In episode 3 the battle for corva sector, on page 238 in the section belligerence and strength it talks about the big battle between hammer and nightmare squadrons....however nowhere in the adventure does it state how many x-wings are in nightmare squadron...did I miss it?

T

You did not miss it, mainly because they did not say how many there are. It is up to you to how many minion groups on each side to use. I went with more Imperial minion groups then rebel, to allow the players to play a much bigger role in that fight.

I was wondering given the X-Wing was a relative new addition to the Rebel Alliance would players be upset if they got to choose between Y-Wings and Z-95 Headhunters' instead of the X-Wing as their fightercraft?

My assumption is that the X-Wing is the literal figurehead of the Rebel Alliance, for their organisation to survive they can't keep using such prominently Rebel only ships if they want to escape notice.

Also there should be some way of demonstrating they can't keep building X-Wings when they're desperately trying to stay afloat with the Empire slowly focusing all of their might against the Rebels something that should play a part in any game where they start openly fighting each other.

The X-Wing is indeed a relative new addition, but it is also stated to be its main fighter in a lot of sources. Personally I see no issue if you want to have the players choose between Y-Wings and Headhunters for their fighters. The books gives you the option between a Lamda, Y-Wings, and a Base of Operations.

From what I know of the History of the X-Wing is that the rebellion was tipped off about the prototypes, stole them and the plans (destroying the plans at the facility) and took off. They are pretty much the ones building them with the aid of Incom employees and their own engineering facilities. It is entirely up to the one running the game as to how rare they really are in the Rebellion.

I would say having someone not of the rebellion having one would be impossible, for they would have had to stole it from them. Which leads them to being hunted down by the rebellion.

Man, no one wants to fly a poxy Head Hunter.

--

This is a diagram of the deployment of RAF fighter squadrons in July 1940 (the start of the Battle of Britain).

If we assume that the X-Wing is the Spitfire equivalent (high performance, glamorous) and Y-Wings are Hurricanes (more conservative design but a workhorse), I'd say there are certainly more Y-Wings than X-Wings, but X-Wings are still a common sight, not a one off ace custom job.

The X-Wing is indeed a relative new addition, but it is also stated to be its main fighter in a lot of sources. Personally I see no issue if you want to have the players choose between Y-Wings and Headhunters for their fighters. The books gives you the option between a Lamda, Y-Wings, and a Base of Operations.

From what I know of the History of the X-Wing is that the rebellion was tipped off about the prototypes, stole them and the plans (destroying the plans at the facility) and took off. They are pretty much the ones building them with the aid of Incom employees and their own engineering facilities. It is entirely up to the one running the game as to how rare they really are in the Rebellion.

I would say having someone not of the rebellion having one would be impossible, for they would have had to stole it from them. Which leads them to being hunted down by the rebellion.

Based on current lore, the X-wings actually debuted as recently as a year before Yavin ( Empire at War depicting the retrieval of four X-wing prototypes at Fresia, while X-wing would depict the Battle of Turkana as the first engagement with production X-wings) but the "main fighter" status seems to come from its high profile early successes, particularly against TIE/Lns... sounds like ErikB's take on the Spitfire vs. the Hurricane.

Apparently the plans still exist but are the Rebel equivalent of a state secret, to the point of an entry Wanted by Cracken about a tech who duplicated the T-65B plans and tried to pass them on to Sienar Fleet Systems (the TIE series manufacturer).

A quick glance on Wookieepedia has the BTL-A4 single-seater being the early Alliance's primary starfighter (seemingly because of its common use among pirates, mercenaries and private defense forces) before being supplanted by the -S3 two-seater (despite the S3 variant debuting soon after Episode III) which, despite the X-wings' fame at Yavin and beyond, the Y-wing was the starfighter that got them as far as Yavin... and of course, even with X-wings around it was only the Y-wings that had the ion cannons until the B-wings showed up.

Is there anything wrong with assuming the standard count of 12 for a squadron?

Is there anything wrong with assuming the standard count of 12 for a squadron?

Nope.

Interesting facts on Full Wings with Star Wars during this era:

Imperial Star Destroyers each had a full wing of TIE's (standard set-ups)

That is 72 fighters

-48 are TIE/LN with 2-4 TIE/FC mixed in

-12 TIE/IN

-12 TIE/SA

This is broken down into 6 Squadrons of 12 ships each

The Interceptors and Bombers made up their own Squadrons

Usually the TIE/LN did Recon

The Squadrons are broken down into 3 flights of 4 fighters

The flights are broken down into elements of 2 fighters.

For the Rebels

The standard wing is 36 fighters

-12 X-Wing

-12 Y-Wing

-12 A-Wing

They are broken down into their own squadrons and follow the same ship format to a squadron.

Follows same set up as Empire for Flights and Elements.

Surely both Imperial and Rebel fighters must use the 3 fighter vic formation? At least based on the original Star Wars film. I know it was historically a terrible combat formation, but both rebel and Imperial fighters quite clearly fly in groups of 3, not the more modern (and more flexible, and more effective) 2 or 4.

Surely both Imperial and Rebel fighters must use the 3 fighter vic formation? At least based on the original Star Wars film. I know it was historically a terrible combat formation, but both rebel and Imperial fighters quite clearly fly in groups of 3, not the more modern (and more flexible, and more effective) 2 or 4.

Aye. Refining fighter tactics and inventing the Finger Four is the sort of thing PC Rebels could get up to.

I'd dare suggest that in-universe, the fame of the Death Star kill overshadowed to many just how bad the losses at Yavin were due to tactical issues like what you've described. Maybe that's why, as ErikB suggests, it may be the players who are responsible for innovations like the 2-ship element or 4-ship flight as a "standard" as opposed to something that varied-by-the-squadron, group or wing.

I'll always choose to fly an X-Wing when one is available. As such, I think any Star Wars game should be constructed so the 'Cheesy Option' involves X-Wings. As in, you know when someone has stopped messing about and is playing to win when they switch to the X-Wing.

By and large, I think the role of other craft is to make the player feel good about having selected an X-Wing.

Funny that... considering that I just statted up the X-wing as an "up-hulled", "up-armed" Z-95.

Well, some people just really enjoy being difficult .

:oP

My X-wing write-up in all its "obvious Headhunter descendant" glory :

When it comes to Star Wars I am more in to building legends than tearing them down. So I find it entertaining to examine the cults that form around, for instance, the Spitfire and then attempt to duplicate the mythbuilding involved in the medium of Star Wars.

When it comes to Star Wars I am more in to building legends than tearing them down. So I find it entertaining to examine the cults that form around, for instance, the Spitfire and then attempt to duplicate the mythbuilding involved in the medium of Star Wars.

Funny that, considering that my current favorite media (a comic book spin on the events in one of the Four Chinese Classical Novels) outside of Star Wars is very much all about tearing down the legends surrounding its source material... only to build new ones in its place. Then again, it also has a long-running theme of "history is written by the winners" -- or rather, "history is propaganda ."

P.S. What was the whole thing about being difficult?

P.S. What was the whole thing about being difficult?

Part of the fun of tearing down legends is that people on the whole don't like it when their legends are torn down.

I don't know if you had a sign an NDL to do the beta -- if so, let me know and I will not ask questions. I'm not currently on the beta.

Does the RPG provide for a form of space combat? What is the scope? How does it scale from starfighters to capital ships? Do you like it?

I can understand why you would compare Y-Wing/X-Wing to Hurricane/Spitfire. However, this comparison sort of falls apart for me when one considers that the Hurricane and the Spitfire were designed within a year if each other and entered service at roughly the same time. If an analogy is needed, I would compare the Y-Wing to the F-4 Phantom and the X-Wing to the F-15 Eagle. This is not a perfect analogy either, but closer to the relationship between the Y-Wing and the X-Wing. Remember that the Y-Wing first saw service during the Clone Wars. It was a versatile and adaptable spaceframe that served for many years since it was so plentiful and so easy to find parts for. The X-Wing was designed primarily as a Space Superiority fighter, and probably incorporated design features that were suggested by holes in the Y-Wings capabilities.

I really enjoyed playing a starfighter pilot in the old WEG SW RPG. Can you tell me what it's like playing the FFG version?

Err, all you have to do is 'just' buy the beta book... if you can find one. *le sigh*

The RPG as of Age of Rebellion absolutely provides for space combat, which right now scales for anywhere from starfighters (Silhouette 3, the "size" stat) to " battlecruiser-that-isn't-quite-the-Super Star Destroyer-from-Episodes V-and-VI " (Silhouette 9 I believe?), with "Imperial" Star Destroyers (from the movies) and the Mon Calamari cruisers (also from the movies) being a step down in size category at Silhouette 8; Edge of the Empire however only goes up to Silhouette 6 in that its only capital ships are corvettes (Silhouette 5) and frigates (Silhouette 6), but from what I've heard there should be a seamless ability to integrate both games' starship lineups together, and there are rules for handling small-group combats with smaller ships and larger ships alike.

As for "liking the system"... it's a mixed bag, though the only complaint that stood out to me was this thread about how in a multi-person ship (i.e. a space transport with a gunner, an engineer/mechanic/damage control person and a pilot) the pilot would have seemingly little to do, even moreso because it was only Speed 3*, although in single-person starfighters this wouldn't seem to be such an issue. ( Edge of the Empire lists both the single-seater and two-seater versions of the Y-wing, but the only difference being the ion cannons: Fire Arc Forward and pilot-controlled on the BTL-A4, or Fire Arc All and gunner-controlled on the BTL-S3.) There's also this bit on Speed in space, but I'm not too familiar enough to weigh in deeply there.

* For context, in Edge of the Empire out of the three default starting ships for a player group, only the Firespray -class has a Speed of 4 -- required for the Gain the Advantage action -- while the other two (YT-1300 or Wayfarer -class) have Speed 3; that core rulebook however has a High-Output Ion Turbine "attachment" upgrade option which can increase the starship's Speed by one (to 4 in the above cases), but it costs 5,300 credits, has Rarity 5 and takes up one Customization Hard Point. In Age of Rebellion 's beta book, the only "group ship" option is a Lambda -class T-4a shuttle, but if it's identical to the one in Edge of the Empire then that too only has Speed 3... while the other starship option is "enough Y-wing two-seaters to fit the whole player group". This may be subject to change in the "release" AoR book though!

Based on current lore, the X-wings actually debuted as recently as a year before Yavin ( Empire at War depicting the retrieval of four X-wing prototypes at Fresia, while X-wing would depict the Battle of Turkana as the first engagement with production X-wings) but the "main fighter" status seems to come from its high profile early successes, particularly against TIE/Lns... sounds like ErikB's take on the Spitfire vs. the Hurricane.

If you really wish to change the X-wing's history, there is some very old canon that stated the X-Wing was very old by the Battle of Yavin . It was in an official Star Wars fan magazine describing the X and Y-Wings that came out in....1977. I still have it in my basement someplace I think. The article described the Rebel ships as old and battered with access panels removed in order to more easily perform much needed maintenance.

The rebel ships are clearly not straight off the production line. They have been fought hard, and the emphasis is on keeping them in the action and not making them look pretty for parades.

" battlecruiser-that-isn't-quite-the-Super Star Destroyer-from-Episodes V-and-VI " (Silhouette 9 I believe?), with "Imperial" Star Destroyers (from the movies) and the Mon Calamari cruisers (also from the movies) being a step down in size category at Silhouette 8; Edge of the Empire however only goes up to Silhouette 6 in that its only capital ships are corvettes (Silhouette 5) and frigates (Silhouette 6)

Holy moly, I just paid attention to that in the book. Okay, so the Executor is 4 times larger than a standard ISD, but it's only one larger on the Silhouette rank? I understand the scale is exponential, but shouldn't it still be a 10 at least?

Also another note, the corellian corvette wasn't really a turbolaser platform as much as it was a starfighter killer, right? So why doesn't it have any laser cannon turrets? Just a thought.

... again, that's not the Executor -class, which is way bigger than either the ISD or the Praetor Mark II -class -- the latter is simply the largest reported starship in the beta book.

Also, based on what I have seen it seems to me that the Silhouette "scale" is neither consistent nor "proportionally" tied to starship lengths, especially when the Lancer -class frigate (250 m) is Silhouette 5 despite being closer to a Nebulon-B (300 m) than a CR90 (150) in length, and when EotE has two yachts (the Starwind -class and the Luxury 3000) of the same length (50 m) but different Silhouettes.

Funny that... considering that I just statted up the X-wing as an "up-hulled", "up-armed" Z-95.

Note that prior art has the Y-Wing and the X-Wing pretty much equals - X-Wing shields slightly worse, hull about equal, but much faster. (WEG stats and SWSE stats both.)