Yeah, too busy playing some games to read the link yet.
It's not a reasonable thing, but I don't like the HWK-290. Maybe it was because it came after the main X-Wing/Tie Fighter video games, or maybe because it's not coherent with the aesthetic of the old Letter-Wings. For that reason, all my list building is restricted to just the Letter-Wing models. I might have to give it a go, though, if it's that "buffing" ship that I was hoping for.
Looking at it closer, the B-Wing is more of a gunboat than anything else. It just takes the Y-Wings toughness for the X-Wings "speed". After having fun with Ion Cannons, though, I was pondering an all Ion Cannon list. Perhaps I'm being won over to the Y-Wing afterall. That, and you're advice of "taking it a little slower" with the rebels really made a difference at improving my game. I'm learning that I don't need to always be in a big rush or how to win games without trying to outmaneuver my Imperial opponent.
Game last night was:
Rebels-
X-Wing Rookie Pilot w/ Proton Torpedoes
X-Wing Biggs w/ R2D2 (for maximum tank-ness)
Y-Wing Gold Pilot w/ Ion Cannon & Some astrodroid that I always forgot to use
A-Wing Prototype Pilot w/ Concussion Missiles (or something, never fired them).
vs
Imperials-
Tie Fighter Rookie Pilots x 2
Tie Fighter Mithril guy
Tie Advanced
Tie Bomber w/ bombs
So, I had one of those "well, huh" moments. I started the game with this great master plan. My opponent placed his Imperials in the center of his deployment zone. I was going to put my two X-Wings and Y-Wing on the right side of the board, and face his squadron mostly head on. Then, I placed my A-Wing on the far left side of the board, with the intent of zooming up the flank and hitting them in the side.
Of course, we start the game and my opponent turns and goes straight toward the lone, unsupported A-Wing looking for an easy kill. For some reason, I had convinced myself, in my head, how the first turn was going to play out, that this completely surprised me. It ended up working out in the end, as the A-Wing was able to duck and weave madly, thereby breaking up my opponent's formation and get all his ships tangled up in the ensuing dogfight, as well as placing them in a poor position so that when the remainder of my ships came around, it was a shooting gallery. He died, of course, as no pilot can be expected to survive a scrum like that, but that initial "breakup" really helps me in one of the problems I have with the game (that initial onslaught as one of my ships always gets focused fired on the first approach). Plus, after that, my opponent was never able to really get his ships back into a good position and I was able to, more or less, maintain my positional superiority for the rest of the match.
In retrospect, I should have used the A-Wing's speed and made a run for it, instead of trying to take on all 5 ships alone. I could have sent him around the board and brought him in to outflank again later. The things you learn as you go.
I am going to keep those main 4 ships as the bones of my main list going forward, but I need to juggle the details (I need a more survivable A-Wing), and I might go for one of the named guys on the Y-Wing. I feel like Biggs is my crutch, as I have a hard time making a list without him and his R2-D2 droid. He's always on a Sunday drive, mulling around taking shots at targets of opportunity, set on cruise control of "Green Maneuvers", while everybody around him is doing all the killing. And the Y-Wing is working better and better, as a single Ion Cannon shot, while not doing much as far as damage goes, can easily remove a model from play if fired at the correct target. Still not sure how I feel about missiles/torpedoes, though.
Is the game still balanced out? Does one side have it any easier than the other? I might have to get into this some time.
I get the feeling it is. It seems FFG tries to do their best to "shake up the meta" with every new release. When one dominant strategy comes to the fore, it seems like they try to plan the next release to counter it. Now, they're not doing revisions on old models, so there will only be so much good balancing that can be done, but the meta seems to change fast enough to keep from becoming stale.
That, and when you play, there are some aspects of randomness and list building, but you always get that feeling that what wins you games is how well you can maneuver. Or rather, how well you can out-maneuver your opponent. I always feel like a few good rounds of either putting yourself where you want to be, or having your opponent end up where he doesn't want to be, means more than having an extra dice on the roll.
Not so say that list building doesn't help, but it doesn't win you games in the same way that it does in Warhammers. Though, this might not apply to big capital ships that don't really maneuver, since we don't play with those.
I do think that you take to certain factions easier than others, as they do play completely different (ie: fast versus tough). I feel like I rock with the Imperials, and I struggle with the Rebels. But I feel that's more due to my natural aptitude (probably from playing too much Tie Fighter as a kid) rather than a game balance thing.