I currently have the starter set plus one of each expansion, so 3 TIES, 1 TIE adv., 2 XW, 1 YW

I have played a couple 100 point games now, and they are quite competitive, giving a number of viable strategic options to the Rebels.

However, without more ships, I don't see any reason not to field all of the available ships at that point total, and only the best pilots on the Imp side, and then it's just a question of which upgrades you find most beneficial.

If I lower the point total to force the Imps to make some strategic choices in squad building, I run into balance problems. For example, 90 points still seems to work from the rebel side, but 80 points seems to favor the Imperials, again keeping in mind the ships I have available.-- 2XWs and 1 YW

The manual suggests 31 points if you only have the starter set, and then it jumps up to 100 points. Does anyone have a suggestion for a balanced point total intermediate that I could play maybe with less than all my available ships?

It would be nice to play some shorter games so that I could rotate playing with my kids in one on one battles. They are younger so they take longer to make moves and are easily distracted, so having a good point set less than 100 which stays balanced would be good.

Thanks! I look forward to hearing if anyone else experienced this issue, and either agrees or disagrees that certain point totals can bring inherent side imbalances depending on available ships.

I would suggest increments of @30-33pts. This gives 1x X-wing/tie advanced or 2x ties, with options of upgrades.

So, a slight bump/next increment would be ~66pts of ships per side.

Personally, I think having more ship models, such as buying more Tie fighters, is a good option to increase flexibility.

As an example: You can fit four low-cost/skill X-wing pilots in 100 points. If you don't have four X-wing models, though, you cannot utilize this option. Similarly, Y-wings are slightly cheaper than X-wings. Having one or more Y-wings can allow you more flexibility in choices between numbers of ships and pilot skill.

Definitely the issue is one of available models in my collection. I intend at some point to get another starter set which would change the options dramatically. But while I am going to enjoy in the future having more models to contend with, at this point I am actually looking for competitive and interesting options using *less* models, because I am primarily going to be playing with my kids and the multiplicity of models will make for a confusing game for them. They are smart kids and understand the rules, but it's a lot to keep track of with even just 7 models on the playing field. Also their strategizing is not as well considered as an older and experienced gamer. So I was looking to make smaller, faster games that are just as fun in terms of customizing the options.

Thanks for the feedback.