Hi everyone

Looking to get into X-wing casually, coming over from Armada. I just want to get enough to field 2 sides, with my opponent and I rotating factions.

Currently I'm looking at Rebels (my favourite faction), and Scum.

For scum I'm looking at Slave 1 (which I can get really cheap), with 2 fang fighters.

For Rebels, I'm looking at the Core set plus an X and B-wing (B being by favourite fighter visually).

While I'm pretty set on the scum, I'm unsure what to really buy for rebels. Do I add another X/Y to the above, or a Ghost maybe? Ideally I don't want to get too many models that won't be being used at first, and were happy to proxy any upgrades.

I would welcome ideas on what to get for rebels with facing Bobs/Fang in mind to make it a relatively balanced affair that could go either way on the day. And any ideas on what I might out on both lists upgrade wise.

Thanks in advance :)

For Rebels the X, Y, and B wings are all pretty good. For A-wings Jake and Intimadation Arvel are nice but the generics are so so. Outside that the Falcon is pretty nice as well as the U-Wing, any named Falcon sides maybe Chewie are great, and the U makes for a good gunship/support ship. After that everything starts feeling lackluster, not say they are useless but they just don't see as much use or attention.

If its really only playing your friend with Casual games then just play and get what you want. If you liked Rebels and like the Ghost like I do then get that and fly it. Have fun with what you want to fly, if you like B's then they are pretty good as well with Braylen being the king of them.

If you feel like you are getting beat up a bit then we can help with any ideas.

I like the Falcon as an idea personally. Thematic ship chassis for sure. Lando is solid, and you can pair him nicely with a B and an X. The t65 expansion is also worth it for Wedge the pilot.

Two X-Wings (core and expansion) plus a B-Wing is a little bit light. It's possible to make a reasonable squad, by taking only the most expensive pilots, with a few solid upgrades, build a list with just XXB, but Rebels kind of need either a Falcon or a fourth ship (mostly). Any of A, B, X, or Y is going to fill things out nicely as that fourth ship, whatever appeals most. There's a lot of mileage to be gotten out of ABXY + Core Set, maybe also a Falcon. The Ghost, alas, isn't a great place to start.

//

Firespray/Fang/Fang is a great start for Scum, and really does allow some solid lists. M3-A Scyk is a great next ship, probably the best next two ships, but one can do. I personally favor it over the Mining TIE, since Ion Cannon Scyks are really quite nice ships for their price.

//

Upgrade-wise? Keep things mostly pretty trim. B-Wings and X-Wings are mostly fine plain.

Crack Shot is the best Talent, because it's so cheap and it front-loads it's effect so you don't need to have multiple opportunities to use it (Wedge can take Predator instead), Fearless in Scum is amazing, Arvel can pretty much staple Intimidation to his ship. Luke works great plain or with R2-D2 (or R5-P8, but c'mon... Artoo!) or Proton Torpedoes (or both... but that gets expensive). Dutch Vander in a Y-Wing is great with Proton Torpedoes (give a turret to other Y-Wings... Ion instead of Dorsal is worth the extra 2 points if you can afford it), and bombs are decent (just go Proton to start--it's simplest). Hull and Shield Upgrade aren't terrible, but it's usually better to try to build a list without them; cut things and shift pilots to get an extra ship.

For Falcons, Lando gets Nien Nunb, Han loves to take R2-D2 crew and Engine Upgrade, Leia is fine without any upgrades (but Engine is also wicked tempting... Large-Base Boost is amazing). Taking the title is fine but not mandatory.

//

In general, be wary of taking more than one secondary weapon (like, don't put a Cannon and a Torpedo on a B-Wing--you can only fire one per turn), or taking too many upgrades that require specific actions (since you only get one action per turn). It's not that you can't do these things, but I guess what I mean is to think about how you'll use the ship through the game. Sometimes, two weapons or investing in two actions will be right, since on the right ship at the right time you'll get enough value out of each one when you need it (Engine Upgrade on the Falcon is one of those, IMHO). However, mostly be cautious of taking too many things that clash for your one attack and one action.

Lastly, the Force is very good. It's not so much that it's significantly better than other things, but more that it's significantly *easier*. Works every turn, no fuss, with any action or maneuver, with any weapon, etc etc. Luke Gunner and Ezra are perhaps kind of expensive, but overall the force is just plain, simple, and effective.

I guess there's one other thought: particularly for a new player, don't worry about official upgrades. If there's something you want to use but don't have, proxy it, maybe print off a copy at home. No one will mind for new players, so don't feel like you need to buy a Ghost just to get Maul for Boba Fett.

I'm going to jump on the boat of add an A-wing in there; both aces are frankly amazing for the points you pay. Either you get "everyone shooting this guy I bumped is Wedge" with intimidation arvel, or you get every focus token you could possibly imagine with Jake and both of those options clock in under 40 points.

I've seen a number of scum builds floating around, which I'll most copy in some form.

I've had a couple ideas for Rebels, as I'm only looking to play it casually I've been thinking the Ghost as an opposite chunky guy to the Slave 1. I've read some posts about it not being it's 1.0 self, but if played casually will it offer some variations in wins or will it be stomped by the firespray/fangs? Was thinking something like this maybe

Sheathipede -class Shuttle - •AP-5 - 32
•AP-5 - Escaped Analyst Droid (32)
• Phantom (0)

VCX-100 Light Freighter - •Hera Syndulla - 113
•Hera Syndulla - Spectre-2 (72)
Collision Detector (6)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
•Kanan Jarrus (12)
•C-3PO (8)
• Ghost (0)
Veteran Turret Gunner (10)

BTL-A4 Y-wing - •Evaan Verlaine - 50
•Evaan Verlaine - Gold Three (35)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Veteran Turret Gunner (10)

Total: 195/200

View in the X-Wing Squad Builder

^idea, give Hera a green dice, supplemented by c3po perma 1 guess. If Evaan is targeted down Hera can use to to position.

Or a non big ship idea: (copy and paste has stopped working on my phone :|)

Wedge - Crack Shot, R2 astro, Servomotors (63)

Red squad veteran - servos (41)

Blade squad veteran - autoblasters, servos (47)

Gold squad veteran - Ion turret, vet turret gunner - (47)

Basically would these stand up well against a Broba/fang build of different varieties, played by two players of equally dubious skill levels played casually xD

As said ideally don't want to buy loads of models (at least at first anyway), which is why I like the ghost, 2 models and I love Rebels TV show. Falcon is also a thought due to high points, and thematic Vs Boba.

1 hour ago, EbonHawk said:

Basically would these stand up well against a Broba/fang build of different varieties, played by two players of equally dubious skill levels played casually xD

As said ideally don't want to buy loads of models (at least at first anyway), which is why I like the ghost, 2 models and I love Rebels TV show. Falcon is also a thought due to high points, and thematic Vs Boba.

If you like the Rebels show look for the Ghost. In my opinion, the Boba Fangs player has an advantage over your Ghost list because the only one who can reliably push damage through will be Hera (particularly fearless Fangs that move after the other ships in the list). 2 die primaries struggle against Range 1 fangs, particularly if they are still Focused.

Can always fine tune the upgrades though to rebalance a game between friends though.

2 hours ago, EbonHawk said:

Basically would these stand up well against a Broba/fang build of different varieties, played by two players of equally dubious skill levels played casually xD

It's always hard to say when it's two new players.

It's something I always try and bear in mind when offering advice to new players, and I'm often surprised to see others suggesting super competitive lists without remembering that - even if the list is strong enough to overcome some mistakes - most of the time, they're only good in the hands of players who at least understand some of the finer points of the game.

So ordinarily I'd say that your list would get absolutely wrecked by Boba and two Fangs. But I can't know if your opponent is going to understand the advantages he has with Boba's rear arc, with his strong ability to get dice mods and his ability to dodge shots with the Slave One title. I don't know if he's going to be able to co-ordinate all three ships to get range 1 shots on the same target at the same time. A player who's been with the game a while and can judge distances well, predict opponent's movements and judge where their templates would land them would recgonise what a big fat target that Ghost is with no green dice and burn through its HP in no time.

But the Ghost also has a big, wide four dice arc out the front. And if your opponent makes the mistake of landing a Fang there without mods, there's always the chance you could one shot it off the board.

I'll give you some general advice about simple things you could do to improve that list, but honestly I don't think - at this stage - my advice would be worth more than you trying your own list and seeing what doesn't work for yourself. Trust me, some of those elements you'll regret the inclusion of pretty quickly.

I'll give you an example of a super obvious one. C-3PO on the Ghost really doesn't make much sense. The Ghost has an agility value of 0. That means under most conditions, you don't roll any defensive dice at all. So C-3PO can't trigger because you're not allowed to guess 0 evade results. You can't roll the 1 evade result needed as the minimum guess to trigger his ability if you're not rolling any dice at all. He would only stand a chance of working at range 3 or if the shot is obstructed. He also costs you a valuable dice modification token to trigger. And even then, if you roll 0 evade results (and that's after the roll, doesn't matter if you roll an eye and spend a calculate or focus to make it an evade), he still won't trigger. 8 points is a big investment for something that's at best going to get you an extra evade result once or twice a game.

Evaan is also.... not great. I assume you're bringing her to pass the defence die to Hera so the Ghost gets over the limitation I talked about above and C-3PO triggers? If so, here's where another bit of general advice about X-Wing kicks in. 9 times out of 10, trying to cover for a weakness in a list is a trap and bad practice. You almost always want to build each ship to maximise their strengths, instead. Technically, Evaan spending the focus on herself to get the extra die is fractionally better than rolling one die and keeping the token to modify it, but it's not much of a buff at all, and you probably want the token for offence anyway.

I'm almost hesitant to suggest the classic second edition adage that more ships are better than more upgrades, because I think it's good for a new player to get familiar with as many upgrades as they can to help them understand their usefulness (or lack thereof) and the game as whole.

But I do think you'd benefit from shaving some points and making some of these pilots better. If you want to try the Phantom and Ghost docking, then more power to you. But with those 55 points you've currently got spare, I'd definitely drop Evaan and take Wedge instead.

Drop C-3PO and you can use the extra points to give Wedge a couple of upgrades. Maybe a talent like Predator and an astromech. R4 and R2 are probably the best choices for him.

Alternatively, take Ten Numb with Stabilised S-Foils. He'll take a bit of figuring out, but I think he's the sort of puzzle that's quite rewarding for a new player (here's a hint, if you fail a red barrel roll because you can't fit, you still get a stress token) and his ability can be pretty forgiving while also giving you some needed firepower.

EDIT: As you're talking about a buying strategy, I'll just throw in my personal recommendation. You should always go with what ships you think are coolest, though. If you really like the Ghost because of Rebels, then get the Ghost first. But as a broad guide to what I think a new player will get the best balance of effectiveness, learning opportunities and fun out of, in order of highest priority to last:

B-Wing

X-Wing

Millennium Falcon

Y-Wing

A-Wing

Ghost.

Saw's Renegades

There are people out there who will put Saw's Renegades higher because it contains two really solid chassis for a good price (and currently the only way for a new player to get a U-Wing), but personally I think all but one or two pilots across both ships are absolute trash and don't lend themselves well to learning the game.

Because you specifically mentioned being a fan of Rebels, I’m trying to build lists that contain the VCX anyway. 🙂

We can tell you what’s “competitive” or “good”, but if you’re flying the very best list in the world, if you don’t enjoy the play style or the models it’s all for naught. It’s best to play what you enjoy, period. I don’t always play the best... I play the best I can with the playstyle that speaks to me.

That all said, I give you some VCX loving options:

(72) Hera Syndulla [VCX-100 Light Freighter] (12) Kanan Jarrus
(6) Collision Detector
Points: 90

(62) Luke Skywalker [T-65 X-wing]
(0) Servomotor S-foils
Points: 62

(48) Ten Numb [A/SF-01 B-wing]
Points: 48

Total points: 200

Every one of these pilots is user friendly. Ten is forgiving with his stress shenanigans and 8 health (plus a 3 die attack), Luke has the Force to keep him alive. Hera is going to be a nasty hammer, and you’re going to want to focus on her getting that big 4-die gun on target as much as you can. To help facilitate that is her pilot ability, where you can quickly adjust to point it somewhere else if you guessed wrong on the move. Also, Kanan helps her shed stress easier OR realistically, it’s a free focus -> hit on her attacks. Don’t worry about getting Hera evades. Her health is her advantage - just make sure she burns enough things on the way out the door that it’s worth it (your opponent has to commit to bringing her down, if he does you can cause havoc with Luke. If he doesn’t, Hera is out on the board longer causing mayhem)

Another option would be to drop Kanan for Saw crew - you have the health to take a self inflicted hit when you roll a lot of focus results to push through those criticals.

New player... fantastic!

Rebels? Fun!

Scum Boba with Fang(s)? Powerful and fun!

My advice, make sure the lists are fun but as equal as you can make it at first. Boba is absolutely sick, but if you run him without Maul or Slave 1, he's pulled down to being simply really good, not the powerhouse. Still, that chassis is so fantastic, any pilot flying in that ship will be solid. So, keep him lean and free from force or the Save 1 Title.

Best advice beyond that: have fun and let us know how it goes.

...grab a nice tea during setup and you'll be at the height of enjoyment. Cheers!

https://stayontheleader.blogspot.com/2019/11/x-wing-buying-guide-introduction.html

This buying guide will serve you well. Slave 1 and 2 fangs is a great start for scum, although try and get an m3a scyk interceptor as well if you can

Hey @EbonHawk ! Welcome to this side of the forums!

I'm a little late to the party, but here are my suggestions:

First off, at this stage, buy what you love. You're going to have a lot more fun flying your favorite ships from the movies/shows/books than you will flying some random ship you've never heard of simply because the interwebs told you it was gud. That said, if I was just dabbling in X-wing for kicks, I'd have a really hard time NOT buying the falcon just because it's so iconic Star Wars. Still, you do you.

Later on, if you start getting more serious about being competitive you can worry about which ships are OP and which aren't. Really though, X-Wing 2.0 is in a great place with the adjustable point system. There isn't really much that is stupidgood, and there isn't really much that is complete garbage. Every ship has its niche and can be effective if flown right.

As far as strategies for the Ghost goes, it's interesting because it can hit like a truck, but it melts to focus-fire. I've seen a few things cool things done with the Ghost, and there are a few others I want to try. I'll give you one example:

I got stomped in a tournament once by a guy flying this (note: points may have changed since then)

Hera and Lando
(73) Hera Syndulla [VCX-100 Light Freighter](9) Saw Gerrera(1) "Zeb" Orrelios(8) Veteran Turret Gunner(3) Shield Upgrade(2) Fire-Control System(3) Intimidation(3) Dorsal TurretPoints: 102
(80) Lando Calrissian [Modified YT-1300 Light Freighter](5) Nien Nunb(7) Hotshot Gunner(6) Millennium FalconPoints: 98
Total points: 200

Basically he would use Lando to pass a free action to Hera so that she could get a lock and/or Reinforce, then use Hera's ability to fly right up in your face. Then when combat came, he would shoot with Lando first, using Hotshot Gunner to strip tokens, then use Hera+Saw to blast ships out of the water. It's brutally effective when flown right. He ended up taking 2nd place in the tournament (out of 16 players).

Welcome to the game, and have fun! 🙂

4 hours ago, Herowannabe said:

Hey @EbonHawk ! Welcome to this side of the forums!

I'm a little late to the party, but here are my suggestions:

First off, at this stage, buy what you love. You're going to have a lot more fun flying your favorite ships from the movies/shows/books than you will flying some random ship you've never heard of simply because the interwebs told you it was gud. That said, if I was just dabbling in X-wing for kicks, I'd have a really hard time NOT buying the falcon just because it's so iconic Star Wars. Still, you do you.

Later on, if you start getting more serious about being competitive you can worry about which ships are OP and which aren't. Really though, X-Wing 2.0 is in a great place with the adjustable point system. There isn't really much that is stupidgood, and there isn't really much that is complete garbage. Every ship has its niche and can be effective if flown right.

As far as strategies for the Ghost goes, it's interesting because it can hit like a truck, but it melts to focus-fire. I've seen a few things cool things done with the Ghost, and there are a few others I want to try. I'll give you one example:

I got stomped in a tournament once by a guy flying this (note: points may have changed since then)

Hera and Lando
(73) Hera Syndulla [VCX-100 Light Freighter](9) Saw Gerrera(1) "Zeb" Orrelios(8) Veteran Turret Gunner(3) Shield Upgrade(2) Fire-Control System(3) Intimidation(3) Dorsal TurretPoints: 102
(80) Lando Calrissian [Modified YT-1300 Light Freighter](5) Nien Nunb(7) Hotshot Gunner(6) Millennium FalconPoints: 98
Total points: 200

Basically he would use Lando to pass a free action to Hera so that she could get a lock and/or Reinforce, then use Hera's ability to fly right up in your face. Then when combat came, he would shoot with Lando first, using Hotshot Gunner to strip tokens, then use Hera+Saw to blast ships out of the water. It's brutally effective when flown right. He ended up taking 2nd place in the tournament (out of 16 players).

Welcome to the game, and have fun! 🙂

Hey Hero! Thank you for the Ghost build, looking forward to trying it out!

On 3/31/2020 at 3:05 AM, theBitterFig said:

Two X-Wings (core and expansion) plus a B-Wing is a little bit light. It's possible to make a reasonable squad, by taking only the most expensive pilots, with a few solid upgrades, build a list with just XXB, but Rebels kind of need either a Falcon or a fourth ship (mostly). Any of A, B, X, or Y is going to fill things out nicely as that fourth ship, whatever appeals most. There's a lot of mileage to be gotten out of ABXY + Core Set, maybe also a Falcon. The Ghost, alas, isn't a great place to start.

//

Firespray/Fang/Fang is a great start for Scum, and really does allow some solid lists. M3-A Scyk is a great next ship, probably the best next two ships, but one can do. I personally favor it over the Mining TIE, since Ion Cannon Scyks are really quite nice ships for their price.

//

Upgrade-wise? Keep things mostly pretty trim. B-Wings and X-Wings are mostly fine plain.

Crack Shot is the best Talent, because it's so cheap and it front-loads it's effect so you don't need to have multiple opportunities to use it (Wedge can take Predator instead), Fearless in Scum is amazing, Arvel can pretty much staple Intimidation to his ship. Luke works great plain or with R2-D2 (or R5-P8, but c'mon... Artoo!) or Proton Torpedoes (or both... but that gets expensive). Dutch Vander in a Y-Wing is great with Proton Torpedoes (give a turret to other Y-Wings... Ion instead of Dorsal is worth the extra 2 points if you can afford it), and bombs are decent (just go Proton to start--it's simplest). Hull and Shield Upgrade aren't terrible, but it's usually better to try to build a list without them; cut things and shift pilots to get an extra ship.

For Falcons, Lando gets Nien Nunb, Han loves to take R2-D2 crew and Engine Upgrade, Leia is fine without any upgrades (but Engine is also wicked tempting... Large-Base Boost is amazing). Taking the title is fine but not mandatory.

//

In general, be wary of taking more than one secondary weapon (like, don't put a Cannon and a Torpedo on a B-Wing--you can only fire one per turn), or taking too many upgrades that require specific actions (since you only get one action per turn). It's not that you can't do these things, but I guess what I mean is to think about how you'll use the ship through the game. Sometimes, two weapons or investing in two actions will be right, since on the right ship at the right time you'll get enough value out of each one when you need it (Engine Upgrade on the Falcon is one of those, IMHO). However, mostly be cautious of taking too many things that clash for your one attack and one action.

Lastly, the Force is very good. It's not so much that it's significantly better than other things, but more that it's significantly *easier*. Works every turn, no fuss, with any action or maneuver, with any weapon, etc etc. Luke Gunner and Ezra are perhaps kind of expensive, but overall the force is just plain, simple, and effective.

I guess there's one other thought: particularly for a new player, don't worry about official upgrades. If there's something you want to use but don't have, proxy it, maybe print off a copy at home. No one will mind for new players, so don't feel like you need to buy a Ghost just to get Maul for Boba Fett.

I've been looking over the stores with this in mind for my list building, and have come up with a few rebel ideas I really like so far. What would your thoughts be regarding imperials?

I was thinking of grabbing the second core set, as it's really just a steal with the dice/dmg cards/models, then defender/v1/x1, paired with XXXBA and falcon or ghost, could give us both quite a lot of variation in lists for each matchup, and would be more thematic. I really like scum but feel if playing causally at least during the start scum would get a bit boring with limited ships, where the above Imps can do a lot.

4 hours ago, EbonHawk said:

What would your thoughts be regarding imperials?

I was thinking of grabbing the second core set, as it's really just a steal with the dice/dmg cards/models, then defender/v1/x1, paired with XXXBA and falcon or ghost, could give us both quite a lot of variation in lists for each matchup, and would be more thematic.

Double core is an awesome way to jumpstart a collection. The only caveat is that there are unique pilots in the tie fighter and t65 solo blisters you’ll want eventually (Especially the t65 for wedge). I don’t recall offhand which tie pilots aren’t in the core but the one I knew isn’t I didn’t include.

For empire, an excellent starting list is 4x tie fighters + Vader. Something like this:

(67) Darth Vader [TIE Advanced x1]
(6) Afterburners
(2) Fire-Control System
Points: 75

(30) Del Meeko [TIE/ln Fighter]
Points: 30

(30) Seyn Marana [TIE/ln Fighter]
(1) Marksmanship
Points: 31

(30) Gideon Hask [TIE/ln Fighter]
Points: 30

(31) "Scourge" Skutu [TIE/ln Fighter]
Points: 31

Total points: 197

You have 3 points to season to taste with upgrades or make minor adjustments to the pilots based on who is in the core set if I accidentally included one that’s not - I want to say all of the inferno pilots made the core? And Scourge and Mauler are same cost so easy to swap them 1 for 1. One gets you extra attack die in the bullseye range 1-3, the other basically doubles the range 1 attack bonus and becomes a 4 die attack monster at range 1 (but only 2 everywhere else)

7 hours ago, EbonHawk said:

I've been looking over the stores with this in mind for my list building, and have come up with a few rebel ideas I really like so far. What would your thoughts be regarding imperials?

I was thinking of grabbing the second core set, as it's really just a steal with the dice/dmg cards/models, then defender/v1/x1, paired with XXXBA and falcon or ghost, could give us both quite a lot of variation in lists for each matchup, and would be more thematic. I really like scum but feel if playing causally at least during the start scum would get a bit boring with limited ships, where the above Imps can do a lot.

• Yep, double-core is a great value if you need the ships. Having more X-Wings is also always useful.
  • As @ScummyRebel points out, there are a few more solid pilots in the regular expansion.
• x1 and v1 are both solid.
  • x1 is Vader (Init 6, the force, what's not to love? Add Afterburners and a Lock-based sensor like Fire Control System or Passive Sensors), but almost everyone else is at least decent: kind of like an Imperial X-Wing (particularly when you proxy Passive Sensors for lower-init ones). Ved is neat, but maybe not the best pilot for a new player; I'd skip Zertek Strom. He's too fiddly and it'd be better to just run, well, any other x1.
  • v1 is only a 2-dice ship, but it moves well, and most pilots have the force (don't bother without the force... it's not terrible, but the force is just better for the cost).
• The TIE Defender is a ship that I personally love, but isn't very popular. It's wicked expensive, gets free Evades each turn, and can do White 4 K, to flip around and still get actions. It can be BRUTAL in a late-game 1-vs-1 situation. I've pretty much only ever flown the Delta pilot, and for some reason I can't quite understand FFG keeps making it cheaper.
  • However, just about everyone else will say that the ship is too expensive, and it's hard to get value from it. This is probably true.
  • The thing it does well is that it's just so easy and consistent to always dial in a clean move, get a free Evade. To that end, I both recommend and don't recommend it to new players. It can be an annoying ship to play against, since it's kind of inevitable.
• TIE Striker and TIE Interceptor are both good. Getting one, flying Duchess (she's probably the easiest Striker) or Pure Sabacc (dude just hits hard) in the Striker, Soontir in the Interceptor (keep him light when starting out, just Predator... there are other builds, but it's good to start basic), is a good plan. If you like how it flies (they each fly in fairly distinctive ways), generics for both are solid. Striker generics are probably more popular, but Interceptor generics aren't bad. The differences between them are really small, and it'll be best to just fly whichever one "feels" better to you. Personally, I can't get the hang of flying Striker generics. Can't get them to move right for me. But I know there are plenty of folks out there who love Striker generics and tear things up.

//

So, here's how I'd start: two Core sets, x1 mostly for Vader, and one of Striker/Interceptor/v1 (whatever you like the look or concept of the most). That'll build a lot of lists probably. Add a solo TIE Fighter expansion for the extra pilots, and explore the others of Striker/Interceptor/v1/Defender as you get deeper into the game.

If you want to build a small imperial force then yes, definitely get 2 core sets. It gives you the most ships for your money, plus you’ll be glad you have the extra dice, templates, and damage deck. I forgot to mention this earlier when you were talking about just getting into rebels + Scum, but if you decide not to get 2 core sets then you will definitely want to pick up some more dice, a damage deck (faction specific damage decks are supposed to be coming out very soon), and probably the deluxe range ruler kit.

If you go for imperials than definitely look at getting a TIE fighter expansion pack, because most of the best TIE pilots in the game come from that pack (ALL of the TIE pilots that @ScummyRebel mentioned actually come in the expac, not the core set), including Howlrunner, who is the best TIE pilots because she buffs every friendly ship near her including herself. Howlrunner + 3-4 TIEs + any ace is a solid list and is great for new players getting into the game because it forces you to learn how to fly in formation.

After that, any of the ships that you and everyone else have mentioned would be great additions. 🙂

@Herowannabe well that’s depressing. You can tell how I haven’t bought any of those because I was a conversion kit purchaser from 1.0. I got them all at once and couldn’t recall who came from which between core and kit.

In either case, I stand by my concept of Vader + 4 ties... even if it requires purchasing a 5th tie (the one expansion)

20 hours ago, ScummyRebel said:

Double core is an awesome way to jumpstart a collection. The only caveat is that there are unique pilots in the tie fighter and t65 solo blisters you’ll want eventually (Especially the t65 for wedge). I don’t recall offhand which tie pilots aren’t in the core but the one I knew isn’t I didn’t include.

For empire, an excellent starting list is 4x tie fighters + Vader. Something like this:

(67) Darth Vader [TIE Advanced x1]
(6) Afterburners
(2) Fire-Control System
Points: 75

(30) Del Meeko [TIE/ln Fighter]
Points: 30

(30) Seyn Marana [TIE/ln Fighter]
(1) Marksmanship
Points: 31

(30) Gideon Hask [TIE/ln Fighter]
Points: 30

(31) "Scourge" Skutu [TIE/ln Fighter]
Points: 31

Total points: 197

You have 3 points to season to taste with upgrades or make minor adjustments to the pilots based on who is in the core set if I accidentally included one that’s not - I want to say all of the inferno pilots made the core? And Scourge and Mauler are same cost so easy to swap them 1 for 1. One gets you extra attack die in the bullseye range 1-3, the other basically doubles the range 1 attack bonus and becomes a 4 die attack monster at range 1 (but only 2 everywhere else)

Brilliant, thank you. If I ever did go to a store to play it would likely be Rebels, so fine with proxing the cards from the separate Tie Expansion. Recently just replayed BF2 so nice to see Inferno Squad!

18 hours ago, Herowannabe said:

If you want to build a small imperial force then yes, definitely get 2 core sets. It gives you the most ships for your money, plus you’ll be glad you have the extra dice, templates, and damage deck. I forgot to mention this earlier when you were talking about just getting into rebels + Scum, but if you decide not to get 2 core sets then you will definitely want to pick up some more dice, a damage deck (faction specific damage decks are supposed to be coming out very soon), and probably the deluxe range ruler kit.

If you go for imperials than definitely look at getting a TIE fighter expansion pack, because most of the best TIE pilots in the game come from that pack (ALL of the TIE pilots that @ScummyRebel mentioned actually come in the expac, not the core set), including Howlrunner, who is the best TIE pilots because she buffs every friendly ship near her including herself. Howlrunner + 3-4 TIEs + any ace is a solid list and is great for new players getting into the game because it forces you to learn how to fly in formation.

After that, any of the ships that you and everyone else have mentioned would be great additions. 🙂

In the UK at least i've seen the custom damage decks for sale already. Double core seems good as you say for the extra tools, instead of my friend and I just passing back and forth. Just so many pretty models and so cheap compared to Armada it's like a buffet for my wallet xD

1 hour ago, EbonHawk said:

Brilliant, thank you. If I ever did go to a store to play it would likely be Rebels, so fine with proxing the cards from the separate Tie Expansion. Recently just replayed BF2 so nice to see Inferno Squad!

In the UK at least i've seen the custom damage decks for sale already. Double core seems good as you say for the extra tools, instead of my friend and I just passing back and forth. Just so many pretty models and so cheap compared to Armada it's like a buffet for my wallet xD

Welcome to the party! Love this game and can’t wait to be reunited with my local community once the lockdown is over.

I know ffg shipped some of the US preorders from them, because my two decks appeared in the mail. I think the street date was supposed to be a few Fridays ago but that coincided with their decision to not ship new releases until after the lockdown (and preorders often ship a few days ahead of global release so who knows?)

5 hours ago, EbonHawk said:

In the UK at least i've seen the custom damage decks for sale already. Double core seems good as you say for the extra tools, instead of my friend and I just passing back and forth. Just so many pretty models and so cheap compared to Armada it's like a buffet for my wallet xD

Beware though, it’s an “all you can eat” buffet. 😉 The cost of entry might be lower, but it’s easier to spend a lot more $$ in the long run.

Where is the card for B-wing Servomotor located? I got a B-wing but it's not with it

On 3/31/2020 at 1:37 AM, KiraYamatoSF said:

After that everything starts feeling lackluster, not say they are useless but they just don't see as much use or attention.

Well, to the detriment of the players passing them over it seems, since the world champion had two z95s in his list, at the old points no less.

51 minutes ago, EbonHawk said:

Where is the card for B-wing Servomotor located? I got a B-wing but it's not with it

Hotshots and Aces, if you can find one for sale. (I've been waiting 3 months for my order).

55 minutes ago, EbonHawk said:

Where is the card for B-wing Servomotor located? I got a B-wing but it's not with it

As already specified, it’s an optional upgrade they released later on in the Hotshots and Aces card pack (new pilots for a bunch of ships, a “catch up” for upgrade cards released in other factions so everyone can have them now, plus net new config for Bwing)

You’re going to struggle to find one: ffg was just getting them out the door after fixing a distribution fiasco when covid hit. I’ve seen exactly 3 copies of it, all in possession of myself or other folks who preordered through the LGS well in advance. I’ve seen it on amazon for over msrp (25 instead of 20), but that’s about it.

4 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

As already specified, it’s an optional upgrade they released later on in the Hotshots and Aces card pack (new pilots for a bunch of ships, a “catch up” for upgrade cards released in other factions so everyone can have them now, plus net new config for Bwing)

You’re going to struggle to find one: ffg was just getting them out the door after fixing a distribution fiasco when covid hit. I’ve seen exactly 3 copies of it, all in possession of myself or other folks who preordered through the LGS well in advance. I’ve seen it on amazon for over msrp (25 instead of 20), but that’s about it.

In europe there's a couple of them on amazon.co.uk for £43-44 WELL over msrp into gouging territory. €34 on amazon.de.