I’m a new player looking at 2.0 and wondering what factions I should be looking at. I’m an aggressive player, not much of a defensive player. Some in probably looking at swarm with a heavy hitter, what should I look at?

Sounds like the Empire (or maybe the First Order or Separatists) would be a good fit for you, though any of the factions have their own tools for doing what you described. But the Empire more than any of the others has some great tools for swarms, and they have an abundance of aces and glass-canons. And defense is not really their thing- they survive by either weathering the war of attrition (TIE fighter or TIE Bomber swarms), killing you before you can shoot them (high initiative aces like Vader, Whisper, or Soontir), or dodging your shots completely (also high inititiave aces), or some combination of the above.

Before diving full in, however, you may want to go visit your local game store on X-Wing night and watch a few games and/or see if the players will let you try out a game or two using their stuff. That will let you get a little taste of the different factions before you take the plunge.

Scum!

Scum.

5 minutes ago, svelok said:

Scum!

Scum.

Yep, you want Scum. Boba's a great brawler ship.

To answer your question i think u should look at the 7 elite talents that are suppose to "define" each faction. They may not neccessarily define their factions yet (Since factions are currently defined by the broken underpriced ships and upgrades)but Im sure down the road FFg will release more faction specific upgrades like these which will better shape their faction.

Rebels: SELFLESS: lets wingmen suffer critical damage so that damage gets spread throughout the squad. (Defensive/Teamwork)

Imperial: RUTHLESS: Lets aces damage friendly cannon fodder to do more damage to enemies (Offensive/Expendables)

Scum: FEARLESS: lets you add a hit if your in range 1 in an opponents face (Offensive/High Risk High Reward)

Resistance: HEROIC: lets you re roll all your dice on offence or defence if you roll all blanks (Offensive&Defensive/Reliability)

First Order: FANATIC: Lets you change an eyeball to a hit while attacking if unsheilded (Offensive/High Risk High Reward)

Separatists: TREACHEROUS: Lets you cancel a hit or crit while defending if there is a ship obstructing the shot. Obstructing ship gets a strain token(Defensive/Expendables)

Republic: ??? Dont think this has been spoiled yet. If I had to guess it will be something to do with teamwork or defensive.

Now based on your description id go with scum, imperial or first order. They all have agressive/offensive faction specific talents. They all have good swarm options. Pretty much every faction have some heavy hitters. (Im unsure if the 2 new factions have heavy hitters - seperatists and republic)

I vote First Order. The Upsilon hits like a young Mike Tyson and currently they're on sale on Amazon for less than $20. You can be hyper aggressive with it and you have a good mix of ships (TIE SF, Silence & FO) with a nice mix of pilot abilities.

21 minutes ago, TBot said:

Republic  : ??? Dont think this has been spoiled yet. If I had to guess  it will be something to do with teamwork or defensive.     

Devoted: "While a friendly ship in your left or right arc at range 0-2 defends, if it has Devoted equipped or is a limited ship, and you are not strained, you may gain one strain token. If you do, the defender may reroll one of its blank results."

First Order or Scum would be the ones I can think of. When you describe your playstyle I hear Fenn Rau and Boba Fett (Scum) or Upsilon shuttles or Fanatical tie FOs en masse. Maybe QuickDraw next to the Ups shuttle for the bonus attack

I would pick scum. All you would need is. Slave one,2 fang fighter, and houndstooth, new z-95 when it comes out.

1 hour ago, Force Majeure said:

I vote First Order. The Upsilon hits like a young Mike Tyson and currently they're on sale on Amazon for less than $20. You can be hyper aggressive with it and you have a good mix of ships (TIE SF, Silence & FO) with a nice mix of pilot abilities.

I'd second this sentiment. The conversion kit is cheaper and the models are all pretty cheap secondhand except the TIE/SF which of course can be proxied with a TIE/FO casually

4 hours ago, Herowannabe said:

Sounds like the Empire (or maybe the First Order or Separatists) would be a good fit for you, though any of the factions have their own tools for doing what you described. But the Empire more than any of the others has some great tools for swarms, and they have an abundance of aces and glass-canons. And defense is not really their thing- they survive by either weathering the war of attrition (TIE fighter or TIE Bomber swarms), killing you before you can shoot them (high initiative aces like Vader, Whisper, or Soontir), or dodging your shots completely (also high inititiave aces), or some combination of the above.

Before diving full in, however, you may want to go visit your local game store on X-Wing night and watch a few games and/or see if the players will let you try out a game or two using their stuff. That will let you get a little taste of the different factions before you take the plunge.

4 hours ago, Herowannabe said:

Sounds like the Empire (or maybe the First Order or Separatists) would be a good fit for you, though any of the factions have their own tools for doing what you described. But the Empire more than any of the others has some great tools for swarms, and they have an abundance of aces and glass-canons. And defense is not really their thing- they survive by either weathering the war of attrition (TIE fighter or TIE Bomber swarms), killing you before you can shoot them (high initiative aces like Vader, Whisper, or Soontir), or dodging your shots completely (also high inititiave aces), or some combination of the above.

Before diving full in, however, you may want to go visit your local game store on X-Wing night and watch a few games and/or see if the players will let you try out a game or two using their stuff. That will let you get a little taste of the different factions before you take the plunge.

I’m going to play a starter set tomorrow against a seasoned player, he’s going to teach me to play. Play a few games then decide. They have a league so I’m going to try and get to a few games also to observe.

40 minutes ago, Olaskos said:

I’m going to play a starter set tomorrow against a seasoned player, he’s going to teach me to play. Play a few games then decide. They have a league so I’m going to try and get to a few games also to observe.

Well at first I would say pick a faction , and then pick another faction, but 2nd edition has brought quite a few changes.

So instead of picking a faction, first you must pick a format .

So what type of games you want to play, if you want to play a competitive game and go to tournaments like regionals, then Hyperspace is going to be your format. If you just want to play with all the different type of starfighters Star Wars has to offer, then Extended is your format. Also being a board game unless you are playing on Vassal then it is largely depending on what games are being played within your reach. IF the store near you is hosting a bunch of hyperspace tournaments, then maybe Hyperspace is the format. If you just want to play at home, then go with extended and don't worry about what FFG OrgPlay has declared legal or banned from tournaments.

There you go, after that then pick a faction but given the truncated list unless you are playing the new 2nd edition factions the hyperspace faction will vary quite considerably than its extended version in terms of play style.

When I play my first game tomorrow with a core set.

i will talk to they guy that runs the store league to see what format they play. I’ll mostly be playing casual at stores and in the store League.

i was leading towards the Separatist Alliance. From what I read was swarm and Darth Mauls ship packs a punch. People suggested the Empire, Republic

and First Order, but there is not much info on FO and Republic ships yet.

Thanks, I’ll keep this considered.

A few questions for you to help get an idea of what you're thinking of.

What do you definitely as a swarm? Do you want the swarm to consistent of many ships that feel maybe expendable or the swarm to be a bit smaller, but harder to take down? For the heavy hitter, do you want it to hit hard while also taking a few hits or be a sort of glass cannon. Know that generally the tougher something is, the higher the cost while something that is a glass cannon is normally cheaper, but can still last awhile based on precise maneuvering. Finally do you have any Star Wars characters, pilots, or ships you prefer? It's important to actually like what you're flying too.

I define swarm as lots of ships for more attacks that I don’t care if they die. Their job is to do as much damage as they can with overwhelming numbers.

Heavy Hitter I want something that can pretty much take out my opponents other “bigger” vessels in a few hit. Roll a lot of attacks/damage. Some defense die but not a lot. I guess I’d say not a glass cannon but not a tank.

On a scale of attack 1-10 I’d say 7

Defense more of a 3-5.

Pilots and ships.

i like Maul, Vader and Grievous.

Just looking at ships now, Sith Infiltrator. I like the idea of a cloak and it says it’s a heavy hitter. But there isn’t enough info on that ship I don’t think.

I made a post a while back that describes the faction identity of the rebels, scum and imperials. It should help you make a decision about those factions at least.

Personally, I'd go CIS if I were you. The best advice is your own advice though: playing an intro game and having a look before you make a decision

• Maul is an excellent aggressive ship. With his ability to attack twice, you can use him to dish out heavy damage very quickly.
• Vulture droids (perhaps with energy shell casings) look like a decent swarm, and cards like kraken and treacherous make them even better.
• CIS have lots of fun-looking new mechanics (probe droids, buzz droids, grappling struts, cloak for Maul, sharing coordinate around)
• If you collect CIS, all the models you want will be available in-print and you don't need to faff about with conversion kits. This is a big point. It's possible to pick up a second hand collection from people leaving the game, but that's a bit more effort and often costs a lot (even if it is a net discount). It's very difficult to pick up one-off ships for the extended format. CIS are new though so you can just buy everything as it's released, and you'll be able to play in both formats with no drama

I mostly play scum myself, and I enjoy their brawler ships (fenn rau and firesprays in particular).

Yeah I'd say at this point Maul or Grievous and Droid swarm look to be right up your alley. So keep your eye on the Separatists as more info comes out. In the meantime, try out lists similar from other factions (not all have expendable swarm + heavy hitter). I'd assume the people you're playing with could setup games using some of these.

Resistance: Poe or Chewie and 3 RZ2 AWings

Scum: Kath Scarlet & 5 Mining Guild TIEs

First Order: Captain Cardinal & 4 TIE FO Cadets with Adv Optics

Imperials: Vader & 5 TIE Fighters or if you want to mess with a bit of ordinance Redline (Proton Torps), Jonus, and 3 Scimitar Bombers (Barrage Rockets). Also to get used to cloaking/decloaking mechanics you could try Whisper and 4 ships each costing 34 pts which includes Striker, Interceptor, or Barrage Rocket Bomber.

When you say Vader and 5 Tie. Do you mean Vader and his Advance Tie plus 5 more Tie or Vader using one of the 5 Tie/in?

Scum, Fenn Rau. Fearless.

Trust me. It's awesome.

Vader only pilots the TIE Advanced. For now anyways.

By the by, as of today the CIS/Separatist faction is not available for purchase. Hopefully they are available soon.

2 hours ago, Olaskos said:

When you say Vader and 5 Tie. Do you mean Vader and his Advance Tie plus 5 more Tie or Vader using one of the 5 Tie/in?

Pilots are not transferable.

1 hour ago, Force Majeure said:

Vader only pilots the TIE Advanced. For now anyways.

1 hour ago, thespaceinvader said:

Pilots are not transferable.

Unless you can take Vader as crew, the Advance Tie is the only other Vader.