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.

The bold emphasizes the problem I have with just using the core ships. Even though the rules suggest only using 31 points everybody wants to bump that up to 32 so you can get R2 on Luke and be thematic. Then there is so much defense on the table that nothing dies. After a few rounds most people figure out the game play and then they have 10+ more rounds of redundancy.

It also help to keep the roids in the box.

While I have done this a lot when introducing the game to people, I’m beginning to think it is a bad idea. The game board is really bland without asteroids. In the above Luke vs. Ties game once a player has gotten tired k-turn, green, k-turn, green, k-turn, green they can at least think to themselves, “Hey maybe I should try and use this rock to my advantage.”

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.

... 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.

The bold emphasizes the problem I have with just using the core ships. Even though the rules suggest only using 31 points everybody wants to bump that up to 32 so you can get R2 on Luke and be thematic. Then there is so much defense on the table that nothing dies. After a few rounds most people figure out the game play and then they have 10+ more rounds of redundancy.

In my example above, the reason the game took so long is that I was planning my moves based on the dozens of games I had played with other veterans. When my brother should have 3 K-turned, he did a 5 straight. When he should have done a hard left 2, he did a soft right 3. Because he was a "noob" he out maneuvered me time and again. Over a 15 turn span we got off maybe 3 shots each because of being out of range or arc.

I probably learned more about flying than he did that day.

To this day my brother doesn't own any ships but always wants to play me when he is in town. When we play, we keep it to 50-60 points and limit the upgrades and he always plays the defender he got me fro Christmas because "it looks cool." Since I am a good big brother I take it easy on him and remind him of abilities and actions when he forgets. The bottom line is we always have fun so I feel I succeeded in teaching him the objective of the game.

It also help to keep the roids in the box.

While I have done this a lot when introducing the game to people, I’m beginning to think it is a bad idea. The game board is really bland without asteroids. In the above Luke vs. Ties game once a player has gotten tired k-turn, green, k-turn, green, k-turn, green they can at least think to themselves, “Hey maybe I should try and use this rock to my advantage.”

Lol, things like "strategery" I keep for the second game. First game is for getting the basic mechanics and turn sequence down. Also, in cases where I'm teaching a few players in a 2 v 2, for example, the roids just clog things up since all the greenies are just going to bumper car in the center of the mat anyway. Keeping roids off the table for a player's first encounter also prevents them from demoralizing them self from leaping roid to roid (my patented move).

I get that it simplifies the game. That's what I'm going for since the player should be thinking about the basics and enjoying the fantasy element of it. If you've got players with advanced gamer IQ's then you should be able to start them off with roids right away! Most of the time I'm teaching strangers at a LFGS and don't know what their aptitude is, so I just try and show them a good time.

First game is always 1 X-Wing vs. 2 TIE Fighters. It is fast, simple and easy to learn how they fly differently and why.

Second game adds more ships, but no upgrade cards, weird abilities or asteroids, etc. Basically just able to play with the bases on the ships, but having cards to get them looking at it for damage holders.

Third game, add in asteroids and upgrade cards to 1 ship on each side. So they learn how upgrades work and to remember to use them.

After that, they are ready for everything... more or less...

Works great with kids, spousal units, etc.

Also - consider using a squad / list building tool like this

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/build

and forgo the hassle of pulling out and organizing all the upgrade cards - just use the list on the sheet of paper with the upgrade details and save yourself some setup time