Hello all,
Some of you might be familiar with me, some not. Hello to new faces. I'm Blail Blerg. I'm a whiny, casual scrub. Okay, that's not the whole story. I actually love the competitive aspect of this game and I don't believe in being helpless versus anything, while still noting very stubbornly that this game's balance is not perfect. I'm a scrub because I don't fully drop all of the attributes that prevent me from being a world class player (namely, I still play things I like, I don't have a practice group, and I value my regular life far over my Xwing ability). At the same time, I really like being "good" at this game. For me, "good enough" is this: I want to be a friendly, yet dangerous, local scrub. I will win tournaments I plan to snipe. I will give any champion and good competitive player in the area the hardest run for their money in a casual game. (I will decorate the floor with the remains of every dirty meta scummy player I play against.) *what? I didn't say anything.

I'm at a point in my life where I am evaluating changes to my ways of thinking and pushing even harder to achieve goals that I love with actionable advice and learning.

My contributions to the forum in the past have been to push for strategic posts. I write some of my own. I post into Mathwing, 2014 US Nationals, and tons of reasoned balance whine. One thing I write often is public requests for information about the exact specificities of meta-boogeymen. New players take note. This is a particularly useful purpose of trawling these forums. I then use this information glean, what the build is, WHY it is so good, why it is exactly this build, and use a few builds as a test bed against my own builds and my chosen Tier1 meta list. I develop a plan against anything that beat me before and what I expect to be the worst offenders that I will see in my games.

Previously I asked for Paratanni. Now, I ask you the forums for Fenn Rau + 2 Torpscouts. I'm gonna continue training against Paratanni, and Rau Teroch + ??. I also need the most powerful meta builds you have seen for these upgrades: Sabine, Biggs, stress inducers. For imperials, I just need the most powerful lists you've seen, but I've spent the last 3 months playing Imperial test beds, and I know what the most powerful things I've found and how to fly them and against them. (Cuz I'm a scrub who plays Imperial, see?)

Please inform me of these builds.

In terms of my player ability, I've realized that I absolutely suck at the active countering of threat choice (what needs to die first), and any sort of around the board moving into a better reposition, thus delaying the first engagement. (This might also be because the scum lists I see do this are particularly mobile on top of being particularly powerful, Paratanni, Protectorates, Jumps). I will ask you for your best advice on these two aspects of play.

Threat choice is this: In a list, a good player should choose which ship he needs to focus down first. But, a good opponent will make that difficult for you to accomplish, by either baiting you or putting something else forward that makes you lose too much if you decide to act on your first plan. Now, I need a counter to that counter.

An assumption I ask you to make is to assume always that my opponents are dang good, perhaps better than me and that nothing is simple. If it is simple, it is likely not at the level I assume my opponents will be at. While we hear less is more, in this case, less is just bad. And in some cases, some short responses are actually intended as insults. I see that a lot in another forum I visit. *no backing down to shttty people.

New players take note: Determine what are the best meta lists. Learn the minutae on why they are good. Determine what you are good at, and what you are poor at. Focus on one or two points on what you are bad at.

GG,

BB