I'm looking into starting Armada with a friend and I'm curious what people would suggest for a starting Rebel and Imperial Lists. Obviously we would be getting a core set each, but beyond that I'm not sure. We're not looking into dropping a ton of money up front ($100-$150) but would want more than the core set ships. Ideally I'd like ships that would fit this, yet still be useful if we decided to buy more ships and expand our lists to be more competitive in the future, possibly even tournaments at some point if we decided to. I greatly appreciate everyone's input.

Imperial player: Make Imperial Star Destroyer your priority. Most powerful ship in the game and good for new players, cause it has really good survivability. Lots of fun using the front arc to make bad things disappear. ;-)

Rebel player: Not really in as good a position as others to recommend something in particular, as I haven't played rebels much. Although I am trying to come up with a fun broadside firing fleet to mess about with, so I'll probably be using an MC80 Assault Cruiser (Home One). That'll probably be a fun ship for you to start out with. Especially if one of you has the ISD. :-) Big ships are fun and look awesome on the table. ;-)

As Imperial i would say an ISD,Gladiator and Gozanti with the Imp. Squadrons 2 pack

I am new myself but I guess Home One Expansion, Assault Frigate Expansion, Rebel Transport Expansion and a Squadron pack for Rebels would be a good choice.

Imperial Star Destroyer for Empire

Liberty for Rebels

At least one Squadron Pack for your faction of choice.

I'm sure that's easily 400 pts a side

The big ships are good because they get you up to points for less purchases, easy to play, do damage and are survivable in game.

A great tip for me when I was deciding what to buy was to go to Fabs fleet generator and type in what I currently owned with some different permutations of what I would like to buy or could afford.

This allows you to build fleets with only those cards and ships, and can give you an awesome feel for the options you are giving yourself with each new ship. You might find something that surprises you!

John and I wrote up some recommendations on getting good learner Imperial and Rebel fleets set up on the cheap over at Cannot Get Your Ship Out. They're not going to win any tournaments, but they're a decent starting point for playing full sized games.