Now before you star yelling at me let me point out that AT is without a doubt one of the best upgrades in the game and with the right built it certainly can be very effective on a T70 (like a tricked out Poe with action-efficiency upgrades). But people have been acting like it is the be-all end-all upgrade option for the T70 especially in renegades to Integrated Astromech. Ever since the card was revealed people where dismissive of the very idea of putting it on T70s simply because AT exists. And first I agreed, but the more I tough over it, the more I started to wonder just how much mileage you would actually get out of AT on generics and low PS named.

Fist lets go over the obvious metrics:

• AT lets you potentially prevent multiple damage if the right conditions are meat.
• There a 2 main conditions. Fist you must be either at range 3 or out of arc. Secondly you have to actually roll a blank (which is by no means a given on 2-3 defense dice.)

• IA is cheaper (1-2 points depending on weather you were bringing a mach to begin with)
• It prevents 1 damage guarantied (possible more depending on crits)
• you get the bonus form the mach which might increase your survivability even further with R5, R4-D6 or R7 (though you lose the point-advantage on the last one)

So based on this we can say that AT has to roughly prevent at lest 2-3 damage to justify the extra cost. And if it can do this depends on how often the trigger-conditions are meat in a game.

As I said before this is about low PS Versions. Low PS T70 you will, in all likelihood, want as jousters, either as support for one Elite Ship or as part of a mini-swarm. So with that in mind you will probably have very little chance to force the condition, since you will move first. Boost doesn't help much either, since you cant really be sure where your opponent will end up and if your jouster is facing away form the enemy you are probably doing something wrong anyway.

So with this in mind the question how often AT triggers will strongly depend on your opponent.

• If your opponent is also jousting shouting at range 3 will likely happen for roughly 0-1 turn before everything end up in the fuzzball. And maybe again after a few ships died and some k-turning. If that fist potential exchange at range 3 goes well it could win you the game, but it might also never occur because your opponent wins the speed-poker. For the most part the extra HP will probably get you further.
• If you are facing a skilled arc-dodger he will not want to trade shoots with you, not even at range 3. He will try (and likely succeed) to get behind you. personally I'd rather have an extra hit-point that would allow me to got through an asteroid and cause a bump with Fel, but that's just me.
• Against fat turrets AT will be better in most cases (unless your facing supper-Dash with HLC in which case I'd rather have IA and R4-D6 any day).
• Against TLT... Its difficult. Even in a worst case scenario with the extra HP your opponent will need at lest 4 attacks to finish you of. For the AT to do better it would have to let you avoid at least 3 out of 8 shoots completely which will only happen if your opponent has you not in arc and rolls no more then 2 hits and you roll 1 blank + something useful. I don't know how likely this is, but the amount of "ifs" don't inspire confidence.

In the end it seams to me that AT is, at best, situationally better on T70. Am I missing something? Feel free to convince me otherwise.

I've been Poe with AT, LW and R2-D2. AT pulls its weight easily. You just have to bring something else that threatens the ps9 dodgers.

I am less convinced of the value of slapping AT on generics.

I'm not convinced that IA will typically be a decent generic choice either until we see some new and cheap offensive astro's.

AT has always been situational but AT pairs up with boost perfectly as it can push out to out of arc or range 3 easily.

So what is the most powerful arc dodger technique out there. Well boost and barrel-roll. With BB-88 autothrusters on POE you can do a 2 straight green with a barrel roll then boost to where you need to go. Add PTL to the mix and now you got Soontir with 1 less agility but 3 more shields.

We will see less of corran horn as this new ship take affect and it will make soontir look a like a paper airplane.

AT has always been situational but AT pairs up with boost perfectly as it can push out to out of arc or range 3 easily.

So what is the most powerful arc dodger technique out there. Well boost and barrel-roll. With BB-88 autothrusters on POE you can do a 2 straight green with a barrel roll then boost to where you need to go. Add PTL to the mix and now you got Soontir with 1 less agility but 3 more shields.

We will see less of corran horn as this new ship take affect and it will make soontir look a like a paper airplane.

I don't think so. It doesn't quite make the T-70 an Arc Dodger, but it does make it extremely formidable.

At is a godlike upgrade. What else could game the capricious green dice ?

More seriously at is a life saver if you ever expect to get a long lasting t70. Even though poe will never be immortal, his ability And thrusters stack up perfectly and will end up canceling far more damage than ia over the course of a given game

Your Generic generic, though ...

It's funny. Half the forums are upset because the T-70 'totally outclasses' the T-65.

The other half is mildly peeved that the T-70 is just as overpriced as the T-65 ever was, though it has more arc-dodging abilities to try and find a place for its elite pilots, at least.

With that said, Autothrusters is excellent, even on the generics. Think of it as a way to stiffen the two dice, rather than a free evade every turn - because if you haven't rolled any blanks to Autothrusters, it means you've got something for your focus token to work on, if you've got one.

Could Integrated Astromechs replace it? Absolutely - if turrets were to be less meta-defining. Alas, FFG's solution to a single big turret seems to have been four little ones... so I'm not seeing it any time soon. It's not impossible, but it's certainly not this wave.

I want to take a turret in place of an Astromech.

Yes.

The Uniques will want Autothrusters. However, if you are playing a wing of generics, I'm not sure the choice is so clear, for this reason: cost. Now, the possible benefits of AT for one point over an Integrated R2/R5 astromech are obvious. Once AT activates twice, it has become more beneficial than the IA, at the same cost/benefit ratio. If it activates three times, it has become more efficient, and so on.

I'm just defending Autothrusters, you say? Well, you'd be right, so far. But hear me out:

The PS2 Generic is 24 Points. Autothrusters is 2 points. Integrated R2 or R5 are both 1 point.

You can get four generics with Integrated Astromechs, and only 3 with Autothrusters. Four relatively durable ships with identical, powerful dials. That is a force to be reckoned with. Also, it looks pretty awesome watching a formation of 4 do Tallon Rolls in tandem. (one guy in the local league bought four new cores).

If you choose the other way, the value questions comes with what else with which you can fill the point deficit. I'd go with a B-wing to help my durability. But, with this approach, you lose the ability to fly in formation. One extra total XP ( 3 X-wings with 7 and a B-wing with 8, vs 4 X-wings with 7), equal attack dice, but quite different dials. Keeping your ships together will be what helps you beat heavy turrets and the like.

So for all these reasons, I maintain that Integrated Astromech is best for a formation of T-70s. However, for the uniques or a single Generic in a list, Autothrusters is probably best.

They need to trigger just once to be worth it. Anything else is just gravy. I hate to say it, but they are close to auto-include if you have boost. They are only iffy on the Punisher.

It's less useful on the T-70 simply because it throws fewer defense dice, and so will proc less often over the course of a game.

For only 2 pts, they significantly toughen your ships against Turret lists. Against TLT's especially, you can expect to avoid 1-3 damage over the course of the game, which makes them one of the most efficient defensive upgrades in the game (much more than an Integrated Astromech or a Hull Upgrade). The flip side of that they're not very useful against some other lists (B-Wing swarms, for example).

IA is more generally useful, but can only ever save you from 1 damage or a crit. That's pretty okay for 1 point, but it won't save you against TLT like the autothrusters will. In this particular moment in the game, I think you would be foolish not to take autothrusters in a competitive setting. But if turrets become less common in the future, then IA will become an attractive.

So some numbers:

Without AT it dodges .75/attack (1.125/attack at range 3)

With AT it dodges 1.125/attack (1.5/attack at range 3)

And it costs 2. Versus a zero cost card that prevents 1 card from being dealt.

So my analysis:

It looks like in general, absent a 100 point limit auto thrusters will net you more (duh, it costs you 2 instead of 0)

If I am equipping an Astromech and don't have points for auto thrusters, then yeah I am going for IAstro. This is not as unlikely a situation as you might think since we are all on budget and we need to balance versus other ships in the list.

It also will matter if we are still in a turret heavy meta come next year when it is released.

It will also depend on what else is in my squad and how much I want to manipulate my opponents targeting priority.

I don't think AThrusters is an auto include on the T-70 (like it is on the A-Wing), but its a very strong choice. The only thing making it not an auto choice is that there is an upgrade with zero cost competing. Note, I am assuming you are equipping the Astromech for a reason besides IAstro. If you aren't then auto thrusters become a much better choice for 1 point more.

There is way to much crying and moaning about a free upgrade not being enough considering it's free effectively adds another hull possibly two depending on Crit and most of all we haven't even seen all the new Astros from wave 8.