Sorry if this had been asked.

Did a search and didn't find anything relevant.

My cousin and I are going to do a demo night next week.

Just wondering how those who have done demos have gone abouts doing so?

I figured start off simple. Maybe just the core set ships. Luke vs two ties?

I would of coarse have all ships there incase someone really wanted to delve a little deeper.

If I get a few players do you guys just help set it up and explain the rules. Stand by and watch?

Or do you play as well?

I've been spreading the word and I'd be happy to get even two new players.

I'd love to make it a regular game night at the store. We don't have one here, but where I'm at is not overly populated.

How many people? If 2-3, I would play a 100 pt imperial list, and play it like a beginner (not stay in formation, shoot the closest target and not concentrate fire etc) and I would have an opposition list ready with 1 player to take Han, 1 to take Luke and 1 to take someone else known (Wedge, Biggs, Arvil), and not worry if that list was slightly over 100 points. I would encourage them to talk tactics together, and would have the other experienced player 'mentor' the noobs.

Have you done that?

How did it work out?

I guess if I had enough interest we could do a team game.

I was going to make another board so I'll have two boards set up.

I didn't want to overwhelmed new players, so I thought start then offb with Luke and two ties.

I have never played any scenario, only death match games. Just incase someone mentioned it.

But I thought having just simple game would go faster incase a few turn out and want to try.

Our I guess a team game

50 pts each

But still be a lot to take in for new players so if I go that route then I think we should have pre-designed squads.

A new player would take forever going through all the pilot cards and upgrades and probably a lot of questions.

Just want to showv them the basics of the game and what it had to offer

I'm thinking either Luke vs two ties from the core set

Or

Maybe 60 point pre designed squads

But if there is a better way others have done, I'm all ears.

My main goal is to get more players interested.

I know there is a lot of boardgames groups, and star wars nuts around here

Just have to find them

On the couple of demos I've done with individuals, I did what you said where I only had Luke vs two TIEs and essentially ran through a couple of rounds slowly introducing more aspects to the game like the actions, the collisions, and what not.

I have also done a demo where four people were new and two were veteran (myself included) and there we let each person pick a ship and upgrades up to 35 points each and we played one giant game each taking turns having each individual plan, activate, attack and end their own ship.

I usually demo a 20 minute game with 1 XWing against 2 TIE Fighters and let everyone watch, then do a full 100pt game.

When teaching noobs, I only ever have had one new person at a time so I went with an Academy and Obsidian against a Rookie. Sides are chosen at random, but they usually want the X-wing (if they really care, I'll let 'em pick...we need more rebel players in my area anyway). Just teach them the rules. Having a 1-2-3 pilot skill order is nice. The first roun they get taught how to move. The second, we throw actions in there, and explain different colored maneuvers. By round three, we start combat and explain shooting and whatnot.

I do it for kids, and eliminate all the colors of manuvers, and special abilities, so they has a very simple game but a very funny, I play more tan ten games for 20 differrent childrens, and all wants more, greettings.

Vader and two ties vs an X-wing and a Y-wing

It depends on your audience. I've found that experienced gamers (people that have played RPG's or other wargames especially) can be shown the whole shebang pretty quickly and take to it like ducks to water.

I usually do 50-60pt pre-generated squads, Mostly generic pilots with maybe 1 hero pilot to demonstrate abilities. I also like to include at least one secondary weapon and one EPT so I can explain each of them in-game. Its also good to have a spread of different maneuverability in the ships chosen so people can really see how ships are different from each other.

I try to let new people win their first game so I typically give them a points advantage and fly non-competitively against them (I don't arc dodge constantly with TIEs or focus fire)

I've found that Rebels are more forgiving for new players because their ships are a bit tougher. This is especially important if the new person is only controlling one ship.

Oh yeah and I only use maybe 3 asteroids to keep the field from being too cluttered (new people always hit those asteroids)

I demoed X-Wing on International Tabletop Day, and I made up a number of thirty point ship combos, so a player could just pick one up, get a couple minutes of explanation and jump right in. It seemed to work pretty well. I had a good selection of ships to choose from, and ran it so anyone walking up could start flying from an edge and join in whatever battle was going on.

I would setup luke vs two ties to start. Any more points/ships and the demo goes too long.

I would put a Firespray vs a falcon at 50 points and an Alpha interceptor vs a prototype A-wing to show how different ships handle.

Lay out cards showing the different upgrades alongside the table.

I use 60 build list, very simple, without upgrade. Cause the important is to learn the basic of game. Then if they like the game, i introduce upgrade and so on.

Yeah a 50-60 point list is plenty for a demo. 1 or 2 X's vs 2-4 Ties depending on how you're doing it. Let the person who's new pick a side, but explain the differences so they know what they're getting into.

At our local board/tabletop con back in the spring, we ran a Furball table all day long very similar to what Gullwind suggested above.

We had one dedicated table for 8 hours on both Saturday and Sunday. I made a bunch of 35-point all offense (so no defensive upgrades like shields or stealth) ships of every type, from A-Wing to Shuttle. I used my scanner to set up the ship on a half sized sheet of paper, along with all it's upgrades and shield tokens and printed them out. All of them were right beside the board.

Every player was given a quick 5 minute primer on how to play, and then just jumped in against everyone else. It was a total free-for-all on the board (we chose not to use asteroids on the first day). Overall, it was fairly popular as anyone could come by and just jump in for however long they wanted to try it for.

Thought for you just break out the core set and let people go crazy with it. Show them the FFG videos as they lean on the starter pack.

Often in life if you "keep it simple" it is the best approach for a second game let them go crazy with the rest of the ships

We did a lot of posting to the Facebook Group for the game con before hand. Lots of videos were posted, ship information shared and we helped build the excitement beforehand. It may be harder, I would guess, for a FLGS if they don't have any kind of FB Page or Group or if it's not as active as a con page/group can be.

I haven't done on the spot demos, I've told friends I want them to try it out. Usually I show them the FFG tutorial, because it is made extremely well. Then I make a list for them, usually something I would run myself. Then I make a "less competitive" list to keep things even. Before long they're all kicking my ass.

Lots of great ideas.

I'll probably at first try just the 3 ships from the core set.

I'll also have some pre build squads keep it simple at 50 pts or something.

Still keep it simple.

It's only for a few hours. Be doing it in the evening so not like I'm going to be there for eight hours.

I doubt there would be enough for a sit and go type game, but I'll have two boards set up, and can always play team game, 50 pt each and I'll have the squad all ready to go, so they can just pick and choose

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions

When I introduced my friend to the game, we played the suggested 'quick play' version of the rules in the core set, but with double the models (2x X-Wing's and 4x TIE#s). This allowed for a little more fun with maneuvers and such!

I have a dozen or so 50 point lists. I let people choose which ship they want to use the most & they get a list with that in it. I pick a different list (with weaknesses against the other squad) and talk them through a game as we play it.

Done it with 5 people, 4 have bought a core set within a week.

At GenCon the demos are set up as 2 X-Wings Vs 4 Tie fighters. The person giving the demo would not control any ship. The starting positions were set as well as the Astroids. As players walked up he would assign a ship to that player and hand them the dial for it. This works best as you get right to playing and not loading rules on the all at once. They immediately see how the ships move. All game demos should get the game in the players hand as fast as possible to be successful, even if you have to explain some of the rules as they play.

Good luck, and please tell us how it Works for you and if you get new players, greettings.

When I demo...

No asteroids, 3 tie fighters and 2 x wing....I let them choose their side and choose any pilots they may want and build a quick 50pt list for each

Then I also literally go step by step and possible actions for the first 2 rounds and then slowly remove myself from their decision making