Hello all.

I have just started playing X-Wing and collecting ships. I am really getting obsessed by the game. I will admit at first it was really just about collecting a few models and having a casual reason to play with them. Since getting the game I have purchased both core sets, Tie Advanced, Tie Advanced prototype, Imperial aces, Imperial veterans. a Lambda shuttle, a Millennium Falcon, and Rebel aces. I got my buddy hooked and he is starting to collect the Scum faction. Now that I got hooked on the game I figure its time to start getting serious about learning strategy and Squad building. This brings me here and to my question. Is it vital to learn the meta? Can I be competitive just flying ships I like the look of with some careful placement of upgrades? I am not crazy about the idea of "fly this or lose" and I just wonder if the competitive play of this game ends up that way. I have already signed up to go to the Open in San Diego, so I am wondering if I will just lose every match without a lot of studying and buying specific ships.

I look forward to more discussions and hearing your opinions. Thanks for reading.

No idea about competitions or your area and meta specifically, but I would hazard a guess that there really is no "fly this or lose" list from all that I read. There are plenty of very capable list ideas and archetypes to choose from, with some lists being stronger than others in their respective capable hands etc. But ultimately it depends on your playing skill with your list, along with dice and the enemy actions etc.

It's funny to read when one person write "I've used this list and never lost to that list" then read "but I've played that list and never lost to this list" (ARC's and Defenders spring to mind)... I would recommend reading the various competitive list archetypes in order to understand their capabilities better. Play against them if you can (proxy cards/ships if you need to between you and your friend to play against those competitive lists), understand their strengths and practice practice practice.

As long as you are enjoying yourselves and having fun, you're winning anyway!

Thanks for the advice. I have been trying to read up and see what people are flying. I might try posting up some of the squads I have built with the expansions I have bought and see what sort of critiques I get.

We are having a blast. The game is really fun. It does feel like I should have done a bit more research before buying certain things. One example is the Imperial Veterans and Imperial Aces. It seems many of the upgrades and pilots for those ships that are the most popular are not in those two expansions but instead in the more vanilla version of the ships sold separately. We have decided to use proxies for now to help us be sure that the expansions we buy next will be more valuable rather than just "ships I really wanted to collect".

I am looking forward to meting more of the community and playing more games.

Some of this will depend on your area and fellow players - I am lucky enough to play with a bunch of guys who don't care about the meta and fly lists they enjoy. There are one or two guys that a) ONLY play the meta and then cry foul when an ad hoc list beats them and b) are such rules nazi's that is no fun to play against them, but luckily for most of us, they don't seem to enjoy playing with us any more than we enjoy playing with them and see they rarely.

Take a look at the lists in my sig - pretty sure neither of them would be winning at Worlds but they are both wildly fun and when flown right, can be very successful. That's all I need to have fun

Welcome!