Hey guys-

Didn't see a thread about this using the search function, so I thought I'd bring it up. I've seen a lot of people recommend Hull Upgrade for a lot of lists. My train of thought, however, is that Shield Upgrade is the much better choice.

Unless you're worried about proton bombs, wouldn't a shield's crit resistance outweigh any benefit an extra hull point could give you?

Yes

To elaborate, who is recommending hull over shields? The only reason I can see is if you don't have the points (they are a different price, right?), or maybe if you don't physically have the SU card. Maybe on an interceptor that was taking both.

If you have the extra point for a shield upgrade instead of a hull upgrade you should obviously take it. However hull upgrade is still good. Yea the shield could cancel a crit, but the odds are low on that.

And of course hull upgrade is the obvious choice for chewie since he can't take crits.

I would always take hull upgrade. The odds of absorbing a crit with the extra shield are pretty low. I'd rather have the innitiative bid or the extra other upgrade. Exception being ships bearing R2-D2.

Considering the Shield vs. Stealth debate the Shield vs. Hull is MUCH easier to quantify: Is the possibility of stopping a Crit worth 1 point (+33% of the cost) above the cost of just taking another hit?

If you can continually recharge shields (R2D2) then the Shield can clearly win but if you are worried about Proton Bombs and other things that directly deal you cards then the Hull upgrade should win. It is everything in between where things get messy.

I would always take hull, unless I'm trying to bleed away the 1 or 2 point to avoid initiative

the reason is simple. The crits in this game are generally not scary whatsoever, and definitely not worth paying 1 point to try and avoid. Sides, the likelihood of that 1 shield blocking a crit hit is already rather questionably low in the first place.

Let's take Soontir Fel for example. The only few crits (except direct hit / minor explosion) that WILL screw up your day are Injured Pilot / Damaged Engine and..... thats about it actually. The rest either do not affect you (eg. munitions failure) or can be fixed via actions. So we are talking about 7+2+4 = 13 out of 33 possible crits, 17 if you want to count Damaged Cockpit and/or Damaged Sensor Array. Which is only roughly 50% of all the crits, on top of whatever chance of that 1 point of shield behind just in place to block a crit rolled by your opponent that didnt get cancelled by your 3 agi + stealth device + focus + evade tokens.

Hull is the better choice on Chewie though, if you were to give him a modification of any sort.

To elaborate, who is recommending hull over shields? The only reason I can see is if you don't have the points (they are a different price, right?), or maybe if you don't physically have the SU card. Maybe on an interceptor that was taking both.

I just read in a different thread that, which I hadn't realized myself, a hull upgrade might put you out of reach of the stressing effect of Flechette Torps.

This would benefit B-wings, X-wings, TIEs, Advanceds and Interceptors.

Flechette Torpedos affects all ships with hull 4 or lower, you need 5 hull or more to avoid it. Even with Hull upgrades, it doesn't matter.

Flechette Torpedos affects all ships with hull 4 or lower, you need 5 hull or more to avoid it. Even with Hull upgrades, it doesn't matter.

Crap, misread.

Okay, so the only ship that might benefit from it is the HWK I guess.

Hull upgrade is preferable for Porkins, since his ability can deal damage directly to his hull.

Flechette Torpedos affects all ships with hull 4 or lower, you need 5 hull or more to avoid it. Even with Hull upgrades, it doesn't matter.

Crap, misread.

Okay, so the only ship that might benefit from it is the HWK I guess.

Nice, I didn't notice that about the HWK, it'll help the HWK alot more.

Flechette Torpedos affects all ships with hull 4 or lower, you need 5 hull or more to avoid it. Even with Hull upgrades, it doesn't matter.

Crap, misread.

Okay, so the only ship that might benefit from it is the HWK I guess.

Nice, I didn't notice that about the HWK, it'll help the HWK alot more.

Keep a ship with Wingman close to Jan, who would otherwise be a Flechette magnet

Do you have the point? Sometimes you have 3 points but you don't have 4. Cheaper is cheaper, that always has a place.

It worth pointing out that if don't start out with any shields than just 1 shield isn't all that likely to cancel a crit. For that purpose it might be worth it to take the cheaper upgrade.

What I am excited to try is both of them. +1 Hull +1 Shields, now it takes 5 hits to kill my interceptor.

Interesting stuff. I knew there had to be some more specific strategies that what I originally posted.

It sounds like hull upgrade will get a lot more useful in later releases.