Rather than attempt to legitimize my assessments below with a list of reasons you should trust random, faceless me, I encourage everyone to treat the following thread with the same seriousness as anything you read on the internet or this forum:

-With a grain of salt

-A pinch of sugar

-Add a dash of exotic spices of unknown origin

-With a handful of disrespect ( must include memes at proper temperature )

-Topped delicately with respect ( because people have feelings...avatars are people, too ).

I'm writing this in a format that represents my personal "rules of thumb" when I'm squad building and dogfighting as Resistance. These are my conclusions after many games and hundreds of squads. I'm not going to back up every conclusion with structured evidence or metrics.

My logic is not always sound, and you likely won't have the same internal "rules" that you follow for this faction.

Our different conclusions about Resistance may indeed give you better success in this game than I have had ( Yay, for the internet, where we can share our unique perspectives and hopefully grow as a community and as individuals ).

Speak your mind, and be kind .
Thanks, aces.

_______________________________________

I believe Resistance, as a faction, is fine, if not slightly overplayed for their actual competitive efficacy as of season 6, 2020.

I've found that with Resistance, if you're not clearly winning by the second or third round of shooting, you've probably lost the game.

I don't believe the faction has strong "endgame" pieces as compared to other factions.

.....

Part of why Resistance endgame is weaker overall, I believe, can be attributed to their higher priced chassis, which don't trade as well in the late game against cheaper chassis from OT or prequel factions (especially if you're utilizing the many varied and pricy upgrades available to make these sequel pilots and ships shine).

Resistance ships simply give up more points at half and at KO than many other similar ships, and that often translates, for me, into close and painful game losses.

Since "Alpha striking" with heavy damage output in rounds 1 or 2 of combat, translating into a 30 minute tabling of the opponent, has largely disappeared from second edition due to 13 point Proton Torpedoes ( and possibly the expensive Targeting Synchronizer tech upgrade in Resistance as well ), I believe Resistance often benefits from delaying the initial engagement as long as possible. The faction lives and dies by creating an kind of "inverted alpha strike", where you get ahead in just one or two rounds of combat, eschew the initial engagement with tricks that prevent the opponent from executing their objectives, and then time the game out before you lose too many points.

Unfortunately, that is the current and likely long-term competitive angle of Resistance, in my observation.

////////

In squad building, Resistance design tends to support "combined arms" over "four ofs" and "five ofs". My personal experience is so sure of this, in fact, that I literally treat every pilot and ship as having a "dot" by their name with a limit of 1 per squad.

I often take this "everything is unique" principal as far as even individual upgrades and load outs. If I'm using two of something in Resistance, then I'm probably doing it wrong and there's another piece at a similar price point that will do my squad better in the long run.

Double Red Vets? Probably not. Double Blue Recruits with Snap Shot? Probably not. Double optics? Maybe. Double Paint? Probably not (believe me, I've tried...some of you have seen the other threads).

You can put 4 T70s on the table, or 5 RZ2s, but I just don't believe the faction design supports/encourages that in Resistance. I believe there's always a better "mixed" option in Resistance that has a higher ceiling if you've got the practice. I believe the traditional "four ofs" just aren't where the faction shines (go over to Rebels and try Quad T65s... You'll do a lot better. Why? Because they're designed to do that...)

For example, @gennataos , rather than fielding a thematic "Triple T-70" (as many have tried and failed to do), killed his darling by swapping out that third t70 for a Lulo's RZ2 A-Wing. He consequently had a better bid, better tools on his two T70s, and won out at my local Hyperace Trial. He found a lot of success with his "hybrid Triple T70" list, and I believe his squad choice was quite optimized and correct at the time.

For myself, I chose to field 4As + Finn pod instead of the traditional 5A, despite the proven track record of Resistance 5A.

Although my specific build did not have success at my specific tournament, I still firmly believe the mixed archetype has a higher competitive ceiling in practically every conceivable archetype in Resistance over copy/paste squads when paired with proper deployment and practice.

I could go on even longer about the rule of combined arms in Resistance now that the Fireball is on the table, with Kaz and Yeager and the C.S.Mechanic all being excellent - arguably correct - choices to mix in with your As and Xs over simply another copy of that one "efficient" thing.

-------------
Summary / TL;DR:

-Resistance doesn't thrive in long engagements or in late game 1V1s as well as other factions.

-Resistance thus profits from delaying the early engagements as long as possible.

-Resistance squads have higher ceilings when utilizing combined arms over copy/paste chassis spamming. Their efficiency lies in the secret black box of triggering the correct pilot abilities and combos at the correct times.

-Resistance requires practice and impeccable timing to win games, because their pilots and chassis are not as forgiving as comparable options in most other factions.

--------

Okay, I think that's it, peeps. I'm glad I got all that off my chest. I'll spare the community my rant that T70s should have 1 less Hull and cost 2-4 points fewer across the board in order to better support the upgrade-centric design philosophy of Resistance.

k, I'm really done.

Meme-on, my friends!!

Great post.

Is Resistance more of a alpha-strike type list where you overwhelm your opponent with ("mistakes??"), overwhelming/complex synergy interactions, and direct firepower, a la Resistance 4?

I really wish the Res bombers did more. They're not convincing atm.

I really like your "be nice, aces" post. I might steal that if you don't mind. (Though, nothing you said is particularly controversial)

-----------------

QUOTED:

Rather than attempt to legitimize my assessments below with a list of reasons you should trust random, faceless me, I encourage everyone to treat the following thread with the same seriousness as anything you read on the internet or this forum:

-With a grain of salt

-A pinch of sugar

-Add a dash of exotic spices of unknown origin

-With a handful of disrespect (must include memes at proper temperature)

-Topped delicately with respect (because people have feelings...avatars are people, too).

Speak your mind, and be kind.
Thanks, aces.

11 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

Though, nothing you said is particularly controversial

Erm...

45 minutes ago, Bucknife said:

delaying the early engagements as long as possible.

Think back @Blail Blerg . This tactic caused some serious shitstorms here, between the podcasters and across the community previously on multiple occasions. I highly doubt the hate for it has faded, even if the faction veneer of what is using it has.

24 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Erm...

Think back @Blail Blerg . This tactic [ delaying engagement to limit rounds exposed to damage ] caused some serious shitstorms here, between the podcasters and across the community previously on multiple occasions. I highly doubt the hate for it has faded, even if the faction veneer of what is using it has.

The stalling theme for the faction is simply my honest assessment from many games of experience. It simply doesn't pay off to press the attack round after round with the tools available [edit: I'm actually not sure there are many factions that ARE good at this).

Unfortunately, this faction also doesn't Regen as efficiently as others (Rebel T65s can load Regen on an entire 4 squad, and have the linked Boost+Focus to aid in the "running away" part of the equation).

Limiting engagement time is actually one of my least favorite ways to play, so for me to recognize this about my flagship faction is rather disheartening at times. There might be a fun way to cat and mouse for 30+ minutes, but I haven't found it yet without burning my Black One charge or ITR (It's the Resistance) condition early/pre-combat.

34 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Erm...

Think back @Blail Blerg . This tactic caused some serious shitstorms here, between the podcasters and across the community previously on multiple occasions. I highly doubt the hate for it has faded, even if the faction veneer of what is using it has.

Oh I missed that. Carry on

10 minutes ago, Bucknife said:

The stalling theme for the faction is simply my honest assessment from many games of experience. It simply doesn't pay off to press the attack round after round with the tools available [edit: I'm actually not sure there are many factions that ARE good at this).

Unfortunately, this faction also doesn't Regen as efficiently as others (Rebel T65s can load Regen on an entire 4 squad, and have the linked Boost+Focus to aid in the "running away" part of the equation).

Limiting engagement time is actually one of my least favorite ways to play, so for me to recognize this about my flagship faction is rather disheartening at times. There might be a fun way to cat and mouse for 30+ minutes, but I haven't found it yet without burning my Black One charge or ITR (It's the Resistance) condition early/pre-combat.

Fair enough. I personally don't disagree with the tactic but can see why it frustrates many.

Thanks for the shout-out, but I actually made that list specifically to be thematic (Black Squadron, ftw)! I'm not sure it was optimized, but I do I think BB-8 Poe and Composure/regen Snap caught people by surprise.

1 hour ago, Bucknife said:

I don't believe the faction has strong "endgame" pieces as compared to other factions.

It's not that I disagree, but I think it's worth breaking down what "endgame piece" means. My sense is an endgame ship needs three things: mobility, survivability, and damage. Closest they have is probably Zizi Tlo, who has mobility and survivability (potentially double-token), but really lacks damage. She can't clean up. Someone like Kylo? Klyo can clean up stragglers. The Resistance folks with damage (Rey, Poe, Nien, Cova, Kaz) tend to lack either mobility or survivability.

Imagine for a second Rey with Duchess and Soontir, or Poe with Whisper and Grand Inquisitor. The Resistance ship is a big threat, can make a mess, but you'd really need those Imperial wingmen to clean up the remnants. That seems to be where the lack of endgame hurts. Or just the lack of a great 3rd ace. Poe + Zizi + (Whisper, Vader, 7B Obi-wan) might be able to get the job done.

1 hour ago, Bucknife said:

I often take this "everything is unique" principal as far as even individual upgrades and load outs. If I'm using two of something in Resistance, then I'm probably doing it wrong and there's another piece at a similar price point that will do my squad better in the long run.

Double Red Vets? Probably not. Double Blue Recruits with Snap Shot? Probably not. Double optics? Maybe. Double Paint? Probably not (believe me, I've tried...some of you have seen the other threads).

You can put 4 T70s on the table, or 5 RZ2s, but I just don't believe the faction design supports/encourages that in Resistance. I believe there's always a better "mixed" option in Resistance that has a higher ceiling if you've got the practice. I believe the traditional "four ofs" just aren't where the faction shines (go over to Rebels and try Quad T65s... You'll do a lot better. Why? Because they're designed to do that...)

I'm not sure I agree with the "generics can't trade" line. They are a bit more expensive, but they get more. Most notably, often higher initiative. Granted, T-65 can also make the choice to run Init 3, but only if they cut down ship count. But gaining that initiative, plus the high toughness of T-70 (bolstered by cheap Heroic... half a hull upgrade for a single point), kind of does let them trade. They've got a good chance to Init-kill something, and come out with 4 ships (even if wounded). This can help the 2nd round. If T-70s make it to 3 vs 3 against a T-65, they'll pull through in the end.

Some of that is being blinded by partiality. I like the Red Expert a bunch. Heroic with Hull or Optics packs a punch or can take one. Blue Rookies with BB Astromechs are nifty little ships.

But... do they really compete with, not Rebel generics, but limited B-Wings. Init 4 gains the whip hand over strong Resistance generics. Quad T-65 I don't think is going to be great: Luke is good, and Wedge, but everyone else is just meh. No mods, no extraordinary toughness, and the upgrades they can get aren't always the most useful. I don't think Quad X with R2s is going to be any good. But once you start adding the B-Wings and U-Wings to the mix, Rebel Combined Arms just has a better track record than Resistance. Kaz's Jousters is solid, but has never dominated the meta like Rebel Beef used to.

35 minutes ago, gennataos said:

Thanks for the shout-out, but I actually made that list specifically to be thematic (Black Squadron, ftw)! I'm not sure it was optimized, but I do I think BB-8 Poe and Composure/regen Snap caught people by surprise.

I mean, you could've ran Jess or Kare instead of Lulo for the same "Black Squadron" theme, but you chose Lulo for some very real mechanical reasons.

31 minutes ago, Bucknife said:

I mean, you could've ran Jess or Kare instead of Lulo for the same "Black Squadron" theme, but you chose Lulo for some very real mechanical reasons.

That’s true, I picked what I thought was the competitively best choices while maintaining theme.

All I know is I really like the T70s and all the 🔥 ⚽ .

I agree with a lot of your conclusions.

The issues I see with the factions are how the ships interplay, the lack of synergy abilities and the costing of upgrades and crew.

The starfortress is a tank, but to make it a bomber it becomes a points cow that is susceptible to sustained fire.

It's not as bad as the transport however. A support ship that has no firepower, no defense, only one hull more than a T-70 so doesn't tank. It support abilities are red actions and most of the crew can only minorly improve that ships output at a high cost. The more you pump into it the more it becomes an easy priority target. Again it becomes as expensive as a U-wing and still only half as effective. Cova is the only credible version of the ship because it often runs with and improved stat line. Again you have to sink a lot of points into it with Leia to make that work.

The A-wing has loads of time on target but its 2 dice attack has trouble putting any damage through against other 3 agility ships, especially with mods.

T-70's are good work horses but built in weapons platform is underused for them. There isn't a good cannon or missile fit for them and torpedoes are too costly for the faction. So is regen since they upped it to hamstring Jedi. It could do with another unique Astromech class for the faction as well.

The pods are filler no thriller.

Surprising the fireball has become the most versatile ship. I2'S are good filler spam. Kaz is a good cheap 3 attack and defence. Bucket with crew slot is a great fast support ship with 3po or Holdo on board. Yeager another cheap I5.

The falcon... well it's the worst version of the ship. Rey is credible at the moment but not much else.

The reason you like playing resistance as a mixed bag is there is usually only 1 maybe 2 efficient versions of each chassis that works with minimal upgrades.

Thoughts to improve them.

If the factions current crew and tech were brought down in price it would help make some of the other ships more viable. Eg Nodin would be viable as a support ship if I didn't have to spend 14 more points to make his ability efficient.

As the a defining feature of the faction, they have a lot of abilities that deal with stress. It would be good to expand on that when dealing with enemy stress. If you had more abilities that caused adverse effects on stressed enemy ships then Ferrosphere paint might see more play and factions with multiple linked action arc Dodgers would have to think twice about using them.

Additionally if they had more crew and tech that had area effects that improved cost efficiency across the list instead of isolated upgrades that only work on the ship they are on it would help alot.

2 hours ago, Tyhar7 said:

The starfortress is a tank, but to make it a bomber it becomes a points cow that is susceptible to sustained fire.

Bomber needed Reinforce. With that, it's a plausible ship, probably.

2 hours ago, Tyhar7 said:

It's not as bad as the transport however. A support ship that has no firepower, no defense, only one hull more than a T-70 so doesn't tank. It support abilities are red actions and most of the crew can only minorly improve that ships output at a high cost. The more you pump into it the more it becomes an easy priority target. Again it becomes as expensive as a U-wing and still only half as effective. Cova is the only credible version of the ship because it often runs with and improved stat line. Again you have to sink a lot of points into it with Leia to make that work.

With an Ion Cannon, a generic is 38, which is totally reasonable for the 3/1/5/3 statline. Flies a little odd, but could also take BB Astromech or R4 and move a lot better. Without a Cannon, it's the same price as a Sheathipede at 32, which is a rather cheap support ship. A shame it didn't make it into Hyperspace. Two Logistics Division Pilots with Tractors and 3 T-70s? I could see that working out.

Nodin and Pammich don't make a tonne of sense, however.

2 hours ago, Tyhar7 said:

The falcon... well it's the worst version of the ship. Rey is credible at the moment but not much else.

I've given at least a bit of experimentation to Triple Falcon. On the surface, seems kind of similar in statline to a Firespray, once you add a shield upgrade. But the red boost and unwieldy large base make moving them around a lot worse.

Rey is... well... practically a 1e holdover, for better or worse. 4-5 dice attacks with a billion free locks and pulling red moves at will? A relic of a previous age. She can die fairly easily, but she's probably one of the best nukes in the game. If she ever gets good enough wingmen, I think Rey lists could have legs.

5 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

I've given at least a bit of experimentation to Triple Falcon. On the surface, seems kind of similar in statline to a Firespray, once you add a shield upgrade. But the red boost and unwieldy large base make moving them around a lot worse.

one hards are a good maneuver

6 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

Bomber needed Reinforce. With that, it's a plausible ship, probably.

is that so? makes them a lot like a YV, which have been pretty low-traction

decimators have a very incomparable dial (and access to vader crew), and VCX/upsilon (only the latter of the two seems to have really ever been a high-traction pick) are both 4 red dice with a lot of access to dice modification and very high utility (both offensive and defensive potential) pilot abilities in hera/tavson

of the 6 named pilots, 5 are explicitly bomb-related abilities, and the 6th is a defensive ability; they have a lot of upgrade slots but none for increased attack values; rose/finn/rey are the only crew/gunners for more damage and none of them are cheap. reinforce would help their survivability which is really quite awful given their low mobility, but they don't have any real action economy, so you wouldn't be able to have mods and reinforce on the same turn except on the 90 point super builds (where, admittedly, something like rose+finn+rey+pattern analyzer action reinforce could certainly be absurd at a low enough price point)

short of new pilots with a non-bombing focus (unlikely, given already a full 6!! named pilots) or some sort of weird scaling on the crazy resistance crew to make them cheaper on bombers than they are on rey (and assuming however they scaled also didn't just make them way better on the generic falcon) reinforce alone (at least its 2.0 incarnation) doesn't seem like quite super serum - just makes them a YV with a slower dial, already not a highly used ship?

1 minute ago, svelok said:

one hards are a good maneuver

*nods*

2 minutes ago, svelok said:

is that so? makes them a lot like a YV, which have been pretty low-traction

Plausible, not championship, I figure. Right now, though, they're pretty implausible, absent loaded Vennie, and even then... They are kind of like YVs, but bomb-launching is a pretty good trick, and maybe that'd work out OK, if the things didn't just die too fast.

Fig, Svelok;

you're darn smart guys.

11 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Bomber needed Reinforce. With that, it's a plausible ship, probably.

11 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Plausible, not championship, I figure. Right now, though, they're pretty implausible, absent loaded Vennie, and even then... They are kind of like YVs, but bomb-launching is a pretty good trick, and maybe that'd work out OK, if the things didn't just die too fast.

Yes, Reinforce should have been a built in linked action. Perhaps a future title card may fix that.

Additionally I think if it had and extra crew slot it would be a more viable support craft.

11 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

With an Ion Cannon, a generic is 38, which is totally reasonable for the 3/1/5/3 statline. Flies a little odd, but could also take BB Astromech or R4 and move a lot better. Without a Cannon, it's the same price as a Sheathipede at 32, which is a rather cheap support ship. A shame it didn't make it into Hyperspace. Two Logistics Division Pilots with Tractors and 3 T-70s? I could see that working out.

Nodin and Pammich don't make a tonne of sense, however.

I tried such a list and you want the LDP's at the front because you don't want them in the end game, they can take the heat off the T-70's. However two LDP can get burned down within the first exchange depending on what your facing, at least one will fall in an average opening exchange.

Then you end up asking yourself for 38 points each I could have green sqd pilots with AO, which are far more versatile.

Nodin and Pammich feel purposely handy capped. The crew cards are there to fix what's broke and if you spend the points to fix it, its costing far more than you wanted to spend for a support ship. More to the point there is no longer room on the ship to add crew for actual support.

Eg, Nodin would be good with Holdo but you need to put an R4, Korr Sella and Larm D'Acy on the ship just to make it work each round, now a 48 point ship. You could replace Larma with a PA for the same effect and get Holdo but now the ship is 57 points. Great it's an efficient support ship now but it still lacks fire power or defence to keep it alive. It becomes an easy points target for your opponent.

Compareably Benthic two tubes in a U-wing is 46, same initiative with a far better stat line and semi efficient ability it's already a better support ship for cost. The 2 dice defence will keep it alive longer and with a 3 dice attack your opponent won't want to put anything in front of it. Same can't be said for a transport.

15 hours ago, Tyhar7 said:

Eg, Nodin would be good with Holdo but you need to put an R4, Korr Sella and Larm D'Acy on the ship just to make it work each round, now a 48 point ship. You could replace Larma with a PA for the same effect and get Holdo but now the ship is 57 points. Great it's an efficient support ship now but it still lacks fire power or defence to keep it alive. It becomes an easy points target for your opponent.

Compareably Benthic two tubes in a U-wing is 46, same initiative with a far better stat line and semi efficient ability it's already a better support ship for cost. The 2 dice defence will keep it alive longer and with a 3 dice attack your opponent won't want to put anything in front of it. Same can't be said for a transport.

If they drop points too far in the Res Transport, you open up sub-y-wing levels of HP spamming, which is no good for the faction design. Same issue with Res Bombers getting cheap enough to HP spam. (I'm about to crack and go on a huge rant about HP spamming T70s...which are totally anti-Resistance style in my book...but I digress!)

Sounds like the solution is a vast reduction in Resistance crew prices, but then you run into that pesky Falcon problem...

Resistance is going to be a balancing circus for the next year or two, I think.

The way to prevent spam in a spamless faction is by hiking chassis costs and dropping upgrade costs. That is exactly how I expected to see and use Resistance when I heard about their independent release in 2e.

The issue is the Tech slot being usable by FO and Scum (one ship for now, but probably more later).

If an upgrade-centric hero faction was the developers' intent with Resistance, I don't see an elegant way for them to bypass the Tech slot conundrum and give mass upgrade discounts to only the Resistance.

9 hours ago, Bucknife said:

If they drop points too far in the Res Transport, you open up sub-y-wing levels of HP spamming, which is no good for the faction design. Same issue with Res Bombers getting cheap enough to HP spam. (I'm about to crack and go on a huge rant about HP spamming T70s...which are totally anti-Resistance style in my book...but I digress!)

Sounds like the solution is a vast reduction in Resistance crew prices, but then you run into that pesky Falcon problem...

Resistance is going to be a balancing circus for the next year or two, I think.

The way to prevent spam in a spamless faction is by hiking chassis costs and dropping upgrade costs. That is exactly how I expected to see and use Resistance when I heard about their independent release in 2e.

The issue is the Tech slot being usable by FO and Scum (one ship for now, but probably more later).

If an upgrade-centric hero faction was their intent with Resistance, I don't see an elegant way for them to bypass the Tech slot conundrum and give mass upgrade discounts to only the Resistance.

Not sure about that a T280 list really counts a spam to be honest. CSM spam is a thing tho and that doesn't fit the faction. However 4 or 5 ship list are the only viable list in this meta for the resistance. They haven't got any true aces that can arc dodge. Plus regen has been priced too high now because of Jedi. Try any 3 ship combination of these ships, Poe, Nien, Ello, Rey, Zizi or Lu'Lo, its not top tier. Neither are the 4-5 ship builds tbh, but the leans more into the your point about spreading the cost and delaying the opening engagement.

I agree the crew and the tech upgrades are the issue they need to come down in points. In regards to Rey you can simply up her chassis points in accordance to the reduction to the common crews.

In regards to tech, Ferrosphere paint is the only tech that really needs a reduction I think and its resistance only. It's a 1-2 point card in my opinion, it's an inconvenience at best, and really depends on what your playing against, not worth 6 points, but at 1-2 it might be a fair bolt on.

Now if the resistance had some abilities that capitalised on opponents having stress then it might be worth more.

However a few more resistance only tech cards would solve the issue you describe.

Generally they just need some better crew, most of the current ones are there to to un-hamstring the transports.

A resistance only cannon that was beneficial on the T-70 and transport would be good too.

Some upgrade ideas that could improve the faction. Mainly focusing on taking advantage of stress that's on yourself and your opponent.

Resistance only Astromech. - When defending if the attacker is stressed and you don't have more than one stress token you may spend a charge. If you do you gain a stress token to add 1 focus result to your defence. (1 charge recurring) 3-4 points.

Reasoning

Paired with Ferrosphere paint you might get a higher defence threshhold against alpha strikes.

Linked action arc Dodgers have to decide if they are going to get stressed to attack the target.

Put on the T-70's aces it puts them a little closer to a 3-3-4-3,

Provides the transports a little more defence.

Could come out with Resistance Y-wings to bolster their defence.

Only one charge so focus fire will still hurt.

Crew card - DJ - At the start of the engagement phase you may choose any ship at range 0-1. If you do you may remove a red token from your ship that the chosen ship does not have a copy of an place it on theirs.

Reasoning

Nice crew card to shed target locks, stress, strain, Ions and depletes. Works well with Finn, or on transports like Nodin or Cova for better stress management.

Would then help the Astromech above to support your T-70's.

1 hour ago, Tyhar7 said:

Crew card - DJ - At the start of the engagement phase you may choose any ship at range 0-2. If you do you may remove a red token from your ship and place it onto theirs

and I thought 4-lom made people mad

2 hours ago, svelok said:

and I thought 4-lom made people mad

Hardly see it played anymore but I have modified it so you can't token stack.

3 hours ago, svelok said:

and I thought 4-lom made people mad

I never understood the hate for 4-LOM when ******* Sloane is walking around out there. Talk about ******* your entire list!

On a more positive note, I have *really* been enjoying this conversation. I wonder if really all the faction really needs at this point is more ships? Y-Wings and B-Wings are generally darn slow; they could use a nice, slow, modestly beefy action multiplier like the Transport. Open up the design space, and give the currently existing ships a chance to really shine in the roles they were designed for, rather than trying to cover all the bases rather poorly. Maybe? Kind of ties in with Radio TCX's discussion of essential ship types. The Resistance has a light fighter in the A-Wing, a heavy fighter in the T-70, a battleship in the Falcon (and the StarFortress?), a utility ship in the Transport, and no dedicated munitions carrier. But all of these ships *can* blend aspects of these types depending on build, and none truly excel because they are so often called upon to fulfill multiple roles. Except the A-Wing, because it is so absolutely locked into the light fighter role. The Y-Wing and the B-Wing could certainly give the faction a shot in the arm in the role of munitions carrier and heavy fighter, and let the T-70 be *just* a heavy fighter, let the Transport be *just* a utility/support ship, let the Pod be *just* a light fighter.

I don't know what to do about the Falcon and the StarFortress - I love both of them, and they are both so...disappointing.

And I've yet to even look at the Fireball - I love the design space, but I hate the look of the thing and the source material. Oh well.

I feel like I had more of a point when I started this reply, but I've lost it. Time for some breakfast, and perhaps an edit if I can get it back, ha ha. And huge props to @Bucknife for the framing of this discussion:

On 5/24/2020 at 12:29 PM, Bucknife said:

Speak your mind, and be kind .
Thanks, aces.

On 5/25/2020 at 3:07 AM, Tyhar7 said:

...you want the LDP's at the front because you don't want them in the end game, they can take the heat off the T-70's. However two LDP can get burned down within the first exchange depending on what your facing, at least one will fall in an average opening exchange.

Then you end up asking yourself for 38 points each I could have green sqd pilots with AO, which are far more versatile.

Exactly.

Those I1 transports end up making terrible meat-shields and get initiative killed and never even shoot that 6pt ion cannon.

Ideally, the 38 point ion transport needs to flank and engage at range three to tempt players to waste a shot or two in opening salvo.

If I wanted strictly meat-shield transports, I'd throw them out front of my Xs with no upgrades at all, and likely not two of them, and do my best the move him at range 1 to really tempt fire off my squad, since he's otherwise be quite a useless threat to waste fire on compared to basically any other target...

...then hope that the rest of my squad can trade up on the halved-16pt or dead 32pt transport (that's two Vultures, right? No problem. Just burn through 6 calculate tokens. Yeah, no prob.)

I'm feeling like the real sweet spot is 35-37 points. Tractor Beam and maybe R4.

Two Transports with 3 T-70s, deployed with two transports kind of in the middle of the board, to make it more likely the fight happens in the rocks. One X between them, but deployed on the back line. Then split out a little ways, one other X on either side. Goal being that once an opponent picks a spot, you can hopefully collapse with two X-Wings on the outside and one trailing, with the transports roughly in the middle. Once the fight starts, those reverse moves are pretty handy.

Tractors feel like they really ramp up the damage of the rest of the squad.

Maybe better to go 1 transport, 1 RZ-2 (Heroic/Optics Blue is the same as a Tractor/R4 Transport), 3 T-70.