Howdy all, I'm looking for a little help with quick purchases.

I have just bought the core set and the shop has an upcoming event in June so I need to get up to 100 points.

As I'm only just starting out I don't have any expectations of doing well but I would like to put together something that I am likely to have a half decent game with.

The challenge is budgetary. As mentioned I've just bought the core set so realistically I can only afford another couple of ships, so effctively I'm looking for the best I can get out of either 3 rebel ships or 4 imperials (including the core set).

Any advice greatly appreciated.

James

It depends, if you can get another core set somewhere on the cheap you might go with 4 imperials but that's rather tight.

A better option would be to go with 2 X-Wings probably, get a version of WLB (Wedge, Luke, Biggs) out there.

Han Shot First.

1 falcon expansion

1 X-wing expansion or B wing or Y wing.

Falcon

X-wing (core)

chosen expansion

In general, Imperials will require more ships than Rebels to field 100 points (exceptions are the Bounty Hunter lists, but these ships are twice the price of fighters so it's pretty much a moot point).

Maybe look at another X-Wing and a B-Wing - you should be able to run 100 points with high PS pilots from that. Alternatively, 2 X-Wings and the Falcon could work as well.

For Imperials, quickest and cheapest route to 100 points is probably Slave 1 plus either a TIE, Vader, or Interceptor, for about $85 retail total.

Rebels, I'd get either the Falcon and either B-Wing or Xwing expansion, again totaling $85, or two Xwing expansions for $70 total.

All of these provide cheap but competitive small build lists that aren't too tough for a beginner, but the Falcon +1 expansion will probably be the best combination of everything.

Han Shot First.

1 falcon expansion

1 X-wing expansion or B wing or Y wing.

Falcon

X-wing (core)

chosen expansion

For HSF you'll be wanting Slave 1 as well, to get access to Gunner

you could get away with 2 ships for the rebels if you take the falcon and run one x-wing and han armed to the teeth.

Probably not the "best" idea to run just to ships but you could get your points together.

for starters I like this squad generator:

http://fabpsb.free.fr/

It let's you choose which expansions you have and what you get out of it.

Han Shot First.

1 falcon expansion

1 X-wing expansion or B wing or Y wing.

Falcon

X-wing (core)

chosen expansion

For HSF you'll be wanting Slave 1 as well, to get access to Gunner

Use Luke (Crew) instead. He's in the falcon box.

Han, Luke and 2 rookie x-wings is 95 pts so you could add a couple more upgrades, change to a named pilot, b-wing, y-wing if you like.

For example, this looks good to me:

Han, Luke, marksmanship

gold y-wing, ion turret

rookie x-wing

HSF: As Cheap as Possible Addition (All you need is the Core and the Falcon)

Han+Elusiveness+Chewbacca+Luke+Falcon+Shield

Red+R2-D2+Proton+Engine

You'll have a point left over to help gain initiative, so Han will shoot first. I actually think this list has a fighting chance too!

_{Thanks for all the input so far. If i do go with the Falcon then I will need to have just 2 ships (should have been clearer at the start, so apologies to those who made suggestions of 3 including the falcon).}

I have ordered a couple of different times from Miniature Market and they are the way to go.

Minature Market has the Core Set for 27.57
http://www.miniaturemarket.com/ffgswx01.html

The Falcon for 19.99
http://www.miniaturemarket.com/ffgswx06.html

Also all the single ships for 9.99

So its about 60 with shipping for the core and the falcon.

(PS I personally like the CoreSet and two X-wings or the Core Set and Imp Aces but i am crazy like that)
Also if your going to say stick with Rebels you can sell the Ties for about 20-25 on ebay so your cost is about the Falcon FYI

If you want a three rebel ship build I would either go with two more X-wings or another X-wing and a B-Wing. Both option will give you a steady 3 ship build.

_{Thanks for all the input so far. If i do go with the Falcon then I will need to have just 2 ships (should have been clearer at the start, so apologies to those who made suggestions of 3 including the falcon).}

I honestly think my first suggestion is the easiest to fly, but if you wanted a three ship build instead (for the same amount of money) then here it is: (Core + X-wing + Y-wing)

Wedge+Expert Handling

Luke+R2-D2+Marksmanship

Horton+Proton+Ion Turret

That is a though list with lots of potential. It is also a little more complicated.

The tuff part of most list is the need of other cards in other expansions. For $60 you can pick up the Imperial aces pack and have 4 Royal guard pilots all with Push the limit. All the cards needed for this squad are included in the expansion itself.This is a very good squad and a lot of fun to fly.

Cheapest 100 squad is 4 xwings.

You can do it 2 ways.

Core + 3 xwing expansions = another $45 investment

2x Core + 2x Xwing

I would go with the later. 2 sets of dice is very useful, and you are also on your way to starting an empire squad.

Another cheap squad is 2 xwings and 2 bwings. Same ways as above, either 2 cores and 2 xpacs or trip xpacs.

But you will be missing some very important upgrades that come in the Awing and Tie Interceptor boxes.

If you want to play Empire, I would buy:

1 tie xpac

1 tie interceptor xpac

1 imperial aces xpac

another core set set.

This will give you 3 interceptors and 5 ties, plus almost all the important pilot upgrades.

Id still then buy at least 1 Awing for another Push the Limit, and maybe an Xwing for Marksmanship.

Okay, well, as someone who also just got started a month ago, I can say this:

Cheapest 100pt squad would be a rebel squad. You can buy two expansions (x-wing, y-wing, b-wing, or (maybe) a-wing), which, if you are buying online will cost you $25. Or you could buy the falcon, which is also $25. I personally went for Y-wing and B-wing.

With upgrades, it is very easy to make named pilots cost at least 33 points each.

If you feel the need to run an imperial squad, You will probably need at least 3 expansions, such as the Tie Advanced and imperial aces, it will probably set you back ~$40.

With the core you can get rebels to 100 points with one more ships: a loaded Falcon plus the loaded X-Wing. For the same money you can probably get two fighters for a three ship build and XBB, XXB, or XXX may be more effective. Now the Falcon and an X-Wing is more expensive but can get you very close to a "typical" HSF build which all will agree can be competitive.

For the Empire getting to 100 points with an effective squad (dumping Mods on TIE Fighters usually isn't effective even if it eats points) will cost a lot more.

The Empire has ships that are cheap in points so it will take more of them to get to a 100 points squad. That is why the rebels have been top of the list for money value 100 point squad.

you could do the same with the Slave I as with the Falcon, fill it to the brink and use the two ties from the core.

of course you don't get a tie swarm with just 3-4 ships

The tuff part of most list is the need of other cards in other expansions. For $60 you can pick up the Imperial aces pack and have 4 Royal guard pilots all with Push the limit. All the cards needed for this squad are included in the expansion itself.This is a very good squad and a lot of fun to fly.

I love this squad, but it's more expensive (he needs a core set, too, so it's 15-30 higher than most) and harder to fly. Most squads here have solid upgrade cards included.

Well, for all of those suggesting HSF or 4X... That's not actually the cheapest. The cheapest would be the Han + Red that was already mentioned, or a three ship rebel:

XXX ($30)

Wedge w/ R2 + PT + EH

Luke w/ R2D2 + EH

Biggs w/ R5 + PT

XXB ($30)

Wedge w/ EH

Luke w/ R2D2

Ten w/ Determination + Autoblaster

Han + Escort ($30)

Listed above

These only require the purchase of 2 expansions (or 1 large which is twice the cost of two small) and while not overly competitive, should provide a fun time and enough of a chance to win if you fly better than your opponent.

Cheapest 100 squad is 4 xwings.

No, HSF is as cheap, and actually the 3 X List is the cheapest.

1 Core set $40

1 X-Wing Expansion $15

1 YT-1300 $30

Total $85

1 Core set $40

3 X-Wing Expansions $45

Total $85

Even if you go online both are about the same price.

For a XXX list, say Luke, Biggs and Wedge. the OP would need to spend between $20 and $30 more to get a 3 X-Wing list.

The tuff part of most list is the need of other cards in other expansions. For $60 you can pick up the Imperial aces pack and have 4 Royal guard pilots all with Push the limit. All the cards needed for this squad are included in the expansion itself.This is a very good squad and a lot of fun to fly.

I love this squad, but it's more expensive (he needs a core set, too, so it's 15-30 higher than most) and harder to fly. Most squads here have solid upgrade cards included.

I think X-Wing and Falcon is the easiest list to fly though 2 Inter (20) and 2 ties (core set 28) is outstanding, (48 total via minture market) I enjoy interceptors more then anything else these days. ( well my transport did kill Fatt last weekend so it's up their also, which you should just get the transport nothing else :-p )

I would run with imperial aces the following,

Howlrunner (18) Swarm Tactics (2)

Ap (12)

Carnor Jax (26) with Royal Title (0) Shield (4) Hull (3) PTL (3)

Royal Guard (22) with Royal Title (0) Shield (4) Hull (3) PTL (3)

In normal games I enjoy flying 2 Royal Guard and 3 Tie fighters. Which is a core, imp aces and one extra tie though it's not the cheapest you can go.

_{Thanks for all the input so far. If i do go with the Falcon then I will need to have just 2 ships (should have been clearer at the start, so apologies to those who made suggestions of 3 including the falcon).}

I honestly think my first suggestion is the easiest to fly, but if you wanted a three ship build instead (for the same amount of money) then here it is: (Core + X-wing + Y-wing)

Wedge+Expert Handling

Luke+R2-D2+Marksmanship

Horton+Proton+Ion Turret

That is a though list with lots of potential. It is also a little more complicated.

That's probably the cheapest build: Just get x-wing and y-wing, is about $20.

Versus Han Shoots First at 20+10 = 30.

As stated numerous times above, Rebels take up more points and favor quality over quantity, so if "cheapest" is the only parameter then for around $30 at a local store or $20 on ebay you can add either a Falcon, or any 2 of the rebel ships.

Rebel builds with 3 quality pilots can sometimes be respectable.

Right now I'm flying X-wing Wedge + 2 HWKs (Kyle Katarn & Jan Ors). But if you show up at a tournament with that you'll get a lot of weird looks.

I'd recommend picking up two of the smaller rebel ships, maybe an X-wing for Wedge because he is a great pilot, and a B-wing that you can partner with Biggs or Luke.

But read the forums and do some research on the ships. Go to one of the squad builder websites and practice building a squad and see if anything special trips your fancy. Maybe you'll want a Y-wing or HWK for the turret or an A-wing for the speed.

I'd shy away from the Falcon just because for about the same price you can get 2 ships instead of one and have more variety.