I know there are other threads about bringing new players into the fold and lists and all that, but whatever, I'm creating opportunity!

So tomorrow I'll be introducing a new player to the game, and we only have roughly 30-minutes to play. I say 30 because we do have an hour, but between setup and breakdown and explaining things, I think a 30-minute game would be perfect.

I was thinking of a naked Han vs 3 AP and Howl. That seems easy, thematic, and short enough to not be drawn out.

Any other ideas? He's a huge Star Wars nerd, so I think he'll be happy to fly whatever, I just figured piloting the Falcon would be simple enough to get a good idea of what the game is about.

Should I instead have Han vs scum Fett? Or even Imperial Fett? I don't want to annihilate him and turn him off to the game either. I'm afraid a handful of TIEs is too dangerous in the hands of an experienced player.

I would stick to ships with firing arcs only. The falcon is great for newer people to play games, but it really misses out on the fun that an X wing v TIE game can give a brand new player.

My suggestion:

2 X-wings(you) and 4 TIE's(new guy).

or

3 TIE's(you) and 2 X-wings(new guy)

Falcons are an enjoyable, dynamic ship at a competitive level, but for the very first dip into the game I think they are underwhelming.

On the other hand I started out a friend playing lone wolf dash and ptl Corran and he had a blast.

A friend and I just did some demo games at Denver Comic Con - we did some dogfights... but mostly stuck to the scenario in the starter box involving the senator's shuttle. An hour is more than enough time to run that scenario. We ran it with 2 tie fighters (night beast and an academy pilot), Naked Soontir Fel, Luke, and a rookie pilot xwing. If we had 2 players, I made one play rebels, the other imperials. 4 people? One person Luke, one Soontir, one the Rookie and one the other two ties. Worked great!

I would stick to ships with firing arcs only. The falcon is great for newer people to play games, but it really misses out on the fun that an X wing v TIE game can give a brand new player.

My suggestion:

2 X-wings(you) and 4 TIE's(new guy).

or

3 TIE's(new guy) and 2 X-wings(you)

Falcons are an enjoyable, dynamic ship at a competitive level, but for the very first dip into the game I think they are underwhelming.

I second 3 TIE Fighters (Academy Pilot) and 2 X-Wings (Rookie Pilot).

I've used that setup with only 3 of the smaller asteroids as obstacles for intro games and it has worked out pretty well so far.

2 X-wings(you) and 4 TIE's(new guy).

or

3 TIE's(you) and 2 X-wings(new guy)

I'll assume you mean this.

I like the idea and appreciate the input. I was thinking even Han with an X and Imp Fett with an AP just so he gets the feel for both large and smaller ships, and not just a turret.

Why not use the quick start scenario that comes with the Core set? 1 x-wing vs. 2 tie fighters.

I echo the suggestion of small ships with arcs only. 3 TIE vs 2 X-Wings gives a great intro. The heart of the game is maneuver.

Agreed. A X Wing vs TIE Fighter (that sounds familiar...) match will probably give the best demonstration of how the game works. I would leave all upgrades out of the game, and use no named pilots. Then you're only explaining the maneuver dial, actions, and shooting/dodging.

My demo games usually start with a proposition:

"Do you want to be Luke and Wedge, or Vader and Boba?"

Which results in me getting some much needed practice with X-wings.

Why not use the quick start scenario that comes with the Core set? 1 x-wing vs. 2 tie fighters.

That scenario is weighted pretty heavily in favor of the empire, in my experience. The Luke v. Night Beast+Obsidion Squadron Pilot is fairer, but still has the 2v1 issue that doesn't feel fair somehow (Also, Night Beast's ability is actually rather non-intuitive in function and not suitable for a demo*). 3v2 or 4v2 feels a lot fairer while still giving the Ties the numerical advantage

*Night Beast's ability does not work when he's stressed, but does when he bumps or interacts with obstacles. This is pretty much the opposite of what novice players think.

I tired Han with Luke crew vs 3 or 4 ties to introduce a friend to X-Wing. I think turret prevented him from feeling like all there is to X-Wing is jousting. The problem I found is 4 ties eat up a naked falcon.

I think the falcon(Han) is a fine ship to learn on. Even though you don't have to worry about your arc, you should be well aware of avoiding the arcs of the tie fighters. So he will still learn the main mechanics but still be able to roll dice. If you want, you can give him an escort, maybe a z-95 to get a feel of what needing the arc feels like. For your side I would take 2 black squadren ties and Marek Steele. No upgrades on anything.

The best part about this is when he tells you how broken Steele is when he gets a bad crit result.

I would keep it easy and do 1 x-wing vs 2 tie fighters, just work with the core set seeing that is easiest to say go buy this and your good to go.

Having given the matter a little thought, 3 Black Squadron Ties vs. 2 Rookie Pilots seems like it'd be a fair fight*, and it would give the rebel player a better feel for controlling multiple ships.

*42 v 42 points, and the Black Squadron pilots are wasting 3 points on overbidding Pilot skill, which compensates for the TIE's better jousting value.

Our local group has run an Intro to X-Wing at our local con, twice a year for the last few years. It's always easiest from our experience to start total new players on the core X-Wing vs TIEs. They get the dynamics down, and if they want more it's easy to keep adding bits. We don't start on large ships until the afternoon generally, and never have any problem keeping the table full the whole time.

It also help to keep the roids in the box.

I only just started playing Xwing two weeks ago, and my initial purchases were the starter set and Imperial Aces. The first demo game I received was with the starter set and we played at 32 points. The lists we used were:

Luke Skywalker with R2-D2 (32pts)

Vs

Mauler Mithel + Determination (18pts)

Black Squadron Pilot (14pts)

He took Luke and I was given the TIE's. It actually worked really well because it gives you a feel for the basic ships not having skills, the named ships having an extra ability, as well as some upgrades.

Why not go 60 points and do

Rebel

A-wing Proto Pilot

X-wing rookie

B-wing Blue squad

60 points

Imperial

Tie Fighter-Obsidian

Interceptor Royal Guard-Push the limit

Lambda Shuttle OGP-FCS

60 Points

You can add the CR to the a-wing and give the b-wing FCS so both squads have it.

Both squads have access to upgrades, barrel roll, boost, target lock, focus. One uses double actions and introduces the stress mechanic very easily.

Taught my brother and cousin by taking Luke with R2-D2 and giving them each a named Tie in 2 on 1 matches. We played 3 games in less than 2 hours.

It would have been less but in the third game my cousin had Backstabber and my brother had Dark Curse. My cousin pulled an outstanding move that should have put Backstabber right behind me at point blank range. My brother, however, did something none of us expected and ended up blocking me which kept me behind Backstabber at range 1 and I one-shot him. My cousin learned the importance of blocking that day. Then my borther ran for the rest of the game and since Luke and Dark Curse are both hard to kill it took about 45min. to run him down.

That was a while ago but I think we played the first game without obstacles and then used 3 or 4 in the other games. It was enough to get the feel of the game and all three of us had a ton of fun.

I'd plug using Chewbacca w/ Gunner and another easy upgrade or two against three Imperial fighters. The new player takes Chewbacca and gets to fight a simplified game that ignores those pesky face up cards, gets to stay fun by shooting anytime there's an enemy in range, and also gets to feel effective by making sure the attacks hit. The person running the Imperial side get to deal with the more complex aspects of the game.

Barring that the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter scenario is hard to best if you think you need to teach maneuvers and firing arcs immediately and aggressively.

Why not go 60 points and do

Rebel

A-wing Proto Pilot

X-wing rookie

B-wing Blue squad

60 points

Imperial

Tie Fighter-Obsidian

Interceptor Royal Guard-Push the limit

Lambda Shuttle OGP-FCS

60 Points

You can add the CR to the a-wing and give the b-wing FCS so both squads have it.

Both squads have access to upgrades, barrel roll, boost, target lock, focus. One uses double actions and introduces the stress mechanic very easily.

If you are introducing new people to a game system, regardless of what it is, you usually want to keep it as basic as possible. They can pick up some of the more advanced rules later, but for a first game go with the K.I.S.S principle.

I would normally ask whether they had any favourite ships or pilots, then go from there. If they love Wedge then give them Wedge and it'll draw them in more since they'll care more about him surviving then if he was just a Rookie.

Or you can draw them in with all of the possibilities of the characters and ships they can get, but say "To get you started, here is how the game works"

Intro lists I would use are:

2 TIEs vs 1 X-wing

2 A-wing (use Chardaan refit cost reduction of -2) vs 1 alpha interceptor and 1 TIE fighter A.P.

2 B-wings vs Empire Boba

Why not just stick with the quick play rules from the starter set? Simple, straightforward and does what it says on the tin. That's what got me and my friends hooked into the game.

Then, once they've played a few matches with the basics and are getting into the swing of things, you whip out a few of the expansion packs ships and tell them about how cool the Boost action, Bombs, and Secondary Weapons are...