1. Is it better to Focus or Evade when both you and your opponent are within each other's firing arc?

Evade is a "sure thing", but it only negates one hit. And Focus could be better if you have lots more Attack and / or Defense dice.

What is the break-even point to choose Evade over Focus?

Also, when should you use Focus for Attack over Defense?

2. If you have a more maneuverable ship, is it better to take more turns to get an angle on an opponent, without stressing your ship (so as to be able to Focus) or do an immediate K-Turn without then being able to Focus?

I'm assuming that your Evade and your opponents Attack dice need to be considered. What is the break-even point?

Thanks for the insights.

1. Is it better to Focus or Evade when both you and your opponent are within each other's firing arc?

Evade is a "sure thing", but it only negates one hit. And Focus could be better if you have lots more Attack and / or Defense dice.

What is the break-even point to choose Evade over Focus?

Also, when should you use Focus for Attack over Defense?

2. If you have a more maneuverable ship, is it better to take more turns to get an angle on an opponent, without stressing your ship (so as to be able to Focus) or do an immediate K-Turn without then being able to Focus?

I'm assuming that your Evade and your opponents Attack dice need to be considered. What is the break-even point?

Thanks for the insights.

Focus > Evade, on average, if you are rolling 4 or more dice.

At 4 dice, they actually block the same expected damage, though the Focus blocks more likely outcomes with a greater percentages.

Matter of preference. Is the Focus on Defense going to give you better damage over time than a Focus on Offense?

Part of the glory of shooting last is that you have the Offensive option even if you chose Defense as your primary choice.

A Red Koiogran is almost never the best plan, if another maneuver gives you an action as well.

However, its rarity and extreme shift of angle do occasionally make it the superior option.

I would say almost always go Focus, unless there is an extreme reason not to. If you attack first, the Focus might allow you to kill the enemy before it can fire. If he attacks first, the Focus can be used for defence, and if it isn't necessary (he rolls badly or you roll well), it can be used on the counter-attack.

As for using it... depends on how the dice go, and on who is closer to death. If it will save your ship, then you should obviously spend it, but if you're only taking non-lethal damage then you might want to save it for offence. But that's a call that can only be made in-game. If you attack first, then how likely are you to kill him if you spend it? How likely is he to kill you if you don't kill him? There really is no break even point; it depends on the match situation and, sometimes, how lucky you feel.

2. Depends on a lot more than just the relative stats. What position are the ships in? Will he K-turn as well? How healthy are the two ships? There are far too many variables for a hard rule here. It again depends on the match situation and what you feel the other guy is going to do.

1. In that scenario where you both have each other in arc, evade if I'm rolling 2 green dice or less, focus if I'm rolling 3 or above. Saying that If I know I can survive the attack regardless, I'll choose focus over evade so I can have the option to use it on the attack if I think I'll do better out of that trade.

2.Generally speaking its always best to get your attacks in with a way to modify dice, so turning and focusing is the smarter move on the offence if it will put targets in front of your guns. K-Turning is much better for keeping ships in arc, and I often find puts me in a much better position for the next turns manoeuvre so it is normally the easier more reliable choice in a dogfight.

Evade is a funny action because most of the ships that have evade also have 3 agility.

I think the numbers have been crunched and evade does add a slight percentage over focus in statistical calculations but as in slight I mean less than 1% better (I don't know the odds off the top of my head I have to consult the chart compared to 3 def)

As with focus the thing is there is more reward. Evade cancels up to 1 and only 1 hit where as focus with 3 agility has a chance of canceling 3 hits so you take the risk of having slightly less statistical odds to gain more dodging potential.

Plus focus has more versatility, with an evade often people don't shoot at it because they don't want to waste attack dice. IF you don't get shot at you can always use focus to increase the number of hits. Where with evade if you don't get shot at it goes away. Then again if that is exactly what you want to do as in to get them shooting at something else giving an evade token might be exactly what you want to do (example 4 Academy pilots flying in formation. One take a single damage, next turn the damage one does the evade action while everyone else does focus. The other player has a tough call should they try and strip the focus off on an uninjured pilot or focus on the injured only negating 1 more hit for that turn).

It also depends on what ship/upgrades we're talking about:

Got Gunner? Evade is the no-brainer choice there, unless you can also somehow get 2 focus tokens. Gunner+FCS makes this even stronger in favour of evade (especially for Whisper who gets a free focus token if she hits).

Push the Limit? Take both! Unless you can dodge out of all firing arcs

Lowest pilot skill? Always focus. If you end up not needing it on defense (because after all the attacks against you are resolved and you didn't get any eyeballs and you are still alive) then its nice to have to potentially modify your own attack.

There are probably some other cases where one is decidedly better than the other that I'm missing...

Who shoots first is important, too. Also, is the enemy damaged? If you shoot first and can kill them, it might be worth it to go offensive. Are you going against an untouched B-wing? Well, defense it is.

Sometimes there is no right answer. It's like asking which is better, TL or Focus? Every time I recommend one, it backfires on the guy.

Got Gunner? Evade is the no-brainer choice there, unless you can also somehow get 2 focus tokens. Gunner+FCS makes this even stronger in favour of evade (especially for Whisper who gets a free focus token if she hits).

I think it comes down to if you are worried about surviving. You can "cover more bases" if you Evade and then try for luck on the 2nd chance to hit.

If you fly a Firespray, though, you can take Recon Specialist and get 2 Focus, which is great.

Thanks for all the responses.

Different but related question : what about a situation where you have a firing arc on your opponent, but he does not have one on you.

Is it always a given to use TL over Focus? Or does it depend on number of dice?

Actually, all things being equal the only truly relevant question is whether or not YOU are shooting.

If you are not shooting, then focus is roughly equal to evade on anything with 3 agility, and flat out better on 4+ agility (averages do not tell the whole story, a focus will prevent more damage generally despite having an equal average). If you are tough enough to survive a single shot regardless, then focus becomes even better (because you can hold it until it works) and should be taken on anything with 2 or more agility. You would only evade if you have fewer dice than that, if an evade will guarantee survival where a focus would not, or when you already have a focus. Evade gets more powerful the more defensive abilities you stack with it, so while it should rarely be your first choice it makes a solid 2nd or 3rd choice (for example, if you have another defensive ability active then evade becomes more valuable).

If you are going to shoot this turn, focus is almost universally better. Red dice are significantly better than green, and focus adds more "value" to your reds than your greens (because each extra point is likely to get past defenses). If you shoot first, the additional damage from an offensive focus is likely to require a defensive focus to counter, leaving his attack without modifications anyway. If you shoot last, focus can be used defensively first and offensively later.

The only real caveat is that you need to evaluate the relative value of putting a damage on. If you are shooting at an 18 point Y-Wing, spending a focus to put him at 4 hull rather than 5 is not worth leaving your 36 point Soontir Fel token-less for the return shot. Even in a situation like this one, however, it is generally better to focus than evade (of course Soontir specifically will do both).

Got Gunner? Evade is the no-brainer choice there, unless you can also somehow get 2 focus tokens. Gunner+FCS makes this even stronger in favour of evade (especially for Whisper who gets a free focus token if she hits).

Can someone please explain the reasoning behind this? I always thought of it the other way around for Gunner. I fly Firesprays a lot and I've always assumed that Focus was the optimal choice because the chance of multiple eyeballs showing up on the same roll is amplified with Gunner - thereby increasing the importance/value of a Focus token. I understand if you're trying to achieve just 1 hit, Gunner without Focus might be sufficient; but in scenarios where I'm trying to achieve maximum damage doesn't the synergy between Focus and Gunner trump a standard evade?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: rereading this thread I see that the original statement was saying that if YOU have gunner it's better for YOU to take an evade over focus. I thought it was saying if you're opponent has gunner then it's better for you to take evade. My bad. My reasoning still stands, I like evades versus gunners because it can often allow me to decide between taking 1 hit now or using my evade and letting him attack me again with his FCS target lock and his saved focus token.

focus is the most ubiquitous dice modification action and I find myself taking it 90% of the time

I take target-locks only from FCS or K4 or if both my ship and my target are out of arc to set up for a future turn where I can focus + target-lock

I take evades if

1.) I won't die even from maximum damage from a single attack if I can cancel just one damage

2.) against 2 dice attacks, during which I will cancel at least 50% of the damage

Can I take boost/rolls depending on the situation, usually to a.) set up for future maneuvers b.) set-up blocks c.) arc-dodge when applicable

If the opponent's ships have no shots on yours, I take TL almost every time for two reasons. 1.) It can always do something, and more importantly, 2.) If it's not needed you can keep it for later. A reason to take Focus in that situation is if it's a low PS ship, and you can't be sure the target will survive attacks from one of your higher PS ships, so you want the flexibility to get boosted attacks on anyone.

I think it comes down to if you are worried about surviving. You can "cover more bases" if you Evade and then try for luck on the 2nd chance to hit.

If you fly a Firespray, though, you can take Recon Specialist and get 2 Focus, which is great.

I get what you're saying, but that's not necessarily true. A Focus is equally good (and potentially better) at covering bases because you can still decide not to use it for offense and save it for defensive rolls. 100% agree that Recon Spec is fantastic on Firesprays. I usually run Recon Spec over Gunner, but just wanted to examine the reasoning behind the Evade when using Gunner notion.

Anyway, it was a slow day at work, so I went ahead and did the math behind Gunner-Focus interactions. Hope I'm not hijacking OP's thread, but hopefully this sheds some light on the Focus vs. Evade question. Please let me know if I've made any errors, but the below seems to make sense.

Yeah, I hear ya. I didn't make the original suggestion. I think that 3 attack grey zone is what is being referred to.

This gives me a lot to work with - thanks for all the responses.