So again, I’m exclusively an Armada guy, but I think I’ve talked my group (some of them, at least) into trying X-Wing.

My plan today is to go get a TIE Advanced x1, a Falcon, and 1-2 Core Sets, the thinking being that we can play a couple of “Battle of Yavin” type games, see how bigger ships like the Falcon feel, see how TIE swarms and an ace leader feel, etc. Thematic, fun, and hopefully good enough to add to/expand upon as we go.

I have some questions, though...

In Armada, the upgrade cards that come with the ship you’re buying are... *usually* pretty relevant... but sometimes they just give you stuff that they want to release (like a new Turbolaser upgrade that can’t even go on the ship it comes with, or squadron-enhancer cards that come packaged with a ship that’s an awful carrier) simply because they’re trying to get the card disseminated, and their release schedule is more sparse. How commonly in X-Wing do you need to buy a fighter just to get a necessary upgrade card or two for a different fighter you’re looking to optimize? If I had access to a pretty well-stocked store (I do), and could add another fighter or two to my purchase today, are there any upgrade cards in other packs that I would really want for Vader or the Falcon or something? Like a missile that only comes with the TIE Striker or Slave 1 or something?

Speaking of Slave 1, I have one player in my group who’s Boba Fett obsessed, and I told him it sounds like Fett’s ripping it up right now. But without going out and just buying the Fenn/Fett list (I barely know what I’m even saying now, lol), is there a way he can just fly Fett with the Imperial stuff? Someone said Fett only works with Scum fleets now... so Fett can fly with Lando, but NOT with Vader? Is that true? Seems odd.

Also, are there any dual-faction ships or pilots? Like a Rebel/Scum Han card, or a Rebel/Scum Falcon?

Thanks. Sorry for the flood of questions; I really just don’t even quite know what I don’t know.

Oh, one more question: In Armada, you’ll sometimes see fleets like, “6 CR90 Corvettes with Turbolaser Reroute Circuits,” but more often, they’re more varied and balanced affairs, with like, a big MC80 Cruiser, a CR90, a Nebulon-B Escort Frigate, a Medium Transport flotilla and some fighters. I’ve noticed a lot of X-Wing lists that are like, “5 A-Wings,” or “Vader and 6 TIE/lns,” or “5 TIE Strikers.” Is there anything inherently wrong with going with a wide variety of varied ships? Does it create poor synergy to do things like, “TIE Interceptor, Lambda Shuttle, 2 x TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber,” or “X-Wing, A-Wing, B-Wing, Y-Wing?” Or do lists like this tend to fill a lot of each other’s weaknesses and work well in tandem?

7 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

How commonly in X-Wing do you need to buy a fighter just to get a necessary upgrade card or two for a different fighter you’re looking to optimize? If I had access to a pretty well-stocked store (I do), and could add another fighter or two to my purchase today, are there any upgrade cards in other packs that I would really want for Vader or the Falcon or something? Like a missile that only comes with the TIE Striker or Slave 1 or something?

Speaking of Slave 1, I have one player in my group who’s Boba Fett obsessed, and I told him it sounds like Flett’s ripping it up right now. But without going out and just buying the Fenn/Fett list (I barely know what I’m even saying now, lol), is there a way he can just fly Fett with the Imperial stuff? Someone said Fett only works with Scum fleets now... so Fett can fly with Lando, but NOT with Vader? Is that true? Seems odd.

Also, are there any dual-faction ships or pilots? Like a Rebel/Scum Han card, or a Rebel/Scum Falcon?

Thanks. Sorry for the flood of questions; I really just don’t even quite know what I don’t know.

Cards: there are some cards that have come out in newer waves that are missing from older factions and can be handy, but in general most cards are available to a faction within the faction.

For most typical Vader + tie builds, the only card you would be missing is passive sensors. Maybe fire control, if it’s not with the advanced expansion (I forget because i conversion kitted my advanced not bought the new one).

The Falcon comes with most of the options the Falcon will like.

The new pilot and card pack “hotshots and aces” has all the missing upgrade cards you cannot buy in a GCW faction like passive sensors or autoblasters. It also has a new pilot for the Falcon (and more pilots for other ships). I’d also look at a rebel Bwing and a Tie Advanced v1 (Inquisitor tie) for more variety - and they both have new pilots in that aces pack.

Boba/Slave 1: in standard play, there is no way to fly Boba Fett with the empire. The one way Lando flies with Fett is if using scum (from the solo movie) Lando. You cannot fly Boba with rebel Lando or Rebels. THAT SAID, in a casual game you could totally do whatever you want when figuring out the points to allow it if you really wanted to.

Dual faction: there are no pilots that can be directly placed in multiple factions. There are, however, ship chassis that can play in multiple factions. And as I alluded to before, there are unique pilots in multiple factions like Han or Lando (Solo film versus OT era), however they do not have the same pilot ability nor are they the same ship directly - the scum faction has a yt1300 from the Solo movie but it has stats and a dial unique to it not the rebellion era one.

To date, no packs have pilot cards for multiple factions in them (except the aces pack having pilots for a bunch of ships).

Re: ship types - there’s no reason to not take a mix and match of ships except the caveat that If you want to fly them in a formation it’s harder to do if you bring slower ships and faster ships - it is hard for a Bwing to keep up with an Awing for example.

31 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Speaking of Slave 1, I have one player in my group who’s Boba Fett obsessed, and I told him it sounds like Fett’s ripping it up right now. But without going out and just buying the Fenn/Fett list (I barely know what I’m even saying now, lol), is there a way he can just fly Fett with the Imperial stuff? Someone said Fett only works with Scum fleets now... so Fett can fly with Lando, but NOT with Vader? Is that true? Seems odd.

Also, are there any dual-faction ships or pilots? Like a Rebel/Scum Han card, or a Rebel/Scum Falcon?

Thanks. Sorry for the flood of questions; I really just don’t even quite know what I don’t know.

Great questions, and a grand welcome to the single seat in the hangar Admiral. I like Armada, but there isn't the opprotunities for me like I get with X-Wing.

In relaxed games (in homes or LGS where the players aren't gearing for competition), sure you can fly Vader with Fett, but most try-hards don't like playing outside the regulated structure of tourney play prep.

Biggest rule in X-Wing: have fun. And if someone is stepping on your fun and it's not a tournament, move to the next table and meet someone else who is less uptight... pew-pew.

1 hour ago, Cpt ObVus said:

So again, I’m exclusively an Armada guy, but I think I’ve talked my group (some of them, at least) into trying X-Wing.

My plan today is to go get a TIE Advanced x1, a Falcon, and 1-2 Core Sets, the thinking being that we can play a couple of “Battle of Yavin” type games, see how bigger ships like the Falcon feel, see how TIE swarms and an ace leader feel, etc. Thematic, fun, and hopefully good enough to add to/expand upon as we go.

I have some questions, though...

In Armada, the upgrade cards that come with the ship you’re buying are... *usually* pretty relevant... but sometimes they just give you stuff that they want to release (like a new Turbolaser upgrade that can’t even go on the ship it comes with, or squadron-enhancer cards that come packaged with a ship that’s an awful carrier) simply because they’re trying to get the card disseminated, and their release schedule is more sparse. How commonly in X-Wing do you need to buy a fighter just to get a necessary upgrade card or two for a different fighter you’re looking to optimize? If I had access to a pretty well-stocked store (I do), and could add another fighter or two to my purchase today, are there any upgrade cards in other packs that I would really want for Vader or the Falcon or something? Like a missile that only comes with the TIE Striker or Slave 1 or something?

Speaking of Slave 1, I have one player in my group who’s Boba Fett obsessed, and I told him it sounds like Fett’s ripping it up right now. But without going out and just buying the Fenn/Fett list (I barely know what I’m even saying now, lol), is there a way he can just fly Fett with the Imperial stuff? Someone said Fett only works with Scum fleets now... so Fett can fly with Lando, but NOT with Vader? Is that true? Seems odd.

Also, are there any dual-faction ships or pilots? Like a Rebel/Scum Han card, or a Rebel/Scum Falcon?

Thanks. Sorry for the flood of questions; I really just don’t even quite know what I don’t know.

Back again, eh

One of the biggest problems in 1.0 was that you had to buy out-of-faction packs to get specific cards that juiced up your preferred ships. That's not the case in 2.0. Most of the 2.0 releases have cards that work well with the ship they're packaged with. @ScummyRebel is on point with that. I think FFG's really been doing better at balancing upgrades they include with ships to work well with those ships. There is one thing to warn you about, though. Because Hyperspace has now transitioned into a much more curated format, there are some cards that may come in packs which have been, temporarily, moved out of Hyperspace, but the hardest-hit in this way, I think, are the new factions (CIS and Republic). I don't know if this is the case with any of the cards from the packs you're looking at buying, but the .pdfs noted below will also tell you what's Hyperspace legal and what's not, and whatever squad builder you use should have that information already, if it's at all functional. I'm a fan of the official app; many are not, but it does give you the appropriate cards, pilots, and ships available to you in Hyperspace regardless of what others feel about its design, UI, or overall functionality.

Fire-Control System (FCS) actually comes in the TIE Advanced pack for 2.0, so you don't have to worry about buying something else to get it. Passive Sensors is included in the Hotshots and Aces card pack, as already noted.

In any games that want to be tournament- (or format-) legal, you will not be able to use Boba Fett in an Imperial squad. It will also be very difficult to put together ships from two different factions without manually calculating all the points. FFG does provide .pdf files with all the points at each points change, and you can download them from the X-Wing Product Support site ( https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/x-wing-second-edition/ ), so if you want to fly a mixed-faction fleet casually, you can. I don't think there's a squad builder out there - either Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0 (YASB 2.0) or the official Squad Builder app, or any other - that actually allows you to build multi-faction lists.

As of now, there are no dual-faction ships (i.e. a single ship that comes with a set of pilots for multiple factions). Even in 1.0, there was only one. Any ship pack you buy will be usable only in one faction. The combinations that you might encounter, however, are as follows:

1) A named pilot that appears in multiple chassis - for example, if playing the Republic, Anakin Skywalker can appear in the Aethersprite, the Republic Y-Wing, and the Naboo N-1 Starfighter. These three versions of Anakin cannot be flown together, but each ship is usable in an individual list.

2) A named pilot that appears in different factions - for example, Han Solo appears as a pilot in both the Rebel and the Resistance factions, and both versions pilot a YT-1300, but the pilot abilities, subtitles, and faction affiliation are distinct.

3) A Crew card or Gunner card that matches a named pilot - You cannot use a Crew card with the same name as a Pilot card in the same faction. For example, In the Falcon pack, you will get a Luke Skywalker Gunner card. He cannot be used in the same squad as an X-Wing piloted by Luke.

4) A Crew card that appears in multiple factions - all Unique Crew cards will indicate what faction they are usable in, or what special requirements the squad must have in order to use them. For example, there are three different versions of the C-3P0 Crew card, one each for the Republic, Rebellion, and Resistance. They all indicate what faction they can be used in in a restriction box.

1 hour ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Oh, one more question: In Armada, you’ll sometimes see fleets like, “6 CR90 Corvettes with Turbolaser Reroute Circuits,” but more often, they’re more varied and balanced affairs, with like, a big MC80 Cruiser, a CR90, a Nebulon-B Escort Frigate, a Medium Transport flotilla and some fighters. I’ve noticed a lot of X-Wing lists that are like, “5 A-Wings,” or “Vader and 6 TIE/lns,” or “5 TIE Strikers.” Is there anything inherently wrong with going with a wide variety of varied ships? Does it create poor synergy to do things like, “TIE Interceptor, Lambda Shuttle, 2 x TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber,” or “X-Wing, A-Wing, B-Wing, Y-Wing?” Or do lists like this tend to fill a lot of each other’s weaknesses and work well in tandem?

When people are talking about things like 5As, or Vader and 6 TIEs, they're talking list archetypes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with fleets that have a wide variety of different ship types. Synergizing in X-Wing tends to be more about pilot abilities or in-squad actions that work together, rather than about ship types that bolster each other. They have different roles. For example, a mixed A-Wing, B-Wing, X-Wing, and Y-Wing squad will have the following. The order follows the order I just noted:

1) A-Wing - fast interceptor, good for blocking, getting into enemies' faces quickly, and highly maneuverable, but low damage output and more likely to die quickly.

2) B-Wing - slower, less maneuverable ship, but high damage output and can take a lot of damage. They are often used as "knife-fighters"; once they get close to an enemy ship, they get extremely powerful. However, they are vulnerable at close range.

3) X-Wing - workhorse ship, with decent maneuverability, decent damage output, and some survivability, but without a particularly key function in any squad (unless you're looking at pilot abilities).

4) Y-Wing - lower damage output, but higher customizability for different squad functions. They are also 'tanky', they can take a lot of hits and are usually used as nuisances in a squad. For example, they can attack out of multiple firing arcs if equipped with a turret, or can be outfitted as a dedicated bomber to make your opponent's moves more difficult or more considered.

1 hour ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Oh, one more question: In Armada, you’ll sometimes see fleets like, “6 CR90 Corvettes with Turbolaser Reroute Circuits,” but more often, they’re more varied and balanced affairs, with like, a big MC80 Cruiser, a CR90, a Nebulon-B Escort Frigate, a Medium Transport flotilla and some fighters. I’ve noticed a lot of X-Wing lists that are like, “5 A-Wings,” or “Vader and 6 TIE/lns,” or “5 TIE Strikers.” Is there anything inherently wrong with going with a wide variety of varied ships? Does it create poor synergy to do things like, “TIE Interceptor, Lambda Shuttle, 2 x TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber,” or “X-Wing, A-Wing, B-Wing, Y-Wing?” Or do lists like this tend to fill a lot of each other’s weaknesses and work well in tandem?

This is all largely a question of your play style and collection. I haven't played Armada in a bit but X-wing lends itself to uniform lists a bit better than Armada does.

One of the big differences between the two is when ships move and shoot. With Armada that can change every turn and often you are aiming for the coveted last-first situation. You shoot and then move with one ship and then your opponent shoots and moves with one ship. And the same player each turn gets first pick. Ships do not need to determine their maneuver at the outset of the turn.

In X-wing ships move on their initiative values and what move they will make is determined and locked in before any ships move. All the ships at the lowest value of first player move then all the ships of that initiative value of the second player move. And you go up until all ships have moved. Then the highest initiative ships shoot going down.

So part of list-building strategy is putting ships in that might move at a particular time. 5 of so-and-so ship tend to all have the same initiative. This is beneficial in planning but can have downsides in other areas.

You still want to make lists that have synergy and work together.

So in general, since transition to second edition, X-Wing is pretty good about not hiding upgrade cards behind ships that don't suit them.

That's not to say that every ship comes with the upgrades that give it the optimum build, however. Some are better than others, and in most cases these 'optimum' builds are only going to be vital if you're playing more competitively.

For casual and learning games, most expansions should come with upgrades the ships can use and benefit from. For example, the TIE Advanced comes with an upgrade called Fire Control System that works really well with its ship ability. In super competitive lists, these days Darth Vader will usually replace Fire Control System with a more recent upgrade of the same type called Passive Sensors. But FCS was a staple for a long time, and at beginner level you really don't lose too much not being able to run Passive Sensors.

You'll see a similar story for must ships, and there are also some really solid upgrades in the core set.

With regards to the Boba issue, I would advise against mixing factions even in super casual games.

Boba and Vader, for example, are two of the strongest pilots in the game. You can also fit both of them in a list. I think even among new players getting used to the rules and playing very suboptimally, it would be a very strong and possibly unfair list.

But if your friend wants to play Boba and doesn't want to fully invest in the Scum faction, you could always play free for all games with a couple of players and one ship each. You can build solid versions of Boba, Vader, Luke and Han/Lando that all come out to around the same number of points and so should be fairly balanced.

On list archetypes, you're right that you often see more lists of a single ship type in X-Wing. There's a couple of reasons for that, but mostly its because X-Wing heavily favours efficiency to get around variance. Where in Armada you can have an ISD throwing out 8 dice and then potentially 4 dice against a Neb-B (that crucially doesn't have defence dice to counter them), and a Neb-B that's only able to return fire with 3 dice total, you don't see anywhere that sort of gap in firepower between ships in X-Wing. It's very rare that you would see a difference in attack dice of more than 3 in X-Wing.

What that means is that its harder for a big ship like the Falcon to be a match for two or three smaller ships the way an ISD can handle a couple of Neb-Bs.

So outside of some exceptions due to abilities like Boba and Fenn, lists favour getting their firepower through numbers. And with movement happening in more of a fixed order than Armada, and all the moves having to be preplanned rather than decided at each ships activation, it's easier to keep multiple ships together if they can move in the same way.

This isn't a hard and fast rule, though. There are some very successful lists out there that make good use of a mixture of ships.