In my quest to get better at X-Wing I’ve had a million questions and I figured I could have my friend Drawde, who writes for us most Fridays, answer some of them.

#1. I understand that the bid is the amount of points you don’t use on your squad and the person who uses the least amount of points determines who gets to go first or second but I was curious, how do you know if you want to go first or second?

90 percent of the time, you want your opponent to move and shoot first, this means you have a high bid in order to give your opponent the initiative- if your team only costs 190 to your opponents 191 that’s a 10 vs a 9 point bid and will be able to make them go first. This is especially important if you are flying aces. You want your opponent to move first (shoot first), so you can “counter act”. That means you can either arc dodge, or put yourself into a better position for a kill box via one of the post maneuver actions like Barrel Roll or Boost. Acting and counter reacting is key. If I have initiative as an ace, chances are you have a boost or barrel roll that can help you reposition to put yourself in a better position for either the engagement, to run away or dodge an engagement, or to reposition yourself for a better next turn. Key is always thinking ahead to the next turn and dictating where YOU want to engage your opponent and when.

#2. How do I build a team to maximize not winning the bid? How can I know If I’m getting good value from playing all 200 points?

Usually if you are flying generic ships or ships with initiative 2 or below, you don’t care about the bid. One with low initiative skills, usually maximizes their points. The player doesn’t care about when they are moving, because their skill is so low, they are almost always moving first, and attempt to force a bump. None the less, the rule is the same, attempt to dictate the time and place of the engagement. By either flying around the map, or flying through obstacles. All depending on your strategy. I try to fly my aces to engage at range three and avoid obstacles, and obstructions especially when the meta calls for utilities that benefit from obstructions such as Trick Shot.

#3. What should I take into consideration when deciding what obstacles to use and where and how to place them.

All depends on the local scene. If flying in a metgame with swarms, I always suggest Large Asteroids. If you are flying a list with passive mods, I would go with Debris Clouds instead, as to take advantage that you can still shoot through a cloud while you cannot on a asteroid. This is a loaded question because it really depends on not just your local meta, but what type of utilities you bring to counter act and benefit from obstacles. When flying three aces, I personally bring large asteroids and attempt to fly around them and force my opponent to engage me through them. To give me a better flanking position with two aces that are flankers, while my main defenders sets up a joust through the asteroids to soak up damage from the frail ones.

#4. What are some tricks or advice you would have so I don’t hit everything with my clumsy hands?



Short answer is practice. Long answer is Practice. The more board game you get the more precise your movements become, and the more accurate your spatial perception gets. Someone asked me once, how I can move ships so precise without the jitters. I tell them ” Get cocky kid” I fly arrogantly and audacious and attempt to pretend like I know what I am doing. It’s like a “mental cigarette”. Imagine you are Solid Snake in Metal Gear solid. You just go the sniper rifle and you need to stealth shot about a dozen guys. First thing you do is hit up the in game cigarettes and then all of sudden the scope steadies out. Remember this mechanic? I think we all do. Well, I basically take a mental smoke right before the game and pretend I got this. Its all about composure. If you are not nervous, your jitters don’t manifest. X-wing in comparison to a lot of card games and so forth, is so much more confrontational. You aren’t hiding behind a hand, you are blatantly maneuvering your hand which is open to the gamer to see. They know what you are flying, and what abilities your ships posses.

#5. I know that practice is the best way to get better at X-Wing but with someone who doesn’t have a lot of time what do you think are some ways to get better faster? Would it be wise to end games when you know its hopeless? Are there any drills that I can do by myself that you know of that are helpful?

Vassal. Its an open source program that cost nothing and can be played alone without internet after download. Just download the applications. it will take about 45 minutes to learn the feel of the program, but its no different than playing a fps for the very first time. Before vassal, I would throw down my 3×3 mat and just practice flying around the map alone. Sounds silly? That won me easy 6 straight tournaments during wave 4. I still do it every once and a while. Just to adjust my spatial perception on the three different size bases.

Thanks to Drawde for answering my questions. It was very helpful and I hope anyone who read this got something out of it.

-NJCuenca and Drawde

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