Hey so I was just playing a game the other day and my friend used auto blasters on his b-wings. And I read the card and went wow why are they not being used more? 3 attack dice were your enemy can't used evade dice on the regular hits. Range 1 5 points I don't see how this is not good and why I don't see it more often in games? Am I missing something big about it? Like I know at range 1 it's only 3 attack dicenter but is the extra dice really that important? Just wondering what other people think.

Tried the search option but didn't come up with anything.

It's 1 less die at range 1 on anything that can use it, it costs 5 points and takes up a slot you can use for other stuff.

It's not that it's bad persay, just that there's normally better options, because against many things you're better off with your primary attack. People have run the numbers and you don't get a lot more damage from Autoblasters then you do a range 1, 4 die attack.

If you fight a lot of high agility targets, like Tie Fighters, Interceptors or Phantoms then it can be useful, but the restrictions still make it hard to use.

Its efficiency is wholely dependant upon your opponent's list and a player's ability to get at range 1. At two points more, you get the heavy laser cannon, which is far more reliable against well... pretty much any other ship. I'm not saying that there is not a good way to use it, but my guess is that most people are still experimenting with other combinations of upgrades at the moment.

It's good against high agility low hull ships, but it's hard to consistently get someone at range 1. Make a list with one and see what you think, you may see why it's not a more commonly used upgrade. I've had some good success with it, but it's not consistently good.

I actually played with it last night in a 150 point game. List was, i think:

Prototype

-Chardaan Refit

Green Squad

-Proton Rockets

Keyan Farlander

-Autoblaster

-Engine Upgrade

-PtL

Chewie

-Tactician

-C-3P0

Gold Squadron

-Ion Turret

I was up against :

Howlrunner

Dark Curse

Mauler Mithel

Krassis w/ HLC + Seismic charge

Carnor Jax

I think 3 of his ships had marksmanship, which he forgot to use the entire game

Overall, Keyan did great. The B-wing's hypermobility with EU made getting into range 1 pretty easy. He flew with the Y-wing as planned, but the ion cannon only finished off the TIEs when they were on their last hull. Dice didn't like me much. A-wings were harassing the crap out of the left side of his board (namely Howlrunner). Later they took turns blocking and firing at Krassis, who got stuck in a hard place between the A-team and Keyan. Chewie was a real jackass. Flew him along the right edge, always taking range 2 shots. First round shot at Jax, gave him a stress, crit went through and...well, Injured Pilot. Ideal for me.

The Autoblaster scored a few solid hits on Krassis, who flew straight through the middle of the board (bad idea when flying sniper-Trellix). It also chewed through Dark Curse with a natural 3 hits, but his hull upgrade kept him around long enough for the Gold to ionize him to death.

Autoblaster is nice in theory, but in practice, it's much harder and riskier to use. I'm not a fan of sticking my mighty B-wing in the middle of all his ships just to guarantee range-1 shots. PtL on Farlander helped with the boost/roll for free pseudo-focus stuff, but I think he would have benefited more from advanced sensors. Moving would have been much easier.

Eep, wall of text. Sorry.

TL;DR: Throw it on a B-wing with Advanced Sensors. If you wanna really hurt people, try Farlander w/ Autoblaster, sensors, engine upgrade, PtL.

PtL may not be even necessary, depending on how easily you stress yourself.

Short answer: 'cause Ion Cannon are only 3 points and Ion Cannon not only benefits the ship it is equipped on

Longs answer: the only 4 ships right now (discouting the USA-favourtism-YT-2400s out there) that can use the Autoblaster are the B-Wing, the Firespray, the Lambda and the TIE Defender, all four of which are better of with different guns or no guns at all

The B-Wing lacks much of maneuverbility to stay in Range 1 for more than a turn if your enemy let's you; the fact that this ship only has a single agility die as defense makes going Range 1 a bad choice for you as well (you can only so much damage with 5 shields)

The Defender has too good a dial to miss out on the control option of Ion Cannons if not armed with HLC; the 4-White-K-Turn practially assures you that you can make good of an Ion Hit at Range 2, putting you in superior position

The Lambda has problems tracking a target at Range 3, much more so as the enemy comes in closer; if you go down that route it would require a follow-up investment of e.g. Navigator which puts the price up

The only pilot I've known to make good of an autoblaster is the "Sulustan Meanace" (Ten Numb + Autoblaster) as he bypasses enemy agility dice almost completely - but he also requires a follow-up investment to keep him going

EDIT: I always forget the FIrespray

The Firespray has the same issues with the Auoblaster as the Defender; Ion Cannon is cheaper and superior option for it due to the dial and 2nd primary arc

Now I know YT-2400 + HLC + Outrider seems like it will be a great thing when it comes out, but what can be said about YT-2400 + Autoblaster + Outrider? I feel like a YT-2400 could keep itself within Range 1 of a ship each turn, especially if it is carrying Engine Upgrade and PTL too.

Autoblasters might work on the new cheap scum fighter. If I recall it only has a base attack of two. Take a few of those with auto blaster and charge them at your enemy!

Now I know YT-2400 + HLC + Outrider seems like it will be a great thing when it comes out, but what can be said about YT-2400 + Autoblaster + Outrider? I feel like a YT-2400 could keep itself within Range 1 of a ship each turn, especially if it is carrying Engine Upgrade and PTL too.

I think YT-2400s with Autoblaster but without the Outrider title could become a thing, given the right incentive, but a ship that can only attack at Range 1 is an enormous liability--particularly at a minimum of 40 points, you stand to lose too much if you spend a round unable to attack.

The Autoblaster ability is nice but its cost is just too great with the limitations imposed by it.

Best use of Autoblaster: On a high PS, hypermobile B-Wing (advanced sensors, engine upgrade, and PtL when possible) when used against extreme agility ships. Idea is to move last into a good firing position and then light em up.

Worst use: Just about everything else.

It may see some use on the YT-2400 or M3-A with their 2 primary attack dice but even then I have my doubts. With the Scyk it cost 7 points which is half the cost of another ship.

It's not exactly bad, it's just that out of the four that can (currently) take it, there are almost always better options.

As said before problem with the auto-blaster is the limited range. Trying to line up a range 1 shot with something as slow as a B-wing can get difficult and the ultra-maneuverability of the Tie Phantom where the autoblasters would be most effective proves to be even a tougher challenge as it is likely your opponent will decloak in a direction to avoid your arc. Also many people don't like the idea of reducing an attack value as most ships with cannon upgrade slots already have 3 firepower and to be technical autoblasters provide the same firepower as a Tie-Fighter with the agility dice removal and if there are any evade tokens then critical hits can be counted on to be canceled first.

Another thing is that it doesn't completely remove agility dice. If you roll 3 critical hits and your opponent roles 3 evades, your opponent just evaded 3 shots which would be just enough to make you wish you rolled 4 dice instead.

The problem is that it costs too much for a weapon that is only situationally good.

Against ships with 2 agility, it's less good than shooting with your primary.
Against ships with 3 agility or more, odds are good that they can barrel-roll or boost out of your arc if they move second.

So now, you're in a situation where you need to be at Range 1 against an opponent with 3 or more dice and a lower pilot skill than you.
For 5 points, and only marginally better damage.

Short answer: 'cause Ion Cannon are only 3 points and Ion Cannon not only benefits the ship it is equipped on

Longs answer: the only 4 ships right now (discouting the USA-favourtism-YT-2400s out there) that can use the Autoblaster are the B-Wing, the Firespray, the Lambda and the TIE Defender, all four of which are better of with different guns or no guns at all

The B-Wing lacks much of maneuverbility to stay in Range 1 for more than a turn if your enemy let's you; the fact that this ship only has a single agility die as defense makes going Range 1 a bad choice for you as well (you can only so much damage with 5 shields)

The Defender has too good a dial to miss out on the control option of Ion Cannons if not armed with HLC; the 4-White-K-Turn practially assures you that you can make good of an Ion Hit at Range 2, putting you in superior position

The Lambda has problems tracking a target at Range 3, much more so as the enemy comes in closer; if you go down that route it would require a follow-up investment of e.g. Navigator which puts the price up

The only pilot I've known to make good of an autoblaster is the "Sulustan Meanace" (Ten Numb + Autoblaster) as he bypasses enemy agility dice almost completely - but he also requires a follow-up investment to keep him going

EDIT: I always forget the FIrespray

The Firespray has the same issues with the Auoblaster as the Defender; Ion Cannon is cheaper and superior option for it due to the dial and 2nd primary arc

Um excuussee me! since when are we allowed to fire secondary weapons with the secondary arc on the firespray? Jk but seriously I don't think that's legal is it?

Um excuussee me! since when are we allowed to fire secondary weapons with the secondary arc on the firespray? Jk but seriously I don't think that's legal is it?

Well, you can't.

But having a second angle of attack still makes paralyzing enemy ships more useful, even if it's a tangential benefit.

Um excuussee me! since when are we allowed to fire secondary weapons with the secondary arc on the firespray? Jk but seriously I don't think that's legal is it?

Well, you can't.

But having a second angle of attack still makes paralyzing enemy ships more useful, even if it's a tangential benefit.

Oh ok gotcha I see what you mean now I was like wait is there a new faq I missed?!

I actually ran the Autoblaster last weekend at a local tourney to reasonable effect.

I doubt my victories were due to my genius by this was the list I ran with:

Ten Numb

Autoblaster

Advanced Sensors

E2

C3PO

Lt Blount + 2 Bandit Squaddies with missiles of varying types.

Yes my bwing was 46ish % of my list.

Ten Numb's ability combined with the Autoblaster meant that when I got the shot off there was very little my opponents could do, unless they took an evade action.

Advanced Sensors was great to get that barrel roll before the move in case that was needed as well as letting me get focus before I had to fly through asteroids to get a good angle.

Autoblasters might work on the new cheap scum fighter. If I recall it only has a base attack of two. Take a few of those with auto blaster and charge them at your enemy!

The only problem is because of the title they cost the same as a heavy laser cannon though it might be the best candidate for it since you are rolling the same dice at range one.

So with the new faq up does that change anything for them now that u don't get evade tokens so c3po is now useless?

In my mind no, its hard to catch a big ship (3po falcon) at range one when they can go anywhere and still have a shot, they can turn away from you and boost to get out of your firing arc still making the autoblaster a bad answer to the 3po falcon. That being said I still want to try the Scykk with autoblaster at least one time for fun.

What about Krassis with it as a brawler?

Krassis w/ Auto Blaster + Rebel Captive + Proximity Mine

Krassis jumps in and mixes it up. He may not always fire the Auto Blaster, but he has the option. His PS won't make him go last, but he will surely go before some. If he's not within Range 1, he's got 2 arcs to get his regular shots in at. When he does jump into the combat, he will get shot at. The Rebel Captive will help give stress to the high PS that shoot at him first. He then gets to re-roll one of his attack dice when he shoots with it.

I added the Proximity Mine due to the FAQ. There will surely be a chance he can drop it on someone after he's moved. That's the mine with the big template, right? BOOM!!!!

Maybe not meta changing, but not a bad idea.

I'm thinking more of a B-Wing with autoblaster, accuracy corrector and maybe an engine upgrade. No need to push the limit, get a target lock or a focus. If you get at range 1, you will do 2 to 3 damage every time, pretty much garanteed.

AUTO BLASTER BUFFSSSS