I love the idea of the game but just want to make sure of a few things before dropping some cash on it.

1. Is the game same samey after a few games?

2. If no how much stuff do you need to make it diverse enough,I am guessing one xwing and two tie fighters gets boring quickly.

3. What kinds of play area do you need for a decent game?

4. I am not a massive fan of named this or that, I would prefer a standard Y1300 if that's the correct name to the millennium falcons type with my made up Captains etc,because I like writing my own story I know there are named movie characters in the game but is their room for people like me there?

Couple of crazy blue sky questions

5. Do you think they will ever release other factions? Say old republic and or criminals etc? (I find this period so much more interesting)

6. Is anyone connecting this to the star wars roleplay? I think a rebel squadron roleplay would be epic......

Oh and what would you buy to start?

1) Not really. There are enough ships, pilots, and upgrades to make a huge number of possible lists. The game is remarkably (though not perfectly) balanced, so most 100 point lists are viable.

2) A viable 100 point list can contain between 2 and 8 ships, with most being found in the 3-5 range. Each ship beyond that certainly helps, but to really avoid repetative lists, you'd need around 6-8 ships per faction.

3) Standard play area is 3'x3'

4) Each ship has at least one generic pilot. You can have as many generic pilots as you want in a game. However, I think it would be a mistake to avoid named pilots altogether, even if you do focus more heavily on the generics.

5) Not anytime soon. Almost certainly not this year. We don't know what the future might bring and a lot of people want to see another faction.

6) Yes, it has been connected to the Star Wars RPG quite well, particularly the FFG tabletop version (Edge of the Empire).

7)

2 Core Sets

1 TIE Expansion

1 X-Wing Expansion

EITHER

1 Slave 1

1 Aluminum Falcon

OR

1 A-Wing

1 B-Wing

1 TIE Advanced

1 TIE Interceptor or Bomber

This will give you enough to get a taste of different squads.

The generics are always weaker than named Characters?

Ahh the classic Aluminum Falcon!

Not weaker, but less skilled so they are often shot at before they have a chance to shoot

The generics are always weaker than named Characters?

With one exception coming in the upcoming Imperial Aces, for any given ship the generic pilots have lower Piloting Skills. Also, unique characters have special abilities. In essence, unique characters will move later, shoot sooner, and have better abilities than generics. However, they cost more points, so generic pilots are quite popular in many lists.

The generics are always weaker than named Characters?

Each named pilot has a specific ability added to them, in addition to what a generic pilot of the same level would have.

Additionally, the generic pilots tend to have lower pilot skills than the named pilots (the only exception here is the Level 6 Royal Guard Interceptor that is coming out soon)

And, in the case of the Millennium Falcon, the generic pilot's ship has actively different stats.

Balancing comes from the fact that the named pilots are more expensive points-wise, and so you can fit more generics into a fleet, while still maintaining the core play of the ship (except for the Falcon).

Let us look at X-Wings for an example. You have Generic Pilots in two flavours, one a 21 point Rookie Pilot that has a pilot skill of 2, and a 23 point Red Squadron Pilot with a pilot skill of 4.

However, for named X-Wing Pilots, we have the 25 point Biggs Darklighter, who is a level 5 pilot that enemies must shoot at, if they can, the 26 point Garven Dreis, a level 6 who gives his focus token to an allied ship at Range 1 rather than discarding it, the 28 point Luke Skywalker, a level 8 who can take up an Elite Pilot Talent upgrade who is significantly harder to hit than the rest of the X-Wing pilots, and Wedge Antilles, a level 9 who can take up an Elite Pilot Talent upgrade who reduces his foes ability to dodge when he attacks.

From my personal experience as a casual player(former hardcore Battletech collector).

1. I have been playing for about nine months, about two or three times a month. Just mixing things up here and there with friends and family, the game is different each time. Sometimes running missions from the books or just 100-150 pt skirmishes).

Tournaments become vastly different from match to match, just look at some of the battle reports on Youtube.

2. For myself I picked up two starters then three of each of the smaller ships along with two HWKs, one Lambda, one YT1300 and one Firespray. I also have intent on picking up more of the larger ships soon for customisation and extra upgrades. You could likely get into just one of each ship unless you wanted to get into tournament play. Many folk around here preach two starters due to cost of the extra mini's and dice.

3. any 36" x 36" area will due, simple table tops to plain black felt to elaberate custom vinyl play mats.

4. Each style has it's own pilot; However, there are several different pilots for each type of ship, some unique like Han Solo, Boba Fett and Darth Vader, while others are just "Rookie Pilot" or "Outer Rim Smuggler". That said there are plenty of different ship upgrades to each make each ship different from another.

....

5. Star Wars fanboy dream would be to have the Hutt Cartel or Black Suns added to this game by FFG, in the meantime many folks elsewhere on the web have already build custom proxies and cards for just that.

6. I plan on collecting Edge of the Empire and see how well they mix just for the space battles...

as for your last question I sort of answered that in number 2.

When our group plays ever other week or two, it's always a little different. The only thing that has been constant is that for some odd reason, most of us get better dice rolls with the generic pilots then when we run characters. Not sure why that is, but it is.

The generics are always weaker than named Characters?

In a sense of "one generic Red Squadron Pilot is less dangerous than one of the named Red Squadron Pilots like Wedge", yes. However unlike the Star Trek equivalent, Attack Wing, I would argue strongly that generic pilots are not less dangerous point-for-point than their veteran cousins; yes, special abilities and yes, higher pilot skill, but remember that the 18 point "Alpha Squadron Pilot" has exactly the same hit points, firepower, and manouvre dial as the 27-point Soontir Fel. Never underestimate how dangerous a pack of generic dudes can be.

With regards to adding Old Republic stuff... I really don't know. It depends on the terms of FFG's license. Clone wars may be restricted for the same reason.

If you have a handful of ships for each side it is more than enough to start with. Typical squadrons may be 4 rebels vs 5-6+ imperials but nothing is stopping you from playing at lower point values or just having a gentleman's agreement that you will use fewer ships.

If you like the game enough to actually play a whole bunch of matches and decide you want to get more ships to mix things up, go for it, but you don't absolutely need a massive fleet to keep it interesting. Even if you only have 3 or so rebel ships there are many ways to outfit and play with them.

I would start with one or two core sets and then grab an expansion or two for each side (maybe one more for the Imperials since their ships are cheaper) and have at it. From my personal experience one core set, a Y-wing, and a TIE advanced was a great start but these days you have a lot of options to choose from.

A single core set is going to grow repetitive once you've learned the system, but once you've bulked out your collection to play at 100pts regularly you should have enough options for variety of ships and upgrades. At the standard size of play there's a lot of room to adjust lists and try them out against each other, which keeps the game different for each match (at least for me, and I rarely play scenarios asides from asteroids).

The standard playing field is 3'x3', though you'll want about a 3'x4' for room to lay out your cards, templates, and tokens.

Named pilots are ultimately just a name on the stat card and base, I have no problem with using my repainted YT-1300 with the Chewbacca pilot stats without feeling compelled to play pretend-space-battle picturing it as Chewbacca himself rather than a similarly-skilled smuggler/Rebel agent/mercenary/etc.

I love the idea of the game but just want to make sure of a few things before dropping some cash on it.

1. Is the game same samey after a few games?

2. If no how much stuff do you need to make it diverse enough,I am guessing one xwing and two tie fighters gets boring quickly.

3. What kinds of play area do you need for a decent game?

4. I am not a massive fan of named this or that, I would prefer a standard Y1300 if that's the correct name to the millennium falcons type with my made up Captains etc,because I like writing my own story I know there are named movie characters in the game but is their room for people like me there?

Couple of crazy blue sky questions

5. Do you think they will ever release other factions? Say old republic and or criminals etc? (I find this period so much more interesting)

6. Is anyone connecting this to the star wars roleplay? I think a rebel squadron roleplay would be epic......

Oh and what would you buy to start?

1) Since the game is much more about how you play it than what list you brought, I would say No, even if you don't have a ton of ships to play with.

2) I recomend getting a couple of Starter sets and a few more ships that you personally like from the Star Wars Universe. That should keep you having fun for a while. I bought all the stuff, but not because it is needed, I want it all.

3) 3'x3' I bought some felt for like $3 and that isn't even necessary.

4)Named pilots are better, but they also cost more. Avoiding such character is a very viable way to play, but since you will have more ships on the table, you will need to buy. It is worth pointing out that unlike every other ship in the game, the Named YT-1300 has better stats than the generic (other than of course Pilot Skill)

5) In order to keep the game going, FFG will need keep releasing things, this may require it to expand into other erras of factions, but I don't forse that happening anytime soon.

6) The Models work great, but the game mechanics in the Role Playing Game and the X-wing are vastly different. That does not mean that you can't try to do some hybrid yourself. I plan on somehow incorporating the movement system in a game I am planning. It might be more applicable in Age of Rebellion rather than Edge of the Empire, because dogfights are generally military actions. A good smuggler should avoid a squadron of TIEs rather than beat them in a dogfight

I can agree with what most have said here on the major points... but

Personally I feel this game is too leathal for mixing with an RPG to combine them outright. There needs to be some customization or you will TPK your roleplaying group.

Having played RPGs since the late 70s, I've seen a lot of people try to incorporate their favorite space game or flying game into their RPGs, very few work fluidly.

Just my observation, but with the differing systems and concepts of the 2 games, I think it might be better to maybe use what rules the RPG has for space combat (if any) and just use the ships as a reference for the placement of your craft. Otherwise, as I mentioned you may kill off your party..

Further discussion of Unique Pilots vs Generic Pilots

I assumed you read the rules and some cards. If you have you have read this already, but here goes anyway.

Unique pilots differ from generic in four ways.

1- You can only have one of each unique pilot, that is pretty obvious, but it is a big difference so I thought I would say it out right.

2- Unique pilots all have their own special ability. For example Vader can take two actions, Wedge forces his targets to roll one less agility dice. In general the more expensive the unique pilot the better his/her unique ability. Howlrunner (the most expensive TIE) has one of the most popular abilities in the game: Any friendly ship within 1 can re-roll an attack dice. But since the usefulness of these special abilities in subjective it can't always hold true that the best abilities go to the most expensive pilots. For example Boba Fett has the ability to switch any left turn for a right turn and vice versa. Though this sounds really useful, I have tried in a number of times and find it less useful than Krassis's ability to among other things re-roll an attack dice when he shoots his Heavy Laser Cannon.

3-Unique Pilots tend to have higher Pilot Skills. Having a higher pilot skill lets you shoot first (the advantage here is obvious), but it also let's you move and take your actions second. I am not going to go into why this is so great right here. And it is worth pointing out that some people disagree with me, or build strategies around moving first. That being said in a tactical game like this moving and taking your action second is a huge advantage.

4- Unique Pilots cost more points to play. Obviously. But what that means if you don't want to play with unique pilots, you don't have to. With the exception of the YT-1300, Attack, Agility, Shields, Hull, your action bar, and maneuver dial is exactly the same on the generic (and cheaper) pilots. So there is definitely something to be said for fielding more cheaper ships, especially when so many of their stats are identical.

I have used lots of relative descriptors in this post, like saying that generic ships cost fewer points than unique piloted ships. All of these comparisons were intended to be made only within certain types of ships. Howelrunner is the most expensive TIE but she is still less expensive then a Bounty Hunter, which the cheapest Firespray.

Jump on in and welcome to the game. Probably the best balanced and most replayable minis game I've ever played.

This community seems lively and well anyway looking at three Cores or two Cores and an A wing + Advanced or interceptor

thank you everyone

Just remember, unnamed pilots, AKA lower pilot skill move first and shoot last. If you choose too many lower skill pilots they risk getting shot out of play even before they get to fire by your opponets higher skilled, AKA named pilots.

This community seems lively and well anyway looking at three Cores or two Cores and an A wing + Advanced or interceptor

thank you everyone

I think 3 Cores might be overkill, unless you are looking to share with a friend or just want to bolster your TIE count.

3 Cores will get you 3 X-wings and 6 TIE Fighters, and you will still want an X-wing expansion (for Wedge), and a TIE expansion (for Howlrunner). Not to mention you'll have all the Focus / Evade / TL tokens you'll ever need...