I understood that biggs ability can be bypassed with a target lock. I have a Z-95 binary pilot (Swarm Tacticed to PS8) with TL on any ship but biggs. It fires threadtracers with guidance chips on this TL'ed defender. Will all my other ships, in range 1-2 of the Z and in range 1-3 of the defender, get a TL on the defender? And therefore can bypass biggs as well when they attack?

Now I need to get a focus on the Z-95 somehow.

Having a TL doesn't bypass Biggs. Having a weapon that requires a TL to fire bypasses Biggs. If you have a TL on another target and a weapon that requires a TL to fire; you can bypass Biggs with that attack.

In your case, thread tracers don't require a TL to fire; they require a focus. So that attack can't bypass Biggs. If you can fire your thread tracers at a target other than Biggs (e.g. because he's not in arc); any other ships in range to benefit from the tracers will acquire a TL on the defender. However , when they go to fire, unless it is with a ordnance weapon that requires a TL or Biggs is out of arc/range for them as well, they would still be required to attack Biggs with their primary weapon.

Also, FYI, there is a rules subforum for these sort of questions.

@DrZoidberg is correct. our group spent hours setting up every conceivable anti-Biggs ship/weapons platform to assist everyone at the LGS when the FAQ dropped. He is due another nerf as that tiny nerf did little to reduce his game bending abilities, but while you wait, you have but two real options: 1) bring secondary weapons of your choice that require a TL to fire, or 2) make the bloak who has the gall to run Biggs buy the beer; and none of that IPA light amber stuff either, only the good stuff.

We personally favor the second, haha!

Or if you are REALLY good at flying. You could approach at an angle to manipulate your firing arc so you cannot shoot Biggs.





I have never done this successfully, but it is an option!

Thx for clarifying the TL piece.

I'm on my phone so missed not being on the rules part of the forum. Sorry about that.

i'd rather just gun for him right off. Trying to bypass Biggs unless your entire list is ordnance based (which means your entire list can ignore him during the alpha strike) usually means you WILL splitfire, and splitfire actually makes him even more of a problem. Biggs can still hurt you, he's a 3die ship after all, so i'd rather soak all damage to remove him than have unfortunate splitfire and get shot by 2 ships instead of 1.

15 hours ago, clanofwolves said:

@DrZoidberg is correct. our group spent hours setting up every conceivable anti- Biggs ship/weapons platform to assist everyone at the LGS when the FAQ dropped. He is due another nerf as that tiny nerf did little to reduce his game bending abilities, but while you wait, you have but two real options: 1) bring secondary weapons of your choice that require a TL to fire, or 2) make the bloak who has the gall to run Biggs buy the beer; and none of that IPA light amber stuff either, only the good stuff.

We personally favor the second, haha!

Really? Munitions are so plentiful these days that a lot of lists can just bypass biggs straight away, straight into your rubbishy high hull low agility rebel ships.

It's also not just target-lock munitions that bypass Biggs. It's any secondary weapon with a firing restriction that Biggs doesn't satisfy. If I have a Y Wing with a TLT, and Biggs is sitting in arc at Range 1 of that Y Wing in arc, I can choose to fire my TLT and ignore Biggs, because the TLT can't shoot him.

Same goes for the Autoblaster turret and its restrictions. If Biggs is at Range 2 in arc, I can activate the ABT and fire at a different ship at Range 1.

Biggs is a puzzle, like any other ship in the game. If you bring a list that has no tools to beat him (weapons with range or targeting restrictions) then you either list built poorly, didn't correctly read your meta, or you should have developed a strategy in advance to deal with him.

You're going to get wrecked by Biggs the hardest if you fail to accurately guess how fast your opponent is trying to engage. The worst case scenario by far is where all of their ships are at range 1 of yours except Biggs who is just barely at 3 of all of your dudes. Effectively, this means you're trying to push damage through at range 3, but your opponent only needs to push damage through at range 2 giving them a substantial edge in the initial joust.

When in doubt, hit the gas. My usual strategy is to start approaching as slow as possible which might get some range 3 exchanges at the lead ships when Biggs is a hair to far away, then gunning it to point blank range. A steady engagement speed is usually a disaster and plays exactly into what most Biggs builds are trying to do. Making the fight such an unrelenting fuster cluck that both of you are in an unideal position is preferable to the normal damage trading Biggs builds try to invite.

If you can avoid jousting and drop into a pursuit posture on the formation, that also works, but is harder to execute against canny players. Also, take this with a grain of salt as all of my recent experience has been using Rey as the primary jouster for the whole formation and she's flying a somewhat robust ship and hits like a runaway freight train even without actions.

23 hours ago, clanofwolves said:

@DrZoidberg is correct. our group spent hours setting up every conceivable anti-Biggs ship/weapons platform to assist everyone at the LGS when the FAQ dropped. He is due another nerf as that tiny nerf did little to reduce his game bending abilities

I really hope you are correct on this one but the last preview makes me think FFG knows how "big" of a role Biggs has and doesnt seem to want to change it. Hes the only Xwing seing play at the moment. IMO they wont nerf him before they give a boost to the Xwing because it is most likely they want to see that ship played. It's the name of the game after all...

3 hours ago, Thormind said:

I really hope you are correct on this one but the last preview makes me think FFG knows how "big" of a role Biggs has and doesnt seem to want to change it. Hes the only Xwing seing play at the moment. IMO they wont nerf him before they give a boost to the Xwing because it is most likely they want to see that ship played. It's the name of the game after all...

That would be fine, I want to field T-65s too, just not Biggs.

11 hours ago, Thormind said:

I really hope you are correct on this one but the last preview makes me think FFG knows how "big" of a role Biggs has and doesnt seem to want to change it. Hes the only Xwing seing play at the moment. IMO they wont nerf him before they give a boost to the Xwing because it is most likely they want to see that ship played. It's the name of the game after all...

He's not the only X-Wing seeing play. He might be the only X-Wing seeing play in the high-end competitive scene , but that's different to not being played at all. That said, I've seen Wes J pop up in several lists at the Store Champs and Regionals level; he can be a solid counter to much of the meta at the moment. Sure he'll die pretty quickly, but his ability can really ruin many lists' tricks for a few turns.

Target lock allowing you to bypass Biggs completely would actually be an interesting way to nerf him. Means anything that can't get target locks is most vulnerable to him, but for things that CAN target lock, they have to decide between locking someone else to not have to attack Biggs or taking a token that can also be used for defense, but means they'll have to shoot Biggs instead. Unless you have ptl, k4, etc to be able to get a TL AND another token

23 minutes ago, VanderLegion said:

Target lock allowing you to bypass Biggs completely would actually be an interesting way to nerf him. Means anything that can't get target locks is most vulnerable to him, but for things that CAN target lock, they have to decide between locking someone else to not have to attack Biggs or taking a token that can also be used for defense, but means they'll have to shoot Biggs instead. Unless you have ptl, k4, etc to be able to get a TL AND another token

Stop with your silly logic @VanderLegion , threads are for the rants and dribble of the thoughtless.

....keep it up son.

39 minutes ago, VanderLegion said:

Target lock allowing you to bypass Biggs completely would actually be an interesting way to nerf him. Means anything that can't get target locks is most vulnerable to him, but for things that CAN target lock, they have to decide between locking someone else to not have to attack Biggs or taking a token that can also be used for defense, but means they'll have to shoot Biggs instead. Unless you have ptl, k4, etc to be able to get a TL AND another token

I like the concept, except it it gives Scum another advantage compared to other factions.

Ships without Target Lock action:

Quadjumper, Attack Shuttle, Auzituck, TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Phantom, TIE Striker.

Only one of those ships is Scum, and with Spacetug Tractor Array it can already be used to counteract Biggs.