So, got the U-wing for Birthday, and have always been curious how to keep Biggs around longer. I know, I know! I've already told myself what most critics will say. I'm just picturing a Biggs with 3 green dice, an evade token and a couple focus tokens. Then hopefully a round or two of regen shield. Has anyone tried this and is there a better 3rd ship for this? I was thinking about maybe a stress mule Arc with inspiring recruit. Anyway, here is what my first experiment will be I think.

(100)

Heff Tobber (29) - U-Wing

Jan Ors (2), Jyn Erso (2), Pivot Wing (0), Tactical Jammer (1)

Biggs Darklighter (29) - X-Wing

R2-D2 (4), Integrated Astromech (0)

Poe Dameron (42) - T-70 X-Wing

Push The Limit (3), BB-8 (2), Primed Thrusters (1), Black One (1), Vectored Thrusters (2)

I cant seem to get him to last 2 rounds these days. maybe there are some good ways to protect him with other ships cards.. granting free actions and such. last game I played with him was with a pair of arcs if I remember correctly and he was smoked before he could attack in round 2.. vs Valen/quickdraw/Soontir. Nasty list..

A creative way to have a large ship with tactical jammer may help.

Kanan, Rex and Biggs. Upgrades to flavor/maximize the effectiveness of Biggs.

So, got the U-wing for Birthday, and have always been curious how to keep Biggs around longer. I know, I know! I've already told myself what most critics will say. I'm just picturing a Biggs with 3 green dice, an evade token and a couple focus tokens. Then hopefully a round or two of regen shield. Has anyone tried this and is there a better 3rd ship for this? I was thinking about maybe a stress mule Arc with inspiring recruit. Anyway, here is what my first experiment will be I think.

(100)

Heff Tobber (29) - U-Wing

Jan Ors (2), Jyn Erso (2), Pivot Wing (0), Tactical Jammer (1)

Biggs Darklighter (29) - X-Wing

R2-D2 (4), Integrated Astromech (0)

Poe Dameron (42) - T-70 X-Wing

Push The Limit (3), BB-8 (2), Primed Thrusters (1), Black One (1), Vectored Thrusters (2)

I just took Heff and Biggs to regionals. Had Biggs last 4 rounds of quad TLT fire thanks to jammers and Jyn Ersa tossing him three focus tokens. In other games, I got Biggs an extra focus or two, and if he doesnt use them for defense, he can use em for offense. Triple Defender match, Biggs didnt even die. Would love two more points in my list for Jan Ors, but I squeezed every ounce of efficiency out of it.

Not sure if you have enough offense in the list. Know that people will bump Heff, then shoot biggs, which means your only offense is Biggs and Poe. I added Zeb crew to my list because of this, and when people bump Heff he was getting full modded range 1 shots while they still had to shoot at biggs anyways. Adds a huge amount of offense to your list.

Draw there Fire Upgrade can help biggs to avoid crits and survive longer also.

wurms U-Wing build is actually fairly ingenious. Setting Biggs behind the U-Wing, but letting the U shoot even on bumps is a really nice plan. And I don't imagine it to be hard to keep the Two close enough together to get the best use of Biggs.

Another tactic that may or may not work for you is to fly Biggs loose. Keep him close enough to jump in and draw fire when necessary but then jump back out and maybe entice your opponent with a juicier target. Messes with both target priority and splitting fire.

I think the tactic is sound but I'm not a good enough pilot yet to use to best advantage.

I agree with eyegor. i have been practicing having biggs in such a position that even on opening engagement my opponents have to split fire immediately. depending on damage taken, i either float biggs out a little bit to create target priority indecisions or bring him in close to protect my main ship. and since my main ship is Kanan in the VCX, it works really well because as long as enemy ships are at range 1-2 i can reduce their attack die by 1.

Kanan, Rex and Biggs. Upgrades to flavor/maximize the effectiveness of Biggs.

I like this idea too. The trouble is it doesn't leave many points for Kanan by the time you have added a shuttle. I know the shuttle is not obligatory with the VCX but if you are spending the points on Kanan anyway, the boosted firepower from the double-tap sure doesn't hurt.

So, after the debate with Kannan, I bought the ghost Now this is what I'm thinking, need to play it, but does it have the potential to keep Biggs alive long enough to be worth the trouble??? Wanted to try and fit recspec on Kanan, maybe there is a slightly better way? OR, am I wasting time? Either way, I wanted the ghost for crew options anyway, but this theory is something I want to experiment with. If you can't shoot anything but Biggs and can't kill him.... Going to keep toying, if I can find a good way to toss several focus at Biggs plus have Jan Ors in there and give him extra agility and maybe a regen droid I think he could maybe last 3-4 combat rounds and even if I don't hit huge I can wear a list down.

(100)

Biggs Darklighter (26) - X-Wing

R4-D6 (1), Integrated Astromech (0)

Kanan Jarrus (49) - VCX-100

Fire Control System (2), Autoblaster Turret (2), Jyn Erso (2), Jan Ors (2), Experimental Interface (3)

Blue Squadron Pathfinder (25) - U-Wing

"Zeb" Orrelios (1), Pivot Wing (0), Tactical Jammer (1)

I am not a huge fan of EI on Kanan unless you have an alternative means of Stress relief (Wingman, Cassian pilot etc). The reason for this is that the greens are not great on the VCX and a Kanan who cannot generate Focus tokens is a an overpriced Lothal Rebel.

The other option is to fly him with a pilot who grants free actions (Cracken, Ahsoka).

I normally fly Kanan with a TLT and Rec Spec so he can cruise around on the whites and still pack a respectable punch. Anything that avoids unnecessary stress is good. For the same reason, a docked shuttle is good as it maximises the investment you have already made in Kanan. With those ideas in mind, how about the followning:

54 Kanan (38), Rec Spec (3), Jyn Erso (2), EI (3), TLT (6), FCS (2), Ghost (0)
18 Zeb (18), Trick Shot (0), Chopper (0), Phantom (0)
28 Biggs (25), R2-D6 (1), Wingman (2), IA (0)
100 Total

This list has quite a lot going for it. The docked shuttle means that Kanan can fire twice per turn with the FCS to help ensure Target locks. It also activates the rear arc for both those big primary guns but also for Jyn. Suddenly she has double the area from which to harvest Focus tokens. Rec Spec will normally be his default action unless Jyn works better.

Biggs does his usual thing and soaks fire for Kanan while Kanan in turn reduces the strength of the shots at Biggs. Kanan can use EI to trigger Jyn while Biggs uses Wingman to hoover off the stress. With Kanan reducing the strength of incoming shots, there is less need for R4-D6 since there is less chance of a shot causing 3+ non-crit hits.

Biggs Darklighter 25; R2-D2 4; Integrated Astromech 0: Total Points: 29

Kanan Jarrus 38; Twin Laser Turret 6; Recon Specialist 3; Recon Specialist 3;
Fire-Control System 2; Tactical Jammer 1: Total Points: 53
Captain Rex 14; Operations Specialist 3; Sabine's Masterpiece 1: Total Points: 18

100pts.

Kanan gets 3 focus tokens per focus action, so he can either reduce 3 enemies attacks or have one to modify his own attack; Biggs gets 3 green dice (flying behind Kanan, tactical jammer), plus regen. Rex reduces one of the attackers weapons down a 2nd dice, and passes an extra focus token on to either of the other two if/when they or he miss.

Damage dealing is a bit weak, relying almost exclusively on Kanan without a double attack (and Biggs occasionally rolling well), but defence is pretty good. An annoying list to fly against, probably not much fun to fly, and vulnerable to players who can out-fly you by staying out of arc, behind Kanan, and having autothrusters/high agility/evade tokens while still being in range 3 of Biggs. *cough The Inquisitor cough*.

I've almost given up on Biggs now that TLTs are everywhere and his ability has been modified a bit. A player can choose to use a secondary weapon instead of being forced to use a primary on Biggs. That can make a big difference in approach. R2 can't seem to help all that much because Biggs will take more damage than R2 can fix.

Actually I rate that in Biggs' favour as the new rules give your opponents a few ways to work around them but not every ship is likely to benefit from them.

In most lists, only 1 or maybe 2 ships will have a means of avoiding Biggs (and possibly only 1 or 2 shots at that). This means that you can lure your opponent into splitting his fire. This is especially good if your squad contains any regenerators because they may take a couple of hits and heal back up leaving Biggs alive for longer to disrupt your enemy.

Previously most opponents simply focussed on Biggs because there was no choice and tried to burn him down as quickly as possible. Now, your opponent has choices which increases the chance of them making a mistake.

Made a small adjustment and I am going to try it tonight at casual gamestore night. I like all the advice, and I agree that the shuttle would likely give more effective teeth. My game plan is to have the U-wing cause a furball, get the chance to pivot wing stop/reverse, hopefully with room for Biggs to k-turn in behind. Doubt this will work as well as I want it to.

New toys (100)

Biggs Darklighter (26) - X-Wing

R4-D6 (1), Integrated Astromech (0)

Kanan Jarrus (47) - VCX-100

Fire Control System (2), Autoblaster Turret (2), Recon Specialist (3), Jan Ors (2)

Blue Squadron Pathfinder (27) - U-Wing

"Zeb" Orrelios (1), Jyn Erso (2), Pivot Wing (0), Tactical Jammer (1)