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My thought is to compile a list of truisms around the game of X-Wing. General list of advice for list building, playing, and even humor advice. Please chip in if you feel like it.



List Building
Torpedoes and Missiles are generally not worth using due to both their squad building cost and their opportunity cost.
Accuracy Corrector only belongs on 2 Attack value ships, or generic B-wings or Shuttles.
Large Ships need Engine Upgrade
Stealth Device is wasted on ships with less than 3 Agility naturally.
A Meta List is still only as good as the person flying it.
An Autoblaster Turret increases your chance of rolling Crits by 3000 percent.
Currently, only 1 ship in the game has 4 Primary Attacks. And no one likes it because FFG tweaked the Cloaking rules.
Bombs that go off at the end of the Activation Phase (Proton and Seismic) are almost useless against targets which have higher Pilot Skill.
Knowing how to fly your list is better than changing your list to something you found on the internet. Always play it 3-4 times before you declare a list 'rubbish'.
Interactive lists which pass actions, draw off stress, provide rerolls, etc, are good in theory, but always assume that Howlrunner/Jan/etc is going to get blown away at PS9 on the first pass; can your squad still put up a fight? If not - try again.
Always have a plan for any given unit, and a plan for any given enemy. If you know how you're going to kill (a) arc dodgers like Aggressors and TIE Interceptors, (b) a TIE Swarm, (c) a heavily upgraded decimator or Falcon, and (d) 3-4 B-wings, you can probably handle anything else by mixing and matching from these strategies.
If you want to 'arc dodge' - boost and barrel roll to dodge arcs of fire - you want as high a pilot skill as possible to see where people have gone.
Try to match damage type to defence type. Three 2-dice attacks from 36 points of TIE fighters will cut up a B-wing or Decimator badly but can't punch through many defence dice. 4 dice from a heavy laser cannon will smash an Interceptor but doesn't actually do that much damage to an easy target. This is a reason to have varied attack types in a squad.

Turn Zero
Turn Zero is the point where you deploy the obstacles and your squad. This is just as important as turns 1-2 and you can lose the game here if you do it wrong.
Yes... Turn Zero is that important.
Have a plan. For turn 1-2.
Don't feel you have to set up across from your opponent. For that matter, don't feel you even have to set up facing the other side of the board. Try setting up facing along your back edge - if you can draw a swarm through the rocks they'll be out of formation and you'll be facing them a few at a time.
Consider 'slow rolling' in on turn 1 - give the enemy time to show you what their plans are before you commit to your own. Unless you're trying to jockey for a particular range at first shots, a speed 1-2 straight first makes sense, or even facing sideways and a 1 hard turn (which is good for TIE fighters, who lack a 1-straight).

Playing
Fly Casual!
Know the difference between 'taking a free action' and 'receiving a free token'... you can't take free actions when stressed... but you can receive free tokens.
Spending a focus changes ALL of the eyeballs! Between that, and being usable on both attack and defense, focus is the default action.
Splitting fire is almost always the wrong choice.
A 'wounded' ship puts out the same firepower as a fully functional ship in most cases... finish off the wounded ducks.
If you aren't shooting, you aren't winning.
Extra dice in shooting and defending only apply to primary weapon attacks... not secondary weapons like cannons, bombs or torpedoes.
Blocking is a part of the game.
If are stressed, you don't need to clear it right away... it keeps your maneuvers less predictable.
The 1 straight movement template is the same length as a ship base... the 2 straight movement template is the same length as a large ship base. You can use that information to help decide maneuvers. You can also keep your movement templates organized to help you visualize movements in game.
A ship's next move will almost always put it within it's current forward firing arc.
Keep higher pilot skill ships behind lower pilot skill ships to avoid accidental bumping.
A great shooting position is often better than getting an action.
Heavy Laser Cannon only requires the player to change {crits} into {hits} on the initial roll. Any {crit} result gained after the initial roll (through rerolls, abilities, etc.) will remain.
Modify Dice (focus, Luke's pilot ability, etc) AFTER you perform rerolls.
Learn to fly better. Your dice are no more cursed than anyone elses. Yes, sometimes the dice will betray you, but you put them in the situation where you needed to dodge a heavy laser shot in the first place.
In any given matchup, one side will probably win if you joust (a head-on pass, shoot, then koiogran, rinse and repeat). If that's you, great. If that's not you, you need to figure out how to avoid the match becoming a joust.
If you have more manoeuvrable fighters, your opponent has a swarm, or large based ships, tightly packed obstacles favour you and widely spread ones - or nice straight 'channels' through between them - favour your opponent.
Always deploy lower pilot skill pilots forwards and on the inside of any turn you plan to make to avoid collisions.
Quick reference - on a hard turn, your back corner on the inside of the turn ends up on the diagonal of your firing arc. On a gentle bank it ends up on a diagonal line through the guide 'nubs'.
Another quick reference - unless you boost or barrel roll, no ship can move outside its own arc of fire. So if you move after someone, and can land more or less where they are at the moment.....
As a rule, take the shots which give you the most benefit. Benefit comes in several forms:
~ If you have no choice, take the shot. Any damage is better than none. For ships at the same pilot skill, fire the guys with no choice of target first.
~ If you can kill a target before it fires, you take less damage in return.
~ If you have a shot at a wounded targets, it will take less damage to kill.
~ If you have a shot at a vulnerable target (reduced agility critical/no actions) it will take less damage to kill.
Focus is the best 'general purpose' action. Evade is best used to try to encourage someone not to shoot at a specific target (like Serrissu or Howlrunner).
Being at range 1 adds about half a point of damage with unmodified dice. A focus token adds the same with 2 dice, or slightly more with 3 - therefore, if you have 3 dice, focusing is better than boosting into range 1 (unless that avoids you being shot). Evade dice are the same. As a result, having the token is better than having the range modifier, so you only want to boost or barrel roll if doing so would give you a shot you wouldn't otherwise have or else avoid a shot in the first place. Boost and barrel roll together can easily clear arcs of fire and makes push the limit TIE interceptors the game's premier arc dodger.

Humor
Fel will die only when being shot at range 3, through an asteroid.
Fel will lose his Stealth Device on the first shot of the game.
Green dice hate Interceptors and love B-Wings.
If you Focus, you will roll blanks. If you Target Lock you will roll eyeballs.
At the most crucial moment of every game, you will always roll blanks.
If there is a choice between two maneuvers to get to a position, you WILL choose the wrong one.

Fly casual, always.

Accuracy Corrector + Autoblaster is a guaranteed 2 points of damage every turn (at range 1). Expensive, but hard to argue against.

A Meta List is still only as good as the person flying it.
At the most crucial moment of every game, you will always roll blanks.
If you Focus, you will roll blanks. If you Target Lock you will roll eyeballs.
An Autoblaster Turret increases your chance of rolling Crits by 3000 percent.
Currently, only 1ship in the game has 4 Primary Attacks. And no one likes it because FFG tweaked the Cloaking rules.

Here's another one that is strangely overlooked (especially so because of the state of the meta and it's in the FAQ):

Heavy Laser Cannon only requires the player to change {crits} into {hits} on the initial roll. Any {crit} result gained after the initial roll (through rerolls, abilities, etc.) will remain.

If there's a choice between two manoeuvres to get into the position you want, you'll choose the wrong one.

Proton bombs are next to useless against ships with a higher pilot skill than the bomber.

Thanks for chipping in, folks! Let's keep it going.

The list building section is a bit too light for my tastes... and there has to be more humor!

Things I've learned:


List Building:

Knowing how to fly your list is better than changing your list to something you found on the internet. Always play it 3-4 times before you declare a list 'rubbish'.

Interactive lists which pass actions, draw off stress, provide rerolls, etc, are good in theory, but always assume that Howlrunner/Jan/etc is going to get blown away at PS9 on the first pass; can your squad still put up a fight? If not - try again.

Always have a plan for any given unit, and a plan for any given enemy. If you know how you're going to kill (a) arc dodgers like Agressors and TIE Interceptors, (b) a TIE Swarm, (c) a heavily upgraded decimator or Falcon, and (d) 3-4 B-wings, you can probably handle anything else by mixing and matching from these strategies.

If you want to 'arc dodge' - boost and barrel roll to dodge arcs of fire - you want as high a pilot skill as possible to see where people have gone.

Try to match damage type to defence type. Three 2-dice attacks from 36 points of TIE fighters will cut up a B-wing or Decimator badly but can't punch through many defence dice. 4 dice from a heavy laser cannon will smash an Interceptor but doesn't actually do that much damage to an easy target. This is a reason to have varied attack types in a squad.



Playing

Learn to fly better. Your dice are no more cursed than anyone elses. Yes, sometimes the dice will betray you, but you put them in the situation where you needed to dodge a heavy laser shot in the first place.

Turn Zero is the point where you deploy the obstacles and your squad. This is just as important as turns 1-2 and you can lose the game here if you do it wrong.

In any given matchup, one side will probably win if you joust (a head-on pass, shoot, then koiogran, rinse and repeat). If that's you, great. If that's not you, you need to figure out how to avoid the match becoming a joust.

If you have more manouvrable fighters, your opponent has a swarm, or large based ships, tightly packed obstacles favour you and widely spread ones - or nice straight 'channels' through between them - favour your opponent.

Don't feel you have to set up across from your opponent. For that matter, don't feel you even have to set up facing the other side of the board. Try setting up facing along your back edge - if you can draw a swarm through the rocks they'll be out of formation and you'll be facing them a few at a time.

Consider 'slow rolling' in on turn 1 - give the enemy time to show you what their plans are before you commit to your own. Unless you're trying to jockey for a particular range at first shots, a speed 1-2 straight first makes sense, or even facing sideways and a 1 hard turn (which is good for TIE fighters, who lack a 1-straight).

Always deploy lower pilot skill pilots forwards and on the inside of any turn you plan to make to avoid collisions.

Quick reference - on a hard turn, your back corner on the inside of the turn ends up on the diagonal of your firing arc. On a gentle bank it ends up on a diagonal line through the guide 'nubs'.

Another quick reference - unless you boost or barrel roll, no ship can move outside its own arc of fire. So if you move after someone, and can land more or less where they are at the moment.....

As a rule, take the shots which give you the most benefit. Benefit comes in several forms:
~ If you have no choice, take the shot. Any damage is better than none. For ships at the same pilot skill, fire the guys with no choice of target first.
~ If you can kill a target before it fires, you take less damage in return.
~ If you have a shot at a wounded targets, it will take less damage to kill.
~ If you have a shot at a vulnerable target (reduced agility critical/no actions) it will take less damage to kill.

Focus is the best 'general purpose' action. Evade is best used to try to encourage someone not to shoot at a specific target (like Serrissu or Howlrunner).

Being at range 1 adds about half a point of damage with unmodified dice. A focus token adds the same with 2 dice, or slightly more with 3 - therefore, if you have 3 dice, focusing is better than boosting into range 1 (unless that avoids you being shot). Evade dice are the same. As a result, having the token is better than having the range modifier, so you only want to boost or barrel roll if doing so would give you a shot you wouldn't otherwise have or else avoid a shot in the first place. Boost and barrel roll together can easily clear arcs of fire and makes push the limit TIE interceptors the game's premier arc dodger.

Thanks, ocarno24. Lots of good tips there.

The most important thing I've learned is the whole turn 0-1 thing;

At this point, X-wing is kind of like chess; there is practical value in figuring out a deployment and planned 1-2 turn "opening" - until your opponent gets into range he can't do anything to you.

I know at least one player who will, for example, place an asteroid where he knows Biggs will be on turn 2 - to ensure the annoying sod has an extra green dice in the first exchange of fire.

I rearranged and added a heading for Turn Zero.
That is an area where I'm working on myself.