There's some confusion around squad building in my group (all new players) - particularly with how it relates to upgrade cards.

According to the rules, squad building is done simultaneously and in secret with "Both players choos(ing) ship and upgrade cards from their faction" - however I don't see any indicator on the upgrade cards that align them to only 1 faction or the other.

As such, we've assumed that upgrades are a pooled resource that must be picked through simultaneously. However, this has resulted in some conflict over who gets priority in choosing - and also has tipped the hand on occasion as it's fairly obvious what's missing when the second player starts looking through.

How do other people handle this situation? Since I have multiples of many cards I'm tempted to create two identical decks - however there are a few that only have an odd number of copies or even only 1, which would make it difficult .

If a card is limited to one faction or another, it will be listed on the card. Otherwise all card can be used by either faction. Your problem sounds like you are using a pooled source of supplies. The easy fix is that each player collects his own stuff.

Thanks both! Surprised I missed the line about the imp player choosing first. 'doh!

Yes - we are def. using a pooled source of supplies. I may end up splitting the decks in half and giving the imp player the odd out cards to try and balance out that they pick first.

If you're not playing Official Big-Time Tournaments, I see no reason to limit yourselves to the cards you have physically on hand. Just grab some notecards and write "Shield Upgrade" or "Concussion Missile" on them or whatever and have fun! Physical ships are a slightly different story, of course.

Again, the online squad builders are very helpful for this, in terms of knowing what's available and what it costs.

Core Rules, Page 21.

Squad Building in Missions

Instead of using the pre-determined ships listed under the “Mission Setup,” players may agree to instead choose their own ships and upgrades.

In order to do this, players agree on a squad point total. Then they choose Ship and Upgrade cards with total squad points equal to or lower than this number (see “Squad Building” on pages 18–19).

The scenarios included in this rulebook play best with 100-point squads. If players own only the three ships found in this game box, it is recommended that they each build 31-point squads. The Imperial player chooses first from the available Upgrade cards.

Emphasis mine.

Usually for friendly casual games it doesn't matter. Share between factions or not, use proxies, whatever you feel is the most fun.

But, rules wise both factions should have access to all upgrade cards if they are allowed to use them (note icons on cards). And yes, some are limited by factions and those are noted on their respective cards as well.

The rules quoted only apply when building custom squads for the Missions included in the rulebook, They're not used for a league or tournament. League/tournament rules are pretty much "use what you own". You can't proxy ships or upgrade cards, so you're limited to whatever cards came w/the ships you bought.*

The rules for pooling upgrade cards are pretty much for friendly games where you're pooling all of your models as well as cards, dice, etc.

*No, there's nothing preventing you from borrowing somebody else's cards during a tournament. It can just be inconvenient.