I haven't had a chance to play much, so its tough for me to know if an expenditure of points on certain combos is worth it. I'm going to get to play this game once every few weeks so learning by playing alone would take forever.

Biggs + R2 + Shield Upgrade

R2 allows Biggs to continually regen shields as he draws fire from the enemy.

Worth eight points of upgrades? No? Why not?

As a new player, I'd appreciate something more than just a "no" because I want to begin to understand why the points don't cut it and what they should be spent on instead.

Finally, I'm interested in combos that will work, not the LEET, broken combos.

The list I'm considering for my first casual tournament is:

Biggs + R2 + Shield Upgrade

Wedge

Ibtisam + Push the Limit + Heavy Laser Cannon (I know there isn't much synergy here but these are just upgrades I want to try out)

I say no because against an experienced player, Biggs will drop too fast to really use R2-D2. You are generally better off running him with no upgrades. Also, while Shield Upgrade sound nice combined with R2-D2, you would have to just take one damage per turn to really see the value of the Shield Upgrade. Again, with a ship like Biggs that will draw all the fire, it is very unlikely that you will ever go back to 3 shield.

First, I would recommend calling him R2D2 to distinguish from the generic R2. Second, I agree with Red Castle that you're not going to get much use of out R2D2 on Biggs. In your list, he would be better served on Wedge. Furthermore, it would work even better to drop the HLC to put PTL on Wedge as well. Now you're getting two actions, and then required to do a green to clear stress, at which point you regen a shield. Finally, with the 4 remaining points, put another SU on Wedge so he can regen lots of shields.

Thank you. I've only watched and played in games in which its been one on one encounters, so it makes sense that when someone combines fire they'll do considerably more damage.

This is an unfair weighted question, but how much damage per 3 die attack can a typical player hope to do with an attack? 1? 2? What's typical from your experience? I assume that the actual stat calculation is something like 1.21.

Your saying that the beginning lesson for me here is that ships go down way quicker than one might expect, correct?

This is an unfair weighted question, but how much damage per 3 die attack can a typical player hope to do with an attack? 1? 2? What's typical from your experience? I assume that the actual stat calculation is something like 1.21.

For that you should look into the post history of MajorJuggler, one of the resident Mathwingers who has written extensively on stuff like this.

Your saying that the beginning lesson for me here is that ships go down way quicker than one might expect, correct?

In a sense yeah. They can go down pretty fast. So Biggs is a very good pilot cause he gets the heat instead of your more offensive centric pilot, like Wedge. He'll serve his purpose, but don't expect him to last too long.

That's also why the more important thing to learn in this game is to maneuver. The only way to garantee survival is to not be shot at. Easier said than done, I know.

If you are interested in biggs living longer I've had some luck running him with cracken and R2F2 on biggs. On his maneuver, biggs useds R2F2 to make his agility 3 and after Cracken attacks you can give biggs a focus. If you throw Garven in there that's two focuses. It usually gives him an extra turn or two before he kicks it and hopefully you've done enough damage to make it count.

I'm also experimenting to find some sweet interactions.

However, I think I have an issue with your wording of "broken" combos.

I don't think those actually exist in this game... And if they did, I'm fairly cerain an errata would quickly be enacted.

My suggestion is generally leave Biggs naked. Maneuver him in such a way that he tanks annoyingly (situations may vary, but one example is let other ships get hit first, THEN you maneuver him in your other ships can't get finished off until Biggs is dealt with).

Either way though, if his ultimate purpose is to take hits, adding upgrades generally involves them being blown to pieces quickly.

I won't get Cracken in the mail until next week. So, I'm compromised by having limited cards right now. I have:

Core

Y wing

X wing

A wing

B-wing

Falcon

I'm purposely not playing the Falcon just yet because I don't want to get complacent and I want to force myself to learn proper positioning and fire arcs.

I have Imperial stuff too, but I'm personally interested in Rebels. I have Imperials just for variety for the game club I run at my school. Its for the kids.

What do people think about my B-wing setup? If I move PTL to Wedge (I only have one card), what works well on the B-wing?

There's lots of great combos that other players have success with. However, just because someone may with Regionals/Nationals/World/whatever, doesn't mean it's necessarily the right combo for you to play. Your style may be different. They may have an intuitive understanding of the movement options each turn, whatever. So there's lots of "LEET" combos out there, that I'd never use, simply because they don't match my play style or thought process.

PtL doesn't work terribly well (for me anyways, YMMV of course) on a B-Wing from the lack of green options to clear the stress. I'd put in a Fire Control and get a free target lock for next turn, instead of stressing to get TL/Focus. Advanced Sensors is typically a useful option for a B-Wing as well. I see what you're trying to do to generate a stress token for her - I'm just not terribly fond of that option. The HLC is a good option though.

I like Wedge with Opportunist (which you don't have yet), as that really makes him doubly effective.

But yeah, as noted, drop the upgrades for Biggs. It's too many points for a ship that you know is going to get pounded on.

Oh... and (to probably tear this tread off-topic) the Falcon is far from an easy ship to use effectively. To use it well, even FFG considers it more of an advanced ship to fly well. It's a big target, with a very insignificant agility and a high priority target too.

(and the proper way to make a real combo is to ask for Half Fries & Half Rings... it's really the only way to have it)

As a personal opinion, I like that original combo you have on Biggs. R2-D2 and Shield Upgrade. I've used it quite a few times with varying degrees of success. After the first encounter it usually becomes quite important to maneuver your squad. I tend to use that SU to have a greater chance of biggs surviving the first encounter, and then break him off to fly a couple of green maneuvers on his own as the rest of the squad battles it out. Then you've reached the End Game with a PS5 X-wing with 3 shields able to mop up the rest. Though that depends on if your opponent actually goes after Biggs or want to take out your offensive ships.

Another tip would be to play a few games with Biggs and SU and then a few without so you get a feeling for how much impact that extra shield has on the game.

There's lots of great combos that other players have success with. However, just because someone may with Regionals/Nationals/World/whatever, doesn't mean it's necessarily the right combo for you to play. Your style may be different. They may have an intuitive understanding of the movement options each turn, whatever. So there's lots of "LEET" combos out there, that I'd never use, simply because they don't match my play style or thought process.

You're speaking my language here and I appreciate that. My goal is not to "win" this tournament. My goal is to learn something about the game and my play style, but maybe not take last place, if possible either.

I don't have access to Advanced Sensors yet, but I will think about that Fire Control system.

Do people bring lists with less than 100 points, or is there no point to that?

What do people think about my B-wing setup? If I move PTL to Wedge (I only have one card), what works well on the B-wing?

On Ibtisam Elusiveness works rather well.

With what you have I think I would actually make a squad like:

For rebel combo you need HWK, its a ship that makes some really interesting interactions possible (3 agility Biggs with 2 focus tokens, 6 attack ships, 4 ships shooting at 12 pilot skill etc)

Don't have HWK yet Redblock. Its in the mail.

I had never even considered the possibility of going with equal pilot skills so that I can pick their order, but that tactic makes total sense. You've given me a lot to think about Dagonet. Thanks. I assume the "angle" of your suggested list is that you try to ion a ship to death and then have Garven Proton Torp 'em to death, right? Or is it more generalist and opportunistic?

As a new player, the downside of Biggs is that I am concerned that I will make too many positioning mistakes to make him useful. The plan is to try to keep him at Range 3 while the rest of my party is at Range 1-2 of enemies so they may be forced to deal with an extra defense die on Biggs.

Using stuff you have I come up with this slightly combo list

As a new player, the downside of Biggs is that I am concerned that I will make too many positioning mistakes to make him useful. The plan is to try to keep him at Range 3 while the rest of my party is at Range 1-2 of enemies so they may be forced to deal with an extra defense die on Biggs.

The best way to use Biggs is to force them to split fire. And by that i mean that you want to maneuver such that half of his ships can't shoot at Biggs, and therefore are forced to shoot at Wedge, but the other half have R3 on Biggs, forcing them to shoot at him. This way, you spread the damage out over two ships, and they both live longer, and your squad is better for it.

Thanks Redblock. I had thought about just going four ships too, without any upgrades, just to see how "raw" vessels play.

Good tip Khyros. I had read that a big mistake people make is just running him out and getting him killed, but his utility has to be in preserving as many attack dice on as many ships as possible for as long as possible.