Bring a rubber mallet - Tape "Death Star" labels all over it - Never lose again.

I'm still very new but have a great W/L record...

As a new person though I have to say the best things I've learned is Pilot skill (understanding it stopped much of my loss of action/crashing into ships and when I can shoot) and flying in general.
I've won more games by not being in firing arcs and denying opponents shots than I ever did with neat card combo's or passing off TL's and Focus tokens. The more I concentrated on learning to maneuver the more I win vs. fancy card or team builds.

I remembered another good tip:

Practice, practice, practice. The key to winning is knowing your ships and their capabilities. One good way to practice is set up asteroids and trying to maneuver a single ship through them, then two, then three, building up to an entire squad of ships. Playing with drone ships is also a good idea. There are some solo play templates here: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/938057/collection-of-user-created-material-for-x-wing-min/page/1 Scroll down to the header "Missions" and look for "X-wing Solo System" files.

Its worth putting in the time mastering playing with the basic ships first. By basic i mean tie-fighetrs and x-wings. these are the backbone of most squads. jumping in and getting too many different ships too early will only confuse new players with too many options imo.

new isnt necessary better. This years gencon finals was played between two tie swarms (both used 7 tie-fighters) and one of the semi finalists was playing 3 X-Wings. The other semi-finalist was playing two bounty hunters and howlrunner.

There is one trick I've learned with the dial. Look at the game board from above and put the open part of the dial in the direction the ship is pointing. It will help you visualize where the ship ends up and avoid making a turn in the wrong direction.

There is one trick I've learned with the dial. Look at the game board from above and put the open part of the dial in the direction the ship is pointing. It will help you visualize where the ship ends up and avoid making a turn in the wrong direction.

I do this all the time. It helps a lot. Good one!

There is one trick I've learned with the dial. Look at the game board from above and put the open part of the dial in the direction the ship is pointing. It will help you visualize where the ship ends up and avoid making a turn in the wrong direction.

Vital. IT has kept me from flying off the board at least three times (as I'd set up the dial, then remember the trick and rotate it and realize I was almost screwed) and I have no idea how many asteroids I've avoided this way.

One other thip that helps me maneuver in close quarters is remembering that each small base is 1 movement squared, and the larger base is 2 movement squared. So if there's a small ship that's less than another ship base from my small ship, I only need to pull a 2 maneuver to clear it (remembering that an angled base adds to the legnth). If there is enough room for my ship to be placed base to base with itself and not hit the opponent, then I need to go 3 or more to clear it. This helps a lot when dealing with low level pilots, ESPECIALLY with blue squadron pilots and their 2 speed K-turn.

There is one trick I've learned with the dial. Look at the game board from above and put the open part of the dial in the direction the ship is pointing. It will help you visualize where the ship ends up and avoid making a turn in the wrong direction.

This trick probably saved X-Wing for me. I flew a Firespray off the board in two consecutive games before doing this. If that trend had continued, I may have given up. But once I got into this habit, I moved on to other problems, like running into my own ships.

An opposing ship's next move will always put it within its current arc of fire.

Also, if your ship has a higher pilot skill than your opponents, aim for the spot it's occupying. That usually means it will be clear and you are likely to find your opponent in your firing arc. Unless it's a shuttle. Shuttles can stay still.

Here's another: When figuring out Upgrades, imagine that your opponent is flying your current fleet, and try and figure out how to beat it. Then use Upgrades to prevent them from doing so

Good fireing position usually more important that getting an action. K-turns and even running into ships is okay if it puts you into position.

Practice flying with large ships!

I've played less than a dozen total games and last night was my first time flying a large ship (Lamda.) I was thinking how hard can it be. Every turn I hit either another ship or an asteroid except for the last turn in the game (I won the game after that round.) I never once got to feed a TL (Target Lock) to any of my other TIEs.

Lesson learned. More practice is needed!

Don't fly big ships when you are new.

Be aware of your dial and how your ships can move, nothing like thinking "oh I'll do a 1 tight turn" then finding out your ship can't do it.

Be aware of the edge of the play area.

Never add something to "make points".

Take cards out of your builds that you find yourself not using.

Fly in formation and try to get a good volley off before you have to split up.

Learn the rule of 11.

Try your best to try to make your opponent split their squad.

Don't fly a Firespray-31 off the table during a tournament.

Never let anyone tell you that Autothrusters are bad.

Practice flying with large ships!

I've played less than a dozen total games and last night was my first time flying a large ship (Lamda.) I was thinking how hard can it be. Every turn I hit either another ship or an asteroid except for the last turn in the game (I won the game after that round.) I never once got to feed a TL (Target Lock) to any of my other TIEs.

Lesson learned. More practice is needed!

OMG I got my Firespray and took it to a tournament. I decided at the last second not to use it. Then I played a casual game after the tourney and I flew that thing worse than Rey flying the Falcon on Jakku in The Force Awakens.

There is one trick I've learned with the dial. Look at the game board from above and put the open part of the dial in the direction the ship is pointing. It will help you visualize where the ship ends up and avoid making a turn in the wrong direction.

This trick probably saved X-Wing for me. I flew a Firespray off the board in two consecutive games before doing this. If that trend had continued, I may have given up. But once I got into this habit, I moved on to other problems, like running into my own ships.

Yeah I started doing this right away. Be more subtle about it though. Just turn the opening on the dial to orient towards the way the front of your ship is facing. You can give away your move if your opponent sees you orienting your dial to your ship.

It likely would have been more useful to create a new thread, than to necro a thread with tips don't factor anything from recent years. Also...

Don't fly big ships when you are new. I disagree. Understand that there is a difference, but a newbie would find someone like Dash or a PWT far easier to play, in general.

Be aware of your dial and how your ships can move, nothing like thinking "oh I'll do a 1 tight turn" then finding out your ship can't do it. Sure.

Be aware of the edge of the play area. ... As with any game, sure...

Never add something to "make points". The more expensive a ship is, the more points your opponent gets. It is sometimes better to leave erroneous upgrades out.

Take cards out of your builds that you find yourself not using. Sure.

Fly in formation and try to get a good volley off before you have to split up.​ Strongly disagree. This is entirely list dependent, and there are plenty of examples where you would NOT want to do this.

Learn the rule of 11. But don't necessarily sweat it too much.

Try your best to try to make your opponent split their squad. Rather, "avoid multiple arcs," and "try to have your opponent split their shots when possible."

Don't fly a Firespray-31 off the table during a tournament. Don't fly anything off, but I assume this is in humor.

Never let anyone tell you that Autothrusters are bad. They just are extremely sub-optimal on ships with one evade dice. They're fantastic on ships that can throw three green dice to benefit from them. Otherwise, there are probably better Modifications to take.

Focus fire. Better to remove or weaken one enemy ship than to spread the damage around to too many targets.