What I really want to improve in my X-wing games is my obstacle selection/placement and my initial approach. Does anyone know some good articles discussing these topics?

I have seen this video:

I found it usefull and will probably watch it again, but it is also almost a year and a half old. A lot has changed in the meta between now and then. Is there anything more recent?

I also just found this arcticle by Pual Heaver: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2014/3/20/turn-zero/

Did he ever get a chance to continue this series?

Any other thoughts or rules of thumb you have for the early game and want to share would be much appreciated.

Wish I had more time to really dive into this one, but here's a couple rules of thumb.

Set up your opening with your mid and end games in mind. Look at your opponent's list, and figure out which ships you'll want to kill early, and which ships you can ignore for later. Figure out who is benefited by tight obstacles and who is benefited by having lots of room between obstacles. Deploy your ships closer to the enemy ship that you want to kill early, and deploy the ship you want to keep around for the end game further away from your opponent's ships.

If your ships are slower, you'll want the obstacles to be near your opponent's deployment zone, if your ships are faster, you'll want them closer to your deployment zone.

A ship that is deployed at the front edge of the deployment zone facing forward can alwasy do a 2-sharp turn without hitting an obstacle. This is useful to know if you need to redeploy your ships on the first turn of the game.

I have quite a few articles on my blog that talk about different opening theories, and I plan to do an article soon on how to craft an opening for a list.

Kegels help.

Kegels help.

I had something but that's funnier so bravo.

I have simple rules for obstacles if I'm fighting small ships I spread them out to deny cover when possible, large base I cluster four together as I'm really good at flying around asteroid and debris better than my friends.