When this astromech came out, I remember many in this forum thought it was worthless. The game has changed. Now with multiple 4+ die attack roll threats out there, should we be giving this little guy another look? At 1 point, he might keep Biggs or Wedge around a little longer or save the life of an expensive E-wing (like Horn).
Anyone have any experience playing with this astromech? If so, what ship are you placing it on and how has it faired?
Things that improve this droid:
Other than the middle thing, which is what it would take to run it on an X or an E, we've got some check-marks!
Put him on Porkins. Turns one damage into a 3/8 chance of one damage. Much cheaper than the usual r5-D8 + PTL combination.
R4-D6 has one huge problem: 
results do not count.
The best thing for R4-D6 is flying next to a ship with R2D2 and Draw their Fire. Having said that, he has always been well worth the 1 point. Much like the generic R2, he is a cheap upgrade with a small effect, but definitely worthwhile.
Edited by KineticOperatorThings that improve this droid:
- Buffs to the Y-Wing, the lowest agility ship that can take it. Fortunately, these are coming.
Not sure that I see the buffs working well with -D6 though. The BTL-A4 title's biggest problem is going to be the dial, and a droid that multi-stresses a ship that has nothing but straights for green options is a bad idea. I don't see the bombs playing well with it one way or another. Maybe one of the new turrets, but I really don't see them bringing strong options either.
The Y-wing's dial is just too limited for a heavy-stress tool like this, and all the ways to improve it are also Astromechs, so... <shrug>
When I did the math awhile ago, I ended up coming to the conclusion that he's only worth ~.65pt (meaning he's 50% overpriced) on a Y wing. Given this was with 3 dice main attacks, not 4 dice phantoms, 5 dice R1, ordnance, or HLCs as the % of use in the competitive meta those got was practically 0. So obviously some of this has changed since then. But the big problem is that he doesn't work on uncanceled KABOOM results.
When rolling 3 dice with a focus, you have a 5/8 chance of rolling a BOOM. A KABOOM is as good as a miss as far as the droid is concerned. As such, rolling 3 dice will yield a 24% of rolling 3 BOOMs. And then the Y wing has a 5/8 of not rolling an evade, for an overall chance of triggering from a 3 dice focused attack to 15%.
But if you step it up to 4 dice from, say a phantom (or R1 attack), there's a 37% of rolling 3 BOOMs and a 15% of rolling 4 BOOMs, with an overall chance of triggering being 47.5% (counting 4 BOOMs and 0 evades as activating twice). And then if you talk about HLC, that increases the BOOM %hit to 75%, putting the overall chance of triggering at 70%.
So, I suppose one could make the argument that it's not a complete waste of a point on a Y wing. But now you have a stressed out Y wing... One could also make the case that the Y wing would be better with the R5 astromech to allow him to get rid of a crit since they have so much hull, or the R2 to allow them to deal with this stress-heavy meta easier. But clearly the correct answer is the R3-A2 for just 1 point more =P.
Having said that, he has always been well worth the 1 point. Much like the generic R2, he is a cheap upgrade with a small effect, but definitely worthwhile.
IMHO that's another problem of R4-D6: R2 and R5 are well worth the single point. Those 3 compete for the same slot. R4-D6 is not very likely to win that competition.
Edited by dvorAll great points. What This Astro does for 1 point is negation of damage. This is different than R5's crit to a hit or R2's help with shedding stress. In this meta, that is nothing to sneeze at.
He'd be great if he crits counted. Apply the normal "hits first" rules when canceling with the droid.
His average might only be .65 points worth of damage reduced. However, his effect is much better than it appears at first glance. What he provides is a 1 point insurance policy against being one shotted by an HLC (or some other big hit). On Biggs, R4D6 means that you can reliably count on him sticking around and covering you against 3 shots from an HLC, rather than 2, which is a very big deal.
Average damage dealt and taken is interesting for comparison, but it is the outlier results that turn games instantly. R4D6 is a 1 point way to dramatically lower the odds of that negative outlier happening to you. Who cares how many times he prevents 0 damage because you weren't taking damage anyway? It's the time that he prevents 2 damage from a hits vs blanks HLC shot that you are paying for.
Another effect that I didn't anticipate until I started using him is his ability to negate no damage at all, but allowing you to save your focus. For example, you are taking 3 hits and roll 1 blank 1 eye. You can save your focus, take a stress, and take the same amount of damage. Again it isn't a high-odds event, but we are talking about a 1 point upgrade after all.
I mentioned this card before (Can't find the thread). It is indeed very situational. Some find it useful on Biggs as canceling hit helps keep him alive if he is getting hit with large attacks. However it doesn't do anything unless atleast 3 dice are rolled and all of them hit (and no crits).
Also being an astromech only 3 ships can take this. X-wings, Y-wings and E-wings. Y-wings only have 2 green maneuvers so taking a stress is very restrictive on a Y-wing. You could try and combine this with sensor jammer on E-wings using it to modify hits to focus on 4 dice attacks (cough* HLC Cough*), and if they happen to have focus then this as a decent back up and with 4 green maneuvers is should not be too hard to remove stress. Still R2-D2 might be a better option.
Edited by MarinealverHe saved me a focus token once 4 hits from my opponet's phantom I rolled 2 focus with biggs had a focus token did not spend it so i could use it for attack still only lost 2 Shields
Killed Coran with 2 attacks one from Chewe the other from HLC Leebo i rolled all hits he rolled all banks both times. bad luck i know but R4-D6 would would have been good right about then.
I see him more as an insurance card then an upgrade card sometimes your glad you have insurance
Look at it this way:
A hull upgrade is generally considered a decent buy. That's an extra point of damage for three points. If R4-D6 stops one or more points of damage every couple of games, he's in the same league. Granted, you then have stress to deal with, but a stressed X-wing is still better than a dead one...
Whose astromech was he fluff-wise? Normally there is some synergy between pilot and their droid, so might give us a clue as to what FFG's thinking was when they designed him?
Whose astromech was he fluff-wise? Normally there is some synergy between pilot and their droid, so might give us a clue as to what FFG's thinking was when they designed him?
R4-D6 has a cameo in Star Wars IV, but an owner is never identified. R4-D6 was also released as a toy.
The problem with this guy is 2 hits is still a considerable amount of damage on a small ship.
He's only usable up to three times on a Y-Wing.
Twice on an X-or-E-Wing.
The comments about Phantom or HLC attacks are noteworthy: you do turn, on a Y-Wing, the potential 2-turn kill into a 4-turn kill.
At the expense of your actions, because you're likely to be double stressed at least once.
What's great about the card is it isn't once per turn, so you can trigger it on every attack.
What's terrible about this card is the potential for acquiring 2-3 stress tokens in one round to stay alive.
And what needs fixing about this card is it needs to have the damage minimum lowered to 1, because the increased number of hits canceled comes with the tradeoff of increased number of turns doing green maneuvers and not taking actions.
Edited by SparklelordAlso because currently useless most of the time vs swarms.
IMHO that's another problem of R4-D6: R2 and R5 are well worth the single point. Those 3 compete for the same slot. R4-D6 is not very likely to win that competition.Having said that, he has always been well worth the 1 point. Much like the generic R2, he is a cheap upgrade with a small effect, but definitely worthwhile.
So let me see if I understand this correctly.
You have to take 3 hits after you have rolled defense dice, then you can take 1 stress to change that from 3 to 2, correct?
That rarely happens, unless you know your fighting something with lots of attack dice. Or on a ship with low defense dice, like a Y-wing. Even then, it doesn't happen often.
Not sure it's worth it. People who have used it, how often in games does it come up?
Thanks,
Edited by eagletsi111This, to me, is a droid that is designed with something specific in mind. Possibly just as a trap for people to break their head over trying to puzzle it out.
That, or it's a droid with Epic in mind or to defend against Proton Rockets.
So let me see if I understand this correctly.
You have to take 3 hits after you have rolled defense dice, then you can take 1 stress to change that from 3 to 2, correct?
That rarely happens, unless you know your fighting something with lots of attack dice. Or on a ship with low defense dice, like a Y-wing. Even then, it doesn't happen often.
Not sure it's worth it. People who have used it, how often in games does it come up?
Thanks,
You can't throw a stick without hitting a Phantom, an HLC Outrider, or an Decimator with Expose these days. All of those are throwing a minimum of 4 dice at you. Add to that all of the 3 dice ships and I think you'll find that there are plenty of ships capable of generating the roll needed to trigger R4-D6.
True the OP may have a good point. Perhaps it will become worth while now.
Edited by eagletsi111True the OP may have a good point. Perhaps it will become worth while now.
While I'm not sure I'd plan around this card... I do think the card is worth while now. If I was running Biggs and had a point left over in my list, I think this is what I'd spend it on.
Thinking of using R4 D6 with Biggs in epic game vs raider (mission 13 pursuit to be exact).
Plan is to have Chewie YT1300 and Blount with draw their fire in range 1.
Also then was also thinking either stealth device or shield upgrade on Biggs which is best ?
I think this card is supposed to work with comms booster and maybe Adv Proton Torpedoes. What the card does is maximise damage to 2, unless you suffer crits. So the ship with r4-d6 has less of a chance of being shot down in 2 attacks, which means it can get into range for the torpedo. He may arrive with mutliple stress tokes though, which is where the comms booster comes in. If it all works out you're in range 1 with a focus and previously acquired target lock.