I´m using Kenkirk and Chewbacca a lot, both sporting a gunner. I have been using predator and gunner in both cases and have found myself using the focus action in most cases. I´m wondering if it pays off to use marksmanship/gunner instead of predator/gunner since I find that moving at PS5 or PS6 I´m rarely blocked so I usually get my action.

Markmanship is better on a vacuum, but Predator doesn't require an action, freeing your action for evade, focus, boost, etc, and doesn't get denied when bumped.

This being said, the first attack roll, if you have a focus, you will always have better odds with predator + focus, than Markmanship with gunner.

I prefer focus + predator for Decimators and on YT1300, but it depends on how you build them.

Considering it is a Big ship have you thought about Lone Wolf instead?

Predator is alright but really it is best against Low PS swarms or if you are doubling up on generics such as Green or Saber squadron pilots. With lone wolf you get the same benefit as predator but it also applies to green dice too. As long as you keep your little ships away from your big ship.

Now Marksmanship is also good considering that it works for both attacks unlike focus which is spent. Still with marksmanship it is best to somehow combine it with another action like target lock so you would want EI again another unique upgrade to combine with the big ship.

I tried Lone Wolf but I found it was rather useless until it was on the last ship (when it´s great!) because it´s tricky to split your ships up without making yourself vulnerable to 2vs1 situations.

The reason I´m thinking about marksmanship is that there are a number of ships out there now that hate crits; Decimators, Dash, Whisper etc. I was running Han/mark/gunner for a while and the crits often really made the difference (I know the Han reroll really helps too).

Remember that lone wolf only re rolls blanks. That the biggest problem I've had when running it. If you spend your focus when attacking, then roll focus icons when defending(or vice versa) it's a little frustrating. Or you get bumped and have no focus at all. Works okay with recon specialist. I like predator better

Lone Wolf is brilliant with Recon Specialist. Without a focus to spend it's still useful but can be limited. On a ship with a single evade die I don't know that it would be a better choice than Predator. I think I'd rather keep my action free for boosting if I needed it, especially if I'm spending the points for Gunner. If I'm going to be double modifying my all of my attacks, Gunner will rarely kick in. After Autothrusters is released my opinion may change if Interceptors become really popular.

I've been using Lone Wolf on 2 ship builds recently and finding it very easy to use. On a highly mobile ship (Dash and Echo are two that I've been using) you can usually mitigate the 2v1 situation though your arc dodging skill.

I tried Lone Wolf but I found it was rather useless until it was on the last ship (when it´s great!) because it´s tricky to split your ships up without making yourself vulnerable to 2vs1 situations.

The reason I´m thinking about marksmanship is that there are a number of ships out there now that hate crits; Decimators, Dash, Whisper etc. I was running Han/mark/gunner for a while and the crits often really made the difference (I know the Han reroll really helps too).

How it worked against me was the lone wolf runs out in front and draws the fire then the 3 escorts stay behind the lone wolf chaser and continue to shoot the chasers in the back. It worked great and I didn't even get to remove the lone wolf before my last ship was destroyed. Too many defense dice rerolls.

If you have room for a recon spec then run that+ predator, and cover both (or you can use luke instead of a regular gunner)

I don't really have a good way to replace predator for the reroll on the second shot short of an FCS/R5-K6 neither of which is availible for Chewie/Kenkirk