Hi all, I am quite new at this game, I finally gave in to my inner geek and now have my Star Wars fix. I have been reading a few forums, watched a few podcasts etc, and have heard a lot of talk about new players and 'netlists' such as Fat Han.

I have always loved the Falcon, and X-Wings are archetypical of Star Wars for me. So I am running a Fat Han list. Apparently, it has a bit of hate.

The reasons I have gone with the Fat Han are these;

-I am really new, so I want a smaller group of ships to work on, I don't want to be 'that slow player'.

-As I said, I love the ships.

-It combines large and small ships so I can get experience working both.

-It is apparently reasonably forgiving in the hands of noobs like me.

This is what I am running;

Han Solo, VI, Falcon, C3PO, Luke Skywalker (because it's Luke!)

Rookie X-Wing x2

Do you more experienced pilots have advice on keeping the X-Wings alive long enough to do some damage and not leave Han to be pecked to death?

I would lose the VI and Add the Falcon Title. Maybe turn Luke into a Gunner, and get each X a Shiny R2, but Luke does help hit stuff even moar... I suspect with Han's ability you won't need it though.

Also don't let anyone give you guff about "meta" or what not. Falcons are fun to fly.

In terms of how to fly your list, I'd either flank off the side of the Falcon with the X's or bring them in behind it. Let the Falcon tank until the furball gets started.

I would recommend putting the Falcon away for about 6 months. Go get yourself 2 more ships...X-Wings would be best, B-Wings, Whatever.

Then start playing with those ships. Biggs with R2D2 + 3 Reds. Wedge + 3 Reds. XXBB. Even 4 Reds with R2s.

But the important thing is start learning to fly formations. How to turn without bumping vs what a bank will do. How to stay within 1 of Biggs but still keep him safe. Then add in some different ships and pilots. Cracken in a Z95. How to keep formation with a high PS ship moving last so he wont bump, then how to pass actions effectively. Toss asteroids on your mat randomly and learn to fly around them and through them. How to get yourself behind them for the extra green dice.

In your off time toss a ship on the mat and place all your templates in a bag. randomly draw a template, then WITHOUT putting it down, put a coin down on the spot where you think your ship will end up. Then place the template and see how close you got. Do that a lot until you get real good at eyeballing distance and angle. Then add in a planned Barrel Roll or boost, and mark where your ship will be with the random move and that action added in.

At the beginning you will get crushed. A lot. But once you have the ability to dogfight your ships and you can put them in those little gaps between ships, your game will improve.

Then try running imperials. No shields but VERY maneuverable.

Only then, do you pick your turret up. You will know what your opponent will be doing because you KNOW what those ships can and cant do. And then you will know how to break his formation up and pick him apart.

You have Han Shoots First/Fat Han.

Fat Han runs 3 Zs, and makes use of all the other points except for 3, which are really up to you. Some people use Predator, some use VI and Talas.

Also, R2D2 crew is another choice

I say leave the list as it is. You have a nice characterful list (xwings, Luke) which is also reasonably competitive against anything out there (VI Han will trumps phantoms, always...; Luke is great to counter Sensor Jammer).

As for flying low PS ships, there is a learning curve to it. The trick is to try to anticipate where the opponent's ship will go and go there first so that they crash into you and loose their action. Of course, it's much harder to do on a phantom, but you can still make them abort and then use Han to take pot shots.

For damage, try to stack Target Lock and Focus. Again, it will require a bit of planning ahead as you don't have action stacking shenanigans in this list, but is quite satisfying when you get it.

Hi Rat of Vengence,

Welcome to the game. We're glad you could join us.

Yes, the Fat Han has a bit of hate, but don't let that bother you. I think you've got a good list to play with. It's nice and simple, so you won't have too many caveats in your mind as you're playing.

While I disagree with kellyj about what you should fly, I think he does make a good point about learning how to fly. I did something similar - practice flying in formation, get a sense of where different templates would end you up. Also, go read this thread about the geometry of movement.

Starting with a turret ship does mean you don't learn the importance of flying because it's very forgiving of mistakes, this will be bad because autothrusters are weeks away and if you can't get the interceptor/a-wing/starviper in front of you your not going to score many hits and get eaten alive.

Heck my friends played as long as me and he was almost weeping in frustration the first time I used my autoceptors against his yt2400, he flew great had awesome attack dice and still lost.

Flying is THE most important thing you can learn in this game.

Thanks for the advice all. I have come from playing a fair bit of Wings of Glory (you have to predict THREE turns in advance) so movement and estimating, let alone trying to predict enemy movement, is something I have gotten reasonably good at.

I played my first tournament yesterday, and although I won only 2 from 6 games, three of the losses were right down to the wire, enough so I picked up 19th from 40.

Things I learnt;

-Towards the end of the day, double check your dials; I banked (thought I was turning) a full health X-Wing off the board late game, thought I was going to get the win up til that lol.

-HLC is pretty **** deadly.

-Blocking can be really good, in fact I got it to work for me against Dash's donut (that sounds wrong...) in one game (until the X-Wing flew off...)

-X-Wings are fun, but probably too many points for their durability. Still, they hit pretty **** hard and nearly killed a whole decimator while Han was busy.

I'd strongly encourage you to look into Lando as crew. I've run him on generic YT-2400s a lot, and he's great.

On the note of "hate" in this community, while there are certainly strong builds and a couple ships some feel are overpowered, people don't often look down on someone or label them as "cheesy" for playing those lists. That's something I've seen in other miniatures games, but not this one. People tend to focus less on the player playing them and more on game design.

On the note of "hate" in this community, while there are certainly strong builds and a couple ships some feel are overpowered, people don't often look down on someone or label them as "cheesy" for playing those lists. That's something I've seen in other miniatures games, but not this one. People tend to focus less on the player playing them and more on game design.

Unless you fortress. Then it's very much the player that receives disdain.

You're new and you bought a CR-90 off the bat?

On the note of "hate" in this community, while there are certainly strong builds and a couple ships some feel are overpowered, people don't often look down on someone or label them as "cheesy" for playing those lists. That's something I've seen in other miniatures games, but not this one. People tend to focus less on the player playing them and more on game design.

Unless you fortress. Then it's very much the player that receives disdain.

True, but that's less a list and more a tactic.

You're new and you bought a CR-90 off the bat?

Nothing wrong with that. Looks badass on the shelf even when not being played.

OP, play what you want. There really isn't anything more "Star Wars" than the Falcon piloted by Han with Luke and C3PO crew.

If you want to get better at maneuvering without buying more ships, put Engine Upgrade on the Falcon and try to stay out of enemy firing arcs.

If you're having fun, don't worry about it. We all wanted to be Han Solo when we were little, and now you get to fly the friggin' Falcon around and shoot down TIEs with it, how cool is that?! Fly what you want to fly.

You're new and you bought a CR-90 off the bat?

You didn't? Oh yeah, me neither!

Thanks for the replies all. I took this list to a Store Championship on Saturday and felt I went really well; 19 of 40 for my first tournament. I won 2 of 6, but 3 of the losses were **** close, with only a ship each in all 3.

I'd strongly encourage you to look into Lando as crew. I've run him on generic YT-2400s a lot, and he's great.

I want to, but I haven't the YT2400 yet. Soon...

On the note of "hate" in this community, while there are certainly strong builds and a couple ships some feel are overpowered, people don't often look down on someone or label them as "cheesy" for playing those lists. That's something I've seen in other miniatures games, but not this one. People tend to focus less on the player playing them and more on game design.

I guess it's just the forums then, the fellas at the tournament were all very chilled, and there was quite a variety of squadrons. I play 40K also, and I have noticed about as much ass-hattery on here as some of the 40K forums I frequent. Usual keyboard warriors I guess.

You're new and you bought a CR-90 off the bat?

I shouldn't have? Should I NOT want a Tantive IV in the display cabinet? Thanks for the constructive post though

On the note of "hate" in this community, while there are certainly strong builds and a couple ships some feel are overpowered, people don't often look down on someone or label them as "cheesy" for playing those lists. That's something I've seen in other miniatures games, but not this one. People tend to focus less on the player playing them and more on game design.

Maybe I'm an ******* but I look down on netdeckers. Half the fun of this game is discovering interesting squads. And if someone reads that fat Han is awesome, then you start seeing tons of fat Hans. In the last tourney I was at there were 5 falcon yt2400 lists and 3 decimator lists. Out of 12 slots. So yeah, I lookdown on netdeckers.

So yeah, I lookdown on netdeckers.

Which you really have no ground above netdeckers unless you can beat them. Choosing your list and preparing for the meta is a strategy in itself. If you deny that logic, you're gonna lose a lot of games.

I say fly Han all you want. My first tournament list was an Outer Rim Smuggler, two B-Wings and a Y-Wing. The list I have the most time flying is Han Shoots First, which I've flown about 4 or 5 dozen times since wave 3. Flying the falcon will give you the experience you need to be confident flyig large base ships. But remember, the most important thing about this game is that you're having fun, no matter what list you choose to fly.

On the note of "hate" in this community, while there are certainly strong builds and a couple ships some feel are overpowered, people don't often look down on someone or label them as "cheesy" for playing those lists. That's something I've seen in other miniatures games, but not this one. People tend to focus less on the player playing them and more on game design.

Maybe I'm an ******* but I look down on netdeckers. Half the fun of this game is discovering interesting squads. And if someone reads that fat Han is awesome, then you start seeing tons of fat Hans. In the last tourney I was at there were 5 falcon yt2400 lists and 3 decimator lists. Out of 12 slots. So yeah, I lookdown on netdeckers.

Strange. I would have thought since you get that in your area, you could tailor your list to suit the lists you will most likely face. They can be beaten you know. I asked one of my mates to play my Han list so I could play against it to find some weaknesses, it isn't too hard.