Hey all,

I'm not real experienced at this game myself but I am teaching a friend to play tonight. I thought a fun scenario for him to learn on would be the Falcon's escape from DS1.

Falcon, - Han

Chewie

Luke

Expert Handling

Engine Upgrade

64pts

Up against 4 ties,

Either Acadamy pilots, "They let us escape" -Leia

or 64 points of whatever fits in 4 hulls.

Thoughts and advice for both this list and how to teach welcome.

Search the forums for similar "how to introduce players" threads. But the main concensus seems to be to start with the recommended squads in the book, Luke vs. Night Beast + Obsidian Squadron. It is well balanced (R2-D2 is overpowered at low cost squads - never introduce people to the game with him as it will frustrate them) at a low point cost. The Imperial player is introduced to flying multiple ships in formation, with different PS, which is important for them to learn how PS works. Night Beast's special text is easy to understand, and simple to use, unlike Fel's or the boost/barrel roll actions.

Furthermore, Luke's ability makes him much less streaky - so it makes the rebel player feel great when his special text saves him damage, and the imperial player should be able to dodge quite a bit of hits, making him feel great too. Plus he gets two attacks, which is twice as many as the Rebel player, so that's always good too.

Since there're only 3 ships on the board, its much more forgiving for learning how to maneuver, preventing the newbie from being overwhelmed and give up. Finally, since it's only 28 points, it should only take ~20min to play, at which point, the person should be hooked, and will be begging to play a larger game. I'd still suggest shying away from 100 as that's quite a leap. Perhaps go up to 55 points first, and then you can make the jump to 100.

It also depends on how experienced a gamer the other person is, in general. Someone who's played other miniature games before, or even reasonably complex board games, is more likely to be able to pick things up and make the jump to 100 points faster than someone completely new to minis.

The Shuttle Escort Mission from the Core Game is a great one for Introducing Objectives and Flying/Manuvering. I usually play as the Empire when teaching.. man some beginner's luck some people have. or it's me, my dice rolls are actually reflective of Imperial Stormtroopers from the movies.

But if you want to show of the Falcon to get them "hooked" I would run the "escape from the Deathstar" like this:

-----

-Vs-

Also you will need the soundtrack "Tie Fighter Attack" from A New Hope on repeat in the background while it's going on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVLLbqSuiAg&feature=youtu.be&t=2m07s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHGXfFJ2TMk&feature=youtu.be

-----

I think the shuttle scenario is probably the best for introductions of mechanics. But the Deathstar escape is more iconic for first time players who remember New Hope

4 points over 64 ships is 16 points a ship, or Mauler Mithel, Backstabber, Dark Curse, and either Winged Gundark or Night Beast. My money'd be on the Imps in that match-up.

Hey all,

I'm not real experienced at this game myself but I am teaching a friend to play tonight. I thought a fun scenario for him to learn on would be the Falcon's escape from DS1.

Falcon, - Han

Chewie

Luke

Expert Handling

Engine Upgrade

64pts

Up against 4 ties,

Either Acadamy pilots, "They let us escape" -Leia

or 64 points of whatever fits in 4 hulls.

Thoughts and advice for both this list and how to teach welcome.

i like ur scenario.

id go with 4 academy tie - keep it simple. Dont fly them too close to one another. Not suing any asteroids would even things up a bit for the imperials. If it is still too one sided maybe strip a few shields from the Falcon at the start simulating damage from an earlier battle that hasnt been repaired

I personally don't think i would jump right in with the Falcon. For someone who has never played before, i would probably field Luke, and a few TIE pilots. No R2 unit with Luke, but i may give him a proton if for nothing else to show the new player the differences between primary and secondary weapons. Probably no asteroids to start so i could focus on maneuvering, firing arch, and actions.

Honestly, the quick rules in the Core set ( I think ) is the way to go for your very first game. Gives you the feel of how the game operates, but doesn't weigh you down with all of the added features right off the bat that may drive away someone who may be feeling overwhelmed in the beginning.

Hey all,

I'm not real experienced at this game myself but I am teaching a friend to play tonight. I thought a fun scenario for him to learn on would be the Falcon's escape from DS1.

Falcon, - Han

Chewie

Luke

Expert Handling

Engine Upgrade

64pts

Up against 4 ties,

Either Acadamy pilots, "They let us escape" -Leia

or 64 points of whatever fits in 4 hulls.

Thoughts and advice for both this list and how to teach welcome.

i like ur scenario.

id go with 4 academy tie - keep it simple. Dont fly them too close to one another. Not suing any asteroids would even things up a bit for the imperials. If it is still too one sided maybe strip a few shields from the Falcon at the start simulating damage from an earlier battle that hasnt been repaired

Honestly, bomber, I think 4-5 ties could EAT this falcon.

I just had a night where I was teaching 3 people how to play. One was a 12 year old, a 17 year old, and an 18 year old. None of whom have played a miniatures game but had played some stratagy games or card games. I used the Core rule suggestion when teaching the 12 year old.. and modified it with an extra TIE fighter and an extra Rogue squd for the rebel side. I think it went really well and gave them a copy of the game and an extra expansion of xwing and tie fighter so they could do more than just the core box scenarios. Found out yesterday they are all giddy about the game and have introduced some friends to the game already.

Just to give an over view, I like to make sure the new player has fun, so even if I have an awesome ship I try to help them and even neglect my special abilities. It's no fun to get creamed when you try out a new game. I don't intentionally try to lose but I will .. say... forget to use Wedges ability when I attack. To me it's more important that the new player has a good time and if they can win, and not feel like they were allowed to win, then it's all good. Honestly, you don't know how hard it is to make losing look like you really tried to get them.. lol.. unless the dice were killing you. Which, I will admit, one game went that way.. bad dice for me.

Our second game I brought everyone together and mixed it up. Threw in some TIE/Ins, and some B wings, and everyone had a good time.. a successful night in my view..

Hey all,

I'm not real experienced at this game myself but I am teaching a friend to play tonight. I thought a fun scenario for him to learn on would be the Falcon's escape from DS1.

Falcon, - Han

Chewie

Luke

Expert Handling

Engine Upgrade

64pts

Up against 4 ties,

Either Acadamy pilots, "They let us escape" -Leia

or 64 points of whatever fits in 4 hulls.

Thoughts and advice for both this list and how to teach welcome.

i like ur scenario.

id go with 4 academy tie - keep it simple. Dont fly them too close to one another. Not suing any asteroids would even things up a bit for the imperials. If it is still too one sided maybe strip a few shields from the Falcon at the start simulating damage from an earlier battle that hasnt been repaired

Honestly, bomber, I think 4-5 ties could EAT this falcon.

Also, I'd lose the Expert Handling, as TIEs have no target lock to use.

I'd keep the Expert Handling, but shift it to Han. Barrel Roll on Han is incredible and you'll be able to get out of most firing arcs that way.

I just had a night where I was teaching 3 people how to play. One was a 12 year old, a 17 year old, and an 18 year old. None of whom have played a miniatures game but had played some stratagy games or card games. [...]

When I teach multiple people how to play the scenario I run an "Escape from Hoth" mission.

As the Instructor I run the Falcon with R2-D2 + Weapons Engineer + Gunner. yes I know it is not a legitimate upgrade and R2 wasn't actually on the Falcon at the time but R2-D2's effect is simply to make sure the scenario doesn't end to quickly .

Anyways the people learning each pick 1-2 small ship (rebel or imperial) add upgrades (they follow the upgrades on the card). And their task is to destroy the Falcon in a set number of turns. (I normally run about 15Turns depending on group size). Place some Asteroids, get something to keep track of turns, and let them "have fun" flying around asteroids trying to kill you in the turn limit.

Also they get a modified "Reinforcement rule" - when your Character dies roll 1 attack dice on a Crit he comes back and fully loaded. Otherwise you are the same ship at PS1. (when they die as a PS1 ship they roll again and if they Crit they come back as the Pilot they picked at the start)

so the scenario conditions are:

They Kill you. or They almost kill you.

Nice.. I like your scenario, and R2 gives you some survivability to keep them going until that 15th turn..

Thanks all,

My main thinking on the falcon was that the version with 64 points would have access to pretty much every kind of action, to have a working chance to explain them, and should mop up 4 academy ties, for that 'you win' hook.

It would be interesting if the ties won though and I can see the point of the more basic game. My friend is a pretty experienced gamer so it is more how the concepts apply to new game and specific rules. I will definitely think about the starter game. I never played it, my 1st was as half an imperial squad..

Nice.. I like your scenario, and R2 gives you some survivability to keep them going until that 15th turn..

Well it is the Falcon... and it take about 15 Turns to Fix the hyperdrive..

True... true... lol

A couple of months ago I introduced some people to the game.

I don't have much self-confidence about my abilities as a teacher, but someone was interested and I was the one with the X-Wing stuff. I let them pick ships and upgrades from my collection, up to a certain point value. I can't remember what that value was though. Fifty maybe? It took me awhile to decide, because I don't have a lot of experience yet aside from knowing a hundred would have been too much. I believe it was a Shuttle and two TIE Fighters on one side, and an X-Wing and an HWK-290 on the other. I think there was only one upgrade and it never came up. Then two other people showed up, so one took the second Rebel ship, and the other took the two TIE Fighters.

I had no special rules, handicaps, asteroids, or anything like that, just a dogfight between factions. It went amazingly well, and I got compliments that I explained the game far better than somebody who tried to teach it to them at a convention.

Real quick, the only rule I am fuzzy on (I think) is actions. They are taken immediately after the move right? When I was taught I was told there was an "actions phase" and we all did actions in sequence after the main moves, which was very much in favor of the ties.

Although it may not work as well with complete newbies on both sides of the table I like bring up a squad/scenario I read awhile ago. I believe it is called Secret Force or something like that. It is a couple 50 point squad and is designed to be very easy for the Rebel player:

Rebels: 50 points

Chewbacca (YT-1300) (42) + Gunner (5) + Marksmanship (3)

Here you have a tough ship that allows the newbie to ignore critical hits (ship's ability) and firing arcs (turret) while giving them a chance to reroll a missed attack (Gunner) and being able to utilize an action to make the attack far more effective. This is normally flown against three TIEs totally 50 points although what those are can vary depending on what you're trying to teach. An example would be:

Backstabber, Dark Curse, and Howlrunner

or

Academy Pilot x2, Turr Phennir + Determination

The Imperial side has more ships but is going to require a lot more finesse when it comes to playing if it wants to get a possitive outcome.

It's supposed to be right after you move. Though there have been times when the people I play with forget actions. So occasionally we add an "Action Phase" which occurs every time ship movement finishes for each Pilot Skill Level.

so Black Squadron (PS4) does all their moves and forgets to do actions. then Red Squadron (PS4) moves and 1 ship does an action (it's usually around this point the player with Initiative remembers they forgot to do actions). then rest Red Squadron moves and preforms no actions.

Then the PS4 Action phase starts. beginning with the side that "forgot" we add actions to all PS4 ships. Alternating for every action.

Another alternative is an "Auto-Focus" house rule - IF you do not do any actions after movement the ship counts as "focused" if the focus action is available to be used.

It's best to simply not forget cause more "hardcore" players will say "no you forgot, so you don't get any"

for the casuals... it's casual... "Fly casually"

Thanks, I like to keep things as close to tourney as possible when I play games like this. I will likely not ever make a tourney, kids and family have most of my time locked up, but feeling like I could play in one adds to the fun of the game.

Hey,

At the risk of crossing into the line of battle reports I thought it might be fun to provide the aftermath report. My friend opted to take out the 64 point falcon and I matched it against 4 ties with named pilots. Han shooting first and with access to both the boost and barrel roll proved overwhelming. I gauged my first pass a little off and howl runner and backstabber got shots, but the other two did not. From there the party was all falcon, the large base br and turret, with Luke, meant a tie was damaged or destroyed on every turn of play. It proved remarkably difficult to predict where he would go and in short order all the ties were gone and the falcon had one damage card.

If I had it to do over I may have tried longer passes to loop out and reengage but we both had a blast and were able to finish two additional 100 pt matches after. He wanted to try the imps next and build his own list. He did not listen to my quantity over quality argument and the imps got torn up and we finished on a much closer fight with a swarm vs Horton and three newbie xwings.

Thanks again to everyone with advice.

Just a quick note, as I've probably ran roughly 15 or so demo games to people over the past few months:

Don't introduce people to the game using the Falcon.

A major part of the game is figuring out where your ship is going to end up after you choose your maneuver, and trying to get the enemy ships into your firing arc.

The Falcon takes away that vital aspect of the game.

As other have said, the demo game in the core book (Luke vs Night Beast/Obsidian Squadron pilot) is a great intro to the game. Sometimes it will drag on a bit near the end if both players aren't super aggressive.

Also, if the more experience player is flying Luke, he/she can "forget" about Luke's pilot ability to help speed the game along.

While the Falcon does take away some of the mechanical aspects of the game (manuevering for a shot) when demoing; it adds Visual Character to the demo because the ship itself is Iconic.

As mentioned the core book missions are great for demoing the game to people who want to play the game. But for those players who simply love Star Wars for Star Wars and are unsure of the game; Seeing the Falcon in action on the table is occasionally a big enough draw to make them want to learn the game.

But also like you said if an experienced player is flying Luke they can forget about his Pilot Ability. Likewise an experience Falcon player can always pretend they have nobody manning the turrets and fire forward arc only.

I learnt to play with just the core box. Was a great way to start off as it kept things simple and introduced me to the core rules nicely. I agree with others that adding in the Falcon is probably not the best idea. Leave that for game 2 or 3 after they have managed to get a bit of a grasp of the rules. At the very least they will appreciate the benefits of the turret more.