me and my friend are each thinking about picking up a starter edition
2 questions I had.
one is it only rebel vs empire? or can they fight against their own faction?
me and my friend were planning on getting two starter sets and then splitting the rebel and empire stuff, him taking empire me taking rebel.
and two,
why is it that the starter set comes with 1 xwing and two tiefighters? does this make the game uneven?
me and my friend are each thinking about picking up a starter edition
2 questions I had.
one is it only rebel vs empire? or can they fight against their own faction?
me and my friend were planning on getting two starter sets and then splitting the rebel and empire stuff, him taking empire me taking rebel.
and two,
why is it that the starter set comes with 1 xwing and two tiefighters? does this make the game uneven?
1) You can play Rebel vs Rebel and Imperial vs Imperial. This is required at tournaments. Having a friend to split with is a good way to lower the cost =)
2) Like many Miniatures games, the game is based on points. An X-Wing is worth roughly 2x as much as a TIE. This does not make the game imbalanced. The X-Wing is strong enough to handle two equally pointed TIES and vice-versa.
2 sets 1 y-wing and1 tie-advanced, thats how i started in the game, lots of fun there.
If I may add to the points already made.
1) The core set tells you(sugests) which named pilots to use when flying against each other one x-wing vs two Ties.
This has been well tested and does not come in at quite the same points for each side.
If you were to simply double the points to play 2 x-wings vs 4 Ties you may find that the imperials could probably field 5 Ties.
2) Once you are familiar with the game you will mainly play 100pts squads against each other which again is a tested quantity of points to create balance. For this you would need more ships than you get from 2 core sets.
e.g. you could fly 4 x-wing vs 8 Ties but they would all be of the lowest pilot skills
HAVE NO FEAR. This brings me to my last point and suggestion.
3) The expansion sets you can buy add more named pilots that do not come in the core sets.
If you can stomach the cost I would buy 2 core sets (great value for money) and one x-wing expansion and one Tie expansion. At a push the imperial player should also grab a Tie interceptor expansion also/ instead of the other tie expansion.
This will give you all the possible pilots for these ships and copies of some of the upgrade cards.
Then once you are hooked which you will be 
, you can begin purchasing other types of ships.
I hope this helps and wasn't too much info,, feel free to ask more questions I'm sure anyone here would gladly talk about x-wing all day.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting
As stated by several above, I'll also add my voice to buying at least 2 core sets, for the simple reason that you'll often need the extra attack and defence dice. After the 2 core sets have been purchased, try for at least one of each of the expansions.
also when you decide to buy more models, make sure you pick up at least one expansion each of an X-wing and a Tie Fighter to give you access to a few pilots that are not included in the core sets.. Wedge and Howlrunner are two excellent pilots that are must haves