Heya, I'm new to Xwing, but a veteran Armada player and am looking to get into Xwing peripherally. I'd like to build 2 lists. One alliance and one imperial. I will get what I need from Ebay or whoever I can trade with, but I'm looking for tournament competitive lists for each side with a minimal investment. Can you folks offer some good options for me?

3 hours ago, Woobyluv said:

Heya, I'm new to Xwing, but a veteran Armada player and am looking to get into Xwing peripherally. I'd like to build 2 lists. One alliance and one imperial. I will get what I need from Ebay or whoever I can trade with, but I'm looking for tournament competitive lists for each side with a minimal investment. Can you folks offer some good options for me?

It depends what you mean by 'tournament competetive' - a lot of people will tend to yarn in that 'only squad X' is competitive, or whatever, but you can do a fair bit with relatively simple squads and practice.

If you want to cut you costs, and stick more or less to a theme, I'd suggest going for a Resistance/First Order squad rather than Rebel and Imperial; the newer expansions are generally more self-contained (because the older ones tend to have 'fixes' in another pack).

• You need a core set. The Force Awakens core set gives you 2 x TIE/fo and 1 x T-70, plus dice and templates that you need generally.
• Heroes of the Resistance gives you a big ship (the falcon) with a really good pilot (Rey) a really good crew card (Finn) and a second T-70, with plenty of unique pilots (including a PS9 Poe Dameron), tech upgrades and 2 copies of the Integrated Astromech card that really helps X-wings perform to the level they should.
• The TIE/fo expansion has everything you need to field Omega Leader, who's a really, really good pilot (her pilot ability makes her a threat in a one-on-one fight to just about anyone that can't easily shake a target lock, despite her cost and raw stats)
• The TIE/SF is a good general-purpose ship, and one of the best things the First Order - and indeed the empire as a whole - has going at the moment.
• The one expansion that you might get just for cards; the TIE aggressor gives you intensity and lightweight frame.

That gives you something along the lines of:

• PS9 Poe Dameron with BB-8, Intensity, Black One title, Primed Thrusters, and Integrated Astromech
• Rey with Finn, Wired, Smuggling Compartments and Burnout SLAM

(Essentially a stupidly manoeuvrable ace who really doesn't give a darn about stress, and a big ship that has a 360' turret but hits like a freaking express freight train if you catch someone inside its arc)

and

• Omega Leader, Juke, Comms Relay
• Zeta Leader, Snap Shot
• A.N.Other TIE/fo to taste
• Quickdraw/Backdraft (they're both good!), Collision Detector, Pattern Analyser, Lightweight Frame

(Essentially a fairly tough 'ace' ship with a small 3-ship 'swarm' of medium-weight fighters in support)

If you're prepared to ebay individual cards, then a pair of TIE/sf with Lightweight frame and Omega Leader in support isn't a bad one to aim for, and you probably want to lay your mitts on a copy of Kanan Jarrus (crew) and Expertise to really kick Rey's performance up a notch.

I'm sure people will fill you in on the detail, but imperial are struggling at the competitive end at the moment. A quick and easy rebel build would be a k wing and scurrg (Miranda and Nym) - go on YouTube and search for nova final and see Paul Heaver build for cards)

Imps are having some success at local level it seems, but it'll be a steep learning curve of you're just starting out (not a bad thing). A decimater (using RAC) and high PS like quick draw would be another easy starter perhaps. But you'd still probably want cards from other ships (e.g. kylo crew is popular which comes from his shuttle).

Sorry - bit of a rushed message, I'm sure others will chip in. Hope you enjoy the x wing change ?

Hi,

I was thinking of trying xwing and I noted the comment about expansion packs fixing things. As I'm firmly an original trilogy era I'd prefer that core set over TFA core set.

Question is- what expansions are therefore essential to fix the game if an original core set is purchased?

Or can you buy a TFA core set and use expansions to pad the game as required?

This Rebel list is both very competitive and very cheap.

K-wing - Miranda - Twin Laser Turret, Extra Munitions, Connor Net, Ion Bombs, Advanced Slam (45)
X-wing - Biggs (25)
Auzituck Gunship - Lowhhrick - Selflessness, Wookie Commandoes (30)
Price: 75$
X-wing Core Set - 40$
K-wing expansion - 20$
Auzituck Gunship expansion - 15$


This Imperial list is competitive and very cheap. but there are more competitive lists, but they are a lot more expensive. Both moneywise and pointswise you do not get a better investment than the TIE/fo expansion and the defenders are still in many winning imperial lists.

TIE/fo - Omega Leader - Juke, Commrelay (26)
TIE Defender - Colonel Vessery - Predator, Ion Cannon, TIE/D (41)
TIE Defender - Countess Ryad - Crack Shot, TIE/x7 (33)
Price: 60$
Imperial Veterans expansion 30$
TIE Defender expansion- 15$
TIE/fo expansion - 15$

Alternatively you could build a more competitive imperial list like this, but you will need a lot of cards from different expansions

TIE/fo - Omega Leader - Juke, Commrelay (26)
TIE/sf - Quickdraw - Expertise, Fire-control System, Sensor Cluster, Special-Ops Traning, Lightweight Frame (39)
TIE Defender - Colonel Vessery - Juke, TIE/x7 (35)

Just to say there are some really good Imperial builds here. I would additionally throw my support behind TIE Strikers. They make excellent flankers and are much fun to play. Plus they're in Rogue One.

On 15/09/2017 at 8:54 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Zeta Leader, Snap Shot

That's an interesting combo. I usually take Wired on Zeta Leader but I assume that you can trigger his ability with Snap Shot as you're adding a die not modifying. Would you field with Epsilon Leader to help with stress?

On ‎17‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 7:53 AM, Sasajak said:

Just to say there are some really good Imperial builds here. I would additionally throw my support behind TIE Strikers. They make excellent flankers and are much fun to play. Plus they're in Rogue One.

That's an interesting combo. I usually take Wired on Zeta Leader but I assume that you can trigger his ability with Snap Shot as you're adding a die not modifying. Would you field with Epsilon Leader to help with stress?

Swings and roundabouts. Shrugging off a single stress token with a TIE/fo isn't exactly hard, and the point of TIE/fo aces is to keep them cheap.

Zeta Leader with Wired is nice, but best to me if you can spring for Weapons Guidance too; roll 3 attack dice, reroll a focus result (hopefully to a hit) and then spend the token to turn a blank to a hit as well - makes for a highly modified PS7 3-dice attack for the price of a cheap-ish X-wing.

Thanks everyone. This has given me a good starting point.

On ‎16‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 6:07 PM, ISD Avenger said:

Question is- what expansions are therefore essential to fix the game if an original core set is purchased?

Or can you buy a TFA core set and use expansions to pad the game as required?

Nothing is 'essential'. The rulebook was updated, but you can download the rulebook as a .pdf for free.

The original core set has basic TIE fighters and X-wings, which are broadly weaker ships. But:

• Biggs Darklighter is a really, really good ship, such that he's probably one of the six or seven most prevalent things to see on the other side of the board at tournaments
• R2-D2 is an amazing upgrade for any expensive ace with an astromech slot (Corran Horn, Poe Dameron, Norra Wexley)

However, again, 'original' X-wings that want to pull their weight will generally want one of either Integrated Astromech, Guidance Chips or Vectored Thrusters as a modification - all of which are in expansion packs (T-70 X-wing, The Inquisitor's TIE, and ARC-170 respectively).