Strombole said:

That is a pretty good haul. I have 2 Core Sets, 1 Tie Advanced, 1 Tie fighter and 2 Y-Wing expansions.

Strombole said:

Those are great strategies. After reading posts on this forum it seems to me that  combos are the best way for rebels to deal with the higher amount of imperial ships.

cleardave said:

Well I definitely have the Star Wars fever. I'm a sucker for theme too and that's why I think I'll only ever have 1 tie advanced (it'll always be Vader). I really want to try the 8 tie swarm though. It seems like a fluffy list that is also powerful… But that would mean i have to buy more figures… *shakes fist at FFG*

El_Tonio said:

I kind of feel the same, but I think it's largely for two reasons unique to the games I've been playing. One, I'm using all TIE fighters and no TIE Advanced. Most folks seem to run one, but they don't interest me much, so I'm holding out for TIE Interceptors to be my heavy-hitters. Secondly, I've been playing mostly smaller point games. So I think that's a large part of it as well, as FFG would have us believe, the game balance is set to be proper at 100 points. Playing smaller 50 and 75 point games, I feel like the Imperials can't make the most of their potential numbers advantage without making significant sacrifices in pilot quality.

DrUnK3n_PaNdA said:

In smaller games, that is games below 100pts, and let's focus it in and say 50pts or less, the Imperials can be a lot more fragile, in my experience.  If you lose that single TIE Fighter, and you probably have only 2-3, that lone X-Wing is suddenly going to have a much easier time taking you apart, because you won't be able to surround it every turn, and the TIE Fighter is not able to keep up with the damage output.

Usually at that game size, an X-Wing that puts a Proton Torpedo on a TIE Fighter and kills it in one shot pretty much won the game, the players just don't realize it yet.

At the 100pt mark, it's pretty even, I feel.  You have enough points to really make your squadron work well together, if you put some thought into the combos you set up.  Below 50, you don't have a lot of flexibility, so if someone gets off a lucky shot, or someone maneuvers one way and the other lucks out and gets behind them, the whole thing could be over pretty quickly.

in a 100pt match, you can rally things back your way if some dice anomaly wrecks you early on.

My observations so far:

@ < 100 pts (35, 60) the game is EXTREMELY well balanced.  I replayed several games and switched sides and the factions have a nearly 50/50 win/loss ratio.

@100+ pts the game shifts in favor of the Imps if they are using swarms.  The numbers just become overwhelming.

I'd be curious to see the Imperial setups from those saying the Rebels are balanced or over powered.  I'd bet they are using Tie advances.  The Tie advances face off pretty evenly with the X-wings.  If you go 2 Xs and a Y vs 2 Advances and a smattering of ties, the advantage goes to a properly built Rebel team.  They have great synergy that you can use to quickly take out a few Imp ships and get rid of the numbers advantage, and with 2 advances you don't have much of a numbers advantage.  My guess for the rebel wins is that the Imp player doesn't have enough ties to field, or is so focused around Vader that they aren't willing to take an army of ties instead.

The Tie swarm though is a different story.  The 8 tie swarm or my preferred 6 named tie pilot swarm is really overwhelming.  Just too many targets.  The rebels can take out a few, but then the Imps get in close and a few of them can throw 4 attack dice at range 1.  Even against an agility 2 Xwing thats a deadly assualt.  I've seen fresh X-wings get blown up by both Backstabber and Mauler in 1 attack.

I intend to try a rebel swarm to counter the imperial swarms (4 rookie Xwings), but I haven't had a chance yet as I started working on modifying the stands.  I have a feeling the rebel swarm will be ok against the 8 tie, but lose hard against the 6 tie just due to initiative.

Another Imp team I want to get to the table is taking out a couple of the weaker offensive TIEs and throw in a cheap Tie Advance to simply act as a decoy.  The advance with the shields and missles ranks as a high priority target and could draw a lot of fire early on allowing backstabber and mauler to slip into range 1 without having to risk torpedo damage.

So is anyone having luck against the Imp swarms?  If so, how?

I think the biggest balancing factor in the 100+ scenario would be board size.  If confined to the 3x3 area, that many TIEs will get the way.

As for balance issues, I've been following FFG for a long time on many of their products, and haven't found any sort of glaring imbalances thus far.  out of the dozen and a half or so games I've played thus far, all Reb, the win/loss is fairly even depending on the variables.  Me and the roommate have tried alot of list variations and still are.  We each have a primary list or 2 that we run and our games typically time out before any sort of conclusive victory.

I've posted this elsewhere, but will restate it here.

First, we stick to the 100 pt, 3x3, 75 min, 3 obsticle very firmly.  I find that doing so limits the variables involved as much as possible and lets us work within what we can expect for any local tournaments.  I cannot understate how important asteroid placement is.  There have been games where collisions accounted for more than a quarter of all the damage delt to the Imperial side.  I tend to use the biggest three asteroids I can find and drop the largest of them right in the midle of the play area, laying the following within a close proximity and typically at an angle.  Primarily I do this in an effort to break up the Imperials formations.  Also, any given Rebel ship can run right over an asteroid for better positioning in subsequent turns and possibably enjoy an agility bonus because of it.

Second, deployment.  There's not alot that can be said here except for observe your opponent.  see where he's placing his ships and think about the next three manuevers it will take to get you into position.  Beware that placing certain priority targets can be an attempt at baiting you.  Determine your target priority and deploy as responsibly as possible.

Speaking of which is my third point: target priority.  I've seen a lot of different opinions on what your target priority should be and it seems to mostly be up to personal preference.  For my self, I generally go off of the following criteria (Note: this is strictly from a Rebel PoV): Damage potential (Back Stabber/Mauler Mithel/ Marak Stele) any of these ships will be at the top of my kill list over just about any other, including Darth Vader.  In the correct circumstance either one of the first two can hit just as hard as an X-Wing, and those shots will happen at some point.  After that is force multipliers (Vader/ Howlrunner/Winged Gundark) eliminate them to reduce the effectivness of your opponents combined tactics.  Last are the defensive fighters (Dark Curse/the guy who get's focus who I can't remember) these are really there to suck up hits, Skywalker style.  Ignore them as best you can, and focus on the other ships.  After that I tend to start at the highest pilot skill and go down, taking opportunity shots as I can.  Some will favor targeting lesser pilots in order to deny the opponent shots, and while logical in the extreme, I firmly believe that this is not a game of instant gratifaction.  Outside of rare instances of luck, there is rarely any single turn that will completely loose a Rebel player the game. Several consecutive turns of dispersed fire and/or unfocused action can however.

Fourth in my list is ability use.  I cannot stress how important target locking is.  I tend to lock onto my priority targets early on and then push for an opening.  Focus can be used to take on the regular TIEs, in conjunction with overlaping fields of fire, then pound on a priority target when you have the correct positioning.  The Rebellion are all about fighting dirty and application of force.

That about wraps it up.  I'd welcome any questions/comments.

~T