I used the search function but didn't get the answers I was looking for.

I've been playing x wing and have heard about this game so decided to pick up a copy. My buddy told me I might have messed up because he thought you need 1 starter per person. For a newbie can we use one core set to play a 2 player game. What purchases would you recommend to a new player? Is there a play mat to organize everything? Thanks in advance. Please feel free to expand on anything that might help enhance the experience if the game.

You only need 1 core set for 2 people to play the game. The core set is actually quite good and can provide for many many games without the need to buy exansions. Really if you're brand new to the game you don't need anything else besides the one core set. Once you get a couple of games under your belt and decide that you like the game and want to dive deeper you can start buying more expansion packs ("What Lies Ahead" and "Opening Moves" are probably the best ones to start with).

As far as anything else you need I would recommend that you do sleeve all of your cards right away. Also I believe there is a playmat PDF on BGG that helps you to organize everything while you're playing but I've never used it so I'm not sure about it. I can't think of anything else that you would need to play or that would enhance the experience significantly.

Good luck and I hope you like the game.

One starter is recommended per person so that 2 players have their own separate pair of decks to play with. That way you and your friend don't have to keep swapping out cards and remaking your decks between games. Basically, a core set each is only recommended if you want to go past simply adding neutral cards to a different faction deck.

Though, one box is plenty if you don't mind going turn about and can swap out faction/neutral cards without building your own decks.

However, I'd recommend that once you start to really like the game, both you and your friend should pick up copies of the expansions What lies ahead, and creation and control. You will need a copy each simply because expansions are not stand alone decks, they are designed for deck building in mind.

Creation and Control, along with Honor and Profit are Deluxe Expansions that come with deck lists for you to build and try out, that way you learn the cards and build balanced decks.

You only need 1 core set for 2 people to play the game. The core set is actually quite good and can provide for many many games without the need to buy exansions. Really if you're brand new to the game you don't need anything else besides the one core set. Once you get a couple of games under your belt and decide that you like the game and want to dive deeper you can start buying more expansion packs ("What Lies Ahead" and "Opening Moves" are probably the best ones to start with).

As far as anything else you need I would recommend that you do sleeve all of your cards right away. Also I believe there is a playmat PDF on BGG that helps you to organize everything while you're playing but I've never used it so I'm not sure about it. I can't think of anything else that you would need to play or that would enhance the experience significantly.

Good luck and I hope you like the game.

Board Game Geek, an excellent website for learning more about games.

Cool. I should have known, I'm on there all the time