So I know this topic has been heavily talked about in general, but I thought I'd toss my proverbial hat into the ring.

I think Biggs needs a nerf. I think that simply changing the text to "Other friendly ships at range 1 cannot be targeted by attacks if you obstruct the attack." I feel this is thematic, game balancing, and would allow for a T-65 bump/title while still allowing Biggs to see the table if flown well.

The biggest problems I have with Biggs currently is three fold.

First, I don't feel the Empire has a good response for him unless they run a full ordinance list. I have no problem with Kanan Biggs lists, but the only significant weakness my group has found seems to be Boba-ing something off of Kanan and that's IF you can get past those shields. The empire and other Rebel lists don't have access to Boba obviously. And the reason Rebel Regen works so well is partially because of Biggs (throw draw their fire on something that regens for example). After the Emperor's nerf, the Empire hasn't shown great results in either System Open following "Order 66 FAQ".

Second, Biggs is the reason we haven't seen a serious T-65 improvement. If you improve the T-65 in general, it could make Biggs broken. I'd love to see other T-65 pilots in competitive play hit the tables (ever). This would leave that option open.

Third, Biggs holds back Rebels getting more fun toys in general. Ultimately, with such a good wing-man, Fantasy Flight has to be careful in making a low agility ship do too much (we've seen this with Kanan as I previously mentioned).

Do I think my idea will happen in the (hopefully near) future? I doubt it. But I would like to see it happen. Thanks for reading and chime in with your thoughts.

Big Biggs Rigs Gigs.

The thing I don't understand is how often the designers refer to things like Biggs as being a problem.

You're the designers, right? Change him!

It's like being the driver of the car and complaining about where you're going. You're the one with the hands on the steering wheel, FFS...

Goooood no.

Please not another nerf thread.

Biggs is fine. Most agility 1 ships wouldnt even work at all without him.

Biggs never obstructs attacks, so...

Biggs being once per round, or only working on ships he has locked, or being overriden by enemy TLs generally rather than just with ordnance or... any number of solutions would work fine.

1 minute ago, Stay On The Leader said:

The thing I don't understand is how often the designers refer to things like Biggs as being a problem.

You're the designers, right? Change him!

It's like being the driver of the car and complaining about where you're going. You're the one with the hands on the steering wheel, FFS...

This, basically.

It's well within the designers' gift to solve this problem. I'm really not sure why it's still a problem.

Just now, Schu81 said:

Most agility 1 ships wouldnt even work at all without him.

Which is a problem in itself - if he constrains list building and design that much, then if he wasn't in possession of the single most powerful ability in the game, those 1-agi ships could be buffed to stand on their own two wings. Or 3 wings. Or 4 wings... or even 6 wings... and future Rebel design would be a lot freer.

1 minute ago, Schu81 said:

Goooood no.

Please not another nerf threat.

Biggs is fine. Most agility 1 ships wouldnt even work at all without him.

What low agility ships wouldn't work without him? 4 TLT Y Wings do just fine. 2 Ghosts do just fine. Miranda does great by herself if flown well. Nora does great by herself. The trip B-Wing plus Z's and a Y can do well if flown well. The HWK? Doesn't see much play anyway. U-Wing same story. Rey on the Falcon wrecks face. Biggs just makes low agility ships that much better which means you can't improve them in the future because of him.

I'd love to see Biggs instead say something like "Friendly ships at Range 1 increase their agility by 1 when defending." This allows Biggs to still "protect" his nearby allies by giving them a defensive buff, but doesn't completely hamstring the opponent into giving up attacks unless they'd rather take Biggs down first and then deal with the de-buffed allies (a tactical choice they can make themselves, pending context). It would also be much more thematic and would take some of the reigns off of the constrained X-Wing design space.

First of all:

What's sooo terrifying about a ship with 5 Hitpoints, which has been around ever since Wave 1?

Biggs is somehow one of the very few advantages Rebels still have.

This guy has become more of a hero (in this game) than Luke or Wedge.

The idea of a "tank" is very well known in a lot of games, and it seems to work quite well here.

Still: These lists don't seem to win a lot of tournaments. It's not even half as powerful or OP as some people her say it would be.

Biggs is the only reason why pilots like Norra Wexley even reach the late game without being blown out of the sky in round 2.

9 minutes ago, Schu81 said:

Goooood no.

Please not another nerf thread.

Biggs is fine. Most agility 1 ships wouldnt even work at all without him.

thats kinda the issue.

Biggs prevents Rebels from getting the PROPER agility or any other kind of defensive shenanigans because stacked with Biggs it becomes an immense problem.

Whether or not hes OP isnt the point, its that hes a roadblock for clever future designs. Theres more than one reason to nerf something, the obvious is they do too much damage/take too long to kill and the other is its design is getting in the way of listbuild/new ships/card access designs.

How much you wanna bet the reason the Pulse Shields in the CROC is 1shield only BECAUSE of biggs? You know he'd have that in a heartbeat if he had 1shield or it wasnt restricted to 1shield users.

Also the ARC should be 2agility, yet its not. Know why? That amount of bulk behind 2 agi AND a 5(6)hp/2agi barrier would be nuts considering the amount of damage Norra can put out.

Biggs renders any ship hes near immune to alpha striking, which without paying close attention to what rebels get can EASILY give them a build that nobody in their right mind would fly because its such a glass cannon...except Biggs lets it work. Biggs is just tanky enough where even if he completely bombs his defense he probably took the entire round to kill off.

4 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

Biggs never obstructs attacks, so...

Biggs being once per round, or only working on ships he has locked, or being overriden by enemy TLs generally rather than just with ordnance or... any number of solutions would work fine.

Not sure what you mean by him never obstructing attacks. Do you mean usually ships don't have Biggs as their closest target? Or do you mean that ships can't "obstruct" attacks? If it's the later, the wording could change or whatever, but I think you understand the idea.

As for Biggs being once per round, I guess that would help? But again, how does a 2 ship build work against that? You still have the same problem. I actually think there aren't that many good fixes for him. At least fixes that would still make him playable. That's one of my biggest pet peeves. Fix something, but don't nerf it to the point no one plays it. I actually liked the latest FAQ big 4 nerf. I would argue all are still playable competitively.

@Dymond Kyng

Did you actually create this Username just to come up with another "nerf this nerf that" thread?

No you didn't.

Actually you seem to have posted two other things before.

6 minutes ago, Schu81 said:

@Dymond Kyng

Did you actually create this Username just to come up with another "nerf this nerf that" thread?

@Schu81

Long time lurker, first time poster. I don't think Biggs is unbeatable. I just love the game and want to see more variance as I think that makes the game more interesting and fun. If you still don't believe me, notice my avatar is one that can't be selected anymore.

5 minutes ago, Dymond Kyng said:

Not sure what you mean by him never obstructing attacks. Do you mean usually ships don't have Biggs as their closest target? Or do you mean that ships can't "obstruct" attacks? If it's the later, the wording could change or whatever, but I think you understand the idea.

As for Biggs being once per round, I guess that would help? But again, how does a 2 ship build work against that? You still have the same problem. I actually think there aren't that many good fixes for him. At least fixes that would still make him playable. That's one of my biggest pet peeves. Fix something, but don't nerf it to the point no one plays it. I actually liked the latest FAQ big 4 nerf. I would argue all are still playable competitively.

I mean that the only things that obstruct attacks are obstacles, huge ships, and large ships with Tactical Jammers.

If biggs was once per round, a two ship build gets to shoot half its shots against the things he's protecting. He's good against 2 ship builds. But then, he's already good against 2 ship builds in many incarnations; Kanan/Biggs especially.

Honestly...

I want this game to see variance and I also want it to be fun and interesting, just like you.

If I could get better X-Wings in general, to be able to play Wedge & Luke again, then I'd be ready to sacrifice Biggs anytime!

Honestly, I don't play Biggs myself very often anyways, even though I am a "Rebel only" player.

But why do people always cry for nerfs at the moment? As soon as Biggs is gone, they are going to cry about the next strong card or option... especially if it's a card which is only available to one faction.

Do we really have to change everything? Is Biggs really that bad?

Give me a break... he usually dies in round 2 or three, if your opponent is smart enough to focus a 5 Hitpoints 2 Agi ship right away.

With our without Biggs:

Imperial Defenders are still the better jousters. Fenn Rau is still going to eat your Rebel list alive.

...over a pint many moons ago some chaps and I had a debate that dovetails this OP to a tee, and it shines quite the light on our moderately Cannon important T-65 pilot. The debate started with this question:

Who is more powerful in a list: Biggs or Palpatine?

Biggs is no even close to the power of Palpatine, even after the nerf.

48 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

The thing I don't understand is how often the designers refer to things like Biggs as being a problem.

How often do they refer to him as a problem? I have never read an interview where a designer complained Biggs was a problem although I freely admit I don't dig into more obscure articles.

I don't think that Biggs is the reason that X-wings haven't gotten "fixed" yet. I really think that the reason is turning the X-wing into something it's not. FFG started the game with a defined build template. That worked well for several waves. As more ships and upgrades were added and creep became noticeable certain ships suffered. Academy Ties are still relevant because they are cheap and block well. The Rebels are stuck with high priced, hard hitting, low to mediocre agility ships.

What do you to an X-wing, that makes it better, but keeps it from morphing into something, different? The Integrated Astromech was a neutral upgrade that helped. It didn't change the X-wing into something else.

Forget about Biggs for a minute. What changes would YOU make to the X-wing to improve it? The changes have to fit into the present game structure, so no "from scratch" builds. Mods and titles only and only one of them can have a negative cost.

40 minutes ago, Schu81 said:

Biggs is no even close to the power of Palpatine, even after the nerf.

I'll bite.

Besides secondary weapons which can declare the other ship (s) thier target Biggs is always the target until he is removed from the game unless he's beyond range. Assuming you use Integrated Astromech that 1st damage card can be discarded (without resolving it's effect) that basically makes Biggs a 5 hit point ship at a minimum, change the astromech to R2-D2 or R4-D6 and the damage can be migated even more through regen or cancelling of hits making his survivalibilty skyrocket even more attached with Integrated Astromech. In specific builds the ship you must shoot through even makes him beefier because of tatical jammer adding a green dye.

As a Rebel player I believe Biggs should be errated to "once per round" in addition to the secondary weapon faq'd; I want to see other X-Wings return (like Luke Skywalker) but until Biggs is dealt with you will never see him again; Biggs is more powerful than Palpatine by a long shot, Palpatine can only effect 1 die result once per round before rolling dice; Biggs not only affects dice rolls, manevuers, upgrades and shot selection (and sometimes the opponent has no choice) which shouldn't be the case. There needs to be a risk and reward

Change him to "once per round"

16 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

Forget about Biggs for a minute. What changes would YOU make to the X-wing to improve it? The changes have to fit into the present game structure, so no "from scratch" builds. Mods and titles only and only one of them can have a negative cost.

The X-wing is supposed to be flexible, a good all-round superiority fighter. The problem is that due to the way it is costed and the way the game works, it always loses out to more specialised ships of similar cost because ships that specialise in one area are usually designed to play to their strengths. Those that cannot do so (at least cost-effectively) get relegated to the non-competitive bin to languish with the Tie Punisher.

To represent the X-wing's flexibility, I would introduce titles to represent common variants of the basic T-65 chassis. Something like the following:

T-65A: Lose the torpedo slot but add Barrel Roll to the action bar.

T-65B: When you spend a Focus token, you may perform a free Evade action.

T-65C: Gain an extra Torpedo slot.

These are just rough ideas and I am sure people could come up with plenty of others. Just like the Defender titles allow you to specialise one aspect of the ship, the T-65 could be a chassis to customise rather than a handicap to overcome.

S-Foils
Title
X-Wing Only

Attack Position: when attacking with your primary weapon at range 1-2 you may add a FOCUS to your attack dice. When you reveal your maneuver dial you may flip this card.

Flight Position: when you execute a BANK maneuver you may use the TURN template instead. Action: flip this card.

Cost: 0

Just now, Schu81 said:

Still: These lists don't seem to win a lot of tournaments. It's not even half as powerful or OP as some people her say it would be.

You mean besides winning two out of the three post-FAQ System Opens?

31 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

I don't think that Biggs is the reason that X-wings haven't gotten "fixed" yet. I really think that the reason is turning the X-wing into something it's not. FFG started the game with a defined build template. That worked well for several waves. As more ships and upgrades were added and creep became noticeable certain ships suffered. Academy Ties are still relevant because they are cheap and block well. The Rebels are stuck with high priced, hard hitting, low to mediocre agility ships.

What do you to an X-wing, that makes it better, but keeps it from morphing into something, different? The Integrated Astromech was a neutral upgrade that helped. It didn't change the X-wing into something else.

Forget about Biggs for a minute. What changes would YOU make to the X-wing to improve it? The changes have to fit into the present game structure, so no "from scratch" builds. Mods and titles only and only one of them can have a negative cost.

Honestly I think 2 mods would help. I actually bothered to try Vector Thrusters with expertise on the aces and it does wonders for that little ship. Pricey as hell, but this is for ships like Wedge Wes and Luke. Integrated plus shield plus R2-D2 would be sweet too. You could honestly do a must be PS 6+ or not would it be that bad if players dropped another 4 points on Biggs for more upgrades? But Wedge with experise integrated and Vectors with droid of choice is sweet. I think for generics give them a droid that costs 0 and allows torpedo equip at -2 pts. Gives them an alpha. With the double mod title if you let them have it they have integrated and chips, otherwise just chips. This also doesn't help Biggs much. Not going to put points on a ship of it is nothing but an HP screen. Now if you want to actually use Biggs in the fight, these could both help him, but that would fundamentally change Biggs.

7 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

T-65A: Lose the torpedo slot but add Barrel Roll to the action bar.

T-65B: When you spend a Focus token, you may perform a free Evade action.

Great suggestions I really like T-65B attached to Luke Skywalker

"I think Biggs needs a nerf."

I mean... Biggs did get a nerf. Less than a year ago. You now declare the attack type, before checking to see if you've been Biggs'd. Hence TL ordnance can completely ignore him. The new Synch Turret will ignore him too.

That was quite a big change, one that gives Biggs players a bigg headache against alpha strike lists.