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Hey guys - been collecting the X-wing minitures game stuff for a bit and have a few games under my belt, but i'm still pretty novice in building lists.

Basically I am going to be having a gaming night with some mates in a couple weeks and i'll be running a 3-way game of X-wing featuring all 3 factions.

This is what i know so far:

I want to rebs to have the falcon.
I want the imps to have the Decimator and Phantom
I want the S+V to have the star viper and possibly a firespray.

I currently have the following expansions in addition to the core game:
X-wing
A-Wing
B-Wing
Y-wing
Falcon
Firespray
Decimator
Phantom
Scum and Villainy expansion
Star Viper

What other ships would you suggest I add? What should i kit my main choices above with?

I want it to be as fun and balanced as possible - so i'm not looking necesarily for "torunament domination" stuff

Any advice would be great. Thanks

Here are my suggestions:

Imperial
-Captain Oicunn (Daredevil, Dauntless, Engine Upgrade, Rebel Captive, Ysanne Issard)
-Whipser (Tactician, Lone Wolf, Advanced Cloaking Device, Fire Control System)
Strategy: Decimator runs into stuff and causes ram damage. Whisper tries to stay at range 2 to give out stress unless there is an opportunity to zip in and kill something. Whipser is also easier for a newbie to fly than Echo.

Rebel
-Chewie (Predator, Lando Callrissian, Millenium Falcon, Engine Upgrade)
-Wedge (Outmaneuver, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Shield Upgrade, R2-D2)
Strategy: Chewie tanks while Wedge tries to get around behind / beside people.

Scum
-Guri (Calculation, Virago, Autothrusters, Accuracy Corrector, Dead Mans Switch)
-Boba Fett (Mangler Cannon)
-Syndicate Thug
Strategy: Hang back and shoot for a bit then rush in to range one for the killing blows.

Each list has a mix of unique and fun abilities. There are some iconic pilots in there as well. If you don't have all the upgrade cards I would generate full description squad lists using an online Squad Builder program.

Those rebel and imperial lists are way too brutal for that scum list to stand up to, especially without a single upgrade on the Y Wing.

Making a good scum list for you right now is difficult, you really need at least one more ship, at least a Hawk, maybe an IG 2000. Here's the best I could come up with given your ships available, although I'm not very happy with it.

N'Dru Suhlak: Lone wolf

Guru: Push the limit, Virago, advanced sensors, autothrusters

Mandalorian merc: Push the limit, K4 security droid

Scum are best demonstrated by using ships that make good use of illicit slots, weird abilities, and breaking the rules you're used to expecting in this game.

Instead, I would suggest picking up a Hawk and an IG 2000 (for upgrades mainly, although the ship itself is excellent, even a single one) with those two expansions, you can run this, which is surprisingly punchy and shows off Scum's shenanigans perfectly, especially if you had the rebel running a Y too to show the difference in how the two factions run it

Torkil Mux (Hawk, can make enemy pilot at range 1-2 Ps 0 for a combat phase) Ion cannon turret

Y Wing Thug: Ion turret, Unhinged astromech, BTL-A4

Y Wing Thug: Ion turret, Unhinged astromech, BTL-A4

Z95 Binayre: Feedback array

Z95 Binayre: Feedback array

Flies well in formation and can be nasty once the furball erupts as the Z's and Hawk do a great job of protecting the Y's, who are your main head on attack craft. Once ions start to pile up, you'll find some of the enemy ships are helpless, and the ones who aren't you can choose to drop one to PS0 to buy you time to finish it off. Its deliciously scummy.

Onto practical advice. 3 ways are fun, but not a good way to teach a newbie (hah) I would either set up a 2v2 battle with you playing a weak list to compensate for your experience, or do a few 1v1's swapping them out. 3 ways always devolve into two people teaming up on one guy, and can be very unfun if a new guy gets destroyed early.

Also, no big turret ships (Decimator, the YT's, you get the idea, something like a Y Wing or a Hawk is fine though) new players have a VERY hard time dealing with something like a millenium falcon and so whoever gets it has a massive advantage. I would stick to small base ships, and only use large ones like the firespray, lambda, etc. Its not so much that they're broken, as it is that they're so forgiving. When you have new guys, they'll constantly misjudge distance, forget move order, etc. And being able to just say "eh, so what if I overshot, I shoot 360 anyways" builds bad habits.

Hope all this helps OP. If it were me, I'd give the rebel something iconic like a good ol fashioned trench run X Wing list (Biggs, Luke, Wedge) the Imperial a mini swarm and an ace like Vader or Fel, and the scum either the list I posted or something else that uses some cool gimmicks while still being a solid core.

I agree with MrMoustaffa's sentiments - the scum list I detailed above is weak. But in order to fit into your parameters with the ships you have it's difficult to build a powerful list.

And also, if I was teaching new players I'd just field basic ships with little or no upgrades in a straight 2 sided dogfight. Something like 2 X-wings vs 4 Tie's (divy people up into the two teams). Just get people hooked on the basic mechanics and the idea of flying, moving and firing. No large base ships, turrets, cloaking, pilot abilities or other complex upgrade cards or interactions to worry about. The game is still quite enjoyable even at this basic level.

I made the mistake of hosting a large game with dozens of ships and all kinds of crazy things going on for a group of new players and failed to grab their attention becuase it was too much too fast.

Thanks for the friendly advice guys - really appreciate it.

The guys I will be playing with have played once before - I ran a rebel "wing" list with an A, B, Y and X wing for variation. The empire, on the otherhand, had a firespray, tie and Tie-Phantom.
Was a really fun game, to be honest. Even if the empire (me) got smashed.

I will be playing the scum, so have no problem with how weak they are at the moment.

The main reason for the big ships was to add several "lols" as we'll probably be playing this game as a quick inbetween for Munchkin and some DnD, which will be a first for many of the group.

Maybe I'll come up with a couple of alternate lists and maybe look at running the smaller ships as suggested...

Killer advice though, guys - thanks heaps for that.

we'll probably be playing this game as a quick inbetween for Munchkin and some DnD

Did I read that correctly? You're playing large scale, multi-player games of X-wing as an filler game between DnD sessions?! Do you posses some form of tesseract device which permits access to another dimension where time flows at a much reduced rate or something? I am hugely envious of how much time your group seems to able to dedicate to a gaming day.

holden88 wrote:

we'll probably be playing this game as a quick inbetween for Munchkin and some DnD

Did I read that correctly? You're playing large scale, multi-player games of X-wing as an filler game between DnD sessions?! Do you posses some form of tesseract device which permits access to another dimension where time flows at a much reduced rate or something? I am hugely envious of how much time your group seems to able to dedicate to a gaming day.

This has got to be one of my favorite replies ever. haha.

Last time we played with fighter-spam it only took us a little over an hour to get through the game as I kept the number of mods low-ish and empahsised pilot talents a little more.

We will have about 6ish hours of play of which I've allocated 1.5 hours to our X-wing skirmish.

Also, being used to playing games like 40k and Relic/Talisman, X-wing seems super-short by comparrison. haha

So I took your advice, guys, and flew small ships - Was a great success and a huge amount of fun for all involved.

Teams were:

Rebels:
Wedge - R2D2, Proton Torps
Rookie Pilot - R2F2, Proton Torps
Blue Squad Pilot - Heavy Laser Cannon, Advanced targeting computer

Scum:
2x BTL4 Y wings - Ion cannons - Unhinged astromechs
1x Pirate - Cluster missile
1x Guri - Calculation, Virago, hull upgrade and inertial dampeners

Imperial:
Whisper - Gunner, advanced targeting computer, advanced cloaking device and +2 pilot skill
Dark Curse - Stealth device
1x Obsidian squad pilot
2x acadamy pilots

I may be missing an upgrade or two, but that is as close as I can remember.
I took imperials as no one wanted to try and fly whisper with the added rules.

Started with all v all, until it became a gang up on me when they Whisper started tearing up the field.

Due to some shoddy rebel fighting, they didn't see much action at all.
Scum did the best taking out 2 ties and doing almost terminal damage on the other two. Whisper was nigh unstopable, using the high PS to duck LOS and pop at close range.
Guri actually did quite well, being responsible for the death of the Ties, but still unable to get to grips with whisper. Perhaps next time i'll look at giving her a hot shot blaster.

Everyone had a good time, and rebs have requested a fighter spam next game to make up for terrible flying.

Yeah Id take out whisper out next time. Even with the phantom nerf you have a very mean set up on it that can chew up even experienced players, not to mention newbies. I would use an interceptor or advanced next time in that list, they're more predictable for a new guy and he can better wrap his head around how they work.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
Yeah Id take out whisper out next time. Even with the phantom nerf you have a very mean set up on it that can chew up even experienced players, not to mention newbies. I would use an interceptor or advanced next time in that list, they're more predictable for a new guy and he can better wrap his head around how they work.

Yeah - I completely agree, unfortunately I don't have an advance or Interceptor yet, however.
Plus the first game I played with these same guys Whisper got absolutely torn to SHREDS - This may have been more to do with me not knowing how to fly him and also forgetting half of the rules for him too.