On 9/6/2018 at 3:15 PM, Phydaux42 said:

I’ve got my shopping list down to:

2 Starters

1 X Wing

2 TIE Fighters

1 TIE Advanced

1 Y Wing

That should give me a lot of options and weigh in right around $200.

****. I've been prowling in the squadron list subforum. It looks like I'll need to get THREE starters plus ANOTHER X Wing, a TIE Advanced and a Y Wing. And that might not be enough TIE Fighters.

This game is INSANE.

I mean, if you've set on throwing the doors open to literally everything, sure

Or you could start smaller?

I would really advise against just going all Rambo on TIE SWARM!!!! immidiately

****ers are hard to fly, die hard to dice, and really 7 ties only play in one kind of list (swarm) so if you don't like it...you're ******

Rebels are a far more reasonable and flexible initial investment

Core, Xwing, Saw's is enough

Throw another Xwing to fly 4 xwings, which can be flown in a variety of configurations and playstyles despite having the same 4 models on the table

Nope. No can do. I fully plan on ignoring every other faction in the game, but I MUST have both an Imperial and a Rebel squadron.

And in the Squadron subforum I thought I saw a list with EIGHT TIE Fighters in it. Is that even possible? And if it is, is it viable?

8 ties is the maximum possible and it's probably fine, but you have NO IDEA how much of a pain in the *** it is to store/transport/unload/setup/manuever 8 of those nibbly bastards

You're asking for a massive time and $ investment that has no replayability if you don't end up liking it

Best I could recommend if you HAVE to jump in with both (again, NOT recommended. You'll have barely enough time to learn xwings let alone two factions)

Core, Core (2 x, 4 fighters)

X, Tie (3 x, 5 ties)

X or Saw's, Advance

So now you got a boatload of rebel squads, and Vader + miniswarm

But seriously, better to buy into rebels first then go empire when more ships are available

No Y Wing?

And I don't see myself getting Saw's without a strong compelling reason to do so.

For the $200 you mentioned earlier, you could get:

Core x2

Saw's Renegades

X-wing

Y-wing

TIE Advanced

TIE Fighter

That gets you six Rebel ships and six Imperial ships. Your list building on the Imperial side will likely be various iterations of TIE Advanced + 4-5 TIE miniswarm, but there are dozens of Rebel lists you could build with four X-wings, a Y-wing, and U-wing.

Also, your compelling reason for getting Saw's is Benthic + Edrio. There's some other nifty stuff in there as well, but the Tubes Brothers are a nice combo

Saw's gets you an X and U, giving more variety

The pilots and unique crew in that box are not found anywhere else (ie, the other 2nd Ed expacs)

In there we have Kullbee, easily the most manueverable X who flies completely differently from everyone else

Also, I'm supremely meh on the Ywing (it's much slower and more vulnerable). Id only buy it so you have 3 xwings and save the fourth fir Saw's at a later date

Yeah, I gotta admit, Saw's is a pretty good investment for the Rebels. ****, the Two Tubes Bros. work great together (throw Perceptive Co-pilot on Benthic so he still keeps a focus!) and Kullbee can be wily. Not to mention all the pilots in Saw's can also equip Illicit upgrades, something the traditional X-Wings can't. Throw rigged cargo chute on the U-Wing for a new surprise debris cloud for some extra fun.

5 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

Also, I'm supremely meh on the Ywing (it's much slower and more vulnerable). Id only buy it so you have 3 xwings and save the fourth fir Saw's at a later date

I think encouraging a new player to restrict themselves just because a ship isn't at the cutting edge of competitive lists is a big mistake.

This game is not all about tournaments and meta lists. The Y-Wing is not as unplayable as you keep asserting it is. It has some solid pilot abilities (particularly Dutch), and it's the only Wave 1 Rebel or Imperial ship to bring turrets and ion control into the game. There's a bunch of ways to play them, and illustrating the difference in playstyle between high health, low agility ships and low health, high agility ships is an important part of the learning process.

It's also a movie ship with a lot of screen time, the new model looks ace (aside from the oversized turrets) and setting up a Dutch target lock pass or a Norra range 1 ion burst is fun.

I know OP initially said they wanted to be 'competitive', but a new player's definition of competitive is very different from a veteran's. For a new player, they basically just want to know what ships they can run without being wiped off the board right away.

The X-Wing looks great, and XXX lists could well be a staple of Wave 1 events. But to be properly meta competitive with them is still going to require a lot of experience and skill from the player, while conversely a new player will be held back way more by a lack of experience than not running the absolute best possible list.

Is a new player likely to pull an Alex Davies and push their turret Y-Wing way too far forward and watch it get focused down and eliminated in the first engagement while their X-Wings are dawdling up the side of the board? Yeah, sure. But running Supernatural Luke, Wedge and Kullbee doesn't mean they'll immediately be pulling off clever double reposition arc dodges, boost threading through asteroids and flanking with Luke with full mods in their first game either.

@Phydaux42: let me reemphasize something I said earlier:

On 9/4/2018 at 9:03 AM, Herowannabe said:

Most of all, buy the ships/factions that you like.

You’re going to have a lot more fun flying your favorite ships from the movies/books/TV shows/etc than you will flying ships you don’t care about just because the interwebs told you they’re good. If you want to reenact the battle of Yavin and fly an 8-TIE swarm vs X-Wings and Y-Wings then do it. You’ll have a blast.

However, you don’t need 8 TIEs if you don’t want them. In fact, while an 8-TIE list is possible it’s not necessarily better (in terms of competitiveness and in terms of how fun it is to fly) than a 6- or 7-TIE swarm or even Darth Vader + 4- or 5-TIEs.

Also, keep in mind that new TIE Fighters will almost certainly be released in future waves. In first edition they released the Imperial Assault Cartier (the Gozanti from the Rebels TV show) that came with two TIE fighters and new pilots, and at some point they will re-release it for 2.0. So if you’re a completionist then you may want to only get 6 TIEs for now and wait until the Gozanti arrives for your full 8 TIE swarm.

Lastly, I second everything that @GuacCousteau said right above this post. Don’t feel like you have to buy anything just because that’s what someone on this forum would buy. Buy what YOU want and have fun flying it. Then later, if you decide you need to fill out your collection in order to be more competitive, you can buy stuff then.

2 hours ago, GuacCousteau said:

I think encouraging a new player to restrict themselves just because a ship isn't at the cutting edge of competitive lists is a big mistake.

This game is not all about tournaments and meta lists. The Y-Wing is not as unplayable as you keep asserting it is. It has some solid pilot abilities (particularly Dutch), and it's the only Wave 1 Rebel or Imperial ship to bring turrets and ion control into the game. There's a bunch of ways to play them, and illustrating the difference in playstyle between high health, low agility ships and low health, high agility ships is an important part of the learning process.

It's also a movie ship with a lot of screen time, the new model looks ace (aside from the oversized turrets) and setting up a Dutch target lock pass or a Norra range 1 ion burst is fun.

I know OP initially said they wanted to be 'competitive', but a new player's definition of competitive is very different from a veteran's. For a new player, they basically just want to know what ships they can run without being wiped off the board right away.

The X-Wing looks great, and XXX lists could well be a staple of Wave 1 events. But to be properly meta competitive with them is still going to require a lot of experience and skill from the player, while conversely a new player will be held back way more by a lack of experience than not running the absolute best possible list.

Is a new player likely to pull an Alex Davies and push their turret Y-Wing way too far forward and watch it get focused down and eliminated in the first engagement while their X-Wings are dawdling up the side of the board? Yeah, sure. But running Supernatural Luke, Wedge and Kullbee doesn't mean they'll immediately be pulling off clever double reposition arc dodges, boost threading through asteroids and flanking with Luke with full mods in their first game either.

I have no idea where you extrapolate being "cutting edge competitive" as any part of my recommendation

My recommendation centers around two central tenets:

1.) X-wings are very versatile, both in list composition and in playstyle on a game-to-game basis

2.) Y-wings tend to get trivially obliterated by the opposing TIE fighters, which probably won't be a lot of fun for new players

Four X-wings are just a far more sensible investment that people will probably get more out of in the short and long run

16 hours ago, Phydaux42 said:

And I don't see myself getting Saw's without a strong compelling reason to do so.

The paint job is fantastic.

You get a Uwing which is a neat support ship in 2.0.

There are pilots and crew not available anywhere else.

Really, for a player just starting out now and who only wants to buy packs with 2.0 components inside (ie not conversion kit and old stuff), Saw’s is up there for flexibility and unit diversity. The only reason to pass on Saw’s is if you absolutely will not fly with the rebels, in which case I’d say buy a tie reaper to augment your fighters and advanced

On 9/4/2018 at 11:00 AM, Darth 2Face said:

That's a great point I hadn't considered. I do think the days of buying everything, especially with Republic and CIS coming, is past. That used to be the norm around here, but I see more and players moving to fewer factions now. There are going to be 7 factions soon where 1.0 had 3. Pick a few and stick with those.

I was a two faction player in 1.0. I never liked the scum ships much but enjoyed playing against them. Couldn’t help myself with the firespray and fang fighters articles so I bought myself an old fang, new fang, and new firespray. I probably won’t but more than that, but really looking forward to some of those lists. I’ll mostly play rebels and empire. Probably do resistance too since I love the t-70s. Not sure about the other factions. Glad I did one tournament with the silencer to try it out.

On 9/8/2018 at 9:10 PM, Phydaux42 said:

****. I've been prowling in the squadron list subforum. It looks like I'll need to get THREE starters plus ANOTHER X Wing, a TIE Advanced and a Y Wing. And that might not be enough TIE Fighters.

This game is INSANE.

Why do you need three starters? If it's for the mini's they have x-wing and TIE fighter expansion packs you can also buy.

Cost efficiency. If you want two TIEs and an X Wing then a Starter is cheaper than three Boosters.

Right now I'm going to limit myself to two starters, a TIE, a TIE Advanced, an X Wing and a Y Wing. That will give me a good selection of 2.0 piolets and upgrades. I'll only have five TIEs and three X Wings but I can always pick up another later if I want.

58 minutes ago, Phydaux42 said:

Cost efficiency. If you want two TIEs and an X Wing then a Starter is cheaper than three Boosters.

Right now I'm going to limit myself to two starters, a TIE, a TIE Advanced, an X Wing and a Y Wing. That will give me a good selection of 2.0 piolets and upgrades. I'll only have five TIEs and three X Wings but I can always pick up another later if I want.

Cost efficiency is an excellent point - one I had not thought of. IMO it's good that you have one of the stand-alone expansions for the X-wing and TIE fighter on your list, as those both include pilots you don't get in the core sets. Not sure if you knew that (or if someone else had already pointed it out) so I thought I'd mention it.

So on the subject of pilots, naturally most are unique ie you can only have one Darth Vader. But are their any “generic” pilots that I can field as many of as I want as long as I have models & cards for them?

6 hours ago, Phydaux42 said:

So on the subject of pilots, naturally most are unique ie you can only have one Darth Vader. But are their any “generic” pilots that I can field as many of as I want as long as I have models & cards for them?

Yes. Most ships have 1-2 generic pilots, though some have more and some don’t have any generics at all.