I've found one of the longest parts of getting into actually playing X-Wing miniatures is usually the setup. This is what I've done to try and streamline it as much as possible.

I have taken all the unit numbers and glued one of them onto one of those hard plastic card holders in the top right corner. 1-9 white side up for the Rebels (figuring they will always have fewer ships) and then 10-20 black side up for the Empire. With the newer expansions I got with wave 2, I made a couple more of them in the higher numbers white for Rebels and Black for Empire.

I have all of my pilot cards already loaded into the appropriate plastic card sleeve and then have the base with the ship chip already in place and the unit numbers already on the base and 1 flight peg. I just store them that way in my carrying case. This way I can already have 3 or 4 squads already set up and ready to go with very little time required to get set-up for battle.

I decide what squad I'm going to use and place all their cards out, grab their corresponding bases, take out the appropriate miniatures and put 1 flight peg in the bottom of the ships, then it is just a matter of putting them all together.

Another bonus to the hard plastic card sleeves is I can place the pilot skill card in the top of the case and it holds it in place and then when I take damage, I can even put the damage cards in the top of the sleeves as well. Keeps everything neat and organized.

Then to play another game with a different squad, I just pop off the miniatures with 1 flight peg still attached, can swap out the preset cards and bases as required and then put them all back together for the next round.

Currently in my box I have 4 Empire squads and 4 Rebel squads all ready to go with cards in their holders and bases ready to be matched with the miniatures.

It's nice to have your whole squad set up in about a minute and then you can think about strategy or whatever while your opponent prepares their squad… or if you are the one having to change squads it is nice and easy to just swap out a few ships here and there and be ready in a very short amount of time.

http://imgur.com/a/2CyWC

I've found that what takes the longest is squadbuilding, doing the math and deciding who and what to include… Actual physical assembly of the minis and organizing cards takes almost no time whatsoever. Not enough to justify so much unnecessary effort and materials.

if your like me and own every ship with enough to make every possible squad (atleast for wave 1… need more squints and awigns) then organization can be rough. at first I used the starter box with great organization, but I later had too many tokens and didnt want to keep dumping them or digging, so I put everythign in baggies, eventially I couldnt fit everything in 1 box and need to use my second box. that got filled fast, when I had my third box, set up took a long time. having to open all the baggies, having to get all the items needed to play just ate me up. tackle boxes cut down allot of time as they keep things seperate, but dont have to take time opening everything, looking for each bag, or sealing everything. My only problem with tackle boxes were they wouldnt fit my wave 2 ships (a knife easily solved my problem)

I could of kept everything in my starter box and take what I need to play there, but my delima is somtimes Ill talk to a guy who has never run against a swarm and Ill take a 7-8 man team to show him, or I like to try something new on the spot. So I went to walmart and bought 4 tacle boxes. I made one nothing but tokens, templates, and astroids with each compartment different-one compartment is the stands that I have each one doubled up and can get each one easily (its the smallest box) I have one full of my rebel ships (medium sized) The largest two I have my imperial ships with rangefinders and dice, and the last big one I have has all my cards, all my upgrades, all my bases, damage cards, dials, pilot templates, and have whatever pilots I took last already on a base in a seperate compartment next to a compartment sharing the same dials as the bases used.

When I find time, Ill take out all my named dupe pilots, and allot of tokens I dont need (having 50 focus tokens is unneccassary no matter if Im supplying both sides)

Im thinking of getting one more smaller box for a ready to go on the spot (for tournements) that I have presorted with just the neccasity tokens, dials, and ships

Oh, jesus, 50 focus tokens is not a problem I have, assuming you're not just wildly exagerrating. (Four tackle boxes, though, good lord). I've got 8 regular sized ships and a Firespray. All my ships, bases, stems, and base tokens are in one box with adjustable dividers, and the rest of my miscellaneous tokens are in 2-3 Really Useful brand boxes. Does me fine--Google "Really Useful Box" or just see if they have them at your local OfficeMax. They're extremely convenient.

But if your issue is "I have so much product that I keep my bases and ships preassembled" then I don't know what to tell you. I play FFG board games and compared to setting up Arkham Horror or Android or Game of Thrones, X-Wing is nothing. I also would never mutilate my materials by gluing the number tokens to card sleeves.

Well I didn't figure I was "mutilating" anything by gluing them. I already have doubles or triples of every one of the number chits. I'm only ever going to need to use 2 of them on the ships themselves since the 3rd one is already attached to a card sleeve anyway. All my duplicates are sitting in a box on a shelf, out of the way.

All the other markers/tokens fit into 2- 2" x 7" plastic boxes that have 3 storage areas each. All of that and my models and my maneuver templates, cards, dice etc, fits into one of these type storage containers.

http://www.planostoragesolutions.com/images/thumbs/0000291.jpeg

I have a lot of the miniatures and sets, but it isn't that I feel I "have" to have them all set up before hand like that, but it is very nice and convenient that they already are. Less time getting it all set-up = more time actually playing the game I figure.

Squad building takes me the least amount of time by using some of the online apps people have made:

http://x-wing.voidstate.com/build

then I just jot down the pilots and cards and put them on a notepad on my iPhone or iPad so I know what to pull out when I'm playing at the LFGS.

Or even jot them down on an index card and put it in the same box I have my mini's and accessories in.

I only have 40 focus tokens, grim walker is right though, set up is a breeze compared to other games (more specificly minatures…. set up for warhammer can take more time then the actual game… depending how un-organized you and your opponent are).

Out of all the minature games Ive played xwing is almost the fastest to set up (heroclix beats it just by a tad)

OP,

I don't know your age…but I usually make a party…have a few friends over, beers, etc. relax, joke, throw the original trilogy on the big screen. it's isnt as painful when you have a few distractions.