Hi everyone,

I am quite new to x wing myself (1 month but dedicated) and I was wondering how you make a game enjoyable for a new person who has not even the core set and never played. You will easily understand that I would like that person to enjoy the game as much as possible to potentially play again with me.

So how do you do ? I don't have balanced fleet (more imperial, a few rebels) and I find it frustrating to use a "wrong" list just to give a chance to the other. Also I really need to practice with my preferred ships (phantom and tie defender, potentially VT49 as well).

Have you experienced the same ?

How did you manage ? Shall I use new builds everytime and take rebels to balance things ?

Thanks

A.

Best thing to start off with is a simple list. Like a X-Wing with maybe an upgrade or two, and two Tie Fighters.

The thing to keep in mind for both of you is that if he's new, then winning/losing doesn't matter. What matters is learning how to play the game. Then once he has a grasp of that you can start to play for real.

Defenders and Phantoms are, honestly, two of the harder ships to get to grips on how to kill.

Either let them take Imperials (Defenders are fine, maybe skip the Phantom though), or hand them a rebel squad and fly a straightforward Imperial fighter and a swarmlet or the like. It'll feel more thematic for the new guy, too.

The core set has a 1v2 learning game for a reason. Do the core set game first. Then evaluate how well the other player has learned thw rules and the basics of strategy and go from there.

The core games is probally the best learning platform.

I learned to play at my comic store, they had a demo set up. I bought a core set and the mrs and I played a few games at home. Then we bought a few new ships and did battles with no upgrades just to get a feel for it.

Thanks for your replies, it seems good indeed to start with a tutorial .

For the friends more familiar with the game I'll give them the choice to play imperial or rebels with basic ships, even if it will not allow me for specific practice ;-)

How about using big ships ? I got falcon and decimator but so far I do not like them much as it usually reduces the game to 3 or even 2 ships.

I usually set up a rookiee with r2d2 vs a pair of obsidians. The imperial inititive introduces arcdodging vs rebel regen predictability.

I always suggest keep it as simple as possible, and just go with the core set. As time goes on you can set a point limit, and add asteroids to your game

I agree that you should stick to the core box. Both of them have missions that you can try if you want to do something other than just a straight dogfight.

Also, I found a list that seems fairly balanced and is extremely simple, with 2 T-70 X-Wings and 3 TIE/fo Fighters. I've been using it for 2nd and 3rd games with new players, after they start to grasp the basic mechanics.

Rebels: Blue Squadron Novice, Red Squadron Veteran - 50 Points

Empire: Epsilon Squadron Pilot, Zeta Squadron Pilot, Omega Squadron Pilot (plus Veteran Instincts) - 49 Points

This scales up the points from the core box's quick start scenario, halfway to tournament competitiveness, but also keeps things extremely simple and mechanically very similar. There are no pilot abilities or secondary effects to remember (besides Veteran Instincts, which changes exactly 1 number), and keeps the alternating activation order from the quickstart: first, the PS1 TIE, then the PS2 X-wing, the PS3 TIE, PS4 X-wing, and finally the Veteran Instincts TIE. Opposite order for combat. Plus, it's a little more balanced than you get in the quickstart (which has 24 points for Rebels and 31 for Empire) at 50 vs 49.

I agree that you should stick to the core box. Both of them have missions that you can try if you want to do something other than just a straight dogfight.

Also, I found a list that seems fairly balanced and is extremely simple, with 2 T-70 X-Wings and 3 TIE/fo Fighters. I've been using it for 2nd and 3rd games with new players, after they start to grasp the basic mechanics.

Rebels: Blue Squadron Novice, Red Squadron Veteran - 50 Points

Empire: Epsilon Squadron Pilot, Zeta Squadron Pilot, Omega Squadron Pilot (plus Veteran Instincts) - 49 Points

This scales up the points from the core box's quick start scenario, halfway to tournament competitiveness, but also keeps things extremely simple and mechanically very similar. There are no pilot abilities or secondary effects to remember (besides Veteran Instincts, which changes exactly 1 number), and keeps the alternating activation order from the quickstart: first, the PS1 TIE, then the PS2 X-wing, the PS3 TIE, PS4 X-wing, and finally the Veteran Instincts TIE. Opposite order for combat. Plus, it's a little more balanced than you get in the quickstart (which has 24 points for Rebels and 31 for Empire) at 50 vs 49.

Thanks to all. I will definitely run a short trial as you suggest

However to comment on the above, my fleet is limited to this :

Core set Force Awakens

• Inquisitor’s Tie
• Tie Defender
• VT49 Decimator
• Tie Phantom
• B-Wing
• E-Wing
• Falcon

So I think i'll run

1 T70 X-wing + 1 B-wing (easier to play than E-wing)

against

2 TIE FO + 1 TIE AP (again easier than a TIE Phantom and cheaper anyway)

for 50 points both

for 50 points both

That looks like a good list to me.

for 50 points both

That looks like a good list to me.

I think 50 points per side is wise. There will be other games where you can do more.

Hi,

similar question here, but one step further.

Assume both players are still unexperienced, but now want to play with balanced 100pt lists.

The available fleet / upgrade pool is TFA core, both aces expansions, Lambda, defender, Ywing.

It looks like Imp is rather straightforward to play, especially the defender (Vessery) - Tie/EO are also forgiving against mistakes, Lambda has hitpoints. The interceptors more difficult.

Any ideas/suggestions about the rebel side? From initial experience, their ships (1 X-T70, 1 Y, 1 A, 1 B) feel like they are somewhat lagging behind. True? Any ideas about making up a balanced match?

(Yes, I know that skill does matter.)

I agree that you should stick to the core box. Both of them have missions that you can try if you want to do something other than just a straight dogfight.

Also, I found a list that seems fairly balanced and is extremely simple, with 2 T-70 X-Wings and 3 TIE/fo Fighters. I've been using it for 2nd and 3rd games with new players, after they start to grasp the basic mechanics.

Rebels: Blue Squadron Novice, Red Squadron Veteran - 50 Points

Empire: Epsilon Squadron Pilot, Zeta Squadron Pilot, Omega Squadron Pilot (plus Veteran Instincts) - 49 Points

This scales up the points from the core box's quick start scenario, halfway to tournament competitiveness, but also keeps things extremely simple and mechanically very similar. There are no pilot abilities or secondary effects to remember (besides Veteran Instincts, which changes exactly 1 number), and keeps the alternating activation order from the quickstart: first, the PS1 TIE, then the PS2 X-wing, the PS3 TIE, PS4 X-wing, and finally the Veteran Instincts TIE. Opposite order for combat. Plus, it's a little more balanced than you get in the quickstart (which has 24 points for Rebels and 31 for Empire) at 50 vs 49.

Thanks to all. I will definitely run a short trial as you suggest

However to comment on the above, my fleet is limited to this :

Core set Force Awakens

• Inquisitor’s Tie
• Tie Defender
• VT49 Decimator
• Tie Phantom
• B-Wing
• E-Wing
• Falcon

So I think i'll run

1 T70 X-wing + 1 B-wing (easier to play than E-wing)

against

2 TIE FO + 1 TIE AP (again easier than a TIE Phantom and cheaper anyway)

for 50 points both

Looks like a good set. Bonus points because you've got rebel ships the imperials can hit, and imperial ships the rebels can hit back, and a slight bias to durability so everyone gets to survive a mistake that smidgeon longer.

Should be fun!