I've seen a lot of discussion about the offensive boost provided by Lone Wolf, basically "it's Predator, for a point cheaper, but there's some restrictions". That alone is pretty nice, but I really haven't seen anyone discuss the defensive boost it provides. It seems pretty huge, on the right ship, at least.

For me, the obvious usage is on an expensive flanker. My preferred choice would be a TIE Defender, so I'm going to look at that a little more. The high native defense of the TIE Defender really makes this card a big boost. With 3 AGI (4 with range or obstruction), your chances of rolling a blank are pretty good (~75% with 3 dice, ~85% with 4 dice), so you'll get the re-roll most of the time. Mathematically, that's pretty close to getting a straight-up extra die. Furthermore, disregarding Focus, each die is worth 0.375 Evade results. This ends up being 0.28 additional Evades each time you are attacked. Therefore, it will normally take 3-4 attacks against you to net a HP saved by this card. With a ship like the Defender and it's six hit points, your odds are pretty good that it will take quite a few attacks to take it down, so your chances of getting an extra HP out of the card are pretty good. This type of card is especially effective vs. lots of low attack die squads (Z and TIE swarms), as they'll take a lot of attacks to kill a Defender anyway.

To be thorough, I'll not that not every evade result netted from Lone Wolf will save a hit point. Sometimes the attack roll will be negated by the native 3 dice alone, so perhaps I should say that it takes 3-4 otherwise successful attacks to get that extra HP. Still, though, with 6 HP, it should usually take at least 3-4 successful attacks from most ships to take down the Defender anyway. If 1 HP saved doesn't sound like a lot to you, consider that 4 points buys you a Shield upgrade, and that Lone Wolf is only 2 points, and the defensive boost is only part of the card's ability. If you can reliably fulfill the conditions, the card looks to be extremely powerful, particularly in the late game.

I like this card on Luke X-Wing with R2-D2

The thing is, it will be useless mid-game in the current play format, due to you having restricted space to move around in.

Lategame it will be pretty boss however getting there with the Lone Wolf is the challenge.

I like this card on Luke X-Wing with R2-D2

That is a mean combo.

I've had experience running this on the VT-49, and it provided some surprising resiliency to the ship, especially when paired with Isard and Kenkirk. I think the upgrade will shine in the fewer ship lists, rather than sticking it on a flanker as part of a swarm list. The 1-2 range bubble is pretty easy to avoid if you have 4 ships or fewer.

I think Whisper would have a great time with it. Echo might still go for VI.

Assuming that the Lone wolf is not the first ship to get destroyed.

Great for hit and run A-wings. Can't wait to try it on Jake and Tycho.

Its not bad. I know if there is squad with this skill on it, that ship will be high on my priority list. If all that is left at the end game is a ship with Lone Wolf, I think you may as well concede the game.

I also agree with OP, the defensive powers is more impressive to me than the offensive power of the card.

I suggest the card get changed to the following to make what it does clearer:

Dead Wolf:

Opponent must shoot this ship down 1st or concede the game.

(note there is hyperbole in my statement)

Scum and villainy Fett will like this card, maybe. Although perhaps overkill.

The card follows FFG's line that helps smaller squads be competitive. We live in interesting times

I think Whisper would have a great time with it. Echo might still go for VI.

The thing is, it will be useless mid-game in the current play format, due to you having restricted space to move around in.

Lategame it will be pretty boss however getting there with the Lone Wolf is the challenge.

Assuming that the Lone wolf is not the first ship to get destroyed.

Depending on your list, I feel like it's not very likely they go after the Lone Wolf Ship first. Example:

Let's say you have a list with a swarmlet alongside a ship that performs well on its own IE a Firespray, E-wing, or Defender.

It would be most unwise for the enemy's ships to turn and face a single attack, opening themselves to broadside fire from a formation and not being able to return it. In this situation, you would likely lose the Lone Wolf ship, but they would likely lose one and possibly take damage on a second, maybe a third. The Lone Wolf ship not only receives a personal buff, it is bait. You almost WANT the enemy to turn and look at him, so the rest of your ships can just unload. In my opinion, this function is similar to Backstabber. When I play Backstabber, I always pray he dies first, because it means that the enemy has opened a lot of free shots they can't return.

Shame BS doesn't have an EPT, otherwise Lone Wolf would be his bread and butter. But, there IS a Z-95 in Scum and Villainy that gives an extra attack die if he meets the same condition, being outside Range 1-2 of any allies.

When I see the Lonewolf card, I automatically think about Rexler Brath and Vader with engine upgrade. Brath because he's better on his own and the defensive reroll can help him a lot. Vader because that would become one hell of a late game ship.

I think Whisper would have a great time with it. Echo might still go for VI.

The thing is, it will be useless mid-game in the current play format, due to you having restricted space to move around in.

Lategame it will be pretty boss however getting there with the Lone Wolf is the challenge.

Assuming that the Lone wolf is not the first ship to get destroyed.

Lategame it will be pretty boss however getting there with the Lone Wolf is the challenge.

I think Whisper would have a great time with it. Echo might still go for VI.

The thing is, it will be useless mid-game in the current play format, due to you having restricted space to move around in.

Lategame it will be pretty boss however getting there with the Lone Wolf is the challenge.

Assuming that the Lone wolf is not the first ship to get destroyed.

Lategame it will be pretty boss however getting there with the Lone Wolf is the challenge.

The thing is, Brath is often the right first target anyway, because a PS8 Defender is really nasty in the end game in its own right. Lone Wolf helps survive the early game as well, assuming you have him split off. You can play him defensively, saving Focus for defense (which makes Lone Wolf even better) and forcing the opposing squad into bad positions if they want to go after him. If they break off their attack against him, just pull the white K and all of a sudden he's at max attack.

Imagine Lone Wolf Rexler Brath (which I dramatically now dub "The Wolf King") against a Fat Han + Z-95's list, though. The Fat Han shot is really the ONLY one you need to worry about, and it will have a hard enough time getting through his shields, and once it's dead the Z's are almost powerless against AGI 3 with a re-roll. Unfocused, that's about 1.4 damage negated on average. 2 Attack ships will have a hell of a time getting through. As someone (Fnords, I think) pointed out to me in a thread of mine a few days ago, you can do this:

Brath, HLC, Lone Wolf: 46

Howlrunner: 18

AP x3: 36

100 points

So you go after a pretty tough Brath at first. Do you really allow that miniswarm to control position against you unmolested? It will kill it's weight and then some really fast if you're positioning to go after the Defender. If you take on the swarm, Brath and the swarm go after the one or two ships that might pose a threat to Brath in the end game, and once they're dead, you don't even really care if the swarm dies. It's a real crappy choice that has to be made, and the squad can do good things no matter which decision the other side makes.

For 2 points, the defensive boost on this card is indeed unprecedented.

There's one other upgrade card that lets you reroll a defense die, and that's the Flight Instructor, for 4 points. But if the attacker's PS is 3 or higher, you can only reroll a focus result.

...I'd be curious to see how throwing both on Echo would work out.

Echo's EPT isn't an automatic choice of VI like it is for Whisper. When decloaked, the combination of the two likely lets you reroll both evade dice if needed, which should help those poor 4HP. When cloaked, it would almost be hard to get hit.

It would definitely be useful on a Phantom, as you could most easily make sure you triggered its effect.

For further discussion-

Chance of rolling an Evade on Lone Wolf in relation to defensive dice rolled:

(Chance of rolling a blank to re-roll * chance of rolling an Evade on the re-rolled die)

AGI 0: 0

AGI 1: 0.375 * 0.375 = 0.14 extra evades per attack

AGI 2: 0.61 * 0.375 = 0.23

AGI 3: 0.76 * 0.375 = 0.29

AGI 4: 0.85 * 0.375 = 0.32

AGI 5: 0.91 * 0.375 = 0.34

This tells us some interesting things:

First, and most obviously, AGI 0 and AGI 1 probably don't merit Lone Wolf if purchased for its defensive boosts.

Second: Stealth Device might make an interesting choice on an AGI2 ship with LW, as the two cards make each other more powerful

Furthermore, if you reserve your Focus for defense, the AGI 3 odds of getting an extra Evade go to 0.475. The Focus token can only be used once, but it can be reserved until the good roll, so you're likely to net an Evade result every two attacks with a Focused Lone Wolf.

One balancing factor is that, as I've pointed out in other posts, that Range 2 bubble is really big. It has a 440mm diameter, which means it stretches across almost half (48%) of a 3'x3' play space; it's hard to arrange four such bubbles so that none of them overlap.

So you'll often have the Lone Wolf reroll, but by no means always--unless you're scrupulously careful about keeping your two elements (e.g., Brath and a mini-swarm) apart. But if you race ahead with your Lone Wolf at Range 2 plus a hair away from the lead Academy Pilot, and then you bank in with Brath while the Academy Pilot moves 2-straight, and that's the round where your opponent suddenly changes his approach vector and breaks toward Brath to focus fire...

I'm speaking from experience, here: that's a rough time to find out you're now at Range 2 minus a hair away from that Academy Pilot, and an even rougher way to lose an expensive ship very early in the match.

What I'm getting at is that it's an upgrade that rewards careful strategic planning and then precise tactical movement--which is good because that means it's a good upgrade in the hands of a good player, but it's by no means an easy thing to use.

Luke engine for me, before luke-r2d2. And if I want to splurge, both cards.

I could easily see this as one of two EPTs on Jake. The way I typically run him, he's far off by himself on the other side of the map by the time my other ships reach the halfway point. And I've been running him in a three ship list, so it's easier to avoid the R2 bubble for that reason as well.

One balancing factor is that, as I've pointed out in other posts, that Range 2 bubble is really big. It has a 440mm diameter, which means it stretches across almost half (48%) of a 3'x3' play space; it's hard to arrange four such bubbles so that none of them overlap.

So you'll often have the Lone Wolf reroll, but by no means always--unless you're scrupulously careful about keeping your two elements (e.g., Brath and a mini-swarm) apart. But if you race ahead with your Lone Wolf at Range 2 plus a hair away from the lead Academy Pilot, and then you bank in with Brath while the Academy Pilot moves 2-straight, and that's the round where your opponent suddenly changes his approach vector and breaks toward Brath to focus fire...

I'm speaking from experience, here: that's a rough time to find out you're now at Range 2 minus a hair away from that Academy Pilot, and an even rougher way to lose an expensive ship very early in the match.

What I'm getting at is that it's an upgrade that rewards careful strategic planning and then precise tactical movement--which is good because that means it's a good upgrade in the hands of a good player, but it's by no means an easy thing to use.

Absolutely, all of this is dependent on the conditions which will simply not be fulfilled for some number of turns of the game. A high PS pilot has a bit of an advantage here (barrel roll after moving if you think you estimated range poorly), and if you're sure LW isn't going to activate, plan accordingly. It's probably easiest to use on the initial approach, and then after squads have been thinned a bit. That tells you something about what your strategy should be with or against it.

I would say that the 48% figure is only true if you're in the middle of the board. if you're closer to an edge, your circle of influence has large sections lopped off by the board edge, and you have a reduced size sub-optimal zone for your other ships.

So this is an entirely random thought that just came to me so it might be a terrible idea, but what about this card on a Chewie with C3P0? How would the mechanics work? As a disclaimer, I'm not a fan of the falcon meta these days and I feel like there's a possibility that this card could exacerbate it.

What about the yt-2400 with flight instructor+lone wolf? Is that a good combo? How many evade results does that grant you?

So this is an entirely random thought that just came to me so it might be a terrible idea, but what about this card on a Chewie with C3P0? How would the mechanics work? As a disclaimer, I'm not a fan of the falcon meta these days and I feel like there's a possibility that this card could exacerbate it.

It's basically a waste on Fat Chewie. First, with only 1 AGI, you're not gaining that much in the way of improved number of Evades per attack. Second, 3PO turns 0 successes into 1 success. Lone Wolf increases the chance of 1 success, which you don't care about with 3PO. Lone Wolf in turn becomes a slightly cheaper, much crappier Predator.

What about the yt-2400 with flight instructor+lone wolf? Is that a good combo? How many evade results does that grant you?

In general I think it will be especially good on an Outrider HLC title, because you want to be at long range, can control range pretty well, and have 2 base AGI dice to build on. I guess Flight Instructor is as good with LW as it is without. There's a slight overlap in abilities when you're being shot at by PS2 and you roll only 1 blank and no eyes, where they both try to do the same thing (and can't), but generally they'll both just build on each other it a pretty nice way.

So this is an entirely random thought that just came to me so it might be a terrible idea, but what about this card on a Chewie with C3P0? How would the mechanics work? As a disclaimer, I'm not a fan of the falcon meta these days and I feel like there's a possibility that this card could exacerbate it.

It's basically a waste on Fat Chewie. First, with only 1 AGI, you're not gaining that much in the way of improved number of Evades per attack. Second, 3PO turns 0 successes into 1 success. Lone Wolf increases the chance of 1 success, which you don't care about with 3PO. Lone Wolf in turn becomes a slightly cheaper, much crappier Predator.

Not exactly, C3PO only acts on unmodified dice, so the sequence is as follows:

Declare you will roll 0 evade >>> If evade = 0, C3P0 kicks in >>> Then, use 'Lone Wolf' to reroll the useless die just for a chance of another extra, free evade.

Not to mention Lone Wolf not only boosts your defense but also your attack, Quite handy if you are taking defensive actions every turn.

So this is an entirely random thought that just came to me so it might be a terrible idea, but what about this card on a Chewie with C3P0? How would the mechanics work? As a disclaimer, I'm not a fan of the falcon meta these days and I feel like there's a possibility that this card could exacerbate it.

It's basically a waste on Fat Chewie. First, with only 1 AGI, you're not gaining that much in the way of improved number of Evades per attack. Second, 3PO turns 0 successes into 1 success. Lone Wolf increases the chance of 1 success, which you don't care about with 3PO. Lone Wolf in turn becomes a slightly cheaper, much crappier Predator.

Not exactly, C3PO only acts on unmodified dice, so the sequence is as follows:

Declare you will roll 0 evade >>> If evade = 0, C3P0 kicks in >>> Then, use 'Lone Wolf' to reroll the useless die just for a chance of another extra, free evade.

Not to mention Lone Wolf not only boosts your defense but also your attack, Quite handy if you are taking defensive actions every turn.

Ah. My mistake. So Lone Wolf makes 3PO Falcon very slightly more defensive (you have to roll a blank, then an Evade), 14% of attacks will net you an extra evade, so you get an extra HP every 7 attacks. It's a real buff, but relatively minor, I'd say. The difficulty is that the sub-optimal area on a large ship is a bit larger than on a small ship, and while HLC wielding ships are still punchy at range 3 (making it easier to spread out your forces), a Falcon at range three is less scary. Overall, I'd be surprised if it became widely used on Falcons, but I could be wrong.