"Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to"
LAST UPDATED - APRIL 2023
1) INTRODUCTION
The First Order are the bad guys who have emerged from the scattered remnants of the Empire to threaten the galaxy anew in The Force Awakens. Here you'll find Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma and General Hux as the most recognisable protagonists, usually surrounded by their TIE Fighter escorts. There's also the first signs of ships coming in the Resistance cartoon series, with Major Vonreig's deadly red TIE Interceptor coming in Wave 6.
As one of the newer factions the First Order currently has one of the smallest selections of ships in the game with only seven available - but they're pretty much all interesting ships to play. You're going to see an awful lot of that familiar H-shaped TIE Fighter profile in a First Order squad, although the First Order do at least have the good graces to put some shielding onto their TIEs before they push them out the door to die and you can usually expect your TIEs to put in more of a shift on the table than Imperial TIEs manage.
The First Order certainly leans into it's Imperial heritage when it comes to the ships it uses, although they tend to be more advanced variants. You'd be wrong to assume that they follow the Empire's playstyles though, and Fantasy Flight have clearly made a real effort to ensure they have a different feel. Yes there are TIE Fighters but they tend to have independent abilities rather than rewarding being played as a swarm of TIEs like the Empire does. And although they have some speedy ships and high Initiative pilots in the likes of the TIE Silencer and Quickdraw they don't really (yet) have the elements that would support a dedicated Imperial Aces style.
What the First Order does have, though, is a toughness to their ships that the Empire lacks and that can make them quite a forgiving faction to fly and to learn the game with.
2) STARTING SQUADS
The backbone of pretty much any First Order squad is the basic TIE/fo TIE Fighter and you're probably going to want to start your collection with at least two of them (you'll get up to 4 of them eventually). The TIE/fo is cheap, tough and dangerous and the bedrock of most First Order squads. From there, though, the First Order supports heading in several different directions depending on how you want to play and there's not really a bad choice.
First Order 101
- Commander Malarus (TIE/fo) - Mag-Pulse Warheads
- Scorch (TIE/fo) - Shield Upgrade
- Backdraft (TIE/sf) - Fanatical, Advanced Optics, Special Forces Gunner
- Ember (TIE/ba) - Elusive, Pattern Analyser
- Blackout (TIE Silencer) - Outmaneuver, Primed Thrusters
So that's a pretty generic First Order squad that you could build out of just 5 ship expansion packs. Malarus, Scorch and Backdraft are a solid central attack block of TIE Fighters while Ember and Blackout hunt stragglers on the edges of the enemy's formation.
But you could easily have changed that up and bought the Fury of the First Order box instead to ge Kylo Ren onto the table....
Fury of the First Order
- Commander Malarus (TIE/fo) - Cluster Missiles
- Scorch (TIE/fo) - Fanatical, Advanced Optics, Elusive
- Backdraft (TIE/sf) - Fanatical, Pattern Analyser, Special Forces Gunner
- Grudge (TIE/se Bomber) - Feedback Ping, Electro-Chaff Missiles, Concussion Bombs, Delayed Fuses
- Kylo Ren (TIE Whisper) - Predator, Concussion Missiles, Sensor Scramblers, Shield Upgrade, Enhanced Jamming Suite
And note how even though a lot of the ships are the same the upgrades are quite modular and can be moved around between them. That's really true of so much of the First Order - the TIE/fo give you such a solid base for your squad that you get to personalise the rest quite freely.
3) SHIP BY SHIP GUIDE
As a small faction the First Order are easy to get into and you won't be hunting through loads of extra cardboard expansions to and conversion kits to get your stuff. The only unusual thing in the faction is that two of its ships - the TIE Whisper and the TIE/se Bomber - only come in the Fury of the First Order box, which has a pretty big price tag as its got three ships in it.
TIE/fo
Easy to fly, Strong
Although it doesn't sound like it would make much difference the extra shield that First Order TIE Fighters get over an Imperial TIE does make a pretty big difference to how frequently they'll explode on you. A bigger change over the Imperial TIEs, though, is that in pilots like Scorch, Malarus, DT-798 you've got TIE pilots that can punch above their weight class and roll more attack dice than a TIE normally would... and still don't cost many points.
You can feel pretty safe to stock up on multiples of these TIEs as they will be the backbone of many First Order squads. Be it filling in alongside aces like Kylo Ren and Major Vonreg, or supporting Commander Malarus in her Xi Shuttle, the First Order TIE is a dependable annoyance for your opponent to deal with. Just as importantly the TIE/fo expansion pack includes both Fanatical and Advanced Optics upgrade cards, which you'll probably want lots of either for your TIEs or for your other First Order ships.
One thing to note is that two of the best TIE/fo pilots come in the Hotshots & Aces II reinforcement pack. Absolutely pick up a couple of TIEs early to use Scorch and Malarus but the step up to owning four TIE/fo probably also involves buying Hotshots & Aces II for DT-798 and Lieutenant Galek.
Special Forces TIE Fighter
Easy to fly, Average Strength
The Special Forces TIE Fighter (or TIE/sf) is the ship that Finn and Poe escape in at the start of The Force Awakens - the two-man variant with an optional rear gunner. The TIE/sf combines the raw speed of a TIE Fighter with the durability of a T-65 X-Wing to create a decent, if unspectacular, all-rounder of a ship that has a flexible threat profile depending on whether you add the Special Forces Gunner upgrade or not.
There's not really a lot else to say - the TIE/sf is about as vanilla as you get in First Order. If that sounds like I'm insulting the ship then it's not intentional and to be honest in a faction where so many of your ships are trying to find flanks and blind spots there's often a place for a TIE/sf that's happy to just fly into the opponent's face and keep them occupied while you get your other ships into position to stab them in the back.
TIE Silencer
Easy to fly, Strong
The TIE Silencer is the ship that Kylo Ren flies during The Last Jedi and it's for the elite of the First Order pilots. As it's both very quick and very hard to kill the TIE Silencer is probably the most obviously beginner-friendly ships for a First Order player to start with and there's multiple strong pilots for the ship including Kylo Ren himself. At the moment I'd say the TIE Silencer is probably the biggest victim of just how good the basic TIE/fo is, though. All the speed, toughness and firepower means the TIE Silencer comes at a premium points cost and... well... wouldn't you rather have two TIE/fo instead?
It's still very worth having at least one TIE Silencer available to you to choose from, but at the moment there's probably not a huge number of reasons to get a second one.
Major Vonreg's TIE
Hard to fly, Average strength
One of the early themes of the First Order was that they don't really have any specialists and everyone was pretty good at a bunch of things rather than mastering one thing: a bit tough, a bit fast. Major Vonreg's TIE Interceptor changed that somewhat by adding a nimble but fragile fighter which takes real practice before you can get the most out of it. Vonreg's TIE is a very deceptive ship - it's not as good at avoiding incoming fire as it first looks so has a tendency to explode more often than you'd want - but in the hands of brave pilots it's also capable of throwing out a lot of damage before it ultimately leaves the table. It's an exciting ship I unreservedly recommend for adding variety to First Order squads when you're ready to challenge your piloting skills some more.
Xi Light Shuttle
Easy to fly, Average
The Xi Shuttle isn't really a starting point for a First Order collection but once you've had your fun making all sorts of mixed squads in the faction it can come along and freshen things up again as really the only dedicated support ship the faction has to offer. At the moment the First Order zeitgeist is that all your ships are so independently tough and reliable that they don't need a support piece but that's certainly not the only way of doing business and the more you lean into premium pilots like Kylo Ren, Major Vonreg and Quickdraw the more likely you are to want to add a Xi and its various crew options to help ensure your aces can get the job done.
TIE Whisper
Hard to fly, Average
The TIE Whisper is one of two ships only available in the Fury of the First Order box, along with the TIE/so Bomber. I'm not going to beat around the bush - the TIE Whisper is my favourite ship to fly in the game, but that's parially because it's a bit awkward to get the most of out it and I love the challenge.
The TIE Whisper is quite a mechanically complicated ship as it has lots of decisions to make each turn about what you want to do with it. That means it's quite skill-dependent to get the most out of it as it's best gun has to be pointing DIRECTLY at the thing you want to shoot at. Get your flying right and the TIE Whisper is one of the most satisfying ships to play but it's probably fair to say that you'll struggle to master it if you're still learning the game. Kylo Ren at the controls is a bit of a more forgiving pilot for the ship so please don't feel like you can't buy this and have a good time, but it's something you'll need to have some practice with so plan for a steeper learning curve.
My favourite ship, though. In the game. Ever.
TIE/se Bomber
Average to fly, Average
The TIE/se Bomber is an upgraded version of the Imperial TIE Bomber and the main thing that got upgraded is the engines - this ship really moves! The TIE/se Bomber comes with a unique ability to boost and before it performs its normal move and that's something which makes it both a ton of fun to play and surprisingly effective on the table because it can get into spots the opponent wasn't expecting a 'slow' bomber to get to.
The biggest problem the TIE/se Bomber has is that when it was first released it was so effective a sticking proximity mines and chaff clouds down with laser-guided precision that it played a big role in getting its best upgrade cards nerfed, so even though the TIE/se itself didn't get nerfed it's got at least one foot on the naughty step.
Still, it's a very fun ship to play but along with the TIE Whisper it probably combines to mean that the Fury of the First Order may not be one of the first things you buy when you first start out. I love both the ships in this box so as entertainment it comes highly recommended but there are other First Order ships that are more reliable all-rounders.
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