Hey Punning Pundit! I love the analysis you're giving! I'm definitely considering some tweaks to some stuff, astromechs and Marquise specifically. I had previous considered omitting the torps part of her ability, and i'm definitely considering it now. Admittedly, i wanted Marquise to be ordnance based, so i dunno if i'll change it.... maybe i can change it to say secondary weapons entirely, instead of just torps. Marquise though is PS 7 because Y-Wings already have a PS 6 and 8 pilot already, and PS 7 is the break into useful PS.

That, and R5-E2 is a thing Marquise can take, which works with ALL secondary weapons(like turrets), so that she's still useful after the torps are gone.

I also meant to drop R4-M4 by a point, but it was 5 AM so i forgot. So that'll happen soon.

I think that R8 should remain at 1 reroll, simply because it's only 1 point. I still have playtesting to do, so we'll have to see if it's worth a point or not. If it isnt enough, i'll change it to 2 rerolls.

As for E-Wings, well....

I'm sure you can be patient, yes?

Would everybody be happy with T-65's and REB Y-'s if this came out for the R1 FILM?

Any mod or title that boosts X Wing defence has to be concerned with Biggs. Would buffing him in this manner not make him that much more game warping than he already is? I always thought the X Wing fix proposed on the Back to Dials podcast was an elegant way around it (a Rogue Leader title for PS 6 or higher, and a linked Rogue Squadron Pilot tile for PS4 or lower).

Otherwise, looks pretty solid.

Any mod or title that boosts X Wing defence has to be concerned with Biggs. Would buffing him in this manner not make him that much more game warping than he already is? I always thought the X Wing fix proposed on the Back to Dials podcast was an elegant way around it (a Rogue Leader title for PS 6 or higher, and a linked Rogue Squadron Pilot tile for PS4 or lower).

Otherwise, looks pretty solid.

Biggs meta exists because Rebel ships are incapable of withstanding fire. Give rebel ships a means to survive on their own, and Biggs becomes unnecessary. Also, i dont believe at all that Biggs is game warping. Rebel meta is nonexistant, even with him. He only exists because thats the only way Rebels have a shot at victory.

The goal of this expansion was, primarily to do the following for X-Wings:

1. Make the platform viable in a joust

2. Introduce pilots that are worth using competitively

Because if you do that, then the X-Wing actually gets used as a combat-oriented craft, not just the Biggs-Wing. Biggs is used solely because of his ability, the X-Wing platform is a hindrance otherwise. The key is to give people a reason to use something other than Biggs, and they will.

So a quick update!

I'm absolutely floored by the positive reaction i've gotten to this. So much so, that i'm gonna make more stuff!

New upgrades, new pilots, new ship fixes, and more expansions!

For now, i've made a few small changes to what's already on offer.

"Marquise" now works with all secondary weapons. I considered that the incentive to use torps with Marquise was that it's far easier to guarantee crits with proton torps, and that the damage potential is already higher than with any turret as-is, but that Marquise needed a way to stay relevant after she's popped her torps. The only way to realistically get crits with say a TLT shot is to... get lucky and roll it naturally. And, frankly, it's one pilot. She can be super nasty with a turret and it balances out, because it's a Y-Wing. Y-Wings die.

R4-M4s cost has been reduced to 1. I meant to do this as-is, but i forgot to make the change last night, so, here it is now.

And this last one is just a little experiment of mine that i've been considering. I'll show it anyways, to gauge what people think.

For T-65 X-Wings and Y-Wings only, you can gain an illicit slot. The restriction on the boost action is designed to keep T-70s out of the bag of illicits. It also prevents the scum Y-Wing from getting an illicit, since i'm not in the business of treading on Scum territory. Very much a WIP, but i wanted to share it anyways.

Oh! And one last thing. Anyone here is free to utilize any of the material i created in this thread in Vassal, local play, other discussions, and so on, but please credit me! Thanks.

Does "Marquise" need to say "at the start of the Compare Results phase." ?

Because "during" the phase, there is already a step that cancels "pairs of [crit] and [evade] results", so without a more precise timing it's a little confusing how to execute the instruction on this card (at least to me - perhaps I am missing something??).

Does "Marquise" need to say "at the start of the Compare Results phase." ?

Because "during" the phase, there is already a step that cancels "pairs of [crit] and [evade] results", so without a more precise timing it's a little confusing how to execute the instruction on this card (at least to me - perhaps I am missing something??).

You're probably confusing the wording a little. The crit itself isn't canceling the evade result, because if it were, the crit would itself be canceled at the same time. The existence of the crit automatically erases an evade result. The wording for the erasure of a result is specifically "canceling". So, all together, "For every crit result, cancel one of the defenders evade results."

I really like your cards, you've put a lot of thought into them and it's really nice. The best compliment I can think of is that it's a tough nut to crack in terms of breaking the list but here's the biggest issue I see:
Biggs-Kanan approaches strongly broken.

Biggs with rudder+int. astro+r8 is a ship that has has focus and evade every turn with a defensive reroll, as WELL as integrated astromech, against ships shooting 1 less from kanan. Lets assume a tactical jammer, and with good piloting, you have the unfortunate situation of a ship that is so tanky some lists are unable to even get one hit on it. If you had partisan refit in there as well, you could just use glitterstim and then it's so far gone there's not much to do a cloaking device that works well for a couple turns makes the list impossible to beat on a scale far beyond phantoms.

Biggs+everything else yes is nice and fine, but the only thing that would down biggs reliably against this kind of synergy is a very well-positioned set of 4 dice ships.
A ship you MUST shoot at which reliably will tank almost everything you shoot at it with is a problem.

a well-flown biggs-kanan list as it is is hard enough to take 6 hits off on biggs. With this it's almost impossible.
And even if you didn't use kanan, you can have ultra-biggs for 27 points, a stressbot for 26, and a full 47 points to play with the most super-offensive ace you can get your hands on. Vi fcs corran, b-wings, you name it.

The r8 at that price point in addition to the rudder (and if you use the third card, cloaking device?!) really makes biggs an almost auto-include. I cannot see a rebel list not taking him and remaining effective.

I agree, Biggs is used now because he single-handedly makes up for the flaws in a lot of the rebel ships, by letting them focus on offense. So surely by the same logic, a biggs with a guaranteed 1-2 evades on top of what he might normally get in a game simply means that the same ships, geared for offense simply just become that much more powerful?

In a well-flown biggs list, biggs must die first. if he's too strong defensively, the rest of the rebel list never even has to worry about defense. It is because of Biggs that any fix for the T-65 must be a maneuverability upgrade or an offensive upgrade, because a defensive upgrade costed appropriately for Biggs is grossly overcosted for every other T-65.

Probably the best fan-made material I've ever seen, both in terms of the mechanics/wording/costing and in terms of the niche it fills.

Bravo, sir.

I really like your cards, you've put a lot of thought into them and it's really nice. The best compliment I can think of is that it's a tough nut to crack in terms of breaking the list but here's the biggest issue I see:

Biggs-Kanan approaches strongly broken.

Biggs with rudder+int. astro+r8 is a ship that has has focus and evade every turn with a defensive reroll, as WELL as integrated astromech, against ships shooting 1 less from kanan. Lets assume a tactical jammer, and with good piloting, you have the unfortunate situation of a ship that is so tanky some lists are unable to even get one hit on it. If you had partisan refit in there as well, you could just use glitterstim and then it's so far gone there's not much to do a cloaking device that works well for a couple turns makes the list impossible to beat on a scale far beyond phantoms.

Biggs+everything else yes is nice and fine, but the only thing that would down biggs reliably against this kind of synergy is a very well-positioned set of 4 dice ships.

A ship you MUST shoot at which reliably will tank almost everything you shoot at it with is a problem.

a well-flown biggs-kanan list as it is is hard enough to take 6 hits off on biggs. With this it's almost impossible.

And even if you didn't use kanan, you can have ultra-biggs for 27 points, a stressbot for 26, and a full 47 points to play with the most super-offensive ace you can get your hands on. Vi fcs corran, b-wings, you name it.

The r8 at that price point in addition to the rudder (and if you use the third card, cloaking device?!) really makes biggs an almost auto-include. I cannot see a rebel list not taking him and remaining effective.

I agree, Biggs is used now because he single-handedly makes up for the flaws in a lot of the rebel ships, by letting them focus on offense. So surely by the same logic, a biggs with a guaranteed 1-2 evades on top of what he might normally get in a game simply means that the same ships, geared for offense simply just become that much more powerful?

In a well-flown biggs list, biggs must die first. if he's too strong defensively, the rest of the rebel list never even has to worry about defense. It is because of Biggs that any fix for the T-65 must be a maneuverability upgrade or an offensive upgrade, because a defensive upgrade costed appropriately for Biggs is grossly overcosted for every other T-65.

You... make a good point. What if i adjusted the Etheric Rudder mod and Partisan Refit so that in order to equip the additional mod/illicit, you must be PS 6 or higher? It locks Biggs out of IA, at least. That's a pretty big part of his tank. R8 and Rudder is still GOOD, definitely, but R8's not a guarantee by any means(you could just straight up roll another blank), and Rudder is a singular evade token, accessible only through the X-Wings 4 green moves. It's not all that hard to crack that nut. Biggs-Kanan wouldn't be any worse than it already is, honestly. a focus, evade, and potential reroll on 2 agility is... kind of nothing compared to what Palp Aces get. And in the very same expansion, Fearless says "Oh, you get a reroll, focus, and evade? Cute. Take your additional die and shove it." Marquise says "Oh, that evade token, focus, and reroll you spent to get enough evades to dodge this attack.... Well, i rolled 2 crits, so..." "Neophyte" hits Biggs before either he or Kanan have gotten tokens. Saw stresses the utter crap out of Biggs and Kanan, preventing future actions. Theres stuff out there and inside the pack itself that provides a decent counter to it's own potential brokenness.

I'm all for restricting the additional mod to PS 6+, but I don't want to ruin the X-Wing's core gameplay style just because Biggs exists. But man does that son of a gun make this crap hard. Such bad design.

You... make a good point. What if i adjusted the Etheric Rudder mod and Partisan Refit so that in order to equip the additional mod/illicit, you must be PS 6 or higher? It locks Biggs out of IA, at least. That's a pretty big part of his tank. R8 and Rudder is still GOOD, definitely, but R8's not a guarantee by any means(you could just straight up roll another blank), and Rudder is a singular evade token, accessible only through the X-Wings 4 green moves. It's not all that hard to crack that nut. Biggs-Kanan wouldn't be any worse than it already is, honestly. a focus, evade, and potential reroll on 2 agility is... kind of nothing compared to what Palp Aces get. And in the very same expansion, Fearless says "Oh, you get a reroll, focus, and evade? Cute. Take your additional die and shove it." Marquise says "Oh, that evade token, focus, and reroll you spent to get enough evades to dodge this attack.... Well, i rolled 2 crits, so..." "Neophyte" hits Biggs before either he or Kanan have gotten tokens. Saw stresses the utter crap out of Biggs and Kanan, preventing future actions. Theres stuff out there and inside the pack itself that provides a decent counter to it's own potential brokenness.

I'm all for restricting the additional mod to PS 6+, but I don't want to ruin the X-Wing's core gameplay style just because Biggs exists. But man does that son of a gun make this crap hard. Such bad design.

The issue is rather that with Biggs-Kanan the list is designed to drop the hits to biggs received each turn down to 1 or 2 max. If successful, the list will likely win. since it's 3-5 turns of r1 fire from the VCX on whateveris shooting biggs. In a typical joust between say, an x7 and biggs behind Kanan

it's 2 reds vs minimum 3 green, focus, evade (5 with cloaking, 6 with skilled range control from the Biggs player)

-Kanan ability (-1 red)

-Rudder (+evade)

-Tac Jammer (+1 green)

-make it 4 green defence dice with a skilled Biggs pilot using good range control.

that's a very easy position to put Biggs in, you just hide him behind the VCX doing stright 1s or straight banks. even easier if you don't mind not pointing him the right way. A good VCX pilot will use the next two turns to carve a massive hole in your list with r1 5 dice shots, or autoblasters if its aces.

ok, so to solve the above situation, I would suggest instead forcing Rudder to be a move that is inconsistent with this particular type of play. Make it turns only. fits with the theme, means biggs can't take the optimal move to use it, but the hard 3 is a classic X-wing maneuver. Otherwise keep it entirely the same. Then, I'd make the partisan refit more of a tradeoff. Reflecting kitbashed components and custom additions added far away from good repair centres. Something minor but would be bad for an int. astro biggs more than anything... like: -2 points, you may not discard damage cards, the first damage card you receive must be dealt face up. (encourages vectored thrusters!)

I'm sure I've miscosted this, you're much better at this than I am, I'm just thinking something that opens you up to the cool illicits but is only a major downside for ships you WANT to get hit.

r2d2 biggs is still an issue with kanan, however these versions would be much more incompatible. still workable, but you have a lot tougher time of it. (I thought r2d2 biggs+ kanan was an overkill waste of points until I played him against one at nationals with x7 defenders. It was a nightmare, and a lot worse than palp aces to kill. 1 damage squeaks through, 1 damage healed the next turn. The ONLY reason it was manageable to play against was that the VCX on its own just could not pump out enough firepower before biggs died. A tougher biggs tips that balance badly more often than not).

I really like what you have done here, I am mainly an Imperial/Scum player but I think this adds a lot of flavour to the Rebels. Your abilities are well thought out without the usual fan made OP attachments. Maybe some point tweaks, but I really think you are on to something here.

Well done.

@citruscannon

I see what you are saying but what you are describing would be virtually impossible. Your options are very limited if flying Biggs using just greens and keeping Kanaan close. Your ability to get things in arc are poor and you are very predictable. What you are saying is that if you completely and utterly out flown you will lose to this list. That could be said about a lot of lists and combos. Assuming roughly equal skill between players it's just not going to go down like that. Not only will Kanaan get blocked easily but you're low PS means repositioning aces can pull all kinds of shenanigans to get out of R1 and out of arc. The expected number of evades goes way down after the first attack as well once Biggs spends his tokens.

Biggs needs to be taken into consideration when designing stuff for the x wing, no doubt, and you are bringing up good and necessary points of conversation. I really don't think it's realistic for all those conditions (and it's a long list), to be met more than once or twice a game at most.

If there was a pack like this I'd buy it without hesitation. I'm a Rebel player and have started to worry that we are falling badly behind the Empire and Scum, and IMO this pack is superior to any branded FFG product of late for the Rebels. I like your x-wings but I adore your y-wings. Please send FFG your résumé.

Biggs + Partisan Refit + Etheric Rudder + R8 + Cloaking Device + Stygium

@citruscannon

I see what you are saying but what you are describing would be virtually impossible. Your options are very limited if flying Biggs using just greens and keeping Kanaan close. Your ability to get things in arc are poor and you are very predictable. What you are saying is that if you completely and utterly out flown you will lose to this list. That could be said about a lot of lists and combos. Assuming roughly equal skill between players it's just not going to go down like that. Not only will Kanaan get blocked easily but you're low PS means repositioning aces can pull all kinds of shenanigans to get out of R1 and out of arc. The expected number of evades goes way down after the first attack as well once Biggs spends his tokens.

Biggs needs to be taken into consideration when designing stuff for the x wing, no doubt, and you are bringing up good and necessary points of conversation. I really don't think it's realistic for all those conditions (and it's a long list), to be met more than once or twice a game at most.

fair points all around, but my criticism is that the first pass IS the biggest issue. The laundry list of evades was more just a comment on the potential bonuses available to the player above and beyond what is possible now.

Coming soon....

If there was a pack like this I'd buy it without hesitation. I'm a Rebel player and have started to worry that we are falling badly behind the Empire and Scum, and IMO this pack is superior to any branded FFG product of late for the Rebels. I like your x-wings but I adore your y-wings. Please send FFG your résumé.

I don't HAVE a résumé... i'm a 20 year old college student with no game design experience whatsoever. I would say i have strong knowledge regarding game design and balance, but almost no practical experience.

Coming soon....

If there was a pack like this I'd buy it without hesitation. I'm a Rebel player and have started to worry that we are falling badly behind the Empire and Scum, and IMO this pack is superior to any branded FFG product of late for the Rebels. I like your x-wings but I adore your y-wings. Please send FFG your résumé.

I don't HAVE a résumé... i'm a 20 year old college student with no game design experience whatsoever. I would say i have strong knowledge regarding game design and balance, but almost no practical experience.

Well, this is how you begin your resume for your future career/sideline hobby! Seriously, your suggested pilots and cards are as good as or better than the official ones.

If you make a point of drawing them to FFG's attention, the worst they can do is ignore them. At best? Go for it!

Reading this, my primary train of thought is that if FFG put out a preview article tomorrow about a Rogue One expansion and it was EXACTLY like this, I would feel like I came home and caught my wife in bed with Margot Robbie and they wanted me to join in and eat lasagne afterwards.

It really is that good. It really is everything I want the X-wing and Y-wing fix to be. It is thematic, it seems balanced and I fully intend to play test it in the next few weeks.

The biggest issue I see with any Biggs buff is that it further marginalizes 2 attack ships. I'm not sure if that's even recoverable at this point, however.

If it turns out that the Evade-on-green option is too strong when paired with Biggs- something I'm not convinced is the case- I would very much like to see it exclude PS5 pilots, rather than be limited to PS6 and higher. R2 + IA + Etheric Rudder + Com Relay on a Blue Squadron Novice is not a bad use of 29 points. For 33 points, you'd get a Red Squad Vet + Juke at PS4- which would be a nice investment, and also help push against the PS race.

By limiting such a nice defensive boon to ships at PS6 or higher, you basically only expect to see ships at PS8-10. That would be, I think, unfortunate.

The biggest issue I see with any Biggs buff is that it further marginalizes 2 attack ships. I'm not sure if that's even recoverable at this point, however.

If it turns out that the Evade-on-green option is too strong when paired with Biggs- something I'm not convinced is the case- I would very much like to see it exclude PS5 pilots, rather than be limited to PS6 and higher. R2 + IA + Etheric Rudder + Com Relay on a Blue Squadron Novice is not a bad use of 29 points. For 33 points, you'd get a Red Squad Vet + Juke at PS4- which would be a nice investment, and also help push against the PS race.

By limiting such a nice defensive boon to ships at PS6 or higher, you basically only expect to see ships at PS8-10. That would be, I think, unfortunate.

Yeah, thats my fear too. I might just leave it as is.

I trust your judgment on this. You have been instrumental in the analysis of these cards, and never wrong thus far. If you don't think it'll be a problem, i trust you.

I would, nonetheless, like to see some playtesting results though. I would do it now myself, but unfortunately i left my bag full of X-Wing stuff at college a few days ago and is sitting in lost-and-found limbo until security is back on campus to give it back. I would encourage that people who like these cards playtest with them! That would be the biggest honor for me, to know that people like my cards enough to actually use them in games of X-Wing. Just a small reminder to remember to credit me!

I would again like to thank everyone for their thoughts and incredibly kind words about this expansion. I plan on doing many, many more of these types of expansions, and a very large E-Wing expansion is currently in the works as i type this. I think you'll like it!

I sometimes think people overestimate how good Biggs is. There seems to be an opinion around that Biggs is so strong that everything FFG releases for the rebel faction has to be weak to stop it being broken as part of a Biggs list. I don't buy that.

Yes, he is the most useful X-wing pilot at the moment, but I don't think he has ever really dominated the meta, at least not in the way Fat Han, Whisper, Thug Life, Palp Aces and U-boats have been dominant. A year ago I was hardly ever seeing him, the Stresshog was a far, far more popular use of 26 points. He has enjoyed a resurgence recently, as the Biggs+R4+Int combo is a decent answer to alpha strikes (perhaps the rebels only decent answer). But if Biggs was available to all factions, I don't think he would be all that popular to Scum or Imperial players. They have so many better options in my opinion.

With relatively few rebel lists in tournaments lately, I don't think this little boost to Biggs will be a problem. Yes it gives him an evade, but he has so few green moves that it makes him predictable and easy to shoot. Add R2 astromech and he becomes less predictable, but he can't absorb those big hits without R4.

The Kanan Biggs combo looks solid on paper, but it haven't seen it have any sustained success so far in the tournament scene (correct me if I'm wrong) so the addition of an evade taken (at the cost of an opponent knowing where Biggs will be and lining up easy shots) doesn't break the game for me. It would make me want to fly other X-wing pilots than Biggs, because they would be efficient enough to compete.

But yeah, I want to find out for sure Rizgrif I'll be playtesting these cards, including combining them with Biggs, and I'll let you know how it goes.

But yeah, I want to find out for sure Rizgrif I'll be playtesting these cards, including combining them with Biggs, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks a bunch!

Oh, and one last thing, to anyone who wants to play with these cards. If you can, post photos of you playing with this stuff! That'd make me ecstatic to no end.