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My wonderful girlfriend has bought me a copy of the X-Wing game as a present

I've played a couple of times before, and wanted to collect a force, but knew that once I started started I would have trouble stopping. Now I've got the basic game though it'll only go to waste if I don't get more ships

At the moment I'm only looking to expand each side to the standard 100 points. I'm looking for fun, interesting forces that have variety and flexibility, and figure that the following might work:

REBELS

X-Wing
X-Wing
A-Wing
B-Wing

Two standard fighters, a fast interceptor and an assault bomber. I know a Y-wing might be better, but the B-wing is my favourite looking ship, so it's the only must-have I'm insisting on

IMPERIALS

TIE fighter
TIE fighter
TIE fighter
TIE fighter
TIE Interceptor
TIE Bomber

Four light fighters, an interceptor and an assault bomber. This seems to mirror the rebel force so should presumably be a fairly even match-up. The fact it mirrors the classic ratio of squadrons carried on an ISD also feels pretty nice

Both forces should easily be able to get to 100 points depending on the pilots and upgrades. I'm also sticking to the classic ships from the films for the present as I just think they look the best - they're certainly the most iconic and recognisable.

I so I need seven extra ships to do this - do these forces seem reasonable? And can anyone suggest some sample lists for each side? I've found and fiddled with some of the online squad-builders so I've got a decent idea what everything does.

Also, for the extra X-Wing & TIEs, is it a good idea to get another copy of the basic game, or separate ship packs? The game set gets me extra dice, templates and markers, but the ship packs have additional pilots and upgrades... Thoughts?

The best way to go about getting X-Wings and TIEs in bulk is multiple core sets. I'd recommend 2 core sets to start anyway since you get twice the dice, cards and tokens. With TIEs and X-Wings, I'd recommend the single packs as you get more pilots like Wedge and Howlrunner. Beyond that, you're fine.

Biggs - R2-F2 (28)
Garven (26)
Blue Squadron w/ Fire Control System (24)
Green Squadron w/ Push the Limit (22)

Biggs sucks up all the guns while Garven and the B-Wing go pew pew with bonus foci or target locks. Greenie flies around being annoying.

Fitting all those ships on the Imperial side is trickier. Generally, solo bombers don't get a lot of play because they won't have enough ordnance to do their job.

Howlrunner (18)
3x Obsidian Squadron (13)
Saber Squadron w/ Push the Limit (24)
Gamma Squadron (18)

Gammer acts as a bruiser TIE in the swarm while the interceptor flanks.

Not arguing Chumbalaya's recommendations, he and I are oft like minded on this forum. But I'd say just get a second core, 1 each of TIE Fighter, Interceptor, Advanced, Bomber, X Y A and B for now as a collection kick starter. But If your just trying to put together a Reasonable two player set up I'd say drop the bomber from your original list and replace it with a TIE Advanced, it gets you Darth Vader who is awesome and fluffy. After all you already got Luke. So your shopping order looks like:

Core(Check! Props to your girlfriend you lucky *ahem* )
X-Wing
A-wing
B-wing
TIE Fighter x2 (For the SWARM!!)
TIE Interceptor
TIE Advanced

Thanks for the responses!

Interesting - so the B-Wing is viable as a fighter on its own, but the TIE Bomber is only really a missile boat.

So swap the bomber for an advanced is recommended. Alternatively is it worth dropping one TIE to get the bomber some ordnance?

And yes, my girlfriend is pretty awesome, and a bigger geek than me

The B-Wing is probably one of the best dogfighters in the game. It's got 3 attack, is pretty agile with its maneuvers and barrel roll and it's got a whopping 8HP for enemies to chew through.

Bombers are definitely better with some kind of payload, even if it's just a seismic charge. And ordnance is general is better in numbers to maximize the effect. 5 Bombers dumping seismics in the middle of an enemy formation is a terrifying prospect.

Generally, interceptors and advanced will be fetching higher price tags in the 25-35 point range, so I don't think you can easily fit in lots of TIEs as well. Now, taking 2-3 running as interference (blocking to deny actions and break up formations) would be a nice element to run the other 2 ships around.

So the B-wing's lower top speed and large number of red manoeuvres are more than counteracted by the toughness, firepower and barrel roll? That should make things interesting, even if it doesn't feel quite like the X-Wing computer games! From the looks of it though it can still be a perfectly adequate bomber as well.

It also sounds like the four TIES plus an interceptor and Advanced gives me options - I can either swarm with all six ships and minimal loadouts, take four TIEs and one tooled-up special, or take both specials and three TIEs.

B-wings are decent Torpedo delivery devices and generally good dog fighters. While technically you can't do certain maneuvers with out stressing, the fact that you can barrel roll into roughly the same spot anyway after a slightly lesser maneuver is awesome. It is still a lower speed ship per se, but it gets a lot of work done. Just expensive is all for the really good pilots. Ploding along beat sticks with a trick up their sleeve is how it think of 'em.

I look forward to giving it a try then

How are TIE bombers generally used in the game? Do people take multiples and drop bombs as an area denial strategy? Or do people use several of them as missile boats while the TIEs flank?

I use them more as missile and torpedo delivery devices over the use of bombs.