As we await the points adjustment and upcoming spoilers for the Republic, I've been mulling over how they might operate on the battlefield. From what's been spoiled so far, the main mechanic for the clone pilots appears to be buffing allies in your side arcs at range 1-2. This has a wonderful thematic, brothers-in-arms feel to it, and the side arcs do have a decently large coverage.

However, it requires those of us interested in flying the Republic to completely rethink formation flying. Formation flying in X-wing evolved from two pilots: Biggs and Howlrunner. And as such, it has always focused on maintaining the Range 1 Bubble. This means that many of the formations that we have developed will have a severe issue handling the Side Arc Bubble, particularly when making hard turns. The fact that the ARC-170 and V-19 only have access to a white hard 2 and one other red turn maneuver amplifies this problem. As does the lack of boost.

Has anyone begun playing around with Republic formations yet? Is the Double Side Arc Bubble DOA? What do you think?

I feel like it’s gonna depend on what you’re looking for. Flying a Jedi with a few Clones, you should be able to keep the Jedi in one of the Clone’s Side arcs fairly easily for sake of buffing said Jedi with Devoted and/or Clone pilot abilities. Even flying 4 Clones in formation, I think we’ll find some ways to keep them all within one wingmate’s side arcs most of the time.

Someone with more Vassal experience care to make some visuals?

There should be ways to manage it, like performing a barrel roll after a hard-2 with the outside ship to gain some extra forward or backwards movement. It's normally a red action on ARCs, but can be upgraded to a white action for 4 points through Expert Handling (highly recommended for ARC pilots).

Good thing we've been training for this with some existing pilots. Rebel HWK-290, most notably, all depend on having the folks the help in arc. Not exactly the same, but a good deal of the way there.

13 minutes ago, PhantomFO said:

There should be ways to manage it, like performing a barrel roll after a hard-2 with the outside ship t  o gain some extra forward or backwards movement. It's normally a red action on ARCs, but can be upgraded to a white action for 4 points through Expert Handling (highly recommended for ARC pilots).

Oh, yeah, Clones will love that upgrade even more than Rebel ARC pilots. Shame it's an EPT in this version of the game, though, so you'll have to chose between that and Devoted.

13 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

Good thing we've been training for this with some existing pilots. Rebel HWK-290, most notably, all depend on having the folks the help in arc. Not exactly the same, but a good deal of the way there.

I think the HWK is a bit of a different beast altogether. Part of it is the obvious benefits of Range 3 and boost. But the other part of it is that one of the arcs is the front arc, allowing it to take the the traditional support position in then back of the formation... at least that’s my understanding. The side arc just increases the flexibility, rather than being restrictive.

The other major difference is that the HWK only needs to support one target. The clones (if sinker is representative) need to buff multiple ships to make their abilities worth it. Based on the chassis alone Sinker is going to cost more than Howlrunner and Drea, and the V-19 themselves are likely to be pricier than a TIE. So you’re already behind on efficiency there.

Don't start in formation, end up in formation during the turn of combat.

I used to fly like that when I started the game, just because it looked cool. Like a U-Wing flanked by 2 X-Wings.

Sadly lost all the time because it had no utility