Other Rebels (or imperial scum) thoughts on Biggs/Jan/X-wings/YT-1300s/sometimes Luke/Nora/Gold

X-wings engage up front with biggs just behind within range 1 for his ability and then 2 YT-1300s distance 1 behind biggs safely out of harms way receiving biggs damage to their 7 hull.. Combined with jan you have to do 5 damage to one x wing for it to receive more than 1 damage after Biggs and Jan proc. (4 damage, Jan braces to 2, biggs ships 1 to a YT, X-wing takes 1) (5 damage, jan braces to 3, biggs ships 1, X-wing takes 2)

If you also use Rieekan then watch as Biggs goes necromancer on luke. Jan, Nora, & Gold also benefit from Rieekan and provide a bit of bomber support, especially nora who affects everyone with her shield popping crits but Jan and the YTs.

But on the third attack you either burn jan brace or you take the full effect

Jan can burn braces away, and if Luke or Biggs get attacked they have their own braces to call upon.

I partner this ball with Yavaris, 2 X-wing double taps plus the rest of the squadrons do a great job at thinning out most imperials by the time tokens are burnt. Even without braces still takes 3-4 attacks to kill a plain x-wing.

Thats where autodamage from sources such as Ruthless Strats/Mithel/Fel/Fett/ ten numb, can go a long way.

If you can get flak on it, thats nice too. But the moustache ride is tough little core.

Having played against it a few times now, its definitely tough and can feel unbreakable. But it has a certain damage absorbtion capacity after which you get to a tipping point and Biggs and co start dying quickly and then it feels like they are no harder than generics. Flak, and burning out jans braces quickly makes a big difference.

The mustache ride is tough, but it can be a bit brittle in that if you're able to attack it right, it falls apart. Specifically, you target Biggs . The drawback for the mustache riders is that the mustache himself has escort , meaning he cannot himself be protected. So if you have the damage throughput, try focusing your attack on Biggs first. He's survivable, but he's also expensive, and once he goes down, his (now-damaged) brethren follow him fast.

What I like about the Mustache Ride is that it provides a different effective strategy for the squadron game. You can wait around to get attacked.

Frequently, the squadron game is about getting that Alpha strike in. Which often wants a well timed squadron command and can have your squadrons fighting in less than ideal locations.

I've found with the Biggs/Jan combo that I can avoid issuing Squadron Commands at all and just wait for the squadron fight to come to me. This is great as I don't need to fear the Alpha and can keep my squadrons under the protection of my own flak. It requires patience, but offers a very different way to play the squadron matchup.

I've toyed around with other squadron builds that can tank the alpha and counter attack, but none do it as reliably as the mustache ride.

59 minutes ago, shmitty said:

What I like about the Mustache Ride is that it provides a different effective strategy for the squadron game. You can wait around to get attacked.

Frequently, the squadron game is about getting that Alpha strike in. Which often wants a well timed squadron command and can have your squadrons fighting in less than ideal locations.

I've found with the Biggs/Jan combo that I can avoid issuing Squadron Commands at all and just wait for the squadron fight to come to me. This is great as I don't need to fear the Alpha and can keep my squadrons under the protection of my own flak. It requires patience, but offers a very different way to play the squadron matchup.

I've toyed around with other squadron builds that can tank the alpha and counter attack, but none do it as reliably as the mustache ride.

This. Keep them close to your AA dice I usually have 3-4 blue on them at all time and you're laughing

2 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

The mustache ride is tough, but it can be a bit brittle in that if you're able to attack it right, it falls apart. Specifically, you target Biggs . The drawback for the mustache riders is that the mustache himself has escort , meaning he cannot himself be protected. So if you have the damage throughput, try focusing your attack on Biggs first. He's survivable, but he's also expensive, and once he goes down, his (now-damaged) brethren follow him fast.

I disagree with this assertion. The RRG states:

Quote

A ship or squadron is friendly to itself and can be
targeted by an effect that specifies a friendly target
unless it explicitly specifies “another” ship or squadron.

So as I see it, there's nothing that prevents Biggs from taking attacks that target him and sending that damage to other craft with escort. Conversely there's nothing keeping Biggs from taking damage upon himself that was intended for another squadron with escort.

Of course, the idea to focus attacks on Biggs does hold water. Biggs can only re-direct 1 damage per attack. After 2 good rolls he's exhausted his brace tokens and from there it's only a matter of time. However a 6 x-wing ball (including Biggs) is going to make short work of anything that opposes it.

49 minutes ago, thestag said:

I disagree with this assertion.

Perhaps I was unclear. You are correct in your rules interpretation. My point is that he can't be escorted. As in, escorts do not prevent the opponent from attacking him, as they do for most other analogous keystone squadrons like the intels or Rhymer.

Even with Biggs coming under fire usually if you keep the range 3 formation of Xwing/Biggs/yt you can keep him in the game with relatively no damage until the late rounds. If you partner with Luke, let him go pop first and ship Biggs damage onto his rieekan hull to keep Biggs in it that last round, used that to great effect in a CC game to keep Biggs veteran.

Also the station is your friend with this ball, getting Biggs and a couple of his boys to visit the station to recover some well needed hull points mid game can make all the difference.

On average the opposition player will have around 50 hull to work through, and throws around 25-27 dice each round (45-48 dice when partnered with Flight Controllers and Yavaris).

Toryn far is a must for those rerolls anti-squadron, and a GR-75 or two with BC supplemented with Nora can make light work of even an ISDs shields.

6 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

Perhaps I was unclear. You are correct in your rules interpretation. My point is that he can't be escorted. As in, escorts do not prevent the opponent from attacking him, as they do for most other analogous keystone squadrons like the intels or Rhymer.

Biggs has 5 other escorts to keep eager enemy squadrons tied up just ahead of him, and I find from experience playing it Luke's escort tends to looks more appealing than Biggs when Luke's sat next to a ship about to unleash a Yavaris double tap with some BC rerolls.

8 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

Perhaps I was unclear. You are correct in your rules interpretation. My point is that he can't be escorted. As in, escorts do not prevent the opponent from attacking him, as they do for most other analogous keystone squadrons like the intels or Rhymer.

That makes all the sense in the world . I did misunderstand your point. Thanks for clarifying.

1 hour ago, EbonHawk said:

Biggs has 5 other escorts to keep eager enemy squadrons tied up just ahead of him...

I think this will work fine if you're playing Reb vs. Reb. But against the Empire I don't that it has the speed or activations. Of course that's all based on whether or not the Empire has maxed out their squad #'s and prefers fighters over bombers. Too many variables, too early in the morning...

People keep thinking Biggs keeps the escortsmalive longer or that he should. He keeps individual squads alive longer so there is more outgoing damage and a bigger escort bubble. If you put up enough damage to kill all the escorts, whether or not Biggs is there makes no major difference.

Today I realized there are only male escorts in SWA....

3 hours ago, EbonHawk said:

Biggs has 5 other escorts to keep eager enemy squadrons tied up just ahead of him, and I find from experience playing it Luke's escort tends to looks more appealing than Biggs when Luke's sat next to a ship about to unleash a Yavaris double tap with some BC rerolls.

That's a great scenario, but if you brought Biggs, Luke, and 4 X-wings, you've invested like 95 points into killing squadrons just right there. What did you lose elsewhere to afford all that?

You're also assuming an awful lot in generating this ideal scenario where X-wings can screen Biggs: superior speed, intel, initiative, and snipe all knock that idea flat. Most fighters you run into will have one or more of these...

1 hour ago, Warlord Zepnick said:

Today I realized there are only male escorts in SWA....

And on the Rebel side, they all seem to surround a Woman.

What's your point?

Actually, two women. Norra and Jan

Just now, Church14 said:

Actually, two women. Norra and Jan

NOW its a Party.

57 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

And on the Rebel side, they all seem to surround a Woman.

What's your point?

Just an observation.

And both the Rebels and Imperials are Equal Opportunity Employers, so that's nice.

Bump this thread.

Did warn long ago about the dangers of Biggs and Rieekan

WHO HATH SUMMONED ME?