I'm a new player, I just got the core set and right now I plan on getting expansions for only one side. What faction should I choose and what ships are good to get?

Which faction to choose is purely a matter of taste, which you think you will like better. I play, have had a lot of fun and done well competitively with both.

I think the imperials are a little more straightforward to play where the rebels often take a little more finesse.

As for expansions. To start I would buy 1 of each of the fighter packs and a medium/large base and a small base ship that did not come in the core set. That will run in the neighborhood of 100-120 dollars and the fighters will give you a lot of flexibility in your lists.

Also just so you are aware I think playing one faction is totally reasonable/viable especially if you are on a budget. But there are some upgrades that only come in the opposite faction ships. Having a friend or two that plays the opposite faction or both will help you offload some costs by splitting dual fight packs etc.

Welcome to a great game! The most important thing is to get out and play. Once you have enough stuff for a full 400 point list get some games in and then decide from there what else you want.

Thanks this was really helpful!

I think because I'm new I might just start with imps and maybe get rebellion ships later.

Or maybe I'll do rebels first. I don't know. Maybe I'll take an Empire or Rebels quiz and find out.

I would think about rebels first, some of their key ships can be picked up on Amazon very cheaply.

You can get an MC80 for around £23 vs an Imperial star destroyer £35, Neb bs are going for around £11 vs £18 for a gladiator. Also those x wings you got in the core set are a nasty bunch of fighter bombers if linked with a rouges and villains pack, the ties not so much.

So pick up a Neb b, CR90, MC80 and RV pack. This should set you back a little over £60. You now have five ships to build up a number of different fleet types and a core of xwings supported by Jan ores, and a heavy bomber with some other cool fighter options.

Depends on what you want to do. I try and maintain a balance of both so I can play someone who has few on no ships of the own

Depends on what you want to do. I try and maintain a balance of both so I can play someone who has few on no ships of the own

Yeah, I said I would only do rebels and now I own an imp squadron pack, 2 ISDs, 2 Vics, a Glad, and a Raider.

I would play some core set games and find out what you like. For me, the actually maneuvering and dancing around stuff was the most fun for me, so I went Rebels. Others really enjoy the squadron play/massive firepower of the Imperials. It's all about what you think you'll like.

Yeah, I still need to get an Imperium or two for my imperial side of the house. I think a big part of this game for me is finding room in my budget for the ships I want. I went ahead and got the Felhder transporter with the boxes to carry everything, and while I love playing the game, I still enjoy just being able to take my collection somewhere and put it on a table. My rambling point is that as you get into it, you have a lot of fun building your collection as well as playing

The thing is eventually you are going to want to get at least one of every model to get all the upgrade cards for tactical and strategic planning. I play Imperial and I buy nebulon b so I can get the x17 turbolaser which helps all Imp big ships to hit hard.

I've set myself a monthly budget, and stick to it. At the start, I bought ships with a plan of 1 each, but lately I'm looking at different fleet archetypes, and seeing what I need to fly it.