Hey folks. Longtime X-Wing 1.0 vet staring at 2.0 from a distance here, trying to figure out how to get back in.

I started 2018 with big plans to fly all the ships and cards in my 1.0 collection at least once this year—even the bad ones. Then my year took a number of turns that I didn’t see coming. One of them was X-Wing 2.0! But others kept me from tracking many of the changes in 2.0 from 1.0, or playing either 1.0 or 2.0 for most of the year.

I’m at the point now where I might be able to dive back in, but I’m kind of overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start. I used to enjoy playing all the factions and would flip back and forth between them freely, but that’s a lot less viable now that we’re going to have 7 instead of 3—I probably need to start over with 1.

How did you guys approach this with your own stuff? What are the factions even “about” these days? Or what list archetypes are worth being aware of? I get the sense that things are more balanced, which is good; but it also makes it less obvious what kinds of things to take into consideration. Plus, a lot of upgrade cards have the same name but do different things now, so it’s not as easy to follow conversations.

Thanks, and help!

How patient are you??

My likely tactic is to not convert, but continue.

If you can wait till wave 3 (and like the prequels), pick a new faction and just start over.

Alternatively, convert small. Both FO and Resistance are cheap conversions with Resistance even having materiel in the pipeline.

Personally? I just grabbed the conversion kits and went from there. Things are dialed back from 1.0, where there's no combination that screams to your opponent "why did you even bother to set stuff up? I win." I also have a nasty habit of needing to buy EVERYTHING for this game, so... yeah, I'm screwed. Don't be like me... use your brain when buying in

First thing is first: you're gonna want either the OFFICIAL list building app (it's kinda sub par, but functional... it'll get there eventually) or Launch Bay Next. Look at the pilots, abilities, and upgrades. Like 1.0, you'll also want the core set as it has the templates and pilots that don't come in the stand alone ship expansions or the conversion kits (also it comes with the exclusive Red 5 flappy winged X-Wing... the stand alone X-wing is a generic Red Squadron X-wing). If you still have your 1.0 collection, great. You can grab the conversion kits and you're ahead of the game. If you haven't looked into them, these come with EVERYTHING from wave 1 of that faction plus pilots for ships that have yet to come out, so if they don't perform like you expect, remember, you're working with limited upgrades for them... and no, you might not be able to build the same lists you used to either. That's due to ships getting adjusted points or just not having enough dials/cardboard to fly what you want (the conversion kits really only convert a CHUNK of your collection, not the whole thing... and some choices they made were questionable... WHO FLIES 2 VCX-100s?!) OH! And the Rebel conversion kit doesn't have the pilots for the X-Wing and U-Wing from Saw's Renegades and the Imperial Conversion kit doesn't have the TIE Reaper either as the 1.0 kits had 2.0 items packed with them (they're still easy enough to find)

Going back to the app and conversion kits for sec: really take a shot at making some lists and see what faction has the tricks you enjoy more. No need to buy everything if you don't think you'll enjoy flying that faction.

The Resistance and First Order are coming back later this month or next month and the Republic and CIS are coming early next year... we don't know too much about either of them yet. Also, if you're worried about sticking with a faction and not getting certain upgrades, don't stress about needing to buy another faction juts for cards. FFG has stated that every faction will get all compatible upgrades eventually (so, they'll get them, just not at the same time).

As for Faction identity? Well... Imperials are about swarms... like, TIE Fighter and TIE Bomber swarms are good now. So are TIE Interceptors if you know how to fly them. TIE Defenders are MONSTERS, but you can only squeeze 2 in a list (fly them and you'll understand that if a player could use 3, they'd be unbeatable). Imperials are great for aggressive players. Rebels... are in a tough spot. They're good for a slower play style and aren't about the alpha strike... X-wings are **** good now (Woo flappy wings!) and the U-Wing is a fantastic support ship. They haven't changed too much and are all about helping each other out (passing tokens and buffing/debuffing). Scum.... is scum. They are all over the place with what they can do. Everything to token stealing to flying off the play area and then COMING BACK TO THE PLAY AREA to starting ON A ROCK at range 3 of your opponent's ships. They're nuts. Also, as a general rule, right now large based ships aren't great. They're super fun to fly, but they blow up easily.

The First Order and Resistance kinda take their predecessors and dial it up, but I'm sure someone else who has paid a bit more attention to what's been revealed can go into more depth than that.

OH! most important thing! SAVE YOUR 1.0 SHIELD TOKENS!

depends who u ask but id say scum and imperials are on about equal footing right now. scum has many top unique pilots (Palob, Kavil, 4-LOM, Boba Fett, Guri and even Han... also 2.0 Jakku Gunrunners are super good value). Imperials get bombers, redline, deathrain, vader, defenders and phantoms so aces and alpha strikes with barrage rockets are very strong). Rebels get Luke and some solid x-wing pilots and seem harder to build with right now unless you like x-wings imo... im expecting them to get a sizable boost in the next few ways. Oh, there are 7 factions now. my plan is to convert scum with imperials as my second faction...not interested in rebels, F/O, Resistance or the new prequel factions. Thats just me.