So,

I've been toying with the idea of limiting lists to one named pilot in every 50 pts. I was thinking it makes for a more 'realistic' Star Wars dog fight. Also puts more ships on the table and makes picking the named pilot interesting as it means you really need to pick its role, support or loner hero.

Any thoughts?

Englishpete said:

If they are your lists, it's up to you. If you want to run a gaming group this way, they will need to agree.

As far as game balance goes, this provides a bigger penalty to Rebels than Empire as the rebel lists usually rely on greater synergy between ships and use the abilities of the named pilots to create this synergy.

There is a certain amount of synergy developed in some Empire lists too, but I believe they are better able to cope with this mod.

That is an interesting point that you make, more thought may be needed on this.

I was looking to create more action by reducing the number of 'uber' fliers, but you could be right on it actually breaking the game.

To long playing WHFB, where named characters often provide imbalance.

Englishpete said:

Me too , but the game designers, in interviews and blog posts, have actually stated that they wanted a certain focus on the named 'famous' pilots and people living out those epic battles.

I think the point cost of those named pilots really police themselves most of the time.

I don't know that it really make for a more realistic star wars dogfight. Sure there were plenty of engagements that did't involve anyone worth noting, but the only ones we see on screen involve multiple named characters. In fact the Battle of Yavin included everyone from wave 1 except Horton, Howlrunner, Night Beast, Winged Gundark and Steele.

I don't see it as something that needs fixed. Part of the fun of the game is taking the famous pilots. I'd actually like to see more memorable characters from the movie, like good old Jek Porkins and Davish Krail (gold 5). I could see his ability as being something like "When being attacked from the rear arc gain +1 to your agility" The line "stabilize your rear deflectors…" comes to mind

I think this is a bad idea, but if you want to try it and think it will be more fun, go ahead. I know I wouldn't play under that restriction.

The point system is already designed to limit the number of named pilots. And I actually disagree that this would hurt the rebel side more. For example, I won Kessel Run yesterday with a 4-ship Rebel build of only 1 named pilot (Wedge) in a 100 point squad. I built that squad hoping to be competitive, so I had to limit myself on named pilots in order to get that 4 ships in under the point limit. The Imperial builds I saw, on the other hand, all used 3, 4, or 5 named pilots. So I actually think they would be more limited than the Rebels. Especially from the point of view of variety of builds, which is a big part of the fun factor of the game. If you limit the number of named pilots, the number of viable squads is much smaller (especially in Wave 1),

Bottom line: not recommended. The game is already well designed and balanced without this proposed rule.