Hi,

I was hoping for some input on which astromech to put on Biggs when paired up with Kanan (with phantom) with tactician. I've played it with some success with M9-G8 to both get a reroll for Kanan or force a reroll on my opponent, but I was thinking about using the R3-A2 for the possibility of adding some stress before he goes down. Coupled with tactician it could really shut down some ships (looking at defenders and such and expertise). The one choice gives me more consistand damage output for Kanan (using TLTs) and possible a bit more defence for Biggs (when opponent is locked) the other gives me stress control (but at the cost of limiting Biggs to more green manouvers if I want actions).

I guess most would say it is up to personel preference and playstyle, but I was hoping some of ou might have expereince with the R3-A2 on him.

Thanks in advance.

Biggs really wants R4-D6, being able to cancel down any damage suffered to 2 hits means with IA he survives a minimum of 3 attacks and probably more likely to be 4-5. It also gets rid of the risk of blanking on a 4-5 dice attacks and being taken out in one round. I think it's probably more important to keep Biggs in the game as long as possible and protect the ghost.

I've not really used R3-A2 so someone may have a different view based on experience

I find R4-D6 rarely triggers normally as it is quite rare for players to roll 3+ regular hits (remember Crits don't count). If Kanan is reducing the strength of incoming fire by 1 red dice, that makes it even less likely that R4-D6 will trigger. The reason it is popular is not that he is reliable but that it is a cheap 1 point droid to power IA and it may trigger once in a blue moon. The steady increase in 4-dice attacks though means that maybe it will get more use.

R3-A2 is OK but since Biggs needs to hug Kanan closely, opportunities for shedding stress can be hard to find. If Biggs is stressed he can't Focus which reduces his survivability.

You could try an R3 astromech on the basis that you will be saving your Focus token for defense and not spending it on the attack. This means that exchanging one Focus result on your attack for an Evade token is not a bad trade. Only downside is that Biggs is only PS5 so by the time he gains his evade token, there may be no one left to shoot at him.

M9-G8 is a great choice to run with Kanan since it boosts his double taps and TLT. Downside here is that it overlaps with the FCS to some extent (although it is handy when switching targets).

The other option to consider is R2-D6. Again it is cheap at only 1 point and the FAQ has clarified that Biggs does not lose the EPT if he ditches the droid. There are several interesting EPTs that can work well with Biggs but possibly my favourite is Wingman. Put Experimental Interface on Kanan along with Jyn or Lando crew and you can trigger them for extra tokens in exchange for a Stress token. Then at the start of the combat phase, Biggs hoovers up the Stress leaving Kanan free to act normally.

Some people like giving Biggs adaptability so you can play Zombie Biggs but this only works against PS4 or P6 (Crack swarms and Brobots but not a whole lot else). Against other matchups, I prefer leaving Biggs at PS5 since that means you can choose what order to move and fire him and Kanan.

I am not on team R4-D6. As Karhedron says it rarely triggers, I've personally never had it trigger. A plain old R2 Astromech has more utility in my opinion. I'm going to try R3 on him and see what happens. At worst it is an extra point wasted, at best the evade kicks in for him once or twice and it makes its points back.

R3-A2 is a meta call. I use the stress bot to great success with folks using PTL, defenders, etc.! you wouldnt use it often, but when you did it would definitely turn the game to your favor.

I guess thinking about it with the FAQ clarification on Biggs it is less likely he will be getting any kid of munitions alpha strike as people will just target lock and flatten what he is trying to protect anyway. In that case I quite like the R2 astromech.

I've gotten to top 8 with Kanan/Biggs w/ R3A2 twice. As others have stated, it's a great situational card in this build. It can deny K turns, ptl, and have vessery chose between taking a shot and getting actions. It's also great against the stupid shuttles stop maneuver.

I usually have R3-A2 on another ship but if the choice is between R3-A2 and R4-D6 on Biggs for me it would be stress bot every time.

The other options to consider are Regen Droids. I wouldn't normally run them myself but it is worth considering them.

R5-P9 really isn't likely to work well as Biggs needs his Focus for defense. The odd occasion where you don't get the chance to spend your Focus might happen every once in a while but is not likely to happen very often. Leave this Droid on Poe where he belongs.

R2-D2 is normally wasted on Biggs as he does to quickly to get much value out of him. However, if you have Kanan weakening the enemy fire and possibly toting a Tactical Jammer to give Biggs extra agility, it is possible to keep him alive long enough to regenerate 2 shields. Personally I do not think it is worth the points but I have managed to keep Biggs alive once when running him Kanan in this configuration. However if you have kept Biggs alive that long, chances are you have the game in the bag anyway.

R4-D6 is great for Biggs but as mentioned above it doesn't trigger often. However, guaranteeing 3 attacks is easy to plan around. The trick is to sponge attacks when it matters instead of sponging all attacks.

Plus for 26 points, Biggs is a great investment both defensively and offensively.

Great input guys. Very much appreciated. I'll give the stress bot a go and see what happens.

So I got through the tournament (a non-FFG nationals) using the stressbot on Biggs and came in second. That said the stressbot only activated in a few games and with limited effect. In hindsight having had R4-D6 would probably have allowed me to win the finals as Biggs got shot down with a three hit salvo just before he could give an almost dead Manaroo 4 reds with focus and TL.

Throughout the tournament my green dice were abysmal so I recon it would have been activated even more.

Now with wave 10 being fully released soon I'm fearful of the Kylo Show you the dark side effect on a ship like the ghost (blinded pilot would suck) so perhaps giving Biggs the mech that allows EPT and using Determination would be good..

On January 27, 2017 at 10:26 AM, Mackaywarrior said:

R4-D6 is great for Biggs but as mentioned above it doesn't trigger often. However, guaranteeing 3 attacks is easy to plan around. The trick is to sponge attacks when it matters instead of sponging all attacks.

Plus for 26 points, Biggs is a great investment both defensively and offensively.

I agree on using R4D6. Using something often can be a little moot if its a necessary piece against alpha-strikes. I've been playing a 6 die expertise Rey list and R4D6 comes into play a lot from my perspective & i'm definitely not the only one out there that'll make him trigger. Unless the points spent are killing you keep it on for the lists that'll steamroll you when biggs dies in opening Salvo.

9 hours ago, Samurai33 said:

Now with wave 10 being fully released soon I'm fearful of the Kylo Show you the dark side effect on a ship like the ghost (blinded pilot would suck) so perhaps giving Biggs the mech that allows EPT and using Determination would be good..

No need really... you can always pop R4-D6 with integrated to ditch the first crit. And if they're wasting ISYTDS (especially blinded pilot) on Biggs theyre not hitting your ace.

Im absolutely on team R4-D6 (except in builds explicitly designed to keep Biggs alive, like Kanan/Rex). Its insurance: you can formulate a battle plan immediately upon seeing your opponent's list knowing that Biggs is unlikely to be destroyed by anything less than three fully modded shots. It's also easy to plan around popping the droid with IA, since the droid's purpose is to enhance survivability. One or two points can also make a huge difference in win conditions and MoV these days. Although if R3-A2 appears nowhere else in your list and you have the point, an argument can be made for sure.

On 1/27/2017 at 10:06 AM, J Viz said:

I guess thinking about it with the FAQ clarification on Biggs it is less likely he will be getting any kid of munitions alpha strike as people will just target lock and flatten what he is trying to protect anyway. In that case I quite like the R2 astromech.

Remember though, if it is a low PS alpha and Biggs is guarding high PS it might well be the only option for them even with the FAQ. I know that this word is a curse here, but R5 isn't terrible if you aren't anticipating a lot of dice. Doesn't give you the greens, but Biggs doesn't usually have a stress issue for me. Still one point and might just cancel a lucky crit.

I like R4-D6 for all the reasons stated above. However, I don't own any of the Rebel Transport droids and when the person I normally borrow from was using R4-D6 for his own list for a Regionals I suddenly had to pick a new droid for my Biggs. Enter R2-D6 with Adaptability. Still 26pts so no other list changes necessary. I felt a bit weakened list-wise going in. Afterwards though, I realized R4-D6 would have triggered only once while Adaptability helped me out in almost all my matches.

Against another Biggs list I made my Biggs PS6 to fire first and avoid simultaneous fire. I ended up killing his Biggs with mine and it kept my Biggs alive another round on 1 hull to soak up more damage. Twice against Ryad I made him PS6 for similar reasons and Biggs ended up putting in the killshot on one of them too. In all my other matches I played against opponents where PS didn't matter and I dropped Biggs to PS4 (I was flying PS4 Thane) to allow for flexibility of movement and it came in handy then too.

It's situational and list-dependent but Adaptability Biggs has definitely earned a place in my kit of parts.