Maybe bring painkillers too then. Also it might take the edge off your feet or back if all the standing makes them start to ache. Not everyone is used to that much standing in a day.

And -- for God's sake -- remember that these few hours will be the culmination of a life spent in deprivation and hardship, all leading up to this moment. If you fail in the tournament, you have failed as a man and as a human being. You will never be permitted to disseminate your substandard DNA, and even lepers will fear your glance or touch. Your name will be cursed and reviled down through the ages. Children will be taught what not to do, with you as an object lesson.

But, you know, no pressure.

• Be rested. Get 6 regular nights of sleep prior to the game.
• Be hydrated. Drink a bottle of water between each match, and possibly another during.
• Have snacks with you. Nibbles throughout the day keep you from getting fatigued from lack of energy, or from getting fatigued from bloating and digestion.
• Bathe before the tournament. I shouldn't have to tell you this, but ...
• If at all possible, get all other tournament attendees to bathe before the tournament.
• Dress as fancily as you can comfortably play. It's a confidence boost, and can help to confuse your prey. I go with a top-hat, waistcoat, and sleeve-garters (as coat-sleeves can get in the way of play, and the coat leaves me a titch too warm).
• Be relaxed. Stress is rarely worth it. This is a game; have fun
• Make a small yet firm cardboard tray for carrying your supplies from one table to another. Being prepared is awesome, and being the first to your seat is as well.
• Put all supplies for play in that cardboard tray to make sure they fit. A minor amount of completetion can give you an endorphin boost.
• Similar to the above, print off your fleet-list, and make sure that you know which 3 obstacles you're taking. Trace them onto your fleet-list.
• Print out the most recent tournament rules and FAQ. Read them thoroughly. Be the guy that other tables ask for a ruling.
• Practice flying your fleet on an opponentless table. See if you can learn how to get as close to asteroids without overlap as possible.
• ​Find out if any of your dice are accidentally weighted.
• Go watch Deadpool if you're old enough. Its seriously funny.

Well written!

Before you go to the tournament, practice how you will set up your ships and how you will fly them in the first few turns:

Come up with a few different deployments for your ships, depending on asteroid placement and your opponent's squad. Remember that you will get to place 3 of the asteroids, so you do have some control over the asteroid set up, but not complete control, so knowing how to set up your ships for a variety of asteroid placements will be important.

Once you are comfortable with a few squad deployments, practice a few different first turns for each of them. This is even more important if you are flying 4 or more ships in formation. If you have a formation in mind, practice to make sure you can get your ships into that formation within the first few turns, regardless of asteroid placement and speed of engagement. If you have some sort of staggered set up where ships start out of formation and fly into formation on the first turn (like this: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/925391/maneuvers-302-imperial-formations) make sure you know how to have your ships move straight (both fast and slow) and turn right or left from that same starting position and end up in a formation.

Despite the fact that this is more important the more ships you have, this is still an extremely important thing to have a handle on before you go to the tournament regardless of the size of your squad. So to summarize:

- Practice setting up a few initial deployments for your ships

- Make sure you know how to choose the correct deployment based on asteroid placement and opponent's squad

- Practice more than one opening move for each of your practiced deployments

If you do this, you will save time and sanity in all of your games, and have a toolbox of options for your first few turns that will ensure that you never start a match without a plan.

Most likely, it is going to be crowded. You don't want to be distracted worrying about someone knocking over your destroyed ships (or even packing them up with their stuff). When your ships get destroyed put them somewhere you feel comfortable they ll be out of the way. Back in your carry box / tray for example. This goes triple for your wallet, phone, anything valuable. You don't want to be focused on where they are instead of your ships.

Have fun and don't get worked up about winning or losing. The first tournament is where you learn.

If you have a reference sheet for other ships moves, take it along for reference.

Fly casual.

I've wondered about this. Can you bring reference sheets with other ships move to a tournament?

Also what about a cheat sheet for your list with the turn phases so you don't forget your upgrades pilot abilities etc?

Thank you guys for all the advices. Pretty much everything was spot on.

It's a long day out there and it was more difficult to stay focus than I thought it would.

I stayed hydrated and ate healthy snacks in between each game..

The thing that bugged me the most was the lack of sitting places as the space between tables was very tight. most my games went near the time-limit so I didnt have much rest between games..

Ibuprofene is your friend when your back start to ache !

All in all it was an awesome day. Got to meet very kind players and learn alot by looking at other peoples' lists and of course, from my many errors too.

I finished 2-2 with one lost to the tournament winner and one lost on the last Dice roll (do or die situation) could of gone both ways.

So it went better than expected considering I had a dozen games under my belt.

Thank you guys

Nice work Last weekend I had two students from my school club come to a tournament; they were pretty apprehensive but loved it.

RoV

Don't pet the sweaty things...

...they are sticky...and they smell...

...and have fun.