I got the feeling that accuracy results should not be used against the defence tokens of named fighters. The sheer mass of blue dice negate the tokens so often.

I had a few games now. Luke went down as fast as the other X-Wings in every game. Those Brace tokens don't give him a ****. And Howlrunner? Scatter? No chance when attacked by X-Wings with 4 blues.

So, anybody else got the feeling for this?

Wrong subforum, but I'll bite.

I have been having similar experiences--the tokens just do not add much survivability. At most, they seem to buy you one extra shot. For the most part, Luke goes down in about three to four shots if the dice are modified (and they always are with swarm). Howlrunner fairs even worse, going down in three shots typically, and sometimes even in two. If she triggers scatter even once she does better, but it happens so rarely...

Yesterday I played a game where Howlrunner absorbed massive amounts of incoming fire over the course of two rounds before finally going down, but it wasn't due to the tokens, though; the X-Wings simply missed. All in all, I would say the tokens on named pilots are not great.

In my opinion, a low-impact fix that might help would be to modify the brace tokens slightly. If brace was changed to allow for either halving an attack or canceling a single damage, that could actually help a tiny bit. It wouldn't impact many shots, but would allow you to cancel the one piddling damage that creeps in at times. It would be a mild buff, and wouldn't be game-changing. even then, I named pilots would still die really fast...

Maybe it's all for the best. Super-squadrons might mess with game balance too much

Have not see it as an issue.

Without, than Howlrunners scatter makes her nearly immortal.

Naw, it just makes her extra elusive. She needs it to survive concentrated fire, which is exactly what she can do.

I did 4 hits in a single roll against her... but no accuracy. She dumped the damage. Next shot was three hits, no accuracy. She burned the scatter. Then the third xwing shot, did 3 damage rounded down to 2, then the Neb B finished her off.

Naw, it just makes her extra elusive. She needs it to survive concentrated fire, which is exactly what she can do.

That still makes the defense tokens way more powerful than they are. If you need to have 3-4 squadrons to take down a single squadron of Ties, something is wrong IMO.

it's a balancing act

who throws a crapton of blue dice per attack? Most squadrons.

What doesn't throw a crapton of blue dice per attack? Cap ships because they split it between two attacks (assuming no concentrate fire, which will bump 2 dice shots to a hefty 3)

imo, it's a way to emphasize squadrons while checking a capital ship's ability to easily snipe something you spent a lot of points of (it's much easier to block an x-wing with another tie than it is to block a Neb's anti-squadron shot, mostly because you can't block it )

Wait, you can use Concentrate Fire on anti squad attacks? Is it for a single attack or for attacking all squadrons (in that arc)?

concentrate fire will give you an extra dice against all fighters in your arc, since shooting at fighters is considered a single attack.

I might be mistaken (need to check back home)

concentrate fire will give you an extra dice against all fighters in your arc, since shooting at fighters is considered a single attack.

No, you would only get to use concentrate fire against a single squadron. The Attack Resolution steps on the back cover of the Rules Reference have you repeat steps 2 through 6 for each squadron. Since you spend your concentrate fire command at Step 3, once you've done that one time it will no longer be available for you do again when you hit Step 3 the next time on the next squadron.

concentrate fire will give you an extra dice against all fighters in your arc, since shooting at fighters is considered a single attack.

Actually it says you can perform one attack against each squadron and resolve each one separately. I am not convinced you can add a die to each squadron attack.

Pretty sure the rules explicitly say in one of the examples that you use your dial/token on ONE attack and then you are making another attack and the dial/toekn is gone

Naw, it just makes her extra elusive. She needs it to survive concentrated fire, which is exactly what she can do.

That still makes the defense tokens way more powerful than they are. If you need to have 3-4 squadrons to take down a single squadron of Ties, something is wrong IMO.

Technically, Howl is two squadrons, as she is exactly twice the price of a regular tie squad. It better take More fire than a regular tie to take down.

Which in the games I've played has not been the case at all. She's died just as fast, if not faster (as more people target her)

She's not really dying "faster" if she's simply being targeted more. For example, if I see Luke rolling with the Rebs, I do everything I can to pounce, and one - turn that MFer. It takes basically my whole squadron command to take him down. That's 3-4 TIEs with swarm, with Howlrunner. Yes, he dies as a priority, but he also takes double the resources to kill. I could clear 2-3 Xwing squadrons with the same effort I use to kill Luke.

Luke tend to die after 3 attacks by Ties, just like the normal X-Wings.

Howlrunner cannot be one-shotted by a X-Wing. She'll need 2 attacks.

I am somewhat underwhelmed of the fighter's defence tokens.

I think one of the reasons why defense tokens feel somewhat odd on fighters is that they function exactly like on capitals, yet all squadrons fire blues where accuracy is quite common. The scatter token feld very powerful at first glance, but usually only gets a go when howlrunner is targeted by a ship - have yet to receive an X-wings volley with not at least one accuracy result. The brace token gets more use on luke as he owns two, the result just is not that great. With a TIEs 3/4 blue dice, the most likely result is to mitigate one damage. Yay. At the moment, best way is to keep both named pilots out of the thick dogfights, where the enemy can just pile up dice till oblivion, and get some use off their special ability for as long as possible. Still, feels strange to keep howlrunner behind to 'buff' TIEs..

Named pilots should not be indestructible Jedi. X-Wing has too much of that hero crap already. Fielding Luke might be enough to win in the movies, but the same in a game would make for a very boring game. What is more, Armada is not about fighter pilots, it is not even about fighters.

aye, the scale of armada is too huge for teeny tiny little fighters to be super heroes no matter how awesome they are in name

you keep your named squadrons safe through proper play and positioning moreso than through the defensive tokens. Those are just there so you're not stuck paying nearly double (or just double) the price for the same durability as a no-name squadron

I see, a Howlrunner with a 100% guaranteed 0 damage in the first attack through scatter, and maybe a second one in the same round by burning scatter would be (too?) nasty.

Lets have a look on the numbers:

The average result of a X-Wing Squadron would be: 2 hits, 1 accuracy, 1 crit (which would be a miss in this case)

A Tie Fighter Squadron in average would suffer 4 hits after the second attack and is destroyed.

It is more unlikey that it would survive the 2nd attack then killed even in the first attack.

Howlrunner would take 1 hit in the first attack (taken that scatter was blocked and brace was used to prevent 1 damage)

leaving her with 2 HP. In the second attack she would need to burn the brace token to stay in game with 1 HP.

The third attack would kill her.

So in average the tokens help to survive a single attack more then a standard squadron.

well i have been playing it wrong then. Thanks guys!

Currently defense tokens are great against what are typically considered the "best" roll results. TIE Fighter with swarm active shoots at Luke and rolls 4 hits? Sorry, Brace, 2 damage only. They add some uncertainty, at least, to engaging them. Sure, three attacks from TIEs is likely to kill Luke, but sometimes you'll roll each of those attacks as 2 hits, 2 miss, and Luke's sitting there with 2 Hull left. Then his escorts might activate with a Squadron command and clean out those TIEs before you have a chance to react.

Defense tokens on squadrons ensure that a significant amount of resources are allocated to deal with them reliably. They can also help against particularly nasty anti-squadron hits from ships. A Concentrate Fire command used on a Neb B to roll 3 hits against Howlrunner is actually 0 damage. We're also going to be seeing black and red dice in the future on anti-squadron armaments for both Ships and Squadrons, meaning that having defense tokens will make that squadron very resistant to the withering fire from ISDs or Imperial Raiders who have higher damage, but less "accurate" anti-squadron attacks.

I like it just the way it is.

So to bring this back to the original question: Should accuracy dice count when attacking a named squadron?. I currently vote yes. Without the risk of an accuracy dice taking scatter put of play howlrunner simply is OP and Luke with his five hp and two brace can survive a great deal of attack runs against a gang of TIEs. The defense tokens and an extra depth to the named squadrons that makes going after them as much of a risk for the attacker as the lose of points is a risk for the defender. Just my two cents.

I wish there were a way for regular fighters of the same type within 1 of a character, to soak the damage of an attack. That way you could screen your characters. It's no fun watching look leading 3 squadrons of xwing, only to watch him go down first in a blaze of glory.