So, I'm looking to get into X-Wing and I was curious what people thought of each faction. I like ships from all 3, so choosing which one I want to use for my primary fleet (and expenditures) is holding me back from getting into the game.

I love B-Wings, the Ghost, and the new X-wings, but I've always been a huge fan of the tie advanced and interceptors. On the other hand the star viper, kihrax fighter and mist hunter look pretty cool too.

So what can anyone recommend to help me decide what to focus on starting out?

Oh, and as I understand it, the firespay can be used as both imperial and S&V. Are there other S&V ships out there like that? Is having the S&V ships as a neutral party usable by both an option?

Thanks!

Pick the one you enjoy flying the most - by borrowing ships to try out. They're actually all three in pretty reasonable shape competitively though for Scum you're very limited on the builds you can take and remain at high level in the competitive scene. It's really a decision for your own budgetting and enjoyment.

I'd recommend using https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/to figure out some lists and http://randolphw.github.io/han-shopped-first/ to cost them and see where you stand.

There are a total of four ships at the moment which are cross-faction:

Firespray: Scum/Imperial

HWK, Y-Wing, and z-95: Rebel/Scum

I would suggest getting expansions that are reasonably self-contained, or add to other expansion you already have. The TIE Advanced and TIE Interceptor unfortunately need quite a few cards from other packs to be kitted out properly (to fly Soontir Fel you'll want the Interceptor, Imperial Aces and Starviper packs, and for Vader you'll need the Advanced, Raider and maybe Millennium Falcon).

On the Empire side, the TIE Fighter, TIE/fo Fighter, TIE Phantom, TIE Punisher, TIE Adv. Prototype, Lambda and Decimator packs are pretty much ready to be used right out of the box (although the named Phantoms appreciate Veteran Instincts). Interceptor, Advanced, Bomber and Defender really need fixes from other expansions.

Scum fares a little bit better. If you want to run TIE Interceptors, pick up a Starviper. Guri is a really solid pilot, even if she takes a bit getting used to. I personally like the Kihraxz, so I'd get one of those, but others might find it boring or underpowered. The Mist Hunter is also pretty strong, but you'll only need one. Unless you hate the look of it, definitely pick up a Punishing One, it's the best expansion they've put out in ages.

If you pick up Most Wanted, you'll get Scum dials and cards for a HWK and an extra Y-Wing. The Y kind of wants the Twin Laser Turret from the K-Wing expansion, but the Scum HWK pilots (especially Palob and Torkil) are perfectly fine with the Ion Cannon Turret, and if you pick up a Ghost, Dorsal Turret seems pretty handy.

Although I love Scum I am limiting myself to Rebs/Imps for now because you need the Core Set(s) anyway. When I do buy into Scum I plan on starting with MW and the cross faction ships assuming everything is still available. Sort of a basic approach but it works for me. Eventually I see myself probably flying mainly Scum but too soon to tell.

Thanks for the information everyone. I'm not looking into tournament play, since there are no tournaments where I live that I'm aware of. Pretty much just casual play.

Are there ships in the rebel fleet that require a lot of cross purchasing to use effectively? Are the big ships, Falcon, Ghost, Firespray, Decimator, etc worth it? From what I saw they eat up a lot of a fleets budget which doesn't really leave much left for anything else.

What is epic play?

I think I may just stick with rebel/imperial for now and pick up a few S&Vs for S&Gs. Ha!

A-wings need Autothrusters, but otherwise their dependencies come with the A-wing or in Rebel Aces (which is packaged with an A-wing). The Falcon is out of fashion lately due to TLTs, but comes with a lot of good cards.

Generally speaking the 3 factions have a different feel.

Imperial - Strong focus on movement, maneuverablity and actions, no low point turrets, more aggressive than rebels but less than scum in general, less inter-squad combos/support than rebels but more than scum in general, deadly aces.

Rebel - Strong focus on recovery, inter-squad combos/support and survivability, wide variety of ships, least aggressive of the factions generally, have tools to deal with most situations.

Scum - Extremely aggressive, wide variety of ships, inter-squad combos/support are few and limited/have drawbacks but tend to be powerful if they work, powerful single use upgrades.

Currently all factions have problems aquiring certain upgrades solely from ships of their own faction. Many upgrades are round only in a few sets, and many expansions have at least 1 or more exclusive upgrade.

Empire. Vader. Duh.

For the Glory of the Empire!

That is the only acceptable answer. All other answers are considered acts of treason against the state and will be treated as such!

Some some guidelines to the basics of the factions (these are by no means the end all be all, all factions typically have some loadout that is comparable to the others)

Imp: cheap ships so you field a lot of them (swarms)

Reb: expensive ships that are heavy on the shields

Scum: A little of both (but worse at each) and focused on abilities that help and hurt at the same time.

So it really depends on what your style is. But go ahead and buy the Firespray because its the best looking ship in the game.

Most of the Rebel ships do pretty well right out of the box except for T-65 X-wings, A-wings and Y-wings. And the HWK I guess... but it never does well. If you are not playing competitively the relative 'viability' of each ship doesn't really matter that much. In casual play they are all close enough in balance so that you won't be too burned by anything. The one exception is the TIE Advanced which is about 3 points overcosted. They ended up fixing it by giving it a free system slot from a title in the raider expansion.

Honestly I would suggest picking up the new core set and then 1 small ship ex pack from rebels and imperials and then 1 large ship ex pack from each. That should get you off and running with casual play pretty quickly.

I fly rebels, because who doesn't want to free the galaxy from tyranny? I may branch out into scum eventually, because the ships look really nice. Won't ever fly empire.

This is good for mitigating costs as well.

Well for competitive play this is my best description of where each faction fits in the meta.

• Rebels are spoiled for choice. Because their base fighters are so durable they tend to be an early draw for new players. But new players might not know how to build a competitive rebel list and will often get destroyed by meta lists. Even if they net list they won't exactly know which list to build because there are so many of them and many have slight variants. So newer players won't know what list are stronger and what list are weaker. Thus might be a stumbling block for new players where they get in quick then leave just as quick.
• Imperials have set lists that work so making a competitive list is much easier than rebels. for newer players they can easily decide what expansions to buy and how to equip ships. However it may make the game feel stale and a lack of room for experimentation with players depending too much on the net list.
• Scum is still catching up and has less competitive builds than Imperials although they are getting some new ones with Wave 8, they haven't been fully felt out yet although many of their ships tend to not be as strong as their rebel and imperial counterparts.