Practice, practice, practice.
I'm spending some time today practicing my maneuvering. I've got 3 ships (Defender, Squint, and Advanced), and a semi-randomly placed asteroid field. I'm having these ships slalom around the asteroids in PS order.
The point is for me to get better at having an intuitive understanding of how each manuver will actually look in practice. It's a small thing, but really important for improving my game.
Don't be afraid to lose. I do it far more than I'd like, but at this point in my life, I'm happy to get out of the house to play whenever I can.
Learning how to eyeball the moves is very important it's the difference between sweeping around that asteroid and crashing headlong into it.
Next comes learning the moves for each ship so you can guess where the other guy will go and plan accordingly.
Finally how to build a list that works well together, this game isn't won in the squad building phase but it's important to know what will and won't complement each other.
I would throw a large base ship into that mix. I have absolutely clobbered a couple of people with Chiraneau + Whipser because they had no understanding that Chiraneau can arc dodge.
Flying was/is the easy part for me because Im very visual and geometry is my favorite subject to teach! My son is the complete opposite! Hence, I also understand that if it isn't instinctive to look at the board and see the path then it takes practice to learn how the ships will maneuver! I had to get him to put ships on the board and fly em to get better! Its good to see people doing that on their own! Good luck!
I've been doing this too.
If I hit an obstacle I take 1 damage (no dice roll) and I go until my ship(s) is destroyed. Plus I take a rock or 2 and place them near (less than 1 on range ruler) the playmat edge- trying to learn NOT flying off the board as much.
First step of improvement is to just play loads of games to get the feel for the game. Playing a swarm helps you understand movement more than anything.
Second step is to never blame dice [you may continue to be angered and disappointed by them though] Always try to find something you could have done different in every game. If somebody does four damage at range one to you due to no natural evades then look to see if you could have focused or done a different manouver. Eventually you'll stop making big mistakes which will increase your chance of winning drastically.
Also don't give up too easily. You never learn more about a ship until it is the last man standing.
Edited by OffswitchFor the record, I grabbed 3 random ship tiles and made a squad out of them:
Darth Vader (29)
Daredevil (3)
Advanced Targeting Computer (1)
Engine Upgrade (4)
TIE/x1 (0)
Delta Squadron Pilot (30)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
Carnor Jax (26)
Push the Limit (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
Autothrusters (2)
Royal Guard TIE (0)
Total: 100
You're spot on with "practice, practice, practice" - there is no substitute for playing against other people but the kind of thing you're doing now is the best way to "work on your swing". When I started my approach was like yours. I ran multiple games against myself, read a bunch of threads about list-building, read all the stuff in the Newbie thread, read all the Paul Heaver columns, even ran the missions in the expansions. I got so good at home, by myself, that I was almost ready to go to World's and kick some serious ass and bring home the world champion title.
Then I played against a couple of people live and remembered why Mike Tyson will go down as one of the great philosophers and thinkers of our age.
Yeah theoretical only takes you so far then you have to put it into practice and the other guy never wants to cooperate.
I play my squad against some powerful meta squad, playing both sides. I play the opposing squad as if it always correctly guesses my moves. This helps with opening strategy, turn-to-turn tactics, and vusualization. It also gives you a good sense of what meta squads want to do, and how to stop them.
I've outlined some stuff I do to keep in practice here:
https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/192723-x-wing-training-solo-play
Play and play more. Find some friends that like playing also. Met new people with different playing styles to learn more. Learn from your defeats and your victories. I learned a lot from reading this forum and tried a lot of proposed builds some were better than others and some met my type of play. There is a learning curve so do not get frustrated.
When playing solo, always include a ship or two you don't like. Copy some lists from here to try them out or to fly something you'd never build yourself.