Not min-maxing is NOT equal to suck at something. It's more than enough to be decent.

You have your points here. I don't yet know how would I handle top tier fleets. But a pelta is not a vic. (You didn't claim it is, I know). So the pelta is cheaper (deploy more), thougher with aux shields team (same shields,  better def tokens), especially if i play around it with cheap upgrades (not something like Tua+ECM), and while it has the same speed two, the nav chart is miles better, at both speeds. 
1 - No clue how would I handle that. I need some practice games and theory crafting. They would surely choose Ion Storm if I end up as second player. Dunno
2 - While don't have much of a fighter coverage, I plan to fly them in tight(ish) formation, that means overlapping flak fields. And I have ExRacks, which help to focus down non-scatter key squadrons, like our good friend Marek. The evade change helps a bit too.
3 - I have only met SH twice, once on each end of it. So I'm not sure how would I handle it, but I'm confident I can come up with a decent plan.
And in general, I think I have good objectives. They will help mitigating some of the threats. And being second doesn't really hurt my fleet I think. With a 1 point bid I can elect to be second a few times, for sure. I aim to learn some neat maneuvers and flying in formation. Both of them help this fleet significantly.
But I have two significant advantages: 1) Probably that's the first time they encounter a pelta spam list, while i'll practice against mainstream archetypes, so will have clear plans and expectations on mind. 2) I expect the opponent to underestimate this fleet like no tomorrow. It seems like only supports ships mocked up as battleship. Which is true. But at the same time, surprisingly effective. This will make them think less, until they are in a though situation. I want to see how confidence and sorry for me in their eyes turns into horror and disbelief.  

Just when you thought it was safe to return to the forum....

Start the aspiring agent out somewhat small. Don't tell the other players you are even remoting with the player.
He has to convince the ISB to trust him. First they will test him while under a watchful eye. Sending on something that will test his loyalties, but is not an important mission. Use these first tasks as prep for future sessions.
Only after he has earned it will he be let off the leash and given more resources. At first, not much at all, an encrypted comlink and a holdout blaster perhaps. Only later will he get a permanent ship, some NPC crew, a squad of stormtroopers, etc.
Once he's a full-fledge trusted agent, then unleash him on his old friends.

There was a story I once heard, the one PC became basically a janitor/mechanic of the ship and the other players were mean to him. The PC put on a fake smile and pretended to be harmless and accept their treatment, but never worked against them in any way. In fact, he kept upgrading their ship for them with new weapons and armor.
 
Then, when the BBEG was up against the other players in the final battle, near the end he showed up when the players and BBEG were weakened. Instead of coming to their rescue however, he revealed all the one on one sessions with the GM and held up a remote that controlled their ship. He reveals his acts of 'kindness' were the acts that would spell their own doom. He pointed the ship at the BBEG - and the players. He wiped them out and had his vengance.
 
It would seem very fitting to do something similar. The situation began with the ship, and it will end with it. 

Due to real life reasons one of my players is moving state. He won't be able to remote into games reliably and due to the actions of the other players in the first session he missed (they took the party ship [his personal YT-2400 at the start of the campaign] and abandoned him on the Wheel to carry the blame for their actions) he's interested in joining ISB.
I'm happy to run him occasional one-to-one sessions as fit into our mutual schedules and things can be fudged to maintain the concurrence of the games.
My question is, if ISB buys him out of his obligation (replacing his share of the party's joint obligation) what support would it be reasonable for them to offer. I'm thinking they will offer a ship and a couple of agents as minders/crew.
What does the Hivemind think? Any suggestions as to what model of ship to give?

When the forum shuts down, this will be the home of info about Vassal Armada: https://armadaihaveyounow.blogspot.com/p/vassal-armada.html
I will make sure I ping other relevant community nodes, like Discord, Facebook, Reddit, BGG, etc. But the above page is the lord and master of all things Vassal.

Not min-maxing is NOT equal to suck at something. It's more than enough to be decent.

I have been doing some thinking, (Always, ALWAYS, a bad, bad idea) and deduced (ie, wildly speculated, in an unfortunately sober, brainstorm) that the whole forum shut down thing has to do with the next Armada release. February 1, 2021, FFG announces Star Wars Armada: Ewok Adventure Core Set. Hangglider Squadrons deployed from wooden spaceships vs AT-AT planetary deployment vessels with Wicket Warrick as Admiral. Sell your Asmodee stock now, this one isn't going to work.
 

Ok

I can't wait for Luke's aunt and uncle to return from the dead. 

I am planning to compile a text document as well, and then post everything to my blog. 
http://talesfromtheedgeoftheempire.blogspot.com/
-Nate

I edited my post and threw you under the bus by the way.  

This forum has had little to no moderation for years. Yes that means there is more bickering, but there really isn't much to do on Edge's side once the forum is created.  Many forums are even moderated by volunteers. I had a forum for a gaming guild for nearly a decade. It cost me $0 and there were periods where I never commented for months and it kept going. Edge just needs to host a forum at their website. They could even use someone else's hosting software. It literally could be set up with a few hours of work, then just walk away.
They could even contact Nytwyng who has already done that. Simply provide a tab/link from the Edge website that gives it some officialness so we all don't fade away to different corners of the web.
I would have to disagree. It's nearly free advertisement. Most games are continuing to have other social media contacts such as Discord, Twitter, Facebook, etc. In fact Edge IS doing this even though this forum currently has much more traffic then their Facebook does. Why would they waste their time if there is no benefit? Those even require responses from a paid staff member. Forums don't need that (see above). 

For those old enough, why are we slipping back into the dark ages of bulletin boards? 

There are lots of Facebook groups that are indeed run or dominated by some strange people. But, there are a couple Groups that I've found that have been great for me discussing Star Wars RPG: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/d20radio/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/370595006481881/
If you're just looking to troll or flame-bait, they are probably not the place for you  But they have been genuinely helpful for me, if you're looking for community and ideas centered around the game we all love.

I'll miss this thread the most. 

Part of the optimization issue in this game, and many suffer from it, is the partitioning of skills and stats, with certain ones being over emphasized.  Agility in particular.  I changed some assignments around to spread the love a bit more, but at the end of the day if a PC wants to make a gun turret with a name so be it.  They will just suck at a myriad of other checks and that's how you address it as a GM, make sure there are things everyone is mindful of and be up front about that.

This is a misunderstanding about what is meant by optimization, which is "best or most effective use of a situation or resource."
The sort of optimization being discussed here is building your character very narrowly towards a particular set of skills and building them to be as good at that as they can be, often exploiting combinations or loopholes or just making them better at that particular thing at every available opportunity.
As for the bolded bit, here's the difference. With optimization putting everything into data, it's that you're often building a character very narrowly which comes at the expense of story and having "This is the perfect way to build a Jedi, with Knight, Niman, and a KST-100" sort of formulas also cuts against story in favor of game mechanics. Rather, build the stats to fit the character, disregarding the "perfect" or "only" way to do something. Better characters tend to have a more broad base of abilities and aren't min-maxed.
One way to see if you are optimizing or not is to look at how you pick a ship. If you pick entirely based on stats, you're likely optimizing. If you pick based on role, appearance, and narrative justification with stats being a "does this work?" concern, you are likely not optimizing.

Working on the Adarlon subsection, I came across this:


Looks like WEG pretty accurately described Galaxy's Edge back in 1994.

For player attachments and abilities, you should let each player be responsible for knowing their own, including the mechanics of how they work. You will drive yourself crazy trying to keep track of them all, especially just starting out.
You have arrived just in time! These forums are shutting down, end of next month. But for now, there are a number of PBPs (play-by-posts) here, mostly in the beginner forums. The OOC (out-of-character) threads will have the game mechanics and rolls shown, while the IC carries the story.
Good luck, and have fun!

In response to the Forums shutting down next year, I was not sure if that means we simply will not be able to post anymore, or if we wont be even able to view these forums anymore.

Either way, I realize that I wanted to thank everyone for helping me in my journey to be a great GM for my friends. I really think I wouldn't have confidence for my campaign to be on the level I aim for, without you guys. So I want to say a special thank you to you guys who helped shape my GM style, and a thank you to everyone else for making me feel so welcome to the community even though I am a newer member. Every like and thanks made me feel more confident in my capabilities as a GM. I am sad to see these forums go.

A special thank you to:

@P-47 Thunderbolt, for teaching me to condense and simplify, and offering your experienced advice on my ideas.

@Archlyte, thank you for your encouragement, without it I wouldnt have felt like I could continue to ask for help on these forums. Your warm welcome and words made me really feel like a member of the community.

@BrickSteelhead, thank you for supporting my approach, it showed me that while I still have a lot of work to do, I can still manage it if I remain focused on my vision.

@Ricas Chumm , thank you for offering your resources. You showed me that I could organize the info in a pleasing way that is easy to read, and will cut down my time looking at stats, and focus more time on roleplaying.
@Fl1nt, thank you for offering your resources too. It showed me, like Ricas Chumm, I really can do more with less. 

@Rimsen , thank you for offering your advice, and helping me understand that I can use other sources to help me create rules. Because of this, it helped me link that I can use other sources like the animated clone wars show to help me direct the plot, which has helped me more than you will ever know.

@salamar_dree , thank you for helping me see that my cheatsheet needs to be double checked for accuracy. It has helped me see several mistakes that would have been a major problem otherwise.

@player5857008, thank you for letting me step back and see how I am approaching my own campaign, as trying to help you made me analyze my own tactics and approaches to things.

Thank you to everyone for continuing to support and guide me through a GM's journey.
I will think about the lessons I have learned here, and continue to grow as a GM.

I will honor the memory of each and every one of your lessons through each and every smile and laugh at my gametable when I finally get behind that GM screen.

Thank you, Everyone.

From a game perspective I don't really care as long as it improves the game.
About the mechanic it definitely comes with some minor reworks on salvo to make it work.
From a flavor point of view I don't see a squadron taking heavy fire from a ship and recklessly answering the fire instead of running away to try another run later when the guns are firing something else. But it might be well cause with salvo and I imagine something like "don't care, we will stand against the fire so return fire!" Which is basically what salvo token does: you take all the damage cause you hope it won't be enough. I like to think that a squadron has 0 chance of doing something like that again ship. Instead, they survives cause they are nimble and can easily run away from shots instead of going straight through enemy fire. I always read the low damage from ship against squadron comes from squadrons being evasive even when they don't actually moved in the game. Just like engagement rules also show.