A couple days ago I was talking to a few guys at the store after a weekly tourney to get some input on my twin aggressor list (which I flew badly enough to merit last place). One of my opponents was upset (in general) that he was still doing so poorly in tourneys. Now this particular tourney is frequented by a number of A list players from NOVA squadron, so we did explain to him he was in the deep end of the pool here.

But we also tried to give him some constructive criticism as to what he was doing wrong in general. This served as the genesis for a set of rules for how to X-wing the right way. If you have suggestions to add to the list please do so.

1: Have fun. Don't be a ****.

If you are not enjoying the game you are doing it wrong. It's OK to not be happy that you lost, but did you have a good time during the game? If not, was it your own fault or your opponents fault? This is the core on which the community is built.

2: Learn to measure without measuring.

Know where your movement templates will put your ship. Learn how to tell if something is going to be at range 1,2, or 3. This is the most important skill in X-wing.

3: Learn to see things as they will be, not as they are.

Picture where your ship will be after a maneuver, picture where your enemies ships will be after their maneuvers.

3b: Master sequencing.

Remember ships move in a specific order, use that order to your advantage when plotting a move. If your opponent wants to be in a spot, and your ship moves first, why not put your ship where he wants to be?

4: Positioning trumps everything.

If you can shoot at your enemy and they can't shoot back, you will eventually win the game.

5: He who rolls the most dice usually wins. He who modifies the most dice always wins.

Modifying dice always trumps volume of dice.

6: NEVER TRUST THE DICE.

Lady luck will always screw you.

7: Fly your squad as it was meant to be flown.

If you have jousters, joust. If you have arc dodgers, dodge. Don't try to fly against the way your squad was meant to fly.

8: Know your weaknesses better than your strengths.

Knowing what your squad is good at is easy. Knowing what they will be vulnerable to is much harder.

9: Attack weaknesses first.

You don't need to kill everything to win. Just more points before time runs out.

10: Beware multi-ship synergy

It may look good the idea of passing focus and target locks like a game of hot potato. But the chain becomes the clear weak link to your enemy. Once the chain is broken you will lose.

11: Fly what you are comfortable with.

Just because some hot new squad is out there doesn't mean it's right for you.

12: Never order pizza at a place where the Gyro sign is ≥ the Pizza sign.

Not X-wing related but good advice none the less.

This is a pretty good list, although maybe a little vague for new players to actually implement, it's a good starting point for new players to know what they need to work on.

Some of these aren't always true though, especially at higher level play.

6. Never trust the dice

Sometimes you have to give up some percentage points on a single attack to give yourself a better chance to actually win the game as a whole. Yes it sucks to have to take shots at Whisper and ignore the Lambda that's right in front of you, but you're more likely to kill the Phantom then you are to win the game by ignoring it so sometimes you have to take the riskier shots.

9. Attack weaknesses first

This is almost always generally true, but paradoxically this is actually not true against Fat Han lists, especially when there is a time limit due to the MOV system. Even if you kill all their Z-95s but can't kill Han before the time limit, if they kill 40 points of your ships you're not going to win that round.

11. I feel like you should just stay away from places that serve both gyros and pizza, unless it's Greek pizza.

1. never trust the dice

2. never trust the dice

3. never trust the dice

4. fly your squadron a few times (or until you're sure you do not like it) before buying new things you'll never play with

5. ask local mates if they're willing to lend things so you can try before you buy

6. never trust the dice

7. never trust the dice

8. never trust the dice

9. never trust the dice

10. turrets are the most forgiving ships in the game and are thus very good to start out with (especially the millennium falcon, how could you say know to that icon and beautiful model )...just please outgrow it quickly.

P.S: don't be scared to try ion/stress mechanics even if they limit your damage (such as ion cannon). Control effects are incredibly powerful and the low damage output should not dissuade you from trying them out. Odds are there will be several scenarios when you can only do one damage anyway.

This is a pretty good list, although maybe a little vague for new players to actually implement, it's a good starting point for new players to know what they need to work on.

Some of these aren't always true though, especially at higher level play.

6. Never trust the dice

Sometimes you have to give up some percentage points on a single attack to give yourself a better chance to actually win the game as a whole. Yes it sucks to have to take shots at Whisper and ignore the Lambda that's right in front of you, but you're more likely to kill the Phantom then you are to win the game by ignoring it so sometimes you have to take the riskier shots.

9. Attack weaknesses first

This is almost always generally true, but paradoxically this is actually not true against Fat Han lists, especially when there is a time limit due to the MOV system. Even if you kill all their Z-95s but can't kill Han before the time limit, if they kill 40 points of your ships you're not going to win that round.

11. I feel like you should just stay away from places that serve both gyros and pizza, unless it's Greek pizza.

If something you need is dice dependent, don't trust in that happening. That is the core of rule 6. regarding rule 9, it depends how you interpret the word weakness. Fat Han has only 1 defense die, you could argue he is the weak point in the squad. Point being these rules are not going to be always true, but I will settle for most of the time. I once had a good slice in a place that had a huge gyro sign.

Should you ever order gyros when the Pizza Sign is ≥ the Gyro Sign?

Should you ever order gyros when the Pizza Sign is ≥ the Gyro Sign?

if a choice is ever offered, the place is suspect to begin with

Fat Han has 13 HP and 2 guaranteed evades per turn representing 3 attack dice, versus the 4 HP ~1.5 evades Z-95 representing 2 attack dice, the Z-95 is the list's weak point from a traditional standpoint of going after high attack / low defense ships first, but MOV and the mechanics of C-3PO and the MF title force you to attack the list's strongest point first, which is what makes it such a good list.

For new players having guidelines that are true even most of the time is more valuable than having nothing, so this is a good thing for people to have.

Should you ever order gyros when the Pizza Sign is ≥ the Gyro Sign?

Most places that serve "Gyros" get their meat from a factory in New Jersey where they arrange the meat stack (it's slices of lamb and/or beef, or flattened chicken breasts) and deep freeze them. They then ship them all over the country so god knows how long they've been in the freezer. Good Turkish and Greek places make they're own in house fresh daily.

There's a pizza place near my work that sells a gyro pizza. It's delicious.

Good advice. Now I want Pizza. Thanks.

Regarding the dice question, my advice is:

Don't BLAME the dice.

It's just obnoxious.

Play to have fun. Winning is just a bonus.

Good advice. Now I want Pizza. Thanks.

I was eating pizza when I read it.

Regarding the dice question, my advice is:

Don't BLAME the dice.

It's just obnoxious.

This especially.

Cheer for even your opponents great rolls and boo their bad ones. Enjoy.

Regarding the dice question, my advice is:

Don't BLAME the dice.

It's just obnoxious.

Don't blame them when you lose.

But occasionally it may be gracious to give the dice credit for your wins

Red dice > Green dice.

Red dice > Green dice.

in cold, logical, mathematical probability this is objectively true

the dice love to laugh at logic, though

Another important one would be:

* Go into the match planning to lose some of your ships. That's okay, honestly. Ideally, have a good idea what the enemy is going to try to kill first and understand what you have to do when that dies. Repeat as needed.

(I've certainly played with folks, newer players usually, that you can see taking it REAL hard when they lose a key ship...or sometimes any ship at all. I mean, seriously, if you put a TIE swarm on the table...you aren't going to end that match with all of your fighters still flying. That just isn't going to happen, so don't fall apart when one dies. Even if it IS Howlrunner.)

Regarding the dice question, my advice is:

Don't BLAME the dice.

It's just obnoxious.

It's so annoying to the winner, too. I mean, if they come up all blanks then that's one thing but I've seen people try to joust with Interceptors and then accuse me of winning due to my unnatural luck. I do have an impressive history of good rolls but I don't really need it if people are trying to play shot for shot with my B-Wings.

Regarding the dice question, my advice is:

Don't BLAME the dice.

It's just obnoxious.

It's so annoying to the winner, too. I mean, if they come up all blanks then that's one thing but I've seen people try to joust with Interceptors and then accuse me of winning due to my unnatural luck. I do have an impressive history of good rolls but I don't really need it if people are trying to play shot for shot with my B-Wings.

True that.

Another aspect of it is that blaming the dice happens with very selective memory. I have one friend who will complain about his luck with the dice after a bad roll of the reds, after a string of double evades on two of his greens. Meanwhile - just like in what you're saying - it's painfully obvious to anyone observing that he's making bad decisions on both builds and flying. I think he realizes it, but he uses the dice to excuse to not learn the lessons that he needs to learn in order to get better.

No idea what gyro pizza is so I'll submit my own Kiwi version, never order from a fish and chip shop with grease on the ceiling. Its a bad sign.

Anyway, these are great rules, both for new players and for older player to re-read and make sure they don't lose sight of the basics.

Mmmm.... gyros....

Yeah, this is all good advice. Especially number one.

Target priority is also something to consider. Do you focus down a dangerous high PS ship first, or target and destroy lower PS ship before they can return fire? Reducing your opponent's attack dice ASAP is often key to winning, but so is knowing which ships you don't want to leave until the end game.

Mmmm.... gyros....

Calling it "gyros" and then showing a video on döner. Just because they're the exact same, doesn't mean that it isn't a fighting difference.

if you bring young kids control them.. could elaborate a bunch on that one.

Kids shouldn't be playing with toys anyway, teach they to look but not touch...When I was young those scaletrix sets looked so much fun but dad would never let me play...*sobs*