Thanks everyone for the continued stream of thoughts.

I don't worry about my maneuvers. I feel very confident and comfortable with my flying.

I really think it's list building where I get lost. I need to spend more time getting familiar with options, so that when I try to maximize my list I'm not overlooking the best options because something shiny and new jumped out at me.

I think I should also limit myself to indulging in one 'iffy' ship per squad. If I'm going to run a PS6+ A-Wing, I should have firepower on reliable ships to back that up.

As for my goal, I'd like to reach at least 40% win rate in very casual (1 or 2 friends, always on a kitchen table) settings. I'm not looking for tournament wins, and I have fun with this game win or lose. But if I'm not working on improving, what am I doing?

Props to you for taking all this advice and criticism like a pro, by the way.

I'd just tell you to look at your lists in terms of things that could go wrong, rather than things that could go right. You want to shore up weaknesses first, then maximize strengths. You want to be using all of your cards as often as possible, which is why you don't see a lot of people playing Arvel Crynyd (and the like) -- you're paying points for something that you only use once or twice in a game.

Wanting tournie wins may still come lol. Just a warning. I started the same, I didn't care about a being 'the best' I just wanted to be as good as I could while still having a laugh. Didn't even consider tournament play. Putting time effort and money into something just to lose most games can be disheartening but actually most of us start off doing exactly that. At first I kept thinking I had come up with an awesome combo just to have it picked apart by more efficient or less gimmicky lists flown by better players.

Now? I still try to keep things relaxed but I Love competitive play too. Im at about 80% to 90% wins casual and maybe 66% to 75% competitive at local level. I'm constantly list building as I love making little twists oand have time to play around on my phone to and from work. Time and money allowing I can't wait to test myself beyond store champs level.

While learning it really helps to stick to simple and cost efficient ships or proven uniques. To use your A wing example, low pt A wings are amazing blockers and Jake Farrel is a beast. Not quite the highest PS but his ability gives great action economy and often that is what makes the best named pilots the best. Not a fancy crazy abilty (eg Tycho Celchu ability is great but has worst action economy than Jake) but one that gives improved action economy.

It can feel like netlisting to stick with the tried and tested but if you see someone or something not used much by the community at large, it's more likely there is a reason for that rather than everyone else having missed a trick. Once your comfortable with list building as an art, then you can look to prove conventional wisdom wrong and tread your own path which is great fun and rewarding when it works.

I learned a lot by working my way through the different types of lists. I spent time focusing on flying swarms, then arc Dodgers, then turrets, and so on. Learning to use them helps immensely in learning how to work against them.

Thanks everyone for the continued stream of thoughts.

I don't worry about my maneuvers. I feel very confident and comfortable with my flying.

I really think it's list building where I get lost. I need to spend more time getting familiar with options, so that when I try to maximize my list I'm not overlooking the best options because something shiny and new jumped out at me.

I think I should also limit myself to indulging in one 'iffy' ship per squad. If I'm going to run a PS6+ A-Wing, I should have firepower on reliable ships to back that up.

As for my goal, I'd like to reach at least 40% win rate in very casual (1 or 2 friends, always on a kitchen table) settings. I'm not looking for tournament wins, and I have fun with this game win or lose. But if I'm not working on improving, what am I doing?

like so many folks; I'd recommend flying "simpler" lists first and then the more complicated ones.

but hence you are confident in your flying as you say, you might as well dive right in; grab echo, kit her out and off you go.

then, once you've decloaking into -every- corner you did NOT want to and lost a couple of games because of that, your on the right track again^^

just kidding, of course. but honestly, I think that the game is -not- won in listbuilding.

sure, a "good" list has better chances to win than a "bad" list - but what is good and bad depends on the players for a very large part (not including those few very sh*tty cards).

a "suboptimal" list that you fly well has a MUCH larger chance to win than a "netlist, the m0st br0ken thing evvaaar", that you can't fly as well.

so slap a few models on the table that you like, grab some cards you like to see on them, and if that's fun - there's your list.

being in the competative mindset once in a while, whenever I have some games with a pal who also likes to tinker we have some very surprising results.

things that look quirky on paper DO work (maybe because no-one knows the 1on1 how to fly against it), and these "OMG OP"-netlists tend to die once you know how to handle them.

so even from a comp.PoV it makes a lot of sense to bring something to the table that others haven't seen, yet. netbuilding is straight out, IMO.

Played this tonight:

T-70 X-Wing: Blue Squadron Novice (24)

· R2-D2 (4)

Weapons Guidance (2)

X-Wing: · Biggs Darklighter (25)

· R5-P9 (3)

A-Wing: Prototype Pilot (17)

Chardaan Refit (-2)

X-Wing: · Garven Dreis (26)

· R4-D6 (1)

My friend ran Scum:

Fett w/lone wolf and double focus crew

Cobra w/Predator

PS3 HWK (0 skill trick) w/TLT

I did very well, but lost my Blue to the HWK to end it after a long, shield-recovering chase. A-Wing and Biggs died early, but they wete a trade for Slave I. Cobra died just after Garvin. I flew perfectly, with no rocks, several blocks, and almost executed a 4-point box ambush on Fett (he collided instead).

We won't talk about my second game (I don't mesh with Imperial values very well...)

Nice!

I see what you did there... Garven gets to pass a focus token as basically a free shield to Biggs. I'm curious, did R4-D6 ever activate for you?

I would probably swap the mechs between T-70 and Biggs, so you're always in control of giving Biggs a regenerated shield via green maneuvers. Depending on Garven's token to get that new shield on Biggs leaves it to your opponent providing the opportunity for Garven to spend focus (what if he has no target to shoot and never gets shot at?), and puts Biggs' shield regeneration after combat, when it may be too late, rather than before.

Looks like a good list to consider flying again and trying out small tweaks to the build.

Nice!

I see what you did there... Garven gets to pass a focus token as basically a free shield to Biggs. I'm curious, did R4-D6 ever activate for you?

I would probably swap the mechs between T-70 and Biggs, so you're always in control of giving Biggs a regenerated shield via green maneuvers. Depending on Garven's token to get that new shield on Biggs leaves it to your opponent providing the opportunity for Garven to spend focus (what if he has no target to shoot and never gets shot at?), and puts Biggs' shield regeneration after combat, when it may be too late, rather than before.

Looks like a good list to consider flying again and trying out small tweaks to the build.

I ran R2 on the T-70 because Weapons Guidance was already using those focus tokens to attack. Biggs could afford to save one, so he got R5.

R4D6 did not activate, but it was a situation of leftover points. It nearly did once (Kobra will do that at range 1), but they were 2 crits and 2 hits...

I ran R2 on the T-70 because Weapons Guidance was already using those focus tokens to attack. Biggs could afford to save one, so he got R5.

R4-D6 isn't bad for that last point, if you're not an initiative bidder. He can definitely pull his weight on a Y-wing.

I kind of missed your Weapons Guidance upgrade in my reply. I see your reasoning now. However, I still think you'd rather have Biggs able to regenerate health at will, BEFORE getting shot at, rather than rely upon circumstances during the combat phase. Because if he's rolling green eyeballs, he definitely can NOT afford to save that token. And my experience with Weapons Guidance has been that I find use for it only rarely, so having it compete for the focus token with R5-P9 on your T-70 isn't a big deal in my mind.

But then, you've seen them on the table and experienced their practical synergy, where I'm just theorizing.

I'm kind of tempted to try your list now, to be honest.

R4D6 did not activate, but it was a situation of leftover points. It nearly did once (Kobra will do that at range 1), but they were 2 crits and 2 hits...

I ran R2 on the T-70 because Weapons Guidance was already using those focus tokens to attack. Biggs could afford to save one, so he got R5.

R4-D6 isn't bad for that last point, if you're not an initiative bidder. He can definitely pull his weight on a Y-wing.

I kind of missed your Weapons Guidance upgrade in my reply. I see your reasoning now. However, I still think you'd rather have Biggs able to regenerate health at will, BEFORE getting shot at, rather than rely upon circumstances during the combat phase. Because if he's rolling green eyeballs, he definitely can NOT afford to save that token. And my experience with Weapons Guidance has been that I find use for it only rarely, so having it compete for the focus token with R5-P9 on your T-70 isn't a big deal in my mind.

But then, you've seen them on the table and experienced their practical synergy, where I'm just theorizing.

I'm kind of tempted to try your list now, to be honest.

When high PS enemies shoot Biggs, Garvin can pass Focus to regen shields at the end of that same turn. It's lower PS enemies that give him grief.

With a lot more green on the T-70 dial, it seemed he'd get more use out of R2 anyway (and in fact, he did... which almost won me the game).

I could drop the Weapons Guidance (used it 3 times... once used Garvin's 2nd focus to turn hit/eye/blank to 3 hits), which would let me upgrade R4D6 to something more useful. I'll toy with the idea.

With a lot more green on the T-70 dial, it seemed he'd get more use out of R2 anyway (and in fact, he did... which almost won me the game).

I could drop the Weapons Guidance (used it 3 times... once used Garvin's 2nd focus to turn hit/eye/blank to 3 hits), which would let me upgrade R4D6 to something more useful. I'll toy with the idea.

Fair point on the T-70 dial.

It occurs to me that Weapons Guidance is the odd duck here. Your entire list is built around defense... except for that one card, Weapons Guidance, which requires you to spend a potential defensive token for offense. It's not necessarily anti-synergistic where you have it, but it just runs counter to the theme of the rest of your list.

Now, I can see how Weapons Guidance on a low-PS ship becomes a sort of value-add buy, in that you can pretty much only reach the decision point to use it after all or most of your opposing threats have taken their shots, so in that case, it's a bit of offensive insurance. At 2 points, why not.

Still, those 2 points would allow you to drop the rarely-triggered R4-D6, and bring in R5-D8 for a better defensive option during the endgame. Now all your upgrade points are centered on the same theme. (R5-D8 is a bad choice for Garven since it requires an action, so you'd have another reason to shuffle the astromechs around.)

This whole list gets worlds better when Integrated Astromech releases.