Sorry for the basic nature of this, but I am a new player. I just discovered what was probably obvious to most upon reading the rules: having pilots with the same pilot skill is a huge advantage, as you can choose your order of movement and firing (unless I am playing it wrong). If you had the choice of three ships at pilot skill x vs. 1 at x, 1 at x+1, 1 at x+2, you quite likely would be better off with three at x. This seems like a bug, and biases squad building towards multiple same pilot skill builds, which doesn't seem consistent with the rest of the game. It also seems easy to fix--have ships with same pilot skill use the little number markers that you use when you have multiples of the same ship. Highest number has to move/shoot first when the time comes to move ships with that pilot skill.

Am I missing something? Am I wrong in thinking this is a material advantage? Thanks.

It is just another part of the game tactics, certain of the 'complimentary' skills only work on lower PS, so it's swings and roundabouts.

I don't understand how that's not "consistent with the rest of the game." PS is certainly a huge consideration - making a whole squad the same PS, much less so.

Thanks for the response. My thought is that the game makes higher pilot skill better, unless they are exactly equal to another ship in your squad, which seems odd. It would be like making ships throw attack dice equal to strength, unless you had multiple ships with the same strength, in which case you throw one more. It works as a rule, but would be weird. Why make having the same pilot skill be an advantage? Obviously everyone can take advantage of this, but it pushes the game towards swarm builds, due to what seems to me (new x-wing player, old wargamer) a strange rule.

but it pushes the game towards swarm builds, due to what seems to me (new x-wing player, old wargamer) a strange rule.

It does make swarm builds powerful. The 8 Tie swarm is a very powerful list. But the down side of it or any swarm is that there's little room for error when moving ships around. It doesn't take much to end up having a big pileup of ships that have lost their action because they ran into each other.

Plus there's a number of upgrades and such that can only be used on a lower pilot skill unit. So you lose out on those.

But I don't see any huge advantage in it. It's not like you actually get more dice damage or better defense with 4 PS2 ships then you do 2 PS 2, a PS 5 and PS 9 ship. The only advantage is that it's a bit easier to keep them in formation because you can move in what ever order you wish.

There's some disadvatages as well, namely the lack of the highly skilled pilots who have special ablities. Plus the lower PS pilots shoot last, which is a fairly large disadvantage.

It pushes certain play styles towards swarm builds, sure, but that makes sense to me even in a fluff sense. The more similar your pilots are to each other, the better they can work as a cohesive unit.

But sometimes you want an ace in there who does his own thing or radically changes the unit composition. Or a number of aces, flying far fewer ships.

I don't see the rule as being overly confusing or contradictory. If anything, it just gives you more options to think about when building.

I guess i understand where the OP is coming from. There can be some advantages to having Pilots of the same skill as others have commented on. The biggest is that it makes flying a little easier when you get to choose which of your pilots move or fire before the others of the same skill. But one of the major disadvantages is that in order to implement such a strategy you are forced to either take all low PS no name Pilots (therby loosing out on the advantages of higher PS and pilot abilities) or take one named pilot in each ship type (Luke, Horton, Tycho for example all at PS8). So while this may be a viable strategy it really restricts your squad choice. For some types of ships it might not be a bad idea, particularly Imp ships. But given the choice of 4 PS4 Red Squadron Pilots or Wedge, Luke, and 2 Rookies, i think I'd go with the later more often then not.

I played a game recently where the majority of my pilots had a higher skill than my opponent and actually found it frustrating at times because I'd have preferred to move after his pilots for reasons of getting in behind them and not losing actions etc. It's just another consideration of the game particularly when you're in close range and duking it out in individual dogfights.

I think one important thing to keep in mind is that, depending on the pilot skill, it can be a huge advantage for you, but isn't *necessarily* a big disadvantage for your opponent. If you have a swarm with all ps2 pilots, and the other guy's pilots are all ps3 and above, that helps YOU for maneuvering purposes, but less so if his pilots each blow one of your pilots out of the sky before they ever get to do anything.

And really while it is nice - I've run several Rebel lists with all ps6 or ps8 pilots - I don't know that it's a "huge" advantage over just keeping in mind which pilot is going to move first and planning accordingly. Yes you can forget and move a lower skill pilot into the way of a higher skill pilot, but I've occasionally forgotten what move I'd given a pair of ps8 pilots and activated them in the wrong order, placing one squarely in the other's way.

So yeah it's nice, but I think it's more just another tactical option and less an overwhelming competitive advantage.

I played a game recently where the majority of my pilots had a higher skill than my opponent and actually found it frustrating at times because I'd have preferred to move after his pilots for reasons of getting in behind them and not losing actions etc. It's just another consideration of the game particularly when you're in close range and duking it out in individual dogfights.

I don't understand this comment. If you have higher pilot skills then you should move and choose actions after your opponent.

I played a game recently where the majority of my pilots had a higher skill than my opponent and actually found it frustrating at times because I'd have preferred to move after his pilots for reasons of getting in behind them and not losing actions etc. It's just another consideration of the game particularly when you're in close range and duking it out in individual dogfights.

I don't understand this comment. If you have higher pilot skills then you should move and choose actions after your opponent.

Yeah, I'm curious to know if he misunderstands the rules, or if he merely wrote the wrong thing.

@OP, since you said you are new to the game I'll just add that you get better with time. When I first started off, I remember sticking "Mauler Mithel" in front of my other TIEs to allow him to get into range faster, but my Academy Pilots kept bumping into him (or at the very least they had a hard time maneuvering over him, playing something like leapfrog in space). When you get used to the order of movement, it becomes easier to set up ships and plan maneuvers at least one round ahead, so you don't run into problems by causing your own ships to collide.