Up until now I've only played against 1 person. However soon I'll be trying to regularly attend an organized play. However the person that i play with tends to run the same things over and over. He relies heavily on Named pilots. As such, there tends to be a very samey turn order, where i have a whole host of smaller guys going, then all his guys are in the middle, followed by my high PS guys (usually Howlrunner, Mauler, and Soontir). What this tends to do is render some cards, either maneuver cards/abilities or things like Veteran Instincts or Swarm Tactics fairly useless. So my question is this: just how often in organized play do you guys see Rebels running all high PS pilots or Named Pilots? Is it common for people to use the middle guys?

Short answer...sort of.

You will find that there are all kinds of list out there, some are good for YOUR type of play, some are good for Tournaments, and some are just plain fun to fly. The game is really balanced, so you may go up against a list, and have very little chance at beating it, but that doesn't mean its unbeatable. Every list has its good match ups, and bad. You will play with folks that only take named guys, and then some will only play swarms. Unlike some other games, there is no ONE overpowered list, its all about matchup. You will also find that the players are usually friendlier, and will talk about the list they fly, and possible changes to your list.

Play what you want to play with, and have fun with it.

Well, it's more that i was just hoping to break up the monotony of the turn structure. Mix it up a little. Also, my friend tends to stick with what he knows. I fly a new list in some way almost every match. Sure some things stay the same (I LOVE YOU SOONTIR FELLLLL!) But i mix up different swarms types, or heavy hitters and the like. I had one match a bit ago (mentioned in an earlier topic) with Soontir, Rhymer, and Night Beast and Dark Curse and absolutely mopped the floor with him in a complete shut out.

At my local Gaming club the people I tend to play against always have named pilots in their lists. That's a large part of the Rebel ships power is their named pilots. I too run named Imperials, but I do from time to time run Black, Saber, Obsidian, ect. Squadrons for thematic purposes.

Well the game is kind of designed to function in that turn order, in a way.

Most generic imperial pilots are PS1, and rebels are PS2. If you follow the general trend of trying to put a lot of imperial ships on the table and the rebels try to get 4 ships out, then you will naturally end up with a bunch of PS1 imperial ships moving, then PS2 rebels, then whatever smattering of higher PS ships you might have in whatever order they are. If Imperials are putting points into unique pilots it's usually because they want the highest PS to maximize the maneuverability of a fragile ship (Soontir) or because they have a good ability and happen to be of high pilot skill (Howlrunner/Vader).

There are times and builds where this is not the case, but it does follow the general trends in squad building for each faction

Tell you what: throw us a ship you'd like us to tell, and we'll break down the several ways to run that ship.

Other than the Tie Advanced. In general, we think it's overpriced, despite being the most survivable ship in its size.

Welcome! Great choice in flying Imperials by the way. You're sure to find our maneuverability, unique call signs, and near infinite resources appealing. I mean, we are the good guys. Law, order, protect the civilized world and all that. Plus we won't freak out when you channel your rage and hatred for the greater good rather than suppress it.

I strongly believe that a PS war is brewing. High PS lists will get beat by Low PS swarms, who will in turn struggle against Midrange high offense PS lists, and those will struggle vs. huge offense high PS or high HP swarms.

This game is great because it's more than Rock Paper Scissors. It's really Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock with a hint of dice variability (ok, more than a hint).

well, we always believe in MORE SHIPS MORE SHIPS MORE SHIPS, so chances are you will run into quite a lot of mooks. eg. 2 mook rebels + 2 named rebels, or Academy TIEs x 6 or so excluding howlrunner and etc named

Most generic imperial pilots are PS1, and rebels are PS2. If you follow the general trend of trying to put a lot of imperial ships on the table and the rebels try to get 4 ships out, then you will naturally end up with a bunch of PS1 imperial ships moving, then PS2 rebels, then whatever smattering of higher PS ships you might have in whatever order they are. If Imperials are putting points into unique pilots it's usually because they want the highest PS to maximize the maneuverability of a fragile ship (Soontir) or because they have a good ability and happen to be of high pilot skill (Howlrunner/Vader).

There are times and builds where this is not the case, but it does follow the general trends in squad building for each faction

Well I must do things very differently than what you are used to facing/playing because I tend to have a lot of mid-skill Imperials out and they do very well, named pilot or not. I almost never use the Academy TIEs unless it's just to use up the last smattering of points that i can't spend elsewhere.

however if i must say so, it seems that my friend and i are evenly matched, tactically speaking. the only way one of us ever seems to beat the other is by being lucky. our games tend to be very one-sided in dice results. very rarely do we each roll evenly in the same game. also, we've kept track of wins and losses and we keep edging each other out, we've played about 30 matches in the last month and we're still dead even. That's the reason why i'm asking about what other people tend to field. I'm kinda worried that i'll get so used to the tactics of one person that i'll be completely blind-sided by other people's play styles. For instance, my friend almost never kiograns, so I generally know where he'll be. He's also easy to trick into crossfire because i know what players he hates and who/what he'll send against them.

Well at the last tounament I attended, the top placing list was an Imperial list running PS6 ties (Black Squadron with Vet Instincts and Stealth Devices) and Krassis, and it was a nightmare to play against.

Agreed. Unless you're literally going for as many warm bodies as you can fit on the board with Academy TIEs, imperial fighters really, really want to be moving last. Barrel roll is so much better when you can see where your opponent is, boost even more so. Plus, higher skill pilots tend to have Daredevil or Push The Limit, improving their ability to hoon around the sky still further.

Black Squadron and/or Royal Guard strike me as awesome for this reason. If there's one thing I don't see that often, it's Obsidian Squadron - either pay points for really good pilot skill, or stick with a swarm.