Hey after falling totally in love with Imperial Assault, and playing it multiple times a week for some time, I'm getting really interested in X-Wing. But it feels a lot more overwhelming to get into, since I'm gonna have to buy figures for 2 factions and keep it balanced. I know it's a big question to ask where should I start. So I'm gonna try narrow down my needs, to make it easier for recommendations.

Im gonna play this primarily with my girlfriend, and sometimes my friends.

I have to buy 2 factions since nobody else I know owns it.

I'm thinking about buying Scums and Rebels, since apparently the imperials are weak in comparison.

i would like to have maybe One bigger ship and some small fighters for both factions, in a way so the matches will be balanced.

thanks in advanced!

41 minutes ago, DKNecrosis said:

I'm thinking about buying Scums and Rebels, since apparently the imperials are weak in comparison.

Not necessarily. Really, really don't die in a ditch over people's balance rants when you're just starting up. Things are nothing like that, especially if you're pointedly controlling what both sides have to draw from.

If you're intending to play casual games and essentially start from scratch, Rebels and Imperials match one another nicely. It's once you start layering 'fixes' on expansions on further fixes and expansions that it gets a bit out of whack.

Plus, Scum is powerful, but a lot of their power resides in their large based ships and crew (because the 'power characters' for scum are largely the bounty hunters in pirate ships and transports, not the aces in fighters).

To be honest, just start with a core set, play the missions in there and expand from there. The core set missions are specifically designed to be balanced and to be played with the ships they provide you but also have a 100 point squad 'expanded version'.

I'd recommend the Force Awakens core set:

• It's the more recent one, so you don't have to worry that you may trip over any (minor) tweaks in the rules between core set 1 and 2. You can like imperial assault) download a live version of the latest rules, but printed stuff is nice.
• It has slightly more interesting basic ships (T-70 X-wing and TIE/fo fighter compared to X-wing and TIE fighter)
• The missions are better balanced; "Rescue" is essentially "Political Escort" tweaked a bit - the Squadmate gets the ability to shoot back and gets a free focus token every turn, in return for slightly fewer shields, the enemy have to start in one corner rather than spread out along the board edge you have to get off, and can't bring reinforcements on from the 'escape' edge.

Given the Force Awakens core set, you have the start of a nice Resistance & First Order squad.

• Adding the Heroes of the Resistance and T-70 expansion gives you a Falcon, 3 X-wings, the 'proper' Black One version of Poe Dameron (there's a cheaper, lower Pilot Skill version in the core set), a good mix of astromech and tech cards, and sufficient Integrated Astromechs to field a 3-ship T-70 squad (which can and does win events)
• Adding a TIE/fo expansion gives you all the cards you need to field Omega Leader, one of the best cheap small ships in the entire game. An Upsilon Shuttle gives you a nice heavyweight beating-stick that can scare even the falcon and hand out tokens-a-go-go to a swarm, and includes a few more tech cards, including some good ones usable with other ships (Targeting Synchroniser in this plus Epsilon Ace in the TIE/fo expansion is a 20 point support ship worth at least half again his value in the right squad). A Special Forces TIE is a nice third expansion (since the Upsilon doesn't have an extra fighter in it like the Heroes of the resistance does) - with two really good named pilots.
• A good 'bought for expansions' extra ship after this is the TIE Aggressor. Intensity is a really good card for Poe Dameron with BB-8 and Primed Thrusters, whilst Lightweight Frame suits the Special Forces TIE down to the ground, but at this point just go with whatever grabs you.

Getting Force Awakens Core, TIE/fo, TIE/sf, Upsilon, T-70 X-wing and Heroes of the Resistance gives both sides some decent building blocks for 100 point squads (3 T-70s or T-70 ace plus falcon for the resistance, and a small TIE swarm or TIE aces plus shuttle for the First Order), plus an extra mission (in the Heroes box).

Plus, at least to begin with, it looks nicer, with everything matching era-wise.

Hei!

If you want to play casual, I would definitely advise you to fly the nice, recognizable stuff! Get yourself a 2 red cores (2*x-wing + 4*TIE, and enough dice), the aces packs (so you get two TIE interceptors for the empire, and an A wing and a B wing), and maybe a Falcon and a Slave One.

Scums are nice and powerful to play, but at best seen in the background in the movies...

Just my take on it!

1 minute ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I'd recommend the Force Awakens core set:

Ha, ninja with the exact opposite advice ^^

Original Trilogy vs New Trilogy

3 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Not necessarily. Really, really don't die in a ditch over people's balance rants when you're just starting up. Things are nothing like that, especially if you're pointedly controlling what both sides have to draw from.

If you're intending to play casual games and essentially start from scratch, Rebels and Imperials match one another nicely. It's once you start layering 'fixes' on expansions on further fixes and expansions that it gets a bit out of whack.

Plus, Scum is powerful, but a lot of their power resides in their large based ships and crew (because the 'power characters' for scum are largely the bounty hunters in pirate ships and transports, not the aces in fighters).

To be honest, just start with a core set, play the missions in there and expand from there. The core set missions are specifically designed to be balanced and to be played with the ships they provide you but also have a 100 point squad 'expanded version'.

I'd recommend the Force Awakens core set:

• It's the more recent one, so you don't have to worry that you may trip over any (minor) tweaks in the rules between core set 1 and 2. You can like imperial assault) download a live version of the latest rules, but printed stuff is nice.
• It has slightly more interesting basic ships (T-70 X-wing and TIE/fo fighter compared to X-wing and TIE fighter)
• The missions are better balanced; "Rescue" is essentially "Political Escort" tweaked a bit - the Squadmate gets the ability to shoot back and gets a free focus token every turn, in return for slightly fewer shields, the enemy have to start in one corner rather than spread out along the board edge you have to get off, and can't bring reinforcements on from the 'escape' edge.

Given the Force Awakens core set, you have the start of a nice Resistance & First Order squad.

• Adding the Heroes of the Resistance and T-70 expansion gives you a Falcon, 3 X-wings, the 'proper' Black One version of Poe Dameron (there's a cheaper, lower Pilot Skill version in the core set), a good mix of astromech and tech cards, and sufficient Integrated Astromechs to field a 3-ship T-70 squad (which can and does win events)
• Adding a TIE/fo expansion gives you all the cards you need to field Omega Leader, one of the best cheap small ships in the entire game. An Upsilon Shuttle gives you a nice heavyweight beating-stick that can scare even the falcon and hand out tokens-a-go-go to a swarm, and includes a few more tech cards, including some good ones usable with other ships (Targeting Synchroniser in this plus Epsilon Ace in the TIE/fo expansion is a 20 point support ship worth at least half again his value in the right squad). A Special Forces TIE is a nice third expansion (since the Upsilon doesn't have an extra fighter in it like the Heroes of the resistance does) - with two really good named pilots.
• A good 'bought for expansions' extra ship after this is the TIE Aggressor. Intensity is a really good card for Poe Dameron with BB-8 and Primed Thrusters, whilst Lightweight Frame suits the Special Forces TIE down to the ground, but at this point just go with whatever grabs you.

Getting Force Awakens Core, TIE/fo, TIE/sf, Upsilon, T-70 X-wing and Heroes of the Resistance gives both sides some decent building blocks for 100 point squads (3 T-70s or T-70 ace plus falcon for the resistance, and a small TIE swarm or TIE aces plus shuttle for the First Order), plus an extra mission (in the Heroes box).

Plus, at least to begin with, it looks nicer, with everything matching era-wise.

Thank you, very good information! Sounds like a good path to start the game.

3 minutes ago, NilsTillander said:

Hei!

If you want to play casual, I would definitely advise you to fly the nice, recognizable stuff! Get yourself a 2 red cores (2*x-wing + 4*TIE, and enough dice), the aces packs (so you get two TIE interceptors for the empire, and an A wing and a B wing), and maybe a Falcon and a Slave One.

Scums are nice and powerful to play, but at best seen in the background in the movies...

Just my take on it!

When I said casual, I meant my focus is going to play with my friends, and not in tournaments, so fun factor have to be as big as win factor. But we are all hardcore Star Wars fans, and know most of the EU ships in the game ?

Agree with the Force Awakens suggestion. The ships are all good, relatively self-contained and you can balance the Resistance/First Order factions pretty easily.

• Force Awakens Core Set (T-70, 2 x TIE/fo's)
• Heroes of the Resistance (Falcon, Poe's T-70)
• Upsilon Shuttle Expansion
• TIE/sfs Expansion
• TIE/fo Expansion
• T-70 Expansion

Maybe start with the Core Set, Heroes, a TIE/sfs and a TIE/fo.

I'd suggest that these ships would also be a bit more fun to play with in a casual format than those in the orignal core, thanks to a few extra movement options, actions and abilities, as well as the inclusion of the Tech upgrades.

19 minutes ago, DKNecrosis said:

When I said casual, I meant my focus is going to play with my friends, and not in tournaments, so fun factor have to be as big as win factor. But we are all hardcore Star Wars fans, and know most of the EU ships in the game ?

If you're coming from the background of Imperial Assault, then definitely have a try at the missions.

You get 3 missions (F1-F3) in the core set, and a fourth (Final Mission) in the Heroes expansion, but frankly, you can (with a bit of creativity for tokens) play any mission published from the stuff you'll have.

The full roster of missions is available here

22 minutes ago, NilsTillander said:

Ha, ninja with the exact opposite advice ^^

Original Trilogy vs New Trilogy

My main reasons for recommending the second core is that the two 'iconic' ships are a bit better balanced against each other; in wave 1, you essentially had the option of TIE swarm or X-wings, and the sheer dice efficiency of the TIE fighter burned down rebel squads again and again.

FFG learned from this fairly well, and the T-70 and TIE/fo both include some of one another's characteristics; the T-70 has boost for action-reposition, and the TIE/fo has shields (well.... a shield), and both have three different 'end-around' moves (segnors and talon rolls), not just the single straight-line koiogran turn. That makes them, in my experience, more fun to fly and avoids the game turning into dice-fest head-on jousts.

Plus, both of them have a tech slot, which is good future-proofing, because any future must-have tech upgrade for competitive play (watch this space with the inevitable The Last Jedi releases) is useable on them.

TIE Interceptors, A wings and so on are good, but as early wave releases, they've been 'kept up to date' with upgrades, patches and fixes released in many subsequent expansions, and getting all of them either requires buying separate cards (at some sort of premium), proxying, or forking out rather a lot of cash.

Taking the TIE interceptor, whilst people say "it's not tournament competitive", frankly it is. It may not match the latest and greatest metagame net-list, but it's not so far behind the curve that the problem you'd face at a major tournament isn't "my squad sucks" as "I've just started playing X-wing and I'm making mistakes and my opponent isn't!". However, the archetypical TIE interceptor is:

Soontir Fel (TIE interceptor Expansion) with:

• Royal Guard TIE (Imperial Aces Expansion)
• Push The Limit (Imperial Aces Expansion)
• Stealth Device (M-3A Scyk Expansion)
• Autothrusters (Starviper Expansion)

That's 4 boxes - one a 'big box' to field an original trilogy ship at 'full spec'.

By comparison, the Force Awakens ships work either 'out the box' or with only one or two additions - some 'industry standard' builds are:

Omega Leader (TIE/fo expansion)

• Juke (TIE/fo expansion)
• Comms Relay (TIE/fo expansion)

Zeta Leader (TIE/fo expansion)

• Wired (Force Awakens Core Set)
• Weapons Guidance (Force Awakens Core Set)

Poe Dameron (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion)

• Black One (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion)
• Intensity (TIE Aggressor Expansion)
• BB-8 (Force Awakens Core Set)
• Primed Thrusters (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion)
• Integrated Astromech (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion)

Thank you @Magnus Grendel for all the information. You make a very good case for me to good with Resistance/FO first. That is probably the way I will go. So if I go out and buy the core pack + Heroes of the resistance + 2 extra F/O TIE that will be a balanced match ?

Core plus heroes is a good setup for Resistance.

One TIE/fo, certainly. A second.....is probably less important. 3 TIE/fo (2 core + 1 expansion) are useful but more than that is probably only really needed if you've a hankering to fly a swarm*.

The TIE/sf is a rather heavier animal, and 3 TIE/fo and a special forces ship can definitely make a full 100 point squad, whilst making up a 100 point squad with four TIE/fo is possible (I've used TIE/fo All-Stars and won games with them) but not easy, and you'd ideally want at least some cards you're missing. It's also a small 'clam-shell' expansion rather than the Upsilon if you don't want to shell out for that yet.

3 TIE/fo plus an Upsilon can definitely be hammered into a good squad, but may be more than you're planning to spend to start with. Plus it comes with (more) copies of Snap Shot and Operations specialist, which is a nasty pairing for a mob of TIE/fo fighters, and General Hux, which is a really good support card for a swarm**.

P.S. Have just realised the Upsilon expansion pack has no mission in it. Mildly irked.

* If you do, then 4 Epsilon Squadron Pilots, Epsilon Ace (Comm Relay) and Epsilon Leader (Primed Thrusters) are a nice simple squad to use. Targeting Synchroniser for Epsilon Ace is probably better, but that comes in the Upsilon Shuttle.

** Major Stridan (Operations Specialist), Omega Squadron Pilot (Snap Shot) x 2, Omega Leader (Comms Relay, Juke) is a pretty nice squad. The two generic pilots can block and get in the way, and the free shots will either do damage or generate free focus tokens via the Operations Specialist that Stridan's 'big gun' and Omega Leader can make use of.

@Magnus Grendel I really like the idea of starting with TFA stuff only. Keeps a pretty good feel and the ships are more balanced to each other.

Assuming @DKNecrosis starts with TFA Core, Heroes, Upsilon and Tie/FO ( gues this would make the most sense because he wanted to have a big ship in every squad) how would you build the Resistance?

Major Stridan + 3 Tie/FO looks really solid but the Resistance looks a little bit tougher to build.

I tried myself and it felt that i wasted a few points. The best i have come up with is a two ship list.

Solid advice here. Pick the era you want to focus on and follow that path. The phone apps are great for learning what is in each expansion and what they do. VASSAL is an online program that simulates the game, note that all the game text is blanked out so you will need to know what the cards are to use it effectively. The X-Wing VASSAL community is large and it lets you test ships/builds/scenarios that may impact your buying decisions (or help you spend more than you intended :P). Just search the forums, there are lots of guides, etc that help you learn before you jump.

Enjoy!

Really, Poe wants Push The Limit, R5-P9 or Intensity, but - as you noted - he has none of these available.

However, getting that focus is **** near critical. My suggestions:

• Rey - Millenium Falcon, Wired, Finn, Hotshot Copilot, Smuggling Compartments, Burnout SLAM

Rey's ability deals with blank results, but - if she's stressed - it doesn't affect focus results. Wired is a cheap way to cover that particular gap.

• Poe Dameron (PS9) - Black One, Cool Hand, Proton Torpedoes, BB-8, Pattern Analyser, Integrated Astromech

Pattern Analyser lets you pull a red move and then still get your action. For that matter, once, you can pull a red move, get your action with Pattern Analyser, then 'cash in' cool hand for a focus or evade - this means Poe can come out of a Talon Roll with two actions worth of tokens instead of just one - perfect for getting a Proton Torpedo off with two focus-to-hit modifiers in his back pocket - or to boost to shake off Omega Leader's target lock and, now he can modify his attack dice again, still have a focus to actually modify them with .

I like the first reply post a lot...

Skip the scum if you are flying casually against just family or friends. They can be fun, but they are clunky to get into if you're buying two factions to support your player base. Especially since the core sets already set you up with two factions. Scum builds are also frequently dependent on cards found here and there throughout the waves and are better suited for total plastic crack addicts.

Start with the episode 7 materials, throw in other stuff to taste. I'd be a little more willing to mix original trilogy/EU stuff with the new but that is just me. I think you'll really like the aggressor for your SF or for Poe.

@heychadwick has an amazing podcast that covers playing for fun. He can give some amazing insights.

10 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

Agree with the Force Awakens suggestion. The ships are all good, relatively self-contained and you can balance the Resistance/First Order factions pretty easily.

• Force Awakens Core Set (T-70, 2 x TIE/fo's)
• Heroes of the Resistance (Falcon, Poe's T-70)
• Upsilon Shuttle Expansion
• TIE/sfs Expansion
• TIE/fo Expansion
• T-70 Expansion

Maybe start with the Core Set, Heroes, a TIE/sfs and a TIE/fo.

I'd suggest that these ships would also be a bit more fun to play with in a casual format than those in the orignal core, thanks to a few extra movement options, actions and abilities, as well as the inclusion of the Tech upgrades.

I would agree with the above. Some of the earlier ships lack simply because they were first, and the newer ships have lots of fun abilities. This would not have been my first thought, but I like it. I also assume you want in because "Star Wars," so this will get the table looking like the movie(s). And with Ep 8 coming out soon, FFG will likely drop some new fun in your lap in the next few months that already fits with your game era.

And, lastly, take these board with a mountain of salt. Most of the angst results from "competitive play" and should in no way impact your fun at the dining room table.

No, wait. Lastly, lastly, play Epic. Start with 100 points to learn the game, but once you're comfy, move up to 200 or 300 points. It's XWM on 'roids and the best way to play the game IMHO.

Maybe someone already mentioned this, but it is a good idea to buy the expansions for the ships, not the cards. The various squadbuilder sites let you print out lists with rules and everything, making most cards redundant. For example, if you want to give Poe Dameron the Push the Limit upgrade, you don't need the card. Just go to a site where you can build squads and equip Poe with Push the Limit. The various bombs need cardboard tokens, so those are more difficult to proxy, but otherwise you can avoid buying expansions just for upgrade cards.

I really appreciate all the awesome replies! You all have been helpful, and come with some good tips and insight.

I don't mind mixing eras, I think it's easier to look past when it's the ships and not characters you see. Honestly TFA era is the least appealing to me, but I will start there because it seems to make most sense, in terms of balance and fun factor, and the ships keep they old aesthetics, I don't care for the Epsilon shuttles design, but again I'll buy it to balance it out.

I can't wait to get started, and even though I primarily buy this to have fun with my friends, I would also like to participate in tournaments, but I'll worry about that later on. It seems like there's enough ships to have fun, and fill a table with awesome ships. When I get a better understanding of the game I'll take it from there with how to proceed.

11 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Not necessarily. Really, really don't die in a ditch over people's balance rants when you're just starting up. Things are nothing like that, especially if you're pointedly controlling what both sides have to draw from.

If you're intending to play casual games and essentially start from scratch, Rebels and Imperials match one another nicely. It's once you start layering 'fixes' on expansions on further fixes and expansions that it gets a bit out of whack.

Plus, Scum is powerful, but a lot of their power resides in their large based ships and crew (because the 'power characters' for scum are largely the bounty hunters in pirate ships and transports, not the aces in fighters).

To be honest, just start with a core set, play the missions in there and expand from there. The core set missions are specifically designed to be balanced and to be played with the ships they provide you but also have a 100 point squad 'expanded version'.

I'd recommend the Force Awakens core set:

• It's the more recent one, so you don't have to worry that you may trip over any (minor) tweaks in the rules between core set 1 and 2. You can like imperial assault) download a live version of the latest rules, but printed stuff is nice.
• It has slightly more interesting basic ships (T-70 X-wing and TIE/fo fighter compared to X-wing and TIE fighter)
• The missions are better balanced; "Rescue" is essentially "Political Escort" tweaked a bit - the Squadmate gets the ability to shoot back and gets a free focus token every turn, in return for slightly fewer shields, the enemy have to start in one corner rather than spread out along the board edge you have to get off, and can't bring reinforcements on from the 'escape' edge.

Given the Force Awakens core set, you have the start of a nice Resistance & First Order squad.

• Adding the Heroes of the Resistance and T-70 expansion gives you a Falcon, 3 X-wings, the 'proper' Black One version of Poe Dameron (there's a cheaper, lower Pilot Skill version in the core set), a good mix of astromech and tech cards, and sufficient Integrated Astromechs to field a 3-ship T-70 squad (which can and does win events)
• Adding a TIE/fo expansion gives you all the cards you need to field Omega Leader, one of the best cheap small ships in the entire game. An Upsilon Shuttle gives you a nice heavyweight beating-stick that can scare even the falcon and hand out tokens-a-go-go to a swarm, and includes a few more tech cards, including some good ones usable with other ships (Targeting Synchroniser in this plus Epsilon Ace in the TIE/fo expansion is a 20 point support ship worth at least half again his value in the right squad). A Special Forces TIE is a nice third expansion (since the Upsilon doesn't have an extra fighter in it like the Heroes of the resistance does) - with two really good named pilots.
• A good 'bought for expansions' extra ship after this is the TIE Aggressor. Intensity is a really good card for Poe Dameron with BB-8 and Primed Thrusters, whilst Lightweight Frame suits the Special Forces TIE down to the ground, but at this point just go with whatever grabs you.

Getting Force Awakens Core, TIE/fo, TIE/sf, Upsilon, T-70 X-wing and Heroes of the Resistance gives both sides some decent building blocks for 100 point squads (3 T-70s or T-70 ace plus falcon for the resistance, and a small TIE swarm or TIE aces plus shuttle for the First Order), plus an extra mission (in the Heroes box).

Plus, at least to begin with, it looks nicer, with everything matching era-wise.

This is a cool way to start, especially if you will be curating the experience, rather than jumping into tournament style play.

If you love Imperial Assault, check out the fan made Heroes of the Aturi Cluster campaign.

59 minutes ago, DKNecrosis said:

I don't mind mixing eras, I think it's easier to look past when it's the ships and not characters you see. Honestly TFA era is the least appealing to me , but I will start there because it seems to make most sense, in terms of balance and fun factor, and the ships keep they old aesthetics, I don't care for the Epsilon shuttles design, but again I'll buy it to balance it out.

I can't wait to get started, and even though I primarily buy this to have fun with my friends, I would also like to participate in tournaments , but I'll worry about that later on. It seems like there's enough ships to have fun, and fill a table with awesome ships. When I get a better understanding of the game I'll take it from there with how to proceed.

If you plan to get tournamenty at some point, backwards buying (Wave 11 back to Wave 1) is going to be best anyways. The later ships are going to fair better against strangers at the FLGS when you get to that point. OTOH, this may change if FFG gets on with "fixes."

Great advice from Magnus there, theose ships will serve you well and allow a bit of variety

If you weren't keen on the TFA stuff, you could go this way;

Original starter (gets you Luke Skywalker, R2D2)

X-Wing expansion

Millenium Falcon

Tie Fighter expansion

Imperial Veterans

Decimator or Firespray

Not as flexible as Magnus' list, but might be more thematic for you.

RoV

5 hours ago, Rat of Vengence said:

Great advice from Magnus there, theose ships will serve you well and allow a bit of variety

If you weren't keen on the TFA stuff, you could go this way;

Original starter (gets you Luke Skywalker, R2D2)

X-Wing expansion

Millenium Falcon

Tie Fighter expansion

Imperial Veterans

Decimator or Firespray

Not as flexible as Magnus' list, but might be more thematic for you.

RoV

Based on the feedback from everyone else, I'll go with TFA. But I for sure get a firespray and decimator at some point

41 minutes ago, DKNecrosis said:

Based on the feedback from everyone else, I'll go with TFA. But I for sure get a firespray and decimator at some point

All good, the other advice was spot on

So many good options!

RoV

As a casual player myself, I have to say the advice here is really good.

The missions are a good way to get into the game as well, and are loads of fun. I just wish I got to play more often, I only get a game when my dad or brother comes to visit (which isn't often enough).

I will say this though, even as a casual player that doesn't play as often as I would like, once this game gets its hooks in you, you will probably end up buying more ships than you intended!

2 hours ago, DKNecrosis said:

Based on the feedback from everyone else, I'll go with TFA. But I for sure get a firespray and decimator at some point

Firesprays are rather easily got as used on ebay, FB, swap-groups etc.

That's btw a way as well, people with small to medium collections getting out of the game and selling off. Do not spend too much, though, some sellers have fantasy prices, always compare prices. Sometimes the cards which go high in the competitive scene might have been sold already independently and thus are missing, but if you plan strictly casual it is not a problem. Official events you have to have the original cardboard.

My 2 cents. I fly 95% Casual only. IMHO you need 2 sets of dices and templates. So two core sets. Red Set 1977 Star Wars. Blue Set 2015 Star Wars. Your choice.

2 Core sets and under 70 euros you wi own 2 Xs and 4 Ties. By far the best starting point in my opinion.

Also buy one cheap 3x3 game mat. Perhaps 12-15 euros. And if you can afford it add one Tie Interceptor plus one A Wing. 110 euros and plenty of diversion