So, I love experimenting with underdog builds. I used to play around with making the TIE Advanced work untik the Raider dropped. Then I focused on the TIE Defender and Bomber until Veterans was released. Now I'm trying to get the X-Wing, E-Wing, and non-TLT Rebel Y-Wing work.

One idea I've seen thrown around is M9-G8, particularly on Tarn Mison. Allowing one ally to reroll an attack dice, then also forcing enemies to reroll an attack dice when they attack Tarn seems pretty awesome.

But from all the games I've tried this on, the enemy has simply ignored Tarn until the rest of my squad died. And when they have fired at him, he turns a guaranteed result into a 6/8 chance of a successful result (when they have a focus). I only managed to cancel two results over three games, and also managed to kill Tarn by turning a hit into a crit once.

I'm sure a good part of this has been bad luck on my end, but I just don't find this combo worth the 26 points at all.

Has anyone else had a better experience with this combo?

I think, for most lists, this droid's power won't be in defense. It'll be in helping the offense of their friends.

The Tarn build has been working reasonably for me when he's flying alongside Norra Wexley - the reroll really helps Norra, and Tarn's free to focus after setting up the target lock on turn one until he starts getting shot at. If Norra's getting into trouble, I can target lock whoever's focusing on Norra instead to try and diminish their attack and up Tarn's.

I want to try M9-G8 on Jess Pava, as that seems like a natural combination, but I haven't had the chance as yet.

The whole point of m9g8 is it lets tarn contribute while hes being ignored

Toss the lock on a high ps tlt, esp miranda, and itll do work

Only swap when tarn is attacked

I haven't tried it, nor seen it, but I figured if points allow in a list, Biggs could get some use from it.

I played against a triple ARC list with M9-G8 ( I think it was on Sharra with Weapon Engineer) and it seemed to be effective.

As great as R7 was on Tarn, M9-G8 seems even better. It's limited to a single die being rerolled but can be used multiple times in a single round and he doesn't need to spend the TL to trigger the reroll. On top of that it can be used to give a friendly ship rerolls if no one decides that a 26 point X-Wing that may be annoying to kill rates as a high priority target. It seems like he'd be a great wingman for Miranda, Poe, or Corran.

M9G8 is ****ing awesome. Use it on Shara with Weapons Engineer. She TLs a friend (Norra) and priority kill #1 for your list (aka the ship Norra is attacking). Now Norra gets a reroll to increase her damage output, can use Shara's TL to reroll really bad rolls while keeping her TL for her ability. Shara also makes enemies reroll any crits on Biggs, into hits or misses. Biggs r4d6 bot erases those hits passed two.

Thane is also a good M9G8 bot paired with high PS friends. For instance, he can TL Poe. Poe attacks and gets a reroll. Then enemy attacks. Thane can then use his ability to target lock the next ship attacking, and force them to reroll.

An ARC with M9G8 and Tailgunner is a tough bugger 1v1. Forcing an enemy to reroll a hit into a blank is as good as regen on a 1 agility ship, and then you get to modify your attacks with the TL and they lose 1 agility.

I have been running the following Kanan/Biggs list and seen some success with it:

Biggs Darklighter (28)
X-Wing (25), M9-G8 (3), Integrated Astromech (0)

Kanan Jarrus (51)
VCX-100 (38), Ghost (0), Fire-Control System (2), Twin Laser Turret (6), Rey (2), Recon Specialist (3)

Ezra Bridger (21)
Attack Shuttle (20), "Chopper" (0), Rage (1), Phantom (0)

Turn 1 Biggs target locks the Ghost and can pretty much leave it there. I would really only move it to something Kanan wouldn't have enough focus tokens to properly suppress like other TLTs.

M9G8 is ****ing awesome. Use it on Shara with Weapons Engineer. She TLs a friend (Norra) and priority kill #1 for your list (aka the ship Norra is attacking). Now Norra gets a reroll to increase her damage output, can use Shara's TL to reroll really bad rolls while keeping her TL for her ability. Shara also makes enemies reroll any crits on Biggs, into hits or misses. Biggs r4d6 bot erases those hits passed two.

Thane is also a good M9G8 bot paired with high PS friends. For instance, he can TL Poe. Poe attacks and gets a reroll. Then enemy attacks. Thane can then use his ability to target lock the next ship attacking, and force them to reroll.

An ARC with M9G8 and Tailgunner is a tough bugger 1v1. Forcing an enemy to reroll a hit into a blank is as good as regen on a 1 agility ship, and then you get to modify your attacks with the TL and they lose 1 agility.

If Thane spend a TL action to TL Poe, he won't be able to take another TL action to TL an enemy that round when the enemy attacks. Can't take the same action twice in a round.

He could TL Poe in the opening round before combat though.

Arc + Weapons engineer + M9-G8. TL your own Green A-wings with snapshot and juke. 2 of them will have a reroll. Played against it, need to play it myself some day....

Tarn is a trap! The M9 forces Tarn to take a TL action instead of focus (which he usually needs). It may help a little when others are shooting at the same target, but this only seems to happen frequently when you have Biggs around. Then, when your opponent does get around to shooting at Tarn, suddenly, your target lock gets moved to whomever is shooting at you, you have no focus, and you can only force a reroll on one die, not all of them.

Save a point, and leave R7 on Tarn, and find another ship for the M-droid.

I've yet to see M9-G8 not be easily worth its 3 points.

Tarn is a trap! The M9 forces Tarn to take a TL action instead of focus (which he usually needs). It may help a little when others are shooting at the same target, but this only seems to happen frequently when you have Biggs around. Then, when your opponent does get around to shooting at Tarn, suddenly, your target lock gets moved to whomever is shooting at you, you have no focus, and you can only force a reroll on one die, not all of them.

Save a point, and leave R7 on Tarn, and find another ship for the M-droid.

R7 is useless until Tarn starts getting attacked. Tarn's ability is also optional. If he gets attacked and you don't want to move his TL then you don't have to.

Arc + weapons engineer + M9-G8 basically predator for 2 of your ships....

Tried it with, wes + poe + i don't remember the arc, and just left the 2 locks on my aces the whole game was fantastic. After trying this droid out i will be hard pressed to build a rebel list without him in there somewhere, extremely solid.

You had tarn being ignored, doing his own shots and stuff while giving an ally a re-roll sounds pretty fantastic no? for 3 points on tarn you gave an ally a re-roll the whole game that is insanely good.

You don't necessarily use it for defense, you use it to give any other ship predator. Put it on an arc with weapons engineer (any arc really, but Shara has the most synergy). Turn one: target lock your heaviest hitter.

In later turns do not forget all the "may"s on weapons engineer. You don't HAVE to throw out two locks. Keep one on your heavy hitter and tag the biggest threat. You can switch things up if you want to, but if the ship you are supporting is out of TL range, you can keep that turn 1 lock on them all game.

I'm not sure if she's good enough to replace stressbot gunner Braylen, but I'm definitely going to try.

uh? Tarn takes a target lock on a friendly the first round when his action would normally be wasted. He'll take a focus action every round after that unless you really need to move his target lock. He leaves that target lock on his buddy, granting rerolls until the enemy decides to start shooting at Tarn.

R7 is useless until Tarn starts getting attacked. Tarn's ability is also optional. If he gets attacked and you don't want to move his TL then you don't have to.

That is one way to run him, but I think that in doing so it actually makes Tarn less valuable. The first think I do as your opponent to under your scenario is attack Tarn, forcing you to move that TL or just die that much faster. In that light, Tarn a TL a bit like Biggs, but it also weakens what Tarn does best: he is a 3-die attack that requires focus fire to get him off the board.

I just think using M9 on Tarn is suboptimal.

uh? Tarn takes a target lock on a friendly the first round when his action would normally be wasted. He'll take a focus action every round after that unless you really need to move his target lock. He leaves that target lock on his buddy, granting rerolls until the enemy decides to start shooting at Tarn.

R7 is useless until Tarn starts getting attacked. Tarn's ability is also optional. If he gets attacked and you don't want to move his TL then you don't have to.

That is one way to run him, but I think that in doing so it actually makes Tarn less valuable. The first think I do as your opponent to under your scenario is attack Tarn, forcing you to move that TL or just die that much faster. In that light, Tarn a TL a bit like Biggs, but it also weakens what Tarn does best: he is a 3-die attack that requires focus fire to get him off the board.

I just think using M9 on Tarn is suboptimal.

With M9-G8 I've given you a choice of leaving my big hitter with rerolls (even against Omega Leader) or shooting my 26 point X-Wing that might be annoying to kill instead. With R7, I've made my 26 point X-Wing one of the most most annoying ships on the board to take out and there's really no drawback for leaving it until last.

With M9-G8 I want you to shoot at Tarn but it's cool with me if you don't. R7 just gets me a PS3 closer that is tankier than a normal X-Wing.

M9-G8 can be better against focus fire than R7 is because it can be used against every attack made against Tarn..

So here is my current list:

Jess with M9-G8, Pattern Analyzing and Integrated

Snap with VI, Targeting Astromech, Integrated and Pattern.

Miranda with TLT.

First round, target lock Miranda with TLT.

Use Jess to block if needed. Miranda has a decent TLT shot now.

If going against a two ship list like double caster or Dengar / Manaroo, target lock Dengar instead.

Works quite well I found.

You can also use M9-G8 with Wes and it almost acts like a poor man's Sensor Jammer. Almost.

I can see how that ^^^ could work. I might have to mess with it more.

M9G8 is ****ing awesome. Use it on Shara with Weapons Engineer. She TLs a friend (Norra) and priority kill #1 for your list (aka the ship Norra is attacking). Now Norra gets a reroll to increase her damage output, can use Shara's TL to reroll really bad rolls while keeping her TL for her ability. Shara also makes enemies reroll any crits on Biggs, into hits or misses. Biggs r4d6 bot erases those hits passed two.

Thane is also a good M9G8 bot paired with high PS friends. For instance, he can TL Poe. Poe attacks and gets a reroll. Then enemy attacks. Thane can then use his ability to target lock the next ship attacking, and force them to reroll.

An ARC with M9G8 and Tailgunner is a tough bugger 1v1. Forcing an enemy to reroll a hit into a blank is as good as regen on a 1 agility ship, and then you get to modify your attacks with the TL and they lose 1 agility.

If Thane spend a TL action to TL Poe, he won't be able to take another TL action to TL an enemy that round when the enemy attacks. Can't take the same action twice in a round.

He could TL Poe in the opening round before combat though.

Uh yeah, I assumed that was given if you know how the bot works. Like OL with Comms, he evades opening round every time, no need to explain how he has an evade token and has a TL in first round of action.

Edit:Derp. Don't mind me.

M9G8 is ****ing awesome. Use it on Shara with Weapons Engineer. She TLs a friend (Norra) and priority kill #1 for your list (aka the ship Norra is attacking). Now Norra gets a reroll to increase her damage output, can use Shara's TL to reroll really bad rolls while keeping her TL for her ability. Shara also makes enemies reroll any crits on Biggs, into hits or misses. Biggs r4d6 bot erases those hits passed two.

Thane is also a good M9G8 bot paired with high PS friends. For instance, he can TL Poe. Poe attacks and gets a reroll. Then enemy attacks. Thane can then use his ability to target lock the next ship attacking, and force them to reroll.

An ARC with M9G8 and Tailgunner is a tough bugger 1v1. Forcing an enemy to reroll a hit into a blank is as good as regen on a 1 agility ship, and then you get to modify your attacks with the TL and they lose 1 agility.

If Thane spend a TL action to TL Poe, he won't be able to take another TL action to TL an enemy that round when the enemy attacks. Can't take the same action twice in a round.

He could TL Poe in the opening round before combat though.

Uh yeah, I assumed that was given if you know how the bot works. Like OL with Comms, he evades opening round every time, no need to explain how he has an evade token and has a TL in first round of action.

Except it isn't a given, because a PS 3 pilot often will not be able to take a target lock on the first turn of the engagement against a higher PS foe.

Not that I'm doubting that G8 can't do good work, mind you- But you should never plan on having a target lock on the first turn of the engagement unless you move second or have Long Range Sensors.

or have Thane! (who is PS4 fyi)

Opening round:

Thane TLs his buddy Poe

First round of action:

Poe attacks and rerolls his attack die.

Enemy attacks Biggs or Poe or someone other than Thane.

Thane uses ability to TL an enemy that hasn't attacked.

That enemy rolls die, Thane uses M9G8 to force a reroll.

only problem with m9g8 thane, and ARCs in general, is that the auxiliary arc is so depressingly worthless without gunner/tailgunner/r3-a2

when all you got is two dice, even with a free mod, I'm fairly certain just farting at the enemy would cause more damage

only problem with m9g8 thane, and ARCs in general, is that the auxiliary arc is so depressingly worthless without gunner/tailgunner/r3-a2

when all you got is two dice, even with a free mod, I'm fairly certain just farting at the enemy would cause more damage

unless... yknow, their green dice fail.

(actually I agree with you, I think i've done like 2 damage total from the rear all my life)

Well, I have since tried a new build and switched up my tactics a bit. I have to say, my early impression was pretty misleading.

Tarn with M9-G8 and IA

Shara Bey with Alliance Overhaul, R4-D6, Wingman, and Weapons Engineer

Norra Wexley with Alliance Overhaul, R2-D2, Push the Limit, and Finn

If I've got the wording right here, Tarn basically gets to treat the two ships Shara has locked as ones that he has locked, forcing them to reroll dice, while also having his own lock on Norra to let her reroll the blank that Finn adds.

I tried this against a Palp, Vader, Soontir build, and melted Soontir with a six hit/crit range one shot from Norra while he was blocked by Tarn. I similarly destroyed Vader the next turn with five hits from Norra and three from Shara pushing through his greens, Evade token, and Palpatine.

I'll definitely have to experiment more with this set-up, assuming I'm right about the interaction between Tarn and Shara here