Hello,

I've recently started thinking about getting into X-wing.

The faction that interests me most is Scum&Villainy, as I love the M3-A Scyk.

I am however completely in the dark about a lot of stuff. For starters:

-What exactly do I need to play apart from the ship boxes themselves?

-Is Scum&Villainy a good/bad call for a beginner?

-Are M-3As good?

Thanks!

You'll have to buy a core set - $30. You'll need the movement templates and such that only come with that box.

Then you can get into S&V. You don't need the Most Wanted box though. You can just go straight for a few M3-Scyks -$10-$15 each.

If you want to play with a friend who doesn't have anything you'll want to by a matching number of ships(they have a numerical value, to keep things fair). Generally, you'd want to keep his ships to Rebel or Imperial. But that's not required for just fun play.

Get the core set first, see if you like it. Then invest in more ships.

Then proceed to buy every single other ship out there.

X-wing miniatures wiki This will help you to figure out what all you want to buy.

The Core Set is about the only thing everyone needs. It gets you the range ruler, manevuer templates, and damage deck. And if you are looking at tournaments, the asteroids.

I don't recomend S&V off the bat, merely becuase the Core doesn't have any ships for that faction. So, it is a little bit more expensive. After that, it is pretty much up to you. Since you are new, Most Wanted isn't as good a deal for you as those who have been in the game for awhile, though it is still a nice deal for 3 ships.

This is plastic crack of the highest order.

The starter set is your first step to addiction.

Then all the ships that are in your favourite faction.

Then all of the ships that have an upgrade card you want.

Then one day, you will wake up and wish you had never posted this thread.

Cheers

Baaa

MSRP for core is actually $40. You can get it cheaper, but $40 is the standard. Frankly, you could get an army of 4 M3-As for $100 MSRP. Your squad-building potential would be quite limited, though. And I haven't personally taken my Scyks for a spin yet, but you can find some battle reports from others. In general, most people don't prefer Scyk swarms, it seems. But if that's what interest you the most, I think you should go for it.

If you want squad-building flexibility, though, plan on spending $200 or so. This will get you more ships and better upgrades. As far as what to buy, that depends on what you like. I might add an Aggressor, Firespray, and Most Wanted to your 4 Scyks. I might drop one Scyk for a HWK-290.

EDIT:

I want to add a little more detail on prices at a glance.

Option 1:

Core Set - $40

M3-A (4x) - $60 ($15 ea.)

TOTAL: $100

This is my first suggestion. As I said above, it's pretty limited, but then, I bought a bunch of S&V stuff knowing I was really interested in dual Aggressor builds and so far haven't touched anything except Aggressors, so if you know what you want to fly, you can save money by just buying that instead of buying everything out there.

Option 2:

Core Set - $40

Most Wanted - $40

Firespray-31 - $30

Aggressor - $30

M3-A (3x) - $45 ($15 ea.)

HWK-290 - $15

TOTAL: $200

Now for both of these options, you could get them cheaper online (usually 33% off), but I'm not sure if that's your best bet. It depends on who you will be playing with. Because you only asked about a Scum & Villainy squad, I'm assuming you're not buying ships for your opponents. So either you have a play group with family and friends or you plan on playing at a local game store. In the former case, you can probably order online. If you're playing at a store, I highly recommend paying normal retail price to support the store you will be playing at.

Finally, if you want to figure out what to fly, try looking at some squad-builders to see what upgrades you might want and what sets they come in. You can find links to squad-builders in the pinned thread at the top of the main X-Wing forums.

Standard answer is that most people will buy everything after they start playing because there's something in pretty much every pack that you'll want/need to play a variety of styles and have a full X-Wing experience. Part of the reason for that is because pretty much every ship has something to offer, either in upgrades or in the ship itself.

If you feel like you'll only play scum, there are still Imperial and Rebel ships that you'll want to buy into in order to play scum most effectively. So, my advice is to start out with 1 or 2 basic sets, which will get you 2 X-wings and 4 ties, then buy at least one Y-Wing, at least one Firespray, at least one HWK-290, and then 2 each of the various Scum packs.

That's pricey, but that's the bare cost to have an effective scum set. You may be able to trade the Starter ships for some other things, but I would advise at least one starters so that you have the dice, asteroids, damage deck, and templates.

Jacob

If you're interested in Scum & Villainy the Most Wanted pack is still a pretty good deal for three ships, and if you pick up a firespray too you can make a full 100 point squad with just those two expansion packs (you'll still need a core game).

You don't need to buy every ship in your faction, don't listen to these crazy people. If you just buy up every single ship without thinking, you're going to get stuck with a bunch of ships that you never fly or maybe only fly once every few months, which is not a good return on investment.

You can actually have a solid Scum starter list for $100 if your willing to skip buying thecore set for a little while if you play with people that are willing to share templates and dice, but if you're really going to get into the game you'll want to have your own Core Set (edit: It's a requirement for entering tournaments).

For a starting scum list, I would recommend the following:

Core $40 (needed for the long term)

Most Wanted $40

HWK Expansion $15

Y-Wing Expansion $15

For $100 you're getting 5 ships, 2 Z-95s, 2 Y-Wings and 1 HWK. The HWK and Y-Wing expansions are important because they will give you the 2 Ion Cannon Turrets (not included in Most Wanted) you need for your 2 Y-Wings and a Blaster Turret and Moldy Crow title for the HWK.

Your next purchase should then be a Firespray for $25, and then after that or 2 Scyks for $30 which come with the Mangler Cannons and Stealth devices you'll want to run with them which will benefit greatly from the 2 Stealth Devices that come in the Firespray expansion. So for $155 + $40 core, you should have a ton of options for building different scum lists.

Two Core sets isn't the automatic recommendation that it used to be, but is still a good value. If you pass on that, I still strongly recommend that you invest in an extra dice set. Four attack dice is pretty essential, both for rolling range 1 attacks with 3 attack ships, and rolling range 3 attacks with 3 agility ships.

With Scum and Villainy, it breaks down a such:

Most Wanted: This is your "list filler" expansion. Three ships for $40 is a good value, and the ships involved have a low squad building cost that makes them good for building around an ace or two. You won't be able to use everything in the box until you get an HWK-290 and Slave-1 expansion.

M3-A Interceptor: Arguably the most capable stand-alone expansion in the game. It has just about everything you could need, while simultaneously not really having much to offer the other factions.

IG-2000: In my opinion, the most essential expansion for the Scum faction. The ship itself is strong, and the expansion will be your primary source of Illicit upgrades.

StarViper: Maybe get one. It has a couple of strong aces in Guri and Xizor, but most of the upgrades are going to be stronger to the Rebels and Imperials.

Honorable mentions (Get these with or after Most Wanted):

Slave-1: A solid "tank" ship, with a lot of great pilots in Most Wanted.

HWK-290: A very niche ship. The Scum versions are generally better than the Rebel variants and will open up a lot of tricks, as well as giving you a Recon Specialist (one of the best crew upgrades in the game).

Your next purchase should then be a Firespray for $25, and then after that 2 Scyks, which will benefit greatly from the 2 Stealth Devices that come in the Firespray expansion. So for $155 + $40 core, you should have a ton of options for building different scum lists.

... M3-As come with Stealth Device. But the Firespray will be nice for the Heavy Laser Cannon you'll want on your Scyks.

Your next purchase should then be a Firespray for $25, and then after that 2 Scyks, which will benefit greatly from the 2 Stealth Devices that come in the Firespray expansion. So for $155 + $40 core, you should have a ton of options for building different scum lists.

... M3-As come with Stealth Device. But the Firespray will be nice for the Heavy Laser Cannon you'll want on your Scyks.

Ah, thank you for reminding me, in that case you could totally buy the Scyks first and get the Firespray later, or not at all, I think Mangler is a better buy on the Scyk and the only ship that really wants VI in Scum is Boba himself.

Two Core sets isn't the automatic recommendation that it used to be, but is still a good value. If you pass on that, I still strongly recommend that you invest in an extra dice set. Four attack dice is pretty essential, both for rolling range 1 attacks with 3 attack ships, and rolling range 3 attacks with 3 agility ships.

This is a good point, especially if you're focused on M3-As. When starting out, you're likely to put Stealth Device on them because that's what you'll have available. This will bump their agility from 3 to 4, meaning you'll want 4 dice and at range 3, you'll want 5 dice. Getting the dice pack probably isn't a bad idea at all.

The first thing you should do is buy the starter set. Everybody needs one. It also makes it easier to learn the game. If you're planning to go scum, I wouldn't buy a second starter set since the ships in it aren't scum playable, and most of the upgrades and pilots from the Starter are unique, so you only want one of them (Or they're not very good, in the case of proton torpedoes and marksmanship).

Most wanted isn't required to run Scum, but it's a pretty good purchase even so because it gives you a pretty good base that can be used to fill out a list after you've chosen one or two centerpiece models for the list. That being said, a trio of Scyks is also an option, because they can also do pretty well in the cheap filler role.

If you do go with Most wanted, the Slave I expansion is a very good option, as Scum firesprays are very strong. The HWK-290 and another Y-wing is also an option, but I wouldn't go with just the hwk-290 because it's a difficult ship to fly well for a novice.

The Aggressor is a very strong ship, and a good purchase if you're looking to expand a scum force, but if you just want to run a Scyk swarm, it won't mesh well with them.

Lets slow down. If you haven't ordered yet, wait a second.

A question, are you only looking to play S&V?
If so, you don't HAVE to get a core box.

Go your local store where X-wing is played and you can borrow what is needed.

A lot of people have multiple core sets and I think someone would probably be able to give you or sell the content you need.

I know I would (I have 4 core sets)

Two Core sets isn't the automatic recommendation that it used to be, but is still a good value. If you pass on that, I still strongly recommend that you invest in an extra dice set. Four attack dice is pretty essential, both for rolling range 1 attacks with 3 attack ships, and rolling range 3 attacks with 3 agility ships.

This is a good point, especially if you're focused on M3-As. When starting out, you're likely to put Stealth Device on them because that's what you'll have available. This will bump their agility from 3 to 4, meaning you'll want 4 dice and at range 3, you'll want 5 dice. Getting the dice pack probably isn't a bad idea at all.

Not a necessity though, you can just borrow the extra die from your opponent or record/remember the result of your first roll and then re-roll for the rest. It is a very affordable convenience though for just $7.

Hello,

I've recently started thinking about getting into X-wing.

The faction that interests me most is Scum&Villainy, as I love the M3-A Scyk.

I am however completely in the dark about a lot of stuff. For starters:

-What exactly do I need to play apart from the ship boxes themselves?

-Is Scum&Villainy a good/bad call for a beginner?

-Are M-3As good?

Thanks!

You're a 40k fan I'm assuming by your pic... so just apply the same fiscal reasoning you would when buying GW stuff... lots and lots of money; upside its not nearly the same amount of money for X-Wing stuff however

Lets slow down. If you haven't ordered yet, wait a second.

A question, are you only looking to play S&V?

If so, you don't HAVE to get a core box.

Go your local store where X-wing is played and you can borrow what is needed.

A lot of people have multiple core sets and I think someone would probably be able to give you or sell the content you need.

I know I would (I have 4 core sets)

So let's list the components from the core that are needed.

-dice

-movement templates

-damage deck

-range ruler

Anything else?

Welcome to the addiction!!!

Lots of good posts, listen to what's been said already!

And eventually, you'll have multiples of EVERYTHING!!! LOL!

Lets slow down. If you haven't ordered yet, wait a second.

A question, are you only looking to play S&V?

If so, you don't HAVE to get a core box.

Go your local store where X-wing is played and you can borrow what is needed.

A lot of people have multiple core sets and I think someone would probably be able to give you or sell the content you need.

I know I would (I have 4 core sets)

So let's list the components from the core that are needed.

-dice

-movement templates

-damage deck

-range ruler

Anything else?

Asteroids are nice to have.

I think you get all other stuff in the expansions (focus, TL and so on).

Asteroids from the core set are important as well. Plus a few upgrades I guess, though not really that big of a deal.

The required action tokens and stuff come in each expansion pack.

Personally I generally buy 2 of everything (except some of the big stuff). For Scum I picked up 2 of everything, except for 4 total Scyks. If you're buying any IG-88/Aggressor sets down the road, they benefit from the Autothruster cards that come from the StarViper, so the StarViper is definitely not a bad ship to buy (although it is probably one of the less popular Scum ships right now overall).

Here is the cheapest option I can think of. Buy 1 core set and 1 syck $45 plus tax. Find a friend who wants to try out the game and play a few rounds with each set of fighters using one ship to proxy another. Learn how each squad flies. Once you find the style you like you can start investing in that direction. Imps tend to arc dodge, rebels joust, scum are all over the place. Learn the style you like and then you can expand your fleet.

(1) Core Set - $27.95

(3) M3-A - $31.47

(1) StarViper - $13.99

(2) IG-2000 - $40.98

Total of $113.93 in the cart at CoolStuffInc.com

I added the StarViper because it took you over $100 for that free shipping, and the shipping would have been more than the StarViper LOL.

You have to have a Core Set for templates, dice, and damage deck. You wanted M3-As so I figure 3 is a good start. Trust me you want 2 IG-2000s. Only thing I'd pick up that CSI didn't have in stock is another set of dice.

Now if you plan on wanting a Slave I in the future you will need a copy of Most Wanted. I feel that all that listed above will give you alot of options to play and learn. Then you can start seeing which upgrades come with other ships, mainly Rebel and Imperial ones, via http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/ which will help you as well. Then you can decide what extra to buy.

As far as a table. Just go buy a 3'x4' folding project board, preferably black on one side, in any craft or office supply store. Make a 3' section on it by either using tape or a paint pin. BOOM a play surface with sections to place your cards and stuff on the side....all for about $5!

Okay to answer your questions:

-What exactly do I need to play apart from the ship boxes themselves?

Besides the core, a 3'x3' playmate is nice, but when I started, i just put down rulers/pieces of cardboard. I am glad I got the playmate.

-Is Scum&Villainy a good/bad call for a beginner?

Thats a tricky questions. There is nothing really bad/complex in S&V for a beginner to have and is totally doable. To get the most out of most wanted you will also need a HWK-290 and a Slave 1 pack and if you want to ease in, it may be better to go Rebs/Imperial since you get some of those in the starter. Plus their ships are a bit less iconic than say Xs, Ys, As, Bs and the Millennium Falcon. Not sure if that is a concern or not when playing a Star Wars game for you.

-Are M-3As good?

I think they look good, others feel otherwise. They were released a week ago so anyone's opinion on them will be largely speculative.

Speed is just a question of money, how fast do you want to go? (Mad Max)

In other words, what's your budget?

It's pretty easy to make a decent start in x-wing without spending a fortune tho.

You will need a core set for the templates and dice - if you don't want the ships there's plenty of folks that will give you at least half the price of it back just for the TIEs, the generic pilot cards and pilot tokens - I should know as I'm one of them.

Internet price 30 bucks ish - less what you get back if you decide to sell the minis.

A second set of dice is also pretty much essential.

Internet price 6 bucks ish

Next up buy a Firespray - one of the best and most versatile ships in the game - moves and dodges like a fighter, brawls like..... well, like a brawler.

Internet price - 20 bucks ish

Most Wanted is a great buy too - basically 3 ships (and good ships to boot) for the price of 2 (ish) plus some great scummy upgrades.

Internet price 30 bucks ish.

So including shipping your total will come in at around 90 bucks (less anything you get back for selling your core set ships)

Spend what you have left on Scyks and starvipers

While the core set is an important buy the ships don't do you much good as Scum. Templates and tokens can often be purchased from third parties. Dice can be purchased separately and you probably want six of each. Asteroid tokens are needed for tournament play but if you're lucky you could just use your opponents. You'll also want your own damage deck and the only place to get that is from the Core sets; friendly play may have both players using one deck, which you're hoping your opponent will supply, but tournaments ask each player to bring their own. Even if you don't get much use out of the ships getting the core set is still probably the cheapest way to get all of the components you will need.

After that I'd probably suggest Most Wanted and the Firespray except you mention wanting to use the M3-A. I'm saying the Firespray because it is a wonderfully versatile ship and can also be used with the core to make a flyable, if not great, 100 point Imperial squadron. To have the Firespray make the jump to Scum you'll need Most Wanted but that also gives you three more ships to work with enabling to you field a Scum squadron. Add an M3-A or two to that and you'll have a good place to build from for Scum and not too far away from fielding an Imperial squadron as well.