FennBug: The Biggs that Doesn't Need to be in Range 1.

By Boba Rick, in X-Wing

4 hours ago, Kieransi said:

Oh, crud. That's right. They purposely worded it so that you can't just put that on there without a ghost (because it has a cost of (-), not (0))

Use the Courier Droid with Guidance Chips. Its whole existence is to get pushed out the the ship by Chopper.

Edited by Jo Jo
5 hours ago, Boba Rick said:

As a Rebel player, I think this is great because now I don't need Biggs. I have Fenn and he costs less. In the opening engagement if you kill Fenn (which is not guaranteed because he gutted the offense of one of your ships) then my other ships just enjoyed a Biggs cover. If you don't, well then Fenn is going to nerf you all day.

This is my favourite aspect of Fenn. I never liked playing Biggs, I found it boring for me, and just annoying for my opponents. Now Fenn can be worked around a little easier by your opponent, can be shut down, and doesn't hit as hard as Biggs, but his benefits far outweigh his shortfalls in my opinion, and he will be much more fun to fly and fly against.

You can run him in formation just like Biggs, with Lowhhrick and Miranda just fine, with the added benefit of the coordinate and other potential buffs depending on his loadout which is great. However you can run him with 2 aces and he is still as powerful as he is in formation. His versatility is where he trumps Biggs not just in squad building, but his individual loadout as well.

Wired and R2 astro seem like the solid balanced budget option. Veteran instincts is also an option for easier coordination actions, and weapons engineer with M9-G8 for added support. You could even run BB-8 and push the limit if you wanted, or even Juke and Jan Ors for some extra jank. You can build so many different ways which will mean he will fit into a bunch of squads, rather than building around him like with Biggs.

5 hours ago, RunnerAZ said:

It will be stapled to Fenn

I don't think so. VI will be popular for coordinating and ensuring his arcs are hot, but his ability is independent from his PS, and having arc on the enemy is more important than dodging arcs, so I don't think it will be an auto-include.

2 hours ago, Dwing said:

Each to his own, I just think there is to much stuff that effs up the opponents lists rather than boosting your own. I don't like it when its a hard counter list that makes me loose rather than being outplayed.

I think Fenn is very different to Biggs. Biggs was a hard counter, Fenn isn't. Opponents can dodge his arc, or stress stack him, or just alpha strike him with everything. He will invite better strategy and flying by both parties, rather than just slow rolling and holding hands with biggs.

@BVRCH Fenn shuttle is a Rex Biggs hybrid. It reduces incoming attzck effectiveness while forcing a new target upon your opponent.

15 minutes ago, RunnerAZ said:

@BVRCH Fenn shuttle is a Rex Biggs hybrid. It reduces incoming attzck effectiveness while forcing a new target upon your opponent.

Exactly. Having those 2 pseudo abilities from a single ship really opens up the possibilities for rebel list building.

1 hour ago, BVRCH said:

You can run him in formation just like Biggs, with Lowhhrick and Miranda just fine, with the added benefit of the coordinate and other potential buffs depending on his loadout which is great. However you can run him with 2 aces and he is still as powerful as he is in formation. His versatility is where he trumps Biggs not just in squad building, but his individual loadout as well.

I'm definitely going to try him out with Low/Miranda, but I think I'm going to prefer him with a couple aces.

2 minutes ago, gennataos said:

I'm definitely going to try him out with Low/Miranda, but I think I'm going to prefer him with a couple aces.

Yeah that's what I'm most excited to try. We haven't really had a good ace support until now. I just have to pick 2 aces now :P

6 hours ago, Boba Rick said:

@Rinzler in a Tie, I think that when it comes to these things we have to treat them like Biggs: they are there to die first. Ezra is the only one I think is worth dumping 7+ points on.

I honestly think R3-A2 is not best for Fenn. If you want to stress someone, use Ezra - he'll live a lot longer. I think Fenn wants R2 for greens, or Flight-Assist to reposition and get arc. I see the M9-G8 + Weapons Engineer combo.... but that's six points. Add Wired and you are at a 27 points Biggs with less firepower. You better hope nothing goes wrong because that's a big investment.

I think the tendency in these cases is to start with a ship that provides good defense for the rest of the list, but then you start worrying about protecting that ship, so then you start dumping more and more points on defending the ship that defends the other ships.... and it's a vicious cycle.

Everyone is different, but for me I just try to go cheap and to use Drago's words... "If he dies, he dies."

Except he's not just a biggs at that pricepoint, hes biggs + kanan/free predators+ OL + a coordinate in one (squishy, admittedly) package.

Although he wont have biggs mitigation with the astro i really feel we might see a renewed rebel jank and/or alt kanan lists with this guy.

He is goind to play a major role im 100% sure of that. But is he going to be as problematic as Biggs? That would be hard to do. IMO hes the best pilot coming out of this wave. Low cost, high ps, great ability, lots of upgrade options and most importantly: coordinate. On such an inexpensive ship, with a pilot ability that doesnt need any action taken, it's going to be a much better tool for the rebels than it is for Imperials on the Upsi. Potential candidate for most annoying builds: anything with lowrisk, Rex and Fenn. Still have room for a heavy hitting ship in there.

10 hours ago, Vineheart01 said:

you can still use the stressbot with fenn but it would be difficult to pull off

You'd practically HAVE to have adapt on him to reduce him to 8 to increase the odds he doesnt shoot before the guy he's looking at

Stressbot doesnt care if he's stressed, so he becomes doublestressed. Inspiring recruit to clear both stresses, rinse repeat.

However if nobody is PS9+ or you are PS8 and Fenn has init, it wouldnt work. Dont think i'd want to risk running into a list where half of my gimick is auto shut down.

Use Decoy instead

What about PulsedRayShield on Fenn?

I‘ll try those two lists where only the bug changes:

post4.4.0 Rebels (99)

•Poe Dameron (41) - T-70 X-Wing
Intensity (2), •BB-8 (2), Primed Thrusters (1), •Black One (1), Autothrusters (2)

•Jake Farrell (33) - A-Wing
Veteran Instincts (1), Cruise Missiles (3), A-Wing Test Pilot (0), Autothrusters (2), Push The Limit (3)

•Fenn Rau (25) - Sheathipede-class Shuttle
Veteran Instincts (1), Kyle Katarn(3), R2 Astromech (1)

or

•Ezra Bridger (25) - Sheathipede-class Shuttle
Wired (1), Gunner (5), •R3-A2 (2), •Phantom (0)

I played that list before Intensity with PTL Poe and Braylen or Stresshog, and it is one of the most fun lists I ever had. Not good (it has Jake...), but it can do some work

Edited by GreenDragoon
Kyle is awesome!
10 hours ago, Jo Jo said:

Use the Courier Droid with Guidance Chips. Its whole existence is to get pushed out the the ship by Chopper.

If you've equipped Adapt or VI and you choose to toss those, does your PS revert to its original printed value?

I was thinking:

Roark with TLT
Captain Rex
Fenn with VI
Poe with VI, BB8, Integrated, Title and Advanced Optics
99 points

First turn, Poe focuses and banks it.
Second turn (alpha strike engagement)
Roark moves and focuses.
Rex moves and evades.
Poe dials in a green, barrels and removes a target lock. Takes his own target lock.
Fenn moves, coordinates Poe to boost, removes a second target lock or makes Rex focus.

Start of the combat phase:
Fenn removes your option to mod dice.
Roark makes Rex PS12
Rex fires and reduces your dice.

So now you have:
No alpha strike
One ship has no attack dice mods.
One ship is rolling one less attack die.
Poe is fully modded.
Roark has a TLT.

6 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

What about PulsedRayShield on Fenn?

You'd need Nien Numb crew or R2 astromech to make it worthwhile with his ability, but...yeah.

17 hours ago, Boba Rick said:

I think "bug" as a suffix is perfect. "ApBug", "ZebBug", "EzraBug" (most likely that's just StressBug though), and "FennBug".

Literally all I can think of when I read this is

d1e8c024167090ce16ccc13ecb8866c7--recycl

Well, this wouldn't be much fun to play against, would it?

Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) (20)
Decoy (2)
Tactician (2)
R2 Astromech (1)

Captain Rex (14)
Tactician (2)
Sabine's Masterpiece (1)

Lowhhrick (28)
Draw Their Fire (1)
Tactician (2)
Breach Specialist (1)

Gold Squadron Pilot (18)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
R3-A2 (2)
BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

7 hours ago, ABXY said:

If you've equipped Adapt or VI and you choose to toss those, does your PS revert to its original printed value?

Yes

I guess you can run it also like this:

Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) (20)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Hotshot Co-pilot (4)
Flight-Assist Astromech (1)

Total: 26

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

It has the same cost as Biggs and can mess with the tokens of two ships.

You can even put R3 and add insult to injury. Nothing as satisfying as having your opponent spend a defensive focus on a 1 die attack.

22 minutes ago, gjnido said:

I guess you can run it also like this:

Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) (20)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Hotshot Co-pilot (4)
Flight-Assist Astromech (1)

Total: 26

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

It has the same cost as Biggs and can mess with the tokens of two ships.

You can even put R3 and add insult to injury. Nothing as satisfying as having your opponent spend a defensive focus on a 1 die attack.

LOL, love it. Freeze tokens over there, strip tokens over here.

He is indeed a great pilot for Rebels, but what I find the most positive about him is the fact that he provides protection and support for other ships without need of flying in strict formation. It opens up some pseudo-ace individual play for Rebel pilots.

I will try following list for sure:

Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) — Sheathipede-class Shuttle 20
Veteran Instincts 1
Inspiring Recruit 1
R2 Astromech 1
Vectored Thrusters 2
Ship Total: 25
Poe Dameron (PS9) — T-70 X-Wing 33
Veteran Instincts 1
R2-D2 4
Advanced Optics 2
Autothrusters 2
Black One 1
Ship Total: 43
Wedge Antilles — X-Wing 29
Veteran Instincts 1
Flight-Assist Astromech 1
Integrated Astromech 0
Ship Total: 31
14 minutes ago, Embir82 said:

He is indeed a great pilot for Rebels, but what I find the most positive about him is the fact that he provides protection and support for other ships without need of flying in strict formation. It opens up some pseudo-ace individual play for Rebel pilots.

I will try following list for sure:

Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) — Sheathipede-class Shuttle 20
Veteran Instincts 1
Inspiring Recruit 1
R2 Astromech 1
Vectored Thrusters 2
Ship Total: 25
Poe Dameron (PS9) — T-70 X-Wing 33
Veteran Instincts 1
R2-D2 4
Advanced Optics 2
Autothrusters 2
Black One 1
Ship Total: 43
Wedge Antilles — X-Wing 29
Veteran Instincts 1
Flight-Assist Astromech 1
Integrated Astromech 0
Ship Total: 31

Hey! How'd you get my Squad Builder account info? ;)

Fenn + aces seems to have great potential! This is my first crack at it.

Poe Dameron (PS9) (33)
Veteran Instincts (1)
BB-8 (2)
Advanced Optics (2)
Autothrusters (2)
Black One (1)

Wedge Antilles (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Flight-Assist Astromech (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) (20)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Weapons Engineer (3)
M9-G8 (3)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

2 minutes ago, gennataos said:

Hey! How'd you get my Squad Builder account info? ;)

As they say:
"Great minds think in a same way." :)

I just wanted to say on December 5th I declared for all the X-Wing world to see that Fenn Rau would be new Biggs and @Mynock Deltajust validated it on the recent podcast!

Look at me, everyone! Look at me!

Luckily there are easy ways around his ability like Expertise, Predator, Dengar crew etc. So if he gets too out of control there is a way to reel him in.

Player base control the meta = good

Broken ship/ability control the meta = bad

One I'm trying out now is R3A2 on Fenn with adaptability. That way, if you are an expertise ship, I should be able to stress you before you fire and if you are a target locked focus ship, I can stop you from spending your tokens. Makes him great against both kinds of action economy. Can't really do both unless my opponent shoots first and I'm double stressed but it is still a great tool to deal with any list.

derp

Edited by Dreadai
Double post