I think that that's why the Armor 5 stuck out to so many... and I suppose why the whole "X-wing is that much more advanced" (I'm left thinking of Donovan Morningfire) rang hollow to those who envisioned the Y-wing differently... because what you describe about their stat blocks in prior stat blocks is reflected in the AoR beta X-wing having identical Defenses due to the low numbers (and thus barely any room for minute differences as in WEG or SWSE) and only 2 points of HT Threshold less (I guess not low enough for others in the "Armor 5 is too much" crowd).

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.

Not to hijack the thread because I haven't read it all the way through yet, this caught my eye and I had to comment.

This is supremely interesting dichotomy of interactions. You're being hunted by the Rebellion, the good guys. And if the Empire caught wind of it, they'd be hunting you too as the X-wing is a superior fighter hands down. Then you can imagine how different the Battle of Endor would have been had the Empire fielded X-wings instead of Tie Fighters.

I think that that's why the Armor 5 stuck out to so many... and I suppose why the whole "X-wing is that much more advanced" (I'm left thinking of Donovan Morningfire) rang hollow to those who envisioned the Y-wing differently... because what you describe about their stat blocks in prior stat blocks is reflected in the AoR beta X-wing having identical Defenses due to the low numbers (and thus barely any room for minute differences as in WEG or SWSE) and only 2 points of HT Threshold less (I guess not low enough for others in the "Armor 5 is too much" crowd).

I'm in the "Armor 5 is too much" crowd - but for a different reason. It's sufficiently better than it makes the X-wing superior to every other fighter in the game, including the one one designed specifically to kill it (The TIE/D) - which is one of those ships that I'd never heard of before, but when I didn't know which it was, I went looking for it. And it's a post Battle of Endor design. Which means we maybe should see stats for the T65D Improved X-Wing with Armor 5 and fluff to make it clear it's a response to the TIE/D.

And, thanks to being in EOTE, it's too late to retcon the Y-wing to Armor 4 except by making a second Y-wing entry for ships with "full armor shell intact" and giving them some penalty to maintenance and repair. (Say, +2 black or +1 purple to maintain/repair it?)

I'm in the "Armor 5 is too much" crowd - but for a different reason. It's sufficiently better than it makes the X-wing superior to every other fighter in the game

It's one of those things where you'd have thought that ErikB had designed it or something...

Although the TIE/D was actually a GCW design and not just post-Endor -- it's just that the cost per fighter was so high that the Navy balked at further orders (not least because of the infamous "shielded fighter with hyperdrive" stigma, even though by this time the Navy had already received such starfighters as the TIE/ad "Avenger", and before that both the GAT-12 Skipray blastboats and the Alpha -class Xg-1 Star Wing assault gunboat), which thanks to economies of scale meant that the production cost and cost per unit stayed high, to say nothing of this:

"Imperial High Command decided that defender pilots would only be selected from TIE interceptor pilots who had flown at least twenty combat missions and survived. We're either the best pilots in the Imperial fleet or the luckiest."

TL;DR : They could mop up on any Rebel fighter in an individual encounter, but in contrast Rebel fighters were more ubiquitous (pun not intended)... so there weren't actually enough TIE/D Defenders on the Empire's side to affect the outcome of Endor.

Nevertheless, this dichotomy -- and, frankly, FFG's just really, really weird translation of the TIE/D Defender* -- is why I posted my alternate X-wing stats and had TIE/D Defender stats on hand if you'd like to see?

* I'm not sure what they were going for, but besides being inferior to the X-wing in a system that favors HT and Armor over Speed and Handling, it somehow manages to be even worse than a TIE/LN at both of the latter.

Explain to me again why you think it would be a good idea to nerf the x-wing so TIE defenders can be awesomely overpowered IN A GAME ABOUT PLAYING REBELS!

How do you feel that would increase they enjoyment of the people playing rebels?

Explain to me again why you think it would be a good idea to nerf the x-wing so TIE defenders can be awesomely overpowered IN A GAME ABOUT PLAYING REBELS!

How do you feel that would increase they enjoyment of the people playing rebels?

Nothing better than beating the "obviously stacked against you" odds, man,

Not everyone has a need to have every combat be a sure thing cakewalk.

That's where you use more bad guys. It doesn't matter so much if you go down if you do it standing on a pile of your defeated foes.

Heh, what do you know, they did lower the T-65B X-wing's Armor to 3 after all!

Seriously though, if I didn't already already weigh in (hell if I remember) the right answer is, as with all things, "as many as the GM deems appropriate".