Just the Basic Ships?

[Joe Flesch]

So question. With the plethora of new ships, abilities, pilots, etc... being released by FFG at the pace they are running things is it still feasible to build competitive lists with only the basic ships from the core box and maybe the first couple expansion ships like A-Wing, Tie Advanced?

[PalinMoonstride]

Yes. All the ships have their place and with the new upgrade cards coming out with expansions you can teach the old ships some new tricks.

[Mr Mystery]

Yup.

I've just started. No ship that I've found is objectively better than another. Some are cheap, some are expensive but pokey. Others are in between.

It's all down to your playstyle preference.

[Deadlift]

So question. With the plethora of new ships, abilities, pilots, etc... being released by FFG at the pace they are running things is it still feasible to build competitive lists with only the basic ships from the core box and maybe the first couple expansion ships like A-Wing, Tie Advanced?

Yes, but many of the upgrade cards are only available with certain ships despite being able to be used with others. There are more competitive builds and ships you just won't see being run in competitive play. But for the most part you can still build fun and effective builds with just about anything.
Tie Advanced and the HWK I would say are the two weaker ships, the Advanced is a must in a collection if only to get the Darth vader card. The HWK I've never seen played at all and I don't have one. I've heard it's a good support ship but no experience of that. My only advice after the core set is buy another X-Wing and Tie, the expansion pack for both have extra pilot cards that don't come in the core set that make for lots of fun.

[Straight JaKeT]

The best feeling of course is taking a strange build and winning. That being said you start buying ships more for the cards then the actual ship. Still hitting Vader at range 3 with 6 dice of damage is all kinds of awesome.... But you need the HWK, the firespray (for the HLC card only), and a b wing to make it work.

[Tyrendian]

although, in strictly friendly, private games one might be tempted to allow use of upgrade cards not currently "in stock"/printed out, especially if it's a case of lack of quantity (like wanting multiple AdvS B-Wings but only having gotten the card once through the Lambda, in the pre-E era or something)...

[Mr Mystery]

Yep.

Amongst friends, anything goes. As long as there is at least one copy of the actual card present, or even some kind of online access to it (FFG seem to show the cards on their website) I'd be happy with proxies.

That was my one concern about starting X-Wing, that you need to keep buying to stay up to date with the tricks. Then I remembered I'm a Star Wars whore, and would be most likely getting two of everything anyways!