Today I played a 100pt game with Biggs Darklighter with R2D2. The idea was to use Biggs ability to force my opponent to shoot at him (protecting my other ships) and then use R2 to regenerate Biggs' shields.

Vader and Mauler Mithel blew Biggs up before he even got to shoot.

The moral of the story: Even the most seemingly powerful pilots and cards (like R2D2) are fragile. It's a gamble to spend points on upgrades which may not survive long enough to get used.

I think this is even more true at 100 points, where more guns can focus one target in a given turn.

Played my first two games tonight with my son. When he remembered to use his droids he was doing well. But just as often he'd forget about what his droids could do and got distracted by just trying to kill me.

The thing i learned: A TIE in front of an X-Wing is in trouble. But a TIE behind an X-Wing is golden.

We played a 36pt game (1 X vs. 2 TIEs). We spent a lot of time chasing each other and shooting ineffectively. And R2 paid for himself in the first half of the game. He repaired those shields about as quickly as I could knock them down. But once I was able to get both TIE's right in close and make some good rolls, I was able to rip the X-wing down pretty quick.

Then we played a 60pt game (1 X + R2 and 1 Y + the droid that can repair hull damage vs. 2 TIEs and 1 TIE-Adv + Cluster Missiles) this game went pretty late and my son kept forgetting to use his droids. I forgot to take actions with my ships most of the time too. It was way too one sided. In the initial pass he blew one TIE away and heavily damaged the second which had me worried, but after that he was never able to get me out from behind his fighters. The TIE advanced chewed the Y-wing up a hull point a turn and the X-wing faced the same problem with the remaining TIE. Had he remembered to use the droids, he might have lasted longer, but he wasn't able to sort out how to get me off of him. The Korogran turns he made usually ended in good position but bad attack rolls so he was getting more and more frustrated. Still took a long time to take the two down. Had he opted for cheaper pilots and given the Y an Ion Cannon as well as the droid it would have been a much different game.

The skills I bought for my TIE's never got used. One was because I needed to burn a point with determination, but never took a "pilot" critical. And the marksman skill seemed wasted on TIE's since they only get 2 attack dice. With such a small chance of getting a focus, and I usually opted to use his actions to barrel roll into position anyway, it was more wasted points.

Upgrades seem to be a bit situational. When they work, they are fun. But if the right things don't happen… Oh, well.

-DavicusPrime

Everything happened as it should have, if you let those TIEs within Range 1. I haven't played as the Rebels to presume to hand out build advice or strategy tips. I can say this. Drawing fire and looking to get hit are two different things. A healing strategy and defensive strategy are also two different things. What are you trying to accomplish? Maybe try torpedos on Biggs next time to give him some teeth and put the droid on the ship you're more concerned about keeping alive. OR have Biggs provide cover for.. I'm guessing Luke, and have a Y-wing provide cover for Biggs. I think you have a good idea. Don't give up on it. Tune it.

I was actually encouraged, if anything.

I was starting to think R2D2 was too good. I was pleased to find that even the best laid defense can be broken with proper concentration of fire and smart maneuvering.

Daveydavedave said:

I had contemplated using this strategy, but it looks like it blew up marvelously. Still, I have a question about how it went down. Was Biggs in front? I envision this strategy to work best if you can get Biggs at Range 3 from your opponent and another ally up at range 1. That way your ally can laser the opponent's face off with a bonus attack die while the opponent is forced to target Biggs who gets a bonus agility die. It requires some tight maneuvering and some planning during set up, but do you think it could work?