I've been tossing around some build ideas for imperials using upgraded black squadron pilots as one part of a force and Lone Wolf, HLC, Rexlar as the other part of the force. The question is, how do the various upgrades effect offense?

For example, lets assume I'm the most awesome player ever when it comes to placing my ties and I'm always getting the bonus from outmaneuver. How does that compare offense wise to Predator shooting at something PS3+? What about PS 1 or 2?

Of course, when you start talking upgraded Black Squadron pilots, you can't really neglect the fact that you could also bring an 18 point Alpha Squadron and just flat out gain an attack die (and a better dial and boost, but lets ignore that for now). Does the extra attack die, on average, out damage the rerolls or will the better attack rating on the interceptor put its damage output higher than the modified Ties?

Finally, perhaps its best to just skip expensive ships and just bring more ships in general. Does adding an extra attacking ship (say, 4 obsidian pilots instead of 3 fancy pilots) just overcome fancy tricks and more attack dice?

My gut tells me its probably just best to bring more ships, but I don't have a fancy spreadsheet to calculate out all of the numbers and my gut isn't always right.

Green dice are tricksy and false but removing them from the equation never hurts, b-wings and Ys would have no defense at all, x-wings would be down to one etc so if you can stay behind them it's quite a big boost.

Predator has the advantage of not being so situational and with a focus action still makes each dice 75% likely to inflict harm.

You need defenders and interceptors to use outmanouver effectively, it'd also work well on a firespray I'd imagine though I've not tried it.

This has been repeatedly debated.

Instead of Outmaneuver you should just use Backstabber instead as it is cheaper than BSP+Outmaneuver and has a higher PS.

When you looking at a 17 point BSP+upgrade that comparison to the Alpha becomes very important. The BSP has the +3 PS advantage and costs a point less but that Alpha ALWAYS gets the extra die allowing it to potentially do more damage than the upgraded BSP plus the Alpha has Boost if that becomes relevant.

The value in extra ships is occasionally an increase in net firepower but more often the advantage is simply more hull and shield points for an opponent to chew through and possibly waste damage on overkill.

Roughly speaking--that is, in general across likely game states--Predator at PS1-2 > +1 Attack > Outmaneuver > Predator at PS3+.

When it comes to whether you ought to spend points on upgrades versus spending points on more ships, there's too much context to give a general answer. But remember that the value of your upgrades is always conditional on the survival of the ship carrying them, and often* that means ships > upgrades--particularly at the bottom of your list, where you're just trying to fill things out.

*It used to be the case almost always, but upgrades are getting better, and PS is far more important in the Wave 4 metagame than it used to be.

This has been repeatedly debated.

Instead of Outmaneuver you should just use Backstabber instead as it is cheaper than BSP+Outmaneuver and has a higher PS.

When you looking at a 17 point BSP+upgrade that comparison to the Alpha becomes very important. The BSP has the +3 PS advantage and costs a point less but that Alpha ALWAYS gets the extra die allowing it to potentially do more damage than the upgraded BSP plus the Alpha has Boost if that becomes relevant.

The value in extra ships is occasionally an increase in net firepower but more often the advantage is simply more hull and shield points for an opponent to chew through and possibly waste damage on overkill.

The Alpha also has boost and more greens for whatever that is worth as well

This has been repeatedly debated.

Instead of Outmaneuver you should just use Backstabber instead as it is cheaper than BSP+Outmaneuver and has a higher PS.

When you looking at a 17 point BSP+upgrade that comparison to the Alpha becomes very important. The BSP has the +3 PS advantage and costs a point less but that Alpha ALWAYS gets the extra die allowing it to potentially do more damage than the upgraded BSP plus the Alpha has Boost if that becomes relevant.

The value in extra ships is occasionally an increase in net firepower but more often the advantage is simply more hull and shield points for an opponent to chew through and possibly waste damage on overkill.

The Alpha also has boost and more greens for whatever that is worth as well

Already covered the Interceptor's boost ability. I didn't mention the expanded green maneuvers or 5k instead of 4k because while both are useful they aren't so much better than what a TIE Fighter gets.

This has been repeatedly debated.

Instead of Outmaneuver you should just use Backstabber instead as it is cheaper than BSP+Outmaneuver and has a higher PS.

When you looking at a 17 point BSP+upgrade that comparison to the Alpha becomes very important. The BSP has the +3 PS advantage and costs a point less but that Alpha ALWAYS gets the extra die allowing it to potentially do more damage than the upgraded BSP plus the Alpha has Boost if that becomes relevant.

The value in extra ships is occasionally an increase in net firepower but more often the advantage is simply more hull and shield points for an opponent to chew through and possibly waste damage on overkill.

The Alpha also has boost and more greens for whatever that is worth as well

Already covered the Interceptor's boost ability. I didn't mention the expanded green maneuvers or 5k instead of 4k because while both are useful they aren't so much better than what a TIE Fighter gets.

Oops guess I missed that, yeah with no consistent stress generator the greens aren't quite as useful

Oops guess I missed that, yeah with no consistent stress generator the greens aren't quite as useful

With more things that can inflict Stress the extra greens may come in handy and the 5k is considered better than the 4k but those are both a lot more situational.