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A week ago I tried a game of X-Wing at a demo event at my FLGS, enjoyed it quite a bit. Today I picked up an A Wing, two Tie Bombers, the Millennium Falcon, and ordered a copy of the starter set. I really enjoyed the game when I played it last week. I'm heading into my gaming store tomorrow to try and get some games in(Sunday's seems to be the unofficial X-Wing day there). I also plan on getting an other Starter Set, a single Tie fighter and X-Wing expansion(so that I have a couple ships of each, and the variety of pilot cards).

Does anyone have any recommendations for a new player? Strategy, gaming tips etc?

You've got the right idea. Two starter sets for basic numbers and all the dice/templates/etc you need, the x-wing and TIE fighter expansions for their very important pilots that don't come in the starter set, and a Falcon that is used in a lot of powerful rebel lists. Next I'd suggest getting 1-2 b-wings and 1-2 TIE interceptors (or pre-order the upcoming imperial aces expansion if you're willing to wait until early next year), core ships that see a lot of use in their appropriate lists.

As for strategy, the best thing to do is just play games. List-building matters, but the biggest effect on your chances of winning is how well you can visualize your maneuvers and anticipate what your opponent is going to do. And that just comes with experience.

As with many games, number of boots on the ground is superior to quality of said boots. Don't overload your ships with upgrades at the expense of bodies on the table, if an upgrade isn't there because you had one or two points spare, you must have a very clear idea of why it is there and what it will help you achieve.

Bank turns change your facing by 45 degrees, hard turns by 90. Took me ages to discover that! Straight moves equal the number of small bases forward in their speed (helps when judging distances on the board)

Practice flying in formation.

When choosing a manoeuvre, always think of where you will end up, where you anticipate your opponent is going, and also the order in which you will move, I've frequently spoiled my own turn's carefully planned movement by failing to allow for the fact that the Rookie will end up parked in front of Wedge by the time it is his turn to move!

Stay in target!

 azreal13 wrote:
As with many games, number of boots on the ground is superior to quality of said boots. Don't overload your ships with upgrades at the expense of bodies on the table, if an upgrade isn't there because you had one or two points spare, you must have a very clear idea of why it is there and what it will help you achieve.

This. You don't have very much space for upgrades in this game, so everything needs to have a purpose. The absolute lowest you'll want to go, without considering big ships, is 3 rebel ships or 4 imperial ships. And those had better be some very good and efficient pilots. A 30-35 point ship needs to have a very well understood role and efficient choices (Wedge, HLC b-wings, etc), and if you get to 40-45 points you almost certainly made a mistake.

I've frequently spoiled my own turn's carefully planned movement by failing to allow for the fact that the Rookie will end up parked in front of Wedge by the time it is his turn to move!

And this. I've had a lot of plans ruined by realizing that my brilliant move is blocked by movement order and I have to settle for any maneuver that doesn't completely screw over at least one of my ships. This is actually a popular reason for taking a list where every ship has the same PS and you can move in whatever order you want.

Oh I've already ordered the Imperial Aces pack, I did that before I bought anything else(this way I'd have it right when it was released, I liked the look of the Royal Guard), but I didn't bother mention that because I wont have access to it for months. In the demo game I played last week, he had each ship equal out to 24 points(except one person had two tie fighters for the 24 points). Is that a good point cost to aim around?

When you get the regular interceptor pack, throw down Soontir Fel with Push the Limit and a cloaking device. Watch your opponent flip out when he realizes that short of an unlucky roll for you, Fel will be close to untouchable. He runs around 35 pts this way, and he's worth his weight in gold. More, actually, as the interceptor models aren't very heavy.


Rebel wise, get that xwing booster as quickly as you're able. Arguably the best rebel pilot (Wedge) is in there. He has a very high pilot skill and removes one evade die from an opponent! It's a death sentence for something like a YT-1300.

 Thaanos wrote:
Oh I've already ordered the Imperial Aces pack, I did that before I bought anything else(this way I'd have it right when it was released, I liked the look of the Royal Guard), but I didn't bother mention that because I wont have access to it for months. In the demo game I played last week, he had each ship equal out to 24 points(except one person had two tie fighters for the 24 points). Is that a good point cost to aim around?

Don't worry too much about how much a ship costs, a Falcon, fully loaded, can easily reach 50 pts, but is a tank that can really put the hurt on stuff (but itself comes unstuck to many low cost ships focusing fire on it)

It is more a case of ensuring that there is no fat in the list. Wedge, plus Marksman is 32 pts, The Baron and PTL, as mentioned, is similar cost, but both are good enough that short of you flying them like Stevie Wonder, they will justify their cost. Just be careful of loading every ship up with Pilot Talents, Secondary Weapons, Astromechs etc unless you have a very clear idea of why you are spending those points.

For instance, Proton Torpedoes on a Rookie X Wing would, in most circumstances, be an unwise investment, as the low PS of the Rookie means that keeping out of range or arc is much easier for your opponent, and it is quite possible that anything you choose to target lock will no longer be a viable target by the time you get chance to fire. PTs are much more viable (I'm not saying that they are hugely viable or not, this is just an example) on a higher PS pilot who can perhaps take a skill like deadeye or PTL, making it easier to both get an angle on a target and fire them (with potentially a Focus as well if they're packing ptl)

Thing is, neither the Rookie or the PTs are inherently a bad choice, but they are probably a bad idea together. In fact 4x Rookie Pilots with Shield Upgrades is a surprisingly strong list, and Proton Torps are getting increasingly more useful the more low Agility, large base ships get released.

When building to 100 points, at least 98 of what you spend needs to be able to justify its inclusion, both in terms of points spent and what it is in combination with, but I've had great success with just two ships in a list before (Falcon and tooled up Y Wing, forget manoeuvring, just shoot what you like!) because it suited my play and was different from anything anyone else was running locally. So, rather than placing any sort of arbitrary limit on what your points cost should be, try and make it more a philosophy of efficiency and minimising wastage while being mindful of synergy, both inter and intra unit.

As a general rule on points you can make a pretty good list with four x-wings (21 points each), so that leaves four points per model for upgrades without dropping a ship. You'll see a lot of competitive lists with things like 2x rookie x-wing and 2x blue b-wing with HLC because having that fourth ship on the table is more valuable than adding more upgrades and going down to a three-ship list. To make a three-ship list you need to have that marginal increase in effectiveness from the extra upgrades be more than a whole ship, which is a difficult standard to meet. If you don't have a very clear idea what those upgrades are going to do for you then you're better off downgrading to basic ships until you have a four-ship list.

One other thing to be careful about is putting all your eggs in one basket, especially in a three-ship list. If you spend 50+ points taking every possible upgrade on Wedge/Ten/etc and then throw in a couple rookie x-wings you have an obvious first target for your opponent, and once you lose that ship you probably lose the match. If you're spending lots of points on upgrades then you want three nasty and efficient killers. For example, I've had a lot of success with two HLC b-wings and Wedge. All three ships are about the same point cost and threat level, so no matter which one goes down first I've still got a viable squadron on the table. On the other hand I didn't have much luck with a list that used a 45-point autoblaster Ten Numb (engine + PTL). Yeah, that one threat was nasty if it didn't die right away*, but without many points left over the rest of my list just wasn't contributing enough.

*Beware of the Biggs trap I tried to solve this with. Yes, he can tank for a glass cannon, but his offense is mediocre and the combination of the two is often out-shot by two balanced offensive threats.

I've had some success running the expensive Ten alongside a focus factory HWK, Peregrine. While the B Wing is undoubtedly the greater offensive threat, the boost the HWK provides (and a 3 dice 360 turret isn't the worst thing to have on the board) it does force your opponent to make decisions.

I've yet to settle on a third ship like yourself though, I'm leaning towards an X Wing, and I've got a list written to try where I've cut a few upgrades and managed to squeeze Wedge in, but I've yet to play it.

What FLGS do you go too, I heard they were trying to start an Xwing day at mine on Sunday aswell.

 Peregrine wrote:

*Beware of the Biggs trap I tried to solve this with. Yes, he can tank for a glass cannon, but his offense is mediocre and the combination of the two is often out-shot by two balanced offensive threats.

I actually think Biggs is one of the worst pilots. There aren't that many rebel "glass cannons" for Biggs to be really useful. And you're also forcing your opponent to close out one ship instead of letting them hang themselves by spreading damage around. I've almost always found him to be a waste.

As far as list building, the advice for x wing is the same as any game.
- Figure out what jobs you absolutely have to be able to do
- Figure out the cheapest ways possible to accomplish those
- Find units/combo that are cheap and are good at handling multiple important jobs
- All else equal, more ships is better etc etc.

There's not a whole lot that's new compared to other games. I will say though that getting your ship count up is extremely important, much more so than unit count in other mini games. Say you build a 3 ship rebel squad. You'll regularly face off against 6 ship imperial squads. Even though your ships are much better, having two ships to your one is a BIG advantage. Anytime you try and get behind one of the imperial ships he has a buddy to get behind you. Now think about what you do if the imperial player gets a lucky round of shooting off and drops one of your ships first. Now you're outnumbered 3:1. Sure it is possible to play back from that, but your list choices have stacked the odds against you in a big way.

I generally try and get all my rebel lists to 4 ships and all my imperials to 5+. That usually allows me one reasonably tooled character and a compliment of cheap wingmen. I think that dynamic is powerful, pretty flavorful, and fun for everyone.

So I played a game against one of my buddies yesterday after he picked up Slave One, we just did Han Solo vs Fett with upgrades, each of us had 50 points. I ran Han with the Millenium Falcon title, and Push the Limit, which seemed to run well for me.

Now I have two starter sets, Two Tie Bombers, an A Wing, Slave One, Millenium Falcon, and I've ordered Imperial Aces(for when it comes out) a Tie fighter, and an X-Wing.
I'm thinking for my Imperial List I'm going to try and run two bombers, with a Tie Swarm, not sure of pilots yet. For Rebels I'm thinking of running Lando with Nien Ten, Push the Limit, and the Falcon title, and a pair of X-wings.

 Guitarquero wrote:
What FLGS do you go too, I heard they were trying to start an Xwing day at mine on Sunday aswell.

You go to Black Knight don't you?

Yupp I do


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I believe i was there during that game actually, Who was the victor? (I was buying paints with my GF and she was intrested in the Flames of War models) =P

 Guitarquero wrote:
Yupp I do


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I believe i was there during that game actually, Who was the victor? (I was buying paints with my GF and she was intrested in the Flames of War models) =P

I did, with the Falcon. Kept pushing the limit for two actions, focus and evade, he couldn't do much damage, and then if I had a poor round of shooting, I had Han's ability to reroll the dice.