Basically, the idea here is this: There are some ships in this game that perform some roles that they really shouldnt, or don't perform roles as well as they should, at least as far as canon is concerned.

The biggest example on mind is the B-Wing.

Basically, the B-Wing was a heavy strike-fighter. It was slower and less maneuverable than the Y-Wing, but packed more firepower to bear against capital ships, while the Y-Wing was a generalist's craft. It carrys no "standard" laser cannons, and instead packs 3 ion cannons, 1 heavy laser cannon, dual torpedo launchers and a cluster of autoblasters. The ions, torpedoes, and HLC, were supposed to be used against capital ships, while the autoblasters were anti-light vehicle and anti-infantry weapons. Never was the B-Wing supposed to engage fighters; It's autoblasters were generally too weak to harm starfighters with their thicker hulls, the HLC and Ion Cannons were so spread out on the wings that it couldnt hit a small, agile target, and the B-Wing was so slow and sluggish that it was incapable of dogfighting. Everyone likes to compare the Y-Wing to the A-10C Warthog, but in actuality the closest comparison is the B-Wing. Bristling with weapons, but extremely slow and not very maneuverable, it is never supposed to engage air targets.

None of these things carry over particularly well to X-Wing. In X-Wing, the B-Wing knife-fights like a fiend and has exceptional anti-fighter capacity. This isn't a complaint necessarily, because the B-Wing still holds a unique role in Rebel squad building, and i am 100% for creative uses for all ships in X-Wing. But, in a perfect world, it would please me if B-Wings had a role in X-Wing comparable to their canon counterparts.

So, what if the B-Wing suffered a penalty when attacking small ships, and a buff when attacking large and huge ships? Let me just list some things that come to mind.

"When attacking a small base ship, that ship may roll one additional defense die. When attacking a large or huge base ship, if the attack hits, you may deal one additional damage."

I want to be clear that this isn't a title, this is just a special rule that always applies to B-Wings. This is neither a buff nor nerf, but instead it re-specifies what the B-Wing should be used for. You can still use the B-Wing against fighters, but this rule represents that B-Wings aren't very good at it. And it also provides an immediate hard counter to large base ships. "But isn't that overpowered?" No, because the hard counter to B-Wings is a bunch of TIE Fighters now. If you think you're going up against B-Wings, dont bring large ships. Furthermore, if you want to field B-Wings in case of big ships, then you'll need to devote part of your squad to anti-fighter ships as escorts in case of small ships. While powerful against large ships in a group, B-Wings will be eaten alive by any other kind of squad, meaning that the necessity of bringing fighter craft will restrict the B-Wing from being too powerful.

Does anyone else have some cool ideas for ships to make them more appropriate to the way they are in canon? Again, i want to specify, i don't think these changes should be made to the game. This is just some fun ideas for how i'd have liked an X-Wing-type game to work.

That's actually been a strength of armada, highlighting the difference in roles that thread ships have. I'm not sure x wing can really give us something like you suggested since the goal of nearly every x wing ship is to facilitate the dogfight

I don't think we get to see a B wing attack another fighter in the movies do we?

most of the ships weren't that great "in-canon" - movies most had the X-wing and the TIE Fighter (and the TFA equivilents) but virually nothing else. If u go by the stories then I can summarize it as X-Wing > pretty much everything.

What means "in-canon"? Because I don't think the comics or novels were any more canon than the PC games were, and in the PC games, I would take a B-Wing over an X-Wing or a BTL-A4 Y-Wing 100% of the time.

Higher warhead count, more firepower, ion cannons, better shields, better hull, just a little slower than the X-Wing.

The B-Wing had trouble only against TIE Interceptors and TIE Advanceds for their crazy maneuverability (And in those missions you would take an A-Wing anyway). Against the rest of the other threats, you would fly safer on a B-Wing.

You could withstand a salvo of missiles from a flight of TIE Bombers or Gunboats, while an X-Wing or A-Wing would blow up.

In general, you could do more and better with 3 A-Wings and 3 B-Wings, than with 6 X-Wings.

It's a totally different thing that the comic and novel writers wanted to keep the X-Wing as the iconical Mary Sue of a ship, when in terms of factual efficacy in the simulators (or even in this game) it wasn't nothing but a glorified Z-95 on steroids.

I don't think we get to see a B wing attack another fighter in the movies do we?

People tend to confuse what they've seen with how little was actually shown, in canon material.

In canon, it is known to be slower but stronger than an X-Wing, but naught else.

I don't think we get to see a B wing attack another fighter in the movies do we?

It doesn't tell us much, as we don't get to see a B-wing attack anything.

Well.....we do in Rebels, but that's not exactly a "stock" B-wing; it's a custom prototype armed with god-knows-what.

I don't think we get to see a B wing attack another fighter in the movies do we?

People tend to confuse what they've seen with how little was actually shown, in canon material.

In canon, it is known to be slower but stronger than an X-Wing, but naught else.

We know that most of the rebel/rebublic aces prefer the X above all - really not much else. Unless they flew a Y - then they stuck with Ys til the republic stopped fixing them.

You are right on the B-Wings. Thats what I thought in the first place when they were introduced.

They should have 0 attack and 3 cannon slots. With the general 'ability': Each cannon you equip is 3 squad points less

This could be done via a title: "Canon B-Wing"

Examples:

Dagger Squadron 24

Ion Cannon 0

Flechette Cannon 0

Mangler Cannon 1

= 25 points

Blue Squadron 22

HLC 4

Autoblaster 2

Ion Cannon 0

= 28 points

Blue Squadron 22

Mangler 1

Ion Cannon 0

Tractor Beam 0

= 23 points

That's actually been a strength of armada, highlighting the difference in roles that thread ships have. I'm not sure x wing can really give us something like you suggested since the goal of nearly every x wing ship is to facilitate the dogfight

Well it really isn't that hard to give an anti-ship squadron a better anti-ship attack. As far as squadrons go IMHO Armada has a lot of game mechanical gaps and missed opportunities... but that is for another topic.

However X-wing is for well X-wing and that is squadron fighters. I like what they did with the B-wing making it a slow moving close up brawler instead of just a torpedo carrier that would have been simply shot down with ease (like the TIE Bomber). Now of course that does mention a flaw with X-wings development the glaring lack of power that discarding secondary weapons have. But as a starfighter game it still holds true.

But boy B-wings probably work awesome in Epic being able to fly behind a huge ship and still be able to stay behind while other ships have to break off and turn after a strafe. A B-wing is slow enough to stay behind and continue to shoot 3-4 red dice at it. So B-wings still fill that anti-big ship role OP was talking about.

2 blue Bwings are really good against Bossk if they can get past the initial run.

This is what Return of the Jedi (The first mention of B-Wings in canon) tells us about B-Wings.

There are 3 of them. They have foldy wings.

Star Wars Rebels (The next best source for B-WIng canon) loves Ralph McQuarrie.

So far... we're totally missing the mark. You can fit four B-Wings in a list and their wings don't fold even a little bit. And they are not that orange-y red colour. So...

Come on FFG! Get viss ze program, jah?

I don't think we get to see a B wing attack another fighter in the movies do we?

People tend to confuse what they've seen with how little was actually shown, in canon material.

In canon, it is known to be slower but stronger than an X-Wing, but naught else.

We know that most of the rebel/rebublic aces prefer the X above all - really not much else. Unless they flew a Y - then they stuck with Ys til the republic stopped fixing them.

Do we? How exactly? The Rebellion allowed pilots their preference of ships?

I haven't yet read any of the new canon books or comics, if there's information there, I'd apprciate it.