Firespray comes with the Heavy Laser Cannon (HLC) also. Commonly used power weapon.

Veteran Instincts, baby!

still, imo not a first purchase.

Hmm... Tough one.

Out of the box vs out of the box i'd say they are about even.

Imperial firespray is pretty weak compared to scum-spray.

I'm starting to see peoples points about starting this game now... Was easy before wave 4.

Yeah it is a bit much for newbies I think. They need to just buy what they love and let the rest come in time. The competitive minded newbie suffers the most... for sure.

Okay, so here's what I'm thinking:

1 TFA Core

1 Dice Pack

1 Millennium Falcon

1 Imperial Boba Fett

So, if this was all I had - and all I ever got - would it be relatively even? I don't want to have one side lose all the time, especially considering I'll probably be the guy flying Boba Fett and my 9 year old daughter will be flying the Falcon.

Okay, so here's what I'm thinking:

1 TFA Core

1 Dice Pack

1 Millennium Falcon

1 Imperial Boba Fett

So, if this was all I had - and all I ever got - would it be relatively even? I don't want to have one side lose all the time, especially considering I'll probably be the guy flying Boba Fett and my 9 year old daughter will be flying the Falcon.

Yes you and your family will get hours of fun with what you listed.

The only thing I would suggest you consider is instead of the Dice Pack look at just buying acsecond core set. Then you could run the Falcon with 2 X Wings and a Firespry with 3:or 4 Ties depending how you want to do your point and equipment builds plus each side would have its on damage Deck then.

Okay, so here's what I'm thinking:

1 TFA Core

1 Dice Pack

1 Millennium Falcon

1 Imperial Boba Fett

So, if this was all I had - and all I ever got - would it be relatively even? I don't want to have one side lose all the time, especially considering I'll probably be the guy flying Boba Fett and my 9 year old daughter will be flying the Falcon.

Yes you and your family will get hours of fun with what you listed.

The only thing I would suggest you consider is instead of the Dice Pack look at just buying acsecond core set. Then you could run the Falcon with 2 X Wings and a Firespry with 3:or 4 Ties depending how you want to do your point and equipment builds plus each side would have its on damage Deck then.

Awesome, I think this is what I'll go with then. And then I'll tell everyone when Christmas or my birthday comes around they can get me anything from X-Wing miniatures, as long as it's not Han or Boba.

What with what I have here though, if someone randomly bought me one of these Epic ships would that throw a curveball into everything and ruin it all?

No curve balls, it's all good from there on in!

And when rambler says another core pack, try and pick up an old one, as it has different ships and pilots and upgrades in it. Luke skywalker & r2d2, for instance!

I like your buying plan, and think it will work out pretty well. It will let you play the following kind of games, for instance:

Imperials!

(Edited because predator, which I put on Poe, isn't available from the packs you'll be buying - everything else is. BTW, 'proxying' cards - ie pretending that you have them - is really good for opening up the game. Don't feel restricted to playing with only the cards you own!)

So these upgrades that everyone is talking about, can you buy them as single cards on eBay without having to buy another pack?

I really do like the idea of buying a second core, but the other fella mentioned having a second damage deck. If one of my cores is a TFA and the other is the Luke Skywalker core - then I have different damage decks. Is that a big deal? Probably just toss Luke's damage deck. I think I'd rather have the variety of adding Luke and R2 than double TFA everything.

To start off I'll say that I probably had the most fun with this game when it was my sister and I learning the rules and all we had available was:

2 original core sets

1 extra TIE fighter

2 Y-wings

1 millennium falcon

1 slave 1

That was a ton of fun and my sister had good success using Kath Scarlet (Slave 1 pilot) against me even with the falcon in the mix. With just what comes in those boxes (not worrying about the so-called "fixes") the falcon and firespray are reasonably balanced.

With what I know now I think I'd start with one of each core pack (old and new) which doubles your ship and dice count for a lot less than single ships and dice pack. Then I'd go one each Falcon and Slave 1.

Okay, so here's what I'm thinking:

1 TFA Core

1 Dice Pack

1 Millennium Falcon

1 Imperial Boba Fett

So, if this was all I had - and all I ever got - would it be relatively even? I don't want to have one side lose all the time, especially considering I'll probably be the guy flying Boba Fett and my 9 year old daughter will be flying the Falcon.

Yes you and your family will get hours of fun with what you listed.

The only thing I would suggest you consider is instead of the Dice Pack look at just buying acsecond core set. Then you could run the Falcon with 2 X Wings and a Firespry with 3:or 4 Ties depending how you want to do your point and equipment builds plus each side would have its on damage Deck then.

Awesome, I think this is what I'll go with then. And then I'll tell everyone when Christmas or my birthday comes around they can get me anything from X-Wing miniatures, as long as it's not Han or Boba.

What with what I have here though, if someone randomly bought me one of these Epic ships would that throw a curveball into everything and ruin it all?

So the only thing I'd change there would be second core instead of a small dice pack. If you got an epic ship, and that was it that would somewhat throw off the balance of playing both sides from just your collection if you just play battle to the death style. However, if you play the campaign missions from the huge ships those work well with no epic ship on the other side

(Edited because predator, which I put on Poe, isn't available from the packs you'll be buying - everything else is. BTW, 'proxying' cards - ie pretending that you have them - is really good for opening up the game. Don't feel restricted to playing with only the cards you own!)

So these upgrades that everyone is talking about, can you buy them as single cards on eBay without having to buy another pack?

I really do like the idea of buying a second core, but the other fella mentioned having a second damage deck. If one of my cores is a TFA and the other is the Luke Skywalker core - then I have different damage decks. Is that a big deal? Probably just toss Luke's damage deck. I think I'd rather have the variety of adding Luke and R2 than double TFA everything.

Upgrades are scattered about all over the place in different packs, so that you're encouraged to buy more and more of the little addictive swines! that's why I recommend you make some proxies, and not worry too much about them to begin with. You can buy them on ebay, but most of the time it's not worth it - the cheaper ones are too common, and you'll probably have them soon enough from just buing a few ships you fancy, and the more expensive ones are getting in the way of you buying more lovely ships. Have a look on xwing-builder.co.uk, each upgrade card has a little icon next to it, telling you where you get them from...

Don't worry about the damage decks, both are fine, but a bit different. Even if you went to the world tournament, you'd find people legally using both at the moment!

Yes there is an old and new Damage Deck but you and your family probably won't notice the difference. It is mainly used to track damage anyway. Both Decks are still Organized Play legal. Just give your kids the older Deck it is just slightly more forgiving than the new one.

OP - the Force Awakens core set, the Falcon and Imperial Aces should give you everything you need for some fun casual games. The Rebels will be tough to take down, but the Imperials will have a 2-1 advntage.

I'd stay away from the Decimator as it's far too similar to the Falcon when you're starting out - the Interceptors in Imperial Aces will give you a completely different option.

Don't worry about C3-P0, Autothrusters or any of that other crap, they're not necessary at all if you just want some fun, evenly matched games.

I'll echo the Firespray recommendation -- thematically fitting, and plays very differently than the Falcon (unlike the Decimator, for the most part).

You and your opponent can simply share 1 damage deck, both drawing from it as needed.

And I also recommend skipping the dice pack and picking up an original core set. Two sets of templates speeds things up considerably. More dice, more ships, more pilots.

So I vote for:

Blue Core

Red Core

Falcon

Slave-I

Have fun!

PS - There have been several upgrade cards re-printed with 'alternate art' for seasonal prize kits and store championships. These are generally pretty readily available on ebay. Push the Limit, Gunner, Recon Specialist and C-3PO have all come in the last year. If you're patient, you may be able to snag them together & pretty cheap. Not a necessity for having fun, of course!