As a new player, it seems limiting that the general strategy of an entire faction in the game requires a swarm approach. I guess theme wise, it makes sense, so I am good with it in that regard. At the same time, it seems that the number of points spent on each side should maintain balance in the game, but maybe I am mistaken there. I assumed that you could pick your ships, then your modification cards, and both sides would be equally balanced, which does not seem to be the case.

It's not the only strategy, but acquiring some of the cards for making effective smaller builds, requires either buying or trading for single cards, and/or purchasing expansion ships and sets just to get those cards you really need, that come with ships you really don't. TIE fighters are cheap because they have no shields and 3 hull. The closest rebel equivalent is the A wing or Z-95, which each have 2 shield and 2 hull. So Imps have 3 HP, generally, and the cheapest rebel ship has 4 HP. Pair that with the fact that most TIE fighters attack with 2 dice (before abilities/upgrades), and most Rebel ships have 2 defense, not a lot of shots are going to get through, and if one or two do, eh, remove a shield token or two, even on a crit. Reverse the scenario and a TIE goes from 3 hull to 2, 1 or destroyed if a hit and a crit direct hit go through.

It's kind of like WW2 war games with Germans vs Russians. The Germans have better equipment, and training, hence they cost more, and the Russians try to win through superior numbers, because their units are less well trained, thus cheaper. Like Stalin said, "Quantity has a quality of its own".

Or you can get a Defender and throw the standard Imperial Playbook right into the trash compactor.

So, just a couple quick pointers: Those TIE Fighters and Interceptors live on their defense dice, which means that you should always, always have tokens (Focus or Evade, or both with Push the Limit as an upgrade) to spend to modify their defense dice. Second, you know the Falcon can shoot 360 degrees, so it should be your first target, so focus fire it down. This is actually a good universal topic - always focus your fire. You can also "arc-dodge" with the TIE Interceptors by exploiting their maneuverability and, if you equip Push the Limit (Which you should really try), then you can use the combination of boost + barrel roll to get out of the firing arcs of the A-Wing and the B-Wing so that only the Falcon can fire at you at once, giving you vastly increased odds.

As for the Decimator, if you have access to Engine Upgrade, you should equip it to the Decimator and use that to boost out of the arcs of the A-wings and B-wings - again, arc-dodging.

Ok, I can see how taking evade and focus tokens can help the ships without shields helps when you are rolling 3 green dice at the 1 to 2 defending distances and 4 at the 3 distance. It may not be the action I want to take in the moment, but when I end up in my opponents firing arc, it seems like that's what I want to use, then use my maneuverability to get out of there next turn.

Generally, your common checklist of desired actions should look something like the following:

1) Barrel roll/boost to get a target into your arc

2) Barrel roll/boost to get out of an enemy arc

3) Focus

4) Barrel roll/boost to get into range one

5) Target lock

6) Evade

Of course, the checklist doesn't hold true for every squad, or even for a single squad over the course of a game. Pilot Skill/optimal sequencing has a huge effect; if you're shooting first with everyone you might want to take more risks on the gambit that you can kill something before it returns fire; if you have a ship at one hull you might start prioritizing Evade, etc.

Some really helpful things to internalize at the beginning of your XWM career are:

- offense > defense

- focus > target lock

- quality modified shots > sheer weight of unmodified shots

Rebels are way easier to use for rookies, because a lot of Rebel options depend more on good stats than good decisions. Imperials get better once you start figuring out how to make the best decisions.

Rebels are way easier to use for rookies, because a lot of Rebel options depend more on good stats than good decisions. Imperials get better once you start figuring out how to make the best decisions.

Couldn't have said it better. That's the key here. Keep playing the tougher to play Imperials and when you start to win, it'll be that much more sweet.

It's not the only strategy, but acquiring some of the cards for making effective smaller builds, requires either buying or trading for single cards, and/or purchasing expansion ships and sets just to get those cards you really need, that come with ships you really don't. TIE fighters are cheap because they have no shields and 3 hull. The closest rebel equivalent is the A wing or Z-95, which each have 2 shield and 2 hull. So Imps have 3 HP, generally, and the cheapest rebel ship has 4 HP. Pair that with the fact that most TIE fighters attack with 2 dice (before abilities/upgrades), and most Rebel ships have 2 defense, not a lot of shots are going to get through, and if one or two do, eh, remove a shield token or two, even on a crit. Reverse the scenario and a TIE goes from 3 hull to 2, 1 or destroyed if a hit and a crit direct hit go through.

It's kind of like WW2 war games with Germans vs Russians. The Germans have better equipment, and training, hence they cost more, and the Russians try to win through superior numbers, because their units are less well trained, thus cheaper. Like Stalin said, "Quantity has a quality of its own".

Rebels are way easier to use for rookies, because a lot of Rebel options depend more on good stats than good decisions. Imperials get better once you start figuring out how to make the best decisions.

Couldn't have said it better. That's the key here. Keep playing the tougher to play Imperials and when you start to win, it'll be that much more sweet.

Aight, I'm gunna hang in there till I figure out how to succeed with the imperial faction. Thanks for all of the great ideas and things to be aware of when playing the dark side.

I'm right there with you. I've played 6 times. did ok at first then my playing buddy busted out some loaded b-wings from the Aces set with PTL and the advanced proton torps and I got spanked 3 games straigh. one game I flew brilliantly but rolled like crap and couldn't land a hit. 2nd game same prob but less good flying. 3-rd game, I traded out the interceptors for a tie advance and a bomber to try something diff,flew like crap and still couldn't roll. got wailed on. :-(

gonna try to build a squadron using the tie/fo omega leader as the center. see how that goes next time we play.