron pilot- which one would then be the better choice? Soontir's ability provides a nice action economy, but his real strength lies in arc-dodging 95% of the other ships out there.

Ships that don't care about arc-dodging but rather just try to weather the hits and kill their opponents faster than their opponents kill them (jousters, turrets, tanks, etc) tend to favor low PS (generic) builds. The reason for that is because a fully loaded Ten Numb dies just as easily as a naked Blue, but costs twice as many points. So in that case you're better off stocking up on cheap generics since several of them are going to die anyway.

There are a couple exceptions, such as X-Wings, mainly because the X-Wing pilot abilities are all pretty phenomenal, as they should be as they are the namesake ship for the game.

Also, yt-1300s are a bit of an exception since the generic has a different stat line than the named pilots, so really they are two different ships.

The constantly changing meta is to me what makes it seem that way. No super competitive list has run a named B wing pilot because it didn't fit the role in the competitive scene where as 4 B wings and a Z wing have fit the role because you as the competitive player gets more bang for your buck.

I try to run all the pilots, test them out, but I'm not a competitive player, I just fly what I think is fun and cool and rarely ever run the same list twice.

The other big thing is going to be cost. From what I've seen, having more ships on the board is an advantage itself. BBBBZ is popular because B wings are tough and when flown correctly you're going to be rolling lots of dice. Same with running 5 Cartel kihraxz fighters for 20 points, it's a lot of red dice being thrown around and they are tough enough to take some damage and dish it out. I'll call it the 'All Kirk' or KKKKK. You're essentially swarming and just relying on unmodified red dice, lots of them. When you're running less then 3-4 ships, you're going to want to build around synergy and pilot abilities and whatnot to modify dice and get yourself into better positions on the board. That's why Decimators and Defenders are awesome, same with both the YTs.

That's my take on it.

Glitterstim/Cluster Missile/Lone Wolf N'dru?

25 points.

For one-time PEW PEW?

Glitterstim/Cluster Missile/Lone Wolf N'dru?

25 points.

For one-time PEW PEW?

Glitterstim/Cluster Missile/Lone Wolf N'dru?

25 points.

For one-time PEW PEW?

That one time pew-pew is often enough to one (cluster)-shot an oppossing ace, well invested points.

an opponent ace has the tools to get out of R1-2 or just boost-roll out of arc.

N'dru doesn't have the epic PS to go last and avoid that.

It will work against bro-bot, but all "aces" somehow have the PS8+

Glitterstim/Cluster Missile/Lone Wolf N'dru?

25 points.

For one-time PEW PEW?

That one time pew-pew is often enough to one (cluster)-shot an oppossing ace, well invested points.

an opponent ace has the tools to get out of R1-2 or just boost-roll out of arc.

N'dru doesn't have the epic PS to go last and avoid that.

It will work against bro-bot, but all "aces" somehow have the PS8+

What do you expect to get out of a 25 point ship? Toss Crackshot, Homing Missile, and Glitterstim on N'Dru and you've got a nice big area that an ace like Soontir wants to stay the hell out of. Maybe that makes N'Dru the top priority to get off the board. Great, that means they aren't shooting at your other 75 points. If he gets off his big hit he's still tossing enough dice that he can't just be ignored.

I think the op has a bit too high of a standard.

While it would be amazing for all pilots to be viable choices in all formats I just don't think that's probable. Even more so I think the way initiative bidding with pilot skill works prevents all the pilots from being good options. But they are options waiting for the right situation to be viable again.

There are certainly ways to make things more diverse in fact I think the introduction of crackshot did a fantastic job making the EPT generics playable.

Something I would love to see is a cheap ship modification that would give generics a boost but be less desirable when taking that slot on an aces ship. I think cards like integrated astromech are a fantastic example of this already.

I agree with your categorisation.

It varies from ship to ship, but as a rule, the more expensive, upgradeable and manoeuvrable ships favour the named pilots - a Trifecta which becomes most obvious with the rebel YT-1300 and -2400.

Which makes sense, when you think about it. There are three reasons, and - as long as cards remain fixed price, regardless of who you attach them to - I don't think there's any real way around it. My reasoning is as follows:

The more manoeuvrable your ship, the more you want to be an 'arc dodger' - therefore high pilot skill becomes useful to take advantage of your boost/barrel roll/etc. The more your durability is dependent on actions, the more important action economy is - therefore the more critical elite pilot talents and/or pilot abilities become. (which is why you don't see generic TIE Interceptors)

AND

The more expensive your ship, the less (proportionately) you pay for the upgrade. For example, Colonel Vessery costs you 5 points relative to the price of a Delta Squadron Pilot (~16%) whilst Mauler Mithel costs you 5 points relative to an academy pilot (~40%). As a result, the upgrade is more worth it. (Which is why you rarely see generic TIE Defenders)

ALSO

Since a well-designed ship's upgrades are worth more than the sum of their parts - and more expensive ships tend to have more upgrade 'slots' - when a ship has a system upgrade and a modification and an astromech, you get proportionately even more out of an elite talent and pilot ability. Which is why it feels silly to layer a 27+ point E-wing in 10+ points of generic upgrades and then not shell out less than that for a decent pilot. It's the same with the Starviper - so much capability is bound up in that title card that it seems a waste to field more than one of them per squad. (Which is why you rarely see generic E-wings and Starvipers)

Glitterstim/Cluster Missile/Lone Wolf N'dru?

25 points.

For one-time PEW PEW?

That one time pew-pew is often enough to one (cluster)-shot an oppossing ace, well invested points.

an opponent ace has the tools to get out of R1-2 or just boost-roll out of arc.

N'dru doesn't have the epic PS to go last and avoid that.

It will work against bro-bot, but all "aces" somehow have the PS8+

What do you expect to get out of a 25 point ship? Toss Crackshot, Homing Missile, and Glitterstim on N'Dru and you've got a nice big area that an ace like Soontir wants to stay the hell out of. Maybe that makes N'Dru the top priority to get off the board. Great, that means they aren't shooting at your other 75 points. If he gets off his big hit he's still tossing enough dice that he can't just be ignored.

Most likely you'll get 3 results against focussed Soontir. maybe even R3 autothrusting Soontir.

It's a Z.

It dies horrible horrible death the moment the enemy wants it dead.