We have just entered the tourney season, and at least in my area there are now numerous, both minor but also larger tourneys, including Store Championships, which is fantastic!

But the combination of loving this game (thus having too many ships) and being a fairly new player, with limited time. I struggle with the decision on which lists to fly, as I can come up with many great lists.
I am in no way a super competitive player or a sore looser that has to win at al costs, but of course I want to improve on my game. For casual play, I usually tryout new lists and experiment, this is fun and I really do not care who wins or loses, it is only for the enjoyment of the game. I have attended 3 tournaments, so far. The first was a 2 day 200 people tournament event, where I simply put together a list of ships, I thought was cool and entered with. I had not played the list before, but did surprisingly well and won 3 out of 5, but my MOV was not enough to make the cut for the next day. Similarly with the next two tournaments, I also entered with lists I had never flown before, one I did very poorly with, another I ended up around 50%.

Lately I have been thinking that I should switch strategy, and focus on a single list, play it many times and then enter to improve my chance as that is what I believe the better players do.

What is your strategy?

Pick a list I enjoy playing, play the hell out of it in casual play so I know how it works inside out.

I would generally not turn up to a tournament with a brand new list, because I know that I wouldn't do well in that situation; it takes me a few plays of a list to get it right both from a play style perspective and from a list-tweaking one.

I play for fun. So I think up a list, maybe play once against my sons, then learn to fly it during the tournament. I've also decided not to repeat lists (or faction) in back to back tournaments. To me, the challenge is fun, winning would be a bonus.

If you want to come first, my approach is not recommended

Keep playing against stronger and more experienced opponents.

Thanks guys, I too play against the strongest players in my area and I have started asking after they have beat me :-D, what they would have done differently had they played my list against them, and of course also if they thought the list was weak in some regards.

Step 1: Loyally serve the Empire

Step 2: Fly alongside the greatest pilots to grace the battle space

Step 3: Escort duty is for chumps, bring me a third Ace!

I pick a list with ships I like playing or take a list online with ships I like to fly and adjust to my playing style.

Then I practice a lot.

If I find the list to perform badly or isn't fun I tweak.

Small tweaks when it's fun but not good enough means changing upgrades, how I set up, what formation I fly, what ships I present as targets to my opponents.

Larger tweaks when it isn't fun is replace ships in the build.

I find a build that I like and think is strong, practie with that and then throw it over board the night before the tournament and show up with some random jank that gets me on to some mediocre to good place.

To start being competitive you haven't got to make any fundamental changes to the way you design your lists presently, but what you do need to do is start asking 'how will my list deal with X?'

Clearly there is no substitute for practise, but we don't all have the luxury of being able to play 5 or six casual games per week. Where you can give yourself an edge is by doing a bit of research and asking yourself how will you list deal with the common lists and ships in the meta (local or otherwise).

At the moment you're going to want to have some idea of how you will handle the following lists and ships;

Poe

Corran

Dash

Soontir

Vader

Omega leader

Brobots

Swarms

Fat ships

Palp aces

Phantoms

TLT's

Those are a few examples of common ships/list archetypes you're likely to come up against. Figure out your lists weaknesses and assess which types of lists are most likely to exploit your weaknesses. Whatever practise time you get play those lists you expect to give you the most trouble. You'll quickly see which games are difficult and adapt your play to suit them and which match ups are simply lost causes. Revisit your list and make some changes to shore up your weak matches.

Unfortunately as soon as you get into a competitive environment you'll get hit by lists and tactics neither you nor your casually buddies dreamed up and you'll see weaknesses in your list that you never even thought were there. This doesn't mean your list is dead in the water, it just means it needs some more tweeks to address the freshly revealed weaknesses and then you take it to the next event. And the next. And so on.

I'm always looking one competitive bracket ahead. So during the winter casual events, I was working on my store champ list. Testing a list in a tourney environment is the only real way to learn about it. Now it's store champ season, and I'm working on my regional list. Each store champ I attend is no longer just a tourney, it's a training exercise.

Personally I tend to stick to one list or thereabouts for the whole season. Whilst my list may never be exactly the same from one event to the next, the core principles of the list remain true and the seasoning is adjusted based on my experience at the tourney table.

Sick with it and most importantly, have fun!

I start with something that people say is no good. Then I start thinking of ways to make it work. I look on the forums for people that have had luck with it. I see what they have done. I think of various ways to make it work. I play the heck out of it and try against the "meta" lists. Then, I surprise people on tournament day since they have never seen people fly it.

Last SC, I was the only one undefeated going into the final four with Tie Bombers (before any fix). I lost to 3 generic Phantoms, but at least took out 2.

Last Regionals I took Xizor w/ Z swarm. Lost to Phantoms and if I won my last would go to top 16. My dice utterly failed me to the point that all my ships couldn't take the Decimator down to half points.

I would be taking Tie Bombers again to SC, but opted out from playing in events this year. Just want to have fun.

Basic strategy:

1 - Find something that seems to work and that you like flying

2 - Play it often and tweek it as you get a pulse for the local meta

3 - Sit down and think of whether you want asteroids or debris

4 - Make a mental note of where asteroids/debris are working well or not

5 - Install Vassal and start making a word document with lots of screenshots outlining limit movements (k-turns, s-loops, with or without boost, etc)

6 - Write down opening moves for the first 2 or 3 turns (and take note of where you need to place asteroids for your strategy to work).

7 - Whenever you lose a game against a good build, sit down at home, start Vassal, analyse the squad's movements and think of a counter strategy.

8 - Once your word document starts reaching 20 + pages of Vassal screenshots, you're on the right track!

Um... I think I may put a bit too much thought into X-Wing? Oh well

You should not be flying a new list at this point. Maybe a few changes are made, but you should have a lot of experience with your chosen list. Practice by flying it against as many people and list types as possible. If you are by yourself and want to put your list through the motions... BBBBZ is a great single player list. Play BBBBZ (against yourself) with the rule that it will always take the most (offensive) adventitious movement and action. It is not a substitute for practicing against an opponent, but it can help you to practice flying your list.

I am a big fan of sticking with a list and trying it out vs. all the different lists out there. If I get beat really fast, I'll ask to play the same match again and leave it all the same. Sometimes just playing the same thing with some forethought can give you a better play experience. I think if you know the danger of what to expect and know what not to do, you can figure out what you can do with a list to make it work.

So......play the same list a lot and learn from it. See how it plays vs. all the other lists. You learn more from losing than winning sometimes.

Pick something you want to play, not just a net list. Form your own list and your own style of play.

For me it's been:

Step 1) discover palp aces works (along with everyone else who discovered it too)

Step 2) play palp aces basically always forever.

Find a list you really enjoy and just play the heck out of it. Play against some common big elements like palpatine, Stressbot, brobots, swarm and see if you can adjust the list or playstyle for those matchup then go forth and profit.

For me it's been:

Step 1) discover palp aces works (along with everyone else who discovered it too)

Step 2) play palp aces basically always forever.

Find a list you really enjoy and just play the heck out of it. Play against some common big elements like palpatine, Stressbot, brobots, swarm and see if you can adjust the list or playstyle for those matchup then go forth and profit.

Pretty much this but with some sort of trip aces build.

Step one :Hmm what do I feel like running - hey that sounds fun

Step two: Right, suppose i better get some practice games in, <arranges to get friends over to get a few games in>

Step three is either go back to step one or /profit.

I have too much ADD in this game to fly the same list more than a few times. Its been my downfall in tournaments.

Back when I was seriously into 40K it was known as new army syndrome and I was terrible for it.

X-wing yeah, I like to try different things but really, I play to have fun.

I have too much ADD in this game to fly the same list more than a few times. Its been my downfall in tournaments.

I believe they call that "having fun".

As for me, I just fly something that works and that's fun. I rely much more on raw skill at guessing moves and eyeballing my own maneuvers, rather than squads with lots of specific synergies or luck mitigating builds. I tend to stay close to asteroids, and I bring all my largest ones as my 3. My squads aren't what someone would call "tournament viable" but I do okay with them because they're fun to fly and I like them.

Generally I look at the annual leave calendar forlornly and wish I didn't work at the United States Post Office while imagining me and my red 1990 Dodge Daytona on the beach.

That's how I train for store championship season, because everyone has to wait until the last minute to post their store championship date, so it's already been taken up on the annual leave calendar by then.

I just bring whatever can deal with the meta adequately. I get 9 rounds of this game in a week so I don't need extra special practice.

I have too much ADD in this game to fly the same list more than a few times. Its been my downfall in tournaments.

I have ADD, too, but the trick is to find different types of lists to play against. Also, try different ways to play the same list. It helps keep your interest in the list.

I have too much ADD in this game to fly the same list more than a few times. Its been my downfall in tournaments.

I used Panic Attack for about a month during Store Championship season last year, up until Wave 6 hit and Aggressors became my new hotness.

I have not been able to bring myself to play a B-Wing since.

The hardest part for me is the knowledge that it is practically impossible to come up with a list that does equally well against all comers. You're always going to be giving up an edge to someone, and there are simply too many good players in this game to win all the time.

For me:

Step 1: Pick a squad that a.) is cool and b.) seems like it's got something it can do against all the major meta players.

Step 2: Run this squad a bunch against myself vs the major meta players that it seems like it has the worst matchup against. This helps me figure out opening moves, good situations that I want to engineer, and bad situations that I want to avoid.

Step 3: Tweak the squad to help against the worst matchups.

Step 4: Play it against my buddy who almost never plays X-wing, against either a meta list or some random list he puts together, and lose.

Step 5: Go to tournament.

For me:

Step 1: Pick a squad that a.) is cool and b.) seems like it's got something it can do against all the major meta players.

Step 2: Run this squad a bunch against myself vs the major meta players that it seems like it has the worst matchup against. This helps me figure out opening moves, good situations that I want to engineer, and bad situations that I want to avoid.

Step 3: Tweak the squad to help against the worst matchups.

Step 4: Play it against my buddy who almost never plays X-wing, against either a meta list or some random list he puts together, and lose.

Step 5: Go to tournament.

I'm assuming that step 1a is a euphemism for "Grab my Defender."