My first post. I’m a refugee from some other games and I bought the Starter set when the game dropped back when. I’m recently looking at jumping back in. I’m one of those terrible unfortunates that once I choose a faction, chances are I’ll buy every stupid things for it, in multiples. I’m also a competitive player.

I do have some questions through after reading for a bit.

What is a Stresshog, and what roll does it play in the game?

What does Regen do? Restore Hull points?

Do I need the new damage deck from the new starter? I have my old deck from the first starter?

Some of the Rebels expansion stuff is out already? When is it legal for tourneys? Where is that information presented?

These Store Tourney championships. What is the support? What is given at those? I generally attend the Las Vegas Open. It looks like it has a big X-wing presence. Is that a FFG supported tourney?

What is List Juggler? I downloaded the squad maker. Is it the best list builder?

Why are Bro-bots (B-Robot?) good?

What is the first $100 I should spend if I go Rebel, Imperial, or Scum?

Regen is usually just shield recovery, it's mostly a Rebel ability, a few astromechs and Miranda Doni have it. Scum has one ship that can do it, IG-88A. The Rebel ones are pretty good, tough to kill, but not impossible, and expensive. IG-88A is ok, some people swear he's awesome, I think it depends too much on how many ships the enemy is flying (he gets a shield after a kill).

The new damage deck is not currently required, although for competitive tournaments it might be at some point, some of us are hoping it will be. Old deck is balanced fine for casual play.

In the U.S. (maybe all of North America?) ships are tournament legal as soon as they are released unless stated otherwise (there are currently no such statements released). Other countries, ask your Tournament Organizer (TO) first. As far as I know none of the Rebels show stuff is out yet, but should be out soonish by player estimates. For current tournament rules, go here, scroll down, click Tournament Resources: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/x-wing/

I prefer this list builder for Android, it has a lot of features including collection control (nice if you don't memorize how many copies of everything you have).

My first post. I’m a refugee from some other games and I bought the Starter set when the game dropped back when. I’m recently looking at jumping back in. I’m one of those terrible unfortunates that once I choose a faction, chances are I’ll buy every stupid things for it, in multiples. I’m also a competitive player.

I do have some questions through after reading for a bit.

What is a Stresshog, and what roll does it play in the game?

What does Regen do? Restore Hull points?

Do I need the new damage deck from the new starter? I have my old deck from the first starter?

Some of the Rebels expansion stuff is out already? When is it legal for tourneys? Where is that information presented?

These Store Tourney championships. What is the support? What is given at those? I generally attend the Las Vegas Open. It looks like it has a big X-wing presence. Is that a FFG supported tourney?

What is List Juggler? I downloaded the squad maker. Is it the best list builder?

Why are Bro-bots (B-Robot?) good?

What is the first $100 I should spend if I go Rebel, Imperial, or Scum?

The Gozanti featured in Rebels as I understand it - assault carrier expansion - and would be legal for Epic tournaments.

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/is the best list builder IMO. http://randolphw.github.io/han-shopped-first/ is also very useful.

Brobots are robots who are bros, i.e. the IG88-A to -D series of assassin droids. They fly Aggressors, which are a large-base ship which moves incredibly fast and nippily for a big ship, and you can get two of them into 100 points. They have a title which allows them to share each other's pilot ability. They're a very strong list.

I'd generally look at a good purchase order being Core Set > Rebel Aces > Imperial Aces > Other Core Set > whatever else takes your fancy (and replace one of the aces sets with Most Wanted if you want to do Scum) but usually my advice for newbies is to find a local club and borrow some ships from people for game nights to find out what you enjoy, then buy that.

These Store Tourney championships. What is the support? What is given at those?

the store championship is the first round of the competitive circuit. It's typically held in stores across the country drawing between 32 and 8 people. Just about every store that has space can host one I think.

this years prize is top 32 get a alt art C-3PO crew card, top 8 get an acrylic range ruler, top 4 get a challenge coin, and the winner gets a plaque and a bye at Regionals.

What is List Juggler?

List Juggler is simply a collection of nearly every list someone flys at a tournament. People post the lists from the event and then you can sort how well a given ship or faction or upgrade did.

I believe the BTL-a4 series Y was called a "warthog" in the lore (?). R3-a2 inflicts stress, hence stress hog.

Brobots are ig-2000s, killer robots who help their Bros out

My first post. I’m a refugee from some other games and I bought the Starter set when the game dropped back when. I’m recently looking at jumping back in. I’m one of those terrible unfortunates that once I choose a faction, chances are I’ll buy every stupid things for it, in multiples. I’m also a competitive player.

I do have some questions through after reading for a bit.

What is a Stresshog, and what roll does it play in the game?

What it is was answered above. As to the Stresshog's role, it's one of the most effective sources of control, which allows a generic ship to severely limit the mobility and defensive abilities of an Ace Pilot that might otherwise be virtually untouchable.

What does Regen do? Restore Hull points?

Regeneration almost always deals with shields, although there are one or two things that discard damage cards (They are not widely used, though, so they're not what you hear complained about)

Do I need the new damage deck from the new starter? I have my old deck from the first starter?

The old deck had some balance issues, as a number of critical effects did nothing to generic pilots, and FFG initially said the new deck was going to be mandatory in competition started this year. However, they backed down and are letting people use the old deck. So ultimately it's up to you. You can use the old deck all the time if you really don't want to buy the new core set. Or you can buy both and use whichever is better for your list. Or, if you're like me, you can use the new deck exclusively because it's just better designed.

Some of the Rebels expansion stuff is out already? When is it legal for tourneys? Where is that information presented?

The Imperial Assault Carrier Expansion includes the Gozanti-class cruiser, which is the Imperial's main capital ship in the Rebels TV show (Because Star Destroyers are too important to waste on patrols). The Gozanti itself is only legal in Epic Tournaments, like all other huge ships. However, the new unique Tie Fighter Pilots and Agent Kallus crew card included with it are legal in normal tournaments.

These Store Tourney championships. What is the support? What is given at those? I generally attend the Las Vegas Open. It looks like it has a big X-wing presence. Is that a FFG supported tourney?

Store Championships are explained above. As for the Las Vegas Open, it looks like it is not considered a Store Championship. I don't know what sort of Prize support it will have, although FFG has created unique promos to support third party tournaments in the past.

What is List Juggler? I downloaded the squad maker. Is it the best list builder?

Nothing to add here.

Why are Bro-bots (B-Robot?) good?

"Brobots" is a portmanteau of "Bro" (Short for brother, often used to refer to friends) and "Robot". In general it is a fairly well rounded list with good maneuverability, offensive power, and enough defense to survive what you can't dodge entirely. However, it requires a lot of Upgrades to run competitively, making it a poor choice for a new player.

What is the first $100 I should spend if I go Rebel, Imperial, or Scum?

Answered below

Imperials:

2 Tie/FO Expansions ($15 each. Juke+Comms Relay on an Omega Squadron Pilot or one of the Unique pilots is a solid build by itself)

Tie Interceptor Expansion Pack ($15. Includes two of the best Tie Interceptor pilots, Turr Phennir and Soontir Fel)

Imperial Aces Expansion Pack ($30. Includes two more Tie Interceptors, good upgrades for them, and two Royal Guard Pilots, which are the only generic Tie Interceptor pilots who aren't overpriced for what they do).

Starviper Expansion Pack ($20. Scum ship, but autothrusters are so essential to Tie Interceptors that everybody reccomends you buy this early on anyway. You could try to buy just the autothrusters cards on Ebay, but it ends up cheaper to buy the Expansion and get other solid cards like Accuracy Corrector and Calculation)

Rebels:

Millenium Falcon Expansion Pack ($30. Infamous for being relatively easy to fly while still being quite powerful, especially if you get a C-3PO card from a store tournament. Also includes the Veteran Instincts and Engine upgrade cards, which are widely used. I think at least in some cases they're overused as crutches that stop people form learning to better predict their opponent's maneuvers, but even if they are, they're needed for enough builds you want them anyway).

A-wing Expansion Pack ($15. Includes valuable Push the Limit upgrade. Solid blocker. Good ship for learning to arc dodge)

Rebel Veterans Expansion Pack ($30. Includes an A-wing and a B-wing. Improves A-wings significantly, and has a number of nice crew options).

1 $15-20 expansion pack of your choice. The K-wing is a blast to fly and includes a lot of good upgrade cards, but the B-wing expansion pack is also pretty good. The best T-70 pilot is included in the TFA core set, so I wouldn't get that, though.

Scum:

Most wanted Expansion Pack ($40. Includes 2 Z-95 Headhunters and a Y-wing, as well as cards and base inserts to use the Slave-1, HWK-290, and a Y-wing expansion pack as scum ships)

Hwk-290 Expansion Pack ($15. The scum HWK pilots are hillariously evil. This also includes an ion cannon turret for your Y-wing if you want to run it in the Warthog configuration (Ion Cannon Turret+BTL-A4 title)

Y-wing Expansion Pack ($15. Gives you another Y-wing to run. Note that if you want to run more Scum Y-wings, you'll need another Most Wanted Expansion pack to have enough bases for them)

Either the Slave I expansion pack or $30 in Scum expansions. The K-wing expansion pack is worth considering since it includes the Twin Laser Turret upgrade which is very strong on Y-wings and HWKs. However, it's also rather unpopular in many metagames since many people feel it's overpowered or just boring to fly with.

Brobots are good because they hit hard and can sometimes be near impossible to kill. They are a large ship with 3 agility and boost, which means they can take autothrusters (the thing that makes interceptors playable). They each have 4 shields and 4 hull, so with 2 of them, that's 16 hp.... when a similar high agility ship lists would pull around 10 hp.

That being said, their biggest weakness is that they're PS6, which means even with VI, they can only cap out at PS8.... which means they can be out-flown by aces. They are also very difficult to fly well, one wrong move and you're colliding or on a rock.

I personally feel like they're a blast with PTL and refuse to put VI on mine 'for tournament sake'. They fly like the defender should, fast and reckless.

I believe the BTL-a4 series Y was called a "warthog" in the lore (?). R3-a2 inflicts stress, hence stress hog.

Brobots are ig-2000s, killer robots who help their Bros out

Warthog actually came from a bunch of players who are also military aviation nerds citing the conceptual similarities between a btla4 y wing and the real world a10 warthog

Brobots are the IG88 piloted Aggressors. They come with a 0 cost title card that lets all Aggressors share the abilities of any other Aggressor with the same title card that is in the squadron. You aren't able to fit more than 2 Aggressors into a 100 point list but, if you are playing a non standard match or an Epic level game, it is entirely possible to fly all 4 IG88s (A,B,C,and D) in one list and all would share each others abilities with the title on each. Because of this free and powerful ability it is rare to see just one Aggressor in a list (but not unheard of).

I would strongly recommend picking up at least 1 more original core set in addition to other expansion sets. It essentially gives you 3 ships for the price of two... but wait.... there's more! You also get more dice (there simply aren't enough in the core set) plus another set of movement templates and another range ruler for when your kid steps on one or your cat or dog eats one. Having two original cores also gives you a respectable 4-TIE miniswarm.

Thanks guys. I'll look into this.

Checking further in my second box of stuff I found I do have the Falcon already. And I found that I and a buddy got into the game at the same time. When we did, both of us bought a Core set, and it looks like he took imperials this time as I currently own a Falcon, 2 xwings with duplicate cards from the box set (Luke/Biggs) and Y Wing. So for now.. I’m a Rebel.

With this game, to play in organize play, you need to own the original card or have a Con Exclusive card? To get C3PO, I'll need to buy the CF90 set?

What is the deal with multiple cards also? If I owned 2xR2D2 cards, can I deploy him twice? What about Generic cards, like tactician?

If you have a integrated Astro-droid on a T65 X-wing Can you still put in another droid?

Is there a good post about the Math on these 8 sided dice? I’m curious on percentages. I’d run some basic math on them but I’m looking for what people have already done..

What podcasts do people listen too? I’ve downloaded the Nova Squadron one. I do like it. The format seems a little vague on reporting what is happening competitively, but I think that is due to it being the off season and people not wanting to let their builds into the wild yet.

These forums have a handy search function by the way.

Thanks guys. I'll look into this.

Checking further in my second box of stuff I found I do have the Falcon already. And I found that I and a buddy got into the game at the same time. When we did, both of us bought a Core set, and it looks like he took imperials this time as I currently own a Falcon, 2 xwings with duplicate cards from the box set (Luke/Biggs) and Y Wing. So for now.. I’m a Rebel.

With this game, to play in organize play, you need to own the original card or have a Con Exclusive card? To get C3PO, I'll need to buy the CF90 set?

What is the deal with multiple cards also? If I owned 2xR2D2 cards, can I deploy him twice? What about Generic cards, like tactician?

If you have a integrated Astro-droid on a T65 X-wing Can you still put in another droid?

Is there a good post about the Math on these 8 sided dice? I’m curious on percentages. I’d run some basic math on them but I’m looking for what people have already done..

What podcasts do people listen too? I’ve downloaded the Nova Squadron one. I do like it. The format seems a little vague on reporting what is happening competitively, but I think that is due to it being the off season and people not wanting to let their builds into the wild yet.

1) Either card is fine, and yes it comes with the Tantive. You can also get it as a participation prize in this years Store Championships.

2) Cards with a dot by the name are unique. You can only field one copy of that card at a time.

3) Integrated Astromech isn't an astromech. It's a card that allows you to do something with an astromech on your ship.

4) Google this, there are loads of articles on various math subjects. Team covenant is a good place to start.

You're a stresshog.