I'd like to give them a try rather than going for the most used ones. I kind of like the things with odd mechanics that some how work. I'll be picking up a few core sets to start off, but I'm wondering what to get next for casual play. Thanks!

Underrated ships are actually pretty rare. I'd look more at underrated *pilots*. Eaden Vrill, for example, is an underrated pilot for a very popular and strong ship (the YT-2400).

Defenders, Bombers, and X-Wings fit the bill there - also try M3-A Interceptors

Xizor is the single most underrated pilot in the game

the generic Starvipers are easily 2 points overpriced, but Xizor with Veterean Instincts, Virago, Fire Control System and Thrusters provides everything you could ask of a late game ace + insurance that he'll make it there.

Incredibly powerful, reliable, stress resistant and flexible, he gets flak because of some really weird perceptions of his ability (thinking it doesn't do anything when he never gets shot when it is in fact discouraging him from being targeted in the first place, thinking you need nothing but fodder Zs with him; underestimating the distance of range 1 etc.)

Love this guy, and if the generic Viper weren't so overpriced I'd be flying them a lot more (they have a wonderful dial)

otherwise, both Force Awakens ships are very strange and many won't play them since they're a little weird to wrap your head around. Apart from Poe (who is easily and appreciably competitive), the T-70 is a peculiarly fragile little ship that flies like a dream come true. If you hate dice, you'll hate them, but if you love flying...

the FO is, imo, in a fine fine place. It is, however, highly skill dependent as it has only four health to compensate for failure to utilize one of the most amazing dials in the game (imo). It basically needs the cards from the individual expac to take it to competitive heights (mainly Juke + Relay, as well as the named pilots but especially Omega Leader), but it's some of the most fun I've had in this game.

With announced stuff it's really just the M3a and Kihraxz left.

m3a and starvipers and khiraxzasdfsdnkl

1300 outer rim smuggler.

1300 outer rim smuggler.

oh no, he's pretty properly rated

Eaden Vrill for the rebels is one that seems to get very little attention, but almost always performs at a damned high level. He's very cheap for a big base turret, and he's typically throwing three dice so long as you have ways to reliably stress your opponent's squad.

Nearly any X-Wing (T-65 or T-70) pilot that isn't Poe, Luke, or Biggs sees relatively little play time, though with Integrated Astromech that might change. Still, virtually all of em' have some fun abilities that you can exploit. I'm a pretty huge fan of Porkins (one of THE most overlooked pilots in the game), there's a few ways to build him that's both entertaining and potent. Don't let their long-standing hatred fool you: they're a blast to fly, if at times challenging (again, Integrated Astromech should go a long way to making them worth it competitively).

TIE Bombers. No one flies TIE Bombers except me and a couple of other crazies. Very difficult to use effectively, but incredibly deadly when you've learned how to fly em'. Generics are the usual go-to, though Jonus is an excellent escort for generics and Major Rhymer is absolutely fieldable these days with PTL and TIE/MkII.

Lt. Lorrir. No, seriously, Lt. Lorrir. One of the most overlooked and maligned pilots in the game, but if you really want to catch folks off guard then bring Lorrir. His ability is one of the most fun in the game, and it actually has surprising practical applications: the "slip stream" barrel roll makes him brutal for low PS generics to face off against, and it can create some... interesting... blocks against higher PS ships. His biggest failing is the fact that his ability stresses him and leaves him with no dice modifiers. On the plus side, this can be remedied a bit with Squad Leader *coughVadercough*, and with autothrusters he clocks in at a tiny 25pts.

Another maligned INT pilot I've had a run of awesome with has been Kir Kanos. Don't get me wrong, Kanos absolutely needs help modifying his dice, and without something like SL Vader, Colonel Jendon, Fleet Officer crew, or Palpatine helping him out, he's really pretty craptacular. But my recent runs with him teamed with Jendon or a Palpmobile? Undefeated! Once Kanos gets some dice mod help he's basically a very cheap and nimble HLC. However, he's also one of the hardest to fly of, well... any pilot I've ever given serious time to. Still, it's a thing of beauty when your opponent scratches their head seeing him on the other side of the table before Kanos tears em' apart.

TIE Advanced that isn't Vader or a generic: seriously, this one always gets me. Yeah, Vader is super awesome and generics are cheap with Accuracy Correctors, but the rest of the named pilots are mostly amusing in their own right. Give Maarek, Juno, or Strom a shot sometime, they're worth it.

Scum... scum don't have as much as the rest (beyond the fact everything other than TLT/Warthog Ys and IGs are sorta under-represented). Still, special shout outs to Dace Bonearm and the StarViper in general. Bonearm with a second ioner in his squad can cripple and kill pretty efficiently (especially against small ships, which we're seeing more and more of every wave), and StarVipers are just glorious fun. Guri and Xizor are also both bonafide aces that can be a lynchpin of a squad.

I think there are in fact a number of underrated ships/pilots in the game. There have been underratedpilots/ships in the past so there must be today. The best example I remember is Corran Horn. When he first came out people would hardly touch him. Then came Super-Dash, and Corran found a successful place as part of that particular duo. But, as soon as it was universally agreed that Corran was worthwile people started trying him in different builds and he has since been one of the pilots you would rather not face on the starfield.

Defenders, Bombers, and X-Wings fit the bill there - also try M3-A Interceptors

Those are not anywhere near underrated. Underrated would be something that gets alot of flack for not being good then end up winning a tournament. Underrated would be like E-wings which the generic is considered garbage but Corran horn is one of the top pilots, or the Shuttle when it first came out people though of it as a giant flying support ship that doubles as target practice then a couple of builds came out for it and it tore up ships. Not to mention it is still in the meta as the Emperors personal transport.

As for Defenders Bombers and X-wing there is no underestimating their potential, they are on the bottom.

Xizor is the single most underrated pilot in the game

the generic Starvipers are easily 2 points overpriced, but Xizor with Veterean Instincts, Virago, Fire Control System and Thrusters provides everything you could ask of a late game ace + insurance that he'll make it there.

Incredibly powerful, reliable, stress resistant and flexible, he gets flak because of some really weird perceptions of his ability (thinking it doesn't do anything when he never gets shot when it is in fact discouraging him from being targeted in the first place, thinking you need nothing but fodder Zs with him; underestimating the distance of range 1 etc.)

Love this guy, and if the generic Viper weren't so overpriced I'd be flying them a lot more (they have a wonderful dial)

otherwise, both Force Awakens ships are very strange and many won't play them since they're a little weird to wrap your head around. Apart from Poe (who is easily and appreciably competitive), the T-70 is a peculiarly fragile little ship that flies like a dream come true. If you hate dice, you'll hate them, but if you love flying...

the FO is, imo, in a fine fine place. It is, however, highly skill dependent as it has only four health to compensate for failure to utilize one of the most amazing dials in the game (imo). It basically needs the cards from the individual expac to take it to competitive heights (mainly Juke + Relay, as well as the named pilots but especially Omega Leader), but it's some of the most fun I've had in this game.

So much all of this. The TIE/FO is an amazing little ship, and a perfect platform for either PTL or Juke (which is fun, seeing as how folks compared its dial back at release to the A-Wing's dial, which is a ship also perfect for PTL WITH Juke).

And Poe is the real shining star of the T-70, but I don't think the rest of the pilots are hopeless. I think the biggest failing among them is that Ello can easily be upgraded to Poe. I don't think he's a bad pilot, but for only one more point you get one of the best... But "Red Ace" is a tanking machine, Red Vets are cheapish EPT carrier with three red dice, and my personal favorite "Blue Ace" is someone I've recently dusted off and found some surprising amount of success with. He suffers from some similar issues as Lt. Lorrir, but the difference is you can plop R2-D6 on him and give him Predator to negate his problems modifying dice after using his ability. Alternatively you could have squadmates around to help his dice modifiers, but... meh, starts to become far too many points to squeak slightly more mileage out of a middling PS pilot. Still:

"Blue Ace"

R2-D6

Predator

Integrated Astromech

Gives you a hardish hitting, unpredictable, and slippery pilot. Earlier I had him with a rock directly to his right: took a hard three right, followed by the hard boost right as well, and lined up a kill shot on a very surprised Backstabber. Truly a thing of glory.

EDIT: And yes, I'm an absolute ***** for under-used pilots/ships (though to be fair, the YV-666 and TIE Bomber are just personal favorites of mine). With that said, there's a certain pleasure in winning games with Lt. Lorrir or Jek Porkins in your squad.

Sweet, thanks for the input guys. Does each faction specialize in certain things? I'm getting this Zerg-like feel from the Imperials and their swarms, I could be wrong, haha. I'll take a look at the bombers. What abut ships built as support?

Kir Kanos. Unlike Comradebot, I don't feel he needs extra help, you just need to keep your distance and hide behind range, stealth device, autothrusters and your evade action. He is an excellent closer and very difficult to shake off once he gets on a tail.

He, more than any other pilot taught me much about planning and not to rely on EPTs and repositioning.

I dunno, I really like Glitterstim Graz for 27 points.

Mandatory VI (in most cases) for Wes kind of wastes what is otherwise a really cool X-wing pilot.

X-wing factions don't really specialize in anything as much as they just get ships that are subtly different from one another

for example, the rebel Jake Farrel and imperial Soontir are practically the same thing, except Jake is chunckier and gets one turn of bombastic awesomeness (proton rockets) and then starts piddlying away with fully modded Tie Fighter shots while Soontir stays relevant all game

Empire does swarms most effectively thus far because Z-95s are stiff bastards that can't modify dice to save their lies (re: Howlrunner), and because the Black Squadron Tie Fighter with crackshot can handle targets that 2-dice primaries normally could not

otherwise, the factions are generally unique in the following capabilities

Rebels:

shield regeneration (r2-d2 droid and crew, r5-p9, Chewie- albeit as burst)

stress control (R3-a2 and Tactician + TLT bearing ships = fun times with red tokens)

K-wing (a strange but magnificent ship that's really in a league of its own), which weirdly can also regenerate shields (miranda)

Imperials:

"**** your dice"

• Black Squadron is the perfect crackshot vessel
• there's a bomber coming out with infinite crack...shot
• they have the most Juke vessels with FOs + Relay and character Advance and soon Tie/x7 Defenders;
• Omega Leader + Juke = supreme "**** your greendice"ness
• freaking WAMPA,
• Darth Vader (crew)
• Palpatine, only Palpatine **** their dice by buffing yours

Phantom (another ship in its own little league; no other ship can cloak except for the upcoming and slightly shite scum cloaking device upgrade)

Scum:

"**** MY dice" (scum has so many lovely modifiers it's hard to keep track, from Glitterstim to K4 to R4 to Bossk crew to FCS Starvipers and FCS IG-88B...)

also, personally feel support is utter jank in this game and you should endeavor to build independent pilots when possible. The only exceptions are Howlrunner (she's just that good for her price) and emperor (unlimited range; supports the ship he's on if necessary)

Definitive Laetin A'shera

ewings not named corran!

seriously, we all need to look them up for what they actually do..

they're like unicorns. in space.

but ugly.

Guri. Every time I read Fickle's ode to Xizor I want to fly him, but when I play a Starviper I want Guri. Her ability is simply amazing. You can kit her to taste, I like Sensor Jammer, LW or FCS, Crackshot along with the mandatory auto thrusters and Virago title.

Also, Torkil Mux is very powerful. People respect him but don't play him much, as he flies a HWK.

Guri. Every time I read Fickle's ode to Xizor I want to fly him, but when I play a Starviper I want Guri. Her ability is simply amazing. You can kit her to taste, I like Sensor Jammer, LW or FCS, Crackshot along with the mandatory auto thrusters and Virago title.

Also, Torkil Mux is very powerful. People respect him but don't play him much, as he flies a HWK.

I dunno that Mux is that underrated. He's just as competitive in a 4x TLT list as another Y (I feel).

HWKs, every single one of them (that .. does what?). Vrill as an ultra blocker supported by Poe and R3-A2 or Miranda. Keyan ******* Farlander with stay on target, because everyone will be convinced that ship is overpriced trash. Falcon with PTL (now the trash is killing you). Prototype pilots (enjoy your naked dice). VI/Procket Tycho (now I can fit all my other stuff and put tactician or VI on everything).

m3a and starvipers and khiraxzasdfsdnkl

Goddamit, are you telling me I'm some kind of X-Wing hippie?

Fly this build:

Biggs + R7

Red Squadron + R7

Tarn Mison + R7

Rookie Pilot + R7

Add Integrated Astromechs of course. This list was already decent before IA. Post IA it should be pretty good.

Use Target Locks as general purpose actions. Biggs buys you time to get to a point in the game when ships are more spread out and isolated, where predicting R7 locks is easier.

The idea is that Tarn is ******* invincible, so why not fly 4 Tarns?

This list is also very fun to fly. Using target locks defensively adds a lot more decision making to the game, it's a very interesting way to play. It also turns TL into this super versatile hyper action, and the ability to carry over defensive actions from turn to turn is great. All it takes is a little bit of good prediction.

I think scum has the most under-rated stuff - HWKs, M3-As, StarVipers, maybe even the unique YV-666s that are not Bossk and its still possible to build something decent from these.

Scum Boba Fett.

VI, Engine Upgrade, and Tactician makes him a direct counter to Soontir.

Now with Glitterstim, he's a force to be reckoned with IMO. I felt vindicated when Alex Davey expressed his surprise that more Scum Bobas weren't at Worlds and that he thought it was a really good ship waiting to be tapped.