I made the grave mistake of showing my 10 year old son the Kanan/Chopper/Biggs list.

Kanan Jarrus (54)
VCX-100 (38), Ghost (0), Fire-Control System (2), Twin Laser Turret (6), Rey (2), Finn (5), Tactical Jammer (1)

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

“Zeb” Orrelios (18)
Attack Shuttle (18), "Chopper" (0), Phantom (0)

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Now I can't beat the little upstart. Really - while I am helping him make good choices, I am NOT pulling any of my punches.

I'm flying :

“Quickdraw” (39)
Special Forces TIE (29), Expertise (4), Fire-Control System (2), Sensor Cluster (2), Special Ops Training (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

Colonel Vessery (42)
TIE Defender (35), Ion Cannon (3), Ruthlessness (3), TIE/D (0), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Imperial Trainee (19)
TIE Striker (17), Adaptive Ailerons (0), Lightweight Frame (2)

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I've only managed to beat him 1 out of 5 attempts. I seem to have tried everything (except changing my list.) I've jousted head on (a horrible, horrible mistake which I shall never mention again). I've attempted to approach from the side. I've kept Kanan blocked for most of one game. One game I even managed to put 15 damage into Kanan without having to shoot at Biggs once! (I used range and arcs very carefully).

The worst part is that we are heading to a store championship tomorrow. While I will be proud of him if he places higher than me, I'm really not interested in it happening.

So my main question - what approaches should I try when facing a list like this? How do you beat Kanan/Biggs?

I've struggled against this too. One of my friends spent most of 3 months flying this and kept beating me.

So, I practiced against the Squadron Benchmark program for ages to refine my approach. I use Norra, Braylen, and Biggs, so stressing his Biggs was easy, this reduces his defence, and I could also stress Kanan when I got the angles right. One of the best things to do is to block Kanan so he can't get focus tokens (which tends to also block Biggs), while having your main damage dealer approach from the rear (at an angle so you don't get the main guns fired at you!) so you get a R2 shot on Biggs but not through Kanan, while also being out of range of Kanan's ability.

With my list, splitting Norra off from the others was key. If he turned towards her, the other 2 could kill his Biggs; if not, Norra did. And then Kanan dies.

You might try using Quickdraw and Vessery on opposite sides of Kanan, ioning Biggs will split him off from Kanan since he can't go slowly enough, while Quickdraw's ability allows an extra attack on Biggs if Kanan shoots him. You can (probably?) outmanoevre Kanan, so your whole list could shoot Biggs unhindered and drop him in one round.

The other method I've seen used is Torpedoes. Dengar+Bossk; Dengar+Tel; double or triple Torpboats can all kill Kanan quickly and then finish off Biggs. This is why Kanan/Biggs doesn't dominate tournament play - there are hard counters in the meta, it's just that you aren't flying one!

For your son's list, Zeb crew on the Ghost works very well to prevent blocking issues...but means dropping Finn and having Ezra in the Phantom.

Kanan Biggs, in my admittedly limited experience, seems to be a list that you win or lose to largely at the list building stage. The problem, as I'm sure you know, is that even if you manage to burn down Biggs in two rounds of combat, the probable 4-8 damage you've taken from Kanan in that time is too steep of a hill to climb back from, given the mountain of hull you have to chew through on the VCX.

If you're willing to change your list, you can hard counter by using target lock ordnance, or similarly restricted secondary weapons to bypass Biggs and burn down Kanan in a turn out two, but that's a risky strategy - if the Ghost's bloody massive hull outlasts your missiles, it can backfire badly. Otherwise, Gold Squadron did a podcast about six or seven episodes back where they went through counter tactics to this list, that's an option if you don't want to go the hard counter route.

It's a tough fight - range controlling the TLT is step 1, engaging with the ghost headed towards a corner is step 2. Your list ought to be able to do it - that Ion on Vessery can be insanely helpful.

One way to counter it, if you want to list build specifically to beat it, is to bring missiles/torpedoes + Boba Fett crew. You use the target lock requirement to allow you to shoot Kanan instead of Biggs, and if you get a crit through (easy enough to guarantee with Guidance Chips on a 3-die ship), you use Boba to discard the Ghost title. Now Kanan can't make the extra end-of-round TLT attack or fire out his rear arc, and the Phantom can't deploy until the VXC-100 is destroyed. This should make the rest of the battle massively easier to deal with.

Thanks for the tip on the Gold Squadron podcast. It looks like tomorrow's listening. Maybe he can learn from it too.

I'm not interested in changing my list (I know I could burn it down with ordnance). It seems like the best strategy is to avoid the front guns. The Tie Striker will be the key to blocking his hard turns. I'm thinking that asteroid layout will also be important. If I clump them up I can force him to commit to one side or the other. I'm pretty comfortable flying around (or through) the asteroids. If only QuickDraw were a little faster.

Bah, I can't believe I'm having this much trouble beating my 10 year old. (And somewhat proud of him).

2 hours ago, EdgeOfDreams said:

One way to counter it, if you want to list build specifically to beat it, is to bring missiles/torpedoes + Boba Fett crew. You use the target lock requirement to allow you to shoot Kanan instead of Biggs, and if you get a crit through (easy enough to guarantee with Guidance Chips on a 3-die ship), you use Boba to discard the Ghost title. Now Kanan can't make the extra end-of-round TLT attack or fire out his rear arc, and the Phantom can't deploy until the VXC-100 is destroyed. This should make the rest of the battle massively easier to deal with.

Use Boba to discard the TLT. If he wants to leave the shuttle docked just to have a rear arc, so be it. -2 TLT shots is good but -4 TLT shots is amazing.

Kanan/Biggs is a cancer that leads to a game that's little fun for either side - since the opponent essentially doesn't get to play, just watch you roll dice until they die. Don't ever let your son know about Captain Rex, because adding him to that ****-show makes it unbearable.

You could use missiles on Quickdraw/Vessery to put some early damage on Kannan. Good old bigs cant prevent that.

4x Tansarii Point Veteran — M3-A Interceptor17

Adaptability 0
Assault Missiles 5
Guidance Chips 0
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Missile) 2
Ship Total: 24

96 points so you control initiative

TL the Ghost with all 4 ships, declare Assault Missile attack (so Biggs can't trigger) and unload at the Ghost. Biggs takes 4 points of splash damage, and the Ghost will be almost dead or destroyed by the end of the Alpha Strike