Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm new to X-Wing, but due to a friend getting out of the game I came into a large supply for an extremely reasonable price. That being said I'm a little overwhelmed trying to figure out what to start with. I've read through the rules and a local player gave me a quick demo last night, but I'm not sure what kind of force to start playing with so I can get a better grasp on the rules and tactics.

Right now I have at least one of everything released in Waves 1-6 (and two each of the ships individually released for Scum), so I can field Imperial, Rebel and Scum fairly easily, but I'm just not sure what would be the best to learn the game with.

Any recommendations would be great. Thanks!

Here's a good start, from the Xwing TMG Reddit Forum:

https://www.reddit.com/r/XWingTMG/wiki/faq

Welcome to the game! It's a good time.

Thanks!

 bbb wrote:
Thanks!

I especially recommend the "Turn Zero" articles by Paul Heaver.

I've also recently found a blog that I like: Stay on the Leader (google it, can't link it since I can't pull it up at work, yet I can access dakka...haha)

I found rebels easiest to learn with but as long as you are flying something you enjoy the concept of you can't go too wrong. My first squad was Biggs,Wedge and Chewbacca back at the tail end of Wave 3 and that taught me plenty about the game so its the style of base archetype that I'd be tempted to recommend to anyone starting out(1 Large Base Primary Weapon Turret ship plus 2 Decent Small Base Fighters). It's not an instant win button but only having to worry about 3 ships keeps things nice and simple so something like 2 B-Wings with Fire Control Systems plus the Millenium Falcon or a Pair of TIE's and a fully loaded Decimator are very easy to fly. One thing I will say is probably try to avoid scum starting out as they are bit of an oddball faction who overall power wise didn't hit their stride till the most recent wave of releases so you may have a bit of a frustrating experience trying to fly them starting out.

@House Griffith, thanks for suggesting the http://stayontheleader.blogspot.co.uk/ blog, been a while since I've read anything of that quality as there seems to be very few active blogs for the game(I find the team covenant site completely unnavigable). It's a shame that Metal Bikini took a long break as their introductory articles were good, and there's the X-Wing tactics tumblr that has some solid stuff on it as well but neither quite have the mathematical rigour of the stayoneleader articles.

 David Clarke wrote:


@House Griffith, thanks for suggesting the http://stayontheleader.blogspot.co.uk/ blog, been a while since I've read anything of that quality as there seems to be very few active blogs for the game(I find the team covenant site completely unnavigable). It's a shame that Metal Bikini took a long break as their introductory articles were good, and there's the X-Wing tactics tumblr that has some solid stuff on it as well but neither quite have the mathematical rigour of the stayoneleader articles.

Yeah, I really liked his "Value of Surprise" article. It also helps that he comes from a competitive magic background, so he's familiar with the tournament scene. Plus, the articles are well-written and humorous.

I think the usual advice it start with whatever ships you think are cool. Most ships are usable, and you'll have more fun flying things you like. If you want a bit more: the ships "loosely" fall into three strategic types. There are Jousters, Arc Dodgers, and Turrets, and they form a kind of rock, paper, scissors dynamic.

Jousting is what it sounds like: your ships fly straight towards the enemy, trading shots, then do a u-turn (k-turn, in X-wing speak), and repeat. If you played an intro game then you probably already saw some jousting. Ships with a lot of hit-points, such as B-Wings, or swarms of cheap ships, such as Academy Pilot Tie Fighters tend to be best at jousting. This video tutorial explains how to fly swarms in formation, to get the most out of them.

Arc Dodgers, are faster more manoeuvrable ships that rely on their agility and aerobatics to survive. They usually entail Ace pilots with a high Pilot Skill, fast ships with the Boost action (either natively or from the Engine Upgrade card), and some way of squeezing extra actions, usually the Push the Limit upgrade. Popular Arc Dodgers are Soontir Fel (Tie Interceptor) with Push the Limit, Darth Vader (Tie Advanced) with Engine Upgrade, and for the Rebels A-wings with Push the Limit. Arc Dodgers take a bit of practice to use, but they are probably the most fun ships to fly. If flown well they will run rings around Jousters. Other popular upgrades are things like Autothrusters and Stealth Device to make them more survivable, and things like Proton Rockets which get better on higher agility ships. I'd recommend playing some games with Soontir Fel and Push the Limit, to dip your toe into Arc Dodgers.

Turrets are self explanatory, they are ships with turret weapons that can fire 360. A lot of the large ships like the Millennium Falcon, YT-2400, Jumpmaster, etc... do turrets well, and also Y-Wings make good cheap turret upgrade platforms (for spamming lots of turrets). Turrets are annoying for Arc Dodgers because the arc is 360, but they can sometimes take advantage of weapon range to find blind spots. Jousters and Swarms will usually be able to trade blows with Turrets and simply out-gun them (at least point for point).