Thread:Wazat/@comment-140.184.39.122-20171113210825/@comment-454133-20171113215510

Well, the Special Forces TIE is a good choice, as is The Inquisitor. Imperial Veterans also works well in today's meta. RAC can be a strong choice if he has the right upgrades.

The problem you'll face is that upgrades are cleverly scattered across many expansions to get you to buy them all. :/  For example, one RAC build that did really well at Intermountain Cup was RAC with VI + Emperor Palpatine + Kylo Ren (Crew) + Engine Upgrade, and "Quickdraw" with VI + Lightweight Frame + FCS + Pattern Analyzer. Or something close to that. Other versions of RAC had Rebel Captive. That covers a lot of different expansions; it's the sort of fleet you build once you have a larger library of ships already accumulated. While X-Wing Miniatures is not the "pay to win" money game of some card games or video games, it's still an expensive hobbie. :(

If you're new to X-Wing and you don't own tons of ships, I'd recommend starting with Special Forces TIE and Imperial Veterans. Maybe toss in the TIE Striker so you can have Lightweight Frame, and field "Pure Sabacc" to draw aggro. They're all very fun ships IMO, and they work well in a tourney. The TIE Aggressor may be a solid choice too, as it's a decent contrast to normal Empire ships (because it's turreted), and because it comes with Twin Laser Turret, which will also help your rebel fleet if you get something like a Ghost or Y-Wing. Or the TIE Defender would also play well with Imperial Veterans, giving you a 2nd Defender and more pilots.

For rebels, the Heroes of the Resistance, Auzituck, ARC, Scurrg (Rebel Captain Nym), K-Wing, Y-Wing, Ghost, and YT-2400 (Dash Rendar) all have value. As with Empire it depends a lot on what you like to fly. If you don't know what to get from that list, I'd recommend Heroes + ARC + Y-Wing. They go together reasonably well, and if I remember right, they're decently functional out of the box, though that Y-Wing will want a TLT from either the K-Wing or TIE Aggressor. And you see the problem -- every expansion is designed incomplete, to make you want other expansions. ;)

If you have thoughts or questions about these recommendations, and want explanations or help narrowing down the list, let me know what interests you.