Hi all,

I went to the UK Games Expo on Sunday and picked up two of the Red starter sets, an X-Wing and two TIE blisters. (So I have 3 T-65s and 6 TIE/INs.)

I've been a long 40k player but my friends are (for the most part) pretty burnt out on buying/modelling/gaming, preferring board games instead. I'm trying to get them back into wargaming, and I think X-Wing has the right balance of pick-up-and-play versus strategy and depth. I don't want my friends to escalate into an ugly war of specific TIE variants and such - I want something quick and simple.

I've been discussing with a friend creating two 100-point lists for easy gaming tomorrow night, as a demonstration to my gaming group. I'd love some feedback as to whether these will be decent.

Imperials (100 Points)

Howlrunner (18) +Swarm Tactics (2)

Black Squadron Pilot (14) +Expert Handling (2)

Night Beast (15)

Mauler Mithel (17) +Marksmanship (3)

"Dark Curse" (16)

Obsidian Squadron Pilot (13)

Rebels (99 Points)

Wedge Antilles (29) +Proton Torpedoes (4), Marksmanship (3), R2-D2 (4)

Biggs Darklighter (25) +R2-F2 (3), Proton Torpedoes (4)

Rookie Pilot (21) +R5-K6 (2), Proton Torpedoes (4)

(Alternately, I would give Biggs an R5 Astromech (1) and then get a Red Squadron Pilot (24) rather than a Rookie? This would make the list 100 exactly.)

I'm happy to re-jig anything with the cards I have available to me, but any feedback on those lists and the sorts of strategies we should be aiming for would be fantastic.

Thanks in advance, all!

Long term, you'll find that Marksmanship is so situational that it is rarely (if ever) used. For starting off, heck, that looks as good as any list to begin with. They key is to have fun and get stuff blown up and laugh while doing it. As you add in other sets you'll find other cards that will work better. As you are doing this as a demo, I would avoid proxy.

To be honest, I don't know that any of those astromechs are any good. R2-D2 being the exception and you have him where he should be. Biggs is there to die first. Keep him cheap. In fact, you may not want to put anything on him and make a better third X-Wing pilot. Not to mention all the proton torpedoes. They are thematic though, and it's not like you have other ships you could put into the mix, so, why not throw in a few. Personally, I like the extra greens you can get from the R5, but there isn't too much stress that is going to be handed out (just what you take on by yourself).

Alternatively, you could shave some points. Put together Howlrunner and a generic TIE Swarm without any upgrades and see what your points add up to (I get 78 points). Then if you build your X-Wings to 78 points, you will have a much more enjoyable game without someone having to keep track of a LOT of different abilities when they are still trying to figure out how to fly the ships. This is going to put the X-Wings in a really bad spot as they are just not as efficient as a 6 TIE Swarm. You will still have fun, though, and it won't have the stress of all of the pilot abilities and add-on cards.

Looking at the X-Wing side, if you stick with Wedge Antilles, R2-D2 and Marksmanship (might as well use it for a few games), you can have 2 Rookie Pilots and it equals 78 points. If you want to have an initiative bid, trade out Marksmanship for Determination and have a 2 point initiative win (still situational). If you keep it at 78 points... flip a coin or take turns going first.

My advice is more life-practical than game-mechanics: Don't buy too much too soon.

For intros, I'd actually start a little slower. Stick to 60 points or so, and generics, maybe one with an effect or skill on each side. Teach the basic game mechanics first, then go back and start adding layers of complexity.

Based on my post above, you could easily do Howlrunner + Swarm Tactics, and 3 Obsidians, versus Biggs and Wedge w/ an astromech each. That's a great place to start, and it's pretty controllable, and not too much to worry about with effects, while still giving some exposure to it.

Thanks all for the comments.

I managed to get together with my friends yesterday and we played two games to illustrate the mechanics and get them interested.

To begin with, we played with a Red Squadron Pilot (and R2D2) against an Obsidian and a Black TIE.

Then we played a five-player game of roughly 80ish points each side:

The Rebels had Luke, Wedge and a Red Squadron pilot with R2D2, whilsts the Imperials had Mauler Mithel, 2 Academy Pilots, an Obsidian Pilot and 2 Black Squadron Pilots.

The bigger game was a resounding Rebel win - they were able to divide and destroy the TIEs with only minor damage to the X-Wings' shields. A fun game was had by all, so I think we'll definitely be playing some more. I want to keep it focused around the core X-Wing versus TIE match-up.