Hey guys,

so the Rule Through Fear Preview has given us this nifty new turbolaser upgrade of which I have distinctively mixed feelings on. It reads:

"While attacking, the [brace] defense effect cannot reduce the damage total by more than 1 unless it is the only defense token spent by the defender during the attack."

it's a very strange, situational ability that basically boils down to this: "if you don't do at least 4 damage regularly, this card won't do diddly jack." [brace has no effect on 1 damage, and reduces 2 or 3 damage down to 1 or 2]

HTT and Redirects

but, thinking carefully, HTT does something that X17s can no longer do: punch through chuncky ships (which, as of wave 2, seem all capable of taking Advanced Projectors...except the poor raider and ISD-1)

In the case of redirect, HTT offers a difficult choice:

1.) take half damage to the hull zone shot at by the opponent

2.) take full damage -1 spread across all hull zones at your discretion

considering its packaged with the ISD, a behemoth 8 attack die front arc ship who really doesn't appreciate having her damage halved at 110 points+, it seems well suited for the role.

the only concern there is the ISD-2, which promises some good odds at rolling at least an accuracy against ships, all of which have only a single brace token (save the plucky neb)

HTT and Evade

at long range, the combination of evade + brace can whittle your attacks down to little concern. Does HTT help here? Imo, not really. The chances of you having four damage remaining after losing an entire die isn't that high.

If there is an exception to this, it has to be Akbar. If Akbar works as advertised (2 extra red dice if firing only out of the side arcs), you'll have fatties flinging 6 reds with CF and the assault Long John Silver flinging 7.

the exceptions kick in at medium range, where unreliable re-rolls suddenly don't seem worth losing the brace effect and where imperial ships tend to throw a lot more dice.

Who should take it? (imperials)

As you might imagine from them coming in the same box, this card seems made for Vader

With Vader, even your ISD and VSD (so far the only ships that can take it) red dice stand a decent chance of hitting the 4 damage line that make HTT at all useful. While evade ships might brush off attacks without HTT actually contributing, evadeless ships such as the sans-Needa ISD/VSD/Mon Cal will be a mite ticked off that they can't simply half and spread your damage around.

When you enable those star destroyer arcs, though...there will be blood, chaps.

Who should take it? (rebels)

As mentioned, Akbar's heaping helping of red dice will get rebel ships hitting above the damage cap needed for HTT to have any impact at all.

Who shouldn't take it?

Intel Officer seems to have distinct anti-synergy with HTT. Unlike X17s, HTT only works if the brace token is used in conjunction with other tokens. The less defense tokens the enemy has, the less useful it is.

Any small rebel ship should probably avoid this upgrade, on account of simply not having enough damage to push for it to be worthwhile (and on account that they're very efficient and should be run in numbers rather than upgraded.) The Counter Shrimp frigate might enjoy HTTs, but only at close range.

The only exception I can think of is Salvation, because that **** thing hits like a monster truck

Who should fear it?

while the obvious answer is "everyone with a brace token," I feel the irony is that the same ships that benefit the most from HTT are also going to hate its guts

The ISD/VSD/Mon Cal can all toss out some incredible damage, and they're all also able to absorb considerable punishment between braces and redirects. Those that can take Advanced Projectors will find that it won't save them from the effects of HTT, as it would against X17s.

HTT of course has zero effect against ships without brace tokens, which so far include only the cr90 and the counter shrimp frigate. The fact that the counter shrimp frigate is implied to be able to take projectors (Here They Come article shows a defensive retrofit upgrade included in the box), has a crapload of shields, and has a crapload of side-arc dice might make them a hurdle for the large ships to overcome.

Ironically, the ships that benefit the most from HTT are also going to hate running into it. The ISD and Mon Cal 80

I counter that the MC30 wants this more than the XI7 or the Enhanced Armaments.

Great overview!

I counter that the MC30 wants this more than the XI7 or the Enhanced Armaments.

Great overview!

it may, I'm just not certain about my ability to roll

at black dice range, it's going to have 0.0000 problems smacking right over the 4 damage line (unless you get horribly unlucky )

at red dice, Akbar's capping it out at 4 red broadsides, 5 with CF.

I guess I can see 5 red dice hitting the four damage cap

And all 8 dice? Even all 5 dice in tandem. . . Not to mention that you can put Rapid Reload which will give you an extra black die.

By the same notion, XI7s are in the same boat with the 4 damage threshold. Advanced Projectors can spread the first 4 damage evenly, but as soon as you exceed that, it's all on the hull zone you're targeting. I mulled all the same points over and decided to stick with the XI7s in an Ackbar gunnery build. When you're throwing out 6 reds a turn and can guarantee an accuracy (Home One!!!), I see the XI7s as superior. You can target the brace and force him to take the full damage every time.

It's all about the group mechanics here. In one shot, yes the HTT will force a choice between brace and redirect, causing the shields to weaken on one side. However, if you follow up with another HTT ship, I then just use the redirect that I couldn't use before. With XI7s, they build on each other when you get over 4 damage.

Let's take two concentrate fire AFIIs with Slaved Turrets at long range with Ackbar hanging around against the only Imperial ship able to take Advanced Projectors: the ISD. That's 7 (oh man am I looking forward to this) red dice. Each die has a 25% chance at damage, 25% chance at crit, 25% of miss, 12.5% chance of double damage, and 12.5% chance of accuracy. Using that, let's assume a slightly above average roll of 1 double, 1 accuracy, 2 damage, 2 crit, and only 1 miss. We'll use this as a baseline for all our rolls. We'll even give the two ships shots at the same side arc.

Right off the top, we have six damage and can cancel one token. Well with HTTs I'd probably let him brace it, so I target something inconsequential for this round of shooting (a contain?). He braces, taking the damage on the zone you targeted. Sweet! The shields are down on that side. However, the next AFII follows up, and the 6 damage are spread over the other shields. We can't stop the redirect because we only have one accuracy and he has two tokens. No hull damage. ****.

Now let's look at the same scenario with XI7s. Six damage and I can target one defense token. Well I'm definitely going for the brace. 3 damage gets spread to other hull zones, but we force 3 shields down on the target hull zone. Sweet! Shields are down! The next AFII follows up. Once again, I'm targeting the Brace token. Again, 3 damage gets spread over the other shields, but BAM! I've got three hull damage as well (although no crits because of Contain).

I will give you that Home One makes this a much much harder decision. Let's add Home One to the same examples.

In this case, the The HHTs once again let the ISD brace, dropping the shields. The second volley is where things get interesting. This time you are able to target both redirects. Holy 6 hull damage batman! He's containing it, but you're now forcing a hard choice. That's half his hull value, so this probably forces the brace to get discarded. That takes it down to 3 damage, but he's in big trouble in following turns.

The XI7s also starts the same way. 3 damage on other hull zones and shields on the targeted side. For the second volley, I would target the brace and the remaing redirect, just like the HHTs. Just like the HHTs, he's now looking at 6 hull damage. This probably forces a discard of the second redirect, with only 3 hull damage.

As you can see, Home One makes the end state much closer. So what can we take away from this? Take whatever turbolasers you want, but you better freaking take Home One if you've got Ackbar.

and to take h9s on home one

(specifies another friendly ship)

and to take h9s on home one

(specifies another friendly ship)

Good for spotting !

So actually Home One buffs gels better with the more dice the friendly ships can throw. One awesome thing is that it seems to work for each attack, so this is going to be very brutal with AFMK2s and other MC80.

XI7's actually need 9 damage to hurt ships like the ISD or the MC80 (with ECM's). XI7's need to watch for the brace AND the redirect when Advanced Projectors are involved.

Intel Officer seems to have distinct anti-synergy with HTT. Unlike X17s, HTT only works if the brace token is used in conjunction with other tokens. The less defense tokens the enemy has, the less useful it is.

I don't think this is accurate. If you have HTT and IO, you use IO on the brace every time and they quickly either run out of shields or lose their brace. Or both! And sure, HTT becomes less useful as they lose tokens, but if HTT was partly responsible for the circumstances in which they burned those tokens then it has more than earned its cost. If you're willing to pay x points to screw with the enemy's options, surely you're satisfied with those x points once you've completely eliminated some options?

Valid point. That is how I use IO. I find being able to cause painful decisions are great. Just watch out for the Devastator.

XI7's actually need 9 damage to hurt ships like the ISD or the MC80 (with ECM's). XI7's need to watch for the brace AND the redirect when Advanced Projectors are involved.

which is why he suggested Home One, the only way to stack H9s and X17s on the same ship

X17 + IO is a favorite of mine, but im not sure it'll punch timely through projectors and HTT are, at the very least, a lot cheaper

XI7's actually need 9 damage to hurt ships like the ISD or the MC80 (with ECM's). XI7's need to watch for the brace AND the redirect when Advanced Projectors are involved.

which is why he suggested Home One, the only way to stack H9s and X17s on the same ship

XI7's actually need 9 damage to hurt ships like the ISD or the MC80 (with ECM's). XI7's need to watch for the brace AND the redirect when Advanced Projectors are involved.

which is why he suggested Home One, the only way to stack H9s and X17s on the same ship

That is true. . . It also will work well is SW-7 Ions work the way I think they do. You can spend the extra accuracies on damage.

SW-7s and H9s/home one would be quite drool worthy

or just slap em one an ISD-2...disgusting

XI7's actually need 9 damage to hurt ships like the ISD or the MC80 (with ECM's). XI7's need to watch for the brace AND the redirect when Advanced Projectors are involved.

which is why he suggested Home One, the only way to stack H9s and X17s on the same ship

That is true. . . It also will work well is SW-7 Ions work the way I think they do. You can spend the extra accuracies on damage.

SW-7s and H9s/home one would be quite drool worthy

or just slap em one an ISD-2...disgusting