There has been a lot of discussion of different uses for Opportunist. I must admit that I was excited about this upgrade and tried to come up with places to use it. After my enthusiasm for it waned. This is what I came up with.

Costs:

- you can only use it sometimes (when your target doesn't have a focus or evade token)

- a Stress

- your elite pilot upgrade

- 4 POINTS!

Putting it on a high skilled pilot will help you get shots on unprotected enemies.

Since you have already taken your action you might not ever lose an action, but you will have to do a green maneuver next turn.

There really is no getting around the elite pilot upgrade cost. I think if you are willing to take stress there are other (cheaper) elite Pilot Upgrades that you might like better. (Can you say Push the Limit)

4 points is as much as any elite pilot upgrade costs. It is pretty expensive, especially if you start putting it on things like saber squadron or other generic elite pilots.

Benifit

- 1 more attack dice

As we saw with HLC 1 more attack dice by itself really isn't that much. It is an extra .5 expected hits. If you can combine it with other upgrades live focus and TL it get's better.

Lastly I would like to do a quick comparison between Opportunist and Push the Limit.

The easiest comparison is that they both cost you EP upgrade and a stress.

How much damage do they increase?

opportunist

1 extra attack dice is +.5 ecpected hits

1 extra attack dice with TL or F is +.75 expected hits

PtL (let's assume you use it to get a TL and a Focus)

2 attack dice + Focus = 1.5 expected hits

2 attack dice + Focus + TL = 1.875 hits

PtL gives you .375 extra hits on 2 attack dice.

3 attack dice + focus = 2.25 expected hits

3 attack dice + focus + TL = 2.8125

PtL gives you .5625 extra hits.

In a purely offensive measure Opportunist is superior to PtL (especially since you can it is still possible to to a F+TL attack with opportunist.)

However, the only limit on when you can use PtL based on when you can do actions. Opportunist does require your target to be without any defensive tokens.

PtL is very useful defensively especially if you have access to boost and barrel roll actions.

I am still not saying that Opportunist is a bad upgrade and if even one of its costs were reduced I could find lots of places to use it. But as it is for one point more than PtL I think I would usually prefer PtL, and you can't have both.

I would like to try Tycho with opportunist though. My question is will he be better than Tycho with PtL.

Again, swarming Opportunist creates very difficult decisions for your opponent. It's why I like it with 4 Black Squadron TIEs. Against higher PS, does the opponent spend that focus to add another hit, only to face 4 Fighters that now have the power of an Interceptor? Tough decisions, and I like my opponent being forced to make them.

One big drawback I find with Opportunist is that most of the pilots I want to put it on have high PS. This means it's best to build your squad so that your Opportunist fires last out of all your ships. That way the enemy is most likely to have shed their tokens.

That being said, there are ways around this. For example, I'm hoping to try the following squad soon:

-Wedge (Swarm Tactics) = 31

-Ibtisam (HLC, Opp) = 39

-Blue (HLC) = 29

For a total of 99. Wedge Swarms up the Blue, which will hopefully result in the opponent spending his tokens. Then Ibtisam can engage the Opportunist, fire 5 dice with the HLC and reroll one because of the stress and his pilot ability.

Opportunist is a natural fit for Jax, against Reb ships it's quite easy to make use of, because they lose their ability to even take a focus action in the first place.

I like Opportunist on Jax, maybe even above PtL for the reason stated above. He generates the ability to stop focus use for himself.

Beyond that, I'm not sure I like it at all.

Benifit

- 1 more attack dice

Another benefit: an opponent who wants to avoid triggering Opportunist is locked into either focus or evade as an action choice, and can't spend that focus token on offense until the ship with Opportunist has attacked.

And another: you don't have to activate Opportunist until all maneuvers have been executed and (almost) all actions have been performed. That means much more information about the state of the game.

You've outlined the "inconsistency" of Opportunist as a cost relative to PTL, and I'm not sure I agree: your opponent can in many cases deny you the the extra die, but in doing so, he or she allows you to dictate your targets' choices about which action to use and when to spend tokens, and possibly even maneuvering choices. Whether or not you get the extra die, you're gaining an advantage--and sometimes a substantial one.

Opportunist works best on lower level pilots (Sabers, for example) who can pick off exposed ships. I have playtested it a bit and it does create wonky scenarios when you have a higher level killer (like a HLC Krassis, Gunner-equipped Kath or Boba, etc.) that set up lower ships. Additionally, Rebels shooting behind Wes Jansson will murder things with Opportunist.

Opportunist SHINES on Ibtisam since she gets better with stress. With a HLC and keeping her back, she should have her pick of targets as well; bound to be one open.

But really, it's the threat factor. People will not use focus/evade if you have a couple other Opportunist ships down the line, essentially wasting actions. Hard to math-wing that effect, if used well. A couple Black Squadron TIE's in the named swarm might do quite well with Opportunist.

Ibi with Opp + Sensor Jammer paired with Garven/Luke/Horton and Wedge is a nice 3 ship squad imo.