5 hours ago, Sparklelord said:

Increasingly, the game forces players to make the choice, "do you want to win, or do you want to fly whatever you like?", with an ever-growing unspoken "not both" thrown in there.

With that said, don't think that there isn't a lot of flexibility in what CAN win.

You just have to be a bit careful when deciding what to throw on the table.

Have you paid attention to what lists have won your weekly tournaments? Perhaps a good place to start is by taking one such list and flying it, exactly the same, in order to figure out what makes it work well.

If you're new, you've got the hurdle of experience to overcome. People could tell you what to do, sure, but what will make you remember it the most is actually doing it. Do you play any games outside of the weekly tournament?

The meta is in a wide open state. To deny this is to deny the evidence as shown by http://www.meta-wing.com/ship_combos? . There's all 3 factions in the top 15 (and honestly, triple imperial aces are doing really well locally to me, beating really good players so in the wider area people are dismissing them - Quickdraw, Backdraft, Vessery, OL, Vader, etc). However, this isn't the same as 'everything is viable, fly whatever you want' because after 11 waves there is some undeniable power creep/bad ships released (the TIE agressor or rebel HWK).

2 hours ago, burning666 said:

I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the advice. Its awesome that you guys have taken the time to help me out.

After reading the posts I feel motivated again.

Glad to hear this!

Didnt have time to read the whole thread so if this has been said, Im sorry.

I suggest playing games with the other faction's ships. Maybe borrow some ships if you do not have any. Flying the other factions can help your learn what they can and cannot do. This will do 2 things for your play.

First you wil be better able to see the strengths and weaknesses of the other ships and might be able to adapt your strategies with your favorite ships to have a little more success against them.

Second, you may find that your play style is better suited to a different faction. I love Ties of all sorts but their high agility and low hit points does not fit with my aggresive flying style.

If you really like xwings, another option some of the time is to get a Heroes of the Aturi Cluster campaign going with some friends.

4 hours ago, burning666 said:

I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the advice. Its awesome that you guys have taken the time to help me out.

After reading the posts I feel motivated again.

Hi! There are SOOOO many ways to play the game beyond tournaments. Besides just finding a bunch of buddies to play non-tournament lists, there are:

• Missions
• Campaigns (from epic ships or fan made)
• Epic
• Heroes of the Aturi Cluster (some of the best X-wing you will ever play)
• B-team
• 20 asteroids on the table
• multi player
• restricted lists (ships only from Return of the Jedi or Star Wars Rebels era).
• Mario Kart X-wing
• 200 pts...or 150....or....whatever you want! Sometimes just shaking up the value can be enough to make it interesting.

There are so many ways to play the game that I started a podcast on it. People seem to like it and we have a lot of fun. Try out the Shuttle Tydirium Podcast. The first 2 episodes is just us complaining about tournaments, but it gets much better after that.

We are even about to host our first Narrative Event at GenCon. 40 players where each unique pilot only gets played by one person. If they die, they are dead forever. Everyone plays a bunch of new missions and everyone's points total up for your side's victory (or defeat). Top tables can earn as many points for your side as the bottle tables. More about the story and having fun. We do a bunch of episodes about that.

There is lots of fun beyond 100 pts and 6 obstacles.

11 hours ago, burning666 said:

Hi Guys

I'm quite new to the game .. . I come last every week and have only ever won 1 game there.

So you've just started the game and you expect to win against more experienced players?

GIT GUD son.

@burning666 I know you want to fly X-wings but if you really want to win (since that seems to be what's driving you away) I'd run the Rebel Jankyard squad. All you really need to do is stay in formation with that list and engage. Just don't let the enemy get behind you.

If you're really stuck on just X-wings etc. Other posters have already suggested great squads.

Don't give up just yet, especially if you've invested the money.

Squad has variations but this is how I run it:

Biggs

• Intergrated Astromech
• R2-D2 (or R4-D6)

Lowhhrick

• Selflessness
• Wookie Commandos

Jess Pava

• R2-D6
• Draw Their Fire
• Integrated Astromech

Captain Rex

• *If you use R4-D6, instead of R2-D2 on Biggs you have 3 extra points, so you can throw Sabines Masterpiece on Rex and add a 1-2 point crew or a 1-2 point Illicit or a 1 point crew and 1 point illicit*

23 hours ago, MacchuWA said:

People have mentioned it, but those three ships leave you very tight for points, so much so that you're quite restricted in what you can do with them. The Biggs build that's been posted above is a good one, as it gets some very solid defensive bonuses.

Another option is to make use of the high PS that Wes and Wedge have to throw a high PS alpha strike on the table. Ello is replaced in this build, but I've had success with something very similar to this in the past:

Wes Janson (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Plasma Torpedoes (3)
BB-8 (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Wedge Antilles (29)
Adaptability (0)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
R7-T1 (3)
Guidance Chips (0)

Airen Cracken (19)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Vectored Thrusters (2)

Total: 96

The idea is that because they're all PS10, you can manipulate your firing and movement order to maximum effect. For example, against, say, an enemy Dengar, you roll up and TL with Wes and Cracken, focus with Wedge. Wes shoots his plasma first, stripping tokens and shields, allowing Cracken a better shot. Maybe you get lucky, Wes and Cracken both roll like gods, and Dengar goes down: you then use Cracken's free action to let Wedge TL the other ship in the list. If not, Wedge TL's Dengar and has a TL+focus shot with reduced agility. Depending on the damage you did previously, you might not even need the Proton Torp at that point. Incidentally, that's why VT on Cracken matters so much - his contribution to the alpha strike should be through his missiles (which means he uses his action for a TL), but if he has to barrel roll to get a shot, that means he's still contributing via his ability even if his two dice are easily dodged.

The list here has a huge initiative bid, so there's flexibility to go with, say, homing missiles instead of cruise, if your meta has a lot of evade tokens, or to turn one of your droids into a regen droid (though reposition is really useful at PS10). I wouldn't want to totally give up the bid though, as initiative is critical for getting those TLs in this list, and there are suddenly lots of PS10s around after Captain Nym was released.

Here's the thing though - this list punches really hard, and, assuming average dice rolls, against a decent portion of the meta that will be enough to win you games. But it's very much a glass cannon, and it's never going to be a world beater. Sooner or later, you'll come up against something that can weather that initial alpha strike and still punch back hard enough to cause you all sorts of trouble, or alternately, dice variance will get you and that initial alpha will just fizzle. But it sounds like what you need is a few wins on the board, and an alpha strike list can give you those.

I think i`ll give this a shot , thanks for the help.

Depending on how may ships you have and how many friends who play you can always build 3-4 different lists and randomly draw who plays what. It what we usually do when not prepping for a tournament. It always a lot of fun and helps remind all of us why we love the game so much as opposed to the things about the game we cants stand.