Hi All. Happy new year to you all.

As I've said., im fairly new to the game. I have access to most ships with the rest on the way and at least 2 of each of the smaller ships.

I've been looking around the forum and I can't find what I'm looking for.

What I am looking for is a post or a blog which lists the most common builds, card/ ship combos. I know this is open to so many combos and each persons has thier own favorite combos, but I am after the most common used.

One of the major things I want to understand are what upgrades are the most cost effective ( is it worth fully loading bombers, or giving y - wings turrets etc)

I understand this is a big ask, but it could help out a lot of new players.

Thanks in advance.

Get one of every ship. There really is no get this get that, I personally have 60+ ships but I also play every week and love the game.

I imagine the Howlrunner swarm is a pretty common imperial squad. And for the rebels, the X-wing superfriends (Wedge, Luke and Biggs).

I play rebels 75% of the time and if I'm trying to win I go Low PS with almost no upgrades to field as many ships as I can. There are hundreds of different combos to go with. What I did when I started was go on the net a look at battle report videos and create squads using the x-wing squad builder.

Typically, more dice beat fewer dice, so don't overload stuff with upgrades. If you're going to use stuff, make sure you have a PLAN to use it. Simply because you have the OPTION of putting 5 bits of ordnance on a Bomber doesn't make it feasible to do so, as your weighty bird will get shot down before you've loosed all 5.

That being said, some upgrades are worth bending over backwards for. Here's a link to a forum thread I started about that subject: http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/94420-what-is-your-best-upgrades-list/

As for which fleets to do, that is a fairly difficult question, because there are LOADS of fleetbuilds. That's what about 1/2 of the discussion on this forum is about.

That being said, here are some starter fleetbuilds.

A Named YT-1300 + Gunner is always good. Han Solo + Gunner is so incredible that it (with 2 supporting ships) is still pretty competitive, and very beginner friendly. It's called "Han Shoots First", or HSF for short. You'll typically spend an extra 7 points on the YT-1300 to increase damage or survivability.

Similarly, there's the SableGryphon Shuttle, which produces similar results by using Fire Control Systems and Gunner and an Engine Upgrade. That's a 32 point ship if you use the Omicron Group Pilot.

Swarm is always nice. With the Empire, that's almost always Tie-Fighters, but with the Rebellion any 5 ship fleet will count. I suggest 2 Rookie Xs, 1 Blue B, and 2 Gold Ys. With no upgrades, that's 100 points on the dot.

Another very strong rebel fleet archetype is to grab 2 or 3 of the action-trading pilots (Kyle Katarn, Garven Dreis, and "Dutch" Vander, specifically). GarVander (Kyle's new to the bunch, so he doesn't get into the portmanteau yet) means you've got at least 2 ships that are firing Focused and Target Locked every turn, which is intense.

Some of the more favorable pilot/upgrade combos for fighters are:

Soontir Fel with Stealth device and Push the Limit.

Turr Phennir with Stealth Device and either push the limit, but in recent months a lot go with Veteran Instincts.

Wedge with R2 Astromech, engine upgrade, or shield upgrade, push the limit, marksmanship

Biggs with stealth device or shield upgrade, and R2-F2, or R2-D2
Luke with R2-D2 and draw their fire and shield upgrade

those are the immediate ones that come to mind.

Thanks guys. This helps as it sort of gives me a decent build to start from and then to change them to how I want.

What is a good build for a tie swarm?

Depends on how swarmy you want to be?

the basic swam is 8 Academy ties at 100 pts

The next best would be 6 black squadron ties with a few upgrades.

Swarms go from eight ships down to six with fewer being more of "mini swarm" than anything else.

At 8 ships you've basically got a Academy TIEs with 4 points left over; those points could upgrade a T/F to Dark Curse or maybe a Scimitar Bomber or they could be spread out a little more upgrading the PS on a few ships and leaving a deficit to help ensure initiative.

Many of the 7 ship swarms trade out an Academy TIE and use the extra dozen points (16 now!) which often includes using Howlrunner and leaving many other options.

When you drop to 6 ships you're still most likely running TIE Fighters although perhaps not Academies and but you may also be running many other ships as well.

The only way to NOT run Howlrunner in a Tie Swarm is by running 8 ties. She's just too good.