I'm glad you both have caught the gaming bug with this: welcome aboard, both of you!

As listed above, Hrathen has an excellent outline of the individual ships. I'll say that if you're sticking to a budget but want to have a lot of different stuff, just pick up one of everything (excluding the almost mandatory second core set). I don't play Imperials often, SDCC, but I will say that the Firespray, Shuttle and Interceptors are all a lot of fun to play, since they are point heavy, but often well worth their value on the field.

I'm glad you both have caught the gaming bug with this: welcome aboard, both of you!

As listed above, Hrathen has an excellent outline of the individual ships. I'll say that if you're sticking to a budget but want to have a lot of different stuff, just pick up one of everything (excluding the almost mandatory second core set). I don't play Imperials often, SDCC, but I will say that the Firespray, Shuttle and Interceptors are all a lot of fun to play, since they are point heavy, but often well worth their value on the field.

Cheers Leo! Hi there.

Ints seems to be tricky to get hold of at the moment. Or very expensive.

So for now I'll have my TIEs and then most likely the Firespray. Is there an easily accessible table giving values for pilots and ships? It would be cool to easily look up values and add up some totals.

I use this squad builder webapp;

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/

Very usefull for dreaming up squads and looking up rules I dont own (...yet!).

Also there is this tread;

http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/topic/573-full-card-list-by-expansion/

Tie fighters don't get obsolete so much as overlooked. They're cheap, and some of the named pilots are incredibly annoying; Dark Curse in particular is a wonderful addition as my opponents keep locking on to him (which is pointless unless firing a missile). He's actually pretty good on the survival stakes. Howlrunner is also good, as is Backstabber.

Ties are also disgustingly nimble, never underestimate barrel rolls for giving opponents a headache or just blocking for action denial.

Ints seems to be tricky to get hold of at the moment. Or very expensive.

So for now I'll have my TIEs and then most likely the Firespray. Is there an easily accessible table giving values for pilots and ships? It would be cool to easily look up values and add up some totals.

One thing I'll say is never overpay for a ship. If someone is asking more than the list price they are asking for too much especially when they can usually be had for much less. Admittedly, they sometimes get in short supply but FFG keeps reprinting them so getting them at a reasonable price is just a matter of waiting unlike some miniatures games where things never come back.

I know there are a number of squadron generators around and places to see pics of the various cards. I usually use http://xwing-builder.co.uk/build to help with my figuring although having a something that will just show the dials and base ship stats quickly and easily will be helpful.

If you're an Imperial player but want to stay way from swarms, big ships, and glass cannons (Interceptors) then wave 4 may be for you. The TIE Defender and Phantom should really shake things up offering the Empire, and game in general, come completely new strategies.

Ints seems to be tricky to get hold of at the moment. Or very expensive.

So for now I'll have my TIEs and then most likely the Firespray. Is there an easily accessible table giving values for pilots and ships? It would be cool to easily look up values and add up some totals.

One thing I'll say is never overpay for a ship. If someone is asking more than the list price they are asking for too much especially when they can usually be had for much less. Admittedly, they sometimes get in short supply but FFG keeps reprinting them so getting them at a reasonable price is just a matter of waiting unlike some miniatures games where things never come back.

I know there are a number of squadron generators around and places to see pics of the various cards. I usually use http://xwing-builder.co.uk/build to help with my figuring although having a something that will just show the dials and base ship stats quickly and easily will be helpful.

If you're an Imperial player but want to stay way from swarms, big ships, and glass cannons (Interceptors) then wave 4 may be for you. The TIE Defender and Phantom should really shake things up offering the Empire, and game in general, come completely new strategies.

Amazon seem reasonable overall but on Interceptors they're asking for silly money. Like you say, I'll be patient and see how things pan out. Next pay day we'll be picking up the second core set. At least FFG are keeping up with it. I've seen people who play Warhammer trying to keep up with new releases and it seemed ridiculous.

I stumbled onto that builder before I checked back here! Pretty cool so far.

From my days paying Tie Fighter and Rebel Assault the thought of Defenders and Phantoms is very cool. Defenders in particular. So I'd be able to go toe to toe with X's and B's? Then fill in the gaps with TIEs?

I wonder what this would do to the Firespray? Would two Defenders take that space?

Tie fighters don't get obsolete so much as overlooked. They're cheap, and some of the named pilots are incredibly annoying; Dark Curse in particular is a wonderful addition as my opponents keep locking on to him (which is pointless unless firing a missile). He's actually pretty good on the survival stakes. Howlrunner is also good, as is Backstabber.

Ties are also disgustingly nimble, never underestimate barrel rolls for giving opponents a headache or just blocking for action denial.

Phew! Was concerned I'd end up with TIEs just left around when I moved up. I'll soon have the TIE Fighter expansion so will have some cool pilots to choose from. I think Ben and I will be setting value limits between us to suit what we've got.

At the moment I think we're aiming for 5 TIEs and a Firespray against 2 X's, 1 B and a Falcon. But that could change with Defenders.

I use this squad builder webapp;

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/

Very usefull for dreaming up squads and looking up rules I dont own (...yet!).

Also there is this tread;

http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/topic/573-full-card-list-by-expansion/

Cheers Joostuh. Inbetween posting and you all replying I found the builder mentioned by StevenO. Thanks though!

Firespray and Defenders are going to occupy a lot of the same point space in a squadron; no way to get two Defenders in the space of one Firespray but the numbers on the Defender seem to be good.

As we'll be setting our own limits and not entering tournaments, a Firespray and a couple of Defenders could be on the cards.

I just think my brother will have to keep up!