Just a couple of questions for someone getting into this game. Previously my friends and I played traveller and are exploring a more.. Star Wars universe given how we’re fans

A) Are the Tie Advanced fighters in any of the books? I don’t see them even in dawn of the rebellion... (couldn't find advanced or avengers anywhere?)

B) I’ve heard some not so great things about Starfighter combat. Can you not make hotshot nearly unhittable aces? Are star fighters crappy? Is the system not so great for small craft fighting?

C) Can we run something like the millennium falcon and have several crew members taking part of space combat? Or is it just the pilot and maybe a gunner?

D) what is the most optimized fighter out there given the current books. Both to be wary of/avoid and to use for a “ooh boss fight” scene?

Dawn of rebellion has the advanced vi in it but not the x1. Likely starships and speeders will have it

There are a couple episodes of the order 66 podcast on this. Worth listening to.

Yes

Optimized for what?

heh, answered this on Reddit too.

b) Starfighter combat is deadly. I tend to recommend you pick up Stay on Target, and use Squadron rules as well as the astromech rules from that book. Yeah, there are a couple of talents, one of which makes it impossible for a single target to not hit your fighter, but that doesn't stop a bunch of other fighters from smoking your hotshot.

c) highly recommended that a crew works together in combat, yt-1300's and the like are very durable ships, and letting the pilot focus on piloting stuff and the gunners shoot, and an engineer angle shields, or fix system strain, and a com operator jam coms, a slicer try and confuse fire control etc, are all fun things to do.

d) anything with several linked weapons is nasty. X-Wings, Tie Interceptors, etc. For boss fights, give the boss wingmen.

Most fighters don't have large amounts of hull, so a single good shot or two can cripple a fighter really easily. Freighters have the benefit of being more durable, but usually less tricky targets. As with anything in this game, there are several talents that break the generalities.

Squadron rules are in short, having a pair of wingmen for each of your pilots, which can act as damage shields for the player's fighter.

1 hour ago, Daeglan said:

Dawn of rebellion has the advanced vi in it but not the x1. Likely starships and speeders will have it

There are a couple episodes of the order 66 podcast on this. Worth listening to.

Yes

Optimized for what?

Thanks... optimized for starfighter duels? maybe 1v1 or 2v2?

Also - what page is the v1 on? All I see is the striker and the mining guild one

6 hours ago, Nerhesi said:

Also - what page is the v1 on? All I see is the striker and the mining guild one

It's tucked into the Empire section if I remember right, somewhere around the Inquisitors. Don't have the book on hand to check for the exact page reference.

9 hours ago, Nerhesi said:

B) I’ve heard some not so great things about Starfighter combat. Can you not make hotshot nearly unhittable aces? Are star fighters crappy? Is the system not so great for small craft fighting?

C) Can we run something like the millennium falcon and have several crew members taking part of space combat? Or is it just the pilot and maybe a gunner?

On B, the game was designed to simulate how starfighter combat worked in the movies, which itself was designed to emulate the aerial dogfights of WW2. Since the movies treat starfighter combats as being rocket tag (one good hit and you're toast), the games followed suit. Of course, bearing in mind that a starfighter piloted by a PC isn't blown up just because it goes over its hull trauma threshold, that doesn't mean PCs are going to irrevocably die in starship combat if they're in a starfighter.

For C, you can, but it also depends on how the other characters are build. Each of the core books has a chart offering various actions that different crew members can take during a starship-based structured encounter. But if a character is built in such a way that they can't really fill any of those (or it doesn't make sense for the character to engage in that activity in spite of having a really good dice pool for it), then that can lead to a player left twiddling their thumbs.

For both of those, Stay on Target (the Ace career sourcebook) has some extra tips and additional rules that might be of help.

Tie avengers are in the Ace sourcebook

7 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

On B, the game was designed to simulate how starfighter combat worked in the movies, which itself was designed to emulate the aerial dogfights of WW2. Since the movies treat starfighter combats as being rocket tag (one good hit and you're toast), the games followed suit.

This.

Keep in mind that in the great victory at the battle of Yavin, only three rebel starfighters survived:

• Luke,
• Wedge (who disengaged due to damage), and
• A single Y Wing pilot.

Starfighter combat is exceeding dangerous in the star wars universe: Standard TIEs will probably only take one hit on average, while X-Wings can take two and a Y-Wing might be able to take a third before being disabled / destroyed.

Obligatory Blackadder link: https://youtu.be/8UlaAHdcRMg?t=102

If you want to make fighters a bit beefier and simulate the ace roll, you can adopt some of the rules from Genesys. It changes a few ways space combat works. In particular, the Barrel Roll incidental is crucial to small craft survive-ability.

@Ominovin , That blackadder skit perfectly summed up fighter jock mentality. Along with the fact that anyone who willingly gets into a steel coffin to do insane stunts and whatnot is certifiably insane