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The A-wing is very useful for tier 4 missions, trust me

In the A-wing you can take on amounts of enemys that would normaly get you ripped to shreds because of its small size and speed.

Hmmm sounds good then. I normally do better in the more maneuverable ships so I really WANT the A wing to be feasible. I dont know how much PvP I will do, but I just wantedto know if assuming roughly equal pilot skill would an A wing be able to take on a Y Wing and have an even chance to win.

Probably a blatently obvious thing...but a piece of advice from a very offense-driven pilot. Your forward armour is a great place to save on mass. Always put heavier armour at the back than on the front. While they're coming at you head-on, you've got your weapons distracting them...that'll keep you a little safer, without having to worry about damage from head-on. However, if they get behind you, especially if you're busy with something in front, you can't do a thing about the ships taking pot-shots at your rear. The more you can survive, the better.

Also, additionally, with the Rebel Pilot abilities, being able to shift your shields for and aft compliments this armour orientation. Shift your shields fully forward for a head-on assault. It'll help you last longer...and your heavier rear armour can cope with it. If you shift shields fully aft, which you usually only do when your running away, the heavierarmour back there mean that, once they hammer through your shields, they've still got a lot to contend with. If you've got a ship with Ion Cannons chasing you, it'll make short work of your shields...but you'll be thankful for the armour once its got through. Then all you have to do is hope he isn't a Y-Wing with a second weapon, or that he doesn't have missiles...

The Y-Wing is an Assault Ship. Slow, but capable of being heavily armed, and heavily defended. Its slow, but the idea is that you can keep shooting at it, and it won't budge. Also, the turret would help, as that can keep fighters off you. You'll also notice that, at no point in the Imperial Pilot missions does a Y-Wing ever come in as part of a wave without there being an escort from a better ship (usually an X-Wing). Think of it like the Landspeeder...slow, but its got a really high endurance.

X-Wings are dogfighters. They're designed to deal a lot of damage, take a lot of damage, and move around a lot.Its like the Speederbike...sat in the middle. Average speed, average endurance.

The A-Wing is an interceptor. Fast, agile, but lightly armed. "Strike Fighter" is a good term. It goes in, shoots, and flies off. Then it comes back, shoots, flies off. It was designed for hit-and-fade style operations...the kinds of things that you'd expect a guerilla force like the Alliance to use. This is the swoop: fast, but the endurance is appauling.

You need the different fighters for the same sorts of reasons people need the different types of speeder. The swoop/A-Wing is great if you want to get around fast, but you have to be careful it doesn't die on you. The Y-Wing probably won't die, but you're unlikely to out-manoeuvre people in it. The X-Wing sits in the middle. Its a multi-role, general purpose kind of ship. Its got enough speed, enough manoeuvrability, and enough firepower. Its balanced. You need the three types, because they suit different styles of pilot, and different types of mission. Some people prefer fast ships, some prefer slow. Its exactly the same reason that the Rebel Alliance has the different types...missions and flight styles. They pair you up with a ship. In JTL however, we have to pair a ship up with you (note the distinction). This way round, its a little tougher finding the right one. Go with what your comfortable with.

In coding terms, engines probably do a percentage of the speed cap, rather than a set figure. If you put fast engines on a Y-Wing that maybe gave you 72% of the A-Wings top speed, they'll only give you 72% of the Y-Wing's top speed. I think your engine trouble was probably because the Y-Wing chassis itself weighs to much. Nothing to do with the capacity it can take...we're talking sheer bulk here. It takes a heck of a lot of energy to get something moving at any noticable speed. Something that can shoot a super-light A-Wing a long at high speeds

All I can say is this, since I started flying my A-wing a couple of days ago nothing has managed to hit me enough to get through my shields. I have a 1300 pt shield generator and only 500 pts of armor, but my armor hasn't been hit once throughout almost 2 full tier 4 boxes worth of fighting including 2 Tier 4 story missions (which I soloed). I can leap into the middle of massive spawns of tier 3-4 fighters and come out on top because I'll barelyget hit. The main reason is the ideal turning speed. In an X-wing your ideal turning speed is about 3/4 of max, in a Y-wing it's about 1/2, but in an A-wing it's just a hair below full throttle. This means that while in my X-wing I'll have to cut my speed down from my max of 820 down to around 500 or so to get the best turn rate while in my A-wing my max speed is 930 and my ideal turn rate is at around 850. Couple that with the fact the A-wing inherently has a higher turning rate and you've got a winning combination.

It may take me longer to kill things in the A-wing with only one cannon, but I take alot less damage and last alot longer in a fight then I do in my X-wing. Plus I love high speed dogfighting with TIEs

At the present time, I only have my Z95 and my Y-Wing. My Y has serious engines, though still heavy and sluggish. However, with a huge capacitor, serious armor and shields and major league guns, it can take on a group of 4-5 TIEs and take a beating, and I only have to connect with the guns a few times to dispose of them.

That being said, I loaded my Z95 with as excellent shields and capacitor, a decent engine and NO armor and NO booster. She's so bloody fast that I also have no problem dispatching 5 TIEs in short order. My Y is a tank, and my Z95 is an agile speed demon.

Guess I retained some piloting skills from playing X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and Rogue Squadron. Given how much I spent on those games, don't you think I should get some bonus xp?

Its worth keeping an X-wing for when you have to kill big stuff like transports, sometimes the A-wing just cant do enough damage fast enough.Might aswell dump the Y-wing once you can fly an X-wing because it will not cut it in a fight with tier 4-5 ships, they will run rings round you. Unless you plan on using one as a missile boat in group missions.