So what am I doing wrong?

I play plenty of strategy games, and tend to at least manage 50%, with my best decks and best squads managing to win the majority of matches. But I can't find my groove in this game! It's evaded me since about Wave 4.

I don't get to play often, but neither do the guys I play against. We pretty much all build on the spot, so it's not as if they've carefully crafted fleets for max efficiency. And I'm much better at maneuvering- for all that seems to matter.

I tend to gravitate toward smaller, mobility-based ships, but I've drifted away from heavy reliance on green dice. The A-Wing and Defender are still my favorites, but I use a fair amount of Bombers (with small armaments), the larger Imperial ships, B-Wings, Outrider, and X-Wings too. I know some of those choices aren't the top pieces in the game, but again, my opponents tend to be equally casual.

I don't use more than a handful of cards, but I do tend to play the elite pilots rather than the generics.

I know that's pretty limited for info, and maybe I can dig up a squad list or too for reference, but right off the bat, does anyone have any advice for my described playstyle, or power combos I should try to work in? I feel like I'm... nbuilding aimlessly? I suppose.

Position, position, position.

Do you ever play the same list more than once? That can easily be the issue. Practicing one list.

Not having a self-defeating attitude also helps a lot. Hate leading to suffering isn't just a part of some hokey religion.

casual lists can often produce casual results.

A friend of mine used to throw together lists on the spot, just pick ships he likes and toss on a few upgrades. His piloting was average, but generally he lost a lot. Just some time ago he asked me to choose his list. I know he likes Imperials, so I gave him the classic Shuttle+Palpatine with Soontir and Vader. He won and was like "wow, thats a powerful build". Sometimes it helps to see what works in this game so you can try to create lists of your own.

some basic tips:

1. Choose an enemy ship and bring it down. this often means directing your entire squad against it, but since you can't predict the dice you sometimes need all those shots. When its dead, try to repeat.

2. If you're not sure about a maneuever, take the safer choice. Until you learn how to correctly guess where you'll end up, it might be a better choice to choose a safer maneuver. I hear lots of new players say "I thought I would make it" after they land on an asteroid, take damage, lose an action, lose the chance to shoot and then lose that ship.

3. Turrets are easy to fly. Its true. Big tanky ships like the Falcon, Outrider with Mangler or even Y-wings with TLT can take the pressure off choosing that perfect move. Just stay in range and let your turret do the work.

Your collection and availability of upgrades might have a lot to do with it. As much as people don't want to admit it, there is power creep in X-wing and not having pivotal upgrades like Autothrusters could be the source of your troubles if your playstyle revolves around mobile ships.

For starters, try finding a list that you think should do well. Then stick with it for about 5 games before you do any overhauls. I've had several lists where I've lost my first 2 games before going on a 10-game win streak.

You could give something like this a shot:

Blue Squadron Pilot [fire control system]

Blue Squadron Pilot [fire control system]

Blue Squadron Pilot [fire control system]

Jake Farrell [Autothrusters, Chardaan Refit, A-wing Test Pilot, Push the Limit, Veteran Instincts]

Lots of firepower and Jake is your PS9 arc-dodger. You have no initiative bid at 100 points, but Jake can still block the living daylights out of a Soontir.

Don't lose the casual attitude, rather practice flying over listbuilding. Have you researched formations and asteroid placement?

You also may have a problem with action economy. In this game it is really important to modify your dice. Never take a red where the advantage it has over a white/green is not significant. Whenever you take an action go through this checklist:

1. Can I avoid being attacked with a movement action entirely? If so do that, unless you put yourself in a worse position for the next turn or lose a potential killing shot.
2. Can I be shot and shoot? Take a focus. The default action most of the time because of how flexible it is.
3. Can I be shot, but not shoot back? Take an evade. If you can't, take a focus.
4. Can I not be shot and not attack, but reposition in a way that allows me to? Do that if it does not also get you shot at, since there you would be at a disadvantage without dice modifications.
5. Can I not be shot and not shoot or shoot? Take a target lock if availiable, take a focus otherwise or position yourself in a way that helps you next turn.

There are some exceptions to this, for example I like to take target locks more often on ships that just have one evade die, since they can't do much with a defensive focus. Sometimes your upgrades will also give you other priorities, like when Predator makes target locks redundant, since you reroll anyways. Howlrunner is almost always going to want to evade, since she is priority target number 1.

A lot of people miss just how critical dice modification is in this game due to how minor a lot of the things seem, like taking a K-Turn where you would have been fine with a turn manouver or taking the wrong specialized action (TL/evade) where focus would have been more usefull.

And don't make it too hard on yourself, don't get cute.

Don't overload a ship with action choices, keep close together with your PS.

4 TLT is a good way to learn the more subtle parts of the game- formation flying to maximize focus fire, asteroid placement, breaking up enemy formations, when to break formation, when to block and with what ship etc.

casual lists can often produce casual results.

Known in engineering and math as casuality. Spelled as casualty in some sources (with the same meaning).

4 TLT is a good way to learn the more subtle parts of the game- formation flying to maximize focus fire, asteroid placement, breaking up enemy formations, when to break formation, when to block and with what ship etc.

I actually don't recommend fielding more than 2 TLTs for new players. Quad TLT might be easier to fly, but you're missing out on an opportunity to learn how to keep targets in arc.

I tend to gravitate toward smaller, mobility-based ships, but I've drifted away from heavy reliance on green dice. The A-Wing and Defender are still my favorites, but I use a fair amount of Bombers

I think I've found your problem. You picked three of the worst ships in the game as your favorite three (or at least the first three you listed).

You should start by virtually never using a ship with less than 3 attack dice. Next pick ships that are maneuverable, (Or that maneuvers don't matters IE Falcon, Decimator). Lastly pick ships that can survive a few hits. B-Wings are good, X-Wings are good, turreted ships are good, Twin Laser Turrets are very consistent.

Just some ideas to get you a few wins.

I have a friend that always goes for lists that are full aces. He either wins big or loses big. We play A LOT so he is pretty experienced and knows how to fly. Aces lists are difficult because you don't get many ships and and early loss of one ship can completely wreck your game. I know the lure of aces makes it fun to build lists with them but they take a dose of luck some times that the green dice don't help with. One ace plus scrubs is much more forgiving. Or try some middle skill ships. They still have some good abilities and allow for 1-2 more ships over the aces.

@saturnflight:

It seems to me that what you're really trying to do is figure out if you're an 80% loser

(a) because of your skill (maneuvering tactics, target prioritization),

or,

(b) because you're mainly interested in flying "fun" builds that go against the meta of proven winners.

When diagnosing a problem, try an experiment. In this case, run an experiment to see if you can rule out option (a) above.

So the experiment I'd suggest is to try some very simplistic build, such as 4 B-Wings with Accuracy Corrector, which is a proven winner in good hands, and see if your win rate goes up. Or 3 X-Wings with ace pilots and simple, effective health regeneration astromechs. Or a bunch of TIE Bombers that are mostly naked and function as a brute force, 2-attack-dice TIE swarm, only with double the health.

These kinds of builds are simple, force you to think about tactics rather than shenanigans, and will allow you to figure out your "baseline" skill level against casual opponents.

And I feel your pain. I played against nobody but my kitchen table self and a few newbies for many months of fun and variety, but when I started going to a LGS for "competitive" play, it took me months before I won my first game. Now I have a pretty decent above-.500 record, including in sanctioned tournament play. I think what I had to learn was how to be a good tactician before trying to be a good list-builder.

Good luck!

Something from my Street Fighter 2 days pays big in XWING: Always leave your ships with a 50/50 (left/right; blocking lane not so obvious) on flyby or contingency (they don't engage). If you often have no better move... Figure out where the flightpath led you into killzone city. In SF2, this would be called "on_Wake-up Game." Killzone can happen before the first shots are fired. Several turns in fact. Hugs.

Yeah. Let's find out why you lose.

First. For a little bit. Stick to one list.

Then in that game, while you're playing:

Tally each time you hit a rock.

Each time a ship you control entered combat without a focus.

Each time you were attacked by a ship with focus while you didn't have one.

Each time you didn't have a shot with a ship, and each time your opponent didn't have a shot. (after the first shot is fired).

1. This should be 1 or 0.

2. Around 1. Literally. Don't do it.

3. 5? Ish. It happens.

4. You should have less of these tallies than your opponent.

This will give you a baseline for whether you're being fancy or playing badly. Not getting shots.

Notice how dominant FOCUS is on that list.

Obviously, talk to your opponent and ask for his thoughts, post game.

Thanks for the thoughts so far.

I maneuver very well. Nearly always land where I expect, guess opposing placement well, and the others collide regularly. I almost never have a placement plan fail. But after a few rounds, I tend to lose that advantage. Unless I'm flying an A; then I have placement advantage the whole game.

If anything, I'm too cute with my maneuvers.

As for collection, I don't have the Tantive and I don't have a K-Wing, but I own everything else. I don't consider myself limited for options.

I'm willing to follow build tips like "use more 3 attack ships" and "don't run ordinance strategies", but I'm not interested in advice like, "use YYBB with ions". The appeal of this game is in making my own choices, so I want room to choose- at least as far as a casual atmosphere already encourages. However, I realize that I'm not succeeding with my current methods.

I like the idea of running some safer ships a few times, and seeing how it goes after repeated attempts. Do you think I could vary the pilots a bit? As in, if my list is 2 Bs & 2 Xs, I could run Keyan one game, shift those points to Biggs or Wes another, etc.? Basically, indulge my desire for variety in a minor way, while remaining consistent with my dials and general rules if how to fly? Or am I undermining my potential learning?

I think it's best that I not even touch on Scum for now. I favor their big ships, and their odd trickery is much too experimental for me to improve my game while dabbling in.

So what am I doing wrong?

I play plenty of strategy games, and tend to at least manage 50%, with my best decks and best squads managing to win the majority of matches. But I can't find my groove in this game! It's evaded me since about Wave 4.

I don't get to play often, but neither do the guys I play against. We pretty much all build on the spot, so it's not as if they've carefully crafted fleets for max efficiency. And I'm much better at maneuvering- for all that seems to matter.

I tend to gravitate toward smaller, mobility-based ships, but I've drifted away from heavy reliance on green dice. The A-Wing and Defender are still my favorites, but I use a fair amount of Bombers (with small armaments), the larger Imperial ships, B-Wings, Outrider, and X-Wings too. I know some of those choices aren't the top pieces in the game, but again, my opponents tend to be equally casual.

I don't use more than a handful of cards, but I do tend to play the elite pilots rather than the generics.

I know that's pretty limited for info, and maybe I can dig up a squad list or too for reference, but right off the bat, does anyone have any advice for my described playstyle, or power combos I should try to work in? I feel like I'm... nbuilding aimlessly? I suppose.

I don't mean to be condescending, but often when I face newer/casual players their squads kind of suck. If at 120 points all someone can scrape together is a Firespray and 2 Z-95's and a Y-Wing, they autolose. You can make half decent squads out of Defenders and X-Wings but you have to fly specific combos to get them to work.

It's also not enough to simply fly the Outrider. If you're flying the 55/58 point Super Dash you should have no problem winning games. But if your list is just a Dash and an HLC and a Z-95 and other assorted junk thrown together then you're going to autolose to someone whose list isn't random stuff thrown together.

Give us an example of a squad you fly. I believe that this is most of the problem you have.

100 Point Stress Theme (W1)
YT-2400: Eaden Vrill (32)

-Ion Cannon (3)

-Tactical Jammer (1)

-Gunner (5)

Z-95 Headhunter: Airen Cracken (19)

-Decoy (2)

E-Wing: Etahn A'baht (32)

-Sensor Jammer (4)

-R3-A2 (2)

150 Point Evade Theme (L1)
Y-Wing: "Dutch" Vander (23)

-Autoblaster Turret (2)

-R7 Astromech (2)

-BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Y-Wing: Horton Salm (25)

-Ion Torpedoes (5)

-R4-D6 (1)

A-Wing: Gemmer Sojan (22)

-Chardaan Refit (-2)

B-Wing: Nera Dantels (26)

-Predator (3)

-Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)

-Enhanced Scopes (1)

YT-2400: Wild Space Fringer (30)

-"Mangler" Cannon (4)

-Jan Ors (2)

200 Point "Mini Epic" Focus + TL (L1... but it was real close!)

(This one was my most recent. Played a scum team of Kath, IG-88B, Graz, Kavil, N'Dru, & Latts. Left IG-88, Kavil, & N'Dru with 3 hits remaining on each.)
Raider-Class Corvette: Raider-Class Corvette (Fore) (50)

-Comms Booster (4)

-Quad Laser Cannons (2 Energy) (6)

Raider-Class Corvette: Raider-Class Corvette (Aft) (50)

-Grand Moff Tarkin (6)

-Ion Cannon Battery (2 Energy) (6)

TIE Bomber: Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

-Adv. Homing Missiles (3)

-Ion Bombs (2)

TIE Bomber: Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

-Ion Pulse Missiles (3)

-Seismic Charges (2)

TIE Defender: Colonel Vessery (35)

-Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Notes (since this was just yesterday): I needed more guns on the Raider. Found myself low on energy and often without a target. Gave Focus to all my ships, however; they were always perfectly loaded up with tokens. One Bomber dropped way too soon. The other easily got in a 2-range Advanced Homing Missile shot, and Ion Bombed 2 ships to collide with the Raider (or would have; my one maneuver error this game missed one of the 2 ioned ships as I took a turn, allowing it to live). The Defender was a beast- lived to the end, was always locked and focused, made 4-dice rolls constantly with 3-4 hits, and his positioning was perfect. I know they're generally bad decisions, but with the assistance he had from the overpriced Raider kit, he was amazing.

I like the idea of running some safer ships a few times, and seeing how it goes after repeated attempts. Do you think I could vary the pilots a bit? As in, if my list is 2 Bs & 2 Xs, I could run Keyan one game, shift those points to Biggs or Wes another, etc.? Basically, indulge my desire for variety in a minor way, while remaining consistent with my dials and general rules if how to fly? Or am I undermining my potential learning?

You've hit on some good concepts with your question.

First, the joy of X-wing is the infinite variety! (IMHO.) I can't beat 4B with ACs to save my life, but I'd rather poke my eyes out than fly it all the time. A proven winner...but BORING!

Second, when you're overly devoted (as I am) to coming up with cool multi-ship shenanigans using all that lovely Rebel synergy, you end up having your flying enslaved to pulling off the perfect combo, and it rarely happens. The best synergy starts with any given ship's self-synergy among pilot ability, EPT and other upgrades. From there you can flavor your list to add the awesome combo ability among squadmates, but you haven't sacrificed your overall ability to punch and take punches.

Third, there is a symbiotic relationship between learning good tactics and learning good list building. If you're going with three good X-wing pilot builds, it might take a couple of games to realize you need to swap astromechs to get the right balance both internally for each ship, and overall for your list. So yeah, start with one build, then fiddle with it to swap Garven for Tarn, or Luke for Wedge, and adjust other upgrade costs accordingly. Or drop a 4-point R2-D2 for a 3-point Astromech so that you can bump up another EPT to Predator. Definitely pick a list you like, but make small alterations and trade offs when you realize something just didn't carry its weight in points, and you wished you had something else elsewhere. Small changes to lists that improve overall effectiveness become clear through experience.

Build for damage, damage mitigation or value. No offense but I feel like those lists contain too much cutesy expensive stuff. I do imagine they are fun to play though.

Ions, stressbots and auto blasters need to be in cheap packages that help your damage dealers shine. Predator is awesome.

100 Point Stress Theme (W1)YT-2400: Eaden Vrill (32)

-Ion Cannon (3)

-Tactical Jammer (1)

-Gunner (5)

Z-95 Headhunter: Airen Cracken (19)

-Decoy (2)

E-Wing: Etahn A'baht (32)

-Sensor Jammer (4)

-R3-A2 (2)150 Point Evade Theme (L1)Y-Wing: "Dutch" Vander (23)

-Autoblaster Turret (2)

-R7 Astromech (2)

-BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Y-Wing: Horton Salm (25)

-Ion Torpedoes (5)

-R4-D6 (1)

A-Wing: Gemmer Sojan (22)

-Chardaan Refit (-2)

B-Wing: Nera Dantels (26)

-Predator (3)

-Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6)

-Enhanced Scopes (1)

YT-2400: Wild Space Fringer (30)

-"Mangler" Cannon (4)

-Jan Ors (2)

200 Point "Mini Epic" Focus + TL (L1... but it was real close!)

(This one was my most recent. Played a scum team of Kath, IG-88B, Graz, Kavil, N'Dru, & Latts. Left IG-88, Kavil, & N'Dru with 3 hits remaining on each.)Raider-Class Corvette: Raider-Class Corvette (Fore) (50)

-Comms Booster (4)

-Quad Laser Cannons (2 Energy) (6)

Raider-Class Corvette: Raider-Class Corvette (Aft) (50)

-Grand Moff Tarkin (6)

-Ion Cannon Battery (2 Energy) (6)

TIE Bomber: Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

-Adv. Homing Missiles (3)

-Ion Bombs (2)

TIE Bomber: Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

-Ion Pulse Missiles (3)

-Seismic Charges (2)

TIE Defender: Colonel Vessery (35)

-Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Notes (since this was just yesterday): I needed more guns on the Raider. Found myself low on energy and often without a target. Gave Focus to all my ships, however; they were always perfectly loaded up with tokens. One Bomber dropped way too soon. The other easily got in a 2-range Advanced Homing Missile shot, and Ion Bombed 2 ships to collide with the Raider (or would have; my one maneuver error this game missed one of the 2 ioned ships as I took a turn, allowing it to live). The Defender was a beast- lived to the end, was always locked and focused, made 4-dice rolls constantly with 3-4 hits, and his positioning was perfect. I know they're generally bad decisions, but with the assistance he had from the overpriced Raider kit, he was amazing.

The 100 point squadron you posted is exactly what I'm talking about. As another poster said, it's a bunch of expensive cutesy stuff. That list is not only expensive cutesy stuff, but it's not even built properly to take advantage of what you're trying to do.

For example: Eaden Vrill gets extra attack dice for doing /primary/ weapon attacks on a stressed ship. So why does he have an ion cannon? And why isn't the stressbot in the list on a ship that can only attack once? Why not put R3-A2 on Corran or a BTL-A4 Y-Wing? What is Airen Cracken doing in the list at all?

The 100 point list has the attacking power of like 4-5 TIE Fighters and similar durability.

I'm not saying you have to build A+ lists and autowin games with Super Dash or Super Corran against your casual friends, but build lists that are B- lists at least. Something like double Firespray or quad Scyk or triple Defender or Etahn and 5 Z's or Biggs Luke Wedge. Stuff that's decent and fun but not game breaking. It's just list building that's holding you back it seems.

Find a comfortable style of list build and stick with it. If your struggling during setup or having to set a bunch of dials, scale down the size of your squad. If you find you keep forgetting to use upgrades, scale those back. Once I figured out my comfort level and stuck with it, I started winning more marches.

I also go into a match not concerned about winning or losing. It helps me focus on the task at hand.