As the post title suggests, I am just using this space to deal with a problem some people may have from time to time. I've called it Squad Builder's block, likening it to writer's block - which describes a player's inability to get out of the starting gate when it comes to deciding what to play for a given venue.

For example, there is a store tournament, or a regional coming up, or what have you. You have a sizable collection, and a competitive spirit, and you want to put together a list that wasn't borrowed from another person's head, but at the same time, is a viable, hopefully "winning" list.

Trouble is, you start planning, and find yourself in a second-guessing sort of mouse-wheel. Starting and stopping, Thinking left, then no, perhaps right. No, perhaps the middle. No. Let's try something synergistic. No, let's try something more mathematical. You spend your time spinning wheels, and even when you manage to put a list together, you know deep down, it sucks.

So how do you get past that?

A lot of players just look up the builds that are currently making the cut, and pick one that feels right for them - that's one solution, but for some it isn't a satisfying one. They want to put together their own list, and co-opting a list that someone else dreamed up, is like a hand-me-down victory - still a victory, and still earned, but it just feels less satisfying.

That's not a dig against playing archetypal lists, it is just recognizing that some people when they get into a slump, will just look for a winning list, and play it. There is nothing wrong with that.

What I want to address is how to dream up your own list, specifically addressing the primary road block to doing so: analysis-paralysis

My son's music teacher did something that understood to be very useful. He had each of his students write a melody, and present their melody to the class the next day. The next day, the melodies pretty much sucked - which was the point of the exercise. Then he gave them the same assignment with some structure around it - they could only use five notes (or less) throughout the melody, and the melody had to be in a 4/4 time signature, with no more than four bars of music. The next day, the melodies were much better, but he had them try it again, this time with only four notes, and two bars, and he gave them the four notes that they were allowed to use. They came back the next day with better melodies than the two previous days...

He explained why he believed this was.

It wasn't that they were just getting better at it, though that was a factor. It was that they were being forced to work within a tighter scope each time, and because of that limitation they were forced to exercise their creativity in a way that they weren't forced to when more options were opened to them...

Applying this approach to squad building (remember, we're talking about getting out of a slump, and not "what is the best way to discover the ultimate list") means artificially limiting your resources to force yourself to be creating. There is no one right way to do that, but here are some suggestions:

• Try to build a viable squad using no more than 90 SP
• Try it with just 85 SP
• Try building a list that uses no mods whatsoever
• Try building a list that has no synergy at all (i.e. each ship stands on its own merit alone)
• Try building a list where all ships share some synergy
• Build a list you think would work - then replace the "main" ship in the build with a ship that costs 15 SP or less,
• Build an all offense list
• Build an all defense list
• Build where all your pilots names start with the same letter.
• Build lists with no multiples
• No ships with a combined hull/shield score of > 6 (or even 5).

Etc.

The point isn't to go to a tournament with a gimped list, it rather to allow an artificial lack or resources force you to think outside your comfort zone - which has been known to break a fellow out of a slump every now and again.

Playing around like that can help you think differently when it comes to putting a squad together - it can reveal assumptions and crutches, weaknesses, and which strengths you tend to (over) rely upon. All of which is good stuff. It's hard to play to your strengths if you don't even know what they really are. Exercises like this can help you understand your own play style. Are you afraid to play a list whose ships are fragile? How would you play differently if you were forced to play a fragile list?

You get the picture. The exercise is just something for that player or players who feels they can't ever sit down and be satisfied with a list they have put together. This sort of thing cam help, so I put it out there for something to do.

Interesting approach. I suppose I do a slightly similar thing when I'm coming up with a brand new list. I focus on one ship or one aspect that I want to have in the list (most recently, I wanted to use Sabine Crew). With that restriction, I think up what I believe will be required to maximize that aspect of it (K wing w/ 3 bombs, one prior to activation, one action, one ?? and extra munitions). And then I ask about what type of lists this ship would be good against, and which ones would it be bad against. How would I fly it, and how would others fly against it. (I would want to minimize shots coming in at the K wing since it takes several turns to drop all the bombs. It would work well against low health ships, but not so much against high health ships since damage done is a static amount. The biggest weakness would be if I die before getting my bombs off, and swarms would have the easiest chance of doing that).

And then I sit down and ask what I could supplement the list with in order to shore up some of those problems? (I chose a ghost since I wanted something even more threatening that people would shoot at first leaving the K wing for the mid/end game. It also works well against high health ships. Swarms still eat it alive though). And from there, it's all about balancing the points out in upgrades. (Drop the third bomb since few lists survive 4 anyways, add TLT and Miranda to keep her alive longer and make her a threat against high health ships, add Kanan+Recon Spec to reduce the threat of swarms). And then you play with it, and see if the execution of the list works like the theory of it does. Finally, you tweak it based off of what you learned from play testing (EU is necessary on the Ghost).

Nice!

All good exercises to get the juices flowing.

Waitamimute.... My juices are flowing..

The music analogy....x wing...

Hmmm

Jam band casual format:

Teams are arranged equally, each player is assigned an instrument.

Then..battle of the band's.(cantina or otherwise).

Drums- ordnance carriers.

Bass - support ship

Rythm guitar - turret

Lead - arc dodger ace

Additional as required :

Frontman - named t65

Roadies - two ships totaling 25 points

Banjo - Echo with the old cloaking rules, automatically PS 12, full upgrades, Palpatine crew but only works on its own ship,dial must be set at random by rotating it behind your back.

Once per round any one team member may take a "solo"... Declare at the end of the planning phase who is taking a solo and they replace their ships pilot ability with that of Han solo pilot card.

A band may retune at the start of a match...if the choose to drop tune themselves then aafter any maneuver is executed, that ship then must use the straight one template and move the ship backwards that amount.(turning a 1 straight into a white 0). Etc.

A band may also capo up...each maneuver comes with an additional 1 straight forward before actions.

I gotta stop these juices...it's ridiculous.

You had me at banjo.

Bump....because...the OP has shared useful thoughts that ought not be overshadowed by stupid new radar dishes.

Personally, I start shuffling Old Favourites around. This works best with Imperials, but Scum and certain Rebel builds can do it too.

Eg: "So, if I have Soontir, and Vader, what's left that isn't a palp shuttle? Hm, a pair of crackblacks fits. OK, but then do I want Vader shooting a crit so soon? Maybe I should try Colzet and see what we... ah, that's not quite enough points for an Academy. OK, so maybe if I ..."

I find this handy as the shuffling starts opening up how to think about new and different combos, or, eg, you end up with 5pts spare and wonder whether you've got upgrade space that would make the list really pop, etc.

I just wish Yet Another Squad Builder would let me pre-save individual pilot setups (35 Soontir, Vader w/ x1 & ATC) so I can slot 'em in and then tweak accordingly. I click way too many title-then-upgrade options at the moment.

When I'm blocked,or stuck in a rut, I pick an upgrade card or pilot I don't normally use or think much of, and try t build a list around it. It's fun -- trying to come up with an interesting way to use a Saboteur, for example, or maximize a list around Eaden Vrill.

Another approach I use is to build around point blocks. For example, a Palp Aces list generally fits into a 35-35-30 model; fill a ship in each block and you have a list (and you can trade a few points back and forth at the end, or break a block into smaller pieces). Good point block mixes to build from include:

60-40

50-50

35-35-30

40-30-30

50-25-25

33-33-34

25-25-25-25

20-20-20-20-20