Alright, I'm sold, now what?

[interrogator_chaplain]

So, there's a 97% chance I'm going to start up an X-Wing force. The factor that's tipped me over the edge is that the X-Wing community has greatly expanded in my area and a league has started, combined with the low price point and simple armies, this is probably definitely happening.

So, now what? I am looking at Rebels as my force of choice to start with and I really like the idea of trying to make unconventional armies work. Right now I'm gravitating towards things like Y-Wings and Z95 Headhunters. But I'm also open to anything else.

So what should I be looking at to start with? (Besides the core rule set obviously.)

[Mr.Pickelz]

For good variety I'd get, at least:
2 X-wings (blisters if you can get them)
2x A-wings
1x Y-wing
1x Falcon
1x HWK
2x B-wings.
Getting two of everything (except bigger ships) allows you to toss tons of different lists and find new weird things to do, the HWK has some synergy weirdness that you may or may not like, and plays around more advance rules. The Falcon can be a boss if you sink enough points into it. But if you want to keep it short and simple then:
2x X-wings
2x A-wings
1x B-wing

this way you can get the core stuff under your belt and then figure out what tactics you like.

[Nabterayl]

I definitely echo the idea that you want to get things that maneuver in pairs. Basic dogfighting theory very much applies to X-Wing, and that means, as you would expect, that ships dogfight much more effectively with a wingman than without. Now you certainly can make elements of different classes of fighter, but it's generally easier to make two identical ships work in concert than it is to make two different ships.

[Weidekuh]

Even if you only want to play Rebels i would still strongly advise to buy 2x core sets. It's just the best value you can get. Sell the imperials within it, if you don't want them.
Add 1 YT-1300, X-Wing, HWK-290 and 2 B-Wings, A-Wings, Y-Wings as a very solid choice for many many squadrons to build. You can always add more stuff you like.

If you want to keep it cheaper to start, i would suggest the following: Add 1 X-Wing, 2 B-Wings, 1 A-Wing, 1 Y-Wing to your 2 core sets. This gives you a cheaper but still very flexible core fleet to build squadrons.


Keep in mind, that there will be a Rebel Aces box Q3 2014 with 1x A-Wing and 1x B-Wing inside and new very cool upgrades.

[Tyrendian]

shamelessly hijacking, but the question is just too similar - or rather, same question for the opposite side: what to get to expand into Imperial territory? I was thinking of a pair of Interceptors and one extra TIE on top of the two core sets, but beyond that, I'm not really sure what's worth getting...

[Weidekuh]

Imps are a bit different, since they like to fly in swarms. So if you want to fly a Tie-Fighter or Tie-Bomber swarm you'll eventually need more of those. But any ship is fine. Except i wouldn't buy the tie-Advanced more than once. If you like to fly Tie-Interceptors i would suggest 1x Tie-Interceptor Expansion Pack and 1x Imperial Aces Expansion Pack. Netting you 3 Interceptors and lots of options.

2 Tie-Fighter
2 Tie-Bomber
2 Firespray-31 (Slave-1) <-- Since it's my favourite imperial ship to fly I may be a bit biased... :P
1 Tie-Advanced
1 Tie-Interceptor
1 Imperial Aces
1 Lambda Shuttle

Cheaper version:
2 Tie-Fighter
2 Tie-Bomber
1 Firespray-31
1 Tie-Interceptor
1 Imperial Aces

Keep in mind that some upgrade cards are only available to certain ships. If you want to have all the upgrade cards, you will need to buy rebel expansion packs too. Same goes for the other way around. There is a very good card per expansion list here:

[url]http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/topic/573-full-card-list-by-expansion/[/url]

[Cpt Codpiece]

ALWAYS buy blisters for x and ties, and TBH interceptors, A and B wings as the aces/core packs give different cards.

tie advanced.... just get one for poops and giggles for vader, marek is good too but an underused ship, but not too competitive.

the big ships you 'can' live without, but again have nice cards you can dish out to other ships (stealth devices etc)

stock is getting a lot better, now the x wing bug has struck and FFG are making more stock for more demand, still some ships are always gonna be like horse feathers and hens teeth.

but thats part of the fun.....

once you have a falcon and/or a slave..... revell pocket kits are the exact scale if you wanna do conversions as they are in bits and a third of the price.... just buying the main kit adds the extra cards for the pilots.... and obviously friendly games people shouldn't mind a few homebrew cards.
revell also does a pocket scimitar too (mauls ship) and its the perfect scale for a big ship.... i have done my own cards for two variants for it... PM if anyone needs them (one has a stealth device from the phantom cards)

[interrogator_chaplain]

I pulled the trigger today and picked up the Core box and a HWK-290 (Because I'm always drawn to support units for some reason.) and I'm going to focus on a Rebel force right now. The summer league will be starting soon, and I'm getting the vibe that B-Wings are the way to go.

Also a big catalyst to the decision to go for it was seeing that Wave 5 is going to include the YT-2400, or Dash Rendar and his Outrider!! After all the Shadows of the Empire that I played growing up, that had to happen.

[Mr Mystery]

Yeah, I'm gonna jump in too.

Pay day tomorrow, so will sniff around the intertubes and see what bargains I can dig up. Got two chums interested as well, and local gaming club (which for my sins, and indeed commute I never actually go to) has players to boot.

[interrogator_chaplain]

Alright, so flying in the face of all the helpful suggestions and kind advice I've got a proper fleet budding up now. I went down to my LGS and picked up a pair of Z95 Headhunters and another X-Wing. So the fleet now sits at 2 X-Wings, 2 Z95 Headhunters and a HWK-290. That's enough for 100 points and we can get cracking here.

So now that I've defied most of your cries of B-Wing and A-Wing! What am I looking to kit these guys out with here? I'm still in the process of reading through the rules, but I think it's going to be one of those things where I need to put in a game to really get it all figured out.

I know when I watched a bunch of games that cards like "Push the Limit" and the like keep popping up, so what am I looking to equip on my new toys?

Update - Just got the little buggers out of the box, damn plastic clamshell...