Welcome to the game! Just out of curiosity, which Core Set did you get, the one with a T-65 X-Wing and TIE Fighters or the one with a T-70 X-Wing and TIE/FO Fighters? Either way, you definitely have enough to be competitive.
Basically every expansion in the game is useful, so it's always hard to give recommendations on what to buy unless there's a specific objective in mind. You can buy whatever looks interesting or fun to you and it'll be a good pickup.
There are packs with new upgrades and pilots for a number of the ships you've bought, which you may want to look into Rebel Aces for the B-Wing, Imperial Aces for the TIE Interceptor, Imperial Raider for the TIE Advanced and the individual expansions for the TIE Fighter, TIE/FO Fighter, X-Wing and T-70 X-Wing (depending on which Core Set you bought). The Rebel Transport also comes with new X-Wing pilots.
One thing I notice: You have a nice variety of Rebel and Imperial ships, but no Scum stuff. So that may be something you'll want to think about. The Most Wanted expansion is kind of a starter set for Scum, although it helps you convert several existing models for Rebels and the Empire that you don't own yet: the Firespray, the Y-Wing and the HWK-290. So maybe once you get those ships, it'll become more worth it to you to pick up Most Wanted and start getting into Scum.
Other good Scum ships to consider none of which require that you own any Rebel or Imperial models would be the JumpMaster 5000, the Mist Hunter and the IG-2000. You'll want two IG-2000s if you go that route, though, since they're designed to work in a pair and share abilities between each other.
Hey, glad to be here! Well, simultaneously glad and fucking terrified; this is my first serious attempt to get into tabletop gaming.
I bought the Force Awakens set with the T-70 X-Wing and TIE/FO Fighters.
And yeah, I made a pretty conscious decision to avoid the Scum faction for now. I'm still learning the game, so figured it'd be best to keep the investment on the lower end until I know that I like the game enough to fully invest in it. Doesn't help that I live in Australia where everything is balls expensive (25 fucking dollars per ship!)
Anyway, I haven't had the chance to have a real game yet (the store near my office has X Wing games every Tuesday, so I'll be popping over to that tomorrow), but I had a practice match against myself, and I don't think I quite understand how to build Empire teams and / or play them.
I tried a 100 point set up, and had X Wing with Poe, B Wing with Ibtisim and Headhunter with Lt. Blount. Empire was Tie Advance with Vader, Tie Phantom with Whisper and two Tiefighters with the cheapest pilot
My general strategy with Empire was to flank with the Phantom while keeping the Advance and two fighters as a tight unit. With Rebels, I did something similar with Poe sneaking off on his own while the B Wing and Headhunter acted as a unit.
The Empire was basically routed. The extra Tie Fighter didn't add a whole lot of value, and the extra ships just meant they kept running into each other. And as powerful as the Phantom was, it didn't really make up for the weaknesses of the two fighters.
By contrast, the Rebel team just had way more powerful ships, while only being one short in terms of numbers. They basically just tanked everything and focus fired Vader. After Vader and a Tie Fighter was lost, it was basically over for the Imperials. I know I was pretty light on details, and I must have made a billion rookie mistakes, but would you be able to advise how to use the Empire more effectively? Or even just general comments if the teams I made were any good?
