I also do not get to play nearly enough.

If you really want to add insult to injury, then consider the dollar value of the ships in your collection.

Then divide this total by the number of times you have played with them.

As an example if you have 2x core sets and 10 small ships and 4 medium ships then you approximate 300 dollars.

Now if you have only played 30 times since collecting this lot then you have actually paid 10 dollars per game (assuming these are casual)

It is worse if you pay additional tournament fees.

You might find, like me that your 'cost per game' is quite high.

If you are happy to pay that ratio then there is a good business opportunity for a venue to buy multiples of ships and just charge players a nominal value per game day.

I feel your pain. My minis are collecting dust since my first daughter was born on 8/18. Haven't had a chance to use any Wave 7 ships. Sad.

Beer works for sure. For me it's a good way to practice 2 whole builds at once. It can help you practice maneuvers, see how certain combos work out, etc.

The way I do this is take a strong meta build and use the build I want against that. Every turn I plot 'my' build and then plot the meta guys with perfect knowledge of what I did. Needless to say, without the element of outguessing I often lose that way, but being forced to fly in the way that minimizes punishment is a good learning experience. It also helps me evaluate my builds concerning threat level.

Really surprised no one has mentioned Vassal yet.

Play on Vassal! Tons of traffic nowadays and you can find a game usually as soon as you log in.

Takes a bit of practice to get used to it, but I've played over 100 games on Vassal now and I find it way easier than in person!

Tutorial

Downloads

PM me if you're looking for someone to show you the ropes!

I have about $1,500 in X Wing. I have probably played, I'm guessing, somewhere around 100 games over the last 1.5 years. That comes to about $15 per game. That being said, in many cases, I've provided ships for both sides (and in some cases, for multiple people playing in team games).

Eh. I don't know. For me, it's worth it. Some people will spend that much at the Casino on a week trip to Vegas. I couldn't care less about going on vacation; I'd rather make sure I get my weekly thursday night gaming session in with my buddies.

Regarding cost per game, you have to ask yourself how much you value the ships as collector's items. I have quite a few action figures that cost between $8 and $15 each so I could get the whole bounty hunter cast from ESB. All those figures do is just sit there, but I wanted them and felt the cost was worth the plastic. I view many of my X-Wing ships in the same way. So if I'm getting $5-$8 worth of enjoyment out of the ships as plastic models, I only need to get $7-$10 worth of gaming in per ship.

In other words, a game might actually cost less than your total investment divided by number of plays because some of that cost may apply to satisfaction of owning the model. At least for some people.

Really surprised no one has mentioned Vassal yet.

Play on Vassal! Tons of traffic nowadays and you can find a game usually as soon as you log in.

Takes a bit of practice to get used to it, but I've played over 100 games on Vassal now and I find it way easier than in person!

Tutorial

Downloads

PM me if you're looking for someone to show you the ropes!

Vassal is nice, but not the best way to practice manouvering and I like to have my miniatures in hand.