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Hey there, I'm looking to start playing X-wing and I figured I would populate a wishlist on a website what sells it, and let friends/family just grab whatever from there instead of not knowing what to get me for the holidays.

I've watched a couple of games and played a couple of games at a local event, and I figure I would like a nice range of ships from both sides. I think most games I got to play would have both sides coming from my own collection so I may as well have a fairly even spread.

Having said that, are there any units that are just considered abysmal in the game that I shouldn't even put onto the wishlist for fear that they might get picked? After the starter, are there any *must haves* to which I should attach additional emphasis? I've heard it's good to get a second starter for the rulers/cards/tokens/staple ships, but I'll probably get that myself as getting more variation would be more fun for X-wingmas.

Are there any units I should stay away from if I don't have specific other units to support them via upgrades/cards/expansion sets (like maybe I can't just get a Falcon I have to have some other set to make it work)?

Thanks for reading, apologies if this kind of thing has been asked before, I scanned the first page and didn't come up with much so I thought I'd post a new topic.

The general consensus is to buy everything. Each ship comes with different upgrades, which can be used for any ship (with some exceptions). That being said, there are a few ships which are considered somewhat less than others (so you might only want one).

TIE Advanced- Rather undergunned, and outshone by other Imperial ships. Still useful, because it is the only ship to come with the Squad Leader upgrade.

A-Wing- An awesome ship, if you buy Rebel Aces (which makes them cheaper and gives them more EPT's). However, like the TIE-A, it is rather undergunned without these.

HWK- Problem is, it's a support ship that severely reduces the number of ships you can take that are actually worth supporting (as each HWK ends up costing around 30pt). I've seen it be useful, but you will not need more than 1.

Lambda- Painfully un-maneuverable, and doesn't even have a turret or auxillary arc. If something gets behind it, it will have a couple turns of free shooting before the shuttle can really do anything.

That being said, most stuff is quite usable. If you are looking to start, I always recommend beginning by buying two starters, and an extra X-wing and TIE Blister. It's not uncommon to roll more than 3 dice, so having extras is good. It also gets you extra damage decks and templates, which will prove helpful if you are providing both sides. Plus, the starters are the cheapest way to bulk up with some useful ships. The blisters are just to pick up some useful upgrades and pilots.

Ahh cool thanks for the advice

So would it be your opinion that, especially for starting out, that I should drop the HWK and Lambda from my wishlists?

I'm looking to populate a wishlist from miniature market and based on their stocks this is what I could see adding:

Star wars: X-wing miniatures game (duh)

Empire:
Lambda
Tie defender
Tie phantom
Imperial aces
VT-49 Decimator

Rebels:
HWK
E-wing
z-95
Rebel aces
YT-2400 freighter

With casual instructions to keep the spend split between both factions where possible. I figure I could go in and get the second starter set and the x-wing+tie fighter expansions on my own with some banked up amazon credit after the fact.

Everything else is out of stock at MM, should I drop the support ships at least until I have a better handle of the game so as to *maybe* be able to get the desired performance out of them?

To get going, 2 starter sets, one x wing, one tie. After that, what you like.

You could use a normal TIE interceptor, and A-wing. Like with the starter sets, the Ace packs contain different pilots than the normal sets. These include Tycho Celchu and Soontir Fel, who are probably the best pilots for those ships.

A Lambda wouldn't be bad if you are getting Rebel Aces- it doesn't come with a cannon upgrade, but the Lambda comes with several upgrades which are useful for the B-wing.

So you mean it would be beneficial to get the normal Tie interceptor and A-wings to take advantage of the cards found in the Ace packs? Fair enough. They're current OOS of MM or they'd be on the list, but now I know to keep an eye out for them after the fact.

Seems like the basic X-wing and Tie kits are out of stock or in amazon's 'gouge zone', I'll have to watch out for them as time goes on.

I guess the Tantive IV and rebel transport are also things, but should I probably skip them until I have a much larger collection?

The CR90 and GR-75 are for Epic play, which is a variant game type, so I'd save them for later.

The Lambda is awesome-sauce. It's got a lot of hull and shield, good attack and a dial that does exactly what it needs to. It's cheap, has a ton of options and can be a solid blocker, gunship, support craft or whatever in an Imperial fleet.

Your must-must haves are another core set and a TIE fighter. The 2nd core gets you twice the tokens, dice and cards, plus it's the best value for ships. The TIE expansion gets you Howlrunner, MVP of the Empire since the game's inception.

Beyond that, grab one of everything. Get more cards, upgrades and ships so you can try as much as possible.

Yeah sounds like a plan.

Seems like it might take me a while to find the x-wing, tie fighter, and some of the other more popular/earlier kits for a non-gougey price, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Since it's so important, I'll probably get myself a starter box sooner or later to go with any I might receive for xmas.


So for the most part you can freely swap pilots around for their same faction, are there any restrictions? Like will Howlrunner fly a Tie Bomber as well as a fighter? What about upgrade cards, I assume a droid is a crew that can go between various rebel ships, and missiles fit on any ship that can shoot missiles?

 GrimDork wrote:
Yeah sounds like a plan.

Seems like it might take me a while to find the x-wing, tie fighter, and some of the other more popular/earlier kits for a non-gougey price, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Since it's so important, I'll probably get myself a starter box sooner or later to go with any I might receive for xmas.


So for the most part you can freely swap pilots around for their same faction, are there any restrictions? Like will Howlrunner fly a Tie Bomber as well as a fighter? What about upgrade cards, I assume a droid is a crew that can go between various rebel ships, and missiles fit on any ship that can shoot missiles?

All pilots (so far) are restricted to a single ship type. However, upgrade cards may be spread around freely.

Ahh ok that makes sense. Thanks for the info

I have at least one of each ship with the exception of the Tie Bomber and the two Epic ships. You can't go wrong with an extra starter box, best value there is. You will eventually need the extra movement templates and such, as they are cardboard and eventually fray. The transport ship comes with an alternate x-wing, and its upgrade cards are well worth it. I look at it every time I go to the FLGS, yet never pull the trigger to get it.

So far, the biggest problem I see is that I have a ton of ships, and usually only play 100 or 150 point lists.

Here are ships that I would get outside of the starter box.

E-wing
Tie Advanced
Tie Phantom
Slave 1
Falcon
HWK
B-wing
and of course, a x-wing and Tie fighter blister.

Seriously, it doesn't really matter what you end up getting first, they all have uses, and upgrade cards you can use elsewhere. This is the only game I've played where I've never been disappointed with an expansion. Even the infamous tie advanced is useable with vader. A sucky ship with a phenomenal pilot skill.

Hope Santa is good to you.

Indeed thanks

I don't think the advanced was in stock, but I'll probably gravitate towards picking up one of everything eventually.

Once it hits retail I'll probably be looking to buy that scum and villainy 3 ship set since they also work for the rebels (and I'll potentially have pilots from the z-95 and rebel aces boxen) and conversely some of my rebel ships will also work in that direction. Maybe not everything will have the right paint job, but meh.

"I don't think the advanced was in stock, but I'll probably gravitate towards picking up one of everything eventually."

And theirs the major pitfall you should have avoided.
The models are well done, instantly playable, not to expensive, and everyone can be used to fill gaps or anchor a squad.
So you end up buying "one of everything."
Even my 10yo daughter is so into it I end up buying doubles now, 1 for me one for her (we each are repainting our ships different).
Welcome to the Dark Side. We have cookies. And cool games.

I already liked starwars and the system seems pretty fun for zooming little ships around and going 'pew pew', enough so that I may even get some of the less gamery people I know to give it a shot.

And even 4 or 5 waves in one can still get 'one of everything' without breaking the bank too terribly. Still less than a 40k army to own everything they make for X-Wing and extra ships and gubbins to spare I'd wager.

Like all have said, buying 1 of each Expansion will easily field you a game between yourself and another friend. Only issue you might run into is when the both of you need to use multiple copies of the same upgrade cards, but those are generally workable.

Only ship where you may consider buying multiple ships of is the GR-75 (Rebel Transport). The mission that comes out of that book (that's not part of the campaign) uses 3 of those ships. I don't know if I'd get another 2 of them, but my hope is that they start releasing more and more missions using multiple versions of that ship.

Huh, interesting. That's kind of a hard sell to me for just one mission too, time will tell I guess.

Nice Name/Avatar.

I actually like using the Tie Interceptor. Ever since I was a kid, it has been my favorite.

How is the Falcon? Worth getting?

 GrimDork wrote:
Huh, interesting. That's kind of a hard sell to me for just one mission too, time will tell I guess.

Yeah, my point exactly. The ship by itself isn't overly impressive (and honestly how impressive could a "Transport Ship" be?). If they wrote more missions and released them on their website more often, it would definitely lend itself to being a more sought for ship. Same goes for the Tantive IV.

 GrimDork wrote:
Nice Name/Avatar.

Thank you! I'm a big fan of the Manga and Anime.

MWHistorian wrote:How is the Falcon? Worth getting?

I love it. Played it for the first time yesterday, with a few of the passengers that came in this more recent expansion (Lando, specifically). Takes a bit of getting used to fielding Large Ships, but once you get the hang of it, they're great. Han as the Pilot, with Luke as a Passenger is deadly too.

I believe I've heard good things about the falcon, but it's one of those ships that seems to be out of stock a lot. Or maybe it's just the first and second wave stuff in general not sure.

I bought mine second hand off Ebay. That's actually how I got a lot of my stuff. I'm sure if you look around, you'll find them somewhere.

 GrimDork wrote:
I believe I've heard good things about the falcon, but it's one of those ships that seems to be out of stock a lot. Or maybe it's just the first and second wave stuff in general not sure.

FWIW, I recently started playing X-Wing (like, last weekend recently) and finding some of the older models required looking all over. I had to get a Slave I from Amazon, Y-Wings from Barnes and Nobles of all places, but was at least able to get Z95s and an HWK from Miniature Market (I'm going for a pre-S&V S&V force since my friends all have solid rebel or empire fleets).

Hah, sure enough they do seem to have some of the missing ships in stock, like the x-wing and tie fighter.

Or at least they were selling them, I didn't go so far as to stuff them into my cart. No discount of course but that's better than paying a fee for lack of availability.

Good spot

Barnes and Noble is a Haven for games now. You'd be surprised at what they keep in stock there.

Still gotta watch them, the Falcon comes up at 200 dollars and the slave1 is close behind it.

I guess that's some kind of seller on their marketplace though. The other x-wing stuff they have (or well that they're selling directly) is standard prices.

And they do have a large selection of boardgames and such.

Got my Slave I from a seller on Amazon for $50, which didnt seem too bad of a markup given prices I saw other places. Ebay was a little more.

Eeesh! I think I'll just wait for them to make another batch, as I'm sure they will eventually.

Considering the Firespray is part of S&V I would guess so. I just wanted to assemble a proto Scum fleet until S&V actually comes out.

Like others have said, Fantasy Flight is continuously printing ships, so don't pay extra over the miniature market prices (or similar retailers).

Secondly, you really do want one of everything. X-Wing isn't like many traditional minis games in that some units are totally over or underpowered. Most ships, even the generally less played ones like the TIE Advanced have their uses (and again, each expansion comes with upgrade cards that can be used for many other ships as well).

I didn't buy the Tantive or the Rebel Transport simply because they aren't in scale and Armada is coming out early next year. I DID however find and buy copies of the applicable upgrade cards from those two expansions off eBay, at least the upgrade cards that can be used with with small and large ships.

As to your original question, I'd recommend going the cheaper route first which would be 2 starter sets, 1 X-Wing, and 1 TIE Fighter. This will give you a good amount a ships and squad building options. It will also allow you to go straight into building the recommended '100pt' lists, which is the best way to play X-Wing, IMHO.

If you want to go the more expensive, all-in route just get two starter sets and one of everything else (barring the Tantive and Rebel Transport).

Good advice Grimnoc, thanks

Good to hear that they're still producing the older ships, I was kind of wondering in regards to the yt 1300's and firesprays. There's a neat little Revel kit that could just about replace the stock Falcon but you wouldn't have cards or anything. I'll just bide my time.

I got myself one starter really cheap from Amazon, zoomed the little ships around, seems rather fun. I heara you on the suggested size but I can't help but think having a dozen or so ships on a side would be fun at least sometimes