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Hey guys.

I Just thought I'd let you guys know I picked up X-wing just the other day. So far, I love it. It's a great balance of approachableness for people who are not familiar with wargames, and has plenty of depth for those willing to jump in the deep end. I'll keep it and slowly build two small squadrons for pick-up games with friends. To that end, is buying the starter box again a deal? Or am I better off buying the two TIE-fighter expansions and the X-wing expansion separately?

I picked up the starter set and an A-wing (my favorite star-wars fighter-craft ever ), and received the lambda-class shuttle as a gift from one of my friends. Later, I played an short game with luke skywalker VS two tie-fighters (Mauler and Night beast, I think.) I was the Galactic Empire while my Father played as luke, the rebel scum. My dad's only previous wargame was risk, but he was able to pick up the game rather quickly, even though he was a little fuzzy on the details from time to time (as was I! It was my first time playing!). Still, I volunteered to command the TIE fighters because one ship would mean less stuff for him to keep track of.

In short, I was blasted out of the sky as Luke shredded my non-shielded TIE-Fighters. I still had fun all the same. The highlight of the game was Luke scoring 2 crits and 2 hits in a close head-on attack against Mithel Mauler. Hit the tie right in the eyeball, he did.

In any case, just thought I'd share my first experience with the wonderful game, X-wing.

Welcome to the club. If want more x or tie fighters then getting another starter set would be good. If you want better detailed fighters then you could buy them separately in their singles pack. I've had the game since it first came out but I haven't had a chance until recently to try it out with my son. You should check out a site called the metalbikini.com. It has good articles for us rookies. I can't stress the importance of getting used to moving ships in formation. Well good luck and welcome.

Welcome to the fold, brother. You'll find leaving will be a lot harder than joining was...Lol

 Cypher-xv wrote:
If you want better detailed fighters then you could buy them separately in their singles pack.

Not trying to hijack the thread or anything, but as a newbie I have to ask: are the core set models really less detailed? If so; paint, sculpt or both?

Not in my experience. There is a difference in the cards supplied with them though; IMO the first purchases would be a TIE blister and an X-Wing blister; two XW and three TIE fighters is enough for starters and it gives more variety to play with. Another starter might, and I repeat might, come after that. Mainly if you like the idea of a TIE swarm, and want more dice than one starter contains (and you will ).

 Bolognesus wrote:
Not in my experience. There is a difference in the cards supplied with them though; IMO the first purchases would be a TIE blister and an X-Wing blister; two XW and three TIE fighters is enough for starters and it gives more variety to play with. Another starter might, and I repeat might, come after that. Mainly if you like the idea of a TIE swarm, and want more dice than one starter contains (and you will ).

Well, I Like the idea of a tie swarm, but, keep in mind, I'm primarily collecting for two players, not just one (as I am the only one with a copy of the game and it falls upon me to introduce it to people) Besides, I'd join the rebel alliance before the empire My dream-team is a mixed squadron of A-Wings and X-wings racing desperately to intercept the imperial threat.



I've always liked the self-sufficient and dogged look of the rebel fighters as opposed to the uniform drabness of the imperials. But, that won't happen for a while. Primarily, i think I should focus on getting a variety of ships to give new players a variety of playstyles to change it up and keep the game fresh and new so people can find what they like and get hooked. If you were a potential player and offered a game of X-wing? What ships would you like to see on either side? Which ships would you like to try?

Millenium Flacon is guaranteed, maybe a Y Wing or Vader's TIE fighter if they know more about the universe. The Slave one also at tracks onlookers, as well as the lambda.

Really you can't go wrong with the ships, they all look awesome and will draw in players if they see them being played on a space table.

Waethion wrote:

 Cypher-xv wrote:
If you want better detailed fighters then you could buy them separately in their singles pack.

Not trying to hijack the thread or anything, but as a newbie I have to ask: are the core set models really less detailed? If so; paint, sculpt or both?

The x-wing in the core set was slightly less detailed than the single for me at least. As for the ties I can't say yet since I don't have any extra. I was lucky I scored one a-wing an tie int.

 Cypher-xv wrote:
The x-wing in the core set was slightly less detailed than the single for me at least. As for the ties I can't say yet since I don't have any extra. I was lucky I scored one a-wing an tie int.

It's not core vs. expansion, it's when the models were produced. The first production run was a bit less detailed than later runs, so if you have a starter set that's been sitting on the shelf since the beginning it would have an older model. The x-wing I got from a new starter set a couple weeks ago is much better (in both detail and assembly quality) than the expansion x-wing I got around the beginning of the year.

id recommend buying a 2nd core set as well as at least one expansion for tie-fighter and x-wing ships. this gives you xtra pilots as well as the ships themselves to build good 100pt squads.
this will give you a base of
2 sets of dice, 2 sets of movement templates (needed for 100pt games)
3 X-wings (2 from starters and one from expansion)
5 Tie-Fighters (4 from starters and one from expansion)
you will also have ALL of the name pilots for both ships. this is very important as you will need pilots like Wedge and Howlrunner to make the best squads possible.
from there is really up to ur personal preference. if you are buiding both factions evenly ud be wise to buy one new expansion pack for each faction together.
eg. Y-Wing plus Tie-Advanced, Intercepter plus B-Wing, Falcon plus Slave1.

Buy the 2nd starter set(best value for money) you will definitely want 1 tie booster pack and 1 x-wing booster pack though to get access to all the x-wing/tie pilots.

I just started recently as well and I really do enjoy how easy the rules are to learn and how streamlined the game is. I learned while playing with some friends who had never played before either and we had it down in a few turns.

Hmm. I'm going to be a seemingly lone voice of dissent and advise that after the first starter, you get both of those boosters, then first get some more variety before adding a second starter.
More fun to be had in variety than twenty zillion of the same ship IMO - especially when starting out - but it's a personal choice.
Your pick in the end - just don't get the idea that a second starter is a complete no-brainer if your funds are limited; it isn't. It's really, really nice if you can afford it but some more variety in ships is really a higher priority, IMO.

I taught a new friend X-Wing tonight. He loves A-Wings, so I told him to grab a starter, an A-Wing and another ship that he likes to start. Variety!! It'll give him 5 ships and a chance to try out ideas. I did recommend an Imp and a Reb booster. I don't think a second starter is the absolute best second purchase...unless of course you can get them cheap.

I think the 2nd starter makes a good 2nd purchase for a couple reasons:

1) Cheap way to bulk out your X-wing and TIE Fleet. These are the ships you will want the most of, and this is a cheap way to do it.

2) Extra dice- it is very easy to have to roll 4 dice- Range 3 defense, range 1 attack, proton torps, etc. As of Wave 3, you can hit 6-dice (Jan Ors+Advanced proton torps or Expose). It is a lot easier to just grab the right number of dice as opposed to re-rolling it.

3) Extra Asteroids- Allow you to vary the terrain density a bit.

4) Extra templates and damage cards- in case things get lost.

Okay. So, it'll fall upon me to introduce this to the local miniature-gaming club next weekend, so I played a few games with the club pres to do a test run. A couple of things I noticed:


The good:
The game was very fun and enjoyable for both parties even when loosing.
Movement is a big part of the game. It's pretty rad catching your opponent within the 1 band.
Asteroids add in a whole new set of choices to consider in movement.

The bad:
We kinda borked the total points value at 75. It allowed the rebels to get all the cool stuff with luke, r2-d2, tyco w/ptl, but the imperials were stuck with taking worthless upgrades on an expensive lambda shuttle. I should probably lower the points value to 50-ish so the rebels don't get to bring all the cool toys.
-In both matches, the rebels won handily, again, probably due to the points and limited imperial options.



Overall it was O.K., aside from making totally uneven teams. I'll have to find a better balance between points with the limited options that I have.

Learning from the above, I decided to order a few more models for cheap of the internet. I primarily looked for
1) More imperial fighters. The Empire was hurting at at times daunting to play, and if we decide to play at 70+ points again, the Empire will NEED more options not to get stomped by luke & co.
2) Variety. I have to introduce this to many people, so having a variety of ships is necessary to keep things interesting.
3) Cost. The first wave expansions are hard to come by, and as a result prices have gone up online. Sorry, Amazon. I'm not paying $40 +S&H for a single TIE fighter. I'll pick those packs up once they re-print.

So, from the above guidelines, I ordered.
1 TIE interceptor expansion pack.
1 TIE bomber expansion pack.
1 B-wing Expansion pack.

I figure this will allow people to try different styles of play as the imperials, as well as give the rebels a "heavy" ship. One Idea I had was to introduce people by having one ship per player and try a free-for-all.

I would definitely get some more generic tie fighters as well, they make a great addition to any list. Also some more tie interceptors are nice, the doge like ties and shoot like x-wings.

The game seems to run pretty smoothly once you have enough ships to have options and not just trying to fill out the points.

A couple interceptors will be great, and since you have an A-wing already, you have a Push the Limit card. Put that on Soontir Fel (intercepter) and notice a pretty big change in who is winning...

Rebels are a better/easier starter for new players because they can tank, but when you get the hang of flying and get a good grasp of mechanics, the imperials will really start to shine: it's finesse vs durability.

Welcome to X-wing. I hope you continue to enjoy the game. It started off strong in my area, but has decreased of late due to the difficulty in getting models. I really hope FFG fixes these problems as it is causing the 'scene' to shrink in some areas.

I like the imperials mostly cause I never cared for the look of rebel fighters, or the rebels as a whole. If you are just starting Rebels are a cheap way to start and can play larger games with a very minimal monetary investment. Both sides have their pro/cons so it is really looking at what you want to do, want to field fewer but powerful ships then rebels want to field generally weaker ships with larger numbers then imperial are for you.