A direct hit is also just a faceup damage card.

HMMMM. My mind has just been blown.

I've always played it that you deal yourself a second face down damage card, then flip the Direct Hit face down. No-one has ever said anything about it to me, friendly, tournament or otherwise.

I have no idea why, or how, this happened.

I've always just kept the DH face up and just counted it as two damage. I don't draw an extra card.

What is the proper thing to do?

I've always just kept the DH face up and just counted it as two damage. I don't draw an extra card.

What is the proper thing to do?

What you're doing, I imagine (do what it says on the card, don't do what it doesn't). Which is why I'm so surprised I've never been picked up on it before!

... R4-D6 is still terrible not because of the stress, but because it's too situational to be useful.

R4-D6 is pretty good on Porkins. Turn one point of damage into a 3/8 chance of one point of damage.

A direct hit is also just a faceup damage card.

HMMMM. My mind has just been blown.

I've always played it that you deal yourself a second face down damage card, then flip the Direct Hit face down. No-one has ever said anything about it to me, friendly, tournament or otherwise.

I have no idea why, or how, this happened.

I've always just kept the DH face up and just counted it as two damage. I don't draw an extra card.

What is the proper thing to do?

Like you do it: The card stays face-up and counts as two points of damage.

A direct hit is also just a faceup damage card.

HMMMM. My mind has just been blown.

I've always played it that you deal yourself a second face down damage card, then flip the Direct Hit face down. No-one has ever said anything about it to me, friendly, tournament or otherwise.

I have no idea why, or how, this happened.

Same here.

Coming up next in No Card Left Behind: why every squad list should use Saboteur!

The way Biggs used to be run was naked.

Wisdom there was that points spent on upgrading him were points sunk into a ship destined to die.

1 point is a cheap cost.

For 1 point, R4-D6 almost ensures that Biggs takes at least 3 attacks to kill.

(I say almost because the card does nothing for crit results)

So while it's useless against a swarmy opponent, where the opportunity to trigger is quite low, against a 2-ship list it can make a huge difference. Especially with turrets.

You're unlikely to rack up that many stress tokens, but if you did, it's better to stay alive than to take those hits. Not having your action in the coming round is a moot point if you're dead. I'll take a quadruple-stressed Biggs who lives on to round 2 of shooting with no action over the Biggs who bit it in round 1.

Elusive isn't so much bad on its own as it is just not as good as PtL. If you are willing to stress your ships then PtL is king. And if your not willing to take the stress then Elusive is just plane out.

With the special case of Istiban seems okay, but I don't play Istiban that much. I much prefer Farlander with Opportunist.

One basic principal of economics is that something's cost is what you have to give up in order to get it. By that measure Elusive's cost is usually the EPT upgrade slot more than the 2 points.

The way Biggs used to be run was naked.

Wisdom there was that points spent on upgrading him were points sunk into a ship destined to die.

1 point is a cheap cost.

For 1 point, R4-D6 almost ensures that Biggs takes at least 3 attacks to kill.

(I say almost because the card does nothing for crit results)

So while it's useless against a swarmy opponent, where the opportunity to trigger is quite low, against a 2-ship list it can make a huge difference. Especially with turrets.

You're unlikely to rack up that many stress tokens, but if you did, it's better to stay alive than to take those hits. Not having your action in the coming round is a moot point if you're dead. I'll take a quadruple-stressed Biggs who lives on to round 2 of shooting with no action over the Biggs who bit it in round 1.

I don't think people have skipped over R4-D6 because of the stress, they've skipped it because of how likely it is that the card triggers.

Have you ever tried Howlrunner + Elu and Yorr nearby? Have you?

Elusive isn't so much bad on its own as it is just not as good as PtL. If you are willing to stress your ships then PtL is king. And if your not willing to take the stress then Elusive is just plane out.

With the special case of Istiban seems okay, but I don't play Istiban that much. I much prefer Farlander with Opportunist.

One basic principal of economics is that something's cost is what you have to give up in order to get it. By that measure Elusive's cost is usually the EPT upgrade slot more than the 2 points.

Assuming that a ship has the Evade action PTL is almost alway going to be a superior choice to Elusiveness. The only real advantage that Elusiveness has to taking an Evade with PTL is that you don't need to commit to taking a stress unless you know you'll need to use the ability. Unfortunately, Elusiveness only gives a 50% percent chance of being helpful even in the best case scenarios (only 25% if the attacker has a focus token). More often than not, you'll end up taking the damage and getting stressing yourself.

Ibitsam is really the only pilot that should even consider Elusiveness since she benefits from having stress and has a low enough PS that it is likely that she has been shot at before she attacks. Outside of Ibitsam. Elusiveness is a really bad card. It's almost Saboteur bad.

Have you ever tried Howlrunner + Elu and Yorr nearby? Have you?

Howlrunner + PTL and Yorr is just so much better it's not worth saving a point.

Have you ever tried Howlrunner + Elu and Yorr nearby? Have you?

Howlrunner + PTL and Yorr is just so much better it's not worth saving a point.

Nah! it isnt! Elu still works after collisions. PTL don't.

PTL isn't worth it on Tie Fighters in general.

I once won a tournament with his setup. I don't know how it would perform today, though ...

You are welcome!

I've also never seen rebels sporting R5s ... and wonder why

Speaking only for myself? It's because the ships I fly with enough hull to rack up multiple critical hits aren't really the ships I fly with an astromech slot. I look at my X-Wings and (especially) E-Wings, I think about their hull value and how likely they are to just be dead by the end phase instead of worrying about flipping crits face down, and I pick a different Astromech.

I mean, E-Wings have two hull. How often have you seen one flying around with a crit, instead of just dying outright by that point?

Sure, it's possible, but I don't want to invest points based on that. I'd rather get an Astromech that makes me better at my job and less likely to take crits in the first place.

As a rebel, you should be full of optimism ... I mean.... look ... there is a handful of dirty, stinking, semi-organized wannabe do-gooders, ready to risk their lives against an enemy which completely und utterly outnumber them by 1:99999999999.

OK, they have the rebel A-Team, which increases their chances to about 1:3

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So, take R5s with your E-Wings and have a little faith.

R5 Astromech has never had the "Action:" header. So perhaps rather than launching into knee-jerk internet groupthink, people should actually engage the substance of the article.

I also find it funny that the title of this thread which critiques the image typo (which is basically a tradition in FFG articles) warns us that Howlrunner can take Advanced cloaking "decide."

My bad, I got mixed up with R5-D8

R5 Astromech has never had the "Action:" header. So perhaps rather than launching into knee-jerk internet groupthink, people should actually engage the substance of the article.

I also find it funny that the title of this thread which critiques the image typo (which is basically a tradition in FFG articles) warns us that Howlrunner can take Advanced cloaking "decide."

I was pointing out the typo because I thought it was a fun mistake not a warning of any kind; the main point was to tell people the article was up as many of the users come directly to the forum and skip the homepage news

So, take R5s with your E-Wings and have a little faith.

I'd rather be full of optimism my taking the astromechs that give me that sweet, sweet, green-hard-2, or let me recover shields every time I take a green maneuver, and be optimistic about thinking how that means I'll never TAKE a crit.

I mostly play Empire, anyhow, and I know there are others with far more Rebel/Astromech experience than I've got...but I figured I'd share my personal reason for shying away from R5, at least. It's not that I think he's bad, it's that I've yet to fly a single Y-Wing, and my E's and X's are fragile precious snowflakes.

Have you ever tried Howlrunner + Elu and Yorr nearby? Have you?

I'm fairly certain that doesn't work.

R5 Astromech has never had the "Action:" header. So perhaps rather than launching into knee-jerk internet groupthink, people should actually engage the substance of the article.

I also find it funny that the title of this thread which critiques the image typo (which is basically a tradition in FFG articles) warns us that Howlrunner can take Advanced cloaking "decide."

Or maybe you can read the whole thread? That was put to bed on the 1st page.

I'm a fan of R4-D6 on my turret-toting Y-wings. Horton wouldn't mind having this droid for insurance, and it's much more likely to trigger with the single agility die.

The bigger controversy here, that everyone has missed, is that echo is referred to as a "he"

The bigger controversy here, that everyone has missed, is that echo is referred to as a "he"

That's not a controversy, that's an objective fact.

Y-Wings with R5 and an autoblaster turret are a great use of 21 pts. Especially when paired with a mobile ship like Dash.

The bigger controversy here, that everyone has missed, is that echo is referred to as a "he"

They've referred to echo as he before. Echo is male, Whisper is female <flees the feminist counter-assault>.