I haven't been playing as much lately, and have been focusing on flying my A-Wings when I do. But I recently played my first games in a few weeks and just got squashed.

now I haven't won many games, and any I do win are really close. I've been using a few different variants of a 4 A wing build as my most competitive. I'm getting pretty good at dodging asteroids and using them for cover. I don't do too bad, but lets be honest, A-wings are not the most dangerous ship on the board.

Now I've been trying various other builds, even popular ones. I flew Han and Poe on Saturday night and just got slaughtered. SLAUGHTERED. And not by anything usually deemed competitive.

I need to figure out how to take my game to the next level. I feel like I'm just stuck in the same beginner skill zone after playing on average one evening a week for the past 4 months. I feel should be better by now.

I don't think a new list is going to help me. Flying the simulator won't help either (because the AI just isn't smart enough). So how do you guys practice when your not playing games? What should I be looking out for? How do you improve?

It's no surprised to get smashed when you try completely new ships. It sounds odd to say it given how apparently limited the design space is, but different ships are *really different* and your standard tactics and expectations for a-wings will be completely wrong for han/poe.

You also may have started running into diminishing returns on skill, but variance will continue to be variance, and unless you correct for it both at list building and in play, you're always going to go through periods of poor performance.

Edit: I deleted my post because I misread the question. My old post essentiall boiled down to: practice often with many lists to familiarize yourself with the ships you will fly against and to learn tricks you wouldn't otherwise learn by sticking to a single list.

If you want to improve your game WITHOUT actually playing, your best option is to practice flying by yourself. Pick a list, and practice setting up starting formations. Practice multiple set ups, and practice multiple first moves for each set up. Practice without asteroids first, but eventually start practicing with them. Eventually you will learn what kinds of asteroid placements help you, and which hurt you, just by flying your ships around the board. Practice breaking formation and forming up again. Practice flying through rocks while maintaining firing arcs on chosen locations on the board.

Eventually, you will have a much stronger grasp of the playing area and how your squad interacts with it. This is no substitute for playing actual games, but this kind of practice is something that will help you to be more confident and more able to react or provoke a reaction from your opponent.

the way to get good is practice, just like most things in life. if you learn something each time you lose, then you'll improve

Are you taking into account the cards / abilities on the other side of the table? For instance, are you running up against a twin laser turret but not getting within (and staying) within Range 1 so as to negate that devastating weapon?
Even against the dodgy AI on the benchmark app, I found I could easily get squashed if I wasn't paying attention to what the other list was actually running and changing my flight and attack pattern appropriately

If you are up for it, I'd advise either getting in to vassal or the tabletop simulator. Having a way to get games in online really helps you keep from getting rusty when you can't get games on the table consistently.

Other than that, when you do get to play, make sure to discuss with your opponent what they thought of the match and what they thought you could do better. I think a lot of players see where key errors were, but to keep from possibly embarrassing or upsetting their opponent, they keep it to themselves. Be open from start to end, and let your opponent know you are open to all suggestions.

As a frequent player of Imperial Triple Interceptor Aces (or two inties + tie Adv/prototype), I utterly suck in other lists. I think that once we've gotten hard-wired to play a very agile, very skirmishy list, going with something big and fat, we don't necessarily adapt very well.

Are you taking into account the cards / abilities on the other side of the table? For instance, are you running up against a twin laser turret but not getting within (and staying) within Range 1 so as to negate that devastating weapon?

Even against the dodgy AI on the benchmark app, I found I could easily get squashed if I wasn't paying attention to what the other list was actually running and changing my flight and attack pattern appropriately

yes, for example with my A squad I flew against a flight of scum bombers. I made sure I didn't stay grouped so that a well placed bomb didn't take out my whole squad. TLT's haven't given me much trouble, probably due to autothruster, 3 green dice, and/or evade/focus. For my Awings its Dash I have no idea how to deal with.

But yes, I do understand flying something different make this really tricky. I like the E wing a lot too because its similar in dial to the A wing. but the day I pulled out a 2 K-Wing list I got slaughtered because my mind was still in A wing mode.

Dunning-Kruger effect .

Keep in mind that sometimes you'll come up against some combination of really good opponents/lists, lists your unfamiliar with/counter yours, and just plain bad luck. We all get destroyed sometimes so give yourself some credit!

I've found that whenever I try a list with a Completley different style of play then I'm used too I usually lose the first game, even against opponents I regularly beat. It take a a few games to get good with a list, and hundreds to master it.

As for practicing outside of playing, you've got play space, asteroids and templates, so use em! Set up an obstacle course, practice opening moves in regard to obstacle placement, etc.

If your not already in some kind of leauge or x wing group, I highly recommend it. If there's local tournaments, go to them. I recently did this and it's more games, more practice and more importantly more fun than just the occasional casual game.

Don't have a local group, try vassal, I also used this when I lacked opponents.

One thing that I find myself doing when I am on a losing streak is that I am not planning an out for my turn-after-this-one. Doesn't matter if this turn is great, because the next one is awful since I haven't given myself any good options, and the turn after that is meh, since I'm still trying to recover from the awful one.

So start trying to plan two turns in advance. It's difficult, though.

thanks. yes I play locally whenever I can.

Vasall I'm willing to try, but the learning curve in setup frustrates me.

Now I've been trying various other builds, even popular ones. I flew Han and Poe on Saturday night and just got slaughtered. SLAUGHTERED. And not by anything usually deemed competitive.

There are plenty of squads that can absolutely stomp particular squads that aren't considered competitive because they are weak against a few other currently popular archetypes. That might be a factor here.

You are also moving to a two ship list (one of which has a large base) from flying a squad with 4 ships. The fewer ships you have, the larger an impact individual mistakes will have because the mistake affects a larger percentage of your list. Large bases move surprisingly differently than small ones do.

You didn't give many details about either squad that you are using but I'm guessing that in a 4 A-Wing list, you are probably running some lower PS pilots and with Han and Poe you are moving to high PS pilots. I've recently come to the conclusion that I play better with low PS pilots than I do high PS ones.

Now I've been trying various other builds, even popular ones. I flew Han and Poe on Saturday night and just got slaughtered. SLAUGHTERED. And not by anything usually deemed competitive.

There are plenty of squads that can absolutely stomp particular squads that aren't considered competitive because they are weak against a few other currently popular archetypes. That might be a factor here.

You are also moving to a two ship list (one of which has a large base) from flying a squad with 4 ships. The fewer ships you have, the larger an impact individual mistakes will have because the mistake affects a larger percentage of your list. Large bases move surprisingly differently than small ones do.

You didn't give many details about either squad that you are using but I'm guessing that in a 4 A-Wing list, you are probably running some lower PS pilots and with Han and Poe you are moving to high PS pilots. I've recently come to the conclusion that I play better with low PS pilots than I do high PS ones.

Thanks, yes its a huge change.

The A wing list is a variation using 4 greens or 3 green and jake.

My favorite has been:

Are you (4) A-WINGS: two aces and two blockers?

Are you getting good blocks? Are getting good trades (dmg per round) after blocking? Are your blockers dying first, as a rule?

XWING is a game of TINY victories that add up to MAJOR victories... If either of your Aces are dying before either of your blockers, you will not win often.

Try to set some "training goals," such as feeding your blocking A-Wings to the opponent in ways that a) block his/her ships; b) mitigate incoming dmg such as that the Aces survive until endgame.

"you must unlearn what you have learned"

I've noticed in my area that the skill level bar has been raised. Couple that with a bunch of people that fly against you over and over, and you'll notice that wins are much harder to get. When trying out a new list (to me) I lose a good deal of the time. Figuring out how to play it is pretty tough. Hell, I've flown a Dengar/Guri build like 20 times and still can only manage to win about 1/2 the time, not to mention Guri almost always dies. She's very different from my normal palp/aces lists, or even Phantoms.

See if you can fly against players you don't normally play. That may help show you that you are better than you think. And +1 to planning out farther in advance. VERY hard to do with new lists!

You will also instantly become a better (and cooler) pilot if your profile pic is of an imperial ship.

I played my first tournament this past weekend and got third. I've only been playing for a few weeks at that. What I think made me competitive at all was this... I try something new every... single... game... It helps that I have a room mate who plays with me. We usually get 3-5 games in a week. But honestly I tried something new every game, even if it was a small change. I think it helps to know what else is out there, and what may work well together. BTW screw the meta, fly what ya like and are comfortable woth. That's what I ended up doing at the tournament, and I got third!

If you like As, I would suggest trying the 5 A-wings squad. 5x greens, adaptability, crackshot, and auto thrusters. Won two regionals already.

Do you do battle reports for your games? I found that they help me a lot when I am playing practice games with my friends. One of my friends and I do a post-game wrap up and we take notes on the game we just played.

1. Match-Up: How did your build compare to your opponent's? Did you bring aces and he brought turrets?

2. Placement: Who had a better Turn 0? Did you have a plan for the asteroids? Did the asteroid placement resemble that plan? Did you find a good approach vector?

3. Piloting: Who flew better? What mistakes did you make? Which of your opponent's mistakes did you capitalize on? Did you force your opponent to make choices?

4. What worked? List three things that went well for you.

5. What didn't work? List three things that didn't go well for you.

Many of my notes have drawings of initial placement, and approach vectors, etc. Even if you never ever look at these notes again, the act of creating them will force you to think about such things. Doing so right after a game is a great time because your memory is fresh.

You have to figure out what you did wrong. Sometimes you can ask an opponent, but some oopponents give evasive answers or bad answers that I actually deem wholly incorrect.

Either way, decide on one thing you did badly. Practice not doing that as badly.

Lose to some other thing you did wrong. Fix that.

Repeat.

After about 10 games on Vassal, you'll find it's actually quicker and easier than in-person games.

I can usually finish a match in 40-50 minutes with 10 seconds spent loading pre-saved lists.

I can walk you through it with or without Skype if you want - just PM me.