Rexler Brath can spend a Focus Token in two different ways offensively.

1. He can spend it in the traditional manner, to turn all eyeball results into explosion results.
2. He can spend it to flip any face-down damage cards he dealt to a ship face-up.

Now, here's my question: At which point is using option 2 expected to result in more damage than using option 1?

That is to say, the odds of drawing certain crits will sometimes outweigh the odds of converting more eyes to damage. How often is this?

FACTS:

• Rexler Brath has 3 attack dice.
  
• Attack dice have a Hollow Explosion face, 3 Explosion faces, 2 Eyeball faces, and 2 Blank faces.
  
• The damage deck holds 33 cards: 7 Direct Hits!, and 2 of each of the others. Some of these others deal conditional damage, or have a chance to deal extra damage before resolution.
  
• Rexler Brath's ability is written ambiguously, so it may or may not be able to keep face-up damage cards on pilots with Determination, or pilots in dire need of a good waxing.

It depends a lot on what he is fighting against. I prefer the hits when facing a high agility ship.

I think it is wrong to focus on the extra damage of the crits with Rexlar or Maarek. Extra damage is nice, but some of the annoying crits may be more helpful long term.

Simple answer.

Against smaller ships go for as many hits on the dice as possible. Against Huge ships, take the crits every time.

Assuming their shields are gone of course.

His ability isn't ambiguous: flipping and drawing are different, so he certainly bypasses Determination, Chewbacca, and similar effects.

As for the rest, it depends on the number of hit and crit results rolled versus the number of defense dice that will be rolled (plus the token state of your target). I would only spend the focus on his ability if it's reasonably likely that I'll hit anyway.

The question is, at what point do you take a chance and just re-roll the eyeballs with Predator?

Or give him a HLC for 4 attack dice no matter what range he's at. Combine with Jonus and throw in some Ties and you've got yourself a list.

I assumed it was mostly for those times when you get hits and blanks. When focus turns up, then I guess it's a judgment call but some of those effects are brutal.

When focus turns up, then I guess it's a judgment call but some of those effects are brutal.

Thus the question. I want some mathematical help with my Judgement

I think that if you roll a focus or two you are going to use the token like normal. The great thing about his ability is that if you shoot and don't need it then you still have another use for the token.

The question will not be what is the best way to use the focus token offensively, but should you save the token to use on defense if you didn't need it on your attack.

For ships on low HP, I'll just gor for the extra damage. But against low agility, high HP ships like a Y-Wing, YT-1300 or Lambda, I would be inclined to go with crits. Particularly so on the YT where it will form a large part of the opponent's fleet.

The problem is, when you roll your attack dice, you never know if the attack will hit or not, especially when the defender has not rolled the dice yet.

The problem is, when you roll your attack dice, you never know if the attack will hit or not, especially when the defender has not rolled the dice yet.

Exactly.

The problem is, when you roll your attack dice, you never know if the attack will hit or not, especially when the defender has not rolled the dice yet.

Exactly.

Yes and no. If you're up against a high agility ship, it also normally has a low HP count. for those targets the crit would generally be less useful and going for simple extra damage is the better option. Against a one agility ship, if you score two hits, you know one is going through and you can choose to use the focus to flip a card if the target is suitable (again low HP targets should probably just be destroyed as a dead ship is a less of a threat than a crippled ship).

So for me I would attack and make a call first and foremost if I want to use the focus to generate extra hits depending on what I rolled. I would also consider if I should be saving that focus for defense instead. After that I would consider if my role is guaranteed to bypass the target's defense and make a call on whether it is worth it try for a crit (high HP target).

Agree with 5-Cents. The solution is Rexler + HLC + Jonus. At the action step, take focus and keep it for Rexler ability. It's expensive point but it's cool.

For ships on low HP, I'll just gor for the extra damage. But against low agility, high HP ships like a Y-Wing, YT-1300 or Lambda, I would be inclined to go with crits. Particularly so on the YT where it will form a large part of the opponent's fleet.

And especially on chewie, because your opponent is counting on his little crit-proof tank. I cannot wait to educate someone otherwise.

But besides extra damage, there are many other crits that are huge game changers.

Damaged Engine: Great on many ships, from A-Wings to YTs. Especially large ships, whose large bases can carry them too far away from where they need to be if they're forced into banking all the time.

Injured Pilot: Hey, remember that one pilot ability your opponent was building his entire squad around? Ha! Me too! Wasn't it adorable? My favorite part was the look on his face when his entire plan fell to nothing...

Damaged Sensor Array: Say goodbye to being useful, and hello to spending 3 turns circling the battle trying to get your ability to target lock or evade back. If you survive that long. Combine with Saboteur for more hilarity.

Blinded Pilot: BWAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAAAAHAHAAAAAAAAA...

Structural Damage: Combine with Outmaneuver, and even an X-Wing rolls nothing.

So I don't think the usefulness can be totally quantified in terms of strict damage dealt per shot. Landing three hits on a y-wing can hurt, but blowing off its ion turret? Priceless.

For ships on low HP, I'll just gor for the extra damage. But against low agility, high HP ships like a Y-Wing, YT-1300 or Lambda, I would be inclined to go with crits. Particularly so on the YT where it will form a large part of the opponent's fleet.

And especially on chewie, because your opponent is counting on his little crit-proof tank. I cannot wait to educate someone otherwise.

But besides extra damage, there are many other crits that are huge game changers.

Damaged Engine: Great on many ships, from A-Wings to YTs. Especially large ships, whose large bases can carry them too far away from where they need to be if they're forced into banking all the time.

Injured Pilot: Hey, remember that one pilot ability your opponent was building his entire squad around? Ha! Me too! Wasn't it adorable? My favorite part was the look on his face when his entire plan fell to nothing...

Damaged Sensor Array: Say goodbye to being useful, and hello to spending 3 turns circling the battle trying to get your ability to target lock or evade back. If you survive that long. Combine with Saboteur for more hilarity.

Blinded Pilot: BWAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAAAAHAHAAAAAAAAA...

Structural Damage: Combine with Outmaneuver, and even an X-Wing rolls nothing.

So I don't think the usefulness can be totally quantified in terms of strict damage dealt per shot. Landing three hits on a y-wing can hurt, but blowing off its ion turret? Priceless.

You forgot my favorite way to make a HWK/Y-Wing ragequit: Munitions Failure.

Oh, that ion/blaster turret that your ship is useless without? Guess what I blew up..... (Also fun to watch pop up against Blue Thunder, particularly if it was summoned with a Proton Bomb. Goodbye 7 point upgrade...)

For ships on low HP, I'll just gor for the extra damage. But against low agility, high HP ships like a Y-Wing, YT-1300 or Lambda, I would be inclined to go with crits. Particularly so on the YT where it will form a large part of the opponent's fleet.

And especially on chewie, because your opponent is counting on his little crit-proof tank. I cannot wait to educate someone otherwise.

But besides extra damage, there are many other crits that are huge game changers.

Damaged Engine: Great on many ships, from A-Wings to YTs. Especially large ships, whose large bases can carry them too far away from where they need to be if they're forced into banking all the time.

Injured Pilot: Hey, remember that one pilot ability your opponent was building his entire squad around? Ha! Me too! Wasn't it adorable? My favorite part was the look on his face when his entire plan fell to nothing...

Damaged Sensor Array: Say goodbye to being useful, and hello to spending 3 turns circling the battle trying to get your ability to target lock or evade back. If you survive that long. Combine with Saboteur for more hilarity.

Blinded Pilot: BWAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAAAAHAHAAAAAAAAA...

Structural Damage: Combine with Outmaneuver, and even an X-Wing rolls nothing.

So I don't think the usefulness can be totally quantified in terms of strict damage dealt per shot. Landing three hits on a y-wing can hurt, but blowing off its ion turret? Priceless.

You forgot my favorite way to make a HWK/Y-Wing ragequit: Munitions Failure.

Oh, that ion/blaster turret that your ship is useless without? Guess what I blew up..... (Also fun to watch pop up against Blue Thunder, particularly if it was summoned with a Proton Bomb. Goodbye 7 point upgrade...)

well actually i did sorta mention it at the end, just not by name. Didn't feel like mentioning every single critical hit.

I was a big fan of Rexler when I first saw his ability, but now I am not that impressed. In almost all the examples I can think of against small or large ships, more damage from a focus token, rather than flipping up crits is better. His ability comes into its own when you have no focus, but roll natural hits, then it's a no brainer to flip them.

Against huge ships, flipping vs extra damage is looking better due to the severity of huge ship crits.

In a normal 100 pt dogfight, I think i'll be looking at the other Defender Pilots over Rexler due to points cost vs ability payback.

I think you gotta go for the sure damage with the normal focus. Better to be dead quickly then alive with some possible crippling effects from crits. Plus hoping for direct hit crits to make up for the damage lost by not spending the focus on hits is asking for a lot.

As others have said huge ships might be the one exception, or maybe 1 agility ships when firing at range 1.

EDIT: And obviously if you don't roll any focus, then using it to turn up crits is good. I'm just saying if you do roll any focus you should probably spend it on hits.

Option 2 results in more damage when you roll no focus results. There are 7 direct hits and two minor explosions in the deck. That means there is 33+7+1 total damage in the crit deck, for an average of ~1.24 damage per crit. If you have at least 1 focus result, then you know spending the focus token normally is at least +1 damage. For Rexler's ability to produce that much damage, you need to get 4 or more hits through.

Direct Hit is nice, but it's not the only nasty crit. Structural Damage, Weapon Malfunction. Blinded Pilot, Damaged Sensor Array, etc At PS8, there is a good chance that you shot before your target so you can really mess with his turn with the good crit. Should you always use his ability? Of course not.

-If I think it will be better to keep it for defense, I will. At 37+pts, you can bet I'll do my best to stay alive.

-If there is good chances that my damages will bounce on shield anyway, I'll use the focus to hit one more time.

-What is the agility and tokens of the defender? Against a 2-3 Agility ship+ focus or evade, I'll use it to hit. Against a 1-2 agility ship, odds are I'll keep it for his ability.

-How many focus result did I roll? If I rolled 2+, I'll use it to modify my roll. If I roll zero, obviously there is no question to ask. If I rolled one, see above conditions.