I am not sure what I am doing wrong. My son always wants to play as the rebels and just beats me every game. He rolls out with an xwing and r2d2, yt1300, and b wing. So I have 26 hits I have to burn through and that is not counting the shield regen with r2d2.

I have tried interceptors and ties. I tried firespray and just am not good and new to the game. It is just to the point of 6 straight losses and I am not sure what to do. I am not good enough to really fly a swarm without running into ships and losing actions, but is that the counter?

If you were brand new, how would you counter those 26 hitpoints? My last game, i had 19 hitpoints to his 26. I know that his low agility should counter things, but I just got blown out. I almost had the yt1300 last game before I lost my 4th ship!

I probably just need to learn to fly better.

If you're jousting with imps, you're doing it wrong. You gotta outfly him, as that's their main strategy. You also must shoot down the Falcon first, because of its turret. That thing completely shuts down your maneuverability

Against a what you describe, R2-D2 and the YT-1300 are your two priorities. B-Wings are strong, but unless he has a unique pilot or a Heavy Laser Cannon, the other two ships are more threatening. The YT-1300 is more powerful and tougher, but R2-D2 is almost impossible to finish off one-on-one, so you want to target R2-D2 as soon as you can, but only if you can kill him in 2-3 rounds. If it's likely that he'll survive and escape to regenerate, shoot something else that the damage will stick on.

A squadron of multiple low-attack ships (TIE Fighters) will have the best effect against his Agility 1 ships. It takes time and practice to fly that well, don't expect to get it right away. And don't fly them in a grid. It might reduce collisions now, but it won't help you learn for later.

Also, consider asking (or telling) your son to fly a different squadron or switch factions each game. Those three ships are probably the most consistent Rebel ships, thus their popularity, but they're only a third of the Rebel ships available. Both of you should try new types of ships, which will help you learn to fly more easily.

The swarm is your best option. I used to run a swarm with two interceptors and Howlrunner with 3 academies. Interceptors with Howlrunner will seriously jack up a falcon or a b-wing. I have killed a YT on the alpha strike with that list. If you want to consistently destroy a falcon list then learn to fly a swarm. The other list I would go for would be a Firespray+mini swarm list. My favorite is Krassis with HLC and recon specialist and Howlrunner with 3 academies. A firespray can go toe to toe with a YT when it has a recon specialist and the HLC gives you 4 dice from range 1-3 until you have to use your rear arc. Start the firespray from a corner and turn towards the center to give it more time with the front arc if you can.

Thanks. I need to try something because I am definitely doing it wrong.

I feel your pain. I think most Imperial players have been there to some degree.

True it starts with a solid list, but it will also come down to learning to fly that list as well as a few other in game factors such as asteroid placement.

You can look around on the internet for lots of ideas on these kind of things, including watching Youtube vids.

I wouldn't say beating your sons list comes down to taking out the YT first. Depends, are you playing till one side is completely destroyed? Implementing a time limit similar to what tournaments use changes the balance of the game and adds the element of pressure. I find it better to have a time limit in social games anyway as it means if you have a couple of hours play time you should be able to get a couple of games in, instead of just one big long game which may be a slow painful downward spiral to destruction.

I mostly find you can ignore the YT by keeping it at least range 3 of your ships and keeping the rest of his ships in between the YT and your ships, hopefully you will be able to strike them at range 2. He may be able to mitigate this by flying in tight formation, but that's extra pressure on him.

Anyway, good luck and don't forget to have fun.

X-Wing is fairly balanced overall, and it doesn't sound like your son is going for an ultra-competitive list build, so there's probably no need to counter him with a specific list. Instead, you may want to take a look at your piloting style. If you've been jousting him (charging head-on, if you're unfamiliar with the terminology), resist the temptation! Unlucky evade rolls will get Imperials killed jousting Rebels every time. TIEs have a better dial and superior maneuverability thanks to greater access to boost and barrel roll, so take advantage of that speed and dodge his arcs where you can!

Take away his allowance until he loses. That'll help you!

More seriously: Some really common mistakes people make involve flying into asteroids, not thinking about where your opponents will end up, and accidental bumping of your own ships. If you're making those mistakes, I'd first tell you (in the nicest possible way) to learn to maneuver. When I teach new players the game, I set up an asteroid course, hand them a dial and the maneuver templates and tell 'em to move through the asteroids without bumping. You can do that without your kid seeing you.

When I first started playing, I bumped into a site called "The Metal Bikini", and it's _awesome_. The first article I saw was about maneuvering: (http://goo.gl/4j9j9E) So I literally used to put myself to sleep every night mentally picturing how the various templates interacted. (After I talked about French Political History enough to put her to sleep.)

So if your biggest problem is figuring out how to make your ships go where you want them to, those things will help. That's a pretty common first problem, so you're in good company.

The next big problem is figuring out why those pesky red dice are never coming up red enough. TL;DR: Target Locks and Focuses. But to do that, you need actions. And for actions, you need to not bump. And to not bump... baby steps friend. Baby steps.

Tie Fighters and Tie Interceptors. Fly the fighters in close and keep the interceptors back around 2 and 3 from the falcon.

You know, kinda funny but that's a BANGING good list there. Both the YT and the R2D2 are great endgames. I'm assuming its a named YT though? If not, might be better to ignore it.

Probably some variant of this?

perhaps the newer ships are more suitable for your way of flying? The defender is more suited to take the falcon heads on. It's very much a jousting ship.

4x Obsidian Squadron

4x Academy Pilot

Good game?

I know what you're going through I have yet to beat my son in a Imps VS Rebs situation and I've played just about every scenario granted I come close but his Bwing always gets me in the end and I only have a small batch of ships(the ones in my sig). It's all about the cards you have and that's my downfall. He has gotten so cocky that he won't play cause "It's no fun beating you." And of course when I showed him that there is a new wave coming out and I was thinking of getting the most wanted pack he was like do I get a ship cause I want the falcon the look on his face when I said no was priceless (I am going to get that just not right away.)

Take two onyx defenders and a mercenary firespray with recon specialist as crew, 22hit points and it's got good defensive defenders have 3 agility so can avoid incoming fire and survive a few hits, mercenary will have focus for attack and defence every turn making him very tanks.

You can joust with this list comfortably, and because of the white k turn and rear fire arc your sons going to be in your fire arc every turn.

No go and crush him.

C3po and mf title evades are once for attacks. Great versus low amount of attacks.

I'm really unsure of how good defenders are against falcons to be honest.

C3po and mf title evades are once for attacks. Great versus low amount of attacks.

I'm really unsure of how good defenders are against falcons to be honest.

Well if you wanted to build around rexler his ability overrides chewies, he cancels crits then you spend the focus to turn damage cards face up.

Rexler plus mini swarm will eat a falcon pretty quickly, but as the OP seems new I gave him the easier build.

2 defenders + jonus had me blowing a pair of falcons to bits and pieces without any losses. Also against a single falcon supported by some x-wings I did not have any problems. Thats my experience so far with defender vs yt1300

I have firespray, 2 core sets, tie expansion and imperial aces on the empire side, so my options are limited to those for now.

He has yt1300, xwing expansion, b-wing, e-wing available to him.

I want to beat him a few times with his list so that we can try some other builds. We have only begun playing and I thank you for your ideas. We have not begun to use asteroids, just a blank playmat. I hit the falcon hard on my first pass last night, but then when I tried to turn my ships for another pass, I got spread out and seemed to be "jousting" like one poster said not to do. He then took out one of my ties and was able to have an xwing/falcon focus on firespray and take that down before I could him. (They hit firespray hard on first strike as well).

I think most of my problem is learning to maneuver better. I keep getting too spread out. He was using target locks and offensive cards and I was just trying to stay alive.

Edited to add: I am happy he is doing well, but as someone mentioned above, he is losing interest because the games are not competitive. I think if I beat his list a few times, it will be good for both of us.

He wants to kill something, make sure you choose what. Put TIE Fighters in his 1300's face so he shoots those, and keep your Interceptors back and safe. They're better at long shots anyways. In short, swarm with Fighters, snipe with Interceptors. Our Royal Guard friend Kir Kanos is fantastic at long range, so you may want to take him.

You have everything you need to do it -- TIE Fighters, Interceptors, and the Firespray. You don't need anything fancier than those. The Heavy Laser Cannon is pretty good against the Falcon, of course. Heck, I even fear it when I break out the CR90.

You need the Interceptor expansion and Soontir!

Anyway you can run 4 Acad. + Howl w/ Determintation and a Bounty Hunter. Use the Ties to block the Falcon so it can't use its evade action. 5 Ties + the attack of the Firespray should make pretty short work of a Falcon. With any luck you can focus him down early then have the numbers still to take out the X-wing and B-wing.

I know what you mean about R2-D2. I taught a friend to play last night and he had Luke w/ R2-D2 + another X-Wing against my Vader w/ two TIE Fighters.

We took out the lesser X-Wing first but had to just keep pounding and pounding on Luke to chip away his regenerating shields. If I'd lost a TIE I don't know if we'd have been able to make it because it's hard to keep shooting him every turn. Sometimes you've just got to turn around or whatever. At the least, it would have made a LONG game. I guess in a tournament we could have just sat on our lead and made Luke chase us.

Focus fire is your key here. Concentrate on one ship until its dead. If you try and spread out your damage, you're just playing to that list's strength. You may want to try a list with two defenders + HLC, or a defender + HLC and Echo + VI + ACD. Add in some fodder (TIE Fighters or a TIE Bomber) as your bait. Note that if he flies Han or Wedge, Echo will have a harder time.

As far as Artoo goes, don't leave him alive for the endgame! If he's giving you trouble, pop his ship first while all of yours are still flying.

Ordinance can be a good equalizer against low agility ships. Bombers with homing missiles, proton torpedoes, or advanced torpedoes are good options. Homing missiles get around the falcon's evade token. A bomber squad might be a legitimate strategy against such a small list. Even after the alpha strike, they have high HP and can still shoot as well as a regular tie. 4 Tie bombers with Homing missiles can wreck on the Falcon rather quickly since they get around the evade token and they get to reroll any misses. Fill them out any way you want or add another threat like backstabber and it should give him fits.