Editing Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game (section)

===General Advice===
* "[[This Guy|Fly casual]]" has become the motto of the community and Fantasy Flight Games in regards to tournaments. There are discrepancies in the game and ships can easily be accidentally bumped here and there as moving. Sometimes the closeness of the ships and the distance between the two means a quarter centimeter difference between range 2 and range 3. As a result much of the game requires a casual attitude and willingness to approximate, shrug off an opponent's mistake that gives you an advantage in the name of fairness, or decide a dispute on a roll of the dice or a coin toss and move on. Win by virtue of skill, not if your opponent forgets they have a Focus Token. 
* Everything you take should have a serious purpose in your list. If someone asks you "why is this on your ship" and you can't immediately come up with a good reason, then it's not a good choice.
* ASSUME NOTHING. Just because your pal Joe ALWAYS falls for your cutesy little combo with a couple of Interceptors scissoring in the center doesn't mean tourney players will. If your plan relies on the opponent making mistakes, you're fucked. You should be calling the shots and deciding how the game goes, not reacting. This rule holds true for real life dogfighting as well. If you aren't the one calling the shots, the odds are very much against you. NOTE: Just because some players have studied the game long enough they can learn how to play the opponent doesn't mean you can. That takes a lot of learning. 
* Every ship has some sort of use in the game. People like to bitch that some ships are useless, but clever players will consistently figure out ways to bring something new to the table. For example, Rebel Operative HWK-290's (widely considered one of the most useless combos around) are now popping up with TLT's and Recon Operatives and are fucking terrifying. If you're at a tournament and someone plops some sort of odd choice like Mangler Scyks or a TIE Bomber swarm or something crazy like 6 Z95's all packing missiles, DO NOT assume the guy is a moron. If he's bringing something to a tourney, odds are he has a reason.
* The Maneuvering Phase is the most important step in the game. You can take one of Paul Heaver's world winning lists and then someone with more experience can take nothing but the named TIE pilots, and the more skilled player will still absolutely crush the other. They will know what you're doing before you even do it, and abuse the fuck out of it as much as possible. They'll chuck a cheap blocker into the best places for you to move to screw up your positioning and deny actions. They'll set up their TIE's so you have to shoot at them through rocks and at range 3 while they move into range 1 when they're ready to make their kill shots. Some more skilled players will purposefully take sub-par lists for casual gaming since a good list in a master player's hands would mean absolutely CRUSHING people who are still new to the game. 
* Fly everything at least once. Nothing teaches you the game like running a wide variety of builds and ships. Movement dials and ship stats can be found online, allowing you to try out the TIE Phantom using an ordinary TIE Fighter miniature if you feel like it and none of your friends have one you can borrow. Swarms have a steep learning curve, but go a long way towards teaching you the importance of formation flying and thinking ahead. Playing arc dodging aces like Soontir Fel teach you the importance of action economy and being flexible, as well as showing just how punishing a well-planned block is and how predictable the aces can be once you learn their habits (Soontier will almost always pull speed 2 turns to clear Stress, Corran Horn will usually do a double tap pass then blast off to a corner to regain Shields, etc). Play big ships and you'll learn how insanely good Engine Upgrade is on them, and the importance they place on crew and other upgrades. Learning how to shut down these abilities is also key, as well as tricking them into flying through asteroid fields or too close to the edge. 
* Learn placement and how ships can turn. If you keep at least the range of a horizontal template in between your ships you can bank with them and have them not bump. It'll go from being a square formation to a diamond if you've done it right. A good guide on this can be found [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3OjjNUu1hA here.]
* In current "high-level" X-Wing, Efficiency and Economy are the most powerful factors. You want to spend the least amount of points to achieve the effect you desire, and want to try and get lists which allow you to get more out of your limited action pool, either in tokens, repositioning or other dice modifications. Just rolling the dice and seeing how they land can be fun in casual play but is not a place you want to be in a serious game.
* Epic play (that is, using Huge Ships, higher points and larger play area) is almost a completely different game in balance terms. While they take much longer to set up and play - the larger point pool and play area means ships which do not do well in a 100 pt scrum can flourish, like taking enough generic Interceptors to matter, or using X-Wings to Torpedo Volley an enemy huge ship. This means Epic is often go-to for more "thematic" players.