Another newbie question....

Aside from running a Rebel ship that can be equipped with R2-D2, does it necessarily make any difference whether you equip the hull upgrade vs.the shield upgrade? I'm struggling to find other synergies that would make it worthwhile to spend the extra build point on the shield. Thanks again for your help.

The most important advantage of shield over hull is that when taking damage, shields negate the influence of crits.

personally i think the hull/shield upgrades are one point overpriced. Not that my opinion matters as they have already released the cards.

With that being said, there are some pilots that might be worth dumping 4 points on a shield or hull upgrade besides someone with just r2-d2. Biggs comes to mind, also any pilot that your list is built and relies upon might be a prime candidate. I wouldn't build a list with 4 ships that all have shield upgrades (probably buy a whole nother fighter for those 16pts).

That extra point does protect you against potential critical damage.

R5-P9 has synergy with shields as well.

Draw their fire is much more useful with a shield upgrade than a hull upgrade, to cite another example.

I view it like this,

1 extra shield for agro

1 extra hull for life.

Most people I play when I tell them something has an extra shield it makes them go crazy if hull not so much. I know that I love the extra shield. Next time you play a game work in the hull and shield on two different ships you will see what I mean.

Thanks, all. I have been flirting with using shield on Biggs or Luke with R2-D2, as well as Y-wings, but for an Imperial build, I'm still thinking about how it would be best used. That's compounded all the more with the fact that I got the upgrade cards with the Imperial Aces set.

As was mentioned shield is the way to go to avoid crits as well as if you have a droid that let's you recover shields. However for a point less you could get a hull and a cheap droid for the price of shield and sometimes there's instances where I'm list build and I just don't have enough points for a shield but I do for a hull. So it all depends really. I still am partial to shields tho. Nothing like pulling a double damage crit to ruin your day.

Another reason for shield upgrade is a royal guard tie. It cannot equip two hull upgrades. But it can equip one hull upgrade and one shield upgrade.

On Porkins the Hull upgrade is much better.

Basides obvious syneriges both upgrades are quite nice on ships with 3 evade dice - the more green dice you roll the more valuable those upgrades get. Kind of obvious but - either of these on a falcon, hawk, B or Y are a complete waste. Both on a Royal Guard TIE are nice if you can afford the points. Not sure if that's an overkill though.

I'm still wanting to try something like tripple RG + PTL + title + SU + HU... which could be potentially weaker than tripple Defenders (trading nice dial, boost and PTL for more shields and that white K-turn)

Basides obvious syneriges both upgrades are quite nice on ships with 3 evade dice - the more green dice you roll the more valuable those upgrades get. Kind of obvious but - either of these on a falcon, hawk, B or Y are a complete waste. Both on a Royal Guard TIE are nice if you can afford the points. Not sure if that's an overkill though.

To me I understand what you mean by saying that it's more valuable with a ship with higher agility since your less likely to lose one of those shield or hull upgrades. I dunno if I agree exactly with that. Since you have a higher agility in the first place you shouldn't be taking as many hits therefore you shouldn't need to equip a hu or su whereas a ship with lower agility will obviously be taking more hits and therefore would need as many hit points as possible to compensate. I don't think they are a waste on b's or falcons it's more so that they already have a lot of hit points so a shield or hull upgrade is not really needed. I personally use them on xwings and once in awhile throw it on an awing to make it a little less fragile. That's just my opinion and I'm not saying anyone is wrong since everyone is entitled to their own so it's just my 2 cents

My theory is that for already shield-less ships such as most TIES I would take a hull upgrade as your shield is unlikely to be hit by a crit, while with a rebel ship or a shielded imperial that extra shield is much more likely to stop a crit hitting your hull.

Therefore I would tend to prefer hull on imps and shields on rebels, especially if you can pull off some shield regenerating shenanigans with astromechs. I may be more inclined to drop an extra hull on any more valuable 2 hull ships that I use such as Tycho or Corran Horn.

My theory is that for already shield-less ships such as most TIES I would take a hull upgrade as your shield is unlikely to be hit by a crit, while with a rebel ship or a shielded imperial that extra shield is much more likely to stop a crit hitting your hull.

Therefore I would tend to prefer hull on imps and shields on rebels, especially if you can pull off some shield regenerating shenanigans with astromechs. I may be more inclined to drop an extra hull on any more valuable 2 hull ships that I use such as Tycho or Corran Horn.

That's exactly my thinking when I want to use those upgrades.

I'm pretty much of the opinion that HU > SU in almost all cases. Even in the R2D2 case - it'd be rare that when playing against a good player he'd let you disengage and heal 3 shields anyways. And as far as stopping a crit, 5/8 of the dice results are hits (hit+focus), and 1/8 are crits, so they'll happen 1/6 as often as a hit... but being that they're the last thing to be cancelled, a crit getting through is a greater chance... But even with all that said, I don't think it's worth the additional 33% upcharge when the only time it makes a difference is when that specific hit is a crit.

Plus, hull gives you protection against proton bombs as well. And in the case of the HWK, makes you immune to the stress aspect of the Flechette Torps.

I'm pretty much of the opinion that HU > SU in almost all cases. Even in the R2D2 case - it'd be rare that when playing against a good player he'd let you disengage and heal 3 shields anyways. And as far as stopping a crit, 5/8 of the dice results are hits (hit+focus), and 1/8 are crits, so they'll happen 1/6 as often as a hit... but being that they're the last thing to be cancelled, a crit getting through is a greater chance... But even with all that said, I don't think it's worth the additional 33% upcharge when the only time it makes a difference is when that specific hit is a crit.

Plus, hull gives you protection against proton bombs as well. And in the case of the HWK, makes you immune to the stress aspect of the Flechette Torps.

I'm pretty much of the opinion that HU > SU in almost all cases. Even in the R2D2 case - it'd be rare that when playing against a good player he'd let you disengage and heal 3 shields anyways. And as far as stopping a crit, 5/8 of the dice results are hits (hit+focus), and 1/8 are crits, so they'll happen 1/6 as often as a hit... but being that they're the last thing to be cancelled, a crit getting through is a greater chance... But even with all that said, I don't think it's worth the additional 33% upcharge when the only time it makes a difference is when that specific hit is a crit.

Plus, hull gives you protection against proton bombs as well. And in the case of the HWK, makes you immune to the stress aspect of the Flechette Torps.

I've found that a nice manoeuvre, if you can pull it off is to fly biggs with another high value target carrying R2-D2. For the first flyby you want to keep Biggs out of shot and allow your opponent to go for your high value target with 1 or two of your ships, then in subsequent turns bring biggs into the mix in full and allow your other ship to heal up. It works well with Luke as he is nice and defensive all by himself.

To me I understand what you mean by saying that it's more valuable with a ship with higher agility since your less likely to lose one of those shield or hull upgrades. I dunno if I agree exactly with that. Since you have a higher agility in the first place you shouldn't be taking as many hits therefore you shouldn't need to equip a hu or su whereas a ship with lower agility will obviously be taking more hits and therefore would need as many hit points as possible to compensate. I don't think they are a waste on b's or falcons it's more so that they already have a lot of hit points so a shield or hull upgrade is not really needed. I personally use them on xwings and once in awhile throw it on an awing to make it a little less fragile. That's just my opinion and I'm not saying anyone is wrong since everyone is entitled to their own so it's just my 2 cents

I can see where you are coming from, but I'm sorry thats not how it works. See it like this; adding a HP/SP to a Falcon/B increases its survivability by an additional 1/13th or 1/8th. On a Tie increases your survivability by 1/3rd for the same 3 or 4 points, though on a less powerfull ship.

Adding HP/SP to a X or A is absolutely viable though, but I wouldn't bother with the AGI 1 ships.

To me I understand what you mean by saying that it's more valuable with a ship with higher agility since your less likely to lose one of those shield or hull upgrades. I dunno if I agree exactly with that. Since you have a higher agility in the first place you shouldn't be taking as many hits therefore you shouldn't need to equip a hu or su whereas a ship with lower agility will obviously be taking more hits and therefore would need as many hit points as possible to compensate. I don't think they are a waste on b's or falcons it's more so that they already have a lot of hit points so a shield or hull upgrade is not really needed. I personally use them on xwings and once in awhile throw it on an awing to make it a little less fragile. That's just my opinion and I'm not saying anyone is wrong since everyone is entitled to their own so it's just my 2 cents

I can see where you are coming from, but I'm sorry thats not how it works. See it like this; adding a HP/SP to a Falcon/B increases its survivability by an additional 1/13th or 1/8th. On a Tie increases your survivability by 1/3rd for the same 3 or 4 points, though on a less powerfull ship.

Adding HP/SP to a X or A is absolutely viable though, but I wouldn't bother with the AGI 1 ships.

Well, the other aspect is point value...

On a YT, you're adding 3/4 points to a 42-46 point ship, that's 6.5-9.5% increase in cost for a 7.6% increase in health. Cost/Health ratio = .86-1.25

On a TIE, you're adding 3/4 points to a 12-18 point ship, that's a 16.7-33% increase in cost for a 33% increase in health... Cost/Health ratio = .51-1

Sooo... as you can see, there are instances where it is more COST effective to add it to a TIE than to a YT... but on average, it is more cost effective to add it to a YT.

Now, as for 3agi vs. 1 agi... It is better spent on the 3agi. For as much as you want to say that the ship won't be getting hit and therefore the extra hull is useless... the flip side is that the ship will get hit, and will die... but it's much harder to do a single damage to a 3agi ship than a 1agi ship. As such, you'll get more mileage out of the HU/SU on a 3agi ship than you would on a 1agi ship. Finally, a 1agi ship is much less likely to be sitting at 1 hull remaining, indicating that the 1 extra health didn't actually make a difference.

Talking of Guard Interceptors, try out Carnor Jax with both Hull and Shield upgrades... dude is a nightmare to take down due to his ability and can really bog down an enemy formation that is silly enough to close to range 1 of him.

Talking of Guard Interceptors, try out Carnor Jax with both Hull and Shield upgrades... dude is a nightmare to take down due to his ability and can really bog down an enemy formation that is silly enough to close to range 1 of him.

Or if you want to be super trollish, run Turr + Hull + Shield: "oh, I can't escape your arc? That's ok, you still have to eat away at my 5HP before I'm gone."

I really never buy either, favoring stealth. But for rebels with the droid reparing shield, a shield upgrade , you cant go wrong.

Talking of Guard Interceptors, try out Carnor Jax with both Hull and Shield upgrades... dude is a nightmare to take down due to his ability and can really bog down an enemy formation that is silly enough to close to range 1 of him.

Or if you want to be super trollish, run Turr + Hull + Shield: "oh, I can't escape your arc? That's ok, you still have to eat away at my 5HP before I'm gone."

Since I'm the one lending the miniatures to my friends, I can't play something like this. I would be left to play alone....

personally i think the hull/shield upgrades are one point overpriced. Not that my opinion matters as they have already released the cards.

An X-wing with Hull Upgrade's gonna cost more than an X-wing with 4 base hull, simply because the upgrade's modifying the ship. A "natural" boost built into the ship's going to be cheaper than modding boost onto it.

Right now I'd say Hull Upgrade all the way unless you're shield regenning. The true advantage of Shield Upgrade is that it's not Hull Upgrade and thus you can put it and Hull on an RG TIE.

The true value of shield upgrade is that it goes on all ships and negs a crit