How long did it take you to get good, or at least decent at x-wing?

I've played about 20 games and had 1 win. I'm not a math wizard by any means, but I think that qualifies for "sucking" at something.

I'm trying not to get discouraged, but it's not fun to lose all the time. I do love playing though!

I'm pretty sure the main problem I have is my inability to find a list I like and stick to it. I have a tendency to fly a list, learn something, change the list to hopefully counter what I had a hard time with, fly that, run into a different problem, and keep changing things. I think I've only flown the same thing 2-3 times. Theres just so many different options! Even if I fly a list that beat me, I can't win with it!

Is it just inexperience, or is it possible that I'll always be terrible at x-wing? Is flying a list over, and over, and over, and over the key to being good at it?

Like others have written I would also suggest choosing a list and fly it several times to get acquainted with the ships.

And:

Try/practicing to see if it should be flown in tight formation or works in loose deployment

Is it a flanking (Imperial) build or a more brute heads on (Rebel) list?

How does a list with all equal PS pilot differentiate in flying from a list consisting of pilots with different PS?

For a couple of suggestions which might work to learn the differences between the highly maneuverable Imps and the more sluggish Rebels I could suggest:

4 x Rookie X-Wings w/Shield Upgrades

or

4 x Royal Guards w/Push the Limit

I don't know if anyone else does this but one thing my buddy and I do with this game is run a sort of a practice game (we do this for magic as well) we talk each other through a game when we have questions or dilemas about stuff. Like my friend will do something and I can ask him what his thought process is going through that turn.

This is a brilliant idea. Bounce ideas off your friends and learn from each other. Completely dissect the game as you play it. There's guaranteed to be something to be learned each time you do it. The only improvement on this idea would be to get more players involved with the process.

Posting battle reports would help, atleast when it comes to the forums asking for advice. Many times it is easy for a veteran to know where the game went wrong.

Problem is, people tend to get offended when criticized and sugarcoating doesn't help.

I'll contribute. I flew into every asteroid out there every game. And when there were no asteroids I was running into myself.

Now I'm improving lots. Last game had zero space rock encounters. Even getting better at blocks and intentional bumps for good positioning.

Posting battle reports would help, atleast when it comes to the forums asking for advice. Many times it is easy for a veteran to know where the game went wrong.

Problem is, people tend to get offended when criticized and sugarcoating doesn't help.

Well, a lot of the "critique" tends to be delivered with little to no finesse or straight out rudeness.

Oh yeah, I meant critics, not insults concealed as critics

Critiques?

I am not too proud to admit that when I am playing casually, I sometimes completely forget that the asteroids are even on the table. I just run smack-dab into the middle of them and we all laugh at me being an idiot.

Also, the last time I played, my opponent was flying a Phantom for the first time and it was Echo to boot. He was having all sorts of problems flying from one rock to another and getting really frustrated. So I told him to just lay down some templates when he was planning his moves. What we did was we would set all our dials, except the Phantom, and we would get the movement templates out and figure out where he wanted to go and how to get it there.

The game is no fun when one player is just having a terrible time. Fly casual.

Critiques?

I guess, i am obviously not native on english. Thanks for the correction tho.

My friend can't avoid asteroids, one time he landed a ship on one and some how the next turn managed to land that ship back on the same asteroid, and he never fails to roll a hit.