So I showed up at my FLGS and participated in my 1st X-Wing tournament. After 3 crushing defeats (and a by) I realized that aside from a lot more practice I need some advice. Really fast, here is the list I brought:

Academy Pilot x2

Night Beast

Dark Curse

Major Rhymer w/ Adv. Proton Torps, Assault Missiles, Cluster Missiles, Deadeye and Stealth Device

Well, I fell into the trap of dumping way too many points in one ship and I really thought that the hard Rhymer would survive longer (he got vaped first in 2 outta 3 games). Also in my (pitiful) defense it was the only list I had any game time with and I only recently got an expansion TIE Fighter and Interceptor.

So a couple of ideas that I came up with: try out the popular TIE swarm but with a small twist or break out the shiny new Firespray that I got for Christmas.

So idea #1 is the most fleshed out and includes:

Academy Pilot x4

Howlrunner w/ Swarm Tactics (or Squad Leader?)

Maarek Stele w/ Marksmanship? or Cluster Missiles and Adrenaline Rush? or Homing Missiles? or Assault Missiles?

Now as much as I like the game and Star Wars I don't see myself buying more TIE Fighters. I'd like to try the TIE Advanced and Maarek looks like a lot of fun. With that said I do have a TIE Interceptor, a TIE Bomber and a Firespray to fill in if needed.

Idea #2 is really just a bounty hunter with saboteur and seismic charges along with a combination of the ships listed above.

Last thought, I will be picking up the Imperial Aces box and another Interceptor plus maybe another bomber. Oh, and definitely at least one TIE Phantom. So with all that said (whew!) what do my fellow X-Wing players think?

With the ships you own I think running the firespray is a must, any combo of tie fighters is fine as long as one of them is Howlrunner. So rather than give you a list, of which there are plenty of floating around the boards, here is what I think of your ships.

Personally I like running bombers in groups of 2, one of them being Jonus, so I would want the second bomber pretty quick. I always run my bombers at least at ps 4 otherwise you end up not being able to target lock the things you would like to. I never put more than one missle/torpedo on them because they end up being a point sink, or too easy of a target. (Usually a proton torpedo on Jonus, or a homing missile, and an assault missile on the friend of Jonus)

It takes some practice to maneuver without bumping all the time, especially when playing groups of tie fighters, put the lower PS guys in front when you deploy. Don't underestimate the academy pilots PS1 and ability to block other planes maneuvers.

I like to use the interceptors by themselves out on flanks, Push The Limit and high pilot skill is a must otherwise I don't bother. And remember an interceptor without an action is likely a dead one, better to run away and fight another day than bump.

It doesn't take much hunting in the forums to find out most people think the advanced sucks except for Darth Vader, who is only minimally useful, it's hard for me to argue much different.

I would play more games before committing to buying more than 2 of any ships (and more than one advanced) it's hard to say when your new what you will really enjoy flying. I really enjoyed reading stuff at www.themetalbikini.com , articles on just about everything that helped me learn game mechanics.

Sorry to hear about your losses in the tournament. A bummer, I'm sure.

You are correct, the issue with your squad was the big, glowing neon "kick me" sign pasted to the back of the single way-over-priced ship in your squad. Anyone looking at your ship/upgrade list as an opponent is going to ignore every other ship to focus-kill that single juicy target, leaving you in a world of hurt.

Most of the lists you see here will try to keep margin between the highest to lowest cost within reasonable distance of each other. The costs of the ships and upgrades are so finely balanced that we actually argue if a ship or upgrade is overcosted by one whole point! So if you can develop a squad that has no obvious target due to too many points spent on it, that goes a long way to improving your odds in matches.

There are a lot of variables beyond that, obviously, with a game this satisfyingly deep, but averaging your costs across the squad really helps us newer folks. At least it gives us a fighting chance. Oh, and playing within your style. If you've never flown a lot of ships in formation, you might want to stay away from swarms until you gain that experience, otherwise that might frustrate you too.

Sorry I didn't provide actual squad ideas, but I felt you would appreciate my perspective more that just giving you a squad (not that I'm an expert squad builder anyway!)

I've seen this happen before when there's way too much ordnance placed on Rhymer and then there's only a small squad flying at me. A fellow player once pitted him and Kath Scarlet as the only two ships against a squad of 4 of my Rebels and needless to say he got neatly cleaned up.

I agree that having a second TIE Bomber is going to give you a fairly solid advantage since, like their other standardized TIE cousins, have a lot of strength in numbers and similarity in terms of pilot skill and weapons. A pair of them with a shot and a bomb of some sort each is a good place to start.

I can't say I can really recommend using the Advanced since Maarek Stele can only take advantage of those critical hits when they actually happen, so unless you're running him with something like Push the Limit and happen to be extremely good at flying him, I can't really extol the virtues of his unique ability unless you can figure out some kind of a niche way to use him as a support piece on the board.

The Firespray-31 is an excellent craft, no matter which way you look at it, so it's high cost for mere deployment is completely justified. Learn to take advantage of how it can move and how you can use your rear guns and you'll be tearing it up like the best of them.

Thanks so much for the responses everyone! Themetalbikini is my favorite blog, possibly of all time, and is in large part responsible for me getting into X-Wing as deep as I have. Thanks for all the advice and I plan on playing more games soon to get a better idea about what works for me and what doesn't.

One question that I have, everyone agrees that the Firespray is good. What would you run with it though? I thought about trying out everyone the same PS with a bounty hunter and as many Obsidian Squadron TIEs as I could fit in. Clint at themetalbikini advocates trying all the same PS anyway for beginners. Thoughts?

I am actually a fan of running solo bombers. 6 hull is a lot to chew through, and they only cost 16 points at the cheapest, giving you a swarm-friendly tank.

If I do, I'll just straight up not use any missiles or torpedoes (or maybe just a single one), and concentrate on the Bomb.

Seriously, lemme throw out a tapdance for you.

Seismic Charges

• do not require any action to use
• guarantee damage if you have a victim in range
• ignore agility dice
• hit every ship in range when they're used, giving you the better part of Assault Missiles
• convince your opponent not to chase you, as they can get a bomb to the face at any moment
• deal damage outside of combat, potentially cherry-tapping a high PS ship before it can kill another one of your ships.
• only cost 2 points

Proximity Mines

• are dropped after you complete your move, meaning that you can steer them to a point of absolute usefulness in real time
• deal 3 dice of damage, with no evade bonuses
• act as an extra asteroid for board control
• deals massive damage outside of combat, and can potentially 1-shot a high-value target if placed well
• can crit
• only cost 3 points

Proton Bombs

• have every advantage of the Seismic Charges, save for the cost
• deal a face-up damage card, and therefore sneak a crit underneath the shields of its victims
• are incredible at crippling your opponents' fleets
• are incredible at keeping your opponent from chasing you, for the above
• only cost 5 points

Seriously, I've built fleets around running 4 Proton Bombs, or 5 Prox Mines / Seismic Charges.
Bombs are arguably the most effective expendable upgrades in the entire game (Chewbacca and Stealth Device are the only contenders).

One question that I have, everyone agrees that the Firespray is good. What would you run with it though? I thought about trying out everyone the same PS with a bounty hunter and as many Obsidian Squadron TIEs as I could fit in. Clint at themetalbikini advocates trying all the same PS anyway for beginners. Thoughts?

Firespray has a number of good upgrade options.

• It's got a Bomb Slot (see my previous post)
• It's got a Cannon Slot (4 dice at all ranges / Unblockable 3 at Range 1 / Control your victim's movements)
• It's got a Crew Slot (Gunner/Rebel Captive/Navigator/Recon Specialist are the best for the FS-31)
• It's got more utility for an Engine Upgrade than any other ship in the game (Use it to aim out of your auxiliary arc!)

It's greatest asset might be that it doesn't actually NEED any of these incredible upgrades.

The un-upgraded Bounty Hunter is an incredible ship. At 33 points, many people run just a 3x BH list for their fleet, and it's considered to be as difficult to beat as a Tie Swarm.

With it's high damage, high survivability, high maneuverability, high accuracy, et c..... it's just wondrous to behold.