With Rogue One on the not so distant horizon and related X-Wing releases to come with it, something has come to my attention: The growing disparity between faction specific crew.

Including Wave 9 here are the current faction specific crew numbers (not including Epic only):
Rebels - 18

Imperials - 9

Scum - 12

If we reference some FFG preview articles and do some speculation using our super squinting powers we can estimate the numbers post Wave 10 + HotR + Rogue One to be:
Rebels - 26 (+8)

Imperials - 11 (+2)

Scum - 13 (+1, can't quite make out the restriction on the second crew in the QuadJumper pack so refraining from adding for now)

Now I'm sure you're saying: "Of course Rebels have the most you idiot, they are the focus of the movies/shows so we need crew for everyone!!" or you might be saying: "Oh wow, that is alarming. Never realized the faction specific crew differed that much". I would agree that Star Wars generally focuses on the Heroes of the Rebels/Resistance and as such I expect us to get more crew for them. I am also alarmed by the crew disparity between factions but maybe for different reasons. Regardless the reasons why there is an imbalance in crew I think what's more important is the implications this has for X-Wing and that's what I would like to discuss.

With a constant stream of new Star Wars media (introducing new characters to us at a rate I can hardly keep up with), and FFG's relative success with X-Wing I don't have a doubt we'll continue to see new ships/releases for awhile and subsequently even more faction specific crew. My concern is will the plethora of crew combos restrict the game designers in future (specifically Rebel) releases/ship designs giving us ships/Pilots in X-Wing artificially skewed from expectations in order to maintain game balance? As we've discovered from time to time some killer combos can and do make it through play testing and turn the game on its head and we could run into the opposite scenario where post (insert some future Wave/Release) everyone is flying Rebels exclusively because so-and-so is OP combined with that other crew.

Generally I don't have a problem with or think its a bad thing if there are more of one faction crew than the other, what I fear is that it will paint the designers into a metaphoric corner when designing future releases because crew combo X or Y exists. Now that I think of it, this may be true for more than just crew in X-Wing and instead a high-level game design problem as a game matures and potential combinations grow as new releases introduce new upgrades/mechanics/etc. (/revelation)

Digressed a little there but to get back to my original point: wanted to present this to the community and see if anyone else had thoughts regarding the imbalance between faction specific crew and any theories they might have as to its lasting impact on X-Wing

- darkdooku

I suppose the threat of game-breaking combos is a symptom of a game that's experienced a lot of success. And for the reason you explained - the expansion of the game itself.

Growing pains.

Rebels may have more individual crew upgrades, but scum have more places to put them. And the Scoum crew are great. It really isn't a matter of how many you have, it is a matter of how good they are. Just look at Astro-mech droids. reels have all the astromech droids, and only two of them get much use. (Sorry BB-8 I wish we saw more of you).

I like having differences between the factions. For instance ship wise Imperials have a lot of generic elites whereas the Rebels have a lot of named pilots and astromechs. I don't like it when differences start to bleed over like the illicit upgrades for the Rebels. For me Rebels having more crew is a nice factional advantage that those players should maximise and other players can envy.

Rebels may have more individual crew upgrades, but scum have more places to put them. And the Scoum crew are great. It really isn't a matter of how many you have, it is a matter of how good they are. Just look at Astro-mech droids. reels have all the astromech droids, and only two of them get much use. (Sorry BB-8 I wish we saw more of you).

I had a section in my original post related to Rebel ships with crew slots and touched on how a few Rebel crew were duds design-wise but removed it prior to posting as I couldn't get it to fit right but I agree despite Rebels high number of crew I do think they have quite a few mediocre abilities. Those suppose they all can't be great right?

Also agree that Scum have some great crew toting platforms but I don't think Rebels are slacking on that front. Between YT1300, YT2400, HWK, VCX-100, B-Wing, Attack Shuttle, K-Wing, Sabine's Tie, ARC, and U-Wing they by far have the most platforms to fly their crew in.

Yep. Echoing the above:

Scum have fantastic (and broken) crew.

Rebels have great crew, as well, but fewer options for a platform - until the U-Wing.

Let's be honest: A ship can't really jive with crew unless there's two slots. All the two-crew ships for Rebels are PwT (VCX might as well be). So you can't get too creative or the 1- agility, melty Rebel curse will get you.

Scum just got the better deal.

Yeah, you have to take value of the crew into account. When it comes to top-tier crew, Scum better options, and ironically ones that synergize better in my opinion. Imperials still lag, though.

That's not to say the Rebels don't have some great ones, but they have many that are too niche-situational. Leia crew, anyone? Or Han crew ... who works for one Ghost build right now, but not much else. Finn, too -- looks like one great build, and a bunch of others that are probably borderline at best.

Yeah, you have to take value of the crew into account. When it comes to top-tier crew, Scum better options, and ironically ones that synergize better in my opinion. Imperials still lag, though.

That's not to say the Rebels don't have some great ones, but they have many that are too niche-situational. Leia crew, anyone? Or Han crew ... who works for one Ghost build right now, but not much else. Finn, too -- looks like one great build, and a bunch of others that are probably borderline at best.

But they also have a faction identity of faceless hordes. Even their faction crew includes generic officers, which the Rebels don't have.

It always struck me that Scum had meh ships and fair crew (till the jm5k anyway) while the other two had the opposite mix. Now I'm not so sure I was right.

I've never been a big user of crewed ships. With Rebels there are only a couple I find fit my mediocre play style. A B-Wing/e2 here and there was about it. I still don't use Imperial crew very often, they just don't need it. But Scum, dear lord Scum! So many choices. So many ships with slots and so many cheap and magical ways to fill those slots. There's honestly so little you can't do with Scum large based ships and their crew. You can modify your dice, even your opponent's dice, as if there was no tomorrow. It's almost reached silly.

It makes me wonder wether the differences in numbers mean a damned thing. All those Rebels and it's not likely more than a third ever see the table top. The Imperials are even worse. But, again, Scum have a huge percentage that get used in proportion to their numbers.

I'd be more coherent but I'm typing fast as my family gets ready for Mass.

Well let's not forget that two of the Empire's crew are Darth Vader and the Emperor. We all know what's the number one crew card in X-wing and Darth is certainly up there as well.

Also keep in mind how many of those crew are pretty much epic ships only.

And rebels have a ton of ships that need lots of crew, such as VCX-100, U-Wing, YT-1300, etc.

Well lets take a look at all expansion packs with crew. Also which ones have faction specific crew (not including Wave 10 ships yet) Key: Neutral Rebel Imperial Scum Epic

• Millennium Falcon
• Slave 1
• HWK-29
• Lambda Shuttle
• TIE Phantom
• VT-49 Decimator
• YT-2400
• Most Wanted
• Hound's Tooth
• K-wing
• Ghost
• Mist Hunter
• Punishing One
• ARC-170
• Shadow Caster
• Heroes of the Resistance
• Imperial Assault Carrier
• Imperial Raider
• Imperial Veterans
• Rebel Aces
• Rebel Transport
• Tantive IV

So for expansions Rebels have 10 expansion packs but 2 of them are epic and 3 of them have only neutral crew. Imperials have only 7 Expansion packs that contain crew with two of them being epic and another 2 having only neutral crew. Scum only have 5 expansion packs and all have scum crew.

It's not remotely alarming, because many if not most of the rebel-specific crew... well, are not that good.

I mean, when's the last time you saw someone use Dash crew. Or Zeb crew. Or Leia crew. Etc etc.