As someone who primarily plays the game because I've loved the X-Wing novels and comics since I was 11, I generally only like flying lists that have characters that I have a connection to from the Legends stories. Conversely, I have difficulty flying things I when I disliked the Legends books that featured them (see also: anything from Shadows of the Empire, which means my new YT-2400 is probably going to be seeing a lot of shelf time, sadly, and Rebel Assault II, which means the Phantom-heavy lists I see make me sad, since the Phantom should never have been in wide use according to lore).

I was wondering if anyone else liked to make lists that are heavily based on lore first, and mechanics/numbers second? For example, one of my favorite scenes in the New Jedi Order: Enemy Lines: Rebel Stand is when Wedge takes on a full squadron of Yuuzhan Vong coralskippers in a solo X-Wing that has torps but no astromech. Luke, the E-Wings of Blackmoon Squadron, and the Tierfon Yellow Aces led by Jason were also involved in the battle, so I created the following two lists:

3-ships:

Anyone else make lists similarly sometimes?

I have a number of 4x Ship lists on the rebel side. 4 B's, 4 X's, 4 Y's, ect... To me that seems fairly keeping with the lore, even if it's not always the best list.

But by and large it's difficult to not fly something that fits in the lore really.

Tie Fighters and Interceptors were fairly ubiquitous so seeing 3-4 Fighters or Interceptors escorting a VT-49 or Lambada Shuttle is not at all out of place. Likewise seeing a mix of X's, Y's and B's together is not uncommon.

I'm speaking more to pilot choice than just general ship choice. For example, flying Porkins with an E-Wing would be hilariously out of lore, since the E-Wing didn't exist when Porkins died (also Biggs, or really any of the Yavin IV pilots who are not named Wedge, Luke, Han, or Keyan).

On the other hand, I'm forever saddened because there's literally no way to fit Wedge, Tycho, Wes, and Hobbie into the same list. Those last 7 points!

Epic is what you need.

Or just play a 125 point game, we play those a lot and it can be fun.

Epic tends to take a lot of time, at least when my friends and I are playing. I also tend to flag out and stop enjoying anything after about 2 hours, so that limits expensive lists. The 125 point list idea might be fun, though. Enough room to breathe and play with thematic combos, but still forcing you to be creative.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I am a huge fan of thematic lists, I think that it makes for a much more interesting and meaningful game experience. I try and shoot for this in any game I play, but with x-wing it's generally come down to similar ideas to yours. When running Imperial I like using named characters and the squads they would actually be in (howlrunner, night beast, and gundark for example), and the same with rebels. I think this will be harder with the scum faction but oh well. For me it isn't something I am going to jugde my opponent on as it comes to personal preference but I always feel better when I can make a list that takes the source material into consideration, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one.

I think the scum faction will be really intersting, as the talents and EPTs and especially the Illicit upgrades for that faction will mean that your ships won't be synergizing or relating the same way a Rebel or Imperial ship will - which I think adds to thematic ideas. So even if, say, you have Boba Fett and some random Scum Y-Wings in the same list, it won't necessarily be jarring, since their relational bonds are less strong, as demonstrated in the way their abilities interact with each other.