Some of the TLT rant threads got me thinking about a question: Are we in a utopian era now that FFG has finally conceived a biosphere, where the best bet truly is to make lists that can handle all-comers? Did FFG finally build the legendary perfectly balanced asym game?

That launched a whole bunch of sub-questions for me:

-Assuming we do have a level of R-P-S balance, is the right approach to build a "take-all-comers" list?

-If so, how to build such a list? Must it include: a jouster, an arc-dodger, a filler/blocker, a PWT? Does it need all of those roles? What else does it need? A mix of PS? a mix of secondary weapons?

Playing other miniature games (you know what I mean here) casually for a long time, there was always much mentioned of build "all-comers" lists. They almost never worked out in reality (at least that is my experience). There were some armies that could dump everything into a [strong magic/psychic phase], [flyers], [monsters/tanks], [unkillable characters], [shooting/assault phase], or [whatever] and still pound everything, regardless. For many armies, the meta did not support taking an all comers list. Many armies spent, literally, years at the top of the competitive scene in that grimdark world (and still do). If it was ever that game designers' intent to see all-comer lists, they didn't do a very good job of it.

X Wing actually seems like a game where you truly do have a wide variety of competitive options, and that building an all-comers list might be the best way to go.

Now for the last question:

-If its true we have a meta that supports all-comer lists, and if its true that multiple, varied all-comers lists can be built for each faction, is 100 points enough to build a varied array of all-comers lists?

Discuss.

(for the record, I don't think I'm interested in actual lists, perse, but rather in the theory, thinking behind such).

The weakness of the Grimdark all-comers list is that attacking is easy in that game. It's so easy that unbalanced lists could usually gut the part of an all-comers list that countered their army before it was an issue. If you had one anti-tank unit, the all-tank army made it dead really fast.

X-wing, with its emphasis on maneuver, makes it much harder to attack a target. Combine that with the fact that "paper" ships can still contribute against "scissors" ships, and I think a case can be made that a balanced list is a good strategy.

My general list-building thought process goes something like this:

1.) Pick ships I want to fly.

2.) Figure out what meta elements I can defeat with good strategy and planning using those ships.

3.) Add specific counters to ships those can't handle.

For example, I recently wanted to try out BTL-A4s with TLTs. They're great vs low PS, but I knew high AGI Arc Dodgers could give them fits. The A4s got Proximity Mines as a tool to jack with high defense ships, and the third ship in the list was Kavil with VI, Engine, and an Autoblaster Turret to give me a few different ways to counter what I saw as the lists main weaknesses.

Hey, I was having some of the same thoughts probably about the same time you were typing this up. I have my thread over here: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/189219-throwing-in-a-couple-of-generics/

I'm thinking that a list with about 4-6 ships will be the key. Have an ace and at least 1 mid level guy, and then some generics. You can have a nice mix of things to take on the high PS arc dodger, the fat turret, and the TLT list.

As a side note, I did build a great All Comers Warhammer Fantasy list. It was with Orcs and Goblins. I didn't min-max anything and had a nice balance of it all. I had war machines, chariots, goblin fanatics, heroes, big 'uns, characters, and magic. I did pretty well.

O&G were one of the few armies that had units cheap enough, yet just effective enough to actually pull off well rounded.

Well with lists it is not really that simple as Rock Paper Scissors. As long as it is not a mirror (which happens as a meta develops into singular lists) there will always be match ups that have an advantage or disadvantage against others.

It is not always Rock Paper Scissors it is sometimes Sprok, Plastic, Knife or Spock, Lizzard, Cockroach. When it all comes down the meta boils down into 3 major components.

1. List Composition
2. Fire Arc Positioning
3. Dice Probability

The first one the player has the most control over as it has the least interaction with other players but its influence is rather fixed it wont turn a losing game into a win. The second one the individual player has less control over as other players can interrupt with obstacles or blocking. The last is what the player has the least control over yet it often has the most influence as one bad dice roll could turn a winning situation to a narrow loss, or one good roll could turn certain defeat into victory.