Hello all,

I am a new player to X-Wing and I have a few questions. I just purchased the 2nd Edition Core Set last night but have yet to play my first game. That being said, I have read the rulebook several times and have watched several videos of tournament level play, so I have a fair understanding of how the game works. I am eager to get into squad building and therein lay the questions I have.

1) Being a new player leaning toward a Rebel squad, is it worth it to get the Rebel Conversion Kit so I have access to the whole series of Rebel ships? Or are the ships that are exclusive to the Second Edition enough?

2) What ships for a Rebel player are considered to be a good initial investment? Otherwise stated, what Rebel ships are generally considered good across the board?

3) What is your best advice in general for a new player?

Thanks, and I look forward to being a part of this community!

Welcome to the hobby. Here is my 2cents for what it is worth

1: it is up to you but I'd buy the new ships unless you can find 1 or 2 of the old ones for cheap

2: Get an extra X wing and a y wing. Then go from there.

3: buy an extra pack of dice and simply have fun.

Thank you, Flyingbrick. That all sounds like great advice! And thanks for the welcome!

Just making sure you know, a conversion kit comes with the cards and cardboard to bring all the 1st edition ships into 2nd edition but doesn't include the ships themselves.

It's not a bad investment to make, and then you can keep your eyes on the internet/game stores for when 1st edition stuff goes on sale. You can build up a collection pretty quickly over time.

But as stated above, a few X-Wings and a few Y-Wings you'll be good to go. U-Wings have been impressive, but to really benefit from it you'll need access the Leia crew card, which is in the convert kit or the new Falcon expansion coming in Wave IV. Either way, a Saw's Renegades pack will get you both an X-Wing and U-Wing and is already playable in 2e.

Welcome aboard, @wrecknerds85 !

My #1 thought is to buy what you like and have fun.

However, that’s kind of what I did in 1E, and now I’ve got a crap-ton of ships for factions that I still haven’t converted over to 2E (and now—in some cases—I’m actively trying to divest). Point is, it’s easy to go overboard. I’d honestly advise starting small and mastering the ships you have before branching out into a ton of others. The Saw’s pack is a fine way to get a couple of ships & upgrades that seem to see a fair amount of use. And eBay can be your friend too, especially for single upgrades that appeared in a conversion kit.

3 hours ago, CoffeeMinion said:

Welcome aboard, @wrecknerds85 !

My #1 thought is to buy what you like and have fun.

However, that’s kind of what I did in 1E, and now I’ve got a crap-ton of ships for factions that I still haven’t converted over to 2E (and now—in some cases—I’m actively trying to divest). Point is, it’s easy to go overboard. I’d honestly advise starting small and mastering the ships you have before branching out into a ton of others. The Saw’s pack is a fine way to get a couple of ships & upgrades that seem to see a fair amount of use. And eBay can be your friend too, especially for single upgrades that appeared in a conversion kit.

(Though if you do go with the kit, I’ve got a couple of no-longer-used 1E B-wings and X-wings taking up an ungodly amount of storage space that I’d gladly drop in the mail to somewhere in the continental US.)

I’m looking for another x-wing and a few b-wings.

You can buy a y-wing and an x-wing for about $20 a piece retail. This will give you Wedge Antilles & Luke Skywalker in the x-wing & Dutch Vander in the y-wing. You most likely want enough ships to build a 200 point hyperspace/extended list which is what most game store x-wing days run on their tables. Download the squad builder or Launch bay app and see what kind of builds you can create. If I were starting over I’d buy the core set, another set of dice, the rebel expansion kit and try to buy the rest of the ships online. eBay/Amazon. The expansion kit will come with a lot of upgrade cards, so it is a better buy because the single ship packs only come with upgrade cards just for that particular ship. You might also want to get some acrylic tokens from etsy since you’ll need some shield tokens, the core set/expansion kits are light on tokens. Rebels have a lot of shields...

I almost forgot this. But on the main thread there is a sub forum for used game stuff that players have for trade if you wanted to check it out sometimes.

It is called The Big X-wing trade thread. This is the link for it but at this time it may still be on the main page too.

main

Some things that pop to mind:

If finances are an issue like they were for me initially, find a solid squad online and fly that for a while. With time and experience you will start to see what direction you want to take from there. For Rebels I would go core set, xwing and ywing to start.

Be prepared for a pretty steep learning curve, I see a lot of people get into the game but give up soon after. It's well worth persevering!

Go to tournaments, meet players and get a bunch of games in. It's the best way to enjoy the community and improve at a faster pace.

Have fun and pew pew pew!

I bought the Rebel, Scum and Villainy conversion kits and it helped because I got into X-Wing when 2.0 came out. There were plenty of 1.0 ships to be picked up cheap. Now, the 1.0 supply is dwindling so a conversion kit might not be a good investment. You would have to shop around and see if you can get the ships you want. As far as getting new ships to put together a list I would recommend getting a Y-Wing and Saw's Renegades. Saw's Renegades will give you 2.0 versions of an X-Wing and a U-Wing. This will give you a nice beefy list you can learn the basics of the game and more importantly ship maneuvering. Welcome to the game and good luck.

A BIG part of this game is the social aspect. If you can, I would highly recommend you do two things: 1) Attend X-wing night at a local game store and 2) Join your area's X-wing Facebook group.

You will learn a lot playing a variety of people face-to-face. Let them know you're new. Ask for advice and clarification. Be consistent in your attendance. You'll make new friends and you'd be surprised how generous the community can be. Often times you're likely to have someone donate a card, a set of range rulers, or make a trade with you if they know you're invested in the game.

Facebook is great for finding where a local tournament is going to happen as well as answer questions about rules. ship interactions, etc.

----------------------------------

Yes, you will lose and lose often, so manage your expectations! Start small: No running over rocks this game or avoid unintentional bumping. Then move on up to leaning how to focus your fire and how to minimize shots on your ships.

----------------------------------

You're likely aware of the two formats of play? Hyperspace and Extended. Extended is basically all legacy ships and pilots are available to choose from to use an play with. Hyperspace is a limited format which is for the most part more accessible to new players with a limited collection of ships.

For a Rebel player like yourself, as of today you should be good with the Saw's Renegades expansion (an X and U-wing!) and a Y-wing. That should give you enough options to build a nice variety of lists.

Wave 4 (soon to come) will bring the Millennium Falcon, & the B-wing. You'll probably want them both once they are released. I typically buy my ships in pairs if I can afford it (the small and medium based ones) .

Welcome and good luck!

I can not understate what was said enough. Finding a local community goes a long way in helping in both getting better and general questions you will have when you arent able to ask here. Also, the first few games i do promise that the rocks, ships and the board edge will seem to have magnets drawing you to them. This will be less so as you learn the basics so dont worry if you hit any of them for a few games.

You’ll suck for the first 6 months. Then you’ll stop flying into rocks but you’ll put yourself in bad positions. Then you’ll get better and start forming a more solid strategy to flying your squad. It just takes time and losing lots of games...

And try to go to a tournament if you can, you’ll fly against a diverse set of players & squads. Which is always a good thing...

To all who have commented thus far...thank you! The advice I have received here is above and beyond what I expected and really speaks to the closeness and accommodation of the community as a whole. So based on the advice I had received thus far this is my game plan:

1) I plan on investing in the Saw's Renegades expansion and a Y-Wing expansion. Pilots and upgrades still undecided. I'll pass on the Conversion Kit just because my collection so far is the Core Set lol.

2) I'm in the VA Beach area and I know that our local shop, Tower of Games, hosts X-Wing nights and tournaments occasionally. I definitely plan on being there as much as family obligations permits.

3) I found this X-Wing simulator called FlyCasual. I've been using that to practice so, when I do make it to my first X-Wing night, I'm not completely scrubbing it up. However, if this is just going to teach me bad habits, please let me know lol.

Thanks again for all who have contributed their opinions so far!

2 hours ago, wrecknerds85 said:

3) I found this X-Wing simulator called FlyCasual. I've been using that to practice so, when I do make it to my first X-Wing night, I'm not completely scrubbing it up. However, if this is just going to teach me bad habits, please let me know lol.

Fly Casual is a fantastic tool for getting to know the game, how your squad actually works and planning approaches. I'd almost say it is invaluable!

It's also great for learning how ships you'll fly against move. Predicting where an X Wing will go is 2nd nature to me now and applies in many of my real life games.

However, there are bad habits to be picked up!

Because all triggers are automated and give warning, you may end up getting drawn into more complex things. On an actual table, using a human brain to keep track of things is hard! So keep it simple when you go to play against people and have to rely on actually remembering things.

Some interactions and the occasional rules may not work appropriately or even legally, although this is rare. So if in doubt, always refer to the official card and rules reference.

Finally, most importantly, the AI does not play like a person. At all. There aren't bad habits to picked up from this per se, but you may get used to making approaches based on how it flies and end up with a totally irrelevant strategy when it comes to a real game.

What I do sometimes is completely ignore where the AI is and fly my ships to converge on a spot where a real opponent might go. Say, I'll flank one of my ships and just fly right on by whatever is on that side of the map and come in on a chosen area.

Human opponents will generally keep closer together and focus fire on a single ship, whereas it's easy to get the AI to split so you can pick them off. Occasionally, I'll make room with the obstacles and allow the AI ships to converge before I make progressive moves.

Really, its all about trying get some variety in the games. It becomes kind of easy to keep doing the same things and winning against the AI, which can give a very false impression of what you're doing right and wrong.

Welcome to X Wing, enjoy!

You may like to try the Hotseat play option in Fly Casual. You'll play both sides of the table. If anything, you'll get twice the amount of experience per play session and learn different factions & ship abilities, flying style--and you can say you won every game!

if you havn't gotten your purchases yet, I'd personally go

Core Set (needed to play, of course)
X-wing expansion (comes with an X-wing and pilots/upgrades that are NOT available in the core)

Saw's Renegades (so this expansion comes with 2nd edition AND 1st edition components. IT IS ABSOLUTELY LEGAL IN EVERY WAY FOR SECOND EDITION , it just came out before 2nd edition was launched)

now you have 3 X-wings (with every available X-wing pilot) and a U-wing

edit: derp, you've already figured it out :p

Thanks ficklegreendice (love the name, btw). I'm planning on getting my purchases today and so far it's looking like I'm getting a Y-Wing, Saw's Renegades, and a TIE-Advanced X1. The list I've been messing with on FlyCasual has been an X-Wing T65 (pilot Luke Skywalker), X-Wing T65 (pilot Edrin Two-Tubes), and a Y-Wing (pilot Dutch Vander). Its been pretty fun to fly with so far. The reason for the TIE is so my son (he's learning too) has a solid Imperial squad.

20 hours ago, wrecknerds85 said:

Thanks ficklegreendice (love the name, btw). I'm planning on getting my purchases today and so far it's looking like I'm getting a Y-Wing, Saw's Renegades, and a TIE-Advanced X1. The list I've been messing with on FlyCasual has been an X-Wing T65 (pilot Luke Skywalker), X-Wing T65 (pilot Edrin Two-Tubes), and a Y-Wing (pilot Dutch Vander). Its been pretty fun to fly with so far. The reason for the TIE is so my son (he's learning too) has a solid Imperial squad.

Luke, Wedge, Dutch is a solid crew.

Vader, and I guess Night Beast & an Academy Pilot for Empire. If you can,get a tie fighter expansion pack, you’ll get the better tie fighters, if your son starts to like empire (or you start to dislike Rebels)

On 6/1/2019 at 8:02 AM, wrecknerds85 said:

Thanks ficklegreendice (love the name, btw). I'm planning on getting my purchases today and so far it's looking like I'm getting a Y-Wing, Saw's Renegades, and a TIE-Advanced X1. The list I've been messing with on FlyCasual has been an X-Wing T65 (pilot Luke Skywalker), X-Wing T65 (pilot Edrin Two-Tubes), and a Y-Wing (pilot Dutch Vander). Its been pretty fun to fly with so far. The reason for the TIE is so my son (he's learning too) has a solid Imperial squad.

I think this is a good move. The two X-Wings and Y-Wing will give you experience in handling ships with different characteristics. Also, the Y-Wing will give you experience with turrets and dropping bombs along with coordinating actions if you use Dutch. Finally, the U-Wing will give you experience with handling a larger ship along with more coordination between different ships. This ships will also give you enough health to stay in your matches longer as you gain experience because you will lose early on. Most losses come from poor ship handling such as accidentally bumping other ships, running over obstacles, and even flying off the game mat. As you gain experience you will start winning a few matches. Also, you will start see what other players fly and how they handle those ships. This will give you ideas of how you want to expand you fleet as you progress. We have all been there and I still am. Lost a match yesterday because instead of breaking off an engagement and running to get a better position to engage along with squandering resources, I stayed in a knife fight with a superior foe and payed the price.

On 6/2/2019 at 6:59 AM, Cav Scout said:

Lost a match yesterday because instead of breaking off an engagement and running to get a better position to engage along with squandering resources, I stayed in a knife fight

^ This.

This is one of the hardest things I've yet to master. In my heart, I want to keep engaging "Yeah! I can take him, let me just flip around," and... blank, focus, focus with no mods for offense or defense and I'm stressed.

Be mindful of the turn ahead, where you can make a quick exit if you need to. A lot of green players just want to throw red dice. It's exciting to try and land hits, but keep your head straight and pause to think about your options.

On 5/29/2019 at 10:47 AM, wrecknerds85 said:

Hello all,

I am a new player to X-Wing and I have a few questions. I just purchased the 2nd Edition Core Set last night but have yet to play my first game. That being said, I have read the rulebook several times and have watched several videos of tournament level play, so I have a fair understanding of how the game works. I am eager to get into squad building and therein lay the questions I have.

1) Being a new player leaning toward a Rebel squad, is it worth it to get the Rebel Conversion Kit so I have access to the whole series of Rebel ships? Or are the ships that are exclusive to the Second Edition enough?

2) What ships for a Rebel player are considered to be a good initial investment? Otherwise stated, what Rebel ships are generally considered good across the board?

3) What is your best advice in general for a new player?

Thanks, and I look forward to being a part of this community!

If you are starting out the conversion kit is not a great investment as it doesn't come with the ships (there may be some faction relevant cards but not many) but it does not come with the plastic the only exception would be if you bought a lot of 1.0 ships other th as b that its better to buy the expansion packs

Hello all!

I am also a new player, I got my core set last Saturday and started playing with my 12 and 10 year old sons. We’re loving it so far! I have a question similar to OP and would love some feedback. I would like to quickly (and affordably) build up a squad for both Rebels and Empire and was considering buying a second core set, then supplementing with a Y-wing and a TIE Advanced. I figure that would give us a good base of ships for both sides plus another higher level ship, as well as extra dice, damage cards, templates, etc. However I would like to get the new cards (Wedge, Biggs, etc) but I’m wondering if 3 X-wings is overkill. I like the ideas that have been presented and may consider that. Like I said, any feedback would be much appreciated! Thank you in advance! We’ve had fun with the couple of games we’ve played and are excited to keep learning and playing !

@Nosytel A lot of folks don't run 3x too often competitively unless it's Wedge, Luke & Thane.

Unless you plan to play at stores and tournaments, don't worry about what the rest of us are doing. Playing at home with the kids sounds like a great way to to spend a weekend.

If you're thinking of being more competitive minded on the cheap I'd go one of two ways:

1. Pick up the Republic ships and/or the Separatist ships. They have a pack of 3 ships for $40 and there are a couple of ships to fill out the ranks as well, the Sith Infiltrator, the ARC-170 and the Jedi Aethersprite and Separatist Vulture. You're looking at around $100 per faction.
   Just around the corner the Naboo N-1 is coming along with the the Hyena bomber.
2. Find a fairly priced lot of ships on ebay and buy a conversion kit or two. You'll likely get extra dice, templates and maybe some acrylic goodies depending on the seller. I've purchased sets of broken ships on the cheap because I like to mod and paint my ships and I don't mind pulling guns off of one ship to fix another--that sort of thing--so there's that path too.

The one thing that you'll have to find somewhere is a second damage deck. Picking up a second Core Set isn't a bad idea if you plan to run a lot of basic TIE fighters (the Imperial conversion kit only came with enough kit for 4) or you can buy a damage deck on ebay as well.

Good luck, and welcome to the addiction!

@Nosytel Sorry, it sounds like you lean towards the Original Trilogy. Suggesting the Prequel Factions may not have been the best for you.

Going the ebay route is probably the quickest/cheapest way to build your stable of OT ships, not to mention you're going to likely pick up a number of ships that are out of print. But it can lead to paralysis when deciding what to fly--too many choices!!

Go slow:

1 TIE Advanced x1
1 TIE Reaper
2 Y-wings
1 Saw's Renegades expansion pack

That in addition to a second Core set gives you a nice of variety of list builds.