With Wave 4 Sensor Jammer can go on ships with more than 1 Agility. Should this upgrade be more beneficial to ships with higher Agility, less beneficial, or it won't matter?
Math Winger or not, I'm curious what people see as the likely outcome.
With Wave 4 Sensor Jammer can go on ships with more than 1 Agility. Should this upgrade be more beneficial to ships with higher Agility, less beneficial, or it won't matter?
Math Winger or not, I'm curious what people see as the likely outcome.
It's an interesting question, as the psychology of the card doesn't seem to care.
Sensor Jammer effects the Attacker's dice, and basically forces them to spend a focus token when they otherwise wouldn't want to.
If the Red-to-Green die ratio is too high on the Red side, they might decide that spending the focus token isn't worth it.
If the Red-to-Green die ratio is too high on the Green side, they won't throw a focus token away.
However, all of this is decided before the Green dice are rolled, so it truly is quite a pickle.
The agility won't matter, as it will cancel roughly as many unfocused hits on an E-Wing as it would on a B or Shuttle.
It really depends on blockers or other Focus-removers to be effective. Something like an ORS really helps the ability to shine.
The B at range 2 can mitigate 2 damage max per shot (1 successful evade, 1 successful SJ). Beyond that, it still relies on high health to survive.
SJ on the E can help potentially dodge the entire attack.
In the same vein that movement actions are often more beneficial on higher PS ships, will SJ be more beneficial to the tanky B or agile E?
I think the issue of putting it on a high agility ship is that most people don't expect to hit a high agility ship with unmodified dice anyway, on a lower agility ship you still stand a decent chance of hitting even with only one hit result so it forces a decision, against a cloaked phantom you probably already meant to spend the focus offensively.
Sensor Jammer is easily one of my favorite cards. Its best use is after K-Turns, when bumping, or if your opponent has to use actions to maneuver (Barrel Roll, Boost). However, it has other much more subtle effects especially on high-agility ships.
For example. If an opponent attacks and gets one hit, you turn it to a focus. Does he spend the Focus to modify it? Probably not, but the chances were good that if he had, he would have done damage. In fact, a single hit against an agility 3 ship has about a 1/20 chance of getting a point through even if you have focus, and a 1/4 chance of forcing you to spend a focus to avoid that damage. A 1/4 chance of forcing you to spend a token is a fairly big deal, especially if you are being shot repeatedly, and if you don't have a focus that is a 1/4 chance of doing a point of damage.
With 2 hits, you modify one with SJ and your opponent is likely to use his focus. Under those circumstances, you are forcing him to spend a focus for a very marginal return on damage. You have a good chance of evading him entirely, even without a token, and he now lacks his focus for defense.
SJ has a significant return even if your opponent has a focus available, and becomes very powerful if he does not.
Edited by KineticOperator