Hey guys,

I am still pretty new to X-Wing and I enjoy it quite a bit more than many other minis games I've played. There is a tournament coming up soon and I am looking for some tips about the list I've come up with.

100 pt list

Ibtisam 28pt.

Upgrades: Fire Control System 2pt; B-Wing/E2 1pt; Kyle Katarn 3pt; Proton Torpedo 4pt.

Biggs Darklighter 25pt.

Upgrades: R2-D2 4pt.

Dagger Squadron Pilot 24pt.

Upgrades: Auto Blaster 5pt; B-Wing/E2 1pt; Jan Ors 2pt.

The strategy is to advance slowly with Biggs in the center using his action to Focus to gain the Evade from Jan's ability and perform green maneuvers to regen his shield with R2. Ibti would get herself stressed to use her reroll ability, if she sheds her stress then she would get a free Focus from Kyle which could be turned into an Evade from Jan if needed. I played this list twice and did not do bad though I lost both games. I was very happy with how much punishment Biggs could endure with R2 and Jan. In fact both of my opponents commented on how tough he was to take down.

I was considering downgrading Ibti to a cheaper pilot and dropping a few upgrades to try and fit in a cheap A-Wing or something. Any ideas on how I can optimize this list?

Thanks guys.

Ibtisam is an absolute blast to fly with advanced sensors & push the limit. Engine upgrade + HLC if you can afford it.

Autoblaster on a low PS b-wing is almost completely useless. I would definitely drop that in a heartbeat. I can see an argument for it (albeit somewhat thin) on a high PS ship, but otherwise no. Just no.

Here's what I'd do:

Biggs w/ R2-D2 & hull upgrade = 32

Blue squad w/ FCS, E2 mod + Jan Ors = 27

Ibtisam w/ Push the limit, advanced sensors & HLC = 41

100

Actually, I'd rather have engine upgrade on Ibby instead of R2-D2 on biggs, but that's probably a preference thing.

Hey guys,

I am still pretty new to X-Wing and I enjoy it quite a bit more than many other minis games I've played. There is a tournament coming up soon and I am looking for some tips about the list I've come up with.

100 pt list

Ibtisam 28pt.

Upgrades: Fire Control System 2pt; B-Wing/E2 1pt; Kyle Katarn 3pt; Proton Torpedo 4pt.

Biggs Darklighter 25pt.

Upgrades: R2-D2 4pt.

Dagger Squadron Pilot 24pt.

Upgrades: Auto Blaster 5pt; B-Wing/E2 1pt; Jan Ors 2pt.

The strategy is to advance slowly with Biggs in the center using his action to Focus to gain the Evade from Jan's ability and perform green maneuvers to regen his shield with R2. Ibti would get herself stressed to use her reroll ability, if she sheds her stress then she would get a free Focus from Kyle which could be turned into an Evade from Jan if needed. I played this list twice and did not do bad though I lost both games. I was very happy with how much punishment Biggs could endure with R2 and Jan. In fact both of my opponents commented on how tough he was to take down.

I was considering downgrading Ibti to a cheaper pilot and dropping a few upgrades to try and fit in a cheap A-Wing or something. Any ideas on how I can optimize this list?

Thanks guys.

You get a like and my full attention for the formatting. Thank you for using it!

You'll want to strip away the following upgrades, as they'll vastly under-perform:

Proton Torpedoes

These simply do not produce 4 points more of damage when fired, even with the pilot ability and upgrade shenanigans.

R2-D2

It dies to concentrated fire. Biggs requires fire to be concentrated on him. Regeneration is phenomenal on a Flanker or a Late-Game threat, but Biggs is always the first man killed.

Autoblaster

Avoiding green dice is not worth the severely restricted range, as the folks who rely on high mitigation tend to be very good at avoiding arcs as well. Your pilot-skill and mobility aren't high enough to take the shot against the folks who would suffer from you doing so, and even if they were, it is too inconsistent to be worth 5 points.

You'll want to add an Elite Talent to Ibtisam so that she can acquire stress from non-red maneuvers.

Many people have reported benefits out of Elusiveness here, particularly in the current-generation's 2-ship Tangos.

Push the Limit has also been traditionally useful with Advanced Sensors rather than FCS.

Elusiveness and Opportunist both combo well with Sensor Jammers on her as well.

Your crew choices are superb. Great insight here.

Evade tokens onto Biggs in the early game, then Evade tokens onto whomever needs them later, while Ibtisam gets a free Focus everytime she clears the stress that she used to enable her pilot ability, giving her either scary damage or turning it into a free Evade, which is scarier.

So. After taking out the trash, but before applying an Elite Talent to the squid-lady, you're sitting at 14 points remaining in your fleet.

If Biggs wants any upgrades, they will be to help him survive Burst-Fire, or to let him have a lasting effect post-mortem. However, he may be at his best with no upgrades at all, as they'll be more points you'd have to carve out of your opponent's hull to win.

• Hull/Shield Upgrades add 1 HP, but cost more than that 1 HP is worth on an X-Wing.
• Stealth Device might be worth investigation, as he'll be pulling an Evadeish action each turn.
• R2-D6 allows him access to the Elite Talents, which allow for a few good survivability options
• R4-D6 is the astromech most commonly seen on Biggs since it was released. Particularly useful now that IG-88B and the Outrider are things.
• R3-A2 doesn't increase Biggs' survability, but gives you a better match-up in the turns immediately following his death. A particularly good player might be able to fly him in formation for a while, then flee when he's about to die, becoming a control aspect while they concentrate on your B-Wings.
• R7-Astromech allows for Biggs to increase his survivability on turns in which you cannot be attacked, which is invaluable (though rare).
• R7-TI gives him the Boost action and a Target-Lock, allowing him to abandon formation for a flanking role fairly swiftly.
• R5-P9 is the best regenerator for him, as he can perform Focus actions at full speed, rather than regenerating merely at 1 speed maneuvers (or a 2 straight).

The Dagger will want a Systems Slot.

The Dagger and Ibtisam may desire Cannonry.

You may wish to add a Z-95 Headhunter, for more damage and the addition of a dedicated blocker.

You may wish to demote the Dagger to a Blue, but that worsens your match-up vs ships with Predator, and vs Swarmish fleets. Still, if you find a better use for those two points...

Here's what I'd do:

Biggs w/ R2-D2 & hull upgrade = 32

Don't do this.

This is a bad idea.

32 points on Biggs with 6 (maybe 7 health if he survives first contact) is going to put you at a severe handicap.

Hey guys,

I am still pretty new to X-Wing and I enjoy it quite a bit more than many other minis games I've played. There is a tournament coming up soon and I am looking for some tips about the list I've come up with.

100 pt list

Ibtisam 28pt.

Upgrades: Fire Control System 2pt; B-Wing/E2 1pt; Kyle Katarn 3pt; Proton Torpedo 4pt.

Biggs Darklighter 25pt.

Upgrades: R2-D2 4pt.

Dagger Squadron Pilot 24pt.

Upgrades: Auto Blaster 5pt; B-Wing/E2 1pt; Jan Ors 2pt.

The strategy is to advance slowly with Biggs in the center using his action to Focus to gain the Evade from Jan's ability and perform green maneuvers to regen his shield with R2. Ibti would get herself stressed to use her reroll ability, if she sheds her stress then she would get a free Focus from Kyle which could be turned into an Evade from Jan if needed. I played this list twice and did not do bad though I lost both games. I was very happy with how much punishment Biggs could endure with R2 and Jan. In fact both of my opponents commented on how tough he was to take down.

I was considering downgrading Ibti to a cheaper pilot and dropping a few upgrades to try and fit in a cheap A-Wing or something. Any ideas on how I can optimize this list?

Thanks guys.

You get a like and my full attention for the formatting. Thank you for using it!

You'll want to strip away the following upgrades, as they'll vastly under-perform:

Proton Torpedoes

These simply do not produce 4 points more of damage when fired, even with the pilot ability and upgrade shenanigans.

R2-D2

It dies to concentrated fire. Biggs requires fire to be concentrated on him. Regeneration is phenomenal on a Flanker or a Late-Game threat, but Biggs is always the first man killed.

Autoblaster

Avoiding green dice is not worth the severely restricted range, as the folks who rely on high mitigation tend to be very good at avoiding arcs as well. Your pilot-skill and mobility aren't high enough to take the shot against the folks who would suffer from you doing so, and even if they were, it is too inconsistent to be worth 5 points.

You'll want to add an Elite Talent to Ibtisam so that she can acquire stress from non-red maneuvers.

Many people have reported benefits out of Elusiveness here, particularly in the current-generation's 2-ship Tangos.

Push the Limit has also been traditionally useful with Advanced Sensors rather than FCS.

Elusiveness and Opportunist both combo well with Sensor Jammers on her as well.

Your crew choices are superb. Great insight here.

Evade tokens onto Biggs in the early game, then Evade tokens onto whomever needs them later, while Ibtisam gets a free Focus everytime she clears the stress that she used to enable her pilot ability, giving her either scary damage or turning it into a free Evade, which is scarier.

So. After taking out the trash, but before applying an Elite Talent to the squid-lady, you're sitting at 14 points remaining in your fleet.

If Biggs wants any upgrades, they will be to help him survive Burst-Fire, or to let him have a lasting effect post-mortem. However, he may be at his best with no upgrades at all, as they'll be more points you'd have to carve out of your opponent's hull to win.

• Hull/Shield Upgrades add 1 HP, but cost more than that 1 HP is worth on an X-Wing.
• Stealth Device might be worth investigation, as he'll be pulling an Evadeish action each turn.
• R2-D6 allows him access to the Elite Talents, which allow for a few good survivability options
• R4-D6 is the astromech most commonly seen on Biggs since it was released. Particularly useful now that IG-88B and the Outrider are things.
• R3-A2 doesn't increase Biggs' survability, but gives you a better match-up in the turns immediately following his death. A particularly good player might be able to fly him in formation for a while, then flee when he's about to die, becoming a control aspect while they concentrate on your B-Wings.
• R7-Astromech allows for Biggs to increase his survivability on turns in which you cannot be attacked, which is invaluable (though rare).
• R7-TI gives him the Boost action and a Target-Lock, allowing him to abandon formation for a flanking role fairly swiftly.
• R5-P9 is the best regenerator for him, as he can perform Focus actions at full speed, rather than regenerating merely at 1 speed maneuvers (or a 2 straight).

The Dagger will want a Systems Slot.

The Dagger and Ibtisam may desire Cannonry.

You may wish to add a Z-95 Headhunter, for more damage and the addition of a dedicated blocker.

You may wish to demote the Dagger to a Blue, but that worsens your match-up vs ships with Predator, and vs Swarmish fleets. Still, if you find a better use for those two points...

Here's what I'd do:

Biggs w/ R2-D2 & hull upgrade = 32

Don't do this.

This is a bad idea.

32 points on Biggs with 6 (maybe 7 health if he survives first contact) is going to put you at a severe handicap.

While R2-D2 on Biggs is usually not a great idea, with Jan there, its going to take at least 8 damage to kill him. Very few lists can throw out 8 damage in one turn on the initial pass (actually going to be 9 or 10 since Biggs will likely be at Range 3 and will get at least 1 or 2 evade results (dice gods permitting). Basically, the R2-D2 in this case is like a shield ugrade (+ the hull upgrade).

So I don't think its such a handicap since you will get to throw 20 red dice before Biggs dies (most of them modified).

-Snip-

Here's what I'd do:

Biggs w/ R2-D2 & hull upgrade = 32

Don't do this.

This is a bad idea.

32 points on Biggs with 6 (maybe 7 health if he survives first contact) is going to put you at a severe handicap.

While R2-D2 on Biggs is usually not a great idea, with Jan there, its going to take at least 8 damage to kill him. Very few lists can throw out 8 damage in one turn on the initial pass (actually going to be 9 or 10 since Biggs will likely be at Range 3 and will get at least 1 or 2 evade results (dice gods permitting). Basically, the R2-D2 in this case is like a shield ugrade (+ the hull upgrade).

So I don't think its such a handicap since you will get to throw 20 red dice before Biggs dies (most of them modified).

I'll actually run the math right quick for us, as you've got a decent point.

The distribution of 2 agility dice are as follows:

72/512 of mitigating 2 Damage

240/512 of mitigating 1 Damage

200/512 of mitigating 0 Damage

The distribution of 3 agility dice are as follows:

27/512 of mitigating 3 Damage

135/512 of mitigating 2 Damage

225/512 of mitigating 1 Damage

125/512 of mitigating 0 Damage

At this point, some people would collapse it into expected values (.75 and 1.125 respectively). I find this problematic, as it's only truly accurate over an infinite number of attacks, but it's good enough for our purposes.

The Evade Token is roughly equivalent to adding a shield token at the start of the first attack, excepting only the scenario in which you are dealt no damage in the entire round. The R2-D2 regeneration is adding a shield token

Therefore, the true amount of health that Biggs has in this scenario is: 5+(Number of Rounds of Combat)+ (Number of Rounds of Combat-1) + (.75 or 1.125 times the number of incoming attacks)

We'll call the variables C and A, where A¹ is the attacks at Range 1-2, and A³ is the attacks at Range 3

Biggs' Health = (Hull+Shields) + (2c-1) + (.75A¹) + (1.125A³)

Now, this is going up against a similar equation, which is the expected damage per attack/round that the enemy is pouring into Biggs. Once you know that, you can figure out how many rounds of combat he's expected to survive, and therefore how much damage your fleet will pour into your opponents at that time, and go all cyclical and stuff.

Anyway, let's plug in the values for Accuracy Corrector TIE Advanceds, as they're the easiest conversion rate, being 2 guaranteed damage per attack at Range 2-ish.

That's 8 Damage per Round of Combat ©, and 4 attacks per round (A¹ + A³).

8C </= 5+ (2c-1) + (.75*4)

8C </= 4 + 3 + 2c

6C </= 7

C >/= 7/6, meaning it will take 1 and 1/6 rounds of combat, on average, for Biggs to kick it to that list if the TIE Advanceds above keep it entirely at Range 2.

At Range 1, they get more damage per round.

At Range 3, they get less damage per round.

If you give Biggs a Hull/Shield Upgrade, it becomes 1 and 1/4 rounds of combat

If you give Biggs a Stealth Device, it becomes 1 and 3/8 rounds of combat

Focused Fire from 4 ships of 2 guaranteed damage kill him, even with the regeneration and Evade Tokens.

However!

Fleets consisting of only 2 ships are usually dealing less than 8 damage per round. Even Bro-bots with their dual HLCs usually only manage an expectation of 6-7. This will give Biggs a slightly longer life expectancy!

Slightly.

Keep him cheep. Even at his tankiest, he's still dead early.

I agree with you. However, my experience with Biggs is that he actually lives a little longer than he has any right to (whether I'm using him or against him). Maybe its Biggs' Law or something

But regardless of the math, even a swarm or high damage list can have trouble getting focus fire on Biggs if you are able to use the asteroids to your advantage or keep Biggs just out of range 3 of at least one/some enemies during the first round of fire (not super hard, given that the opponent also has to take into account the other ships in your fleet).

When I give list suggestions, I try to keep things as close to the original list as possible. My reasoning is that it takes a few games to get a feel for when something is working or not. So if someone has tried a list a couple times and I suggest a couple changes and they try that, they can see for themselves whether its an improvement or not. The OP's list might work out with only the slightest change-----or maybe he will end up scrapping the idea and going with something else completely different, but ideally, he'll have gained some insight into why things worked or didn't by trying them out

Cool list. I like Ibtisam. Still, here is an option that replaces her for another Dagger and adding a 4th ship:

Biggs (R4-D6)

Dagger (Advanced Sensors, E2 title, Jan Ors)

Dagger (Advanced Sensors, E2 title, Lando Calrissian)

Tala

100 points

So, all PS4 except Biggs. I think Jan should be used exclusively on Biggs until he dies, then you can boost whichever ship needs it most (and Jan's ability works on her own ship too).

Thanks for all of the input guys,

As for the formatting thank you; I'm a bit of an organization freak .

My upgrade options are kind of limited, especially the ones that come with large based ships. That being said I may be able to borrow some of them from my gaming buddies. I know there is a huge debate about using upgrades on Biggs, and I'll admit that the math stuff is way over my head . There is a psychological component to Biggs being able to repair a shield which may frustrate opponents and the more frustrated they get the more likely they are to make a mistake.

I agree that both Autoblaster and Proton Torpedo should be dropped because they don't live up to their point values. Giving Ib Advanced sensors, Engine upgrades and Push the limit may help with maneuverability issues. My last game I wiped my opponents ships out except for Jake in the A-wing who was able to stay out of my arcs of fire and peppered both B-Wings to death. Elusiveness on Ib is also a viable option. As a crew option Lando would be a bit better that Kyle I think but I've never seen him used.

Though I do like 4 ships opposed to 3 I would rather keep Ib and downgrade the Dagger to a Blue Squadron. Though I didn't realize that the Headhunters were so cheap... hmm I have some thinking to do.

I agree with blade_mercurial in that I like to suggest lists similar to the one you have to try and capture the same essence.

Looking at your list, I felt like Nera Dantels might fight in well instead of the Dagger. Not a popular choice for most, but these women can get things done. Nera and Biggs were also an item in the EU

Ibtisam 28pt.

Upgrades: Sensor Jammer 4pt; B-Wing/E2 1pt; Kyle Katarn 3pt; Push the Limit 3pt

Biggs Darklighter 25pt.

Nera Dantels 26pt.

Upgrades: Fire Control System 2pt; B-Wing/E2 1pt; Jan Ors 2pt; Deadeye 1pt; Proton Torpedo 4pt

The list should be 100 points even unless I failed at math again. If it works well for you, after wave 7 hits Extra Munitions could be added to Nera by swapping out some other upgrades (FCS for Sensor Jammer on Ibtisam). You basically try and get a long range shot in the first round of fire to get a TL on a target of your choice with Nera and the second round you can focus up, allowing you to fire your torp at said target outside of arc if necessary and use your TL for rerolls. Proton torps have built in focus to crit action. The other way is to just use Nera to ward of arc dodgers by keeping your torp armed and ready with a focus.