A-Wings are all over the place in Star Wars canon. Showing up as early as 5 years before the Battle of Yavin, and as late now as 30 years after after the Battle of Endor in service by the Resistance, featuring both original Rebel-modified RZ-1 A-Wings, and new, Mk. III A-Wings(as seen in early promo photos from the set of Episode VIII).

That's quite a legacy. The A-Wing has always represented one thing; The pinnacle of speed and agility, unmatched by almost any other ship. This is translated from many forms, from the original KSE A-Wing, to the Mk. II A-Wing that stripped away all armor for more and more speed, and finally the Mk. III A-Wing, which while elusive in it's details, promises that same raw acceleration, but this time, with more firepower.

The A-Wing was so fast, in fact, that it excelled at a recon role, with it's wedge nose filled with sensitive sensors, jammers, and other advanced systems. But it knew how to get into a scrap. It's gimbaled laser cannons traversed a wide arc of fire, and allowed extremely precise shooting.

The pilots that flew these craft were an elite bunch. Only the best touches the control stick of an A-Wing, and in X-Wing this is no different. It is no surprise to me that only the named pilots that see play are in the upper echelon of PS.

Before we view the expansion, just remember that i'm always working on these expansions, even after i release them, so any constructive criticism will likely turn into adjustments for any cards seen here. Nothing here is finalized, ever. The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement, am i right?

So with sufficient foreshadowing, let's dive into the expansion, shall we? The 40 Years of Speed Expansion features 4 new pilots, 3 new titles, and 2 new system upgrades. If it were an official release, it would come packaged with 2 new models: A KSE A-Wing, and the new Episode VIII Mk. III A-Wing.

Admittedly redundant; The Green Squadron Pilot is usually more than sufficient. However, you do get the opportunity cost of not having to use one of your EPT slots for Adaptability.

Sabine Wren makes her way into her A-Wing, bringing her fantastic ability with her. At PS5(with an EPT slot to get to PS7), she can leverage the A-Wings excellent dial very well with her free reposition actions.

Shara gets an upgrade to PS 7 for being in her native ship, and as such a pilot ability change is in order. Used to the sensitive controls in her A-Wing, she can push her ship to it's breaking points to squeeze every drop of maneuverability from it, making boosts and barrel rolls almost unnecessary. Her ability allows her, after executing a 1 or 2 speed maneuver(that did not bump), to immediately choose and execute another 1 or 2 speed maneuver. Shara is exceptionally skilled at dodging dangerous situations. Action efficiency-wise, this means you don't need to spend precious actions on boosts, because you can do better boosts for free. This means you can stack up on tokens for offensive and defensive purposes. But if you REALLY NEED TO, you can still perform a boost if you want to after both maneuvers. Shara was exceptionally talented at getting her way into, and then back out of a fight.

Pash Cracken makes his X-Wing debut. Pash always struck me as a pilot that knew how to leverage his enemies weakness's, and capitalize on them. Whenever he is attacking or defending, if the other ship has stress tokens, Pash can immediately convert that into hits or evades, to a maximum of 2. Dengaroo matchup? Pash will chew Dengar up and spit him out. Since Dengar always has a ton of stress tokens, Pash is guaranteed 2 hits when attacking him, and 2 evades when defending against him, as the defender modifies dice after the attacker does, so Dengar can't do anything about it. Knowing that you have 2 hits or evades in the bag could mean not even worrying about gaining tokens and just focusing on repositioning.

Wait wait wait. 2 PS 8 pilots? Yes, 2 reasons. One is that A-Wing pilots shouldnt be able to get to PS 12 all by themselves by being PS 9 native. That's kind of lame. Second, the only named A-Wing pilots ever fielded in numerous amounts is Jake and Tycho. Both are at the upper echelon of pilot skill. This is no coincidence. I am trying to give the A-Wing multiple high-PS pilot options, without pushing to PS 9.

So, L'ulo. Dial in a 2 bank, and if you so desire, treat it as a white sloop. L'ulo was known for a special maneuver known as the L'ulo Stand. Now, we don't know exactly what it entails, but we do know only Shara Bey, L'ulo, and Poe Dameron have ever completed it, and used it to turn the tables on the enemy. So i just sort of turned it into a white sloop on command. You won't drop stress; but what you will do is turn your ship completely around, and, if you weren't stressed, still get an action, something A-Wings have struggled with doing in the past. He also gets an evade token when he does this, for action efficiency purposes, which A-Wings live and die on.

So let's take a look at some of the new titles available for the A-Wing. Again, just like the X-Wing, i'm not trying to cut out a fix already put out, but trying to augment that in as a given auto-add, which A-Wing Test Pilot basically is.

The original KSE A-Wings were decently sturdy. They still had their metal armor, and had larger missile launcher magazines. As a result, however, the ship weighed more, and was not nearly as fast as Rebel-engineered models.

So the Mass Production Model title grants 1 additional hull, and you get a munitions token on all missiles, but turns your 4 and 5 speed straights white. You may also equip A-Wing Test Pilot.

This is also effectively Extra Munitions, allowing double Prockets for a very affordable cost. Plus the free hull upgrade you get with it, too.

The A-Wing Mk. II was the Endor-era A-Wing. It was faster than any ship available to either faction, and more agile too. It was packed with tons of sensors and advanced systems, as well.

So, for the cost of 2 points(an expenditure of your missile slot for Chaardan Refit), you get a system slot, and whenever you gain an evade token, you gain another one. Being focused down is a big problem for A-Wings, and having multiple evade tokens can really help if you get cornered. A-Wings were blindingly fast; fast enough that made them exceptionally difficult to hit targets. This felt very thematic to me.

Finally, the A-Wing Mk. III. We don't know much about it, but we do know it's TFA-era, and has bigger guns. All i need to know.

You get a system slot, tech slot, and you may treat the attacking range as 1 less than it is for 6 points. With Chaardan Refit, the cheapest you can get this for is 21 points at PS1, 3 points more expensive than the cheapest Interceptor. However, the upgrade potential and just solid attack power is definitely there. This title isn't designed to be used with a PS1, 3, or 4 pilot, as it's just simply not cost effective enough for them. But for the high PS pilots, this upgrade has some serious value, and can make the A-Wing, offensively a slave to prockets normally to even do damage at all, into a hard-hitting arc dodger just like it's Imperial cousin.

You cannot equip this title with anything but A-Wing Test Pilot.

The multiple titles thing is something i'm a big fan of. I loved how FFG gave the TIE Defender 2 titles, both with radically different roles and effects, and that really stuck with me. I like it when a ship like the A-Wing, which already has a decent part of the meta carved out for it with regards to it's low PS pilots, can make that slightly better while also expanding it's many other options. Mk. II is for when you have some spare points and want an A-Wing with some upgrade potential, while Mk. III is for dedicated high PS aces.

This system allows you to take a stress off of you or another friendly at range 1 and bank it on that card. Then, when an enemy ship lands within range 1 of you after a maneuver, drop a stress on them from that card. A-Wings are usually stressed, Push the Limit being a favorite of theirs of course, so this card can really help the A-Wing put some pressure on the enemy while relieving themselves of it.

A free, A-Wing only upgrade, can push the A-Wing normally meager attack to new heights. Evade tokens being the bane of a 2 attack die's ship existence, If you can snag a target lock on the target of your choice, you can make one of their evade tokens disappear.

It was a lot of fun designing these pilots and cards, and i look forward to seeing everyone's response. What did i do wrong? What did i do right? Is it enough, or could it be too much? I feel confident that you'll tell me, and i can continue to make adjustments down the road.

Oh, and a quick shoutout to Babaganoosh for assisting in the development of these cards. You're great!

Please let me know what you thought in the comments!

Like it! But Lulos ability is too weak for a ps 8 pilot

Like it! But Lulos ability is too weak for a ps 8 pilot

Perhaps. He was, after all, the least-tested pilot here.

Like it! But Lulos ability is too weak for a ps 8 pilot

Perhaps. He was, after all, the least-tested pilot here.

Maybe give lulo an evade or free target lock when he's completed the maneuver?

Looks good, I'm gonna have to get my a wings and e wings out for a fiddle later and see how they fair

Like it! But Lulos ability is too weak for a ps 8 pilot

Perhaps. He was, after all, the least-tested pilot here.

Maybe give lulo an evade or free target lock when he's completed the maneuver?

Looks good, I'm gonna have to get my a wings and e wings out for a fiddle later and see how they fair

I like that. The L'ulo Stand WAS all about throwing the enemy off of you.

Phoenix squadron pilot skill should be -3

L'ulo's ability gives the A-wing a pair of white Segnor loops. It's definitely not weak. It was good as it was: the evade token is overkill.

Man that'd be cool, who knows maybe the Rebel Veteran's expansion (as we're bound to see them) will have upgraded A-wings!

Absolutely love the art on Shara Bey and Pash Cracken, top notch.

In general I like the addon very much, but I think the A-Wing Mk.III Title is way undercosted. What you get is basically a 3/3/2/2 statline with TL, Focus, Evade and Boost, an awesome dial and Missile, Tech, System and 2 Elite Slots? And that just for 25 (23 with Chaardan Refit) points? An E-Wing has roughly the same upgrade possibilites (Torpedo, Astro, System) a worse dial, 1 additional shield and no Elite Slots at PS3 at 29 points. Okay, the E-Wing is overcosted, but I think 23 for that package is still too low. Maybe add 1-2 points more to the MkIII Title.

Also Titles granting more titles is a bit confusing That's the issue if you have an equipment that grants another slot of its own type, for now you have them all exclusive to one another by writing everything on the card, but what if later someone designed a new title with cost < 1 that should also not go with Mk III. You can't write it on the card retroactively.

Also if you equipped a title that grants another title first, then another title that grants another title. Do they stack? Can I equip 3 titles now? Or do they each count "the other equipped title" as the 2nd title? That's confusing. I think it should be worded differently, though I am not entirely sure how. Maybe something like this?

A-Wing Mk.III (Cost 6)

A-Wing only. Limited. Title.

Add the Sensor Upgrade and Tech Upgrade icon to your upgrade bar.

Increase your attack value by 1.

You may equip up to 2 titles with a combined value of up to 7.

I think that covers basically everything?

Good work, I like it. Could be especially nice in HotAC to give the A-Wing a bit more bite.

L'ulo's ability gives the A-wing a pair of white Segnor loops. It's definitely not weak. It was good as it was: the evade token is overkill.

Worse then Ryad with x7 title?

L'ulo's ability gives the A-wing a pair of white Segnor loops. It's definitely not weak. It was good as it was: the evade token is overkill.

Worse then Ryad with x7 title?

Yes because the possibilities of end positions is exponentially higher than that of ryad. Boost and toss VT on it with PTL. That's shenanigans.

Phoenix Squadron should be PS 0, with no elite...

Also, for the Mass Production Model title (don't like the name), the drawback could be the lost of the boost.

Absolutely love Pash!!!

While I love most of this, I think adding stacking titles just to undo the first title's drawback is a bit of a stretch. Why not just redesign dual EPT titles that don't require stacking unnecessary cards?

Phoenix squadron should lose the Evade action... or get stressed when assigned an Evade token.

It would be easier and less wordy for the titles to just say "You may equip a-wing test pilot in addition to this title card." Takes up a lot less trxt than saying you can equip an additional title thrn listing out everything you CANT equip.

Like it! But Lulos ability is too weak for a ps 8 pilot

I think making it either a 2 or 3 bank would give it the right amount of oomph.

Nice work, as always!

Let's start with the pilots:

You're not wrong about Phoenix Squadron being redundant. I like Rebels enough that I'll ignore that.

I wonder if there's a way to make them PS2 generics with an EPT- but give them some sort of Biggs-like effect? Something like "Friendly Large ships may not be targeted when you could be targeted instead"? Thematic, and gives them an interesting role.

Sabine in an A-Wing would be Bananas! Given all the Green + the probability of PTL, I think you could probably raise her price by 1 point.

Shara Bey. She's gonna make U-Turns all the time and it will be glorious.

Pash is going to be immensely scary for any pilot that relies on PTL. He's not a Soontir hunter, per se but he's definitely going to be able to push damage through. And he pairs nicely with a PS 10 Airen Cracken. some ship at PS10 that has Flechette Torpedoes. I'm not sure if his ability is too strong or not, if it is, making it "when attacking with your primary weapon" is an easy nerf.

L'ulo is interesting! It's not an ability that would get use every turn. It's a rather nice bug-out manuver. Above, I said that I'd make it 2 or 3 banks, and I think I would stick with that. If at all possible, I'd give it evades on the K-turns as well. This would make an A-Wing into something of a Jouster, which... Interesting!

Alright, until next time!

L'ulo's ability gives the A-wing a pair of white Segnor loops. It's definitely not weak. It was good as it was: the evade token is overkill.

Maybe? It's not as if you're going to be doing a segnor's every single turn, because that's just simply not advantageous to do. I don't think the evade really breaks much.

As for the title wording, yes, i could probably re-word them. Sometimes i get a little bit in my own head with wordiness, heh. Basically what it boils down to is that you may equip the A-Wing Test Pilot title no matter what, but nothing else.

L'ulo's ability gives the A-wing a pair of white Segnor loops. It's definitely not weak. It was good as it was: the evade token is overkill.

Worse then Ryad with x7 title?

Yes because the possibilities of end positions is exponentially higher than that of ryad. Boost and toss VT on it with PTL. That's shenanigans.

I mean, yeah? But i mean, L'ulo with Mk. III, PTL, VT, Juke, and Chaardan Refit is still 36 points. Add prockets and it's 41 points. That's in Ryad/CORRAN HORN territory, except it has 1 less hull and 1 less shield than Ryad, and is only guaranteed the evade if he performs 1 of 2 maneuvers. Not only that, but unlike Ryad, those segnor's arent green, they're white. Other than that, he has almost no defensive posture. Mk. II is probably his best bet, actually. And besides, nothing here has changed that A-Wings are married to autothrusters. I doubt we'll see too many A-Wings with VTs.

This is why i don't think the Mk. III is particularly undercosted. Low PS pilots could use it but likely won't, because we know just how well low PS Interceptors are utilized. The best part about the low PS A-Wing is that it's cheap. Undermining that isn't a great idea most of the time.

And it's just expensive enough to force high PS A-Wings to very, very high costs, which can be dangerous because A-Wings are still squishy.

Shara Bey needs a "once per round" clause here. As is, she can chain triggers of her own ability infitiely to go anywhere on the board she feels like.

Shara Bey needs a "once per round" clause here. As is, she can chain triggers of her own ability infitiely to go anywhere on the board she feels like.

Oh, dammit. How did i miss that.

Excuse me, folks, but do you have a title for that?

First: let's errata A-Wing Test Pilot to include "You may equip 2 different Title upgrades (instead of 1). I think that solves the problem you're facing, without introducing too much complication.

Mass Production Model

I keep looking at this and thinking "but the Rebels already have a cheap missile carrier!", which I think just marks the difference between gameplay and fluff. I do like the idea that lower PS A-Wings (which really can't count on maneuverability shenanigans) are getting a bit tankier. And spamming missiles does seem like a fun idea. So maybe we can split the difference here, and instead of getting a second (missile) upgrade icon, they can get an extra munitions token on an equipped missile. This has the added benefit of letting A-Wings have a slight discount on missiles. It also means they're not getting 2 Chardaan refits, and I'm very much ok with that.

A-Wing Mk 2:

I like this a lot. It adds a fair amount of tank that's action dependent, rather than just being extra hull, etc.I don't see the mechanism for getting tokens off the card, however. Generally, when a token is assigned to a card (rather than to a ship), it stays there until it is triggered.

So... here's a thought: what if you reduce the cost to zero, but make it take up the (missile) slot? Instead of adding anything, it simply swaps one for another. That also creates a real choice between Mass Production Model and the Mk 2. The Mass Production Model would be slower and more focused on missiles. The Mk 2. would be focused on staying alive through the whole game. I could see slapping Accuracy Corrector on an A-Wing and spending all my actions on movement and defense. Especially with the extra evade tokens!

A-Wing Mk 3:

I see a lot of overlap between the Mk 2 and the Mk 3 with Comm Relay. I'm not sure which of these should be fixed- or maybe neither of them should be- but I think that's something to look at a bit more closely. Either of those titles would let Arvel Crynyd take Enhanced Scopes, and become the blocker he was always meant to be!

I think you're right that the costing is about right for the extra attack die, but I think it goes against the gameplay space of the A-Wing. The A-Wing should be trying to make the most out of its 2 dice, and adding a 3rd brings it into a space far too many other ships have. I think I might just cut and past the text of Outmaneuver into the title instead. It's not quite as good as an extra die, but it nearly is. And given that it's positioning based, it means that the higher the PS the ship, the more use they will get out of it. Which meets your other design goal for the title.

So I like these quite a bit. And I know that my notes have left you with something less than coherent as a design. But I see a lot of potential in here. Once again, you have done a great job at revitalizing this ship!

A Systematic review:

Integrated Comms/Jamming package

I like this one It's at once useful for helping friends, and also screwing over your opponents. What's that, you want to PTL? NOT TODAY SOONTIR, NOT TODAY! I think it would be good on the A-Wing, though not as good as Accuracy Corrector, Slap it on a pair of Blue Squadron Pilot B-Wing, however, and their dials really open up. Or, maybe, a couple Zeta Specialists. A few other ships as well. The fact that it's better on ships other than the one it's bundled with doesn't mean it's a bad upgrade. It's really good. But Accuracy Corrector on any 2 Attack ship is really, really strong.

Gimballed Cannons

It's thematically sound, and offers a good reason to prefer the Target Lock action over the Focus action. Also: anything that lets me say "screw you, Omega Leader, screw you!" is good in my book. Pair it with Juke and Comm Relay and you've got fantastic action economy (both Target Lock and (with Relay) Evade are stored tokens, meaning you can push a lot of damage with only 2 attack. I could totally see myself taking this instead of Accuracy Corrector- especially at the price.

Excuse me, folks, but do you have a title for that?

First: let's errata A-Wing Test Pilot to include "You may equip 2 different Title upgrades (instead of 1). I think that solves the problem you're facing, without introducing too much complication.

Mass Production Model

I keep looking at this and thinking "but the Rebels already have a cheap missile carrier!", which I think just marks the difference between gameplay and fluff. I do like the idea that lower PS A-Wings (which really can't count on maneuverability shenanigans) are getting a bit tankier. And spamming missiles does seem like a fun idea. So maybe we can split the difference here, and instead of getting a second (missile) upgrade icon, they can get an extra munitions token on an equipped missile. This has the added benefit of letting A-Wings have a slight discount on missiles. It also means they're not getting 2 Chardaan refits, and I'm very much ok with that.

A-Wing Mk 2:

I like this a lot. It adds a fair amount of tank that's action dependent, rather than just being extra hull, etc.I don't see the mechanism for getting tokens off the card, however. Generally, when a token is assigned to a card (rather than to a ship), it stays there until it is triggered.

So... here's a thought: what if you reduce the cost to zero, but make it take up the (missile) slot? Instead of adding anything, it simply swaps one for another. That also creates a real choice between Mass Production Model and the Mk 2. The Mass Production Model would be slower and more focused on missiles. The Mk 2. would be focused on staying alive through the whole game. I could see slapping Accuracy Corrector on an A-Wing and spending all my actions on movement and defense. Especially with the extra evade tokens!

A-Wing Mk 3:

I see a lot of overlap between the Mk 2 and the Mk 3 with Comm Relay. I'm not sure which of these should be fixed- or maybe neither of them should be- but I think that's something to look at a bit more closely. Either of those titles would let Arvel Crynyd take Enhanced Scopes, and become the blocker he was always meant to be!

I think you're right that the costing is about right for the extra attack die, but I think it goes against the gameplay space of the A-Wing. The A-Wing should be trying to make the most out of its 2 dice, and adding a 3rd brings it into a space far too many other ships have. I think I might just cut and past the text of Outmaneuver into the title instead. It's not quite as good as an extra die, but it nearly is. And given that it's positioning based, it means that the higher the PS the ship, the more use they will get out of it. Which meets your other design goal for the title.

So I like these quite a bit. And I know that my notes have left you with something less than coherent as a design. But I see a lot of potential in here. Once again, you have done a great job at revitalizing this ship!

I like the munitions change to MPM. Makes a lot of sense. As for Mk. II, i'm probably not going to change that, because i don't want to make you choose between Mk. II and Prockets. Prockets are a great deal of what makes A-Wings so decent, and i never wanted to take away that as an option, especially with no thematic reason to do so. Making it a 2 point title means that taking Chaardan is effectively the same exact thing as making Mk. II a 0 point missile upgrade, except that it's optional. I like options, personally.

Maybe instead of adding an additional attack value, what i could do is extend it's range attack bonus. Or just allow A-Wings to roll an additional attack die at Range 1-2, so that it's ALMOST like having 3 attack dice, but not quite, for the purposes of Chimps and Range 3. For, say, 4 points, Mk. III giving you system and tech slot and +1 attack die at Range 1-2? I dunno, i'll work on it. Mk.III is definitely on the drawing board right now, that's for sure. As for MPM and Mk. II, i'm mostly very satisfied with them, aside from the munitions change to MPM.

A Systematic review:

Integrated Comms/Jamming package

I like this one It's at once useful for helping friends, and also screwing over your opponents. What's that, you want to PTL? NOT TODAY SOONTIR, NOT TODAY! I think it would be good on the A-Wing, though not as good as Accuracy Corrector, Slap it on a pair of Blue Squadron Pilot B-Wing, however, and their dials really open up. Or, maybe, a couple Zeta Specialists. A few other ships as well. The fact that it's better on ships other than the one it's bundled with doesn't mean it's a bad upgrade. It's really good. But Accuracy Corrector on any 2 Attack ship is really, really strong.

Gimballed Cannons

It's thematically sound, and offers a good reason to prefer the Target Lock action over the Focus action. Also: anything that lets me say "screw you, Omega Leader, screw you!" is good in my book. Pair it with Juke and Comm Relay and you've got fantastic action economy (both Target Lock and (with Relay) Evade are stored tokens, meaning you can push a lot of damage with only 2 attack. I could totally see myself taking this instead of Accuracy Corrector- especially at the price.

I like your thoughts on Gimbaled especially. I personally very much dislike AC's design, it's boring and too simplistic. I like that you think it's a competition to AC, which is kind of what i was going for.

I'm very glad about Comms/Jamming too, i was very much trying to make a more universal upgrade that provides subtle buffs to ships that dont really have a clear cut system that works best for them. Glad that you think it ended up like that.

Hm. What about:

"When attacking, you may treat the defender's range as though it were reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 1)"

So you'd get an extra attack die at ranges 1 and 2, and defenders wouldn't get an extra green die (or AutoThrusters!) at Range 3.

You'd also be able to use Prockets at range 2, Cluster Missiles at range 3, or Advanced Homing Missles at Range 1 or 2.

I think you're probably right about Mk 2. Part of me just loves turning slots into other slots. It's like deadly Russian Nesting Dolls.