My wife and I played pretty heavily until the Force Awakens new starter box came out. We bought that box and took a break from the game. We are coming back now and would like some advise.

We have almost every non epic size ship up to the Force Awakens starter box came out. What are the "must have" ships for all 3 factions since then that have come out? We don't want to go out and just buy every ship release since then but trying to get the ships/upgrade cards that are considered "must have" for current meta.

Appreciate any help!

Oh man, loads of ships.

Rebels - Heroes of the Resistance is amazing for adding t70 material and Rey is arguably the best Falcon pilot in the current world. The Auzituck (Lowrick) is the new Biggs. And I’m assuming you got other things from that era like the Ghost?

Scum - Guns 4 Hire fixes your khiraxz and starviper and is super fun. I love both of these ships now.

Imperial - Gunboat and Tie Silencer. Kylo is Soontir 2.0 and I just had an awesome weekend flying Kylo and two gunboats. Seriously, idea you ever liked the old ace style of play, look at Kylo. He’s expensive, but with that comes a phenomenal dial and the extra hits to survive in a bombing world.

This for kitchen table fun or organized play tournaments?

20 minutes ago, viedit said:

This for kitchen table fun or organized play tournaments?

Important question right there!

for the current meta, if playing rebels, the sheathepeede (especially Fenn Rau) is stupid and the auzituck is just all around great

but if you have any sort of aesthetic sensibilities, you'll buy an arc

the rebel meta seems to be basically Fenn Rau + stuff, either Fenn Rau + Ghost//Phantom or Fenn Rau + Lowhrick + something (generally Miranda, a K-wing). "Something" could also be Norra Wexly (ARC), which is strictly less effective than Miranda but is FAR more sexy

you could also just spam Auzitucks, as four Ps 1 wookies with wookie commandos (included in box) seems to be a thing.

2 hours ago, viedit said:

This for kitchen table fun or organized play tournaments?

Great question. Mostly for kitchen table fun with my family and friends although I have played in our FLGS tournaments and would like to do so again.

2 hours ago, ScummyRebel said:

Oh man, loads of ships.

Rebels - Heroes of the Resistance is amazing for adding t70 material and Rey is arguably the best Falcon pilot in the current world. The Auzituck (Lowrick) is the new Biggs. And I’m assuming you got other things from that era like the Ghost?

Scum - Guns 4 Hire fixes your khiraxz and starviper and is super fun. I love both of these ships now.

Imperial - Gunboat and Tie Silencer. Kylo is Soontir 2.0 and I just had an awesome weekend flying Kylo and two gunboats. Seriously, idea you ever liked the old ace style of play, look at Kylo. He’s expensive, but with that comes a phenomenal dial and the extra hits to survive in a bombing world.

Is the Imperial Gunboat the Vt-49 Decimator or something else? I appreciate the advice and will pick up the ships you are recommending. Having another Soontir Fel for the Imps sounds like a lot of fun.

1 hour ago, Bulwyf said:

Is the Imperial Gunboat the Vt-49 Decimator or something else? I appreciate the advice and will pick up the ships you are recommending. Having another Soontir Fel for the Imps sounds like a lot of fun.

No, it's a new ship, I really should get me a couple one day...

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/10/20/indiscriminate-devastation/

@ScummyRebel 's list is pretty solid. Heroes of the Resistance gives you some nice options for t-70s and the Falcon. Guns for Hire gives Starvipers a nice little boost and alteration to their barrel rolls that make them a ton of fun to fly. Ships I would add to the list by faction:

Rebels: The Arc (fun gunship), the Auzituck (not a big fan of spams of these guys, but Lowy helps low agi Rebel ships survive, and Wullfwarro is a fun heavy hitter) and the Phantom 2 (while Fenn Rau is the king of that ship, the other pilots in there are also nice for a cheap support ship, plus will give you Flight Assist Astromech, which your pervious ships with Astromech slots will thank you for).

Imperials: TIE/sf (a nice brawler that have become a solid back bone to current Imperial lists), TIE Striker (a surprisingly slippery ship with pretty good offense and an upgrade called Light-Weight Frame that the TIE/sf loves), and the Gunboat (a really cool ship that has quite a few options of how to kit it out from deadly ordnance carrier to cannon toting heavy hitter to even a mix of the two).

Scum: Protectorate Starfighter (referred to as Fang Fighters, these little Mandalorian beauties are the Scum answer to Fel who've got to rely more on offense than defense to survive), the Lancer-Class Persuit Craft (fast large base ship with a mobile arc that's tons of fun to fly), and the Quadjumper (while not a personal favorite of mine, this little guy has some interesting niche rolls that can be fun to try out).

Thank you guys for the advice! One question: did they ever make Tie Defenders worth having? I was so disappointed in how badly they played back in the old meta. They didn't have anything like the impact that the Tie Defender had in the awesome Tie Fighter computer game that I still play. Is it worth taking them now or are they still kinda weak?

12 minutes ago, Bulwyf said:

Thank you guys for the advice! One question: did they ever make Tie Defenders worth having? I was so disappointed in how badly they played back in the old meta. They didn't have anything like the impact that the Tie Defender had in the awesome Tie Fighter computer game that I still play. Is it worth taking them now or are they still kinda weak?

Yes. Imperial Veterans comes with titles for the Defender. TIE/x7 is the good one. -2 points, lose cannon and missile, after executing a speed 3+ manoeuvre if you didn't bump or overlap an obstacle, take a free evade action.

Defenders were one of the top ships for a few months - but people learned how they (particularly x7s) fly and they became predictable.

They're still very good, but no longer top tier.

5 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Yes. Imperial Aces comes with titles for the Defender. TIE/x7 is the good one. -2 points, lose cannon and missile, after executing a speed 3+ manoeuvre if you didn't bump or overlap an obstacle, take a free evade action.

Defenders were one of the top ships for a few months - but people learned how they (particularly x7s) fly and they became predictable.

They're still very good, but no longer top tier.

Imperial Veterans*

Normally I wouldn’t OCD, but I don’t want the OP to accidentally buy the wrong thing if he’s wanting some defender love.

They are good, but the tactics have to evolve. At Adepticon System Open, I saw more Tie/D than I did x7. The Tie/D is pretty good against certain lists when it has solid control measures with the stress and/or ion cannon.

Bleth true. Fixed.

For the Imperials, I would recommend the TIE/FO, TIE SF, TIE Striker, Upsilon Shuttle, Alpha-class Star Wing, TIE Silencer, and TIE Reaper when it comes out.

I'm with ficklegreendice on the ARC-170. It is just so pretty. Lots of health plus a rear facing firing arc.

Certainly recommend Heroes of the Resistance. Get the PS9 Poe and Black One title and M9-G8 astromech (who goes good in an ARC) and Rey and Finn crew and Rey Falcon Pilot. Integrated Astromech is nice too.

The Force Awakens Starter and Heroes of the Resistance are solid first purchases for new players.

Gotta say, though, I'm very disappointed in FFG for releasing the Sheathapeede as basically a better ARC

Apart from Norra, who is a regenerating tank with a big stick, anything the ARC does is basically done better by the Sheathapeede's support capabilities

Wish FFG would go back and make the ARC abilities less underwhelming

Are the named bounty hunter ships still good in current meta? I will always have a soft spot for Bobba Fett and Bossk. I have all of the named ones except I think the Misthunter.

1 minute ago, Bulwyf said:

Are the named bounty hunter ships still good in current meta? I will always have a soft spot for Bobba Fett and Bossk. I have all of the named ones except I think the Misthunter.

None of them are dreadful except the Mist Hunter, but none of them are especially good, either. Their Crew options are almost all way better, Dengar especially.

Bounty hunters were never particularly good, but S&V Boba certainly isn't bad

Zuckuss and Bossk I find are too clunky to bother with, unless you want to go maximum jank and turn Bossk into a 1-hit wonder

(Veteran instincts, Dengar crew, glittrrstim, cluster missiles, guidance chips)

Boba can also be built for jank with Cluster Missile, fearlessness, and glittrrstim with k4 security crew

Combination of glitterstim and rerolls make clusters kind of hilarious, but it's jank because it isn't easy to fire and has poor sustained effect (Boba is better off due to better defenses, compared to Bossk)

Dengar's probably the best if you want to fly the pilot. Title, Expertise, K4, or Title, Lone Wolf/Predator, Recon Specialist. Plus Glitterstim and Countermeasures on both, or maybe Engine upgrade on the former.

Bossk is solid, plays nicely with Ketsu.

Boba is on the edge of good. He's got an excellent ability, but his dial just flat out sucks, and he's a touch on the expensive side.

The Mist Hunter in general is overpriced as a platform.

IGGies are still fine. Control bots in the ascendancy at the moment but Glittercrack will come back as soon as low HP high defence aces start to dominate again.

From wave 8 and beyond here are the top three expansions of each faction in my opinion:

REBELS:

- Heroes of the Resistance

- Ghost

- Auzituck

SCUM:

- Shadow Caster

- Scurrg

- Guns For Hire

IMPERIAL:

- Alpha-Class StarWing (GUNBOAT)

- TIE Silencer

- Inquisitor's TIE

10 hours ago, Bulwyf said:

Great question. Mostly for kitchen table fun with my family and friends although I have played in our FLGS tournaments and would like to do so again.

Ok, that makes it sort of hard because everything past the HotR pack is where things really started going off the rails competitive wise. There's a lot of stuff that got released after that that isn't "fun" to play against and that is why it is competitive in the current tournament scene.

Not many of us have bottomless pockets, so I'll toss out ships that are "fun" and should be in your collection.

Wave 9 - Arc and Tie SF are must buys. Quickdraw is one of the best Empire pilots in the game and it's just a very functional, hard hitting ship that isn't completely gross to play against. The Arc gives you Nora Wexley who is a very fun rebel brawler that gives a number of list building options.

Wave 10 - Strikers are amazingly fun to fly. They aren't highly competitive but they will make you a better player and it's just fun to see where you can end up with them.

Wave 11 - Probably the worst (from a fun to play against) wave ever released. Scurrgs and the Wookie gunships are just gross. If you want to have fun. Just skip this wave. If you want a divorce, go with a 50 point Nym and try to murder each other. Or put 4 wookies on the table and question and watch the other person never want to play again. Lowhhrick is one of the best pilots in the Rebel arsenal as he is incredibly tanky in his own right, can carry two crew slots, throws 3 dice in 180 degrees and can pass off an evade to a friend at range 1. Very useful in competitive scene, not such much in casual games.

Guns For Hire - Worth buying for Thweek (he's a hoot) and the pretty painted star viper and new title. It really makes them an interesting ship and hilarious to fly in casual games. You also get the disgusting harpoon upgrade and the title for K-fighters that makes them entertaining in pickup games.

Wave 12 - GUNBOAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Buy two or three and just enjoy. One of the most balanced and interesting ships in the game. Can be customized out the whahzoo, and just provide a ton of different options to list building.

Wave 13 - Silencer is a hoot. The PS4 generics are amazing ships that pair well with a variety of things. They include a lot of great upgrades and are just a very well balanced ship that looks cool on the table.

Just as an observation: is S&V the weakest faction? I can't help but notice that most of the recommendations are for Reb and Imp and not many for S&V. Are they just not that good and should be only brought out for fun games and nothing competitive?

There was a big nerf to Scum nym that really made him less ideal. Other than Asajj (Shadowcaster) they've had so many hits with the banhammer that they have taken a backseat on the competitive stage. There have been some edge cases with Jumpmasters in recent regionals but overall they lack end game closers that Rebels or Imperials do. One list that is *VERY* fun for scum is Dengar + Advanced Proton Torpedo Thweek. It's a high risk, high reward one but it's got some great LOL's potential in casual play.

10 minutes ago, Bulwyf said:

Just as an observation: is S&V the weakest faction? I can't help but notice that most of the recommendations are for Reb and Imp and not many for S&V. Are they just not that good and should be only brought out for fun games and nothing competitive?

eh...

scum used to reign pretty heavily because the Jumpmaster 5,000 was released as the most utterly broken thing in existence

since then, scum has been slathered with A LOT of necessary erratas that scaled them back to reasonable levels

1. the jumpmaster lost its torpedoes and salvaged slots
2. manaroo is now range 1 only
3. Zuckuss crew doesn't work if you're already stressed
4. attani mindlink is limited to two per squad
5. "Genius" was changed to prevent Bomblett Generator abuse, and to not work with Trajectory simulator (though this also affects rebel Nym)

so S&V is fine now (the jumpmaster is still an incredible ship, it just cannot take astromechs or torpedoes anymore so it is relegated to Dengar and "bumpmasters"), but Rebels are the ones in need of some serious curtailing