Intelligence Agent would not have any effect on follow on attacks from the rest of the fleet.

ummm, if they discard a defense token they can no longer spend it so... intel officer in fact has great benefit to the rest of your fleet.

OK, slight correction: Intelligence Agent would have **** litte effect on follow on attacks from the rest of the fleet.

Basically, you have to be in a position to force the opponent to spend the targeted token anyway, despite the fact he will get plenty of opportunity to use it on the rest of your fleet's attacks.

Quick thoughts:

1 - Ion Cannon Batteries are terrible, despite my hopes they would be better. It's 1 extra damage IF you crit IF you fire first and don't strip the shields IF they don't have any command tokens. In a best case, you vaporize an engineering token on a big ship, but that's still not as good as just killing it.

2 - Given that they pidgeonhole you into firing first / early, there is nothing they do that overload pulse won't do better (by definition, people aren't using defense tokens unless they prevent at least one damage).

This saddens me, because I really like this card and wanted it to be good, but it's not. I also dislike leading shots because giving up a blue die is typically not a great trade (as the only rebel ship that can use it effectively is the CR90B). Maaaaybe it could be playable on a VSD2 to avoid really poor rolls, but... 4 points to counter the rare instance where you roll 2+ blanks on 3 red dice?

Intelligence Agent would not have any effect on follow on attacks from the rest of the fleet.

ummm, if they discard a defense token they can no longer spend it so... intel officer in fact has great benefit to the rest of your fleet.

OK, slight correction: Intelligence Agent would have **** litte effect on follow on attacks from the rest of the fleet.

Basically, you have to be in a position to force the opponent to spend the targeted token anyway, despite the fact he will get plenty of opportunity to use it on the rest of your fleet's attacks.

Seems like there isn't much use for ICBs then, at least not yet. Especially the way I fly, Screed in particular for ships with black dice, or with my H9+Warlord combo, ICBs come into more contrast as a waste of 5 points.

Intelligence Agent would not have any effect on follow on attacks from the rest of the fleet.

ummm, if they discard a defense token they can no longer spend it so... intel officer in fact has great benefit to the rest of your fleet.

OK, slight correction: Intelligence Agent would have **** litte effect on follow on attacks from the rest of the fleet.

Basically, you have to be in a position to force the opponent to spend the targeted token anyway, despite the fact he will get plenty of opportunity to use it on the rest of your fleet's attacks.

not when a victory is throwing 4-8 damage their way, they will want to spend that token

Exactly. If it's mounted on your primary damage dealer, they have to really decide if they want to spend that token and lose it for the rest of the battle. If you're just using the firing ship to prep the target for the hammer blow however, they can just save the token for the hammer blow itself.

And the only Imperial ship that can equip Overload Pulse right now is the VSD-II, which is a heavy-hitting beast, ergo having an Intel Agent on said VSD-II would be better (and cheaper, and work at range 3, and not require using a crit effect).

Q.E.D.

All in all, the Ion Cannon upgrade slot is kinda weak right now compared to its peers.

So interesting tidbit on ion cannon - the crit effect vs. shields isn't damage, so can't be redirected and doesn't count towards brace's effect. Not a bad upgrade for the cost.

Crit effects that add damage are underestimated by people because they forget about Brace (same reason I like ACMs). How many times have you shot your VSD front guns at something - rolled up about 4 damage and had it braced down to 2? It isn't uncommon. A ship with ICB only needs to roll a single blue crit to inflict that same level of damage to a shielded ship. Stick it on a CR90b (which are easy to put a double arc on things with) and you can expect a blue crit every turn when concentrating fire. 1/4 chance per blue dice.

Or going back to the orginal example of the VSD - turning that 2 damage into 3 damage with ICBs is a 50% increase in damage. Over time and with multiple arcs in play this adds up.

I'd also suggest that knocking off a key token (navigate) could be a potential game changer if somebody needs that token to slow down and avoid a collision - or speed up to get in the right place next turn. Messing with your opponent in this way has the potential to do great harm. Also knocking out an engineering token is effectively an extra damage anyhow on many ships.

It isn't an upgrade that is killer - but at 5pts I think it is not a bad option.

Crit effects that add damage are underestimated by people because they forget about Brace (same reason I like ACMs). How many times have you shot your VSD front guns at something - rolled up about 4 damage and had it braced down to 2? It isn't uncommon. A ship with ICB only needs to roll a single blue crit to inflict that same level of damage to a shielded ship. Stick it on a CR90b (which are easy to put a double arc on things with) and you can expect a blue crit every turn when concentrating fire. 1/4 chance per blue dice.

Or going back to the orginal example of the VSD - turning that 2 damage into 3 damage with ICBs is a 50% increase in damage. Over time and with multiple arcs in play this adds up.

I'd also suggest that knocking off a key token (navigate) could be a potential game changer if somebody needs that token to slow down and avoid a collision - or speed up to get in the right place next turn. Messing with your opponent in this way has the potential to do great harm. Also knocking out an engineering token is effectively an extra damage anyhow on many ships.

It isn't an upgrade that is killer - but at 5pts I think it is not a bad option.

It has its uses in certain circumstances, but how often do they arise? The additional damage on shields is a nice bonus, but too small to make a difference in most scenarios. Tipping of tokens can be brutal, but in comparison to other crit effects it falls behind a lot of the time. I can see it working with a corvette, but if you like that gambling-maneuvering-thing, pacing through enemy fire and obstacles to reach that sweet spot on a flagship, overload pulse or dodonnas pride will reward your efforts far more reliably and with greater impact. On a VSD or anything of similar size and firepower, leading shots is almost always the better upgrade, for 1 less point.

All in all, its an okay upgrade, but the worst of the three so far in my opinion.

Forget Ion cannons and just pack Leading Shots.

Rerolling your misses is going to add up to more damage than the potential for an extra shield ping.

Eh, spending a dice means that you'll want to have lots of misses.

Yeah, but not having a lot of dice means your Ion Cannons probably aren't critting.

Currently, it's not worth upgrading CR90s (they have too few dice, too cheap) unless you're trying Overload Pulse shennanigans.

VSD2s are the only real choice atm, and they benefit madly from Leading Shots.

Crit effects that add damage are underestimated by people because they forget about Brace (same reason I like ACMs). How many times have you shot your VSD front guns at something - rolled up about 4 damage and had it braced down to 2? It isn't uncommon. A ship with ICB only needs to roll a single blue crit to inflict that same level of damage to a shielded ship. Stick it on a CR90b (which are easy to put a double arc on things with) and you can expect a blue crit every turn when concentrating fire. 1/4 chance per blue dice.

Or going back to the orginal example of the VSD - turning that 2 damage into 3 damage with ICBs is a 50% increase in damage. Over time and with multiple arcs in play this adds up.

I'd also suggest that knocking off a key token (navigate) could be a potential game changer if somebody needs that token to slow down and avoid a collision - or speed up to get in the right place next turn. Messing with your opponent in this way has the potential to do great harm. Also knocking out an engineering token is effectively an extra damage anyhow on many ships.

It isn't an upgrade that is killer - but at 5pts I think it is not a bad option.

Since ICBs are so useless to some, I would be happy to trade you for them. I need some for my CR90 list. Im looking for two and I have lots of leading shots to trade if anyone is interested. Other options available as well. PM me. Thanks!