I look for ship loadout ideas by browsing tournament reports on X-Wing Lists Juggler, but I'm kind of allergic to playing complete netlists. If I see something like Miranda+Dash and Miranda+Corran, I'll think about combining the Dash+Corran loadouts from those squads, or I'll consider whether I can replace Dash with Rey from a Rey+Poe squad, which will lead to some tweaks and improvements, and ultimately I'll settle on something that's half-net half-mine.

I was over having a conversation with myself in the Squad Lists sub-forum and I remembered this thread. While I don't normally post like that, I think it is a decent representation of the process that I go through when I am building a squad. I've gone through a bunch of iterations of the same basic squad to see what's possible. The next step is to get it on to the table and see what else needs to be tweaked or what assumptions I'm making are wrong. In that particular squad, Operations Specialist could turn out to be clutch or it could be a total waste of a crew slot and three points. Until I've got at least a few games under my belt with it, there's no real way to tell.

For me, list building is all about what I want to see on the table any given game. Sometimes, there's a single ship or pilot I want to play with, then I try to build the rest of the squad to support that pilot. Other times, there's a visual or tactical theme I want to play with; a trio of Defenders, or Rebel double-tap (Ghost, Corran, and BTL Ys work in various combinations).

My lists are rarely competitive, nor is my flying. I don't practice nearly enough with any one list to be tournament worthy. (Wouldn't stop me from playing, but I wouldn't expect to make it past the cut at any events).

List building is a matter of deciding "what sounds fun, and what else do I need to make it work?" And by "make it work", I mean it should be able to perform in my casual, gaming-for-fun environment. I.e., usually, Epic.

It's a little bit of everything for me. Some lists are because I just want to fly a specific ship or pilot, and then try to make the list around it. Sometimes, I start with a netlist and see which pieces I would rather mess with and switch around. I want to find a paratanni alternative but the point margins are so thin I haven't found a way to make it "mine".

Of course, the most pertinent to this week is that whenever I buy a new ship, I have to immediately figure out multiple ways to use it.

On Monday, January 30, 2017 at 11:54 AM, EdgeOfDreams said:

I've got a spreadsheet with a list of every pilot for every ship. I mark off each pilot once I've flown them in at least one casual game. When new ships come out, I add the new pilots to the spreadsheet. My goal is to fly every single pilot at least once each. So when I'm stuck for inspiration for new squads, I pull up my spreadsheet, find a pilot or two that I haven't tried yet, and see if I can figure out to make them useful.

What percentage of pilots have u flown?

Usually I start with a ship or a combo that peeks my interest, and then I add pieces to it until it either works or I feel it won't work at all. Due to rather limited play time though, a lot of my squad building is 100% theory.

I have no issues whatsoever with using already popular squads if they include the ship/combo I'm interested in playing at that point.

I often pick a ship or combo I want to fly, and then try to make it work. In order to make it work, I research what others have flown, through Reddit, FFG forums and Lists Juggler (often starting at Google), and then make my decision upon subjective assessments and anecdotal evidence. Once I'm comfortable with a ship, I'll swap upgrades with what I think could work better.

That was what I used to do anyway. I've got something built that I'll share soon (currently in private beta), which might revolutionize that

I also have a spreadsheet of all the ships , when I last flew them and how proficient I feel with them, and I try to increase that across the board. I'm still at the "haven't flown everything" stage, particularly with the Wave 10 stuff

2 hours ago, haslo said:

That was what I used to do anyway. I've got something built that I'll share soon (currently in private beta), which might revolutionize that

Oh, you big tease.

13 hours ago, TBot said:

What percentage of pilots have u flown?

Counting Epic ships and the Wave 10 stuff that just came out, I'm at 209 of 239 total flown (87.45%). My percentage was over 90% a couple months ago, but the flurry of new releases knocked it down quite a bit. I need to catch up!

2 hours ago, EdgeOfDreams said:

Counting Epic ships and the Wave 10 stuff that just came out, I'm at 209 of 239 total flown (87.45%). My percentage was over 90% a couple months ago, but the flurry of new releases knocked it down quite a bit. I need to catch up!

Wow nice work!

My thought process is as follows: "Imperial ships look cooler than Rebels and Scum." Then I walk over to my bookshelf where I keep all my ships. "Wow, those Tie Defenders look really nice; do I want to fly two or three of them? Too bad I can't bring all four to the table". Then I spend 5 minutes deciding what mix of Defenders/Interceptors/Tie Adv/Tie Phantom I want to play; that way I can mix things up and not just field 3 Defenders all the time. During that 5 minutes of thinking I'm also wishing I had an XG-1 Assault Gunboat to field with my Defenders.

I look at something that I found to be efficient and then try to make a list that maximizes that. So, for example, I found the Lothal Rebel ghost to be very efficient, so i tried to make a list with two of them. The third ship went from a B-wing to an A-wing. Looking at the result of trying a Y-wing with autoblaster turret, that's probably the best of the third ships but when that variant came out I was playing other things.

Recently I've been taking a gimmick and running with it as hard as I can, and if it seems like it has legs I'll try to work it into a more balanced squad.

Fearlessness Autoblaster Scyks, Dead Man Switch swarms, trick shot turrets, all the TIEs that add dice to rolls, ion cannon y-wings.

I like to get a game or three going all out to see if the concept has legs, then refine it into something more consistent.

I started Wave 3 and worked to increase damage probability and focused on decked out B-Wings and blockers. Over time the game has changed so much that efficiencies are found in so many ways.

I also avoid meta lists but did play some in our Spy vs Spy league (bad name) where we play the second game with our opponents list and also the Emerald Cup. Nothing wrong playing netlist but I only do it for research.

I think the Blair's in the world really have the best idea, learn a set of ships, minor tweaks, and lots of practice.

Take a moment and write down the tangibles of meta lists, what they do well and what they don't do well. Then take a look through your pilots and upgrades and think about how they will interact with the different aspects. Damage min/max, defense min/max, manuevering, effects on opponents with all those areas.

Well I used to do something else that was a total waste of time until now, can't remember what it was but who cares?

Now I simply start by equipping Lieutenant Dormitz with a Hyperwave Comm Scanner...

Pick a gimmick and turn it up to eleven! That gimmick might be ships used, pilots, a specific ship setup...whatever pointed me to get on (yet another) x-wing miniatures squad builder in the first place.

I just make squads that I think'll be fun. Never flown meta, and probably never will. Also, I'm one of the elusive Scyk fans.

5 hours ago, Admiral Deathrain said:

Pick a gimmick and turn it up to eleven! That gimmick might be ships used, pilots, a specific ship setup...whatever pointed me to get on (yet another) x-wing miniatures squad builder in the first place.

well, that is how I got to Ridin Dirty Ren

only problem with the gimmick is all the empire small ships rely on green dice and really suck out the fun that the UPS provides

might need to update with palp in order to correct that glaring flaw

but that's basically X-wing mo. You gotta build something you enjoy, and then build it with enough stuff such that dice don't utterly ruin your enjoyment of it