Granted, I've only played one game with Autothrusters on Tie Interceptors, but I had FOUR of them in my 150pt build, and the combo was not all that great! I think I had the opportunity to change a total of TWO dice all game.

What is everybody else doing to make it a "great" combo? Are you flying against other agile ships or lumbering beasts? I was flying against agile Scum, btw!

Thanks!

Mainly people like it because there aren't all that many ways to modify Green Dice, compared with how many ways you can modify Red dice. It also takes out the element of luck from dice that are notoriously unreliable, rewards good piloting, and only costs you 2 points.

That's why I love it, and I don't even own any Interceptors.

For my part, Autothrusters always triggered at least once in everygame and often prevented a damage I would have took otherwise.

My personnal experience tells me that it is a shield upgrade that cost only 2 points and can potentially regenerate.

It's not a combo, it's an insurance policy.

Look at it another way, you spent eight points to avoid two hits. That' the equivalent of two shield upgrades for the same cost at what was likely an unusually low result for Autothrusters, especially if you weren't facing turrets.

There are other things to consider whether they were effective or not, especially with one game.

Were your dice unusually hot, so you didn't need Autothrusters? (This is the most common reason I don't end up using them)

Did you try and keep your ships at R3?

Did they ever keep your opponent from shooting at them at R3?

Any ship or ability that's powerful but has a mathematically unquantifiable activation condition tends to be overestimated by the community. Likewise, ships that rely on abilities, maneuvers and tactics over mathematical strength in probability tend to be underestimated.

Autothrusters is kind of in the same boat as VI. There are some games where you'll feel like it was a waste of points but then there will be games that the upgrade will be critical to the outcome of the game. There's some middle ground with Autothrusters since they aren't automatically useless if your opponent doesn't have turrets in the same way the VI is useless if you would have won the PS race even without the upgrade.

Just going of my personal experiences I would disagree with what WWHSD said... In my experience VI has been a waste of points every now and then (such as against swarms or mid range pilots and i would still take it for the matchups where it does matter) but I have not once felt that about autothrusters. I have been playing autothrusters since about a week before scum released (i was using proxies to test for the store champs last weekend) and I have never felt they were a waste of points. They affected at least one roll per interceptor I had each game so that is already better than hull upgrade or shield upgrade. The key to making use of them is knowing how to position so you always get range three shots on the approach at least. It also helps for if you disengage and come back around since you can usually set up another range 3.

This is all without taking into consideration how much it actually helps against turrets. In the games I played against turrets it has averaged me around 4 free evades. Since a lot of time those are crits (Chiraneau was everywhere when I was testing) then its like having 4 shield upgrades. I will gladly take 4 upgrades for the price of half an upgrade even if those two points were wasted in games without turrets (which they arent! )

Ah i missed where WWSD said there was some middle ground for AT. Still I would say that for me they have never been useless because I almost always force a range three confrontation when i have them.

When I used three autoceptors it was against a turret and they were amazing, watched them used on duel aggressors didn't come up once.

Situational upgrade that's far from broken, but in some games will be far from useful.

Saved about 15-20 hits with them on double IG in 4 games. Was very impressed.

I am still of the opinion that they are never worthless. They are always useful if you are good at forcing range 3 confrontations. I have played interceptors for a long time and I used to do everything in my power to stop just outside range three because the chance that I could get one shot was far greater than my doing any significant damage against the majority of lists. Since interceptors got AT the reverse is now true. Almost every game I work to try and get the first volley at R3 as the damage I can do is in most cases now far greater than any return damage i fear. In my most recent game I killed an xwing in the R3 opening volley with some great rolls between my ships and i took no damage in return. AT saved 3 damage between Fel and Jax that I would have taken if i did not have AT. There was no turret on the opposing team that game.

Everyone will have their own opinion and I can respect that. I personally am of the mind that AT is never wasted points. You just have to play to your strengths. In my eyes saying that in some games AT is useless is like saying in some games Howlrunner is a waste of points if you spread out due to a phantom on the opposing team. Sure you can try to fly howlrunner apart from everyone but that isnt playing to her strenghts. You can spread out but stay close enough to get a few rerolls at least. Same with AT. if you ignore the R3 confrontations then sure AT are "wasted points" in games without turrets but instead you could play to the edge that it gives you for any R3 confrontations. Even past the initial volley when you are arc dodging and they are trying to spread arcs it helps to be able to move into R3 of the ships whose arcs you cant dodge. I have mitigated a lot of damage that way in games where people break formation with swarms to try and get me in at least a few arcs.

I think autothrusters are not made to equip all your ships in your list (like all interceptors), because then it will soon become expensive. Its made to equip one or two of your ships which would otherwise be the first target of choice of your opponent. With AT, target choices of your opponent would often be "re-checked" based on risk to fail. Especially in the first rounds (where you usually have more targets to offer your opponent), they often can/could distract your opponent to a yet more worthiwhile target.

They're clearly situational, but I think for two points they're still a heck of a bargain. When you need 'em, you need 'em. Settle down against Dash, Han, or a Decimator, and see if you think they're worth two points.

Even if all they do is shake up the meta and veer us a little away from turrets all the time, they're clearly an impactful piece of gear.

Look at it another way, you spent eight points to avoid two hits. That' the equivalent of two shield upgrades for the same cost at what was likely an unusually low result for Autothrusters, especially if you weren't facing turrets.

There are other things to consider whether they were effective or not, especially with one game.

Were your dice unusually hot, so you didn't need Autothrusters? (This is the most common reason I don't end up using them)

Did you try and keep your ships at R3?

Did they ever keep your opponent from shooting at them at R3?

Were you watching our game?!?

My evades WERE HOT!

I didnt stay at R3!

Hence, my opponent was shooting at all ranges!

My thoughts on the agile ships and the use of AT against turrets seems to match what is being said above. I understand their use fully now!

Thrusters are basically little bundles of guarantees, and that makes them the best ******* thing ever. Say goodbye to that 1:100 game bull where soontir gets one shot by perfect rolls.

They also make turrets are about facing, as if they couldn't get any better

And really, that's it. That's all they need to be for 2 points. You get one guaranteed evade out of it, you've gotten value similar to a shield upgrade imo. Every trigger after that is cash in the bank.

The IGs are by far the biggest abusers of this upgrade (giant sweeping movements between pre-move boost and just having a large base + cannons for some good ole "**** your bonus green dice" = yeah, range 3 is the place to be)

That sounds about right. Autothrusters only counter 2 things. Range 3 cannons and out of arc turrets.

If you were someone that enjoyed playing with interceptors and did not ditch them when phantoms came out or when fat han started to hunt them down then autothrustes would be a good upgrade to help you with the things that made it hardest for your arc dodgers. Other than that it just a 3 point upgrade that doesn't change a lot of things.

If you are good with interceptors or any other boosters they help against Outrider HLC Dash. If you are not that good with interceptors and are just trying them out you won't get much out of that upgrade.

That sounds about right. Autothrusters only counter 2 things. Range 3 cannons and out of arc turrets.

had to fix it

That sounds about right. Autothrusters only counter 2 things. Range 3 cannons and out of arc turrets.

had to fix it

He also had them as 3 point upgrades...

Other than that it just a 3 point upgrade that doesn't change a lot of things.

2 points.

Saw them used on A-wings versus turreted y-wings the other day and they paid for themselves a dozen times over.

They're very situational, but Interceptors are fast enough that you should be able to force that situation to come up!

More importantly, Interceptors have the wonderful Royal Guard TIE title - allowing you to pack autothrusters and a stealth device at the same time. This works wonders - the stealth gives you an extra die, making it more likely that you'll have a blank to change, whilst the autothrusters not only makes the agility 4 ship even harder to hit, but also means that therefore the stealth device shouldn't be lost as early in the game...and so on.

A thrusterstealth squint is the next best thing to untouchable at range 3, especially with primary weapons.

I ran R2-D2 on Corran in my last tourney (yeah, yeah, I know)

My first game he didnt get to regen a shield (1 shotted by a HLC)

My next game he regenned a total of 16 shields as he single handedly took apart a Wes, Farlander, Jan build.

morale: judge the combo based on a number of run throughs, not a single game, or even a single tourney.