Okay, I really like the Star Wars universe I have seen the movies many times and read some of the books. This gives me lots of good stories but to be honest, I have never really noticed the star ship battles. I mean, of cues I have seen them and think they are great. It just that I don't really seem to know anything about the ships or the pilots except the main characters. Han, Luke, Vader. Could someone help with official or known squadrons with all the ships to date? What I mean is I would like a list that could be something like:

X-wing: Name of the squadron, name of pilots, but most important number of ships 5

Tie fighter: ?, Dart Vader, Tie pilot1, tie pilot2, 2xtie fighter, dart vaders tie fighter 3

Things like that. The most important is number of ships in each category.

This could help me build some lists and with how many ships I need

That list could get very, very long. Fortunatly, there's a wiki for that. Wookieepedia has the answers you seek.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Rebel_Alliance_starfighter_squadrons

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Imperial_starfighter_squadrons

Squads traditionally in StarWars literature are HUGE instead they have a certain number of known pilots. Empiral much more so than rebels.

Darth Vaders squadron, aka Black Squadron had an untold amount. 9 members of the squadron including Darth Vader fought at the first death star battle but that was only a segment of the full squadron.

The 181st is another good example of an Empiral Squadron. But again they have LOADS of pilots and ships. Its sort of the whole Empiral thing. Most notable members include Soontir Fel and Turr Phennir who both are tie interceptor pilots in this game.

As to rebels the most iconic would likely be Rogue Squadron which used all sorts of ships, flew in all sorts of squad configurations and the roster basically changed book to book.

I'd suggest just looking up those three squads and going from there, as the books concerning them are either vague about the squadrons themselves (the empiral squads) or are hyper detailed BUT are changing so often it would be hard to give you an accurate roster (Rogue Squadron).

Part of the confusion you have about size comes from mixing up scale. The 181st, for instance, was not a squadron but a Wing/Group - a minimum of 3 squadrons.

Hm, I can see your points. Impossible to answer short. Thanks for the links. I'll definitely use them to get some squad ideas. But I was hoping to get a better overview of how many ships you would need to get a good collection going. I'm going to be the collector so I'll go for both sides. I know there's no right and wrong in this and also that to ask "how many" is the same as asking what the length of a string is. The answer will always be "It depends..."

But would this assessment be somewhat sound: To get a good all around game with most possibilities, it would be good to have 5 of both the standard TIE and X-Wing, 3 of each small ship and 2 of each big ship?

Part of the confusion you have about size comes from mixing up scale. The 181st, for instance, was not a squadron but a Wing/Group - a minimum of 3 squadrons.

An Element is a wing leader and wingman. 2 fighters.

A group is 2 elements or 4 fighters

A Squadron is 3 groups or 12 fighters.

A Wing is 3 squadrons

I want a complete 181st Imperial Fighter Wing!

" You may think, right now, that you want to be one of the 181st's thirty-six pilots. Our testing will make you reconsider. " ―Soontir Fel

I want a complete 181st Imperial Fighter Wing!

" You may think, right now, that you want to be one of the 181st's thirty-six pilots. Our testing will make you reconsider. "

―Soontir Fel

Yeah for sure, the 181st used Tie Fighter`s when Soontir said these words! ^^
(but I would prefer them as Tie Interceptors )

One of my favorite squads to run is "Obsidian Squadron"

"Howlrunner" - Obsidian 1

"Night Beast" - Obsidian 2

Obsidian Squadron Pilot - #3

Obsidian Squadron Pilot - #4

Obsidian Squadron Pilot - #5

Obsidian Squadron Pilot - #6

"Winged Gundark" - Obsidian 7

These numbers are their actual call signs, so I always put the corresponding number ID tokens on the ships when I fly this squad. This requires 7 TIE fighters, so if you're just starting out and want a variety of ships it may not be the easiest to come by. There are also loads of 7-TIE swarms that have better synergy, but I just like the fact that I'm taking Obsidian Squadron through an asteroid field -- just like in the movies! It's even better when they get to blow up Han Solo

Well that's interesting. I just looked up "Green Squadron" on Wookiepedia and discovered that Arvel Crynyd was Green Leader? I had no idea. And apparently Tycho was Green 3, so I could see a squad of A-wings coming together.

But what's interesting to me is that Garven, "Dutch" and Arvel were all squad leaders, but are represented in this game at Pilot Skill 6 without Elite Pilot talents. Too bad they're squad leaders without being able to take Squad Leader! Garven and "Dutch" are fine because they still lead their squad by passing tokens, but poor, poor Arvel.

To answer your what/ how many ships to get.

It is generally considered that every one should start with two core sets (excellent value for money) and at least one of each ship expansion due to them having unique pilots.

Could go into more dtail but good place to start

To answer your what/ how many ships to get.

It is generally considered that every one should start with two core sets (excellent value for money) and at least one of each ship expansion due to them having unique pilots.

Could go into more dtail but good place to start

If you want a squadron i would suggest saber squadron from the 181sr imperial fighter wing. They fly Tie Interceptors and it forms nicely in 100 point games. For exampke you take Soontir Fel, Turr Phennir and 2 unnamed saber squadron pilots. Then you have some points to kit them out. That way you fly one group of the Saber squadron.

If you do that i would suggest painting Bloodstripes on your ships (like i did) or waiting for the new expansion where the interceptors have them already, plus even more pilots fron the 181st