My fiancee and I are looking at this as a game to pick up and give a solid try to, but it is not clear what all is needed to start, to play games, to expand your crew and the website is only kind of helping. I guess I'll outline what I think the approach should be, and hopefully some lovely person will correct anything I'm misunderstanding!
First, it looks like 4th edition rules are available for download, and a regular deck of cards can be subsituted for a fate deck, so a rulebook and deck(s) are optional. Some kind of measuring tape or rules is needed, but the ones in the starter box, along with the tokens in there, aren't. So we can move on to choosing our Faction/Leader/Crew, right?
The process is to pick a faction, from within that faction pick a leader, and then pick up that leader's box, right? I think I understand that each leader will then have another selection of units you can use with them, including eventually two leader boxes to mostly fill out the things that share their keyword. If that's right, is buying just the leader box enough to start playing? Are two randomly selected leader boxes going to make for an evenly matched, enjoyable game?
Also, am I right in understanding that third edition boxes are usable, but you need to buy either the faction book or faction pack to get their updated rules? And if so, are they balanced with the newer boxes, or are there big outliers?
This game looks fun, but onboarding isn't exactly streamlined!