Hey all

New to the forum and new to this game, but it's already helped answer a few questions that me and my son have had since starting to play a few days ago so thanks for that! Anyway, my 11 year old boy has sold some stuff to raise some funds for expansion packs. He can't see beyond the big ships - he loves them for their size and that they are great models - but I've a feeling they aren't good for newbie players. So a few questions:

1) What is the best Imperial and Rebel expansions to buy to add to the core set? He has about $100/£60 to spend now with another $100/£60 coming after he has sold some more of his old toys. I myself would like to buy a fighter from each faction - maybe an E-Wing and a Tie Advanced... Thoughts?

2) I'm am assuming buying the big ships only makes sense if you have enough smaller ships to support them, but I'm not really sure how the whole 'big ships' thing works. I think we should steer clear of playing with them until we've had more practice with the core rules, but what do you guys think?

3) He'd like some Scum & Villainy ships. Any issues for Newbs playing with this faction (more complex rules, etc)?

I've had a search and can't find anything in the forum that answers these questions, but if anyone knows of a thread they can point me at, happy to have that as I know it's annoying to have multiple threads on the same topic (and apologies if my search missed it).

Thanks for any help,

Duke

North Herts, UK

The biggest problem with going for a single expansion (large or small) is looking at lists that include them. You're going to find that you need 1 or 2 other expansions (usually per ship) for the upgrade cards that make them work. What has worked for me is look at ships that you want to fly, even if you won't have all of the cards needed. Over time, you will get those cards. In the 1) category, if he is looking at the YT-1300/Millennium Falcon it has Engine Upgrade, which is very huge in a lot of ships for boost movement and the 360 turret makes it fun for new players to not have to worry about placement as much while you are learning how to dodge asteroids... though you will learn to hate rolling 1 green die for defense. As for 2) it isn't as much about support as what works. Yes, in time you are going to build into that, but that will be less of a factor for you for now.

I would make two recommendations. Spend time in Major Juggler's squad building lists as he covers a lot of builds and has help for newer players (and is often overlooked):

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/131310-new-player-quick-start-list-guide/

Use (Yet Another) X-Wing Miniatures Squad Builder:

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

Each of you can setup your collection and it will tell you what cards you have available for play and where the cards you want are located (much easier than sifting through complete lists by expansion).

Okay, and a third suggestion, play with what you have and try to find interesting combinations without having the cards that make your perfect ship work exactly as planned.

A note on TIE Advanced. I know it is Darth Vader's iconic ship. It seems it would be fun to fly it with two TIE Fighters. This is a trap. This is not the ship you are looking for. Just don't do it. Don't even think about flying a TIE Advanced until you are ready to spend B$G BUCK$ for the Imperial Raider (that isn't released yet). There are more enjoyable ships to fly. If you like the look of the E-Wing, look at getting Imperial Aces and you can fly Soontir Fel with Push The Limit, Royal Guard Title (for an additional upgrade card). This will get you into arc-dodging and will teach you how to move really well. Don't overlook a second core set for the additional dice and enough TIE Fighters to field a mini-swarm of 4. If you find you like the TIE Fighter, pick up a single TIE Fighter to get Howlrunner.

In the end, though, buy ships that you think would be fun to fly, and then learn how to fly them. Then buy what upgrade cards you need from other sets to make them shine brighter.

On the contrary, big turreted ships are incredibly (I argue game breakingly) easy to fly. Your boy could pick up the Millennium Falcon and 1 more X-Wing expansion and have a squad that can win tournaments. If he wants Scum and big ships he could pick up 2 IG-88 kits to get his big ship fix, then the Most Wanted box - the scum "starter set" if you will. The double IG-88 list is very strong in its own right. Steer clear of the TIE advanced unless you plan on buying the raider, unfortunately the advanced is just not a points efficient ship. If you want to fly imperials the triple tie interceptor list is very fun to fly, so is the TIE swarm, but these all take more models. If you come up with an idea of a "themed" list you want to fly send me a PM and I would love to work with you, list building for me is almost as fun as actually playing the game.

// Shirako

STAY AWAY from the TIE Advanced, that ship is so bad that the designers had to include a fix for it in the upcoming Imperial Huge Ship.

Instead I would recommend picking up a TIE Interceptor expansion and a Imperial Aces Expansion for the Empire, and a Rebel Aces and 2 A-Wing expansions for the rebel player to start, which should cost you about $105.

Then you can build the following lists:

Empire: 3x Saber Squadron Pilot - Push the Limit, Academy Pilot, Dark Curse

Rebel: 3x Prototype Pilots - Chardaan Refit, Blue Squadron Pilot, Luke Skywalker - Determination, R2-D2.

You guys can switch off and the Rebel player can practice blocking while the Imperial player practices arc-dodging.

The Falcon is a must-buy for any Rebel player, the upgrades in it are really great (particularly Veteran Instincts and Engine Upgrade) and the ship itself is quite strong and fun to fly especially for newer players. I also recommned picking up a Firespray if you can find one, that ship is also fun to fly and comes with a lot of great upgrades, including Gunner, cannons, another Veteran Instincts, Proximity Mines and 2 Stealth Devices for your Interceptors. The Lambda Shuttle also has upgrade cards, but it can be a very tricky ship to fly.

I would recommend spending your next $100 on a Falcon, a Firespray or Lambda, a B-Wing and a TIE Phantom. The rebel player will then be able to upgrade their B-Wings with Fire-Control Systems and pair them with a Falcon with Push the Limit, Kyle Katarn Jan Ors and the title for a very competitive list. The Imperial player can switch 1 of their Interceptors and the TIEs for a Firespray with some upgrades (favorites are Recon Specialist, Tactician, Gunner, Engine Upgrade, and/orHeavy Laser Cannon) and Stealth Devices on the Interceptors. Or you could mess around with the Phantom with Veteran Instincts and Advanced Cloaking Device. You will have a ton of list building options with the expansions listed here for less than $200 MSRP.

If it's you and your son playing I'd recommend buying just the ships you want to fly and just pretending you've got the upgrade cards you want. If you want to start finding tournaments in your area you'll either need to buy or borrow the upgrade cards though.

If your going to proxy cards, I'd definitely buy the Advanced. It looks cool, Darth Vader flies it and if you aren't worrying about having the actual upgrade cards in your hand, the Advanced is a really solid ship.

I wouldn't hesitate to get large ships. They cost more of your squad points to put on the table so you can usually end up putting together solid squads without spending a lot of cash.

I started playing with the Scum and Villany Faction so you can jump right in with them if you like and not worry about new rules or compatibility. You get 3 good ships and some extra cards that let you use some ships that are usually found in the other two factions in your scum list, namely Boba Fett and his Signature Firespray, Slave I.

As a few folks have pointed out, if its just you and your son, play what you like and "proxy" the cards or ships you wan to play and then if you decide you lie them, you can buy the expansions. if you go to this link, http://xwing-miniatures.wikia.com/wiki/X-Wing_Miniatures_Wiki you can search every expansion and see what pilots and upgrades come with it. This will help with your proxy games.

As far as expansion advice, getting a second core set is an excellent suggestion. 2 X-wings are a great start to a Rebel fleet and 4 TIE Fighters puts you on the way to a TIE swarm which is always fun to fly once you learn how to maneuver it. Since your playing with your boy you would then each have your own set of range rulers and maneuver templates, and dice to use.

Picking up an X-wing and/or TIE Fighter expansion gives you some different pilots for each fighter that have some of the better abilities. A TIE Interceptor expansion gets you an awesome fighter and one of the best pilots in the game, Soontir Fel.

Lots of options available and the folks here are always willing to assist.

Also there are some great You tube channels out there that can give you tips on expansions and, even better, how to perform some basic flight maneuvers.

Z-95 headhunters are a good bet for the filler ship role. Their upgrade cards aren't to die for, but the ship itself is arguably the most usable ship in the game, definitely a good support for those big ships. 1 or 2(usually 2) is your best bet.

Thanks everyone for all the advice. So we went to our local store Limited Edition Comics and spoke to Ed - who got us into it in the first place. My son opted for the Imperial Aces set and I went for an A-Wing and an E-Wing. We had a game but found with so many ships to keep track of we kept missing Action rounds and forgetting pilot abilities and such like. We agreed to go back to our 2 Ties and X-Wing from the Core set and really nail what we need to do in each round before beginning another 100 point game. The half hour or so we did play we had fun with these new ships and I think they are going to work well for us.

Once we've got the game sorted in our heads, I think we will opt for the Millennium Falcon and Slave I as our next purchases.

Hope this helps other newbs out there too. The links provided above were very helpful to us, and I recommend checking them out.

Cheers,

Duke

Solid choices and more importantly having fun with your son!