Can anyone point me in the direction of some good general list building advice?

It's an area of the game I've never really enjoyed and therefore done much of and so I lack a lot of confidence in the lists I do put together. For that reason I end up 'net listing' a lot of the time to make sure that when do play I at least turn up with something reasonable. I think it's about time I moved on from that and grew in confidence when putting squads together myself.

Edit - Apologies for the 'new' in the topic title. I don't appear to be able to edit that.

The best thing you can do (in my view) is decide on the sorts of ships you like playing and then try to get some understanding of which upgrades go best with which pilots, and how they might compliment eh other ships in your list.

Unfortunately part of this requires that you delve into list building, and as someone who confesses not to like this aspect you might already be in some trouble.

Depending on how much game time you have under your belt you probably already have a lot of experience of what works and what doesn't from your use of netlists.

How about you use this experience to think about putting something together using your 3 or 4 favourite ships and then post them back up here to get critiques on them from the community? I think you'll probably learn a lot more about list building like this than from a generic "how to" article.

1. Build a list following a concept you like or think it can work ("Maximize firepower", "Glass cannons", "Nimble tanks", etc)

• If it performed well, determine the cause
  • Was it because of good luck?

• Was it a hard counter to your rival's list?

• Was it because of bad luck?

• Replace a ship type for another?

• Yes, repeat from step 2.

Check this out:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/131310-new-player-quick-start-list-guide/

Very good advice from MJ!

I think there was also an article on FFG about it, too. It's been maybe a year or so.

Generally, I like to base the whole list off a core idea that I like. Maybe it's one or two pilots. I think what do I need to make that one effective. I then try to build off that. Lately, I've been thinking that the new meta is probably going to be between 4-6 ships. I think one high PS ace, one mid PS unique, and then a number of generics. The 2 ship meta is almost gone. Most have moved to 3 high aces, but I think 4-6 ships will be a strong build.

List building is also about facing what you see in your local area. What are the main types of builds you see? Then build something specifically to beat them. You then fine tune it to beat other lists, as well. Do you see a lot of Soontir Fel? Or is it TLT-ness? Outrider with HLC?

Thanks for the input guys. Much appreciated.

I think more than anything my problem is one of confidence and I guess the only way to beat that is to do more of it.

I'll be taking all your advise on board and posting in the Squad Lists section of the forum a lot more from now on :-)

One thing that I can't stress enough is not just list building, but flying the list. When you come up with a list....how does it work? What are the main ways it kills your opponents? Is it with massed firepower? Do you distract them with a portion of it as some aces come in from the flanks? Do you nuke them with lots of ordnance from the get-go? What is the strength of your list?

Once you get that, you need to analyze your opponent's list. How does that work? Do they fly at you in formation? Will they double team you from different sides? Is there some high PS arc dodger? Knowing how your opponent will fly is also important. It leads to things such as asteroid placement. If you have an enemy formation, you will want to break them up with asteroid placement in the middle. If you fly with formations, you want to have that clear. Do they have big based ships while you have small ones? That might mean spread out asteroids in the middle so that they can't gang up on you, but you can zip in-between them.

One example was with my 4 Tie Bomber list that required me to stay around Jonus. With low PS, I would usually start on one flank as it was clear of asteroids and I couldn't be flanked from one side. It did mean that I could be flanked from the other. I found that often enemy ships came in from there. My opening was usually slow rolling 1 forward a couple of times and this was something that kept happening. I found if I placed a large asteroid right in my corner I could use that to guard my flank. Right as it was time to fire at things, I would have a rock that would prevent the enemy from getting cheap shots on me...or at least give me an extra evade die. It helped out a lot.

I would recommend flying something that you feel comfortable with, even if it isn't as good as it could be list-wise. When I first started, I tried to fly 5 TIEs and Darth Vader. I must have bumped every other time I moved, and my opponents just ate it up. Only recently I have been confident enough to fly 5 ships, and I'm still learning.

Cheers guys. My confidence with actually playing the game in general isn't a problem, I've been playing since Wave 1. Like I say my issue is reluctance to come up with my own builds.

I'm in the same boat when it comes to list building. In addition to what was said above, look at some tourney lists. Look at how they are put together, how they (cards) interact. You can get a feel of what doesn't work, what works and what works better.

Time and experience will make the job easier.

Cheers guys. My confidence with actually playing the game in general isn't a problem, I've been playing since Wave 1. Like I say my issue is reluctance to come up with my own builds.

I didn't mean to undermine your confidence, I just meant running things that you are comfortable with. I would say I'm comfortable with a list if I know it's general damage output, how I want it to fly it, and it's general weaknesses. Also, if you are familiar with what all the cards are (there aren't but so many, and you don't have to own them to know what they are), the synergy is usually pretty obvious. For example, 2 attack dice plus accuracy corrector is almost a no brainer. Just fiddle with list builders and you can definitely make something interesting.