Hello everyone, and happy holidays. I've been thinking about the game quite a lot lately and have been asking myself "why are pilots restricted to only one type of craft? It's not like Luke and Wedge have only flown X-Wings in their careers..."

So, I've come up with a slight variation of the rules where you can use pilots in separate craft if you so choose, provided they still are treated as unique and the point cost is still the same.

We're going to use Wedge and Ibtisam for example: a Rookie Pilot X-Wing costs 21 points on its own, and a Blue Squadron B-Wing costs 22. Wedge in his X-Wing is 29, and Ibtisam is 28, or 8 and 6 points more than the base pilot for the fighters. So, if Wedge were to instead pilot a B-Wing it would be 22 + 8 or 30 points to deploy, and Ibtisam would be 21 + 6 or 27 points. What does this do? Their pilot skill and unique abilities (and veteran slot) will carry over to the craft they happen to be flying while still keeping their scores relative for game balance.

Has anyone tried this, or has criticism for this system? I honestly think that it still retains the spirit of the game while mixing things up just enough. Bonus points to those who use canon for alternate craft.

I'm not against it from a canon perspective, but I'm leary of it from a gameplay perspective. I've taken a look at Attack Wing, which uses many of the same rules but does have the ability to swap pilots (captains) and there are roughly 3 pilots that ever get used because of it. Especially since there's no real faction restriction, so everyone has Picard piloting everything. That may settle down in Attack Wing, but I like that I see most of the pilots with some regularity now, instead of seeing only a handful with the best abilities.

I have to agree with the Sheep, Do you think you would ever see Dutch in a Y-Wing or anyone running HWKs if they could put the HWK pilots in other ships.

And I would hate to see Jonus in a Firespray, backed up by Bombers... and what about Howlrunner in a Tie Advanced.

Canon Alternate Craft Flying (will update with sources)

Luke Skywalker: Y-Wing, A-Wing

Wedge Antilles: Y-Wing, A-Wing, B-Wing

Tycho Celchu: X-Wing

Ibtisam: X-Wing

Jek "Porkins": Y-Wing

Derek "Hobbie" Klivian: Y-Wing, A-Wing

Soontir Fel: TIE Fighter

I do see and respect your points. However, if people want to fly good pilots they feel appropriate for alternate craft I fail to see the real harm. It's not as if this is something I want to (or ever will) see at tournaments, but more of an experiment. I like to start the initial drop in the bucket to see if it creates waves. That said, mega brownie points for sticking with canon material for this.

Nothing at all wrong with fun-at-home play. Go crazy.

I wouldn't expect to see anything like that as tournament legal any time soon. The abilities are balanced based and costed on the ships being piloted. Wedge costs what he does based on being in a X-Wing. He should cost cost differently flying a Y-Wing or HWK or YT-1300.

Am I the only one who would get a little worried about seeing Biggs in say a Y-Wing with R2-D2 there to keep patching him up? How about Dutch in a B-Wing equipped with a Targeting Computer. Luke in an A-Wing becomes a bit scarier as that is more dice for him to find a way to turn. Maybe even Roark in a A-Wing for one more point but more evasion and a bigger primary.

I'd also hate so see what would happen if a few of the TIE Fighter pilots could get "promoted" to better ships. The only cost a few more points than the Academy TIE but note how Howlrunner cost 150% of what an Academy does so applying THAT logic to a Firespray one of those piloted by Howlrunner should cost 50 points instead of the more modest 39.

Why would you put a Targeting Computer on a B-Wing it already has Target Lock on it's bar?

*whistles nonchalantly*

I agree that there could be balance issues, but I see no reason to avoid it. If you're playing with friends, experimenting might enrich the game. I like the idea a lot if you are thinking of a multi mission campaign too. You can have pilots switch to different fighters based on the mission parameters.

Isn't it that every Imperial starfighter pilot starts his carreer in a TIE Fighter?

So you could place any of them back into one, 'canon'-wise ...

I don't think Jonus and Rhymer 'developed' their abilities in a TIE Fighter - it wouldn't make any sense to put Rhymer back into a TIE Fighter.

Vader as a Sith Lord should be able to choose any available Imperial craft to fly with. His ability would be decent in any craft. But would he choose an unshileded craft? On the one hand I would say no, he is too important to the Empire to put himself in such a risk! On the other hand, Vader as a crew member destroys his own ship ... he is suicidal enough to fly an unshielded fighter. So, Vader in an Interceptor would be cool.

As for Maarek Stele, he was an exceptional talent - he flow almost any craft during his career. I would give him a different abilities in each craft to represent his development respectively his ability to max out the ship's abilities. Like in a TIE Fighter he excells in surviving. If you want to stick with his current ability, it wont be too hard to calculate the point costs - his ability is priced at 1 point.

Maarek Stele, TIE Fighter: 17 points

Maarek Stele, TIE Bomber: 23 points

Maarek Stele, TIE Interceptor: 25 points

His ability, while underwhelming in a TIE Fighter and TIE Advanced, could be quite interesting with an Interceptor or a Bomber loaded with Proton Torpedoes.

We play canon games all the time. Most of the Rebel pilots defected with their ships from the Empire, so there is precedent. Include the Dark Horse material and you have Empire and Rogue Squadron where the Rebels fly anything they can get their hands on. Makes for some interesting matches with a slight altering of stats...the caveat is we dont play tourneys, so no probs with those rules..

One way to solve the balance issue would for the same pilot to have different abilites in different ships. The game basically has this already with Luke who is both a crew member and a x-wing pilot and Darth Vader, who is both a crew member and a TIE Advanced pilot.

I think this would be the simplest way for FFG to reuse pilots.

The pilot abilities could be the same, they just wouldn't have to be.

Captain Yorr in an Interceptor.
Lando Calrissian with an A-Wing, particularly if the named YT-1300 upgrades come along with him (increased damage, hull, and shields? Yes please!)
Turr Phenir in a Firespray-31
Garven Dreis in a ship with a Blaster Turret
"Dutch" Vander in a ship with a Fire-Control System
"Biggs" Darklighter in the Millennium Falcon.
Backstabber in an Interceptor

Captain Yorr in an Interceptor.

Lando Calrissian with an A-Wing, particularly if the named YT-1300 upgrades come along with him (increased damage, hull, and shields? Yes please!)

Turr Phenir in a Firespray-31

Garven Dreis in a ship with a Blaster Turret

"Dutch" Vander in a ship with a Fire-Control System

Biggs Darklighter in the Millennium Falcon.

"Backstabber" in an Interceptor

A wonderful illustration of many of the reasons that directly transferring the pilot ability is a BAD idea. I'm sure we'll see pilots in multiple ships eventually, but new pilots in new ships are definitely a priority.

Captain Yorr in an Interceptor ... actually it would be quite cool to have at least one Interceptor Pilot with support cha.

Garven Dreis in a ship with a Blaster Turret?? What should this be good for?

To prevent combos like Turr in a Spray and Biggs in a YT-1300 and so on, I would at least 'classify' the pilots.

Like 'Starfighter', 'Bounty Hunter', 'Small Transport' ...

Garven Dreis in a ship with a Blaster Turret maximizes his ability, as you are guaranteed to be able to spend the focus token. If he's in the Moldy Crow, he'll usually have a few more in the tank to use as well!

He can spend the token anyway. Read the FAQ.

Garven is cool (in his X-Wing) with a lower skilled HWK with a Blaster Turret next to him, so you'll save 3 points for recon.

Garven in a HWK with a Blaster Turret and Recon Specialist may be able to easily hand out two Focus tokens after using them. One to power the Turret and another to alter the shot granted I should check the actual wording on everything involved.

Garven in a HWK with a Blaster Turret and Recon Specialist may be able to easily hand out two Focus tokens after using them. One to power the Turret and another to alter the shot granted I should check the actual wording on everything involved.

That's what I see =D

I think it could be done with Pilot cards that work as Ship upgrades. For example:

Luke Skywalker

Generic A-wing / Generic Y-wing Only

Pilot Skill 8

When defending, may change one (Focus) result to an (Evade) result

Add (Elite Pilot Talent) to ship upgrade bar

See? Completely fine. It makes a Y-Wing tougher and an A-Wing just that much better at what it does.

Actually, I was thinking about Vader in the Interceptor idea, what with the upcoming possibilities of the Royal Guard title. Essentially you could add shields, hull, targeting computers and stealth to these things to an Interceptor with Vader, so you'd get two actions. So would dropping the shields and Target Lock ability be worth him going into the craft? Part of me is saying no, but it's certainly worth thinking about. Vader in a TIE Bomber is also an interesting dilemma since it will make him easier to hit, but he'll have way easier a time dishing out punishment.

The concept is good, I think, to have Same Pilots in Different Craft.

I would think the cards would be completely new items though, much like the analogy of Current Pilots vs Same Guy As Crew Upgrade. The Wedge piloting an X-Wing card has a certain special ability and price...the Wedge flying a B-Wing card would have a different special ability and a different price.

Vader in a shuttle gets my vote. Now there is a ship of doom!

Vader in an interceptor would be sick.

I think for pilots shifting ships you would only want a similar ability on most of them. Like Luke always changes a focus but what and when it changes is ship dependent. Howlrunner always buffs her squads attack but not always just rerolls.

Captain Yorr in an Interceptor.

Lando Calrissian with an A-Wing, particularly if the named YT-1300 upgrades come along with him (increased damage, hull, and shields? Yes please!)

Turr Phenir in a Firespray-31

Garven Dreis in a ship with a Blaster Turret

"Dutch" Vander in a ship with a Fire-Control System

Biggs Darklighter in the Millennium Falcon.

"Backstabber" in an Interceptor

A wonderful illustration of many of the reasons that directly transferring the pilot ability is a BAD idea. I'm sure we'll see pilots in multiple ships eventually, but new pilots in new ships are definitely a priority.

I coudnt agree more. Thoase are some of the more balanced ones to, vader in an interceptor would be scary. We could just throw vader into a firespray and never see the other pilots again as well

We do this in our Galactic Civil War campaign, though it is reigned in by the fact that each player can only have one unique pilot in their squadron, and pilots have to spend XP and a turn qualifying on a new type of ship. But there are plenty of combos that, to paraphrase one of the players, "if they do not break the squad point formula, certainly bend it." Both factions have come up with some really evil plans, though it will be another turn or two before they can be put into place. Even the generic pilots can have interesting uses. Train enough Prototype Pilots on X-wings, and you can field five of them in a 100 point battle.