As this is a close knit community, I find myself discussing strategy and list ideas with people all over the country (mostly through Facebook). I noticed that some people are very secretive about what they are bringing. Not wanting others to be able to plan against it. Other people I know brazenly tell everyone what they are running looking for feedback on potential changes to make or shortcomings of the squad. Is it better to keep it a secret, especially if it is something no one is doing or is group feedback more important so that more minds are looking at different aspects you may be missing.

Funny side not to this post, for Months before Worlds 2015, Tusken tactician had been telling me about his secret list that was going to blow people away. Meanwhile my friend builds his first Palp Aces list with a VI Vader and wins the Iowa Hoth tournament with it (This is the Iowa Hoth Charity event, not the Hoth event at Adepticon). He was shocked someone had picked up on the same idea he had.

What tournament lists?

What tournament lists?

The squad or list of ships and upgrades you are going to take to a tournament.

If I'm running something mainstream, I might as well tell. If I got a cool idea for something new, I can't help but tell...

I try to figure out my list well in advance and tell people about it so I can practice against lists meant to destroy it.

I'm usually not secretive at all and I bring only 1 list. This is a game and I treat it as such.

Some folks get overly serious about it and are very secretive of their lists. There are so many variables to winning that I find it funny when folks get this serious about the game.

Lots of folks come up with the same or similar lists. Certain good synergies have a way of becoming popular - palp aces, super dash, rainbow dash, fat han, crackshot swarm, chihuahua storm, etc.

Not secret at all. The list is the list; it's how I play relative to my opponents that matters. There are sometimes some d-bags who bring multiple lists and try to game the tournament based on what they perceive to be the strongest against the known field, but in my experience, those people highly overrate themselves and are rarely a threat.

This might depend on how large your local community is i guess. im not worried about sharing ideas too much. i find you tend to get great advice and tips here to improve it so its an advantage to share you lists. if i was a world class player then i might be more secretive.

Im just one of the fish in the pond. people are not going to change their list because of what im playing. in my area ppl tend to play what they like not what other top players are playing anyway.

Unless you don't practice your list can only be so secret.

I have a play partner who knows 1-3 lists that I will be picking from if he is also attending a tournament. Most other locals are usually surprised by my choices for competitive events. They're often lists I've flown publicly, but I don't really discuss them much at league nights as if I might actually bring them to a store champ or anything.

This game is not that complex. There have been threads where people claim to have secret synergies in their list and they feel the need to have the forum speculate on their brilliance. Then, they finally spill the beans and it is Poe with R5-P9. The rule interactions in this game are straight forward and no one is showing up with something that only they thought of.

That said telling 5 of the 20 regulars from you competitive group that you are playing triple interceptors might result in one of them bringing a decimator with gunner and Vader crew.

If it's a list I'm bringing to a significant tournament than I probably practiced it with some other folks. So, they already got an idea of what it is.

Also, with X-Wing; I really don't think their are many/if at all surprise lists. There's just a certain amount combos out there and other folks probably had similar ideas/variants. The only really gotcha I find to it is when a new wave is recently released. Folks are getting familiar with ships and experimenting a more.

No one is going to know what I'm going to bring.

Why? Because I wouldn't decide for sure what to bring until I'm packing it up along with other possible reasons.

I have never told anyone about my tournament lists, but not because i'm trying to keep it a secret. I'm just generally not looking for other people's opinions on the subject.

This is likely to be my future tournament list for the forseeable future once Imperial Veterans is out. Original content do not steal

Darth Vader (29)
Predator (3)
Advanced Targeting Computer (1)
Engine Upgrade (4)
TIE/x1 (0)

Colonel Vessery (35)
Outmaneuver (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/x7 (-2)

"Omega Leader" (21)
Juke (2)
Comm Relay (3)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Tournament list. The first rule. Never talk about tournament list b

I let people know and play against them, this game is not really a "surprise you activated my trap card" kind of game.

If a competitive list counters my list i would love to know way ahead so i can modify so i tell everyone i respect asking there opinions and testing it on them.

(except for my last tournament i modifed my list the night before quite extensively to get an M3A in there... woot scyk Leatin will eat you for breakfast!)

Being secretive always felt kinda silly to me, unless you are someone like Paul Heaver who people are going to be trying to emulate/gunning for at a tournament. I guess the flip side of this question is: how many people have ever built a counter list for a tournament based off of what a single player said they would be bringing to it?

Like others, I don't see the point in keeping it hidden. I'm going to beat the bad players whether my list is a surprise or not, so I don't need to hide the list on their account. Good players are going to be able to see what I'm doing and adapt on the fly, so keeping my list secret doesn't provide an advantage against them.

On the other hand, talking about my list means I get to use other peoples' feedback as a crucible for my ideas, and I find that's often really helpful. (Even if I don't take the feedback, it gets me thinking about how I'll have to fly the list in order to do well.) So on balance, I think I do better when I share my lists widely.

Usually not overly to secretive.

I discuss my options with a few so they know what I'm intended on bringing

I usually don't decided in the car

I don't advertise though to everyone

First, the list is broken up into seven parts. Each of those parts is placed in a safe. Then, the keys to each safe are mailed to designated agents on each continent. The agents get blackout drunk before heading out and burying their part of the list in a randomly selected grave site.

Then I have to come up with a new list, because nobody can find the keys. I currently have 84 safes that I can't get into.

It's an imperfect system. I'm working on improvements.

Honestly, I see no reason to be secretive about it. Its not like someone is going to go out of their way to counter my list, when they also need to account for the triple Contracted Scouts, Palp Aces, etc. The objective is to build a list that's as strong all around as possible, rather than specifically countering one list. If you were to aim to counter a single list, it probably wouldn't be mine.

1. I'm not a good enough player to worry about countering my list; just let me run into a few rocks and exploit the windows during which I have no shot.

2. Palp Aces are more common than anything I'd build, so if you wanted to do well in the tournament, it would make more sense to counter that.

For the record, I'm presently looking at a ABT Hera Ghost with Kyle Katarn as an escort in the Moldy Crow. I don't feel like writing details, but that tells a lot right there. So, yeah, I'm not being secretive.

So secret that I keep them locked away in an old nuclear fallout shelter in an undisclosed location with armed guards and only test them against trained chimps who are exposed to constant streams of x-wing games from recent tournaments. When Im not there the actual ships are kept in a lead lined box to prevent anyone from using x-ray equipment to see what the list is should they defeat my security measures.... :-)

Not at all secretive. I often decide at the last minute! I'm both debating whether to go to a spring tournament this Sunday and what kind of scum to bring if I do. An aggressor seems logical...

If im playing something a little whacky and unexpected I usually keep it quiet until the tournament day. Otherwise im so acustomed to talk about my list and tactic in game when playing casual so I sometimes do that in tournaments as well .

I have found that the more my opponents know of my lists and tactics the worse they play against them since they try to hard to counter me,

Anyone who knows me reasonably well and has played against me at least a couple of times (not as many people as I'd like with regard to this game) will have a general idea of what I'm going to play.

And of course I won't disappoint; it'll be something with b-wings in it...

But the exact list? I probably won't have settled on that until a few days before.

So unless they can figure out what I'm going to play before I do, the best they'll get is a general idea.