I got into X-wing a bit after thanksgiving, in large part to play with my sons, who are now 2, 4, and 6. My oldest has been with me to two tournaments to date, with another next weekend. Many (many) mistakes were made since, and we're probably nearing our hundredth game together. As such, I don't take enough time to notice how much progress they've made in playing X-wing over that time.

The plan is to get the oldest signed up to a tournament on his own in late 2016 to early 2017. We have played four full games in a day before, so stamina and drive aren't lacking, it's practice and strategy he needs to improve on.

Unless this is somehow against the rules, I plan to use this thread to document our games (between 4 and 10 a week) and keep a trace of how good they're getting. Feel free to ignore if this doesn't float your boat!

Friday, March 5 2016

I'm trying to nail down a rebel list for next weekend by playing through options with my sons. We played two games today.

First game

Still trying to nail down who I'll fly with Red Ace, nothing sings to me, but this was close.

Miranda (TLT and Jan Ors), Red Ace (Comm relay, R2-D2, Autothrusters), and a naked Bandit and Tala

v.

Oicunn (Palpatine, Rebel captive, Dauntless, Expert handling, Engine upgrade) and Dash (Outrider, HLC, Push the limit, engine upgrade)

As you can see, I don't limit them to a single faction, as long as they're loving the game, we all win. Though I try to encourage sticking to a faction.

The oldest suggested Oicunn on his own, and he did his best to ram my Z95, but I managed to keep them out of reach. I initially jousted the Oicunn with the Z95 while Miranda and Red Ace went for Dash, but we criss-crossed and changed targets. Dash died shortly after my second Z went poof. Oicunn was chasing Miranda with Red Ace on his tail, but lunch was called by the wife. Luckily, we managed to tape everything in place to finish the match after lunch, The Decimator stood no chance.

I've learned to embrace SLAM, though it still feels unnatural to me.

Second game

I needed a break from playing with Rebel scum, so I switched to actual scum.

Torkil (TLT and K4, glitter), Palob (Moldy crow, Recon spec, Blaster turret and calculation, glitter), Kavil (Outmaneuver, TLT and R4 agromech)

v.

Poe (Push the limit, BB-8, Autothrusters), Wedge (Outmaneuver, targeting astromech), and Red Ace (Comm relay, R2-D2, Autothrusters)

I knew going in that my 3 poor pilots would be banned from our family table like Omega Leader and Wedge were. I was right. Wedge did admirable work before dying, but only Kavil died in the process. An attack of opportunity on Poe made the game too easy even before Wedge blew up. My oldest had the idea of switching sides at the end. My boy then witnessed the power of Red Ace, who soloed those two turreted HWKs.

Saturday, March 6 2016

First game

My son felt that my scum trio was overpowered, so he wanted a stab at it, with an added StarViper.

Red Ace (comm relay, R2-D2 and Autothrusters), Miranda (TLT and Jan Ors) and a Green squadron pilot (Chardaan, A-wing test pilot, Juke, Push the limit and autothrusters)

v.

Torkil (TLT and K4), Palob (Moldy crow, Recon spec, Blaster turret and calculation), Kavil (Outmaneuver, TLT and R4 agromech), and a Black sun enforcer (Shield upgrade)

I got greedy with the A-wing, lost it in the second round of fighting to bad dice v. the TLTs without it doing any damage whatsoever. I managed to get the stunned pilot crit on Palob, who bumped himself to death. I did the same with my Omega leader at the last tournament, I know the feeling. During that time, I finished Kavil and moved on to hunting Torkil. Once that was done, my son declared this was a sure win for me and suggested switching side. I agreed, but I knew my chances were slim with a naked Viper with no shield left. My son planned a few really impressive bumps with Red Ace to avoid me shooting at it, just after I'd done the same to Miranda. The Viper went down.

Second game

Dash (Push the limit, engine upgrade, Kyle Katarn, HLC, Outrider) and Corran (R2-D2, Fire control system and Veteran instincts)

v.

Keyan, Wedge, Horton (Ion turret), and Esege (Advanced SLAM)

My son sent Wedge, Horton and Esege straight at me and Keyan across his deployment zone while I wadded in the middle of all the asteroids and debris. Dash nicked a SLAMed Esege and Corran double-tapped it to finish it. Then, an unfortunate bump by Corran on Dash (trying to keep Dash in arc) led to it being Ion walked to death by Horton, with Dash trying to catch up to end the annoying Y-wing.

My son kept Keyan and Wedge on their paths, which I'm pretty sure is the only reason he lost, as I could mop them up individually. Though he did send Wedge back to get a shot on Dash before he popped to the Ion turret. A full health Dash won, but it was a much closer game than it looked.

All in all, it was a very, very good day for him. Now we're down 1 T-70 as I've found an awesome local painter that could do him up cheaper than it would cost me to buy the material to do it myself. We're getting a Black One soon!

Firstly well done for getting the kids involved. I play with my 8 year old son probably 2-3 times per week and the growth with his list progression alone is pretty incredible. I'm hoping to get him to a tournament later in the year.

Sunday, March 7 2016

Just one game

My son told me he'd like a better shot at winning, we tried giving him closer to 150 points, the middle boy ran Dash for a few turns.

Red Ace (comm relay, R2-D2 and Autothrusters), Poe (BB-8, Autothrusters, VI), and Rebel operative (Moldy crow, Ion turret, Jan Ors)

v.

Dash (Outrider, HLC, Push the limit, engine upgrade, Kyle Katarn), Miranda (Twin laser turret, Lando, Extra munition, Flechette torpedoes, Proton bomb, Connor Net, Ion pulse missile, and Advanced Slam), Wedge (Push the limit and R2-D2)

I set up my HWK and Red Ace in my left corner, he set up for a joust, so I put Poe all the way around. I hard banked to load up on an evade without the risk of being shot while I shot forward with Poe. Dash went straight across for Poe while Wedge and Miranda headed straight towards me.

I then sent Red Ace for Dash along with Poe while I turned the HWK back towards the low agility ships to ion. He hurt the HWK, but didn't kill it, so Miranda ended up ioned. Poe got a shot on Dash, taking a shield or two, but the shot back just made him lose a shield. Next turn, I set up the HWK to bump Miranda and watch Wedge k-turn past it, but with no angles on anyone. Wedge got ioned, Dash lost a shield to Poe who was going for where Wedge would be and Red Ace got a faceful of HLC, losing 2 shields (and getting back the evade she used to negate a hit).

I sent the HWK to walk Wedge to the edge of the board, chasing with Poe and turning Red Ace around to do the same, while keeping Dash too close to shoot. He looked sad at this point, so I reminded him of the proton rockets. The HWK died with it, Poe got a PS0 (arrggh!). Miranda set off for a trip around the world that would last for quite a few turns while Poe and Red Ace set off to chase Wedge while staying in Dash's donut (or straight up making him bump). Poe is a great PS0 blocker...

Finally negated Wedge, and along the way I had a few shots of opportunities on Dash. Along the way, Poe lost all his shields, so did Red Ace, with 1 crit as a bonus ("all your future hits are crits"). I popped Dash just as Miranda was coming back, I ran Red Ace away to regen because of that horrible crit while Poe kept Miranda busy, at range 1. I reminded him again of his Proton bomb and Poe blew up with that crit. Red Ace came back and Red Aced Miranda, hunting her down with her now full up shields.

Miranda got Red Ace back to 0 shields before dying. A narrow, narrow win. My son still wasn't overjoyed, but he could see that it was really close.

It was ridiculously close, and I gotta say that chasing two strong PWT and Wedge is very, very scary. My son made good use of Miranda's attack boosting skill, but generally turned down the idea of regening shields, he may have won if he did. I have the same issue, so I get it.

The HWK did very little, but loading up Red Ace with her first evade while banking a few focus for its short life is not horrible. If it wasn't for the fact that a TLT Miranda and Wedge were after it, my plan of always having it evade might have worked better. 2 green dice and an evade isn't bad for survivability.

BB-8 was really good with Poe, given that I don't have access to R5-P9 at this time. I could have gotten 4-6 shields back in that game with it (though a point would have had to go away somewhere...). It allowed Poe to easily keep to Dash donut while having a shot on him, even as a PS0.

Wednesday March 10

Just one game

I'm having trouble deciding what 24pts worth of rebels to accompany Poe and Red Ace at this weekend's store championship (see the thread here) , so I decided to run 3 of the choices tonight.

Green squadron pilot (Chardaan, test pilot, autothrusters, outmaneuver and juke), Green squadron pilot (Chardaan, test pilot, autothrusters, push the limit, wired), Rebel operative (twin laser turret, Jan Ors)

v.

Horton (twin laser turret), Miranda (twin laser turret) and Ten Numb (mangler cannon)

Asteroids were spread around and we set up in opposite corners. I tried an opening where the HWK would turn into formation with the As, but it did not work. I sent the As screaming forward, my son did the same with Miranda, but he turned Ten and Horton, anticipating my move (proud parenting moment!)

The HWK and. Miranda traded TLT shots, until she pulled a range 1 that left it at one health. The As opened, but split fire between the B and Y. We both danced nicely, trading shots, Ten doing his job.

Horton fell first, to a range 1 outmaneuver shot.

When dîner was called, Miranda was shieldless (mostly due to boosting shots), Ten lost 3 shields and all my ships were down to one health, both As with crits (one of them PS0, the other now forward movement, that had yet to be resolved).

I'm still not sure on my 3rd wheel. Jan Ors may be good on a HWK, but has limited impact against TLTs.

I play with my 12 year old son. Love every minute of it, of course. The question is, with all the new ships, new cards, etc. I can't keep him focused. He tries a new combo every game. Never running the same thing twice. He has fun for sure, which is all that's really important. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for getting kids to overlook the shiny new list and run something repeatedly to fully understand it an get better.

Have a one list a week rule? Swap lists after a game and see if you can show him some tricks?

I let my sons run wild. They don't master a list, but they learn more about the game by running many options. They've started figuring out game interactions on their own and are getting better at predicting movement.

My goal is for them to have fun, and the oldest really does. My middle son prefers story-based games, he sticks around longer if we're playing a scenario.

I did manage to convince my son to stick to one type of ship early on (both flavors of x-wing) by being honest with him that they were what he flew best.

You could try setting up 4 predetermined list and tell him hat you want to practice them and that you will both pick one of those 4 for a while, he may not notice your real intent that way

Many games were played in the last 2 weeks, but I spent my free time playing as opposed to typing them out Heroes of the Aturi Cluster is a big hit, though they still want straight up skirmishes.

This morning:

The middle boy actually wanted to play today, so I obliged. They ran a ~120pts imperial list:

Chiraneau (Predator, Tactician), Boba Fett (Navigator, Predator), 2x Academy pilots

v.

Guri (Virago, Autothrusters, Push the limit, Sensor Jammer), Palob (dorsal turret, calculation, moldy crow, engine upgrade), Torkil (dorsal turret, intelligence agent, hull upgrade, Dengar)

The highlights:

I kept forgetting Dengar, they kept forgetting Predator, so that was a wash...

Sensor jammers really helped prolong Guri's life, intelligence agent was awesome to ensure blocks on the big ships, calculation and Moldy Crow make Palob surprisingly dangerous ("here, I'll take one from my pile of focus").

The academy pilots bit the dust first, while Guri got seriously injured. My oldest got so annoyed by sensor jammer that he focused exclusively on her. I managed to keep Boba almost useless by reading his move, setting up a bump and then making sure he acted last. My son, with no prompting for me, only took a single evade/focus action for the whole game, in the initial exchange.

It came down to a very unusual situation, 2 HWKs duking it out with a shieldless Chiraneau. Through positioning and the luck of the dice, it ended with a 1 hull Palob v. a 1 hull Chiraneau (with a surprising wall of crits due to Calculation, including weapons malfunction, one of which from a range 3 primary weapon attack):

Palob pulled off the win, by a crazy small margin! It was really stressful to hunt down Chiraneau with HWKs, I'd rather not try that again.

This afternoon:

In a twist on our usual take, my two sons played against each other, with me controlling a part of both fleet. That is, as usual, until the youngest wandered away, after which I took over the Rebels' side. We put the cap at 150pts, give or take.

Hera (TLT, Fire control system, Weapons engineer), Ezra (Wired, TLT), Jake and Tycho (both with push the limit and autothrusters)

vs.

Dengar (punishing one, K4, unhinged), IG-B and IG-C (Heavy laser cannon, push the limit, autothrusters, fire control system)

The highlights:

I showed my mastery of the game by jousting the A-wings with the IGs, Tycho died, one of the IG lost a shield :facepalm:

The ghost with weapons engineer and fire control system is free to evade every single turn, it made the big girl last quite a while and put quite a dent in the scum list, though I wish you could get both hits out of the TLT at the end.

It came down to Jake vs IG-B. My son showed surprising abilities to guess where I'd be going and created bump after bump. It came down to this:

2 hits and a focus by Jake. Not being sure I could manage to kill him in one shot, I hesitated to use my focus, since I was down to hull, and decided to use my target lock instead, probabilities worked in my favor and IG died! The previous turn, I knocked 2 hulls out when my son chose an evade instead of a focus and rolled all focuses.

Conclusion

For now, the sweet spot really seems to be setting up matches at 120pts v. 100pts. They end up really close, and the 3 previous ones did not end up in my favor at all. Let's not speak of my Carnor/Soontir/Omega defeat to a Boba/Dengar team, I ran those interceptors like knife fighters :facepalm: Though Omega did what he usually does in the end game, making it much tougher than it should be!

As a father of a 18 month old I could not be more excited for you and hope that when my son is old enough he wants to play X-wing also. Enjoy your time with all of them.