I have finally tracked down the last ships missing from my X Wing collection, the 1e Ghost and Phantom (1).

The reasons I wanted the 1e version were two fold;

It has the Phantom 1 Attack Shuttle, that the 2e one does not (I have the Phantom 2).

It seems nearly impossible to get all of the upgrade cards (Sabine you elusive devil!) for this expansion.

I do not have all of the ships for 1e. The Rebel Tie and Alpha Starwing dried up a long time ago, but I have 2e options in the future and may even paint my own “Rebel” Tie.

The Starwing does little for me, and the Rebel Tie is cool, but the Ghost and P1/2 fill the hole in the Rebel’s timeline.

I have been lucky, almost destined. When alerted to some clearances by a Marketing email, my heretofore luke-warm interest in X Wing (Star Wars to be truthful) was peaked and I went looking closer to home for bargains. Two local retailers were also clearing out, so I picked up one, then two then two more TFA core sets for $100au total. The idea was to stick to later period only. This was financially wise as they were good value, common (some were even unwanted) and cheap. I filled out the available options, giving me a large fleet of low variety, but enough of each play dynamic, I felt.

Scum and villainy called me for the same reasons. More variety, soft, flexible timelines and plenty of unpopular ships available cheaply.

Somehow (maybe the R2 card?), I decided it would not hurt to have some earlier stuff, then everything went to hell. Dozens of ships later I have a decent, comprehensive and varied collection.

The 2e First Order and Resistance, then Scum and Villainy upgrade kits were added soon after (a good move*), then the Rebel and Empire ones (not as clever, but I did not want to regret missing them), which left the door open for a few missed ships, whether they were exclusive to 2e or “down-gradable” with separate cards to 1e (Striker, Prototype). There are possibly a few itches still to scratch (CR-90 Corvette), but these can wait.

My short love affair with the game has settled on 1e for older timeline/movie and 2e for later (Scum for both).

*I am probably one of the very few who fit the Resistance and FO upgrade packs really well.