I have the core set since last year. I originally bought it for campaign play but I have lately become interested in joining the local skirmish population. Is it possible to make competitive skirmish lists from the core set plus something like 3-5 expansions? What would those expansions be? I would be perfectly willing to rely on the more established players to provide maps for the time being.

It defintely depends on what you want to play but if you want to be competitive for cheap defintely start with Jabba's Realm. That give some you good base units in eJets, ePigs and eQuays. Then I'd flavor it however you want. Maybe Alliance Rangers and Jedi Luke for Rebels. Terro and BT for Imperials. Jabba and a Jawa for Mercs.

Any specific faction/archetype you want to play? Any figure you really want to have in the list?

Jabba's Realm and the entire wave 8 are gamechanging and absolutely meta-defining, at the moment there is no list without a figure from that wave (apart from me cause that expansion and wave hasn't been released in italy yet -.-)
Definitely start from there, then you could go back to wave 1 and purchase them by date of release, since there are many important command cards and figures there aswell

I recently replied to a similar post on Reddit so I'll be lazy and copy paste that here if you don't mind:

Yea I agree,

There are things you can do to limit the cost though. I would definitely advise getting a set of maps printed first, rather than going out and buying everything. NickV (New Orders Podcast) and Stephan (Boardwars.eu Podcast) have taken over the great work started by Ibsh and are hosting the maps at:

http://boardwars.eu/ia-maps/

Once you've got those maps there are a couple of skirmish lists you can make from the core set but I'd probably advise a couple of the Rebel generic packs to give you some options

When you've played a few games and realised how good skirmish is you'll probably end up buying either the expansions or the mats anyway (the mats are really nice) however by that point your soul will belong to FFG and you'll be happy to just give them your bank details

If you've got the core set atm, depending on what you want to play I'd buy for $75 to get you a solid start: (Prices taken from amazon as I'm in the UK, seemed simplest)

Scum or Imperial ($75): Jabba's Realm would be an amazing buy, more so for Scum but for Imperial those Jet Troopers are solid and Jabba's Realm is an amazing box set. pretty much every card in there is viable at a top competitive level. My regionals winning list was pretty much just stuff from Jabba's Realm.

Rebels ($72): I'd probably buy Alliance Rangers ($15) and Luke ($15), Hera and Chopper ($15) C3PO and R2D2 ($17) Obi Wan ($10)

What's the point on getting printed maps when you get map tiles from the expansions and you play them as long as you own that expansion's missions?
Shouldn't that be a later addon to avoid building maps? O.o

23 minutes ago, erlucius90 said:

What's the point on getting printed maps when you get map tiles from the expansions and you play them as long as you own that expansion's missions?
Shouldn't that be a later addon to avoid building maps? O.o

It would save you buying some of the boxes expansions until later if you chose to. But if you are planning on getting those tiles soon it should be be and issue. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe all three rotation maps could be built with the Core, Bespin and Jabba's Realm.

But I wouldn't worry about maps if you have a solid group that already brings maps/tiles.

Yeah, start with Jabba and some figure packs. Choose a faction for now and just buy what you need for that and you can build a solid list. Your easiest entry is with Scum since that box comes with so many goodies.

-ryanjamal

I'll give a shot and make a small list of what to choose to buy 1st off IA:
Wave:

1. Rebel Troopers, Rebel Saboteurs, IG-88 (reccomended only with Jawa scavengers)
2. R2-D2 & C-3PO (ABSOLUTELY)
3. Hired Guns
4. Alliance Smuggler, Bantha Rider
5. Leia Organa, Echo Base Troopers
6. Lando Calrissian, Bossk, Agent Blaise, ISB Infiltrators
7. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Greedo
8. EVERYTHING, INCLUDED JABBA'S REALM (ABSOLUTELY x3)
9. Jawa Scavenger (reccomended only with IG-88)

Guess where to start from? XD

The best skirmish character in the Core box is Gideon, so the most cost-effective faction would be Rebels.
Jedi Knight Luke, Alliance Rangers, C3PO/R2D2, and Hera/Chopper would be my recommendation.

1 hour ago, caseycheesecake said:

The best skirmish character in the Core box is Gideon, so the most cost-effective faction would be Rebels.
Jedi Knight Luke, Alliance Rangers, C3PO/R2D2, and Hera/Chopper would be my recommendation.

I'm not sure I get that thinking? Cost wise it's easier to run an imperial list surely?

Rebels stuff you've recommended is definitely good, I'm just not sure it's the most cost effective

47 minutes ago, RoyalRich said:

I'm not sure I get that thinking? Cost wise it's easier to run an imperial list surely?

Rebels stuff you've recommended is definitely good, I'm just not sure it's the most cost effective

He wants to buy 4 packs, with those packs, he'd have the most elite Rebel team you could field.
If he only bought 3: JKL, Rangers, C3PO/R2D2, he'd be super good too.
If he only bought 2: JKL, Rangers, he be pretty decent.

The core doesn't give much of anything of value to a decent Imperial list.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will probably go down the Rebel path to begin with. Jedi-Luke, C3P0, R2D2, etc, seem like a thematic and interesting group to start off with in conjunction with the best Rebel stuff from the core set.

1 hour ago, Sixter said:

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will probably go down the Rebel path to begin with. Jedi-Luke, C3P0, R2D2, etc, seem like a thematic and interesting group to start off with in conjunction with the best Rebel stuff from the core set.

If you could sneak in a 3rd expansion, get Hera and Chopper too

~D

I'll throw my two cents in with Hera and Chopper as well for a third. After that either Obiwan or Alliance Rangers to round out the list.

I hope I wont sound like an idiot, but was there really reason to nerf the Royal Guards and the Officers from the core set, considering that there would be new waves coming out with some power creep along the way? Im looking at my core box and most of the units are Imperial, but yet the factions that are easiest to jump into are Scum and Rebel! Im just curious, how overpowered would the 4x4 build from the 1st wave be in the current environment?

There are things in those original cards that I think could still be overpowered. Sabs blasting for 4, IO's getting full movements for other figures.

I think Royal Guards would be fine now though.

Yea, they really hit the royal guards hard, as they needed to in the early days. If you have played them nowadays you know how absolutely swingey a RY attack roll with no rerolls can be. They are still usable, but very niche. The officers needed the change TBH.

If they were to change the sabs again, I would take away overload and give them 2 surges for pierce 2 and one surge for blast 2.

rRoyal Guards atm are almost useless, most of their attacks will deal no damage against 1 black defense die, so you can only go after figures launching 1 white otherwise you just use them to grant +1 block only, which is kinda wasting 8 points. eRoyal Guards could look much more interesting now, if they only costed less than 12...

Seems like it might be easier to get new players into skirmish if there were more viable units from the core set.

1 hour ago, Sixter said:

Seems like it might be easier to get new players into skirmish if there were more viable units from the core set.

It depends on how many (and which) expansions/wave you possess. Atm, Jabba's Realm + Wave 8 outbalance everything else, i really donno what FFG were thinking while realizing them O.o
Hopefully Heart of the Empire will bring some fixes to this issue, that expansion will never be released fast enough