How does this work.

My opponent moved his x-wing into my ties, does this mean I can't attack him until he fires, also I am range 1 of his capital ship does that mean I can't attack it until the x-wings are dead?

Escort means you have to attack the X-wing instead of other fighters who lack escort. The core set only has X-wings so thats not a big deal.

All fighters who are engaged "distance 1" with enemy fighters can not perform attacks against capital ships.

What is counter attack does that mean I have to wait for him to attack first?

How does this work.

My opponent moved his x-wing into my ties, does this mean I can't attack him until he fires, also I am range 1 of his capital ship does that mean I can't attack it until the x-wings are dead?

Escort doesn't have anything to do with firing at capital ships. That's engagement. Escort means that enemy fighters cannot attack non-escort fighters until all of the squadrons with escort have been destroyed.

Escort only means you have to attack that Squadron before you can attack a different one.

So say you have a X-Wing and Y-Wing squadron together, the ties have to attack the X-Wing and kill it before they can attack the Y-Wing.

The ties don't have to wait to attack until after the X-Wing does, you'd still use the normal activation rules.

Wes covers the engaged part

What is counter attack does that mean I have to wait for him to attack first?

Counterattack gives you the chance to fire back (with the stated number of dice), even if you have already attacked, or have been destroyed.

Fighters with counter attack work as normal, however when they get shot, they may immediately use their counter attack back against the squadron who shot them, even if they died. A counter attack also does not count as an activation, and you can do it against each attack.

What is counter attack does that mean I have to wait for him to attack first?

No that means if you shoot a squadron with Counter, like say a A-Wing, the A-Wings get to roll X dice as an counterattack, even if they die.

So you shoot a A-Wing squadron with your Tie Fighters and do 1 damage, the A-Wings then get to roll 2 blue dice as a counterattack, but this doesn't count as their activation.

Thanks the card is confusing about the counter attack wording

Suppose your Awings have not activated yet, and a squadron of ties moves into distance one. You are now engaged with the ties. You may not move, and may not attack a capital ship until you are not tied up with the enemy fighters. On you activation, you attack the ties, scoring 2 damage. On the ties next activation, they fire at you, scoring 2 damage. You immediately counter with the specified dice, destroying the ties. Another squadron had moved into distance one, so you are still engaged and may not move. You attack the new squadron, scoring 2 hits. That squadron then activated and attacks you, scoring 3 hits, destroying your squadron, but counter is triggered again, and your counter roll nets another damage, killing the second squadron. Both would then be removed from the board. Hope this helps.

Now for escort. A ship with escort is like a secret service agent who protects the president. They will jump in front of the gun, and you will be forced to destroy any escorts before attacking any ship that does not have escort.

Escort: Basically, think of this like a tank in online games. When the 'tank' is there, enemy squadrons are forced to attack it if it's within range and can only target others once any Escorts within range are gone.

Counter: Basically, it's punishment for attacking that squadrons. You roll attack dice at it, and they get to roll attack dice equal to the Counter value right back at you. But Counter cannot punish someone else's use of Counter. Only the initial attack.

Escort is Biggs from x-wing. Enemy fighters have to shoot an escort ship instead of something else.

Counter is a bonus revenge attack for being shot at. "You shot me, so I'll shoot you back"