Title says it all.
My current build is
2x Alpha with AT
2x Academy
1x Dark Curse
1x Howl with swarm tactics
While the focus would be better for both offense and defense, I feel that taking a focus with the ship I plan to swarm, and evades with the rest of the ships is a better option, sure they won't all get shot at but it helps reduce the chance for getting one shot
Focus for everybody IMO. It's worth about as much on defense and has use on offense if you didn't have to spend it.
Even at the potential cost of oneshotting a ship? I do feel the evade action might be better to pair with autothrusters since you can reduce the damage down to 1 or 2 if it's range 1 and out of arc
This forces shots onto other ships with a focus token leaving the potential for a decent amount of damage coming through in the end. Maybe?
They can stop a one-shot, but you're going to end most turns with a lot of evades still up and less damage done. If you have an evade token in end phase it's almost like you took no action at all.
Would 4 AT alpha's plus Howl be a decent list?
Edited by TasteTheRainbowSomewhere I read that with a ship that has 3 or more agility dice, you're better off focusing, especially if you'll be shot by a handful of enemies.
If you go with Focus, each ship that wasn't attacked still gets to use their token (on offense).
If you go with Evade, only the ships that were attacked get to use their tokens.
I think focus is usually better, as well, but it's hard to say. Evade actions + getting lucky with Howl re-roll + getting lucky with Evade rolls will be the only way to succeed if your opponent manages to get a strong advantage over you.
Though, you could just as easily roll focus results all the time. At least Evade always works, focus only has a 2/8 chance of kicking in per die (I believe).
I wouldn't stick to a rigid "this is always better" because even if the odds say something is more likely, there is always variance. Technically, there is nothing stopping your dice from rolling all blanks over and over and over again (I've experienced the "extremes" of the probability spectrum more often than I care to).
What I'm getting at is: use the situation on the board to your advantage and do what is best at the time. No shots for Tie #1? Take an evade action. Get into R1 with Dark Curse? Take a focus for the Offense. It takes some intangible intuition I suppose, but in the long run, that will make you most effective.
Focus, definitely. Unless you can be absolutely, 100% certain which ship the enemy is going to target. If you evade with everybody he will simply concentrate fire on one ship and you will end the turn with a bunch of useless evade tokens still on your ship. If you focus with everyone he will still concentrate on one ship but then all the others have a chance to use their focus tokens on offense.
I think part of the reason you don't see ships with Evade and less than three agility is because three agility is where focus and evade become closest to the same. I believe your average expected roll on 3 dice is 1 evade, 1 focus, 1 blank (or something fairly similar)? If that's right, you either end up spending for 1 focus or 1 evade or 1 evade for 1 evade. The difference maker is that you are more likely with three dice than less dice to roll multiple focus results, making the focus token more useful when that happens.
And you can use it when attacking.
Maybe against another swarm, you might consider taking evade over focus. But considering that the meta is so heavy on two ship builds right now, I'd say the focus token is much more likely to do something for you. You can always consider evade on the ships that are more likely targets (like one that's already taken damage) to mess with the attacker's target priority decision-making.
You can't go wrong with King Focus.
Always focus with 3+ agility unless you're absolutely certain that ship will be shot at. If you evade, then not only will you have a bunch of unspent tokens at the end of the round, but you'll also be dealing substantially less damage due to a limited ability to modify dice rolls on offense. That means you'll face more attacks in future rounds as your enemy's ships live longer, which means more damage taken.
As long as you have a target in arc, or expect one to be, Focus.
Force the hard choices.
Focus. As others have said, few of your ships are going to be attacked each turn, and you want to boost the offense of those that get ignored to win the attrition game. With three agility, the defensive performance of a focus token approaches (+6/8 vs. + 1 evades) that of an evade. Additionally, evade is generally better when you are facing a single attack, but if you will be taking fire from multiple attackers, particularly in a high agility ship, focus is better defensively because you get multiple chances to use it.
Evade certainly has its niches. As you pointed out OP, if not getting one-shotted is paramount, evade. Evade is also an excellent counter to something like Han Solo with gunner. One uncancelled damage? Eat it so he does not get a do-over. Two or more uncancelled? Spend it normally to reduce incoming damage. Evade gives you a degree of manipulation over his attack mechanics. No use spending tokens to dodge the first attack if the second is likely to nuke your now defenseless ship. Focus might force you into a situation of avoiding all the damage or none of it.
Howlrunner is the sole exception.
Notably, at 4 dice, Focus and Evade have the same expected mitigation, but Focus does better at mitigating 2-4 damage. Evade does better at mitigating 1 and 5.
At 3 dice and fewer, Evade does better. At more than 4, Focus does better.
TL:DR Focus focus focus!
like DraconPyrothayan said, Howl has to take evade. I play swarm myself, and I use evade to direct attacks away from certain ships. Never Evade on all, split it up. Sometimes it's very easy (there are always a few ships that will not be shot), at other times it's hard to decide which one to protect. I also tale into account how much is incoming. A damaged ship never gets evade, unless there's only 1 attack with 2 die coming in. Use focus here, use it as a bait (already damaged, no evade) and protect others that can deal damage (especially Interceptors at range 1). A well placed evade can work wonders, you play with your opponents mind here.
Also mentioned before, never go all evade, throw in a few focus (foci? ;-) ).
reading this got me to thinking is there a single ship in this game without a native focus action on the bar? I can't think of one.
reading this got me to thinking is there a single ship in this game without a native focus action on the bar? I can't think of one.
Nope. I have to wonder if there was an iteration of IG that replaced it with Barrel Roll. He's a robot. What's he focusing on?
If you can shoot you focus if you can't you evade.
You guys with your well-reasoned replies are all wrong. The correct answer is actually Barrel Roll
You guys with your well-reasoned replies are all wrong. The correct answer is actually Barrel Roll
Well, Barrel-Roll if it either gains you a shot that you otherwise would not have had, or if it dodges the arc.
Also, I don't understand that vine.
What's to understand? It's the "Apparently Kid" talking about doing a barrel roll.
Focus generally.
Against Gunner or IG88B, it might be better to take evade in order to better reduce damage to one instead of successfully evading and triggering the second shot. At range 3 you're not doing damage to 4 agility + Autothrusters with only 2 attack dice anyways.
Z-95 swarms are decent at action ecnomy. First engagement all 8 of them dump TL's, then second combat turn they go focus if they haven't already spent their TL for defense/TL+Focus offense.
Who is the "Apparently Kid"?
Nope. I have to wonder if there was an iteration of IG that replaced it with Barrel Roll. He's a robot. What's he focusing on?reading this got me to thinking is there a single ship in this game without a native focus action on the bar? I can't think of one.
I was just thinking that the IGs shouldn't have focus.
On topic, taking all evade tokens lets you live longer. Taking all focus tokens lets you win more often.