Part one of a three part series by Mr. Matt Cary.

After our article Points Change: The Good, the Bad, and the Interesting, I realized I had much more to say about the points change than the format we chose allowed. In this series of articles I plan to break down the faction and the upgrades to dissect what was accomplished by this points change of January 2019. Should FFG see these articles, I hope that they appreciate them as honest constructive feedback and not some random Internet person nay-saying them. First, we will look into the heroes of the Galactic Civil War, the Rebellion, who needed this points adjustment the most.

The Ships

To start us off, I will dissect each and every ship chassis and their pilots. I may make some comments about upgrade prices, as some of them drastically affect a ship’s usefulness (Leia and Moldy Crow, I’m looking at you). Each ship will have a verdict applied to it grading the changes or lack of changes.

Selfless B-Wings had already begun to prove themselves before the points change, and now they have only gotten better. Despite having no true aces in the ship, their fresh cheaper cost for 4 shields and 4 hull backed by a 3 die primary make this a solid choice for a Rebel list. Verdict: Good Move FFG!

The ARC-170 has received no change in point cost to the chassis. Unless FFG sees some hidden combo that we are missing, the pilots seem a bit high-costed except for Norra, who would likely be taken in a Y-Wing instead. If we compare the ship to the Scurrg chassis with dorsal turret pointed backwards, the Scurrg betters the ARC-170 in cost, shields, and the ability to have the two die arc pointed elsewhere. Verdict: Needs Adjustment

The Attack Shuttle was sitting at a fair price point before the points change, with the exception of Ezra Bridger, which will be a theme throughout this review. Sabine Wren, the standout pilot, got hit with a point increase. I’m not entirely certain she needed adjusting by 4 points, as her pseudo-supernatural reflexes was still inhibited by her I3 initiative. But 42 points is an acceptable price for her, and she is still worth using. Ezra should drop a point or two since he needs to be stressed to make good use of his ability. Without the stressbot R3-A2, you’d almost always rather just have a true action of an evade or focus. Verdict: Good, except for Ezra

The Auzituck Gunship is a bit lackluster at the moment, but super cheap Leia giving them white hard stops that can be followed up with another red stop is pretty dang good. If your list depends on arc dodging, you’re boned. Will need looking at if Leia goes back up. Verdict: Decent

The Y-Wing was a decent ship to begin with, but a bit overpriced on the higher initiative ships. The low initiatives could have probably stayed the same with turrets and Veteran Turret Gunner dropping in price, because now a swarm of Veteran Turret Gunner Y-wings is kind of scary. Verdict: Decent, but Bad combo’d with VTG and Ion turret drop

Note: I began writing this the week of the points change. Several Hyperspace events since have proven that this points change was Poor. The generic Y’s need to go back up along with VTG.

The K-Wing saw a three point drop in every pilot. The named pilots needed it, and Esege still needs to drop since his pilot ability doesn’t truly gain any action economy. The Wardens dropping to a cost of 37 seems like a bad idea to me, since you can field four of them with Barrage Rockets and Proton Bombs; that’s almost 270 degrees of arc coverage with bombs to cover your rear, all for a cool 196 points and backed by 36 health. They need to go back up at least to 39. Verdict: Poor

The award for most improved chassis for Rebels either goes to the E-Wing or the Falcon. Corran dropped by eight points! The rest of the E-Wings dropped by 7 leaving them squarely in the usable ship category. Gavin Darklighter particularly seems great for four ship Rebels. Verdict: GREAT!

While I understand why the HWK went up in price, it should not have gone up in price. My justification for this is that I haven’t seen a single HWK since the Moldy Crow increased to 18 points. Simply put, no one flies a HWK without the title. Kyle Katarn and the Rebel scout should drop back down the one point that they increased, as they were not meta staples of any sort. I don’t think I’ve seen either one on the table yet. Jan can probably still hang at her current price because she is a strong game piece, but Roark Garnet went up far too much since the double tap Dash got errata’d. Verdict: Poor

The significant point drop of every Rebel YT-1300 is a great move, especially since the Resistance counterpart came in much, much lower. Han can now take advantage of all those crew that have abilities that roll a die. Expect good things from Han and Lando in the future. Not much more to say other than they kind of make the Resistance YT-1300 look a hair overpriced now. Verdict: Good

Much like the YT-1300, the Rebel A-Wing’s Resistance counterpart makes the old costing seem ridiculous. The price drop and addition of another talent slot to each pilot goes a long way to making them usable. They still need to drop a point each, as the RZ-1’s have much less going for them with a fixed arc, a slightly less great dial than the RZ-2, and no true Aces. Verdict: A step in the right direction

This ship has some ups and downs. Moving AP-5 up two points is not a bad call since he was so good and still is at that price point. Zeb probably didn’t need to go up two points, but that is fine. Poor Ezra, though. Just like his cheaper Attack Shuttle counterpart, he is over-costed by about two points. Fenn Rau was so solid in First Edition that I am cautious about recommending a point drop, but given the lack of Flight Assist Astromech for maneuvering and the limitation of his I6 big base boost shenanigans to the Falcon, maybe he should drop 2 points. Verdict: Not bad, but needs work

It’s so great to see the T-65 on the table; I mean, the game is named after the dang ship. It should see the game mat. Luke, Wedge, Thane, and Biggs are priced well and see table time, but the others need looking into. At I4 with a very middling ability, the most questionably costed X-Wing pilot Kullbee Sperado should not cost the same as Thane and Biggs. He and the other named pilots – Garvin, Leevan, and Edrio – should drop by two points, Jek should drop one point. Verdict: Several pilots need drops

Probably all of the Rebel TIE fighters are overpriced except Zeb. If you compare them to named TIE/ln in the Imperial faction of the same Initiative, they definitely seem overpriced. Rex’s ability isn’t anywhere near as strong in Second Edition; he should drop 3 or 4 points. Sabine really didn’t need the uptick in points by 2 as her Attack Shuttle linked action exploit doesn’t work on this chassis, so she should drop back down by 2. However, Ezra in the TIE fighter is the one ship where his cost seems somewhat justifiable as he can have an evade backed by a force charge… still drop him by 1 point. Verdict: Needs Adjustment

Right now it seems that U-Wing is at a decent price point, but I would argue that this is an illusion. An illusion by the name of “Two Point Leia Organa Crew”. If Leia went up to the more reasonable 5 points (or the less reasonable original cost of 8), I think we would see that the U-Wing needs to drop a little. The generics are at a good price, but probably drop each named pilot by 1 point and drop Saw by 2. Verdict: Mild adjustment down needed if Leia gets adjusted up

The VCX-100, like most of the large bases, really needed a point drop, and it got one. The VCX also gained an almost necessary Sensor slot. Kanan, Hera, and the Lothal Rebel could probably drop another 1 point and it wouldn’t hurt anything. I left Chopper out since I think he is an unsung gem. The ability to apply two jam tokens to every enemy ship at range 0 is huge. Can you imagine stripping both tokens off of multiple TIE Phantoms at once? Verdict: Good job, FFG!

I think a bit of fear-mongering before the release of Second Edition and the general overpricing of large bases had this ship priced through the roof at launch. Double-tap Dash made one specific build of this ship useful, but we all can acknowledge now that our fears may have been over-hyped. Leebo dropped to where he should be, but also lost the crew slot for the potential brokenness that C-3PO could have caused. Dash and the Fringer dropped by 2 to better price points, but the Fringer could probably stand to drop a hair more. Verdict: Good

The Rebel filler ship. Decently priced from the start. Could drop Airen’s price by 1 and it wouldn’t hurt. Verdict: Good

The Upgrades

For this section, I will address each upgrade that made a point change and the upgrades that didn’t see a change that probably should have for this faction.

R2-D2 dropped by 2 points and R5-D8 dropped by 1. Both are good moves. R5-D8 might be fine with dropping another point since it requires an action, but I would hesitate on that since Luke can make strong use of it.

Rebels’ greatest benefit this points change was the crew changes. If you don’t see Leia on a Rebel crew carrier, 97% of the time it will be wrong. Her price change was actually a little too much. She would be good at 4 or 5 points, but at 2, she is criminal.

Baze, Lando, Kanan, Maul, Chewbacca, and Chopper all moved to more reasonable price points. I particularly want to see what people can do with Baze combos. Kyle, Esege, Garven, and Jyn all seem ripe for use with Baze.

Magva took a 1 point hit, which is fine, but she could have stayed at 7 and no one would have noticed. Saw Gerrera is the lone crew that didn’t adjust that I think should have dropped in points. He was great on the VCX in First Edition at the ridiculous cost of 1 point, but with two less shields and considering the existence of force crew that won’t self damage to turn a focus result, 8 points is a bit steep.

As a mild suggestion, I think it might be worth making S-foils cost 1 point. Wait, don’t run away. Hear me out first. Increase the S-foils cost to 1, but decrease the cost of every T-65 by 1 point. That way it’s no longer a mindless choice to add it on and can be dropped if you really need that 1 point. But, paying 1 point for a boost action and a focus boost-linked action would definitely be worth the cost if you want it.

Rebel gunners are a bit of a conundrum. Luke continues to be priced out of usefulness which isn’t totally a bad thing. Han Solo went up, despite his Roark synergy disappearing. And Ezra. Ezra again. 18 points for a bad version of Veteran Turret Gunner that forces you to spend a force mod to use. Bistan is okay, but not great. Drop Han, Ezra, and Bistan by 2.

I don’t have enough experience to say whether Outrider remaining at 14 is too much or too little, but the Millennium Falcon title could go down 1 point without much fuss. However, I do hold the contentious position that Moldy Crow went up too many points. My justification for my thinking is that I haven’t seen a squawk from this Crow in two different factions since the change – whether in real life table time or on stream. Drop it two to three points to remain pricey but put it more in the realm of usable.

Well, there is my diagnosis on the Rebel points change. What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? What do you think still needs addressed to be usable? What do you think needs addressed because it is too strong?