Squadron Benchmark

Vassal and about 50 losses to the jedi masters that practice on vassal.

Side effect im decent at judging arcs if I hang from the cieling and look straight down at the mat. Not so good from a real life angle

Now I can super occasionally win with Janky stuff like Swarm Leader Quickdraw + Whisper and Countdown.

Also I forced myself to only fly Whisper and Imperial Firespray for my first 30 games. Gave a great understanding of how big ships move and how to plan a few moves ahead since you have no choice with Whisper.

Also losing constantly. Helps with learning.

I read the instructions.

Reading the rules and accumulating a bunch of ships (well, a bunch for a new paper: 8 or 9 rebs and 10 or 12 imps) was the first step. Then I played some matches at my FLGS; the sad thing was they were in an escalation tourney, so i just played a few dudes who had bye matches.

Playing some matches taught me that it's really important to remember your upgrades and to be careful about maneuvers. I mostly have that down. I also know that you need to be thinking a few moves ahead, and don't always remember that.

So I guess I'm still learning.

Force awakens core set and millenium falcon pack bought that same day, I played a team epic game with three other guys, two space cows, one of which containing palp, end of game, all that was left was a pretty healthy han with engine upgrade versus the non-palp space cow, opponents conceded

i had fun outmanuevering the lambdas while shooting the various interceptors (though my teammate’s xizor found Han a perfect bodyguard to throw damage into)

Someone showed me the game back in wave 3. I got a core set and a B-wing (my favorite ship) and a TIE Bomber and the CR-90 because hey big ship.

First game was a tournament where I tried to use Y-wing B-wing and X-wing ion and torpeodes and completely lost so bad that I had the buy in the second round and at the 4th round was still dead last.

Got into figuring out why things were so bad then figured out what worked. Did much better in league where I started to win some games and started to place. Then I tried to make ignored components of X-wing work such as using Nera Dantels for Torpedoes, or a squadron list around ion tokens. Needless to say I failed but learned a better reason why said items didn't work.

1 - I read the rules

2 - Played against myself (won every time, lol)

3 - Face planted on my share of asteroids

4 - Joined my local Facebook community and found a place / time to play

5 - Face planted on my local meta, not to mention my own bombs... **** that was some hard few games

6 - Learned to play and configure my squads, learned to anticipate and pilot.

7 - Fell in love and played my IG-88 for over a year, earned a rep for my sadistic collection of bounties (ion a target to death).

8 - Face planted when Palpatine came out.

9 - Tumbled down when Omega Leader and the Inquisitor came out.

10 - Adapted, switched, kept going, learned new tricks

Moral of the story: why do we face plant? It's to better pick ourselves up and scare other people like a Star Wars version of Batman!

A friend showed me how to play with his collection, then when I bought a core set I read the Introductory Rules and played against myself several times. After that, I've consulted the Rules Reference whenever I've been unsure on something.

On 7/28/2017 at 1:16 PM, Vineheart01 said:

i laugh every time i see the "The game is too complicated" bit. Dude this game is still simple as **** compared to ANY other tabletop game. Even Armada is oddly complex, just in a different manner.

Seriously. I hail from old Battletech tabletop gaming. "Hey, let's shuffle through rule books for 3+ hours with little spurts of game play thrown in here and there! That'll be fun right?!?"

Trial and error and some forum searching are how I learned to play. That and learning to really read my cards.

1 minute ago, Steelgunner said:

Seriously. I hail from old Battletech tabletop gaming. "Hey, let's shuffle through rule books for 3+ hours with little spurts of game play thrown in here and there! That'll be fun right?!?"

Trial and error and some forum searching are how I learned to play. That and learning to really read my cards.

40k isnt quite that bad but thats the worst ive played.

Even after several dozen games with the same army in the same edition i never had a game where i didnt have to look at the book(s) for something. And i usually have the rules pretty well memorized since i look not even a 10th as often as most people do.

Never got to play battletech but i wish i could have tried it. My favorite PC game of the early 3D era was Mechwarrior2 and i found out several years later it was based on Battletech and i instantly was interested...sadly the game was dead far as i could tell lol

I'm another rule-book-reader, so I read the books and the faqs and the sheets that came out with new ships...and played against myself a lot.

Read the rules after watching the 2013 worlds final. Pretty straight forward!

Play against my brother for about two months straight learning everything we could. Came across weird scenarios and jumped to the FAQ and forums for answers. Practiced maneuvers on my own. Finally ventured out to store kits to get a whooping and learn from better players, then frequented LGS xwing nights for more experience.

Experience is the key here. Table time is the best way to learn x-wing cause the rules dont teach you how to dodge the mustache asteroid with a firespray if you are at a 22.5 degree angle approximately 2.5 bases away from it.

On 7/28/2017 at 1:40 AM, FTS Gecko said:

Started by playing a couple of casual games with my friends at Christmas over beers and pizza. Not even 100/6, just skim-the-rules-and-throw-some-ships-of-roughly-equal-points-on-the-board-and-see-what-happens. Great fun.

Then we bought a few more expansions, put together some 100 point lists and played a few more games over beers. More fun.

Then we went to a local store championships and found out everything we were doing wrong. Amazing.

Then we bought two of everything, and haven't looked back since.

That's kind of how I got started. I bought core set during during mid summer of 2014 around wave 4. I read rules and loved the ships. But I sat it down for a few months. That November (2014) I asked a buddy to sit down and play after I bought a two more ships (YT-1300, Slave-1). We liked it. We did a ton of things wrong though and learned more after visiting a FLGS a month later and playing every week with a cool group I still hang out with today. Spring of 2015 I started playing store championships all over western Washington and buy all of it. ALL OF IT.

On 29/07/2017 at 1:59 AM, Cubanboy said:

I watche this video and looked at the rules on my kitchen table, I went on to play terrible and have people correct me for a year afterwards :-)

Yup. Watched that video, got the game, read the rules and played and re-read the rules and played and so on.

Went back to that video a few years later and found myself yelling at the mistakes they were making

First mistake I made was missing the rule about not doing the same action twice. Oh I what fun double boosting PTL Tycho was.

YouTube taught the basics but these forums really made the difference when it came to in depth rules learning.

Lots of people willing to help the newbs and noobs.

I found this game after stumbling into this section while browsing the Imperial Assault forums. I always dismissed this game because I thought it was as disgustingly garbage-tier quality as the Star Trek miniatures game. After realizing t is much better, I bought a TFA Starter, an extra T70, and two extra TIE/FOs, read all the rules documentation, while continuing to browse this thread. A couple weeks went by before I played my first game... and that was at a local tournament. My first match was a win using a borrowed list from another contestant: Han Solo YT-1300 with Luke and C-3PO and Corran Horn E-Wing with R2-D2.

What a great topic!

I started collecting not long after the initial release, but didn't play for a while since it takes time and courage for me to get over the social part. I loved the minis and the game was intriguing but I only ever demo'd it with a girlfriend at the time.

I brought it up with a fellow nerd/coworker and he really wanted to try it. Around Wave 3/4, we started meeting at a FLGS, stumble-bumming through the rules on our own and playing without obstacles for a while. Often, a Meetup group would be playing in the bar area on the same nights, and they started asking us to join them. We both eventually got over our fear of gaming with strangers and then that was it; we were hooked.

Having never indulged in a miniature wargame-type, I went all in; mats, acrylic templates, at least one copy of every ship, bought a substantial collection on the cheap from a player getting out... I fear to know how much I've spent on the game.

I played the Meetup on Mondays and joined a new Meetup at the same location for Sundays; during a few months of unemployment I was often there for both Meetups and maybe a pickup game or two with various friends. The Monday group eventually dissolved, and now I generally make every other Sunday (I alternate D&D).

I've never flown a tournament; it's a combination of just rarely having the day off and not really wanting to fly the same list all day, I like trying different things over the course of a few hours... but maybe someday I'll be able to give it a shot.

I also really enjoy modding and repaints, it's easily half the fun for me.

We've a really great group of regulars and newcomers, my only complaint is how seldom I get to play!

Bought a Tie advanced a core set and a punisher, then I went to a small tourney for my first 100/6.

Get on my level.

Who can remember. Fun seeing the videos again. How to beat double Falcon

Asked for core set for Christmas shortly after the TableTop video came out. Got 2. Over the next three years, played occasionally with my brother or a cousin, all the while reading the forums, watching battle reports and Worlds' videos. I have read the rules and FAQ's several times. Played myself on the kitchen table many many times. Had about 50 ships and 10 games under my belt.

Finally found a FLGS and went about 4-4 in a couple tournaments but then moved an hour away. Continued to play myself, practicing judging distance and angles, getting more ships.

Then early this year finally found a FLGS in my new area. Went 13-8 in league play and then 6-1 to win the end of season tournament. Then went 3-1 to take 2nd in a pre-season tournament and 5-3 in league play leading up to this Sunday's end of season tournament. I must admit my 27-13 record at this place is a big surprise to me. There are several players who have much more experience including a couple people who have made cuts at regionals. I do not like using "meta" lists and try to fly things that may use a "piece of meta" for example, won the tournament with Attanni Kavil/4-LOM/Cobra.

First of all, if you are going to play at leagues or tournaments, you have to read the rules and FAQ's front to back. But I think the biggest thing I can point to that has helped me is placing ship bases on the table with other bases and obstacles and using the maneuver templates to see which maneuvers you can pull without hitting anything. I have used this to pull some seemingly miraculous maneuvers or hilarious blocks.

I read the rulebook myself. I had a pretty solid grasp of the concepts, but some Youtube battle videos clarified some small misunderstandings ( I can´ t remember what they were now).

But yeah, most people learn rules by word of mouth or even worse, they use the rules from the computer game (Bloodbowl, specifically).

I might be the only person at my FLGS to have a total understanding of the rules. There was a period when every other person at my FLGS was convinced that the Auzituck had a rear 180 firing arc. I read the rules before even buying the game. Then, while it was beig shipped to me I read the FAQ and tournament resources.

It's not hard to understand the game - FFG is super good at rule books - it's just that the reading and comprehension skills of a majority of people are garbage.