Only with the Rival Rule in play.

Which it should always be. Saying something is fundamentally broken because you're judging a gimped version of it is a bit disingenuous.

The article introducing Hangar Bay is written as if the Rival Rule is an option that the TO can choose to have or not to as opposed to an inherent part of the rules.

Not a bad idea, however this would drastically increase the amount of time y would take.

The time it would take to adjust a squad between rounds would make for very long days. May not be bad in a 10 man tournament, but a 100+ would be painfully long. While some people could probably switch out in a matter of minutes, others would take way too long. Trying to decide which they should take etc, then there is the space required, as people tend to take only what they need, in this case they'd have to take most of their stuff

I believe Krynn thought you could freely edit the list within 40 points as opposed to having two lists to choose from that share 60.

I reckon the easiest way to have flexible squadrons implemented would just be to port the escalation rules.

Build 1 list at 60 points, and then use that as a base to make two 100pt lists under escalation rules.

Everyone wins there... The escalation rules are well established enough, and pretty well understood. Plus it's had plenty of tournaments so we know it works.

Quick question on the hangar bay format though (never played a hangar bay format):

I had expected the different factions thing to be optional, but I would have thought that the default rules would have had some protection in place to prevent the fielding of two carbon copies of the same list... Something like "you can only use each unique pilot/upgrade once over both lists".

How come something like that isn't a thing?

Reverse Hangar Bay is broken in a competitive setting by simply bringing the same list twice, else it probably would have been written like that.

Which you can't due to the restriction of both lists having to be from different factions...

Scum Ywing 4tlt

Rebel Ywing 4tlt

If you bring two ready to play lists the time it takes to choose one to play one over the other should be almost insignificant. Maybe a minute to review your opponent's choices and make up your mind. If you have the option to make variable changes each game then things start to become tricky.

One thing about a "sideboard" concept that always bothers me is what do you do about pilots? Maybe I've only got one TIE Fighter I want to change instead of add but does have the Academy/Howlrunner option cost me 12/18 points or only 6 points which is the difference between the two?

I can see a two list format turning into something like RPS where you want to bring two of the choices. When it comes down to play you'll probably see a lot of mirror matches if one is wise but the risk takers could get lucky at times. We should also admit X-Wing isn't as simple as RPS.

Just put in the rule NO MIRROR Matches and it is easy. Find what ever faction you both brought and then roll off who plays that faction first. If you both brought the same two faction roll off who chooses which faction to play first and then the other opponent plays the other faction. Switch on the next round.

....

I can see a two list format turning into something like RPS where you want to bring two of the choices. When it comes down to play you'll probably see a lot of mirror matches if one is wise but the risk takers could get lucky at times. We should also admit X-Wing isn't as simple as RPS.

Just put in the rule NO MIRROR Matches and it is easy. Find what ever faction you both brought and then roll off who plays that faction first. If you both brought the same two faction roll off who chooses which faction to play first and then the other opponent plays the other faction. Switch on the next round.

Why no mirror matches? I mean if you really want to see who is actually better I can't think of anything more appropriate than having two players facing each other and using the same lists.

If you're running a tournament and want the best player to win having them win mirror matches is really the way to go.

The article introducing Hangar Bay is written as if the Rival Rule is an option that the TO can choose to have or not to as opposed to an inherent part of the rules.

Um... OK... way to be kinda sorta maybe technically correct and completely ignore the salient point.

Any Hanger Bay I've played in or heard about has used the rival rule. Anyone (other than you) I've ever spoken to about the Hangar Bay format naturally assumes it's in effect. It makes Hangar Bay more fun and the one and only reason not to do it is in case people don't have sufficient out of faction ships. But that's both rare and easily solved by borrowing a squad. In fact the TOs and veteran players at events I've been to have always had a few extra prebuilt squads on hand for just that purpose. Beyond that we'll say for the sake of argument that Reverse Hangar Bay always has the rival rule active since it's a made up rule set anyways and there's no official FFG article about it to cite in an effort to tear down a strawman

Scum Ywing 4tlt

Rebel Ywing 4tlt

Fair enough

Though in the current meta there's so much that wrecks low agility ships, including TLT Ys that I'm not sure it's really a problem. I'd also guess that one list would be running unhinged and the other R2s so not completely identical