Hi all,

A friend and I are considering jumping into this game. While I realize there are probably tons of ‘help me get started’ posts, the thing is the metagame can change with each new release and new options keep coming in.

So I’d like to ask, if you were to start with the hobby anew, with the benefit of hindsight, what ships would you get first? What ships would you get later? What would you not get at all?

I am not interested in joining tournaments so it’s mostly for casual (yet competitive!) play. Also I should add I’m only interested in ship designs from the actual movies. Aces with alternate paint jobs are fine, but nothing from the EU (except maybe the Phantom, that one looks cool.)

Some specific questions:

1. How much of this game (and the outcome) depends on outthinking and outmaneuvering your opponent (using the maneuvering dials)? How much depends on making killer combo’s of cards/listbuilding? How much on luck/dice rolling? (I’d hope it be something like 60/30/10 but I fear luck may play a larger part than that?)

2. Is it mandatory to get a second core set? Why wouldn’t you buy three separate ships instead?

3. Are the first TIE fighter and X Wing expansions still considered a must-have? And even if you would get 2 core sets?

4. Any other must-have expansions for beginning play?

5. Any models to avoid? Every game has its deadweight models that are just outclassed because other models do the same thing better or for a lower point cost. I’ve heard as much about the TIE advanced, but it would be a crying shame to play this game without Darth Vader!

6. Are upgrades unique to a certain expansion? Would an Imperial player need to buy a Rebel ship just to get access to certain upgrades/rules?

Thanks!

Hi all

Hello and welcome

So I’d like to ask, if you were to start with the hobby anew, with the benefit of hindsight, what ships would you get first?

Core set, perhaps 2 of them, or one each. Having more than 1 core helps a lot. More dice, extra templates, extra damage deck, and most importantly 3 more ships.

But, if you're not completely sure, I'd get one and try it first.

Then after that, it's really buy what you want. All of the ships are still good and useful, there is really nothing obsolete. So you'll find a use for most anything you buy.

I would recommend no more than one Tie Advanced though, because while Lord Vader rocks, the rest of the pilots don't. A word of warning though, some of the Wave 1, 2 and even 3 ships can be hard to find due to FFG still not being able to keep up with demand.

Do not pay more than MSRP for a ship though, because everything will be back in stock at some point.

Some specific questions:

For 1, a lot of it is outthinking the other guy, a good part of it is list building and combos. Dice is of course a factor but you really don't win or lose on them most times. There will be times, but those are flukes.

For 2 & 3, because you get those 3 ships plus everything else for less than the 3 ships themselves. But you'll still want a X-Wing and Tie Fighter expansion for the sake of Howlrunner and Wedge which don't come with the core set.

But 5+ Ties and 3+ X-Wings is a great core collection to start with.

4. Any other must-have expansions for beginning play?

No, everything is useful but nothing is really required.

6. Are upgrades unique to a certain expansion?

Yes they are, for example you can only get Push the Limit in the A-Wing Expansion or the Imperial Aces expansion. You can only get Gunner from the Firespray-31 expansion or Engine Upgrade from the YT-1300. So yes, an Imperial player may need to buy Rebel ships for the sake of some upgrade cards. But if it's just a friendly game then you can just write the upgrade on a bit of paper and use that as a proxy.

Some specific questions:

1. How much of this game (and the outcome) depends on outthinking and outmaneuvering your opponent (using the maneuvering dials)? How much depends on making killer combo’s of cards/listbuilding? How much on luck/dice rolling? (I’d hope it be something like 60/30/10 but I fear luck may play a larger part than that?)

I'd say 60/20/20.

2. Is it mandatory to get a second core set? Why wouldn’t you buy three separate ships instead?

Yes. For starters, A core set will cost you the same as approx 2.5 ships (so it's cheaper) and the spare damage deck, templates, dice and tokens are amazingly useful.

3. Are the first TIE fighter and X Wing expansions still considered a must-have? And even if you would get 2 core sets?

Yes. Even if you get 2 core sets, the pilots and upgrades in the booster pack are different. Howlrunner and Wedge are both in the expansions.

4. Any other must-have expansions for beginning play?

Nope, all ships have their place and all are optional, pick what you like the look of, of get some of everything. I reccomend the falcon and Slave 1, as I enjoy playing with the bigger ships. You may find that Interceptors are your thing.

5. Any models to avoid? Every game has its deadweight models that are just outclassed because other models do the same thing better or for a lower point cost. I’ve heard as much about the TIE advanced, but it would be a crying shame to play this game without Darth Vader!

Every ship is very useful and has it's role, however the TIE Advanced is probably the one that is considered weakest. (FFG have rumoured that they will be changing this soon)

6. Are upgrades unique to a certain expansion? Would an Imperial player need to buy a Rebel ship just to get access to certain upgrades/rules?

Thanks!

Yes, many of them. If you want access to upgrades that are only available in rebel ships, then you'll have to buy the rebel ships and vice versa.

Having said that, I strongly reccomend collecting each faction equally and playing both, even if you have no intention of playing tournaments, seeing how to play things, and seeing what you do with them, makes you better at thinking how to beat them when they're on the other side of the table.

Vandor's spot on-all ships have a place, what models do you like the look of? What style of flying do you like?

If you like movie ships take (mostly) them-but don't discount any ship-all the models are worthy miniatures in their own right (even the "why-oh-why-did-they-do-that?" Cockpit canon on the e-wing (in defence of FFG they're mearly faithfully replicating that one though)

If money is a concern I'd definitely try to stick to one faction-let your regular opponents collect the opposing faction(s) and swap for a game if you fancy a change. If money is not an option playing/learning both factions is definately advantageous.

Do you like a fragile but highly agile ship? Think A-wings, E-wings, ties, interceptors and phantoms

Do you like tanky ships? Think B-wings, X-wings, Y-wings, tie advanced(ish), tie bombers and defenders (or any large ship)

Numbers of ships will depend on budget but I wouldn't go for more than the following of any ship type;

A-wings 2-4x (including an aces expansion box)

B-wings 2-4x (as above re-aces box)

E-wings 1-2x

X-wings 2-4x

Y-wings 2-4x

Z-wings 4-6x

Tie fighters 4-6x

Tie interceptors 2-4x (I'd get 2x expansions and 1x aces here)

Tie advanced 1-2x

Tie bombers 1-3x

Tie phantoms 1-2x

Tie defenders 1-3x

Max 1x any large ships

I'd probably leave huge ships initially

For me I'd advise 1x of each ship in your faction before you go buying large multiples of any one ship type (I know people who love and fly entire lists of B-wings for example and others who hate them and never fly them so multiples could be a waste)

My one bit of advise regarding what to love/hate would be; don't try to force a ship to fly a way it isn't suited to-you'll only get frustrated, hate it for it's shortcomings and miss the opportunity to love it for doing what it's suited to well (the day I learnt not to try and fly a defender like an interceptor was an epiphany-it hates tight turns and struggles to get rid of stress unlike an interceptor who laughs at stress/tight turns but is a very risky jousting ship choice)

Enjoy the learning curve man-it's fun when you figure a piece of the puzzle out...

Oh and definitely get 2x starter boxes as quoted elsewhere

Ps if you want to access all the available upgrade cards without having to buy all the expansions (many upgrade cards are only found in certain expansions which you may not actually want for the ship), especially for non tournament games, online squad builders like the one linked below give you all of the available upgrade card options for your ship/pilot choice without having to buy the ship it comes with

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/build

A friend and I are considering jumping into this game. While I realize there are probably tons of ‘help me get started’ posts, the thing is the metagame can change with each new release and new options keep coming in.

So I’d like to ask, if you were to start with the hobby anew, with the benefit of hindsight, what ships would you get first? What ships would you get later? What would you not get at all?

...

Some specific questions:

1. How much of this game (and the outcome) depends on outthinking and outmaneuvering your opponent (using the maneuvering dials)? How much depends on making killer combo’s of cards/listbuilding? How much on luck/dice rolling? (I’d hope it be something like 60/30/10 but I fear luck may play a larger part than that?)

2. Is it mandatory to get a second core set? Why wouldn’t you buy three separate ships instead?

3. Are the first TIE fighter and X Wing expansions still considered a must-have? And even if you would get 2 core sets?

4. Any other must-have expansions for beginning play?

5. Any models to avoid? Every game has its deadweight models that are just outclassed because other models do the same thing better or for a lower point cost. I’ve heard as much about the TIE advanced, but it would be a crying shame to play this game without Darth Vader!

6. Are upgrades unique to a certain expansion? Would an Imperial player need to buy a Rebel ship just to get access to certain upgrades/rules?

Things may change but the starting suggestions don't change all that much and you just need to find a more recent version of that question to see what may change.

2. Buying a second core set is not mandatory but is usually is a good idea. The big reason is simply that it is cheaper to buy another core than it would be to buy the three individual ships and additional dice which you probably should have plus you'd get an "extra" set of templates which can be handy although 3rd-party versions are available and legal for use.

3. Yes. More specifically you'll want the expansions for the unique pilots in them which are not available in the core. If you can get those pilots from someone else these purchases become less necessary. However 5 TIE Fighters is still something you may often see and 3 X-Wings can be flown.

4. No but it really depends on what you want to play. While there are no really "must haves" there are so many "would be nice to haves" that it is virtually impossible to give a good answer here.

5. TIE Advanced is pretty much what you see here. I'd say a Imperial Shuttle isn't a craft you want to use early, I believe Bombers run best in multiples or not at all. Pretty much everything has something that it can contribute once you get going.

6. I'm guessing some upgrades will be unique to certain expansions although other upgrades have been reprinted in other expansions. What is in an expansion is fixed so you should know what you are getting which also means that if you don't have something you think you want you know how to get it. Predator seems to be a popular upgrade these days but if you want to get it you need to get a TIE Defender and if you want to run multiples of it you are supposed to have a Defender for each copy of it.

Since the other questions were answered, I'll throw in my two cents on what to buy first if you're on a budget.

1) 2x core set. The extra dice, templates, and damage deck makes 2-player games so much easier. Forget sharing is caring, having your own set of stuff is superior. Plus you get 3 ships for cheaper than if you would have bought them separately.

2) Buy ships that seem interesting to you. But take care to buy for Imperials and Rebels mostly equally so you have equal variety for both sides (this only applies if you are supplying all ships for your group). For example, my first purchase after the cores was 1x Falcon, 1x Imperial Aces. Later I bought a Y-wing and a TIE Bomber. Then I bought Rebel Aces and I currently look forward to picking up a Slave 1 to even out the variety for each side.

It's simple advice, but it's quite fun to discover what playstyle you like best by buying the ships that interest you the most. Of course if you have lots of extra cash, 2-3 of everything is a great idea too.

Hi all,

A friend and I are considering jumping into this game. While I realize there are probably tons of ‘help me get started’ posts, the thing is the metagame can change with each new release and new options keep coming in.

So I’d like to ask, if you were to start with the hobby anew, with the benefit of hindsight, what ships would you get first? What ships would you get later? What would you not get at all?

I am not interested in joining tournaments so it’s mostly for casual (yet competitive!) play. Also I should add I’m only interested in ship designs from the actual movies. Aces with alternate paint jobs are fine, but nothing from the EU (except maybe the Phantom, that one looks cool.)

Some specific questions:

1. How much of this game (and the outcome) depends on outthinking and outmaneuvering your opponent (using the maneuvering dials)? How much depends on making killer combo’s of cards/listbuilding? How much on luck/dice rolling? (I’d hope it be something like 60/30/10 but I fear luck may play a larger part than that?)

2. Is it mandatory to get a second core set? Why wouldn’t you buy three separate ships instead?

3. Are the first TIE fighter and X Wing expansions still considered a must-have? And even if you would get 2 core sets?

4. Any other must-have expansions for beginning play?

5. Any models to avoid? Every game has its deadweight models that are just outclassed because other models do the same thing better or for a lower point cost. I’ve heard as much about the TIE advanced, but it would be a crying shame to play this game without Darth Vader!

6. Are upgrades unique to a certain expansion? Would an Imperial player need to buy a Rebel ship just to get access to certain upgrades/rules?

Thanks!

I just recently joined in the X-Wing thing (basically a month). I managed to pick up a used core set plus wave 1 and a dice pack for a good price on eBay, but I've since added to my collection. Doesn't seem to be much in the way of local gaming groups where I am, so I'm basically just playing it with family.

1) Of the games I've played (only about 5 unfortunately), how you fly your ships is definitely the most important thing. My attempts of flying a Phantom, an attack HWK-290, and a mini swarm didn't end well because I made too many mistakes. Regarding dice, there is a luck element, but I feel in any one roll its fairly balanced. I think once both players have learnt how to actually fly your ships of choice, that's when ship, pilot and upgrade choices becomes more important. Plus, from what I read, people try to use ship/pilot/upgrade choice to minimize the randomness of the dice (i.e. the more attack dice, the more likely to land a hit).

2) I've not yet got a 2nd core set, though I did start with wave 1 (imperials have Tie Advanced and Tie Fighter). Having an extra set of dice is useful, as it means each player has 3 of each dice, and when we need 4-5 of one colour, we can borrow our opponents dice, rather than re-rolling some of the 3 dice. Sharing templates isn't a big issue, nor the damage deck, though it's probably 'fairer' if both players have their own deck, and possibly more convenient to have a set of movement templates each (though if you were to get 3rd party acrylic templates at some point, a 2nd cardboard set isn't probably that useful). In regards to the ships, having 4 tie fighters available is nice, though getting the stand alone is useful for the pilots.

The 2nd Core set would be a solid buy, but isn't mandatory if you'd rather experiment with other ships like A or B-Wings, or Lambda Shuttles and Tie-Interceptors. If you didn't get the 2nd core straight away, consider picking up a 2nd set of dice. Outside of the extra ships, having 6 of each dice available is the biggest thing from the 2nd set.

3) I think that if you go with the 2nd core set, the X-Wing and Tie-Fighter individuals are more worth while (5 Tie Swarm with Howlruner v 3 X-Wings with Wedge). I think regardless, if you want to fly Ties or X-wings, its still useful to get those expansions

4) Only must haves are the ships you want to fly. First expansion I bought was the HWK-290 because I loved the ship from the Dark Forces games. Is it an amazing attack ship? No. Did that stop me from trying to fly it as such? No. Did flying it horribly stop me from enjoying myself? No. If there's ships you want to fly, I say get it and fly it. This bleeds over into the next question, so I'll end this by saying I don't really think there are any must haves, just get what you want to fly, and you'll have fun regardless.

5) Deadweights. I can't really comment on that (5 games plus I don't have all the ships). As far as Tournament competitive, sure there's probably dead weights, but barring that, for a long while, you'll probably get by with just flying your ships well. Going back to 4) a bit, get stuff you'll enjoy putting on the field. Particularly as you learn the game, the specifics of squad building aren't so critical imo, so anything goes. Likely it'll be the positioning choices and mistakes that will affect the outcome not whether or not you properly optimised your squad while you learn. You mention Vader. If you want to fly Vader with a Tie escort, I would say go right a head, and ignore the fact that the Advanced may not be the most Tournament competitive ship.

6) Been answered anyway, but yeah, certain upgrades only come with particular ships. There are wiki's and stuff which list what upgrades come with what ship if that's relevant.

I just recently joined in the X-Wing thing (basically a month). I managed to pick up a used core set plus wave 1 and a dice pack for a good price on eBay, but I've since added to my collection. Doesn't seem to be much in the way of local gaming groups where I am, so I'm basically just playing it with family.

Where are you based? The reason I ask is that on another forum, I found 4 players, all within 5 minutes drive of each other (and 15 minutes from both me and our LFGS) complain that there was no local community.

That is despite our LFGS holding monthly tournaments with turnouts in the high teens/low 20s and often weekly events to boot. It's also the base store for 2 of our Nationals Top 8 players. They just hadn't gone looking or asking, they'd just dropped into a few stores that stocked it and not seen it being played at the time and assumed.

I just recently joined in the X-Wing thing (basically a month). I managed to pick up a used core set plus wave 1 and a dice pack for a good price on eBay, but I've since added to my collection. Doesn't seem to be much in the way of local gaming groups where I am, so I'm basically just playing it with family.

Where are you based? The reason I ask is that on another forum, I found 4 players, all within 5 minutes drive of each other (and 15 minutes from both me and our LFGS) complain that there was no local community.

Australia, which as far as I can tell doesn't quite have the board gaming environment that a lot of other countries seem to have. Some of the eastern states, from what I can tell online, have a bunch of FLGS with a number of small gaming communities, with a number that focus on X-Wing, but for where I am, I've not found a gaming store which sells both games and has gaming space for people to play in (well, I'm ignoring the few Games Workshop stores we have), and of the few gaming groups I can find on line, they're largely focused on games I have no interest in, meet at times I'm not free, or are only annual events of which I have missed for the year. However, I'm fairly new to the board gaming scene full stop, so I'm going to continue to look around to see what I can find.

I am in Newcastle... The Australian x-wing community is huge. Where in Aus?

Hey there, Captain,

I started off with 2 cores, an X-Wing expansion, a TIE Fighter expansion, and the Tie Advanced expansion.

3 X-Wings vs. 5 TIES, and an Advanced was plenty to start with.

Add in as you see fit, but those right there should get you plenty of dice, 3 iconic ships, great pilots all for about

$100.00 give or take. Not too shabby.

May the force be with you.

Adelaide. I have just now done another search, and found maybe another 1 or 2 places I could email (Little Wars and a DungeonBowl crowd), but both of those seem to do big events every now and then but don't talk much about regular games. Plus I seem to have just missed events they've put on. I did just find a store in the CBD which looks promising (infinitygames), but otherwise, I can't find (online at least) much in the way of fairly regular games. I'll continue to search though.

There was a crew from Adelaide at Nats in August, and I see events being held there.

Have you joined Aus X-Wing and Australian X-Wing Miniatures game groups on facebook?

Both Infinity Games (CBD) and The Hobby Matrix (Fairview Park) seem to host fairly regular events.

Thanks guys for the prompt replies and for sharing your views. It's very useful. One thing I can already appreciate about this game is the lively and helpful community

I do have one further question. It seems with some of the expansions, the ship card (the one that goes into the plastic stand) is printed on both sides. That seems a bit odd, wouldn't that prevent you from flying the two pilots printed on one card simultaneously?

That seems a bit odd, wouldn't that prevent you from flying the two pilots printed on one card simultaneously?

You get enough base cards that it isn't an issue.

Lets say for example you have 2 X-Wings. You'll have enough base cards to run any possible combination of pilots that you have.

The only issue would be if you wanted to have 2 Luke Skywalkers, one on each side because both people were playing Rebels. But other than that it's not an issue

good advice all along, imo both Aces packs bring lots of fun. And cool blue A-Wings!

the cardboard inserts are double sided... the cards aren't.