I think a good way (or just another way) to start would be differentiating between 2 different moments in each game, and the skills that are involved:

1. Reaction Play

- Skill to make the right decisions on the current round or for the immediate action choice, etc.

2. Action Play

- Skill to set up and plan for what you want. Skill to stick to your action plan or know when to break it off.

Also known as "reactive" and "proactive" play. There's a lot of games where being proactive in a way that forces your opponent to primarily play reactively can lead to a huge advantage, but there's also times where getting to see your opponent's moves, then reacting to them, can also be advantageous. For example, in X-Wing, having higher pilot skill means you can place your ships after you know where your opponents will be. This is a reactive move, but if you do it right, it sets you up to proactively control the range and position of the first engagement between your ships and theirs.

Paul Heaver's Asteroid movement suggests that there is a tad bit more skill ceiling than you think.

Asteroid play is certainly a skill, but being skilled enough to navigate them like he does, vs being unskilled and simply using Debris, makes a very minor difference.

Of course, in Worlds, that very minor difference wins games, but still.

Asteroid placement skill indeed is very important. It's really the only way some lists can beat other lists. 2 ship lists would be oh so tough to win with in the swarm matchup if rocks couldn't be utilized for positional advantage.

JUST as important, asteroid USAGE skill. If you purposely place a dense asteroid field and never use it, or just joust next to it, then there wasn't any point in setting it up. This means setting up your ships to travel through it, or turning towards it, or slow rolling or speeding towards it.

First off, I love this thread, thank you for making it! We need more things like this on the forums.

The basics, obviously, are the most important. Don't hit asteroids or bump accidentally. Point the right direction. Most of my competitive experience was flying 6 Z95s with ordnance, and I think it is definitely a list that 'needs to be flown well'. There is no repositional ability, it is low PS, and the ships die easily even if they get an action. You have to predict where your opponent is going to go, and have a specific plan with asteroid placement, and where the first engagement should happen.

As others have said before me, being proactive and being reactive are both very important. On my first few turns, I would often do 4 straights and 1 straights/banks to add a little more unpredictability. Zooming ahead at speed 4 on the first round makes your opponent reactive, and over the subsequent turns it is nice to see what their default reaction is. Do they turn in, or turn away? Do they move for the asteroids or zoom down a flank? Figuring out what your opponent's battle plan is will win you games.

Because I was flying a swarm that had to fly in a specific formation, I had to pick my 'lane' of attack during every game. Often I would try to fly through the asteroids towards my opponent so that I would K-turn out of the rocks, and they would K turn towards the rocks. Planning this approach was important because if I can K turn when my opponent's K turn is blocked (either by my ships if I do not have initiative, or by asteroids) then I will be at a significant advantage. Flying proactively like that makes it much easier to get a numerical advantage quickly, as the first set of K turns is usually when ships start to drop for swarms.

Knowing how to attack your enemy is really important for flying well. I was playing a game with a new player yesterday that loves Soontir Fel from the lore. He wasn't really sure how to use him on the table though, and was really worried about getting one-shotted. After a quick 1st engagement he started getting a feel for the game, and I explained that Soontir loves strafing runs because he is so fast, and getting tangled up in a dogfight is a great way to get blocked and die. Dual IGs fit this same role as well. I have found 3 major archetypes, with a couple of subgroups so far. If you know how your ship likes to fly, then you will develop a plan to implement in every game. More importantly, you will be able to guess what your opponent wants to do based on what ships they have taken.

Jousters

This is the most basic type of ship in the game. You fly it at your opponent, K turn, green move, K turn. That may be an over simplification, but for the most part these ships do not have any re-positional actions and tend to be cheap. They come in 3 different flavors: Knife fighters, snipers, and basic.

Knife Fighters: B wings, Z95s, TIE Fighters. Kiwesdfhssz?(I haven't flown them yet, or really seen if they like knife fighting or if they are a more basic jouster) These ships have access to short K turns, barrel roll, or hard 1 turns. They want to get in close and smash face, hopefully blocking enemy K turns or arc dodging with a barrel roll. Knife Fighters are happy going from range 3 to range 1, and don't like range 2.

Snipers: Z95s with ordnance, Heavy Scyks, pretty much any ship with a cannon, Lambda, TLT. Snipers are the opposite of Knife fighters. They want to sit at range three and shoot secondary weapons, benefiting from the range bonus on defense and denying that to their targets. They fly slowly by using 1 straight and barrel roll, or long K turns to get out of the fight. It is harder to fly these because your opponent is almost always going to push ahead and close the distance as soon as possible. Flying them well requires predicting your opponent and knowing when to break off, and when to close and block, denying close range shots as much as possible.

Basic: Enter your T-65s, Defenders, Advanced, and other non-arcdodgers. These ships like range 1 for the extra die, but don't have the health or the maneuverability to stay in close for an extended time. If you only have one K turn and it is speed 4, your moves will be predictable and staying in close will be hard. Not having a cannon, or other secondary weapons makes range 3 less attractive too. These ships are pretty, well... basic to fly 'well'! Shoot at the enemy as much as possible, don't bump or lose actions.

Arc Dodgers

Arced: Basic arc-dodgers. IG88, Starviper, A Wing, Interceptor, etc. These ships usually do hit and run tactics, and use their superior maneuverability to navigate through the asteroids as much as possible (Except for IG88). Expect them to have push the limit, and learn the green moves on each of the dials if you want to block (read: beat) them. They will not attack every round, so you really need to predict movement to 'fly well'. The phantom is a special case as it can decloak turn after turn with ACD. They are the ultimate knife-fighting arc dodger. Stygium Particle Accelerator makes the ship fly very differently, and is much more a hit and run ship, like Corran Horn.

Turret: When a PWT gets engine upgrade, they're asking you to chase them around the board edge. If you do, you will lose. If you plan your approach and beak off at the right time you will have a much better chance to win. When is the right time to break off though? In my experience, you can usually get 1 round of maximum-ish attacks off on this type of ship. Because of the large base and engine upgrade, this is usually the first round on the approach. If you're 'flying well' and predict their next move and block them, you can get a second round of attacks before they pass you and you have to K turn or hard turn to keep them in arc. This is when you break off. Get your 1-2 rounds of attacks in and zoom away with a 4 or 5 straight. Hopefully you will get out of range and will avoid taking fire. Then K turn, then re-approach. If you chase these ships, you will constantly lose attacks, and the turret will kill your list one at a time. If you are flying this list, just try to make them chase you, and spread their formation out. Keeping 1 ship in range at a time will be your key to success.

Swarms

Defenders.

I just had an "aha!" moment in regards to playing my pet list well. I am thoroughly enjoying an Alpha Fleet Officer squad.

4x Alpha Sq. Pilot

Omicron Group Pilot (Adv. Sensors, Fleet Officer, Intelligence Agent)

When I started playing this, I completely jousted with it. I kept all my ships close so that if one got damaged, it could Evade the next turn and receive a Focus from Fleet Officer. However, at PS 1 there were times where a ship would get focused down, usually the one that didn't have an extra focus token in the opening rounds. So I switched it up by spreading out my deployment and having only two of my TIE interceptors with the shuttle to face the opponent head-on, while the other two try to flank or get behind the enemy. This has multiplied the effectiveness of the squad, but only inasmuch as I implement other aspects of the game.

For example, sending a lone Alpha Sq. Pilot to flank is likely to get it killed because he's out of range of Fleet Officer to receive the extra defensive token. To make sure my opponent does not turn away from my main force to engage the flanker I have to set up asteroids such that if they choose to turn towards my flanker, they are also turning towards the asteroids, which limits their maneuver options the following turn. I also have to manage range on my approach so that if they do take that gamble and attack my flanker, my other ships are able to have good shots on his most dangerous ship to take it out early. This also allows me to play my TIE interceptors like arc dodgers/blockers the way they are meant to be played, and not like jousters.

Is this the best squad ever? Not a chance, but it has a lot of good aspects about it, and learning to change the way I fly it has led to a visible improvement in the success of my squad.