I might have been able to sell you on it before Preditor came out. Basically a re-roll is almost as good as a extra dice. The only time an extra dice is better than a re-roll is if all the original rolls are good enough that you don't want a re-roll.

True, but a bit misleading. That is, you're right that (against PS3+) Predator and Opportunist do the same thing unless you would have maxed out your attack dice without the upgrades. But that's actually not a terribly unusual occurrence: with 3 Attack, for instance, it happens 12.5% of the time without an action to buff your attack and 42.2% of the time if you do have an action. And that means that, when compared to Predator, Opportunist is always more effective--and it's drastically more effective if you have another action (and/or token) to back it up.

Now you have to balance that against the fact that Predator is triggered with every attack, doesn't cause stress, and is a point cheaper. But to me it's not a terribly clear-cut decision.

It's useful where you're almost garuanteed full normal hits.

Remember that even in normal games, people don't necessarily have a focus token every turn, and you can pull opportunist 'on spec' without having to commit an action to it, and that you can exceed the normal damage limit instead of just getting closer to it.

Along the same lines, just seeing Opportunist on one of your ships has an effect. Your opponent will be less likely to spend actions on things other than focus/evade (like barrel roll, boost, or cloak)--Predator, and other offensive upgrades, don't have a decision-making component and accordingly can't change the way your opponent flies.

I might have been able to sell you on it before Preditor came out. Basically a re-roll is almost as good as a extra dice. The only time an extra dice is better than a re-roll is if all the original rolls are good enough that you don't want a re-roll.

True, but a bit misleading. That is, you're right that (against PS3+) Predator and Opportunist do the same thing unless you would have maxed out your attack dice without the upgrades. But that's actually not a terribly unusual occurrence: with 3 Attack, for instance, it happens 12.5% of the time without an action to buff your attack and 42.2% of the time if you do have an action. And that means that, when compared to Predator, Opportunist is always more effective--and it's drastically more effective if you have another action (and/or token) to back it up.Now you have to balance that against the fact that Predator is triggered with every attack, doesn't cause stress, and is a point cheaper. But to me it's not a terribly clear-cut decision.

It's useful where you're almost garuanteed full normal hits. Remember that even in normal games, people don't necessarily have a focus token every turn, and you can pull opportunist 'on spec' without having to commit an action to it, and that you can exceed the normal damage limit instead of just getting closer to it.

Along the same lines, just seeing Opportunist on one of your ships has an effect. Your opponent will be less likely to spend actions on things other than focus/evade (like barrel roll, boost, or cloak)--Predator, and other offensive upgrades, don't have a decision-making component and accordingly can't change the way your opponent flies.

Good rundown and I like your last point: the behavioral effect a specific pilot/upgrade/ability can have on the opponents maneuver/setup/strategy and actions. I often miss that point being addressed with proper attention

you can pair it with heavy laser cannons, B-wings come to mind. Probably not worth it on interceptors.

I would not say that. Took second in a tourney running 2 Royals with PTL and 2 Sabers with Opp. You can run them all together for mowing the lawn or run them in 2 Royal/Saber fire teams. The play is to fire on a target and get them to use their focus tokens, then Opp bats clean up and hopefully drops them, or puts some big hurt on them.

I lost 1 match of 4, with one match taking only one hit (that I allowed through to keep the focus). Granted the dice seem to favor me some. Opp is a solid upgrade on a low PS ship, as if you can fire on someone that has been shot and uses their tokens up, its very useful with focus and focused fire.

you can pair it with heavy laser cannons, B-wings come to mind. Probably not worth it on interceptors.

I would not say that. Took second in a tourney running 2 Royals with PTL and 2 Sabers with Opp. You can run them all together for mowing the lawn or run them in 2 Royal/Saber fire teams. The play is to fire on a target and get them to use their focus tokens, then Opp bats clean up and hopefully drops them, or puts some big hurt on them.

I lost 1 match of 4, with one match taking only one hit (that I allowed through to keep the focus). Granted the dice seem to favor me some. Opp is a solid upgrade on a low PS ship, as if you can fire on someone that has been shot and uses their tokens up, its very useful with focus and focused fire.

I am glad to hear Opportunist worked in an Empire list. It gives me hope for the card. I might just try it afterall.

you can pair it with heavy laser cannons, B-wings come to mind. Probably not worth it on interceptors.

I would not say that. Took second in a tourney running 2 Royals with PTL and 2 Sabers with Opp. You can run them all together for mowing the lawn or run them in 2 Royal/Saber fire teams. The play is to fire on a target and get them to use their focus tokens, then Opp bats clean up and hopefully drops them, or puts some big hurt on them.

I lost 1 match of 4, with one match taking only one hit (that I allowed through to keep the focus). Granted the dice seem to favor me some. Opp is a solid upgrade on a low PS ship, as if you can fire on someone that has been shot and uses their tokens up, its very useful with focus and focused fire.

I've been thinking of running the same list. Mostly because I want to run a 4 Interceptor list but I don't want to buy two Imperial Aces boxes to get 4 Royal Guard Pilots. It helps keep the Sabre Sqd. Pilots relevant which I think is probably the original idea behind the card.

Soonter would get a focus with that.

Well, obviously the first option is Carnor Jax, but it Works with lowets pilots, because highest could try that the ship use the tokens, so it Works good, greettings.

you can pair it with heavy laser cannons, B-wings come to mind. Probably not worth it on interceptors.

I would not say that. Took second in a tourney running 2 Royals with PTL and 2 Sabers with Opp. You can run them all together for mowing the lawn or run them in 2 Royal/Saber fire teams. The play is to fire on a target and get them to use their focus tokens, then Opp bats clean up and hopefully drops them, or puts some big hurt on them.

I lost 1 match of 4, with one match taking only one hit (that I allowed through to keep the focus). Granted the dice seem to favor me some. Opp is a solid upgrade on a low PS ship, as if you can fire on someone that has been shot and uses their tokens up, its very useful with focus and focused fire.

I've been thinking of running the same list. Mostly because I want to run a 4 Interceptor list but I don't want to buy two Imperial Aces boxes to get 4 Royal Guard Pilots. It helps keep the Sabre Sqd. Pilots relevant which I think is probably the original idea behind the card.

just know you still can get swatted down like a drunk fly. The last match I had with them, they got ate up fast.

Well, obviously the first option is Carnor Jax, but it Works with lowets pilots, because highest could try that the ship use the tokens, so it Works good, greettings.

Well, it doesn't really work with Jax, because even if they can't spend the focus/evade token, Opportunist can only be triggered if they don't have the token.

Of course ships within range 1 of Carnor can't perform focus/evade actions, but since he's PS 8 most ships will have already moved and taken their actions by the time he moves.

I could see it being semi-viable on a Saber Squad pilot, but at that point you'd probably want to just use Predator.

I've been having a lot of fun with this three Rebel ship build powered by Wes and Opportunist:

Wes Janson (29)

Swarm Tactics (2)

R2-D2 (4)

Ibtisam (28)

Predator (3)

Sensor Jammer (4)

Gray Squadron Pilot (20)

Ion Cannon Turret (5)

R2-D6 (1)

Opportunist (4)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

With Ibtisam, Opportunist facilitates her special ability. The all-star has been the Y-Wing. Opportunist makes the math right for ionizing a cloaked Phantom. Opportunist is good times.

Man, the imperial dogma is thick in this thread. I'm glad one guy said it, but let's expand on it. Five dice at range one. Who's the man for the job? Fel, yo. Opportunist triggers a focus, and add a targeting computer and you have five hits in a heart beat. Sure, it's alot of points, but this is one deadly flanker. Just make sure you have one more Ps9 pilot to strip tokens before The Baron takes his shot.