I am here to get some ideas for starting out. This is my first step into miniatures. I haven't even played any card games or roll play games before, except a brief D&D thing in the late 70's.

I am just looking to play between myself and my boys, which are too young to get it yet. I just bought 1 core pack and I am planning on picking up an expansion or 2 a week and have a couple questions:

1) How would you start out while keeping a basic balanced fleet for both sides? (list in order you would buy if only buying one or two at a time)

2) Are series 1 expansions completely off the table now? Seems like some of the ones are unavailable.

thanks

There's an active recent thread covering the same thing here: http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/91180-whats-the-canonical-starting-point-in-terms-of-what-to-purchase/

I think you will find that nearly everyone playing will all say start w/ 2 core sets. Its good value (particularly if you can find the major reduced price ones from Target). You also end up with enough dice plus a second damage deck which is also important (1 for you 1 for your boys when going against them).

Wave 1 expansions are very tough to find but we expect to see reprints. Those are really helpful for the TIE's and X-wings in particular. They would be at the top of a priority list while the Y-wing and Advanced would probably be by the bottom.

The YT-1300 (Falcon) is extremely popular as is the Firespray (Slave 1). B-wings and TIE Interceptors are both quite popular as well. You are going to get a wide range of opinions on what people like. You probably need to dig through lists of ships/pilots/upgrade cards to see what is most appealing to you (and your boys) and then plan accordingly.

Given what you have mentioned (plus the lack of availability on the wave 1 expansions) I would lean towards 2 cores, 1 Falcon and 1 Firespray. From there you can start adding in expansions that are of more interest to you.

I would start with two core sets and one of the X-wing and tie expansions. Those are the "basic" ships so should be fairly balanced. If you're kids are young I would stick to building their squads for them at least at first, which will help let you balance things so they don't get frustrated. The only ships that don't have a "mirror" on the other side rolewise are the y-wing and tie advance so I'd try to avoid them unless you really like them.

Wave one is still in production but they tend to run out and you have to wait for the next print run. I believe one is on the way. check the upcoming section.

I would start with two core sets and one of the X-wing and tie expansions. Those are the "basic" ships so should be fairly balanced. If you're kids are young I would stick to building their squads for them at least at first, which will help let you balance things so they don't get frustrated. The only ships that don't have a "mirror" on the other side rolewise are the y-wing and tie advance so I'd try to avoid them unless you really like them.

Wave one is still in production but they tend to run out and you have to wait for the next print run. I believe one is on the way. check the upcoming section.

There's an active recent thread covering the same thing here: http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/91180-whats-the-canonical-starting-point-in-terms-of-what-to-purchase/

BTW love the profile name. Wonder how many truly get it?

An extra core set for sure, if only for the extra dice and templates. Practically everyone does this.

I have three core sets.

As far as the other stuff goes, buy it while you can. X-wing has a habit of selling off the shelf. Soon the stuff you said you'd buy later won't be around anymore.

Get a Falcon (YT-1300) as it is one of the most forgiving ships to play.

On another site I read an article talking about how to get other people to play the game. The solution was to play at 50 points. He'd be the Imperials and use three TIE fighters (which means you'd need one more) or something similar while the other side just used an upgraded YT-1300 piloted by Chewbacca. Chewie was recommended because he gets to ignore critical hits (face up cards) which simplifies things and the YT's turret means it isn't hard to get shots off. A gunner was suggested as crew so another shot could be taken if the first misses but that means getting a Firespray although you could use crewman Luke instead.