As part of me going back to basics I'm going to bust Biggs out for the first time ever in my next few games. I'm wondering what is the best way to keep him alive as long as possible?

1. Is it going slow, therefore keeping him at range 3?
2. Is it giving him R2-F2?
3. Is it giving him a hull or shield upgrade?
4. Lastly, do I just leave him be and what will be will be?

Any other suggestions welcome!

It depends on what else is in your squadron but generally speaking leaving Biggs unadorned is the most cost effective.

Now if you want to know what to put with him to help the most that may just be Luke + R2D2 + Draw Their Fire (+ Shield Upgrade) as it can pull the [kaboom] that may hit Biggs and land it on a shield which R2D2 then recharges.

R2-F2 is good if you have Garven or Airen nearby to provide focus.

In a dog fight R4-D6

In epic R2-F2 + EI and a huge ship with Comms Booster

And maybe Garven

The guys are all absolutely right with their answers. But the best thing for non-epic is probably to leave him as he is and buy enough firepower alongside him to do as much damage as you can before he bites it.

You just stay in formation, focus while you can and when he dies, he dies!

Yeah, leaving him as is fits my experience. No matter how much you boost him he seldom seems to last more than one extra turn for it. All I can recommend is not leaving him behind, otherwise you may as well not have brought him I do love running him with a few b-wings though, give them just enough time to turn anything approaching into slag until he's gone.

Isn't biggs errataed to not work with epic ships? Just standard small and large?

I'd give him a less offensive ability right now he's too good, anything that totally removes choice from the other guy is in my opinion broken.

Isn't biggs errataed to not work with epic ships? Just standard small and large?

That's right

I really like the idea of R3A2 on Biggs.

Yes, I know consensus is that one shouldn't spend points on a ship destined to be destroyed, but drawing shots AND dealing out stress makes for a intriguing control piece!

As part of me going back to basics I'm going to bust Biggs out for the first time ever in my next few games. I'm wondering what is the best way to keep him alive as long as possible?

1. Is it going slow, therefore keeping him at range 3?
2. Is it giving him R2-F2?
3. Is it giving him a hull or shield upgrade?
4. Lastly, do I just leave him be and what will be will be?

Any other suggestions welcome!

There's a great video you should watch:

Basically, keep him at Range 3 of your opponents, force your opponent to have to split attacks on Biggs and your other units (as splitting attacks it's harder for your guys to die in general) and do not max him out in stats to keep him alive. (My recommendation is Stealth Device, though depending on your build hull/shield/R2D2 will work.)

it depends really. I tend to use him either with no upgrades or with hull. I might use luke with draw their fire (r5-p9 or r2d2) to keep biggs alive a little longer.

I flew him naked, except for the mustache, but used Swarm Tactics to get him to fire at an 8. He got to shoot more before he died that way. Also, always Rebel-creep.

Jan Ors crew member in a large ship or a b-wing.

His job is to be destroyed. DO NOT spend extra points on him. Keep him cheap.

The key with Biggs is not just to use him to soak damage that would hit your heavy hitter(s). The key is to force your enemy to spread out its damage. Move slow, keep Biggs at range as long as possible. In the first volley, he should be at least 1-2 ship lengths behind the ships he is protecting. This accomplishes spread fire, because your enemy's front row will be forced t shoot Biggs while his back row cannot. Neither ship will take enough damage to be cleared. 2 damaged ships are far better than a single undamaged ship.

I buff him with a standard training regimen involving lots of upper-body workouts. Mostly weights, that sort of thing.

In game, I then fly him naked (I feel it is the best value for the points, and it shows off all that increased muscle tone).

Paul heaver had an interesting tactic with a han/Biggs/ tala list where he would get han get ahead to where he was targetable then would bring Biggs up to protect han on the next turn and alternated that. It prolonged biggs life while maximizing his 3 dice attack.

If you want to buff BIGGS then you could try R2-F2 and experimental interface. It's hit and miss with the dice but the focus improves your odds.

I give him R2F2 and Stealth. 5 dice at R3, 4 in closer.

Then I have Jan in a B-Wing and Cracken. Cracken gives Biggs an Action (Focus) which Jan turns into an extra evade.

He generally dies about turn 4 (unless my dice are cr@p that day...but in that case its irrelevant how/what your flying) but in that time I've focused down several ships and put my opponent in a hard spot.

Though if your going against a dual big-ship build (Dual Falcon, Deci-Lamda, etc) an R7 mech could be painful. If he gets lucky and rolls all hits, or focus-flips eyeballs to hits, you get to make him reroll that batch (especially after he burns the focus to increase his hits). Harder to do on small ship builds since you then have to guess (Target lock) which ship you think will do the most damage.

I was about to suggest flying him with a bodyguard, but then I realised that he's the wrong type of scum

Isn't biggs errataed to not work with epic ships? Just standard small and large?

Yes but they fly him with a GR-75 that gets the double reinforce i believe, and with triple comms booster.

then all the heavy hitters stay in range while he is just unkillable with 5-6 green dice and all the focus and evade tokens he gets from comms, Garven, Kyle, Jan ors crew... All this while the protected rebels kill off the imperials.

R2-F2 and Experimental Interface.

It is all you need.

Though if your going against a dual big-ship build (Dual Falcon, Deci-Lamda, etc) an R7 mech could be painful. If he gets lucky and rolls all hits, or focus-flips eyeballs to hits, you get to make him reroll that batch (especially after he burns the focus to increase his hits).

You must use R7 before opponent uses focus or target lock tokens.

In Epic, Biggs + EI + R2-F2 + as many focus token generating ships as you can spare + Jan Ors Crew = 3 dice with 1 evade and X focus (up to 5-6?). You could also drop the EI and put Stealth if you have too much focus already.

In non-epic, R2-F2 might work, but you really need to put as little on Biggs as possible, while keeping your buffing abilities on the other ships.

R2-F2 and Experimental Interface maybe, behind a large ship with Tactical Jammer.