Horton with twin laser turret, ept droid, and marksmanship is a monster who is dropping 3 successful attack rolls per shot almost every time. He's only 35 points so fill out a compliment and wreck face.

Also good on Corran, because it works for both attacks

Horton with twin laser turret, ept droid, and marksmanship is a monster who is dropping 3 successful attack rolls per shot almost every time. He's only 35 points so fill out a compliment and wreck face.

this is the Horton I've been running lately, sometimes if my list will allow it, I'll have him add extra munitions and seismic charges to discourage pursuers. It's insanely accurate. You're basically guaranteed the opportunity to do 2 damage, I say opportunity because we know 3 hits don't always break the wall down, but a battering ram does get through eventually and that's what Horton can offer for 1/3 of a list depending on how you look at it.

Marksmanship is legendarily bad for getting a single crit on an attack you'd have spent a Focus (from an action itself) on anyway.

It's pretty solid the moment you're modifying multiple attacks - be they via Gunner (where the main problem is sheer expense), or Cluster missiles (where the problem has been the Cluster Missiles were expensive to start with).

On Corran, TLTs, or dare I say even Dengar... it's solid enough, alright. The main problem is that most of the aces that could use it find themselves eyeing Predator for the actionless buff, because at those prices-per-ship you start needing to worry about your action economy.

That doesn't make it bad, though. We just got used to it 'sucking'... back when ships only attacked once.

Kavil with tlt and marksmanship- 2 hits on almost anything

And then give Horton the title for laughs and a decent shot at a third damage!

hold the kriff up people thought this ability was bad?

hold the kriff up people thought this ability was bad?

It's not that it is bad it is just not very good, at least for 3 points.

The EPT slot being around since Wave 1 has the most upgrade cards of any other slots and unlike modifications which can go on any ship and crew which have ships that has multiple slots of that type, the EPT slot is something of an exception which means to get an EPT you already have to put more points in a ship to take a higher skilled pilot (the cheapest being the Black squadron for 14 points).

Because of those restrictions the EPT slot really is only filled with EPTs that provide a heavy advantage aka the high power EPTs. EPTs like VI which is remarkably cheap for its benefit and PTL which on the right ships provides all sorts of flexibility. So unless an EPT is really good it will never be equipped.

Now why is marksmanship only good and not really good like say predator. Well for one is that it cost 3 points so that is in the high end of EPT costs with the average being 2 points. Competing against the 1 point VI can be a hard case especially when you squadron list is at 102 points. However the bigest thing is that it takes an action to use meaning unless you have PTL which you won't as that EPT slot is already used (exception is the A-wing test pilot title) you would need EI which also cost more points. For all that investment you get a slightly stronger offensive ability at the sacrifice of defensive modifications where as predator doesn't use any actions.

The loss of the ability to modify defensive dice is a big blow to marksmanship as for most ships can only attack once per turn but a ship is unlimited to the amount of times you can defend. If you got a good roll with a focus token you could save it for evade attempts where as with marksmanship if you got a good roll then you are completely at the mercy of the dice for defense. The strength of marksmanship is that it is able to be used for multiple attacks per turn. So TLT, Corran Horn, or in conjunction with gunner is what marksmanship is really strong but it also becomes really expensive in squadron points.

Marksmanship holds up well on ships which have two attacks - especially alongside Han or Gunner crew. It's major drawback is it costs an action, and as such you can lose it.

I'd personally still go Predator on TLT Horton instead, as you don't get the critical benefit with TLT anyway, and it works even if you're stressed.

Edit: D'oh!

The advantage of Marksman on Horton is that you're already getting rerolls with him anyway, so it means you've effectively got target lock and focus on all your attacks. As for giving him the title, you need the droid to give him the EPT, so you can't put a generic R2 unit on there. TLT isn't an ion cannon that makes it easy to stay on the tail of your intended target, so it will become difficult to remain in arc.

Cheerio,

Ben

The advantage of Marksman on Horton is that you're already getting rerolls with him anyway, so it means you've effectively got target lock and focus on all your attacks. As for giving him the title, you need the droid to give him the EPT, so you can't put a generic R2 unit on there. TLT isn't an ion cannon that makes it easy to stay on the tail of your intended target, so it will become difficult to remain in arc.

Cheerio,

Ben

True but Horton doesn't come cheap and since he doesn't have an EPT slot you have to invest in R2-D6 which adds another point.

So Horton w/ R2-D6 + Marksmanship + TLT = 35 points which is expensive for small ships. That combined with the dial if Horton ever gets stressed he will be locked in place but good thing TLT is out of arc as long as you don't pick up the BTL-A4 title.

The advantage of Marksman on Horton is that you're already getting rerolls with him anyway, so it means you've effectively got target lock and focus on all your attacks. As for giving him the title, you need the droid to give him the EPT, so you can't put a generic R2 unit on there. TLT isn't an ion cannon that makes it easy to stay on the tail of your intended target, so it will become difficult to remain in arc.

Cheerio,

Ben

Good point Ben, completely forgot about Horton's pilot ability. Predator's totally unnecessary on him!

Agreed. Its good for horton, who already has rerolls, and it's good for big ships with gunner whose abilities need criticals (bossk, kath, etc)

True but Horton doesn't come cheap and since he doesn't have an EPT slot you have to invest in R2-D6 which adds another point.

So Horton w/ R2-D6 + Marksmanship + TLT = 35 points which is expensive for small ships. That combined with the dial if Horton ever gets stressed he will be locked in place but good thing TLT is out of arc as long as you don't pick up the BTL-A4 title.

Yes, good point. Compare him with my Kavil build, with predator and unhinged astromech. You get the extra dice, a lesser reroll and a lesser focus, but I bet the two do about the same damage with the TLT but the dial is so much better, and he's a point cheaper.

With the title, he's an excellent jouster if you can slow roll him and prevent the opponent attacking him (such as with Biggs). At 35 points, he's going to score 2 hits, 3 hits, 3 hits almost every time. Okay, so he can only do 4 damage from those hits, but when he's hitting that consistently for several turns, most enemy ships will melt pretty quickly especially if you can focus fire with with another ship or two.

I already can't see taking Marksmanship for 3 points, I'm certainly not taking it for 4 points.

For 35 points I'm taking Ten Numb and Mangler and ALWAYS hitting something with a crit.

Marksmanship is great! I prefer to call it by its other name though, Glitterstim!

Sorry had to do it. I do think Marksmanship has a place, but its few and far between. In general, Predator is the better option for the price, but if you can get multiple attacks or have built in rerolls already, Marksmanship can work. There are just so many EPTs now that compete for the one slot, many of which are quite popular and the same price or cheaper.

I already can't see taking Marksmanship for 3 points, I'm certainly not taking it for 4 points.

For 35 points I'm taking Ten Numb and Mangler and ALWAYS hitting something with a crit.

In my area, Ten with Calculation and Ion Cannon is popular. A little pricey for one damage for my taste, but if you're in front of him, you're almost assuredly getting that token...

Marksmanship+K4+ Bossk. Good potential for 5 hits at range 1 in 180 degree arc. :-)

I use it for an alt-soontir build.

Marksmanship, autothrusters, experimental interface.

You still get your focus for defense, while punching harder than standard soontir.

The advantage of Marksman on Horton is that you're already getting rerolls with him anyway, so it means you've effectively got target lock and focus on all your attacks. As for giving him the title, you need the droid to give him the EPT, so you can't put a generic R2 unit on there. TLT isn't an ion cannon that makes it easy to stay on the tail of your intended target, so it will become difficult to remain in arc.

Cheerio,

Ben

Good point Ben, completely forgot about Horton's pilot ability. Predator's totally unnecessary on him!

Nah, I'd still prefer it, as Horton can only reroll blanks. With that dial, it's easy to get and keep stress. So, reroll the eyeball(s) with Pred.

Nah, I'd still prefer it, as Horton can only reroll blanks. With that dial, it's easy to get and keep stress. So, reroll the eyeball(s) with Pred.

Well you're free to be wrong, Tommy.

The game ebbs & flows... good.

The advantage of Marksman on Horton is that you're already getting rerolls with him anyway, so it means you've effectively got target lock and focus on all your attacks. As for giving him the title, you need the droid to give him the EPT, so you can't put a generic R2 unit on there. TLT isn't an ion cannon that makes it easy to stay on the tail of your intended target, so it will become difficult to remain in arc.

Cheerio,

Ben

Good point Ben, completely forgot about Horton's pilot ability. Predator's totally unnecessary on him!

Nah, I'd still prefer it, as Horton can only reroll blanks. With that dial, it's easy to get and keep stress. So, reroll the eyeball(s) with Pred.

You'd rather reroll the eyeballs rather than just turn them into hits? That's very bold and not very statistically wise of you.

The advantage of Marksman on Horton is that you're already getting rerolls with him anyway, so it means you've effectively got target lock and focus on all your attacks. As for giving him the title, you need the droid to give him the EPT, so you can't put a generic R2 unit on there. TLT isn't an ion cannon that makes it easy to stay on the tail of your intended target, so it will become difficult to remain in arc.

Cheerio,

Ben

Good point Ben, completely forgot about Horton's pilot ability. Predator's totally unnecessary on him!

Nah, I'd still prefer it, as Horton can only reroll blanks. With that dial, it's easy to get and keep stress. So, reroll the eyeball(s) with Pred.

You'd rather reroll the eyeballs rather than just turn them into hits? That's very bold and not very statistically wise of you.

Not if he has Predator and doesn't want to worry about being blocked