Just curious if anyone else is planning on making up their own squadron as more planes become available?

Myself, I am planning on repainting up some of the planes and adding decals (including squadron symbol on the base for collision rules purposes - to indicate it's a "real squadron" in a campaign sense) to reflect my personal favorites and such eventually.

Maybe it's just my lack of being able to play the original boardgame way back when (even though I owned it)... sounds like fun.

For friendly games only, of course.

you bought em, do whatever you want with them... just remember that once you alter the base you have forever kept that piece from "official" play. as far as friendly games go, as long as your opponent is ok with it its cool

however, the collision rules were sreated for a purpose, and bypassing them will probably unbalance the squad

yes i would hate to see brigands and firbrands working together...
on the other hand i am all about generating squadrons I am useing metal planes and old mech bases that came on mechs I used for parts some photo shopping and tada new plane the hardest thing is creating an balanced squadron with nothing broken so i am using the current planes as exampiles... yay for new stats next week...

balance is, hands down, the hardest part of game design. I have looked at many home brewed figures for many games and I have yet to see anyone nail it. Remember its not just the unit, but also the units it works with. 90% of the time its the combo thats broken, not the individual fig.

So it's your belief that even though the rules don't appear to forbid mixed squadrons, that if you allow planes that are originally set up as particular "factions" to take advantage of collision benefits they don't normally have it upsets the balance established by the point value of the planes?

So if Iron Horse and Glamour Boy decided to join the Fortune Hunters, practiced with that squadron, etc... their points values would have to be adjusted just based on who they can't crash into on their own side?

Fun is important, but I wouldn't want it to be unfair, either. Perhaps I'm missing an important balance issue, though.

the rules do not forbid mixxing squads, but if you do then you run the risk of colliding with your own planes. their point values dont change

Yes, but you implied that if the planes don't run that risk that you think it might be imbalanced, yes? (by imbalanced in a points based game, it would mean the points cost does not reflect the effectiveness)

As mixed squads are allowed, I'm going to assume that balance issues are taken into consideration there... is the "yeah, but you can crash into each other" part really a major balancing factor?

I was kind of hoping you'd elaborate on your thought, if you wouldn't mind.

the point of an chance of your own planes collideing is an factor to consider when trying to mix and match the perfect squadron however it is not currently an real deterant to mixed squadrons at the marquee at my venue there was one purefaction squadron used... that was also the guy that won the game most used untryed squadrons trying to get some advantage over others...

when you have an game where unit generation is an matter of hypothisis, write, playtest, revise, repeat untill the unit works at that point value. you allways have proplems with game balance... if some one uses an unit in an unexpected way or tryes to create units...
in an game where thier is an fomula for the creation of units / compostition of units there is no such problems...
i am not saying that i know something wizkids does not
nor am i saying that i can do the impossible (create an balanced unit on the first go) but i can with the permission of my friends (what get to use my creations against me) useing existing units as an guide and trying to understand the interactions of all equipment.. and the understanding to fix anything that comes up broken and an tendency to over point things slightly.
you can create units with some chance of not ticking off your main opponets...

I would say yes. If there was no drawback, there would be more combining of factions to create better specialized squads.
The collision rule provides that drawback. As for point cost, That would be speculation. But points arent the sole balancing factor. It all goes into the mix

Hmmm, well, I wasn't looking at making all original units (the second part of Deniper's most recent response). Just slapping a new name and "faction" on existing ones to make, say, an original pirate group.

Rapierduel seems to believe that the abilities and points costs of a plane take into consideration the other abilities and costs of planes in the same faction... and that the "fine tuning" (for lack of a better term) of the planes within that faction take into consideration that they can't hit each other. To avoid or perhaps lessen potential imbalnces of a certain plane when combined with planes from other squadrons, the player must deal with the collision potential.

I was looking at it as more of a flavor rule. These guys fly together, practice together, etc, and thus can more expertly deal with close encounters with their partners.

I believe I can kind of see the potential balance issue while, admittedly, not seeing how much of an impact it might have. Perhaps a more fair idea for being creative in this situation is that "like planes" can benefit from non crashing (a kind of wingman rule)... this is, essentially, no change at all since say, Money Man and Market Maker couldn't collide, anyway.

While I'm not looking at any official tourneys or anything of the sort, I still want my games with my friends and the youngster to be fair and fun.

Thanks for your opinions, guys. I appreciate it.

My pleasure i appreciate the opportunity to intelligently discuss issues in an intelligent adult manner. I would Like to take this opportunity to say "thank you" to the many people who are active in this community for keeping it relatively civil and flamefree

So this would be an inappropriate moment to say your Vulture Squadron suxxors? (*chuckles*)
I still need to start painting on my Southern Cross squadron...

um, thats the point of the Vulture squadron, they will NEVER catch the pigeon

Oh sure, dodge my witty barb by claiming incompetence (*grins*)