Making mistakes the first time (or even every time) you play is totally normal and expected. As long as everyone had fun, that's the important part.
Another rule to point out is "if the active ship is executing a koiogran maneuver that causes it to overlap another ship, instead treat its maneuver as a straight maneuver with the same speed and color revealed on the dial."
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If you're looking for hard to find ships, a good place to check is Barnes and Noble. I've found that the hobby/game stores will be bone dry on ships but BN will often have some of the harder to find ships. For example, they had a some Y-Wings and an Advanced at my local BN just a couple weeks ago.
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Great tip Hahma. Definitely going to use that one.