I play both sides happily. The usual way we have of choosing is to place a movement dial for each side in a hand and then the other picks a hand, and then we choose our repesctive forces. Makes for a great random matchup.

That's a pretty cool way to decide sides, Aridia! I like it.

I fly both, as I love the game too much to limit myself to one side or the other. That being said, my 7 yr old plays with me, and he LOVES the Empire and all their ships. I fly Rebels a lot. :-)

I buy both factions and play both mostly equally.

I tend to like the Rebels a bit more but played a lot more Empire in the last month.

I love that both factions are different enough so it keep things fresh.

But I have to say this: I suck equally with both factions.

I play and buy both, but am thinking my next purchases will be imperial. I am trying to decide between the shuttle and firespray to go along with aces. I do like both sides ships though.

I am Imperial Scum. I started as a rebel scum player then switched alliances to imperials. The scum came with me

play both factions.. like a true Master of the Sith...

I am certainly an imperial... My collection is also more than a bit one sided but that is a time and money issue... I would get more in with the scummy side just to improve my understanding and chances agains them!

I've only played five games. I'm 2-3, so far. I played Rebel in all of those games, but I am planning to switch it up a little bit and play a variation on the Scarlet Cowgirl squad. Basically, I'll play anything that looks like it will be fun. My two wins (and one loss) came with my XXXB squad. I'm working on a new XXBB squad, that could be pretty strong if I play it correctly.

But I buy both sides, and to answer the OP's question, I think you have to buy both factions to truly be competitive. I think Fantasy Flight did that on purpose.

I think I like the pre-planning and strategizing before the the matches almost as much as I do the matches themselves. Almost.

I play and collect both factions. I'm finding that I will play the Rebel Scum for a few games and then switch over to the Empire Dogs for a little while. Playing both, helps you to learn the strengths and weaknesses of both sides faster and keeps the game fresh.

Originally when I started collecting, I made my first few purchases more Empire related rather than Rebel since my main opponent was collecting more Rebel stuff than Empire. Now that both of our collections have expanded, we both have reasonable sized forces for both factions.

Both, sometimes mixed together like a squad of B-wings and Ties. Why not? Just beware of friendly fire.

I buy both, but mainly fly rebel.

I collect both factions but since Tie Fighter is my favorite pc game of all time I fly for the Empire!

And yes, that's my Interceptor closing in on your blind side...

I tend to favour the Rebels, as they have some if my favourite ships from the films, but recently I've been delving more into the Empire (because shuttles happen there!). I have decent sized fleets for both so I like to keep my options open.

Besides, I think there's an undeniable strategic benefit to intimately knowing how both sides play. You can learn the movement dials, discover the synergies of various upgrades and pilots and become familiar with the way the two sides play. Know thy enemy, right?

Besides which, as has been mentioned already, the price point for X-Wing is far more accessible than many other tabletop miniatures games, so I think that allows players the freedom to choose and try new things.

I fly for the Empire. Yes, I'm a TIE Fighter veteran. With a mouse!

But I keep a healthy rebel fleet. I collect for my gaming group and I like materials on-hand to support any kind of list I'd like to build, even if I have to rope others to play with my collection.

But this DOES let me single-handedly run convention events as well

I have a reasonable collection of both fleets but the rebels do currently have a slight bias. This works well at the moment though as the friend I primarily play has a slight Imperial bias.

I prefer the rebel ships, it feels like they have more variety

I prefer to think of my self as an independent contractor. Flexible, unattached as it were. However, my last employer instructed me that there were too be no disintegrations, so, I am a free agent once again. Cause, let's face it, disintegrations are the best part. And, ok I admit it, I suck equally with both factions too!

As much as I wish I could commit to only one faction, the games mechanics make that almost impossible. If I'm buying a set for the cards, I will feel like I'm wasting money if I never actually use the ships as well. Until I can get just the cards separate I'll be swinging from both sides of the plate.

That being said I still try to run theme lists. For example, all Black Squadron, all Obsidian squadron, and so on. It's not always possible, but it gives me something to build towards.

I own enough of both sides to play lists on both sides. So I tend to play both sides. In fact typically when I'm playing we'll play a game or 2 then switch sides.

I got into the game buying both sides and still intend to collect a fair amount from each faction. I originally started with the idea of collecting Rebel ships before Imperials, considering most friends only had an interest in running Imperial Squads.

Empire to the Core... (pun intended)!

i fly both but i prefer the empire

I collect both factions, but I've found that a majority of the time, I fly with the Rebel scum.

Having said that though, my FLGS ran a league over the previous two months, and I locked myself in as an Imperial player on a whim. Instead of just going for sure things, I made myself try a different list every week and had loads of fun doing it. I'll probably be splitting my games between both factions more evenly now as a result of this.

i do collect empire myself but i would paly as Planetary defdense forces (civil forces) or Pirates of they come out KUS is fun too but primarely Empire

u can see it in my sign ^^