So I went to my local game store to play--I thought it was just a casual play night, but they were playing a league that everyone had bought into. Luckily, one player would have a match off and so I played with them. They were playing 120 pt lists for some reason, so I had to add another Tie f/o to my list. I was flying a Vader shuttle, Vessery, Epsilon leader, and Epsilon ace. My first opponent had a six tie swarm with mostly named pilots, they all had either hull or shield upgrades.

Forgive my sloppy reporting--basically, my shuttle went to the right side of the map and my other ties went left. My opponent split his ties to face my ships (most of his ships had higher PS, so I moved first). I promptly ran my defender into an asteroid and throughout the match forgot to use my various upgrades. Between the anti-pursuit lasers and vader i took out two of the three ties he sent against my shuttle, but was about to run off the board (maneuvering was my main problem in both of my matches). On the other side of the map our ties were mostly missing each other when we had shots. I did do fairly well keeping his ships in my arc, but kept forgetting upgrades and not making the best movement plans. And the dice weren't helping either of us. Ultimately, we ran out of time. I still had my ships and he lost two.

My second match was against a dude flying chewbacca and poe (he just had a falcon and the new core set, so we did a 100 pt. match). I lost that match. Our ships were still on the board, but he took out my shuttle and my defender had one hull. Meanwhile his ships had just lost their shields. I did manage to keep Poe ioned for a few rounds, so that was fun. I'm thinking a swarm and massed fire would have worked better for that list.

The tl;dr version--I had fun and learned I need more practice flying and to remember all of my upgrades (which probably would have helped me shoot down a few ties in the first match). I do think all of the reading and lurking I've done on these boards helped because I had a pretty firm grasp on the rules and upgrades.

This is a great community, so keep reading and learning and enjoying the game. It's the best.

Thanks for the report and taking the time to write that up.

they were doing a four week, escalation type tournament that went 60, 90, 120, and 150 point matches. I entered the store championship which is in a few weeks. I don't expect to place high, but it should be fun. I didn't get to play last night, but the TO gave me an alt gunner card which was cool, since I don't have either of the expansions that have it. Now I can run a buzzsaw whisper.

This is a great community. I've been on many message boards, and the people here are probably the friendliest and least trollish.

Great report, Djaskim609.

Keep at it. When you are not in a match at a local store, watch a match. Keep playing and you be amazed how much you improve from beginner to regular. Generally the community is awesome and friendly. Fly what you like, but don't be afraid to fly new stuff (even borrowed ships for a match) to see if you like something before buying your own.