I was just flipping through my cards building potential squadrons lists and I noticed a dot next to R2-D2.  I don't remember the dot being mentioned for upgrade cards, but I assume that it means that R2-D2 is unique an you can only take the upgrade once.

 This leaves opens up some cool potential for later sets, perhaps chewy could be a unique upgrade.

 R2-F2, R5-D8, R5-K6 and Squad Leader are also unique upgrade cards. 

Does this mean that only one team can have a Squad Leader ? 

R2-D2 is a total badass. I always amuse myself by imagining that between episodes 3 and 4, R2 is constantly trying to tell c3p0 about the events of films 1-3, but 3p0 just thinks hes being mental

"yeah sure r2… you were built by Darth Vader and used to roll with Jedi…"

rhaak said:

Would make sense, since there's just one squad when you're building a squad with the squad building rules

 Ok, so unique cards count only for your squad ? If you have Luke Skywalker, your opponent can also use Luke Skywalker ?

rhaak said:

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood you - yeah, unique cards are only unique per squad. You don't necessarily know what your opponent will field while building your squad, so you can't take their build into account, and there are no rules for resolving uniqueness conflicts between the sides. Two cloned Luke Skywalker can fight each other.

haslo said:

Yeah, it doesn't say it on the card, but one person is fielding Luke, and the other is fielding Luuke. And both have visions in their head of an old man saying, "You will kill Luke Skywalker!!!!!"

True, this unique bit sort of throws your immersion, and that's why I think the game should be restricted to Rebels vs Imperials. Then you'd never have this issue because there are currently no pilots on both teams, and the Imperials currently cannot use astromechs (right?). I don't have a problem with squad leader since that's a generic type of unique: each squad should get a squad leader, but no squad should have more than one.

rhaak said:

The rules do say that if you are playing with allies, then only one of you can have each of the unique cards, but you enemy can repeat cards.

In the tournament I played (and that everyone I played was Imperial) I, and every single player I fought, used Darth Vader. 

When I saw the thread title, I thought this was going to be about how R2 D2 is probably the best upgrade card in the game.  I think he is one of the main reasons why the rebels are competitive- making him the "true hero of star wars".

In a universe where people can and do clone often, I have no issues see a Vader on Vader confrontation.  I wouldn't want to experience it in every conflict as that would get stale but occasionally it is fine to me.  I think the game options aren't open enough yet to prevent you from constantly seeing Vader v Vader confrontations though.

I suspect Vader and R2 (and to a lesser extent Luke and Biggs) will always be hot. FFG is pretty good at including a few excellent cards in their starters that seem to always stay competitive. 

Budgernaut said:

Let's hope so, because they're what the OT is about…

Hrathen said:

Now THIS is exactly why I think tournaments should require you to field both a rebel and an imperial squad! Playing with 2 Vaders or 2 Lukes on the battlefield seems odd and clunky and although it is technically possible in the star wars universe, it just doesnt seem to fit with the thematic flow of the game!

Not to mention that people have already said that imp v imp turned out long and boring, with few kills.

FFG spent a long time designing and playtesting this game so that both teams have distinct advantages and disadvntages and play well against each other. seems a real shame to break a well crafted mechanic and the thematic flow of the game…

R2D2 said:

They will never do this for tournaments simply because this game won't only be Rebels and Imperials.  With Lucas's focus on The Clone Wars right now we have to assume that at some point there will be other factions (Republic and Seperatists, as well as Sith, New Republic, Old Republic, Mando, etc.).  Then how would you do it?  I think the current tournament format is just fine and will prove to be fun for everyone.

Roy

So it seems that for tourney play this is going to be run like any other wargame.  You bring a faction and you play whom ever you end up getting matched up with.  If you end up fighting your own faction, so be it.  That the Championship game at Gencon was Imp vs. Reb was never a given, unless FFG purposely totaled up the score based on faction (best Imp player vs. best Reb player).  

For scenario/campaign play, things would need to be more specific.

-DavicusPrime

 I have no problem playing against the same faction.  With so few unique pilot/ship combinations due to this just getting started, I think it would be hard to avoid some duplicate squads right now anyway.

Plus I would not want to play in a tourney where I could not play my chosen squad every round.  Yes being adaptable and knowing how to fly multiple ships opens up a lot of play opportunities for a player, but I prefer possibly facing another Rebel or Imperial. On a side note I would be interested in mixed fleet builds, although thematically it doesn't fit until we get some other factions to unite against.