This is something that constantly eludes me. I look at the cards and think about what would work best with what, and I just can't seem to come up with a good build on my own. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out some kind of strategy, and I just can't wrap my head around it all. So I figured I'd ask:

What sort of things should I think about when I'm picking fighters and upgrades? What do you think about? What sort of things should I avoid?

First of all, decide if your squad is going to be offensive or defensive focused.

An offensive focused can deal damage and should rely on hitpoints, not evade dice to work.

A defensive obe should be able to deal damage while avoiding the majority of the enemy's long range fire, and stay at long range.

Once decided, your ships and upgrades should all "pull in the decided direction."

Example 1: A three B-Wings build is an offensive build. They can take damage but not avoid much.

Example 2: A sole TIE Interceptors squad is a defensive build. If able to stay away from the enemy for most of the game they should be able to deal more damage than they recieve.

I start with the premise of what I want to do with the squad.

If I want a high damage output squad, i look for ships with a FP3 or greater on every ship. If movement control, i think of ships that can either block other ships or ion cannons/turrets. If I want maximum maneuverability, I look at ships that can position well and have good action economy.

Generally, Rebel ships are higher damage output and Imperials are higher maneuverability and action denial.

Then, i think of how I want a game to theoretically go. Do I want to block other ships, kill them in one turn by breaking the back of the squad, or deny them movement so much that one lone X-Wing can just crew away at one ship after another while the ion cannons do all of the real hard work.

After that, I start choosing ships. High PS and damage output matters if you want to kill one ship a turn before it gets to fire. Movement control, PS doesn't really matter if you can accurately predict where ships are going to be the following turn. Blue Squadron pilots with a FCS and Ion Cannon are great at movement control for various reasons, but maily because of the free target lock and the ability to barrel roll into/out of fire arc of ships. They also stay around for a long time. One solid ion hit against a bomber and you can kiss the effectiveness of that bomber good bye until they aren't ioned anymore. A BSP with ion and TL+Focus is hard to get away from if you are agility 2.

After the ship selection, then I usually go to upgrades. necessary upgrades are like ion cannons for movement control, squad leader for action economy, and support ships like the HWK's. Depending on the list, I will forgo "necessary" upgrades like stealth on howl, engine upgrade on Mauler, or even push and R2 on Wedge.

Lastly, I am a big quantity over quality type of person unless I am just playing for fun. I will take 4 x-wings over 3 x-wings 99% of the time just because I would rather have the extra 5 hull, extra attack, and extra firing arc over the spiffy new fangled crap you can stick on Biggs, Wedge, and Luke. Same goes for the Tie Swarm. Howl, night beast, winged gundark, back stabber, and 3 academy ties is one of ym favorite lists because it has everything that rebel players hate: high firepower, high agility, good range of pilot skills to do blocking, action economy, and support for fellow ships.

In the end, you have to decide what the squad shoyuld do and then build the squad to do that specific thing. One of my action denial lists:

Biggs

Gold Squadron Pilot

Ion Cannon Turret

R5

Gold Squadron Pilot

Ion Cannon Turret

R5

Blue Squadron Pilot

Ion Cannon

FCS

Similar squad but without the B-Wing and better action economy:

Dutch

Ion Cannon Turret

R5

Gold Squadron pilot

Ion Cannon Turret

R5

Biggs

Rookie X-Wing

Both would do well against other rebel builds but is still kinda weak against a tie swarm. I would put assault missiles on a Y-Wing if I could, but it works well enough.

What I like to do is first start off with my point limit. Usually 100, but making for 150 is more flexible. Then choose faction. Easy so far.

Next like above, I choose a goal I want to achieve, but am more vague than offensive or defensive. My first squad was "build a squad around wedge." But it can be anything really. Can be "A squad that all uses proton torps". Once you have your "gimmick" then you probably have already used 50% of your points. What I do then is game that squad against a standard enemy faction build. You will often go "this is what feels lacking." then from there you look at your other options to round out your squad. Once you hit 90% of your points, then I add upgrades to round out to your point limit. Game, adjust, game adjust. Then you should have a solid list. If you don't, scrap her and try again!

This is something that constantly eludes me. I look at the cards and think about what would work best with what, and I just can't seem to come up with a good build on my own. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out some kind of strategy, and I just can't wrap my head around it all. So I figured I'd ask:

What sort of things should I think about when I'm picking fighters and upgrades? What do you think about? What sort of things should I avoid?

Do you get the chance to play much?

I ask because I feel like you learn a lot about the game just from actually moving ships around on the board. I've been playing X-Wing for almost six months but for MONTHS all I did was read forums and study the ships and read different interpretations of the rules, and so on.

All that's valuable, but it's only in the last few weeks since I've started attending regular X-Wing nights that I feel I'm improving in my actual gameplay.

I'd recommend trying out some builds that aren't very complex--4 X-Wings or 5 TIE Fighters + 2 Interceptors, builds where you don't even have to worry about upgrade cards or elite pilot skills. Take some builds that are fairly basic and play them as much as possible.

Take your 4 X-Wing build or something like that to your local game night and play it exclusively against all different kinds of opponents. You might learn more from playing the same build 6 times against 6 different opponents than from playing 6 different builds.

At least that's my experience. There are some great video tutorials on YouTube about strategy that I'd recommend watching, plus you can watch tournaments as well, where you can see great players in action. All that can help a lot, but the real stuff comes when you're moving your own ships around!

These questions will shape your lists over time and allow you to reach a point where you win much more frequently.

all of these...and trying to balance offense and defense with consistency.

I always start with what do I like to fly?

Ask yourself what ships you like to fly.

For me it is

Tie fighters

Squints

A-wings

Falcon

I then pick what pilots are available to me and fill in the gaps in points with upgrades and other ships if I can.

Star Wars common ground has a article I wrote about how I came up with HSF.

Figure out your "gimmick" or "theme" (we all need to come up with better lingo here)... figure out how many ships you want to run... fill the list to ~100... move it around the board(even if not at an actual opponent)... throw some dice (even if not at an actual opponent).

Moving, even without an opponent, is very very important. I tend to find lists that "don't feel right" much sooner than if I just threw it together and played it against an opponent who has his own agenda. When it feels "better", put it up against someone.

There is always the "I just want to try this out" method. Sometimes that gets great results, but if you're looking to take it to a tournament and do "well", it's probably not the best route to a well rounded squad.

For me it is a challenge.

What am I doing as my 2 trick ships and then I make them work.

E.g. I had a good record with a fleet that was wedge and a ywing... i made it work by adding biggs and a rookie.

Next I am trying Bwing + friends.

I figure soon I'll be trying to win with crows.

keep things simple, at first neway.

• i look for combos or synergy between ur ships, whether its pilot abilities or upgrade cards.
• there is probably a formula/rule of thumb for ships versus upgrades... no idea what that is but it might be somthing like a max of 10-20% of ur total points upgrades. there will be exceptions to this but i aim for about 20% of ur pts on upgrades max.
• as mentioned here already its will help to have a strong theme in mind. What is ur squad trying to do? eg. alpha strike squads will have more than normal number of pts spent on missiles to ensure they get a good first round of damage. u might be going for a u cant hit me type of squad with defensive focus like Dark Curse, stealth diveces etc. if ur goin with an action denial type of squad u will want as many low pilot skill pilots as u can muster, but u will still want a few better name pilots too, this is ur classic imperial swarm list that looks to overwhelm ships with numbers as well as frustrate them by moving into their path of movement when the opportunity arises.