I entered x wing relatively late, at about wave 7.

To date I have purchased:

- 2x Red core sets

- 1x Blue core set

- Rebel aces

- A Wing

- Millenium Falcon

- Tie Interceptor

- Slave 1

I am really having an internal struggle as to which purchases to make, and in what order.

Resources are limited, so "just buying 1 of everything" is not something that will happen all that quickly.

I keep seeing all of the shinny new models, and reading about all of the great new builds that the new cards open up.

Do I need to collect the expansions relatively close to the order that they were released in, or can I really just buy whatever ships catch my eye?

Im not really looking for a definitive answer, just interested in hearing about others view this "dilemma"

Buy what looks cool

can I really just buy whatever ships catch my eye?

This. Just buy what you like, if you are looking for a specific upgrade, both of the main online squad builders let you know what set they came from. There is absolutely no need to buy the xpacs in any order (at least, not since you have core sets).

I find your lack of Carnor Jax disturbing.

It seems you are interested in the Original Trilogy (OT) and primarily Rebels. If so, I'd grab a Y-Wing and another B-Wing. T-70s are a good addition too.

Y-Wings (like Slave 1) can be used in the Scum faction too so if that interests you, you might get more bang for your buck there.

If you are looking to build your Empire forces .. I would strongly recommend Imperial Aces.

Do you play casually or are looking to play in tournaments?

Don't get caught up in what the forums say you 'should' have. Ask yourself why you play and adhere to those guidelines. It's very easy to get caught up in the "I'll buy this exapansion just for that one card" buzz.

I love OT and have zero interest in the Expanded Universe. My entire collection is comprised solely of OT and TFA ships. Apart from a Raider (it's the closest we'll get to a Star Destroyer at this scale) I can't see me ever buying an EU expansion and I don't feel disadvantaged.

You almost literally need every expansion at this point in the game's life cycle, so you may as well buy whatever looks interesting.

On the imperial side go with the aces pack to fill out the interceptors(Soontir, C Jax, and Turr are fun). Then I would add the tie advanced to get Vader.

For the rebels, add another B wing and a Y wing. Maybe add the most wanted pack to get some Z95s. Or maybe a K wing and a Y wing.

You need some defenders.

Thank you all for the great responses/feedback.

I was thinking that the Imperial Aces would be a good buy to help catch the Imperials up with my Rebels.

I was also looking to get Vader, but then I read about how he is underpowered unless you buy the Imperial Raider expansion with his "fixes" in it!

Then I was looking at Poe and saw that the R5P9 Astromec that I would like to use with him comes in the Rebel transport!!!!!

And more concerning still is that you can only get the C3PO crew card in the Tontine IV expansion!!!

And yes,

I agree that I need to buy a B-Wing and a Y-Wing for my rebels....

But what about the basic first wave goodies like the T-65 & Tie fighter?

Then the new T-70 X-Wing expansions and Tie FO.....

Then as was stated there is the scum faction... How can I not get the most wanted expansion to have the cool Boba Fett Pilot card, or the cool Y-Wing fixes!?

If Autothrusters is such a must have card that only comes in the star viper expansion, You can't have just one Scum ship, right!?

As you can see, my mind is just swimming!

Thank you all for the great responses/feedback.

I was thinking that the Imperial Aces would be a good buy to help catch the Imperials up with my Rebels.

I was also looking to get Vader, but then I read about how he is underpowered unless you buy the Imperial Raider expansion with his "fixes" in it!

Then I was looking at Poe and saw that the R5P9 Astromec that I would like to use with him comes in the Rebel transport!!!!!

And more concerning still is that you can only get the C3PO crew card in the Tontine IV expansion!!!

And yes,

I agree that I need to buy a B-Wing and a Y-Wing for my rebels....

But what about the basic first wave goodies like the T-65 & Tie fighter?

Then the new T-70 X-Wing expansions and Tie FO.....

Then as was stated there is the scum faction... How can I not get the most wanted expansion to have the cool Boba Fett Pilot card, or the cool Y-Wing fixes!?

If Autothrusters is such a must have card that only comes in the star viper expansion, You can't have just one Scum ship, right!?

As you can see, my mind is just swimming!

Yes, the way FFG packages cards and ships is criminal. Epic ships should only come with epic cards in my opinion. Hopefully it doesn't kill the game in the future. I worry the future will only consist of experienced veterans who own everything. At some point, the cost of entry to be tourney competitive becomes exorbitant to newbies.

I started in wave order. The 1st core set, wave 1, wave 2, etc. I bought some things out of order because they looked neat. Like the aces packs. And missed some things like the Millenium Falcon until it got restocked.

If I were starting now, I would consider buying towards builds. Especially if you're on a budget. The problem, of course, is if you wind up not liking the build. Having a group that will let you proxy first helps. And then sometimes you grow into a list with experience, and find that the build you were originally buying towards doesn't interest you anymore.

But at least buying towards a build gives you a sense of direction.

Initially I was looking to have enough models to field both Imperial and Rebel squadrons so that I had a self contained collection that I could use with people that didn't have any models... This actually remains my main goal.

I am definitely a fan of the movies, and started X-Wing with dreams of replaying epic scenes/battles from the movies, with the characters, Vader, Luke, Han, etc...

These dreams however, have fallen victim to my competitive streak (aka become less specific to the movies, and more competitive list driven), AND have been further complicated by the way in which the cards have been distributed throughout the expansions (Aka, may not have even appeared in the movies, and/or are VERY expensive).

At the end of the day, I think that X-Wing is an awesome, and super fun game. It scares me at how easy it would be for me to spend A LOT of money on it! I only started in December 2015, and already I feel like I have a pretty significant collection 3 months later!

As I said in the OP... I don't think that I am able to come up with a concrete answer to my question, but I feel that if I can stick to my vision of having some cool models that can be used to play out the awesome scenes that I love in the movies then I will be happy

As such, I suppose I need to start with the basics such as the X-wing, tie, B, Y, Imperial Aces, Tie Advanced, shuttle, Tie Bomber, etc... that are all seen in the movies, and actually provide an ok range of upgrade cards to use. Then of course I will need to have a Rebel transport to get the extra X-Wing pilots from Rogue Squadron, AND to be able to play out the evacuation of the rebel base on Hoth!

sooo..... Pretty much everything! LOL!

Initially I was looking to have enough models to field both Imperial and Rebel squadrons so that I had a self contained collection that I could use with people that didn't have any models... This actually remains my main goal.

I am definitely a fan of the movies, and started X-Wing with dreams of replaying epic scenes/battles from the movies, with the characters, Vader, Luke, Han, etc...

These dreams however, have fallen victim to my competitive streak (aka become less specific to the movies, and more competitive list driven), AND have been further complicated by the way in which the cards have been distributed throughout the expansions (Aka, may not have even appeared in the movies, and/or are VERY expensive).

At the end of the day, I think that X-Wing is an awesome, and super fun game. It scares me at how easy it would be for me to spend A LOT of money on it! I only started in December 2015, and already I feel like I have a pretty significant collection 3 months later!

As I said in the OP... I don't think that I am able to come up with a concrete answer to my question, but I feel that if I can stick to my vision of having some cool models that can be used to play out the awesome scenes that I love in the movies then I will be happy

As such, I suppose I need to start with the basics such as the X-wing, tie, B, Y, Imperial Aces, Tie Advanced, shuttle, Tie Bomber, etc... that are all seen in the movies, and actually provide an ok range of upgrade cards to use. Then of course I will need to have a Rebel transport to get the extra X-Wing pilots from Rogue Squadron, AND to be able to play out the evacuation of the rebel base on Hoth!

sooo..... Pretty much everything! LOL!

We can be friends. Everything you've said above applied to myself when I started. I only just got my transport though. Have 2-3 of every other OT/TFA ship though (except Corvette). I don't feel disadvantaged at all .. don't play competitively either though.

Thank you all for the great responses/feedback.

I was thinking that the Imperial Aces would be a good buy to help catch the Imperials up with my Rebels.

I was also looking to get Vader, but then I read about how he is underpowered unless you buy the Imperial Raider expansion with his "fixes" in it!

Then I was looking at Poe and saw that the R5P9 Astromec that I would like to use with him comes in the Rebel transport!!!!!

And more concerning still is that you can only get the C3PO crew card in the Tontine IV expansion!!!

And yes,

I agree that I need to buy a B-Wing and a Y-Wing for my rebels....

But what about the basic first wave goodies like the T-65 & Tie fighter?

Then the new T-70 X-Wing expansions and Tie FO.....

Then as was stated there is the scum faction... How can I not get the most wanted expansion to have the cool Boba Fett Pilot card, or the cool Y-Wing fixes!?

If Autothrusters is such a must have card that only comes in the star viper expansion, You can't have just one Scum ship, right!?

As you can see, my mind is just swimming!

I grew up with the OT, the T65's to me, are the X wing. In the game they're not doing as well at present, which is a pity, as I wanted to have all the named Red Sqn pilots (yes, I did buy the rebel transport just for them and the droids). I tried a trio , Wes and Wedge with R2D2 and R5P9 so their abilities could mess with enemy attacks, with Garven so he could feed them focus tokens. Got slaughtered but that was mostly my bad flying, turned the wrong way and flew Wes off the board near the start. I have the Falcon and the YT2400, couple of A wings and a B wing, which I've not used yet and 3 Z95's for cheap fillers. You can always buy upgrade cards off one of the sites (ie Blue Rat) or ebay. There is also a swap thread on here, just swapped a couple of my Most Wanted spares for C3P0. Buy what you want, unless you're lucky enough to afford to buy everything

Yes, the way FFG packages cards and ships is criminal. Epic ships should only come with epic cards in my opinion. Hopefully it doesn't kill the game in the future. I worry the future will only consist of experienced veterans who own everything. At some point, the cost of entry to be tourney competitive becomes exorbitant to newbies.

If Epic ships could only have epic cards then does that mean you wouldn't want to see any fighters included in the packs? After all, 3/4 of the Epic ships also include a small ship to go with them and cards supporting those ships certainly should be usable in standard play.

I'm going to say that the cost of entry always seems to favor the veteran who's been playing since the release date but that is very misleading. In X-Wing the only advantage the long time player has is that he's been able to distribute his spending more making it look smaller. If you look at pretty much ANY X-Wing squadron you'd see that it costs the same to create no matter when you started in on X-Wing. In some ways a veteran also gets burned when he buys ships for upgrades only to have those upgrades come out again on another ship that may be far more useful to him. Before Imperial Aces came out I suspect FFG was selling a lot of A-Wing to Imperial pilots looking to find a way for the Interceptor to Push the Limits. How many Defenders were sold for Predator? Other examples can be found so I wouldn't say a vet has a distinct financial advantage in X-Wing.

I'd make your next 3 Rebel purchases the Ghost, K-wing, T-70.

The Ghost comes with a lot of Rebel-only Crew Members.

Couple of them go really well with the K-wing.

Buy at least 1 of the T-70 individual expansions. It comes with new pilots and upgrades not found in the core.

For Imperials, this order:

Imperial Aces

TIE Fighter

TIE Phantom

TIE/fo Figher

TIE Bomber

TIE Punisher (only if you already own a Ghost or K-wing)

Do not buy TIE Advanced unless you also buy an Imperial Raider. Check online retailers to save ~$30 on the Raider.

Don't gotta buy em all at once, this order will let you get the most out of the things you already own..

Yes, the way FFG packages cards and ships is criminal. Epic ships should only come with epic cards in my opinion. Hopefully it doesn't kill the game in the future. I worry the future will only consist of experienced veterans who own everything. At some point, the cost of entry to be tourney competitive becomes exorbitant to newbies.

If Epic ships could only have epic cards then does that mean you wouldn't want to see any fighters included in the packs? After all, 3/4 of the Epic ships also include a small ship to go with them and cards supporting those ships certainly should be usable in standard play.

Of course that is what I mean. No small ships with epic ships...at least they are not unique ships. But the pilots and upgrade cards are unique. It's ridiculous that some of the most popular cards come with epic ships. At the very least they should offer alternative packs to cover the release of cards for those of us with no interest in epic. Like Tie Fighter 2 pack, with Youngster and ALL the non transport cards from the Imperial Transport Pack.

So as a guy that got into xwing because of a desire to recreate/have the models involved in the OT scenes, it appears as though purchasing the waves in order makes sense.

Purchasing in order is definitely not the best way to build the most competitive lists, but it seem to be the most congruent approach for achieving the goals that I have set for my xwing collection.

I can even see myself getting the Rebel Transport and Tantive IV at some point in the future. They have both been present in some of the most memorable OT scenes for me after all.

I do like the scum ships and the cards that their expansions bring, but I believe that this faction needs to take a back burner while I build up the core of my collection (rebe/imperial). I have already filled the OT bounty hunter slot with my Slave 1, so that should hold me for a while.

In short I need to fight of my urge to go for the latest shinny things and STAY ON TARGET!

I love that this community is so diverse, and I appreciate all of the great comments and suggestions.

They have all been very helpful.

Other examples can be found so I wouldn't say a vet has a distinct financial advantage in X-Wing.

I'd say that a new player actually has the advantage. A new player isn't going to buy 4 A-Wings simply so they can have 4 PtL's and won't have to buy 4 Lambda Shuttles for the sake of 4 AdvSen cards.

And you're right of course, the idea that the cost of entry is too high is complete and utter BS. Because the vet paid as much if not more for the same list, they just spent that money over a few years time.

From an objective perspective, what I am reading is that it is expensive to play Xwing regardless of when you start/started.

If you are playing competitively, and know what you are looking for in a list specifically, I would say that those coming into the game later would be able to spend marginally less because there are more ways to get what you are looking for.

Why is no one saying the Lambda Shuttle? No, not so you can put Emperor Palpatine on there if you ever buy a Raider. You buy it because it is one of the most amazing models FFG has produced. The folding wings and attention to detail make it one of the first pieces anyone interested in the game picks up (well, after the Falcon, but that's not in an Imperial players repertoire). It is also a cheap way to learn to fly large ships that don't have a turret. This is a skill you need.

Hmmm..... It seems like you wan to make both sides relatively even.

So, currently you have:

REBEL:

2 T-65s

1 T-70

2 A-Wings

1 B-Wing

1 Millennium Falcon

EMPIRE:

4 TIE Fighters

2 TIE F/Os

1 Slave 1

1 TIE Interceptor

So, from my perspective, to balance out the Empire with the Rebels you'd have to get something Empire related that will account for:

1 A-Wing

1 B-Wing

In trying to not get a duplicate of what you already have, I'd recommend buying a TIE Defender and a TIE Punisher. If the Defender and Punisher seem stronger than the A-Wing and B-Wing, that's okay because the Falcon is stronger than the Slave 1. I don't really like the TIE Bomber or TIE Advanced, but they are probably more evenly matched to an A-Wing and B-Wing than the Defender and Punisher.

Just my thoughts.

Honestly, just get what looks cool and have fun.

I started about a month before you and I've been checking ebay for used ship lots. I've had good luck finding smaller collections in the $50-$75 range that have the ships complete with all cards and are about 1/3 or better off retail price (don't forget to include shipping into your costs). I can buy and pick up locally for no shipping cost from cardhaus.com so I figure it isn't worth my time unless I get it cheaper on ebay than I could on Cardhaus.

My only problem is that I've quickly built up a large collection of box sets (6 so far) and a few (10 or so) overly duplicated ships that I need to unload eventually, but that is because I've bought 5 different lots so that's on me.

Tip for shopping on lots on ebay - if you "watch" an item, in "my watchlist" page that lists all the stuff you're watching you can add notes on each item. I always add a note as to how much it would cost to just buy the stuff online new so I know not to spend more than that.

When you try buying an auction on ebay just put your bid down at the maximum price you're willing to pay. You only pay that much if someone else is going to come close to matching it although it is most annoying when someone continually ups a bid going in the smallest possible increments as the auction is winding down.

Too bad ebay did away with the feature where you could set up bidding on a number of items where if you win one then you're done. I remember buying some of WotC's miniatures that way when there was an amount I'd be willing to pay but too many auctions going on and ending too close together to waste the time watching and bidding on each of them. I won several things that way.

I entered x wing relatively late, at about wave 7.

To date I have purchased:

- 2x Red core sets

- 1x Blue core set

- Rebel aces

- A Wing

- Millenium Falcon

- Tie Interceptor

- Slave 1

I am really having an internal struggle as to which purchases to make, and in what order.

Resources are limited, so "just buying 1 of everything" is not something that will happen all that quickly.

I keep seeing all of the shinny new models, and reading about all of the great new builds that the new cards open up.

Do I need to collect the expansions relatively close to the order that they were released in, or can I really just buy whatever ships catch my eye?

Im not really looking for a definitive answer, just interested in hearing about others view this "dilemma"

I was going to say buy 1 of each but that's out of the question so let me ask a couple questions,

Playing for fun or Tournament? If your playing for tournament I would tell you the cheapest option that is going to be part of the new meta is 3 JumpMasters. Past that are you playing for fun do you have a gaming group, are you the one with the models that others use as you want the most ships for cheapest if you supply the models for others.

Now Scum is the cheapest place to jump into for Ships and upgrades. I would tell you to start with the Most Wanted Box set as it is the most bang for your buck with 3 models and a ton of cards. You can print out the Rebel cards for the models if you want to play test them before purchase, after that work through what is out there and for now Skip the Mist Hunter and Star Viper as both tend to be lacking.

If you looking at Imps Start with Imp Aces as the pilots are solid and they have some excellent cards with the pack, Tie Adv, and Punisher are great ships. I personally love the shuttle and would tell you to wait until the box set for Vets come out for the defender and bomber. If your wanting to keep along with Rebels buy Rebel Aces as the pilots are great and get a K-wing. The Hwk is good for Scum and Rebels.

You have a lot of people giving great advice so look through them also you have enough models to use prox's if you want to print out some cards and try different things until you figure out what you want.

Last thought if your like me and get 20 a month for toys and such, look for lots on ebay, Barnes and Nobles tends to have some coupons from time to time (I got a raider for 59 the other day with tax and shipping) Miniature Market is good on prices, rollforcrit and from time to time Amazon can be outstanding, if you buy local you can always ask your FLGS if they do deals on orders and such.

It took be a while to figure out what to buy so I wish you luck.