I've gotten my two nephews interested in the X-wing game, and I think I'd like to gift them with it for Christmas.

I'm wondering if anyone has an optimum list I can borrow. Keep in mind I don't make much extra money, but I think I can afford one starter set and maybe two or three expansions.

Edit: I realize I'm assuming the two nephews live together/nearby.

I'd recommend actually buying them a Core set each. That's the cheapest cost per ship, and will wind up with them each having everything they need to play - having two sets of dice is much nicer (especially for all the times you need to roll 4). If you feel the urge to add to that, pick up either a Y wing and a Tie-advanced (keeping with the cinematic experience from Episode IV), or an A-Wing and a TIE-Interceptor, which make a decent pair of agile fighters.

I wouldn't worry about trying to buy them a "tournament" style list - they'll probably be playing against each other at whatever point values they can muster, and if they stay interested, they'll surely have their own style of play they want to buy for.

I'd go with the 2 core sets too. Price-wise it doesn't makes sense not to.

Plus either a Vader Tie Advanced and/or The Falcon (if you can stretch that far).

This will give you enough ships to play pretty much any of the original trilogy battles and give you the main characters too.

Hard to go wrong with a couple of core sets - you need the dice and templates and everything anyway, obviously.

If you were feeling generous I'd add on one of two things - either an extra ship each (2 X-Wings and 3 TIEs can make for a good base to build on), or a play mat or something. Granted those will run you ~$40 unless you're feeling all artsy-crafty but I'm a sucker for them.

For that same money, though (less, really) you could get them each a Falcon or Firespray, so if 'twas me, I'd probably get a starter and an extra ship or two. I think when I started out I got the core set, a Y-Wing, and an Advanced.

I was about to say 2 core sets... It makes the most sense.

Make sure you don't go full retail, but use miniaturemarket.com or coolstuffinc.com

You'll get a lot more bang for your buck that way.

If at some later point really get into it, the extra pilots in a Tie expansion are a lot of fun.

On top of the 2 core sets, I'd get an X-Wing expansion and a Tie Advanced expansion. That way they'll have Wedge and Darth Vader.

Yeah, the coolness of having Darth trumps extra Tie pilots.

If you want to add something less expensive as an "expansion" to your core set(s), get a coupe of sheets of A2 Black 300gsm (cardstock) paper and a box of wax crayons.

This will let the kids (I'm assuming they are kids) create their own play mat. Much cheaper than forking out $40 and cheap enough to replace at a later date should they want to.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I think two starter sets sounds like a good idea, and if I can find the cash I might include a couple more fighters.

Two kids then two starters certains seems like the way to go. Now if you're lucky one will favor the Empire and the other the Rebels so you could get an X-Wing for one and a TIE Fighter for the other. The reason I'm suggesting this is that those expansions also improve the core ships by giving them a couple more pilot options.