Ok so the auto blaster has a funky rule not letting any evade dice be rolled right, and I get that getting into range 1 is not easy plus also dangerous but really are they that bad that they have no use?

Krasis with a sizemic charge and recon specialist sounds like natural fit with an auto blaster or am I missing something ?

Green dice are rolled, just the green dice just can't be used to cancel [hit] results (but you can cancel [crit] results before [hit] results against the autoblaster).

The problem is that the autoblaster can only be used at range 1. I believe every ship that can equip a cannon has a 3 primary weapon value, and at range 1 gets to roll 4 red dice. Against any ship below 3 agility, it is probably better to roll the 4 dice of the primary at range 1 than the autoblaster, even if [hit] results can't be canceled by the green dice. The 3 agility ships will usually be able to stay out of range 1 due to dials and boost or barrel rolls.

For 5 points, usually you won't see enough effective use to make it a worth-while upgrade. Most prefer the control offered by the ion cannon (which can be a great setup for the seismic charge), or the 4 attack dice of the heavy laser cannon (which negates the bonus die the defender gets at range 3).

They are too expensive really, that's basically the long and short of it.

You might be able to fix it with a modification upgrade that increases range on secondary weapons, but that would make Major Rhymer obsolete. You might restrict that to cannons only, but you wouldn't want an HLC shooting at you from range 4 so that's a concern now that the Corvette has introduced that range.

You also don't want a superspecific upgrade just for the Autoblaster as then it would still be too expensive.

There are a few current pilots who might use it to their benefit, but it's clunky and takes too many points that would be better spent elsewhere.

Maybe in future waves we'll see pilots who could use the autoblaster to good effect, but until then it's one of those cards people like Sable will wistfully look at, pondering how to put it to good use.

The autoblaster will be useful if there's ever a 2-dice ship that's cheap enough (including the 5 points for the gun) to be reasonably efficient. The fatal flaw with the autoblaster is that the only ships that can take it usually do almost as much damage with primary weapons, the hypothetical new ship would always do much better with the autoblaster if it can get into range.

And of course there's kind of a niche role if you expect lots of green dice (stealth TIEs, etc), but the problem with that is ships with enough green dice to make the autoblaster effective tend to also have the maneuverability to stay out of range 1.

Cheers guys, I see what I was missing. Such a shame though, sounds good in theory . It's just sad you win a shiny new toy and you want to get the most out of it. I have been the sort of player to run unusual list and I like to make things work. Went 3 and 1 with a list with vader tie advance, boba fett and 2 ap . Just got them to gel realy well but I don't think I could make the auto blaster worth it

But any two dice ship with a cannon upgrade's going to be jumping at Heavy Laser Cannon and four dice at R2-R3 for two more points.

But any two dice ship with a cannon upgrade's going to be jumping at Heavy Laser Cannon and four dice at R2-R3 for two more points.

Unless one of those ships has an ability that triggers at range 1.

Not sure how well this would work in practice, but theoretically Rexlor Brath could get great use out of it, especially with Predator. The hits you roll could not be cancelled, thus making it an easier choice to use your Focus token to turn those into crits. If you roll 2 hits and a focus (even after reroll), then as long as you're impacting hull it might be much more worth it to use his ability.

Again, just theory. I'd like to try it out some time. Also, I imagine it's much more effective against high evade ships like TIEs and A-Wings.

Not sure how well this would work in practice, but theoretically Rexlor Brath could get great use out of it, especially with Predator. The hits you roll could not be cancelled, thus making it an easier choice to use your Focus token to turn those into crits. If you roll 2 hits and a focus (even after reroll), then as long as you're impacting hull it might be much more worth it to use his ability.

Again, just theory. I'd like to try it out some time. Also, I imagine it's much more effective against high evade ships like TIEs and A-Wings.

I've tried it. It's an attractive combo but very expensive, and the Autoblaster's major handicap remains: the ships against which it's particularly effective (that is, stuff with 3+ Agility) also all have flexible dials and access to at least one of barrel roll or boost. So it's still very hard to get them in range for the Autoblaster, since your opponent knows you have it and has a very good reason to avoid letting you take that Range 1 shot.

Yes, that is true. That is why I advocate Brath. Not very many ships move after him, even in the meta. And really, everyone has reason to stay out of range 1 of me… doesn't mean they get to do it.

This is a post I wrote in another thread about Autoblaster:

Mathematically, the Autoblaster nets you less than a single hit more than a focused 4 die Range 1 attack, on average. It's easily defensible, as they can purposefully give evades to any ship in front of you. It can be difficult to get any ship that can equip Autoblaster within Range to use it anyway, unless you spend four MORE points for an Engine Upgrade. If you're spending five points on an upgrade, you've wasted it if you haven't used it every turn your ship is alive. Therefore, it becomes a NINE point upgrade to make it any sort of consistently reliable. The benefit is already overcosted at 5 points.

You really are better off just taking your four die attack and being done with it. If you want more hits, Take Opportunist. It's cheaper, and is far more reliable than Autoblaster.

We just need to hope that future material makes the Autoblaster more attractive than it is currently. I'm not sure what, but it's possible there are things coming later that make us say, " so that's the autoblaster's niche ".

Hypothetically, if you saw a ship that had multiple cannon slots, do you think you could justify taking autoblaster with say… ion cannon to secure that range 1 shot? Assuming the ship was cheaply costed (with the designers knowing people would be putting a lot of points worth of cannons on the thing).

Because if this is the case, I think we can see a potential slot for the TIE Avenger.

But any two dice ship with a cannon upgrade's going to be jumping at Heavy Laser Cannon and four dice at R2-R3 for two more points.

Unless one of those ships has an ability that triggers at range 1.

Fair point but I doubt it'll beat four dice at 2 and 3.

But any two dice ship with a cannon upgrade's going to be jumping at Heavy Laser Cannon and four dice at R2-R3 for two more points.

This is mostly true BUT if you had a very nimble ship that only hit with 1 or 2 dice as a primary attack Autoblaster could work almost as well as the HLC. The the thing is that it will need to be the kind of ship that gets close and can stay close but those ships may also be the ones with the easiest time sitting at R3.

But any two dice ship with a cannon upgrade's going to be jumping at Heavy Laser Cannon and four dice at R2-R3 for two more points.

This is mostly true BUT if you had a very nimble ship that only hit with 1 or 2 dice as a primary attack Autoblaster could work almost as well as the HLC. The the thing is that it will need to be the kind of ship that gets close and can stay close but those ships may also be the ones with the easiest time sitting at R3.

are there any cannon carrying 2 attack ships?

But any two dice ship with a cannon upgrade's going to be jumping at Heavy Laser Cannon and four dice at R2-R3 for two more points.

This is mostly true BUT if you had a very nimble ship that only hit with 1 or 2 dice as a primary attack Autoblaster could work almost as well as the HLC. The the thing is that it will need to be the kind of ship that gets close and can stay close but those ships may also be the ones with the easiest time sitting at R3.

are there any cannon carrying 2 attack ships?

not yet.

No 2 dice cannon ships and I personally think they're unlikely.

If there's ever a way to make Autoblasters playable, it'l be something that gives it a larger range (longer range or a non-normal arc) that gives the defender bonus green dice.

What about autoblasters versus cloaked ships? It's a niche (and a short range shot), but it could be a situation they're worth it in. Put one on Ten Numb and then they can't evade one of the crits either.

I suspect it's a great theory that falls short in practice, but who knows?

I dunno. I've been cooked by shuttles that have autoblasters, because I am not used to dealing with them. If you know your opponent, then they can be quite deadly as they sometimes don't consider the shuttle's dead stop maneuver, or else they know that the shuttle has no long range secondary weapon and underestimate it. It's not for lack of piloting skill; I'm quite handy with X-wings and B-wings, and can do Y-wings and A-wings in a pinch. But my opponents almost never use a shuttle, so I don't always expect the ship to suddenly stop. Almost lost a B-wing that way last Friday.

I think a named firespray with auto blaster and predator could be interesting. Charge in as fast as possible and see if your opponent meets you head on or not.

But 'AutoBlaster' sounds cool!!

What about autoblasters versus cloaked ships? It's a niche (and a short range shot), but it could be a situation they're worth it in. Put one on Ten Numb and then they can't evade one of the crits either.

You're back to the maneuverability problem. It does better than a 4-dice primary attack at range 1, but a cloaked ship is so incredibly unpredictable that you'll be lucky just to get a shot on it at all. Getting range 1 consistently is going to be nearly impossible, so you're paying quite a few points for a weapon that you may or may not even get to use.

The fluff talks about the high rate of fire on the autoblasters, but it's still only three dice.

A revised edition could have the text "perform this attack twice on the same target. You may not perform another attack this round".