It's weird. I've been trolling the forums here for a few months now, and while this thread seems to extoll the virtues of placing R2 on anyone BUT Biggs, I've seen many lists that say the opposite. Most lists I've seen say to throw shield upgrade and R2 on Biggs. With 3 Shields and 3 hull, and the ability to regenerate with R2, why wouldn't you use it on him?? If it means keeping your other ships in the battle even only 1 more round to take their shots, it just seems to make sense.

Tell me where I'm wrong? What am I not seeing that everyone else is..

From further upthread:

Biggs is going to take concentrated fire from multiple attackers, which is the scenario in which Artoo is least effective--he makes you fly predictably and restores just 1 shield per round, which has no effect on his lifespan if your opponent can deal at least 3 damage per round.

R2-D2 is most effective if you can somehow ensure that you only take 1 damage per round; in that scenario, the ship carrying him will last forever. If you take 2 damage per round, it takes 5 turns to kill an X-wing instead of the normal 3, meaning Artoo buys you 2 extra rounds. But if you take 3 or more damage each round, you die exactly as fast as you would have without R2-D2, except that you spent lots of points on him and made a green maneuver instead of considering your whole dial.

Now, extending your hp with a Shield Upgrade (or a Hull Upgrade, soon) does help. With 2 damage per round, the combo gets you to 6 rounds instead of 3, and at 3 damage per round you last 3 rounds instead of 2.

But regardless of your hp, the effectiveness of R2-D2 is always inversely proportional to the amount of damage your opponent can cause. That factor isn't under your control, but against competitive lists at full strength, 3-4 damage per round is a reasonable or even slightly conservative assumption. That means you want Artoo on a ship that isn't going to be attacked until you've had a chance to thin out your opponent's ranks a bit, and that means you shouldn't attach him to Biggs.

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...or, much more briefly: I think most people see R2-D2 and think "Shield regeneration, omg hax!" instead of "Wait, isn't this just basically a Shield Upgrade that cripples my maneuver dial?"

...or, much more briefly: I think most people see R2-D2 and think "Shield regeneration, omg hax!" instead of "Wait, isn't this just basically a Shield Upgrade that cripples my maneuver dial?"

I think there is a lot of truth to this statement. One must consider their play style, plan of attack, and how to best suit one's strategy while picking upgrades. Often I too have seen R2-D2 as more of a crutch than an aid. Flight paths become predictable and the ship R2-D2 is attached to makes green moves (to recover shields) rather than the move it needs to make to escape danger. R2-D2 is best used with a poker player's mentality. You have to be prepared to bluff and know when to. As soon as you think your opponent is banking on you to perform a green move, take a risk and perform a non-green risky maneuver to gain the underhand. This doesn't cause a shield token to regenerate, but it puts you back on the offensive.