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Hello dakka
My local store is going to be running a winter tournament soon and I'm trying out a different rebel list. I've got 4 points left for Biggs and cannot decide if I should run r2d2 for 4 points or go with r2f2 and have an initiative bid. Have any of you had much success with r2f2?

Thanks

Frost

It would help to know the rest of your list, so we can see what else you've got options wise.

I'm not a fan of R2-F2. The main flaw in the card is that your opponent can simply choose to not shoot at the ship. Biggs has an obvious synergy here (it maximizes the utility of the card by forcing your opponent to shoot at you), and it does make the card marginally more useful.

But losing your action for the opportunity to *maybe* not lose HP? And in practice, it will rarely be more than that - you only roll that extra defense dice when your opponent attacks, so if you're fighting against a 2 or 3 ship build, odds are you'll only dodge 1 damage a turn. You also lose out completely on the opportunity to use your focus offensively.

R2-D2 is good because you get the regen AND you get to take your focus token - both of which give you more defense (and the focus being dual-use). Beyond that, R2-D2 will also continue to repair even on turns where you are not a target of attacks. This is a huge defensive advantage, since it gives you choices: if things are getting too hairy, you can disengage Biggs and go regen for a few turns. R2-F2 doesn't give you any options.

One place I could see R2-F2 being useful is against lists with lots of low-strength attacks: swarms, and TLT spam. I haven't run the numbers or anything, but I suspect that a Biggs with 3 agility would be frustrating for a TIE swarm to deal with. An R2-D2 Biggs, by contrast, would just get burned down in a single turn.

If you don't want to run R2-D2, take a look atR4-D6. It's basically a 1pt shield upgrade (or a 2x shield upgrade if you take Integrated Astromech).

My list is
x2 B wing (blue squadron with fcs)
x1 x wing (Biggs)
x1 a wing (green squadron, refit, auto thrusters, ptl, a wing test pilot, wired

What I find attractive about the r2f2 is that I am not limited to green maneuvers to benefit from it. But r2d2 lets me keep my action. I am quite torn. Do you not find the extra green on a target who will most likely be shot every time worth it? Is regenerating 1 shield a turn enough to make a difference? As a side note, can I spend the target lock from fcs immediately? Ie shoot, aquire target lock, and immediately use it to re roll any failed shots?

Frost wrote:
Do you not find the extra green on a target who will most likely be shot every time worth it? Is regenerating 1 shield a turn enough to make a difference?

A big reason why I like regen is that it is 100% reliable. The extra defense dice is not - it won't always save you.

As a side note, can I spend the target lock from fcs immediately? Ie shoot, acquire target lock, and immediately use it to re roll any failed shots?

No, you gain the target lock after you perform the attack. A lot of players get confused about this, since they interpret "after you perform an attack" as meaning"after you roll your attack dice". But if you look at the rulebook, the phrase "perform an attack" specifically means that you step through all the attack steps (which includes the timing window for spending target locks). Take a look at the combat phase on the X-Wing wiki; note that there is a specific timing for when attackers and defenders modify dice. Knowing the timing is very important for taking advantage of certain types of dice modifier cards - for example, Sensor Jammer, Predator, Crack Shot (a lot of players use these in non-optimal ways, due to a lack of knowledge about how the timing steps in X-Wing work). In the case of FCS, you only acquire the target lock after all the attack/defense stuff has happened, so you usually won't be able to use that target lock until the next turn (unless you pair it with abilities that let you fire multiple times per turn, such as Gunner or Corran Horn's ability).

The reason FCS is good is that if you already have a target lock on the target you're shooting at, then there's no downside to spending your target lock (since you're going to re-acquire that target look right after you perform the attack). This will free up your action economy to do focus and barrel rolls.

With regards to your list, I would recommend something like:
Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Fire-Control System (2)

Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Fire-Control System (2)

Biggs Darklighter (25)
R4-D6 (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Jake Farrell (24)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Chardaan Refit (-2)
Autothrusters (2)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Fly Biggs and the B-Wings in formation, and just shoot the crap out of stuff. Use Jake to engage enemy aces and fat turret ships. You'll have a 1pt iniative bid - give your opponent initiative so that Jake moves second (allowing you to arc-dodge PS9 dudes like Soontir Fel). If you want to use R2-F2, you can drop FCS from one of your B-Wings.

Integrated Astromech hasn't been released yet, but it's going to be a required upgrade for X-Wings. If you're playing casually, just proxy the cards you need.

 DanielBeaver wrote:
Take a look at the combat phase on the X-Wing wiki; note that there is a specific timing for when attackers and defenders modify dice.

That is a really great link, thanks!

Oh ok, that makes it a lot less over powered for the fcs. I didn't think it could be that good but yes that's totally how I interpreted the wording. Thanks for posting that link! Yes if integrated astromech is out in time for the tournament I'll definitely be playing it. It's too good for x wings for me not to! If I'm wanting to go second With jake anyways, would something like wired not be a better option?

That's very true, the guaranteed regen is awesome. I just worry id be too predictable with his limited green maneuvers. Though I suppose I'll be limited by my b wings anyways if I want them to stay in Biggs' protection

Frost wrote:
With jake anyways, would something like wired not be a better option?

Wired is great on A-Wings in conjunction with PTL. But with Jake, you get free actions as part of his built-in pilot ability, so you don't need PTL (and in turn, you won't be generating stress to trigger Wired). Veteran Instincts is almost a must-have on Jake, because it gets him up into PS9 territory, so he can tangle with other Aces effectively.

Which is not to say that PTL is useless on Jake, especially if you also have VI. You can trigger PTL off of Jake's free actions, so you can do focus+roll+boost, or focus+boost+target lock (potentially at range 1, for a really mean attack), or just turtling up with focus+boost+evade. The reason I shy away from Wired on Jake is that the positional advantages you can get from VI are so much more valuable that the re-rolls that Wired offers. And in any case, Jake almost always takes a focus action each turn... which allows you to just flip those eyeballs instead of re-rolling them.

 DanielBeaver wrote:
But with Jake, you get free actions as part of his built-in pilot ability, so you don't need PTL

Yes you do. The only thing better than free actions on an a-wing is even more free actions. PTL is still mandatory. But you're right about VI being equally mandatory, PS 7 isn't good enough. So that makes PTL + VI the obvious mandatory choice.

 Peregrine wrote:

 DanielBeaver wrote:
But with Jake, you get free actions as part of his built-in pilot ability, so you don't need PTL

Yes you do. The only thing better than free actions on an a-wing is even more free actions. PTL is still mandatory. But you're right about VI being equally mandatory, PS 7 isn't good enough. So that makes PTL + VI the obvious mandatory choice.

Yeah, being able to focus, and then barrel roll and boost at PS9 is why Jake is the best A-wing Pilot.

Yeah, barrel roll + boost is a pretty key combo.

Thank you all for your help, sounds like I need to get myself the falcon so I've got veteran instincts in time for the tournament