I'm sure (many) versions of this question have been asked, so I'm sorry in advance!

Here's the lowdown:

I have both core sets and both aces expansions. I've spent the last week or so practicing the mechanics, phases, etc., and I'm going to start playing with a group next week. My question is this:

With the ships and cards I have, where should I start as far as a squad goes? I haven't decided which side I want to focus on yet, but I'm willing to pick up another expansion or two in the short term.

Even broad suggestions would be helpful!

Thanks,

Lake

You will have lots of options with what you have.

It really depends on what type of list you want to play?

Generally list will fall into 1 of 3 categories.

Swarms

Lots of cheap ships, Usually with 1 buffing ship to help the others.

Relies on overwhelming the opponent with lots of low dice attacks.

See TIE Fighters & Z-95s

Aces

2 Or 3 High PS ships with lots of upgrades. Rely on High Agility and Attack to avoid being shot at and taking enemies down quickly.

See TIE Interceptors, TIE Phantoms & T-70 X-wings.

Fatties

Usually Large ships, probably only 2, Rely on Lots of Hit points and turrets to weather any fire and be able to retaliate every turn with 360 fire arcs.

See YT-1400, YT2400 & Decimator

Obviously there are other ways to build a list. And types of builds that combine multiple elements. But this should be a start.

Most important thing is the Rule of cool when you start. Which ships are your favourites.

I like Interceptors, so I tend to run Aces lists. and unless you are playing someone who is a top level player, pretty much any list will do reasonably well.

Hi

As someone who is reasonably new to the game myself (I've played about 10 games so far), I've found that while you are still finding your way into the game its probably best to keep things simple and to start out with a fairly generic list.

I tend to play a 4 ship rebel build with 2 TLT y-wings, a cheapish blocker (normally an a-wing) and some variety of x-wing/b-wing.

I find that the 4 ship list is a good compromise between the swam (having so many ships that all your concentration is on not bumping yourself rather than playing the game) and the aces which can have a lot of action economy and synergies to consider and can be unforgiving if you make the wrong move.

Overall, its a pretty steep learning curve but the more you play the quicker you'll get the hang of it. And try not to get too disheartened when you lose, which you will quite a lot at the star.

Also keep in mind that most gaming groups are happy for you to use printed versions of cards you dont have. This is great because it lets you try different things without having to money into something that you might never use again, and also because it would be a bit demoralising to feel that you can't compete because a player who has been playing longer than you has more varied and efficient options that you. Obviously, once you find something that you like, support FFG by going out and making the purchase.

Thanks for the replies, guys!

I played Poe/Keyan/Gemmer for my first game with a few borrowed cards my buddies had. We played 1v1v1, and I went up against 2x Interceptor/1x Phantom and 1x Falcon/1x YT-2400. Felt like a decent build. I managed to last quite a long time until the board opened up after the YT-2400 went down and the Imperials started moving more freely. Lots of hard maneuvering lessons were learned. Lots.

Anyway, I will check out the suggestions for my next session! Should be more traditional 1v1 100 point matches.

I would agree to keep it simple to start. Swarms actually are difficult to fly so try to stick to 3-4 ships for a few games and get used to them. Try not to have too many complicated combos of cards, maybe have 1 ship that is a bit more complicated with a few upgrades but no more than that for your first couple games. Just try to have fun and not worry about losing. If you can focus your ships on 1 target and try to take out 1 ship at a time you will get that great feeling when you take down a target.