R4D6

It seems like a great card that can whittle down the damage Biggs takes and provides him with some much needed durability, but is it really all that?

It costs 1 point, is good against every attack and can significantly reduce damage. On the other hand though, three uncancelled hits is hard pill to swallow. Since R4D6 procs after you roll defense dice it is far more likely that you will end up cancelling one of those three hits with an evade result. If there is a crit, R4 is useless since you cancel crits last and there is no way to circumvent this. Take into consideration that once Biggs uses R4D6 he cannot K-Turn and I think you have the makings of a disaster. Here you are, with a stress token, technically Biggs just needs to stay in range of his buddies, but it seems like a predicament that requires thought. Suppose you can clear that stress, should you? You just set yourself up to telegraph your next move, what is your opponent most likely going to do? Respond in kind by keeping Biggs in arc and delivering the coup-de-gras that's what.

I posit that on the surface R4-D6 is a great astro who looks like he can really work, but in actual gameplay the sacrifices you make to get that durability far outweigh the gain. For example, if R4D6 works, you lose your shields. If it fails to proc then you could actually be toast depending on the ordnance. If I saw a Biggs across the mat with R4, I would save my plasma torps and hit him with protons and thereby negate R4 almost completely. A GC proton torp should deliver two crits reliably, more so with modification like R4 Agromech and what can you do against two or more crits with R4D6? You can IA him and that's it. Perhaps on a Y-Wing the benefit would be worthwhile since at best you can throw three dice meaning that most of the time you can proc R4D6, but on an X-Wing who can actually evade decently sometimes I think it's snake oil.

R7

So what do you do? Take the humble R7 I say. For an extra point you gain an ability that, depending on TL, you can always use if you play it right. There is no right way to play R4D6, he is a gamble every time and not even a good gamble. But with R7 you can learn to play him right and learn how to judge which ship is going to shoot you first. Usually this will be a higher PS pilot, but sometimes you can end up being threatened by a lower PS pilot instead and then it's a bit easier to decide who to TL. R7 also requires a TL obviously and at PS 5 this can be tricky to pull off. But the rewards are worth it. You spend your TL to force the opponent to reroll attack dice and this is huge because no dice can be rerolled more than once. So an R4 Agromech shoots you, supposing they shot you with ordnance they are lacking a foci, they roll dice and you reroll all the good results. Now the opponent can only TL the dice you didn't R7 and since there is no foci to spend... Each attack dice is a 50/50 split, with a 1 in 6 chance of a crit, so the chances of making a hit worse are pretty low. Sure you can bork yourself with R7, but at least you aren't stressed and hey, instead of a chance at cancelling damage that is already hit, you have a chance to prevent that damage entirely.

Reduce damage that's already done, or try to prevent that damage. That is essentially the question. Both droids have their shortcomings and drawbacks, both have their bonuses. In my books however it still better to avoid damage than it is to try and soak it up. What do you think of these two droids and how have you been playing them on Biggs and others?

I have used R7 very well on E-Wings with FCS. It's not R2-D2, but with the E-Wings high evade, if you prevent all but 1 or 2 dice from confirming it is totally worth it. As for r4.... I was never so sure. If a wingman has draw their fire, it's pretty tough to get a good shot off. I think of him as an OS button, you never WANT to need him, but he's great when you do. I'm not sure if R7 would do it on Biggs, and I think R4 is good on a ship that you want to die on a schedule. The thing about R4 is that assuming no crits, you know the hit won't be more than 2. For one point that is huge. Even in case of a crit Biggs can take serious hits and still do a part of his job as long as he is alive. Just a thought. R7 is awesome though, especially with FCS, and a pilot skill advantage since you have a TL for he attack and Def hopefully. Shame the E-Wing lacks the non Corran pilots for it...

A GC proton torp should deliver two crits reliably, more so with modification like R4 Agromech and what can you do against two or more crits with R4D6? You can IA him and that's it.

IA-ing him is kind of the idea. He's a 1-point activator that will, occasionally, save some additional damage before he goes, and lets me spend as much as possible on the ships I actually care about. I don't care about keeping Biggs alive; he's a sinking ship who's done his job if he soaks up your Proton Torp and some other fire. The only reason I even put R4-D6 on him is that a 1-point improved Shield Upgrade is too much value to pass up. But beyond that any points spent on Biggs are points that could have been better spent elsewhere.

But then you're paying one point for IA and then you might as well just take an R2 and enjoy the dial. For the amount that R4D6 is actually going to work I'd rather spend the point and get an ability that I can use. R7 can IA just as easy, but instead of self stressing on a mechanic that isn't likely to activate you take a chance at reducing damage to a point that it's feasible to avoid some. R4D6 presupposes uncancelled damage in a specific amount. R7 presupposes TL. One the player has control over, the other is left to the mercy of the dice gods.

I know which I'd rather put my money on...

For the amount that R4D6 is actually going to work I'd rather spend the point and get an ability that I can use.

When does Biggs ever live long enough for his dial to matter one way or the other?

In the game people actually play proton torpedoes are most frequently seen on jumpmasters, which do not have a three die primary and cannot reliably deliver multiple critical hits.

R4-d6 works wonders, particularly if biggs had a buddy to draw their fire

Biggs wants to stay cheap, so you want a 1 point astromech.

I really don't see much benefit in R4D6 since as you note, it's very rare to actually receive three uncancelled [boom] results except from an Autoblaster cannon (lol) or HLC. Otherwise you're far more likely to get hhc, hh, or hc going through, none of which R4D6 works on.

So what are the other options:

R2 - Solid, fine, but not often relevant unless the rest of the squad is taking it as well, AND you have enough time to get stressed, which Biggs usually doesn't.

R5 - Almost never going to trigger, and rarely going to be relevant when it does. Meeeehhhhh.

R5X3 - Discard on use, no IA. All the nope.

R2D6 - Now we're onto something. R2D6+Adaptability lets Biggs be PS4 - the same as crack swarms - or PS 6 - the same as Brobots and soon, Glaives - and if you can contrive to give away the initiative, means you can do zombie biggs shenanigans; he retains his pilot ability whilst he's on the board due to simultaneous fire, so an entire crackswarm might have to waste a round of shots on him whilst he's already dead. It's definitely not common, any more than R4D6 is, but I think the benefit is bigger on the occasions it does come up. And what's more, you don't lose the EPT if you discard the bot, so there's literally no penalty for chucking him to IA.

I know what I'd pick.

Biggs wants to stay cheap, so you want a 1 point astromech.

I really don't see much benefit in R4D6 since as you note, it's very rare to actually receive three uncancelled [boom] results except from an Autoblaster cannon (lol) or HLC. Otherwise you're far more likely to get hhc, hh, or hc going through, none of which R4D6 works on.

So what are the other options:

R2 - Solid, fine, but not often relevant unless the rest of the squad is taking it as well, AND you have enough time to get stressed, which Biggs usually doesn't.

R5 - Almost never going to trigger, and rarely going to be relevant when it does. Meeeehhhhh.

R5X3 - Discard on use, no IA. All the nope.

R2D6 - Now we're onto something. R2D6+Adaptability lets Biggs be PS4 - the same as crack swarms - or PS 6 - the same as Brobots and soon, Glaives - and if you can contrive to give away the initiative, means you can do zombie biggs shenanigans; he retains his pilot ability whilst he's on the board due to simultaneous fire, so an entire crackswarm might have to waste a round of shots on him whilst he's already dead. It's definitely not common, any more than R4D6 is, but I think the benefit is bigger on the occasions it does come up. And what's more, you don't lose the EPT if you discard the bot, so there's literally no penalty for chucking him to IA.

I know what I'd pick.

Okay, R2D6 vs crackswarms is hilarious.

R4-D6 is less about absolute damage mitigation, and more about removing variance. Paired with Draw their Fire on an ally, R4-D6 guarantees that Biggs will survive at least three torpedo shots, and, short of statistically improbable multi-crit natural rolls, at least three attacks of any kind. That lets you make and execute plans vs U-boats and other Alpha strike lists.

For example, imagine a Biggs+R4-D6/DtF R2-D2 Wes/Stresshog list vs three jumpmasters. Assuming it's flown such that each pilot on both sides gets to do their thing, then you can almost guarantee Biggs survives that first exchange. Wes strips a focus, draws and regens any lucky crits, Biggs cancels the attacks down to two, takes a maximum of four, and still has one hull and his integrated astromech left. He'll, even without Wes, R4-D6 and IA means that three jumpmasters should almost always have to fire all three girls in the first joust against Biggs.

By contrast, R7 has much greater upside potential. In theory, if you reroll all 4 of your opponents dice, and they all come up blank or eyeball, vs a typical Aggro/Plasma/chips setup, you can reduce that down to one hit, which is very evadable. But that's best case, and you're only doing it once, and to one target. That leaves you open to a lot of counters.

For example, vs that Biggs, if I were flying the jumpmasters, I'd fire first with the one he has target locked using my PWT, then let fly with the torps from the other two. There's a soli chance that volley kills Biggs outright, and I've saved a torpedo for the rest of your list.

Even against non jumpmaster lists, R4-D6 is probably better, if not as consistently useful. The target lock restriction means it's only really meaningful against lists with a relatively low number of ships. Vs double fcs ghost lists, R7 all the way, but against anything with three or more ships, you'd want R4-D6 IMO.

R4-D6 is even more situational than R7-T1. Unless its an HLC user i rarely EVER suffer more than 2 hits, one of those 3rd or 4th dice are always a crit.

I get that vibe from a lot of the astromechs and it kinda bugs me. They are almost all super, super situational. Nowonder why people have a hardon for BB8 because hes one of the few cheap astromechs thats 100% useful lol

R4-D6 is less about absolute damage mitigation, and more about removing variance. Paired with Draw their Fire on an ally, R4-D6 guarantees that Biggs will survive at least three torpedo shots, and, short of statistically improbable multi-crit natural rolls, at least three attacks of any kind. That lets you make and execute plans vs U-boats and other Alpha strike lists.

For example, imagine a Biggs+R4-D6/DtF R2-D2 Wes/Stresshog list vs three jumpmasters. Assuming it's flown such that each pilot on both sides gets to do their thing, then you can almost guarantee Biggs survives that first exchange. Wes strips a focus, draws and regens any lucky crits, Biggs cancels the attacks down to two, takes a maximum of four, and still has one hull and his integrated astromech left. He'll, even without Wes, R4-D6 and IA means that three jumpmasters should almost always have to fire all three girls in the first joust against Biggs.

By contrast, R7 has much greater upside potential. In theory, if you reroll all 4 of your opponents dice, and they all come up blank or eyeball, vs a typical Aggro/Plasma/chips setup, you can reduce that down to one hit, which is very evadable. But that's best case, and you're only doing it once, and to one target. That leaves you open to a lot of counters.

For example, vs that Biggs, if I were flying the jumpmasters, I'd fire first with the one he has target locked using my PWT, then let fly with the torps from the other two. There's a soli chance that volley kills Biggs outright, and I've saved a torpedo for the rest of your list.

Even against non jumpmaster lists, R4-D6 is probably better, if not as consistently useful. The target lock restriction means it's only really meaningful against lists with a relatively low number of ships. Vs double fcs ghost lists, R7 all the way, but against anything with three or more ships, you'd want R4-D6 IMO.

While I agree with you, and like the idea, whenever I do see Trip U Boats they sport recon specialist.

R4D6

It seems like a great card that can whittle down the damage Biggs takes and provides him with some much needed durability, but is it really all that?

It costs 1 point, is good against every attack and can significantly reduce damage. On the other hand though, three uncancelled hits is hard pill to swallow. Since R4D6 procs after you roll defense dice it is far more likely that you will end up cancelling one of those three hits with an evade result. If there is a crit, R4 is useless since you cancel crits last and there is no way to circumvent this. Take into consideration that once Biggs uses R4D6 he cannot K-Turn and I think you have the makings of a disaster. Here you are, with a stress token, technically Biggs just needs to stay in range of his buddies, but it seems like a predicament that requires thought. Suppose you can clear that stress, should you? You just set yourself up to telegraph your next move, what is your opponent most likely going to do? Respond in kind by keeping Biggs in arc and delivering the coup-de-gras that's what.

I posit that on the surface R4-D6 is a great astro who looks like he can really work, but in actual gameplay the sacrifices you make to get that durability far outweigh the gain. For example, if R4D6 works, you lose your shields. If it fails to proc then you could actually be toast depending on the ordnance. If I saw a Biggs across the mat with R4, I would save my plasma torps and hit him with protons and thereby negate R4 almost completely. A GC proton torp should deliver two crits reliably, more so with modification like R4 Agromech and what can you do against two or more crits with R4D6? You can IA him and that's it. Perhaps on a Y-Wing the benefit would be worthwhile since at best you can throw three dice meaning that most of the time you can proc R4D6, but on an X-Wing who can actually evade decently sometimes I think it's snake oil.

R7

So what do you do? Take the humble R7 I say. For an extra point you gain an ability that, depending on TL, you can always use if you play it right. There is no right way to play R4D6, he is a gamble every time and not even a good gamble. But with R7 you can learn to play him right and learn how to judge which ship is going to shoot you first. Usually this will be a higher PS pilot, but sometimes you can end up being threatened by a lower PS pilot instead and then it's a bit easier to decide who to TL. R7 also requires a TL obviously and at PS 5 this can be tricky to pull off. But the rewards are worth it. You spend your TL to force the opponent to reroll attack dice and this is huge because no dice can be rerolled more than once. So an R4 Agromech shoots you, supposing they shot you with ordnance they are lacking a foci, they roll dice and you reroll all the good results. Now the opponent can only TL the dice you didn't R7 and since there is no foci to spend... Each attack dice is a 50/50 split, with a 1 in 6 chance of a crit, so the chances of making a hit worse are pretty low. Sure you can bork yourself with R7, but at least you aren't stressed and hey, instead of a chance at cancelling damage that is already hit, you have a chance to prevent that damage entirely.

Reduce damage that's already done, or try to prevent that damage. That is essentially the question. Both droids have their shortcomings and drawbacks, both have their bonuses. In my books however it still better to avoid damage than it is to try and soak it up. What do you think of these two droids and how have you been playing them on Biggs and others?

R4d6 over r7 any day

I've had it happen twice where Biggs took 5 dmg from prockets, and after all was said and done only took 1 dmg. Twice

Plus with uBoats loving plasma torpedo, any ship that gets R1 shots or HLC this is great.

R7 you are using your action to get a target lock.

No focus to modify, and r7 can also make it worse. Your opponent may roll crits.

Which has happened to me with tarn.

R7 is made for tarn

R4D6 is for Biggs.

For a ship That's going to die anyway, it really does help

I definitely prefer r4-d6 and agree that he is best paired with draw their fire. , I submit my list below. hits hard and biggs can survive 4 torps before dying.

What if you use the new Arc coming out that allows you to use her TL's? Would it be worth it then if Biggs can use her TLs? Oh NM... can only use them when attacking.

R4-D6 is good NOW, because of the alpha strike meta we live in. The OP has a good argument against 3 dice attacks. But the big ones like Bosk for 5 damage or anything with a torp or missile will waste your Biggs in no time at all. Remember the idea with Biggs is not to keep him alive. It's to keep him alive for one more turn.

But then you're paying one point for IA and then you might as well just take an R2 and enjoy the dial. For the amount that R4D6 is actually going to work I'd rather spend the point and get an ability that I can use. R7 can IA just as easy, but instead of self stressing on a mechanic that isn't likely to activate you take a chance at reducing damage to a point that it's feasible to avoid some. R4D6 presupposes uncancelled damage in a specific amount. R7 presupposes TL. One the player has control over, the other is left to the mercy of the dice gods.

I know which I'd rather put my money on...

To die and mess with opponent targeting

R7 uses his action to TL

So you tl.

Your opponent attacks you make him reroll and its very possible nothing has changed.

In fact it's quite possible he may get better results with a crit now

You have no modifiers, so your two green dice is left at the mercy of luck

R4D6 is great against anything that rolls more than two dice.

Even better against ordnance, HLC and if something gets into range 1

You still have an action to focus.

If your lucky roll two evades then it's not needed

If your unlucky, and the dice fail you can reduce that dmg by one or two hits.

For 1 pt that's pretty **** good.

If you're expecting to use it every game then your playing it wrong.

When it works, it works well.

I've seen Biggs stop a lot of dmg with it.

So what you have two stress?

You prevented two dmg, that right there pays for itself plus some.

Next round you still have a stress, but your dice crapped out on you, but hey, you'll still stop some of that dmg, then sacrifice him if needed.

Oh Biggs is still alive!!

What a pain.

Something else hasn't been touched yet.

All I can say is r4d6 is a much better choice.

You know exactly what it's going to do

R7 meh, maybe, maybe not. That's more of a gamble.

I guess if you like to gamble r7 is for you.

For me I like something that I know shows results

Edit

If people think that they are better off due to it "well it only stops 1 dmg from 3 attack ships" then your really not looking at the big picture.

Let's see ( assuming your opponent doesn't roll any crits which is a good bet)

Anything that shoots with 3 dice, in turn you can make that 2 dmg.

Now they get into range one. Your stopping two dmg

Anything that had native 4 attack dice, Phantoms, ghosts, scum kath your eliminating two dmg

Anything that uses HLC, Dash with outrider, crazy defenders, firespray etc

Anything with ordnance. Plasma uBoats are bloody everywhere.

People will be experimenting with bombers here real soon.

Now R7

Let's see any of these things attack you, you have 0 modifiers on your green dice

Leaving you at the total mercy of odds.

You make your opponent reroll, again your at the total mercy of luck.

In my experience you have to make some choices.

If he has a Focus, and rolls a hit blank and two focuses, your going to get him to reroll those three dice with the hopes he blanks out. Instead he rolls two hits and a crit, now he has his Focus for defense.

Or

He gets two crits and a Focus, and he focuses anyway.

Did that help any at all?

None what so ever.

Plus let's not forget this can help your opponent if he's flying dash

1 of 3 things can happen.

He rerolls in your favor.

He rerolls and nothing changes

He rerolls and now gets crits which worst case scenerio is better for him, worse for you

Even if in 1 game r4d6 stops 1 dmg that's more than the pts it's worth.

A hull upgrade is 3 pts.

So if you stop 2 dmg a turn imo that worth about 6 pts (I don't do math, but I'm sure juggler would agree r4d6 can easily be worth his gold on Biggs)

Then later you sacrifice him if you get a nasty crit

Again that just makes it even better.

And twice now I've taken 1 dmg from jake with his Proton Rockets.

He scored 5 hits

I had a Focus and rolled two evades, took a stress stopped one, then sacrifice R4 with integrated astromech leaving Biggs to take 1 dmg from 5 hits.

To me That was impressive, and utter disgust for my opponent

(funny fact was against same guy both times. Once in a friendly game, then again at spring kit tournament which he ended up winning)

I have with two problems with R7 on Biggs:

1. It takes an action to use them. Biggs could be taking a focus action for free instead.
2. Against enemies that are higher than PS5 (or PS5 without initiative), Biggs may be dead before he is able to get a target lock.

R4-D6 isn't perfect but it's cheap and action independent.

I have with two problems with R7 on Biggs:

1. It takes an action to use them. Biggs could be taking a focus action for free instead.

2. Against enemies that are higher than PS5 (or PS5 without initiative), Biggs may be dead before he is able to get a target lock.

R4-D6 isn't perfect but it's cheap and action independent.

High PS ships.

Can't make them reroll if they are out of range of your target lock

So many reasons why r4d6 is better than r7

Biggs wants to stay cheap, so you want a 1 point astromech.

R5X3 - Discard on use, no IA. All the nope.

So maybe just some of the nope.