So i've been making lists and seeing what might be viable strategies, and I started wondering if the concentrate fire command would increase anti squadron armament dice from 1>2 or 2>3.

The concentrate fire command rule in the preview reads as follows:

" Dial : Immediately add an extra attack die to your attack. The die must match a die type already in the attack pool."

And the Token:

" Token : You can reroll any one die in your attack pool."

Does anyone know the answer? Because this could be an extremely effective way of shredding through Tie Fighter swarms.

From what we know so far, there's nothing I'm aware of that specifies that Concentrate Fire must be used against ships. To me, that makes it a command that's actually worth taking, as opposed to never taking it, which I would have been doing before I'd thought of this.

EDIT: Even then, I'd still probably be more likely to use a Squadron command instead, unless there were 3+ squadrons in a particular arc. To me, Concentrate Fire seems pretty weak in comparison to the other commands, with certain exceptions.

From what we know so far, there's nothing I'm aware of that specifies that Concentrate Fire must be used against ships. To me, that makes it a command that's actually worth taking, as opposed to never taking it, which I would have been doing before I'd thought of this.

EDIT: Even then, I'd still probably be more likely to use a Squadron command instead, unless there were 3+ squadrons in a particular arc. To me, Concentrate Fire seems pretty weak in comparison to the other commands, with certain exceptions.

I think Concentrate Fire will be more useful with some of the upgrades, e.g. ones where you sacrifice a die to gain a various benefits - that extra gives you the benefit whilst maintaining your original dice pool.

Having that extra die against squads could be very beneficial too though, especially (as already pointed out) if you have multiple targets.

Concentrate fire is best for ships with a smaller number of dice in their attack pool. With only 2 dice it is a 50% increase, with 6 dice it is only a 16% increase for the same action.

Concentrate fire is best for ships with a smaller number of dice in their attack pool. With only 2 dice it is a 50% increase, with 6 dice it is only a 16% increase for the same action.

True, I guess I'm just surprised that a CR-90 and a VSD II concentrating fire amounts to significant differences in benefit.

Concentrate fire is best for ships with a smaller number of dice in their attack pool. With only 2 dice it is a 50% increase, with 6 dice it is only a 16% increase for the same action.

True, I guess I'm just surprised that a CR-90 and a VSD II concentrating fire amounts to significant differences in benefit.

Yup, but this is the only command that does this. (Adjustd for price if ship, as the engineering command scales based on the eng value, which tends to go up with increasing costs)

In a way i dont actually see it as a problem. Generally the VSD has enough firepower that you dont NEED the order. This lets you concentrate on repairs and maneuvering more, while still laying out a very respectable level of pain.

CR90s on the other hand kind of do want to use Concentrate fire, and it helps them a lot. However...if they are, then they are penalising themselves in other areas.

Seems ok to me.

Well, the extra die is an exsisting color in your pool, right? So ships that put out a lot of dice, still might only be outputing 1 black die in that pool. Thats worth more than adding a red die, right? It's going to be hard to use the command on bigger ships, anyways. Their command value is so high. Can you plan this shot 3 steps ahead? Maybe it's not as difficult as I'm thinking. But i mean a CR90 can cover a lot of ground at top speed in 3 turns (speaking from the prospective of a Victory, of course).

Very true about the "Command 3" ships as well. Planning your shot 3 turns in advance to get 1 extra dice.....yeah. I'd rather have the extra turn, squadron commands or repairs myself. Thats perfectly fine by me.

Low command ships will get a lot more use out of this from "targets of opportunity" i think. On the other hand, they get very poor returns from Engineering commands.

Just different priorities.

That is an interesting thought, and definitely worth considering if it can be used against squadrons. You can pretty much expect a big scrum of fighters by turn three, so blasting each enemy squadron with 3 blue dice (twice if you can) would be pretty good.

Note that the concentrate fire works on a SINGLE attack, I believe you can use it against sqaudrens but it will not increase your anti-squadron armament by 1 for the turn, just a single attack

Command/Token efficiency:

Concentrate Fire command- Static benefit of 1 extra die (more efficient on ships with less dice)

Concentrate Firetoken- Static benefit of 1 extra die (more efficient on ships with less dice)

Repair command- Scalable benefit of engineering value = engineering points, to be spent on repairs (more efficient on ships with high engineering values)

Repair token- Scalable benefit of 1/2 engineering value rounded up = engineering points, to be spent on repairs (more efficient on ships with high engineering values) amusingly best on odd value ships

Squadron command- Scalable benefit of Squadron value = squadrons activated early and can both move and shoot (more efficient on ships with high squadron values)

Squadron token- Static benefit of 1 squadron activated early and can both move and shoot (more efficient on ships with less squadron value)

Maneuver command- Static benefit of an increase or decrease in speed and one extra click of maneuverability (22.5 degrees) (more efficient on low maneuverability ships or more useful on ships with more speed options)

Maneuver token- Static benefit of increase or decrease in speed (more useful on ships with more speed options)

All are useful in the right situation regardless of efficiency, that extra attack die on your VSD may have let you oneshot a corvette, or that corvette using repair to get a shield back may have survived being oneshotted.

Am intrigued about CF and anti squadron fire.

Don't forget that even with Caps Crits do not effect fighters.

Note that the concentrate fire works on a SINGLE attack, I believe you can use it against sqaudrens but it will not increase your anti-squadron armament by 1 for the turn, just a single attack

You are probably right, but that will depend on how it is worded in the rules when we finally get them. Is it one attack affecting each squadron, or a separate attack for each squadron? A new attack for each seems more likely, but for now it's conjecture.

I am very much looking forward to seeing the rules, it would be great if FFG would make the PDF available for us.

Note that the concentrate fire works on a SINGLE attack, I believe you can use it against sqaudrens but it will not increase your anti-squadron armament by 1 for the turn, just a single attack

I think you might be right. Potentially having 3 anti-squadron armament die would be extremely powerful when the 2 most threatening Imperial Squadrons only have 3 hull points. Couple that with the fact that Anti-squadron armament is not limited to close range like squadron attacks, you could conceivably destroy a large portion of your opponents squadrons in 2 turns.

Command/Token efficiency:

Concentrate Fire command- Static benefit of 1 extra die (more efficient on ships with less dice)

Concentrate Firetoken- Static benefit of 1 extra die (more efficient on ships with less dice)

Repair command- Scalable benefit of engineering value = engineering points, to be spent on repairs (more efficient on ships with high engineering values)

Repair token- Scalable benefit of 1/2 engineering value rounded up = engineering points, to be spent on repairs (more efficient on ships with high engineering values) amusingly best on odd value ships

Squadron command- Scalable benefit of Squadron value = squadrons activated early and can both move and shoot (more efficient on ships with high squadron values)

Squadron token- Static benefit of 1 squadron activated early and can both move and shoot (more efficient on ships with less squadron value)

Maneuver command- Static benefit of an increase or decrease in speed and one extra click of maneuverability (22.5 degrees) (more efficient on low maneuverability ships or more useful on ships with more speed options)

Maneuver token- Static benefit of increase or decrease in speed (more useful on ships with more speed options)

All are useful in the right situation regardless of efficiency, that extra attack die on your VSD may have let you oneshot a corvette, or that corvette using repair to get a shield back may have survived being oneshotted.

Am intrigued about CF and anti squadron fire.

You are slightly off in regards to the Concentrate Fire:

Concentrate Fire Comand/Dial: Add 1 additional dice already being rolled OR re-roll 1 dice

Concentrate Fire token: re-roll 1 dice

And also remember that you can "double up" and use a token and command of the same type at the same time (e.g. Concentrate Fire command for extra die plus Concentrate Fire token to reroll one of those dice). Higher command ships are more likely able to do this as they can save more tokens for later use (as well as the CR90 shenanigans with Tantive IV & Raymus).

Given there is a new roll of dice for each squadron fired upon I would suspect its seperate attacks.

Given there is a new roll of dice for each squadron fired upon I would suspect its seperate attacks.

I don't know that we know that for sure, but it is certainly a reasonable assumption. It would also make the squadron attack value of a Cap even more important, since it can only be marginally modified by Focus Fire commands.

Given there is a new roll of dice for each squadron fired upon I would suspect its seperate attacks.

I don't know that we know that for sure, but it is certainly a reasonable assumption. It would also make the squadron attack value of a Cap even more important, since it can only be marginally modified by Focus Fire commands.

It is separate attacks

Low command ships will get a lot more use out of this from "targets of opportunity" i think. On the other hand, they get very poor returns from Engineering commands.

Just different priorities.

Well all of the command dials you get are worth different points (the points of the ships they belong to). Those that generate 1 or 2 hitpoints are not per se more effective if they generate 2 instead of 1. You basically have to divide engineering by ship cost and include the round up or down (whicheve the rule states iirc). Then you could also mix in the equation that 1 hitpoint on a ship with more damage potential is worth more ...

In the same line of argument you can say that you i.e. only get 1 blue die from an focus fire command anyway, so better use a "cheap" command dial (from a cheap ship) for it. The damage step from say 2 to 3 might be less relevant if the enemy has armor which does absolute substraction of like 3 on every shot. In that case a step from 5 to 6 would be worth more then one from 2 to 3. Here with the damage halving and damage negating defensive tokens its kinda the opposite. you wanna get many different shots in which eacl dont have to have high damage. damage should be spread far so that the opponent can not bring his tokens to good effect.

where is the source that states that a cap ship attacking squadrons will perform a single attack roll against all enemy squadrons in the firing arc? I somehow missed that rule.

btw.: fix your ssh certificate ffg. none trusted site scares the user.

where is the source that states that a cap ship attacking squadrons will perform a single attack roll against all enemy squadrons in the firing arc? I somehow missed that rule.

btw.: fix your ssh certificate ffg. none trusted site scares the user.

It's not. The rule book says you may Attack all squadrons in your arch but it's separate attacks for each squadron (not worded exactly like that). Will post definite answer wording when I get the test game next week or this weekend

but you do attack each enemy squadron in the firing arc once(, just with a different attack roll against each)?

where is the source that states that a cap ship attacking squadrons will perform a single attack roll against all enemy squadrons in the firing arc? I somehow missed that rule.

btw.: fix your ssh certificate ffg. none trusted site scares the user.

Source: http://youtu.be/hrxO1t9wY10?t=14m