I am planning to buy in after Christmas and wanted some advice.

Is there anywhere with a decent run down on the factions, which ships to buy first, which ships not to bother with.

I am also torn between imperials and rebels. I play scum and rebels in xwing. Nothing is as cool as an imperial star destroyer so that's the way I will probably end up going, particularly as the rebels seem to lack a cohesive theme.

Become one of us....play both sides....may the force be with you.

AND HAVE FUN !!!!

If you are willing/able to drop the money now, and you are OK with buying online Cool Stuff Inc is having a pretty sweet sale on Wave 1 stuff until the 24th.

For either faction, I'd recommend at least 1 of every expansion for the faction. After that you can populate your other purchases based off of what you see on the table. If you really like the way your AFII flies, they are great to get more of.

Two squadron packs for each Wave are also a very sound investment.

Generally Empire is about massive capital ships with lots of damage potential out of their starships, while fighters are supreme with killing enemy fighters. Expect to do most of the fighting out of the 'front' arc and tank damage. Empire are pretty good at passing tokens. Almost all of their aces are designed to kill fighters. Hulls are generally thicker. Empire is more straightforward of the two sides, since it's hard to go wrong with aiming a star destroyer at your enemy and blasting away. I play the Empire for the majesty of Star Destroyers and steamrolling my enemies.

Generally the rebellion relies on a number of smaller ships and mixed strategies. Most of their fleet has heavier broadside arcs, and many of their fighters carry the bomber keyword to hurt capital ships. Rebel ships tend to be faster and more maneuverable, and cheaper. Shields are generally thicker, aces have a lot of general abilities. The Rebels need more finesse and synergy understanding to pull off... their starer ships are pretty fragile and have to rely on their speed, abilities, and fighters to take the Victory down. Understanding this will help you master the Rebel side and it can be pretty rewarding to play. I'd play the rebels for crafty combinations and having the best maneuverable ship in the game (CR-90).

Please check out the article page I've linked in my signature. I have a lot of articles about the ships, admirals, and objectives that you may find useful. I enjoy playing both sides myself, since I love just about everything about this game.

As a note, most of the ship expansions carry cards in them that are great for use with the opposite faction. I can't think of any ship that does not come with at least one worth while card. I recommend playing both sides however, as it is both helpful in game play and great to experience both sides.

I strictly play rebels but there is no reason you cant play both. You can start with the vanilla core set and work on expansions from there. I recommend this either way so you don't have to buy dice, dials, rulers, etc. individually. You will still likely need more but at least you start with a package of everything in one. From there its pick and choose. Eventually, you will find your ship/squadron combos.

As far as an easy comprehensive list, I'm not sure, but wookiepedia has a list of all the cards and what packs they can be found in. You will pretty much want at least one of every expansion for the chosen faction even if you don't care for the ship to much; as there are cards that you will want at least one of each, especially the admirals.

I was gonna give a breakdown of each faction but Norsehound beat me to it. Well put sir. Although he alluded to it, I would mention with the empire you will typically need to buy larger, slightly more expensive ships but less of them where the rebels typically will need to buy more smaller, cheaper ships but more of them.

You don't really need more than 2 of any expansion, and can cope perfectly well on one of each. You would probably be better collecting both rebels and imperials, as often the cards are more usable with the opposing faction. Luckily, a base set and one of each expansion (reb+imp) is actually a really good, competitive base, so long as you aren't kitting out both sides at the same time.

I'm sitting on one of everything now. Entertaining doubles but I haven't played long enough to know exactly what, if anything, I want. Greatly enjoying the game though. I hope the Asmodee announcements and practices over the next few months don't price me out of future expansions.

1. Start out with Rebels. The first thing you need to learn is how maneuver works and the command system. In those area's the Rebel side is much more forgiving than the Imperial side. Also it's cheaper right now. Virtually all Rebel ships are cheaper than the imperials, even on Amazon and the secondary market. So long as you stick to Nebulons and Corvettees for a bit, you can put together a cheap rebel ship spam force backed by X-Wings for less than $50.00 easy.

2. Get ready to lose the next few games. This game is really rewarding and fun, but the learning curve is really painful. Get ready to fly off the board, ram into enemy ships, choose the wrong commands, and so on. It takes a while, but you'll get it.

3. For that matter, stick with similar forces for those 5 losing games. A lot of this game depends on skill rather than list building. For the sake of your wallet and learning, stick to the same list unless there is something really obviously wrong with it. IE not having enough Squadron Command to activate all your Squadrons.

Do you have someone who can demo for you? Play a game or two. That's the best way to get a feell for the system and the differences between the 2 fleets.

Thanks for the tips guys. Probably can't invest till after Christmas though

Buy extra dice 3 packs per person if you let others play with your ships.

Also the eBay market is about the same as something like Minture Market.com, or Roll for Crit.com

Amazon might still have the Cr90 ships for 7.17 at that time which is a steal.

What you play is largely determinable by what you like.

While there are some optimal / sub-optimal choices for the most part 400 of your fleet is a fair match for 400 of mine.

The real joy of this game is, for the most part, one mans optimal may well be another mans sub-optimal.

My advice, for what it is worth, absolutely nothing, is get one of everything and 2 of the squadrons. Then as you play see what you enjoy playing and add one more of that.

What you play is largely determinable by what you like.

While there are some optimal / sub-optimal choices for the most part 400 of your fleet is a fair match for 400 of mine.

The real joy of this game is, for the most part, one mans optimal may well be another mans sub-optimal.

My advice, for what it is worth, absolutely nothing, is get one of everything and 2 of the squadrons. Then as you play see what you enjoy playing and add one more of that.

Aye, tinkering is highly viable in this game. Have fun with it.

Beyond that, the only advice I ever really have is give yourself to the dark side.