Hi All,

I tend to play more than my group of friends and therefore try to give simple advice (beginners tricks). One of those is that 'Focus' is one of the most powerful actions and is always a good 'default action' (of course noting that specific play circumstances dictate what is actually the most powerful in any given situation).

So my question is, of the common actions (Focus, Evade, Target Lock, Barrel Roll and Boost) if you were forced to rank them, in which order would you put them?

<I've excluded cloack/de-cloak as it is unique and arguably significantly more powerful than all of the above>

Of the top of my head I would rank them:

1. Boost

2. Focus

3. Target Lock

4. Barrel Roll

5. Evade

Tren

1. Focus

2. Barrel Roll

3. Target Lock

4. Boost

5. Evade

Barrel Roll is a lot more useful and versatile than Boost.

I think he hardest thing about ranking these is that they are fairly subjective to different ships. Like you said focus is great as it's duel purpose, but on a ship with little to no agility I think target lock beats it out. This is something that continues with the variety of ships.

But if forced, 1 focus

2 target lock

3 barrel roll

4 boost

5 evade

In all honest target lock and barrel roll should probably trade places but I'm a self proclaimed target lock fanboy.

Seems I'm overvalueing boost and need to get in my TIEs a bit more...

I love barrel rolling and boosting. My Vader+EU really can't get enough of doing both. But, I guess my list is:

1. Barrel Roll (but only if it makes sense, of course)

2. Boost (but only if it makes sense, of course)

3. Focus

4. Target lock

5. Evade

Target lock moves up the list when I'm flying my TIE Bombers with ordnance, of course.

I'd probably put barrel roll at the top instead of boost. Boost kicks butt, but barrel roll is better IMO. If you and an enemy are diagonal from each other, a boost can make you both face each other, but a barrel roll can get you out of his arc while keeping him in yours. My order would probably be

1. Barrel Roll

2. Focus

3. Boost

4. Target Lock

5. Evade

Not a lot of love for the Evade going on here.

I'd probably put barrel roll at the top instead of boost. Boost kicks butt, but barrel roll is better IMO. If you and an enemy are diagonal from each other, a boost can make you both face each other, but a barrel roll can get you out of his arc while keeping him in yours. My order would probably be

1. Barrel Roll

2. Focus

3. Boost

4. Target Lock

5. Evade

This is the same as how I'd rank them.

Actually, the BEST action(s) is the Barrel Roll/Boost/Focus combo (thank you Mr Soontir)...

Not a lot of love for the Evade going on here.

Focus is often better defensively for the ships that can get evade anyway (they tend to have 3+ agility). Though evade is great for turtling interceptors (especially for my man Turr)

Not a lot of love for the Evade going on here.

I'd agree that Barrel Roll is probably the most powerful action in the game when done well. Being able to roll into position to dodge a firing arc while retaining your shot, or even block a K-turn, is probably better than modifying an attack from one ship.

The biggest problem with evade is that you can't force enemies to shoot at you.

In a Rebel list built on the Millenium Falcon, you know the Falcon will take a substantial amount of fire during the game, so being able to evade is worthwhile.

By comparison, if I have multiple small fighters and evade with one, and the enemy doesn't shoot at it, it's wasted it's action. By comparison, if I take a focus and the enemy doesn't shoot at it, it's still got a focus token when it shoots back.

Evade is a good action, but only for specific purposes. It's best used to discourage people from shooting at a specific target - provided that target is helping in another way (so you're not wasting actions by not having a boosted attack). I most often see it used on Howlrunner.

It's also a big part of 'turtling up' - the focus-and-evade beloved of push the limit interceptor pilots.

It depends, boosting into range 1 of 3 B-wings might not be the best ability. Likewise focus does nothing if your only non-hits/evades are blanks.

• Target Lock: Offensive dice modifiers on a single target (also allows the use of some secondary attacks)
• Focus: Versatile dice probability modification that can be used for both offense and defense.
• Evade: Defensive token that can automatically cancel 1 hit (sometimes that is all you need)
• Barrel Roll: Position correction that can help you get an enemy ship in arc or out of the arc of an enemy ship if used properly.
• Boost: Posistion correction that allows you to change direction and can help you change range bands.
• Cloak: Only one ship has this action. I don't even know why I should mention this. Just add FCS + Gunner and you basically got ALL OF THE ABOVE! seriously omgwtfhmbbqcake=pi

@Marinealver: I did exclude cloak for pretty much all the reasons you provide...

So gun to head, absent of context ... How do you rank them?

Focus is my default action because it can be used offensively or defensively. Evade is good for when I can't shoot, but am likely to get shot at by my opponent. I like to use target lock when I've got a good shot from a relatively safe position. I also take TL when I can't shoot but also not likely to be attacked. That way I can set up the deadly TL/focus combo on the next turn. Boost and barrel-roll are pretty evenly matched on usefulness depending on the situation, but if I was forced to choose, I'd say that barrel-roll is slightly better.

1. Focus

2. Target lock

3. Barrel-roll

4. Boost

5. Evade

i recently learned of the power of the barrel roll/evade. mauler mithel has recently come top my attention as something of a light interceptor if flown correctly. pair him with predator and you dont have to take a focus. fly in at an angle, barrel roll out of arc while maintaining yours, and let those 4 dice fly.

Barrel Roll

Mobility actions are simultaneously offensive (they enable shots that would have otherwise been impossible, and at closer range) and defensive (Arc-dodging), and enable huge amounts of board-state complexity to boot. Barrel Roll offers more final positions than Boost, and is incredible for creating a terrible surprise for your opponent. Try a Matador Turn, or a Starburst Collapse, and see if your opinion doesn't change.

Boost

Everything I said about Barrel-Roll before, but trading options of placement for a change of angle, and forward momentum. Slightly more offensive, and substantially less defensive. Still, surprising your opponent by chasing your tail instead of koiograning can be as potent as a Matador Turn.

Target-Lock

Purely offensive, but doesn't fade at the end of turn. Also required for most ordnance.

Focus

As offensive as Target-Lock, but also arguably as defensive as Evade. However, it fades at end of turn, so even though I use it more often than TL, I do not think it is as valuable an action. Barely.

Evade

If you're throwing fewer than 4 green dice, this is more defensive than Focus. Otherwise, it's worse. Moreover, it lacks all of the offensive capabilities of Focus, and still fades at end of turn.

i recently learned of the power of the barrel roll/evade. mauler mithel has recently come top my attention as something of a light interceptor if flown correctly. pair him with predator and you dont have to take a focus. fly in at an angle, barrel roll out of arc while maintaining yours, and let those 4 dice fly.

Try Backstabber

I literally cannot get enough Barrel Rolling into my games. As mentioned above it gives such precise control over your final positioning and can lead to your opponent seriously underestimating your ships capabilities.

The amount of times i have just snuck into Range 1 with this bad-boy and shredded my opponent: Ten Numb + PTL, Advanced Sensors, Autoblaster, Luke Skywalker, B-Wing/E2.

I find that my use of evade depends on two things: how many fighters are going to shoot at me and what their attack dice are. If, for example, I'm flying a Firespray and am at range 2 of a single A-Wing, I might pick an evade. That way, I am assured that even on his best possible hit, half of his attack will be cancelled, (and the rest possibly by my dice). He, on the other hand, might not be as lucky against my 3 attack dice.

I guess it all depends on how much of a hurry I am to cause damage.

Focus: Most Versatile, works in almost every situation.

Target Lock: Best for offense, but only situationally useful, as the ship you TL, might then activate and move out of your LOS.

Boost: I prefer boost over Barrel Roll, due to initial approaching, and giving ships more turning ability. Especially good for ships that cannot K-Turn.

Barrell Roll: Good when you are facing an asteroid. You have alot of control on exactly where you place your ship.

Evade: very situationally useful. Focus is often better. Especially with the new ruling regarding autoblaster.

Would it be fair to say that barrel roll is better for ships that already have a good dual, while boost is better for ships with crap dials who need the turn more than the fine positioning?

Would it be fair to say that barrel roll is better for ships that already have a good dual, while boost is better for ships with crap dials who need the turn more than the fine positioning?

Yes.

However, we have yet to be able to experiment with crap-dial ships with Barrel-Roll, so there might be some wiggle-room here.

I literally cannot get enough Barrel Rolling into my games. As mentioned above it gives such precise control over your final positioning and can lead to your opponent seriously underestimating your ships capabilities.

The amount of times i have just snuck into Range 1 with this bad-boy and shredded my opponent: Ten Numb + PTL, Advanced Sensors, Autoblaster, Luke Skywalker, B-Wing/E2.

Not to derail the thread, but why on earth would you need Luke? He's only going to be somewhat useful range 2-3. You aren't going to be missing with Autoblaster much at all, especially now.

Very interesting question. It really is dependent on what ship you are flying and what situation you are in. As a person who primarily flies Empire, I don't even get the chance to Target Lock very often so I tend to overlook it unless I am using Bombers or the Firespray. I tend to play a lot of swarms or mini-swarms with Howlrunner so I would rank them as follows:

TIEs:

1) Focus

2) Evade

27) Barrel Roll

99) What is Target Lock and Boost?

Howlrunner:

1) Evade (she just has to survive as long as possible)

27) Focus (only if out of arcs)

50) Barrel Roll (how can I BR with all these ships around me?)

99) What is Target Lock and Boost?

General Ship:

1) Target Lock

2) Focus

3) Barrel Roll

4) Evade

5) Boost

Focus: Most versatile action in the game, combines well with every other action

Boost: Unless you're Lorrir, this is the only action out of these five that lets you change your direction entirely. Can also be used to arc dodge, or bring someone else into arc

Barrel Roll: Situational, but when it is useful, its VERY useful

Target lock: Situational and hard to use on low PS pilots, but stays if not used

Evade: Only useful if you KNOW you'll get shot at. It should be noted however that agility 1 ships can make very good use of it, but many don't have it