So I am getting into IA and want to play Skirmish competitively. I have the Core and picked up IG-88 and Dengar as I like playing with the scum. I will be near a store again this weekend and am wondering what you all would recommend I try and pick up. I have about $50-$60 to burn so I don't have a lot of options. I am leaning towards getting Leia and Wookies but I'm not sure what else. I would love to get a big expansion but am not sure I want to just buy Hoth and call it a day. I know it is the best value and I really want the HK's but I kinda want some other small packs as well. Anyway, what do y'all recommend I get first to be semi competitive?

Note: I also have an alt art eStormtrooper from a tourney. I only include it since FFG doesn't give us cards to field all the options in the core.

Obviously depends on the faction you want to play. For imps, you can just do 2x eStormyroopers and a pair of Officers, and then season to taste - I like Royals and Snowtroopers, others here add Probes or Heavy Stormtroopers. Just avoid Kayn and you'll be fine.

For Rebs, get a pair of Saboteur packs, add Gideon, and again season to taste. Some people like Luke and/or Leia, othrrs go Wookie, Echo Troopers are also an option. If both money and points stretch, Threepio and/or R2 are a good investment.

Mercs are generally a bit below on the power curve and good synergistic options. They don't currently have any "figured out" pieces you need to start a list with, though personally I always start by borrowing Gideon from the Rebs and taking at least one Hired Gun group. I often get some eSaboteirs for the second alliance slot. A lot of people swear by the HKs, but I don't consider them essential. Named bounty hunters are generally not worth it, and while some people swear by Fett, I'm not impressed.

A quick and dirty summary for ya. Keep in mind of course that EVERYTHING can vary depending on uour local meta.

Focused Boba with rebel support with Temporary Alliance (mainly Gideon + something else from rebels) can get the job done fairly well. Hes fast and pretty hard to kill if you play hit and run with him.

So I am getting into IA and want to play Skirmish competitively. I have the Core and picked up IG-88 and Dengar as I like playing with the scum. I will be near a store again this weekend and am wondering what you all would recommend I try and pick up. I have about $50-$60 to burn so I don't have a lot of options. I am leaning towards getting Leia and Wookies but I'm not sure what else. I would love to get a big expansion but am not sure I want to just buy Hoth and call it a day. I know it is the best value and I really want the HK's but I kinda want some other small packs as well. Anyway, what do y'all recommend I get first to be semi competitive?

Note: I also have an alt art eStormtrooper from a tourney. I only include it since FFG doesn't give us cards to field all the options in the core.

You can get Hoth + Leia for under $60 on Amazon with free shipping.

If you really want to play Mercs then it's a good idea to get Boba and Hired Guns. But then the Hoth set is a good purchase too. If I were just starting out and had to choose between the two options then I'd personally go for the Hoth set because you'll get more bang for your buck. And as Union said, you can get them on Amazon for a good price.

Have a great time!

Oh, if you're interested, you can also play IA Skirmish on Vassal: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1308588/vassal-imperial-assault-skirmish

Also, if you are wanting to play competitively (like at the store championship level) you are gonna need Twin Shadows to be able to build one of the tournament maps. The TO pulls the scenario card, so I don't think you need the expansions that come with them (Royal Guard Champion and Stormtroopers), but they may be a good idea anyway.

Other than that, I'm in a similar boat (just starting and limited funds) and I picked up hoth for the options and I'm looking into a couple hired guns and rebel saboteurs to fill out lists. I think those are the most bang for your buck expansions.

Oh, and boba as soon as his reprint hits stores.

One word of caution is to remember that this is a FFG Star Wars game, and as such has some card packaging shenanigans. Even if you don't play a particular figure, you might still want cards from that pack. Off the top of my head, the biggest offenders are Han Solo with his very good Inspiring Speech card, much maligned Kayn Somos with the phenomenal upgrade Rule by Fear, and the Reinforcement card that enables Trooper builds alongside Grenadier. The former is in the Rebel Trooper pack and the Stormtrooper pack, the latter only in Reb Troopers.

Of course, an alternative would be using proxies for practice games or borrowing cards from your local group.

Wow, I had a long post but I forgot to log in and lost it all. Oh well. The just of it was, is twin shadows worthless for skirmish. Are the scum still not viable on their own. And will I lose horribly if I don't field sabs or armies of low cost guys from two cores. And am I wasting my time if I buy high cost characters.

For competitive skirmish the higher costed guys are not top tier right now. That definitely doesn't mean you can't run them and still do decent though. You may just be at a slight handicap. This depends figure to figure too. RGC is pretty decent right now but Han Solo is not. Aside from the tiles from Twin Shadows I'm not a huge fan of it. If you want to run scum I would recommend getting C3PO and R2 so you can add Gideon and C3PO with the temporary alliance card.

Are the scum still not viable on their own. And am I wasting my time if I buy high cost characters.

With Twin Shadows and Return to Hoth, Mercenaries (I really dislike how everyone is calling them Scum all the time. This isn't X-Wing!) are viable.

High cost characters are not favored in the meta right now. Everything above 10 points needs to have very good utility for it to be considered. Boba is the only 10+ card I can think of playing right now.

There are good Mercenary-Lists.

For either Mercenaries or Rebels, start building lists with Gideon and either R2-D2 and/or C-3PO. (R2-D2 / C-3PO are a must have).

If you want to play Rebels, you absolutely need 2 sets of eSaboteurs.

Forget about the Wookies. The have high health but nothing else.

Leia, Echo Base Troopers and Rebel Troopers are good, but not must-haves.

Everything you need for imperial lists comes with the core box. More eStormtroopers, Officers and Probe Droids are good. I recommend to either check eBay or buy a second core box.

Snowtroopers are good, but not must haves.

If you want to play Mercenaries, you need at least one set of Hired Guns and lots of Trandoshans. I recommend to either check eBay or buy a second core box.

Command Cards are extremely important. Check, which ones you want to play and in which packs they come.

Focused Boba with rebel support with Temporary Alliance (mainly Gideon + something else from rebels) can get the job done fairly well.

Yup, you can pump a lot of points and actions into Fett and Fett support pieces. And he'll be extremely awesome at killing that one 3pt trooper. Yessiree, you'll kill him very dead.

Vader's Finest did a Buyer's Guide on his Team Covenant Blog:

http://teamcovenant.com/vadersfinest/2016/01/11/111/

So I've got 1 Core, IG-88, Dengar, Leia, Chewie, and Wookie Warriors. I am planning to place an order consisting of, Twin Shadows, Return to Hoth, Boba, R2& 3PO, Rebel Sabs, and RGC.

Does that sound solid for playing competitive skirmish, or should I really consider swapping something before I place the order?

So I've got 1 Core, IG-88, Dengar, Leia, Chewie, and Wookie Warriors. I am planning to place an order consisting of, Twin Shadows, Return to Hoth, Boba, R2& 3PO, Rebel Sabs, and RGC.

Does that sound solid for playing competitive skirmish, or should I really consider swapping something before I place the order?

That's a damned good spread - Rebel Troopers are also maybe very good get for the following command cards: Grenadier, Reinforcments (maybe you'll want to run Elite Snowtroopers), Focus and Strength in Numbers