This is completely open-ended. I surely don't have the answer. Is it as simple as the great, cheap action economy of things like Defenders and Parattani?

I'm not sure that rebels are struggling.

Scum has two archetypes right now, Mindlink and Dengaroo.

Imperials have Palp defenders and Decimator + escort (defender, adv prototype etc)

I see Kwing, Corran, and Ghost as the three big elements to rebel lists, especially kwing plus one of the other two.

My last event was a wave 10 release party, and I saw solid representation from all three factions using these basic types.

What ScummyRebel said, plus some Reys sprinkled in. Norra pops up too (usually with Rey) and can be solid if built right.

I'd after getting smacked down by the u-boats, Rebel lists are doing quite well here lately.

Being a rebel feels like a great disadvantage at the moment

Most of the new Rebel ships and their upgrade cards are so much worse than the hotness of Imperial and Scum

Well, we see plenty of Rebel representation, but it doesn't seem like that representation continues to hold through most Regional cuts which we see.

Rebels are "supposed" to rely on synergistic abilities; but they come with a hefty price tag and don't quite deliver to the same degree that, say, Scum synergy does. Since most Rebel pilots and abilities are synergy related, we have a very limited number of pilots and abilities that boost JUST the ship they're on, since apparently a good ability that helps one ship costs the same as a bad ability that helps lots of ships.

I don't really know about you, but the only pilot with a synergistic ability that regularly sees use and success is... Biggs. And that's less synergy and more "Your actually good ships are really defensively weak to lots of attacks so Biggs is there to keep them from getting shot so that your regen can get to late game so you can win." I honestly don't see too many pilots or crew being used for synergy because, let's be honest here, most of them really aren't that good. Additionally, they come on chassis that cost a LOT of points and most of the time don't offensively or defensively deliver for their cost, as well. Examples: Shara Bey, Esege, most of the U-Wing pilots, etc. The meta throughout X-Wings life-span has proven that only insanely good synergy works(Manaroo, Biggs, Palp, Mindlink), or ships that are almost completely self-sufficient. Rebels don't have a particularly large number of self-sufficient craft; not like the Empire does, and they don't have a particularly large number of good synergistic craft, not like Scum does. All Rebels have going for them is Regen. That's about it. And Regen isn't ultimately that hard or complicated to crack, either.

Mind you, Rebels are in a much better place than they were in Wave 8 by far, but imo i don't think they're quite as good as the other two factions, and it boils down simply to a lack of effective options. When you need to set aside 26 points for Biggs almost every time because your ships just can't stand up to fire at all, you've got bad options to begin with(the necessity of bringing Biggs), at -26 points(because you need Biggs). Rebel ships can't defend, and the ones that CAN token stack decently cost 40+ points. And only one of those is actually 3 agility or higher.

2 minutes ago, Razgriz25thinf said:

All Rebels have going for them is Regen. That's about it. And Regen isn't ultimately that hard or complicated to crack, either.

That's a good point. Regen should be a pretty big deal. The likes of Poe and Corran should be able to fly into an engagement, get their licks, then break off and regen. From my experience, though, it's not very easy to do that.

Somehow Scum and Imperials seem to be getting EXTREMELY cheap new cards, which are very very powerful.

Mindlink is just one example. It is much too cheap for what it does... apart from this, there is nothing similar for Rebels.

A "reroll" Crew would be awesome too. But only Scum has got Dengar, which is even better than Predator for the same cost.

And Zuckuss... Zuckuss is just a legal cheat for too few points. It should be 3 or 4 points actually! Zuckuss can ruin your game all day long.

By the way: Why is Mindlink "Scum only" anyways? What's the reason for this?

1 minute ago, gennataos said:

That's a good point. Regen should be a pretty big deal. The likes of Poe and Corran should be able to fly into an engagement, get their licks, then break off and regen. From my experience, though, it's not very easy to do that.

That's because the other factions have been dealing with Regen since the beginning and know that they can't afford to let them do that. So, they focus guns and kill regen early to ensure they don't have to deal with it late game.

I was expecting better crew upgrades with the U-wing. The ones we got were trash.

Just now, Panzeh said:

I was expecting better crew upgrades with the U-wing. The ones we got were trash.

True!

And what is the U-Wing good for anyway? It's another ship, which I think is a "missed opportunity"

I personally think, it could be usuably if you could fly it in formation as a small base ship.

Just now, SabineKey said:

That's because the other factions have been dealing with Regen since the beginning and know that they can't afford to let them do that. So, they focus guns and kill regen early to ensure they don't have to deal with it late game.

That makes sense. As a new player, that also makes sense why I feel like I'm almost always on the run. If I'm not playing Kanan/Biggs or Rey (with whomever), I feel like all I do is run.

10 minutes ago, Schu81 said:

By the way: Why is Mindlink "Scum only" anyways? What's the reason for this?

Fluff. It's a tool unique to Manaroo's people.

Also, I'm sure there would be some dangerous super combo out there if allowed into the hands of the empire, given how much flak it's taken in just scum lists.

What, no Ahsoka love? I think she's going to do big things...

Rebels are the weakest faction now maybe, which might feel a bit bad for dedicated rebels, as they've been topdogs for most of the game's history. But I don't think they're in a bad place per se. They take some cunning to build and fly competitively now, but that's... pretty thematic to me.

I think of all the factions, Rebels have the most varied list-design space at the moment.

Inherent low agility and poor repositioning since Wave 1 mixed with an unfortunate case of power creep, as well as a focus on more red dice in recent waves. I think FFG knew Scum were the faction that needed the most love at one point and this was compensated for lately maybe more than it should. For example, Mindlink and Zuckuss. This certainly didn't help. Rebels don't really do dirty tricks, but because the game is getting more complicated and layered this is also benefiting Scum. Rebels usually rely on synergy, but honestly synergy is very easy to break when the base components of a list (for example ships that can re-position) can't survive long enough to synergise.

By design Imperial have come off less effected because they could re-position, token stack and had high agility from the get-go.

I flew 4-ship rebels at Kashyyyk to 4-3. I never really felt worried about a list I faced. Granted my own flying was terrible in a couple of those losses. I think the TIE as a support is wonderful and opens up a lot of options. There are some really good synergies out there though. I had Wedge/Jess w/Swarm tactics and would use Jess as a relay to PS9 Rex to apply condition. Stuff like that (while maybe overly complicated) is able to help offset some of our disadvantages. Jess is a monster at PS9 haha.

5 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

Fluff. It's a tool unique to Manaroo's people.

Also, I'm sure there would be some dangerous super combo out there if allowed into the hands of the empire, given how much flak it's taken in just scum lists.

True. Although honestly, if the Rebels could get Mindlink, I'd be so happy. You could play Garven. You could play Kyle. Jake would be cooler. Tycho would make stressing a Mindlink list even more pointless than it already is...and then you've got Poe and Corran...

Yeah, I guess I get why it's Scum only

I feel like the Rebels have a general lack of speed and agility at the moment. Their ships tend to have most of their greens at speed 1. Compared to Manaroo's white Sloop and barrel roll, Assaj and Thug Life running green 3-turns, and the levels of agility throughout the Imperial fleet, Rebels tend to be a bit plodding.

Where they have been excelling is in bomb usage. Nobody else is able to put out the pain with bombs like the Rebels.

There's also the fact that jousters are just about dead (thanks to Defenders and Shadowcasters) and stress control is virtually useless (Defenders and Mindlink). That kills off a lot of Rebel mainstays.

1 minute ago, DashBarrelRendarRoll said:

Inherent low agility and poor repositioning since Wave 1 mixed with an unfortunate case of power creep, as well as a focus on more red dice in recent waves. I think FFG knew Scum were the faction that needed the most love at one point and this was compensated for lately maybe more than it should. For example, Mindlink and Zuckuss. This certainly didn't help. Rebels don't really do dirty tricks, but because the game is getting more complicated and layered this is also benefiting Scum. Rebels usually rely on synergy, but honestly synergy is very easy to break when the base components of a list (for example ships that can re-position) can't survive long enough to synergise.

By design Imperial have come off less effected because they could re-position, token stack and had high agility from the get-go.

Yeah this is definitely a huge thing too.

In a game that's pretty heavily positioning based, Rebels... are by far the worst in this regard. Not a single Rebel ship comes with 2 reposition actions. Many Rebel ships don't have any reposition actions. They also tend to have the worst dials out of all the factions, too. Meanwhile, every single Imperial small ship has a reposition action, and 4(iirc) have more than 1, and also have SIGNIFICANTLY better dials as well. Scum are a mixed bag in this regard as they have some ships without reposition actions, but they have 2 or 3 ships with more than 1 as well, and in general the ships without reposition don't get used, which should tell you something.

What this means is that in order for Rebel ships to make up for this, they require the purchase of EU, VT, or R2 Astro. So the more expensive ships need to spend even more to be able to fight cheaper, better ships...

As for Agility... yeah. Rebels have 3 ships at Agility 3. Those same ships plus 1 are capable of performing the evade action. Of those 4, 2 don't have generic pilots, and 1 of the remaining 2 is the E-Wing. Of the remaining Rebel ships, 6 are AGI 2, and 6 are AGI 1. Bad action bars and bad AGI = getting shot really easily. With the swath of defensive modifiers in play, having a higher AGI and low health is vastly superior as those ships also tend to be more maneuverable as well, not to mention cheaper.

Empire has 6 ships at AGI 3. All but 2 can evade; but both ships have ways of getting evade tokens for free, which is better than just having the evade action. 5 ships at AGI 2; All but 1 can evade. And finally 3 ships at AGI 1. Only one of those gets used; as a Palp Carrier.

Additionally, you need to consider that the best Imperial(and Rebel, for that matter) pilots are the ones that provide bonuses for themselves first and foremost. Soontir, Inquisitor, Vader, so on. The only synergistic Imperial pilot used is Howlrunner; Because she's just so **** good you can't not bring her if you're flying a swarm. Most Imperial pilots are like this, they provide for themselves. Generally this makes the average Imperial pilot a better choice than the same PS equivalent ship Rebel pilot, as it'll typically be a bad synergy ability.

They are struggling because they are terrorist Scum (not the villainous kind).

High cost, I think, is the biggest problem. Look at the PS1 Knave squadron E-Wing (27 pts) vs the PS1 Delta squadron at 30 pts. Add the X7 title for -2 and have access to the free evade.

Higher cost, less maneuverable, questionable efficacy of missiles/torpedoes on low PS carriers all hurt the Rebels. They really need a 3 attack, 3 agility cheap dogfighter. A low cost, PS 6 generic for most of the ships would be nice too.

I know very little of the EU so I don't know if there are any Rebel ships that fit the build but I have to say there isn't. So until FFG works some magic we're stuck with Rebel ships that are good but not quite good enough.

Ironically, K-wings I think push out a lot of rebel ships. Rebels are good jousters and jousting is a bad strategy these days. K-wing bombers absolutely murder jousters (same reason defenders are slipping a bit, being hyper jousters).

Although I've got to say, Dash deserves another go. I ran him with Expertise, HLC, Outrider, Rey, and EU at Vancouver Regionals and was very satisfied with the results. I ended 4-2, but flew well enough to be 5-1 (my list took 13 crits on 15 hull points in the loss I felt I should've won which tells you all you need to know). He absolutely trashes both Asajj and Dengar in my experience which makes him a good meta call, IMO.

You'd think Asajj's ability would ruin expertise but he moves after and has repositioning. If you can't get to range 3, out of mobile arc, or have a focus token, you're playing poorly.

You'd also think Dengar would have the edge since he's higher PS and flies a similar ship as Dash, but that's not been my experience. His damage ceiling is higher, but only circumstantially. If you leverage Dash's ability, he can get out of Dengar's arc and there's little he can do about it but trade dice and pray for a miracle.

My favorite matchup is Asajj/Dengar

U-boats pushed him out and FFG pushed them out, so now he's back.

Their ships are almost all too expensive for what they do. Compared at similar price-points to scum and imperials you're looking a t anywhere from 10-30% worse cost efficiency. That alone puts a wet blanket on the faction as a whole. To make matters worse all of the things FFG added to make high agility ships easier to hit: Crackshot, juke, zuckuss etc. hurt rebels 30% more than other factions without the ability to token stack and/or palp and starting with mostly 2 dice ships. VS a juke list your 2 agi becomes 1 and you die twice as fast making your overcosted ships hurt that much more. So pretty much as a rebel player you're looking at Dash, Rey, Miranda, Norra, and k-wings. If you're not running these ships unless you're a godly pilot you're probably not winning anything. Thats 4 ships. The majority of rebels making cuts are those 4 ships. sure they can make lots of lists but looking at the other factions options its just sad.

All of the above, plus red dice power creep, that kills low/mid AGI ships like Xs and Bs. In other words, rebels are unefficient at jousting, and their aces are too pricy. Hard place to be.