Just got back into playing Xwing after a break of a couple of years (Wave 1 was my last outing I'm ashamed to say!) and my friend and I were playing a game and I couldn't find in the rules anywhere, who chooses upgrade cards for their ships first? We came across a situation where we put all upgrade cards in the middle of the playing area, I was Rebel and my friend imperial. Using two core sets and about 7 wave 1&2 expansions. There was only one copy of a couple of the upgrade cards that could be chosen by both faction so what would have happened if we had both wanted the same upgrade card?

Any help greatly received and if I'm asking what seems like a stupid question to all you Xwing veterans...I'm new back into this after a few years so go gentle on me lol!

According to the old rules, the Imperials got first choice, and they also got initiative. So it's an issue I'd say who ever gets initiative gets first choice.

But myself I'd just proxie stuff both sides wanted.

Edit: According to the new rules, initiative doesn't always go to the Imperial player any longer, instead you flip a coin or roll a die or something to decide who gets the choice of having initiative or not.

Edit 2: I realized that the above isn't completely correct. The choice goes to whoever has the lowest point value in their list and you flip a coin or use a die when it's a tie.

If you're playing with a friend, no need to get an actual copy of the cards, just use a piece of paper (for duplicates or for cards you don't have yet).

Thanks for the replies...

Just to clarify however, Rules ninja, you say in the old rules that it states imperials got first pick of the upgrade cards and they also got initiative. And now in the new rules you toss a coin etc for initiative, but who gets first dibs on the upgrade cards in the new rules if initiative and first choice of upgrades were defined as separate in the old rules?

but who gets first dibs on the upgrade cards in the new rules if initiative and first choice of upgrades were defined as separate in the old rules?

But now that I think about it, there is a flaw in that, because the choice of initiative goes to the player with the list with the lowest squad point value, so if you have a list with 98 points worth of stuff and I have 100 you get to chose, and it's hard to say who has the lowest point value before you spend them. So I guess I'd roll a die or flip a coin and winner gets first choice.

You can download the new rules at Rule Reference PDF

Right on...thanks Rules Ninja!

If you've got a single pool of upgrades to draw from I'd say the cards' actual owner gets first pick. If that doesn't work I'd say simply flip a coin or see see if you can work things out otherwise.

As a general rule I am against using proxies (copies) of cards but in this situation I can see it. I'd still say that neither side should use more copies than are physically owned so if you only have one actual card then each side can use one copy of it but if you have two then each side could use two copies even if each side only gets one physical copy.

If sticking to actual cards I'd actually hope the two sides could come to some kind of mutual understanding about how to distribute certain upgrades. By this I mean one side doesn't "pick" an upgrade just to prevent the other side from being able to use it; some upgrades are so much more important to some ships/builds that denying them is almost like cheating. I may also say that if you can't agree on who gets to use a particular upgrade then neither of you should use it.

Now with the collection given I'm wondering what upgrade cards you may be fighting over. There are just a few upgrades in the wave 2 metagame that I could see arguing over: Push the Limits and Gunner being the two biggest. For the most part that metagame was largely defined by pilots. A Falcon may have wanted Gunner from the Firespray but could use Luke's crew card instead of needed. PtL is an upgrade that both the top A-Wing and Interceptor pilots want to have but it is only included with the A-Wing.