Always focus because a TL means no way to modify defence dice and on two attacks it's the same as rerolling anyway according to mathswingers.

At range one of you think you'll survive long enough to fire then TL.

If no one can shoot you, or is likely to shoot you...take a target lock. Otherwise focus.

I don't know if my MathFu is strong on this (help me out if I don't have the odds expressed correctly), but for all practical purposes a Focus and a Target Lock have equal odds of landing maximum hits in a single attack. Therefore Focus is a strictly better action because it has a dual purpose option, and provides flexibility no matter whether you're shooting early or late. Shooting early? Maybe you roll natural hits, then the defensive option of Focus can pay off. Shooting late? You may really want to avoid losing those shields when you roll green eyeballs, and be thankful to survive spending your Focus token and just settle for the unmodified attack.

So for ships that get no special additional use out of a TL, I only TL if it's a value action, i.e. I won't have a shot and probably won't be shot at, therefore I can bank the TL for later use without sacrificing anything in the present round of combat.

He may smell of damp dog, and loiter in the local park, screaming about his father, the one true god, but I agree with that Hobo Jesus fella. Focus should be the default action, unless you're packing some lovely missiles or have a unanswered range-1 attack...

I normally reserve TL for when I've basically screwed up and failed to get my target in arc.

focus focus focus

unless no one is going to shoot at you

focus being used defensivly makes it better than TL

but TL + focus is awesome, especially if your suddenly at range 1 with a 3 dice attack.

He may smell of damp dog, and loiter in the local park, screaming about his father, the one true god, but I agree with that Hobo Jesus fella. Focus should be the default action, unless you're packing some lovely missiles or have a unanswered range-1 attack...

I normally reserve TL for when I've basically screwed up and failed to get my target in arc.

I'd hug you but you'll smell of damp dog as well.

Focus unless you are not getting shot or shooting this turn.

If you're worried about just one Headhunter? Focus. More than one? Mind games.

I really like to force my opponent to make uncomfortable decisions whenever possible, because it means I still have more control over the board. If I have two Headhunters taking shots and possibly return fire, then I evaluate who is where. Say one lost shields and the other is fine. The damaged one takes a Focus and the healthy one takes a Target Lock. I may not need to spend either token, of course, but now I might have a TL next turn (especially useful if we will be cruising into Range 1). My opponent has to decided to take the more difficult shot at the damaged ship, or the easier shot that likely won't remove someone from the board. The following turn, too, if I didn't need to spend my TL, I can block with the other Z and take a nice TL/F shot even closer.

and what do you think about Z-95 vs TLT ?

I was think at this squad. 4 x Z-95 and 2 x Y with TLT and R4

When you are in a rage, always target lock. Your anger will prevent you from focusing properly.

and, what do you think about my squad? can it work?

The main issue with a TLT vs an AGI2 ship is that you could very well take both hits or dodge both of them. If you both have a Focus, odds are good that one attack will flip to all hits, and one defense roll will get the two you need to dodge. So generally, Focus sounds better.

That said, you're probably up against two Y-Wings or K-Wings, so the 2-3 attack dice from the Headhunters are more likely to go through, and Target Locks can capitalise upon that. TLTs are generally only going to target one ship anyway, and they're going to gang up on it until it's gone, so if the whole board is just Headhunters vs TLT Ys? If I had four or so Zs, I'd Focus with all of them to try and drop a Y-Wing in that turn. They aren't going to be able to block many hits coming through, and Focus means if I drop one "early" I haven't wasted a bunch of Locks.

Edit: also re: 4xZ + 2TLT sounds like my kind of squad, I love generic mobs and 4 Zs can handle quite a few things on their own. Binayres especially have excellent blocking power, and the R4 Agromechs can help with TLT damage consistency. Just watch out for Bombs, Aggressors, and Boba Fett come to mind. Anything else, pull them down with sheer numbers.

I've even tried to use it when I thought I wasn't going to be attacked. Turns out, arc dodgers move farther than I thought. Still get attacked. Honestly, if you have other ships. Just focus.

If all you have is Zs though, and there's something like soontir left. Your only hopes are literally to block him, get a R1 TL F shot, and pray pray pray.

Focus unless you think you'll have no shot this turn, in which case TL so you can TL+Focus on a future turn.

Focus is "always better" because it can be used for defense, but Target Lock is sometimes better because it doesn't go away every turn.

and, what do you think about my squad? can it work?

plenty of guns on the table - a few hit points to chew through - can still pop off a shot or two if you get arc dodged- and it's a nice simple list that leave you to concentrate on flying father than fancy tricks - don't see why it wouldn't work.

might struggle against high agility high PS arc dodgers but if you spread your arcs and play the percentages you should get some damage to stick

I'm guessing you meant R5 btw - there's only 1 R4

Rage at all situations!!!

RAWR!!!

Target ship still has shields = focus

no shields = TL to get the crits

modified by situation of course, above is only true if I go max aggro, if I want to survive longer and chances are that focus could assist here then focus. TL has the nice extra of not going away if you don't need it (vs fat ships ie). And really, maybe it's just my personal subjective perception filter, but I experience more situations where I roll blanks mostly with maybe 1 eye, then rolling all eyes when having TL - so being able to reroll always seems to work for me.

I think the advice is solid. If a Z will most likely be defending I Focus, TL if it return fire is highly unlikely. If I can attack a ship at range 1 without being shot back at range 1, I will TL also.

Standard action? Always Focus. If you're getting a free action from somewhere as well (Cracken, Lando etc), then you can add a Target Lock. The only exception would be if you're rolling ordnance (obviously).

The only time I TL with Zs is when I'm chasing someone down and I know I won't get a shot this turn -- move, TL, then they move away. That way, when you do get in range, you'll have a better shot.

I don't know if my MathFu is strong on this (help me out if I don't have the odds expressed correctly), but for all practical purposes a Focus and a Target Lock have equal odds of landing maximum hits in a single attack. Therefore Focus is a strictly better action because it has a dual purpose option, and provides flexibility no matter whether you're shooting early or late. Shooting early? Maybe you roll natural hits, then the defensive option of Focus can pay off. Shooting late? You may really want to avoid losing those shields when you roll green eyeballs, and be thankful to survive spending your Focus token and just settle for the unmodified attack.

So for ships that get no special additional use out of a TL, I only TL if it's a value action, i.e. I won't have a shot and probably won't be shot at, therefore I can bank the TL for later use without sacrificing anything in the present round of combat.

A focus and a TL give you the same average damage output: 0.75 hits per dice. in terms of statistical number of hits on the next shot, there is no reason to TL instead of focus.

There are two reasons to TL over focus:

-TL gives you a slighlty higher chance of getting critical hits (because the re-rolled focus dice have a 1/8 chance of becoming a crit, rather then becoming a hit automatically)

-TL stays - if you roll very well, or your target dodges your arc, whatever - you'll be able to use TL next turn.

People tend to forget that you actually have to roll a focus result to get any benefit for having a focus token. Now assuming a Z shoots none and is shot once the odds are that you will roll at least one focus result in your 4 dice. But we all know by now that odds and probability don't mean squat in the heat of the moment as at that point in time, anything can happen and the improbably pops up more often than seems, well, probable.

Preamble aside, as much as people like to talk about 'default' actions, this is nothing but a trap to get into because if you train your brain to 'default' to anything you will find yourself missing a ton of opportunities. Action choice is one only three things we have a direct impact over in this game as we only really choose our moves, our targets and our actions. Everything else is decided by dice, cards or your opponents choices so to hear people say 'yeah I give up a third of the control I have over my fleet by just focusesing every time' really makes me cringe and think why on earth would you do that!?

There is unfortunately no definitive list of when it's better to focus or better to target lock or indeed any of the other actions because it is completely dependent on the game state at that time. Like I said, heat of the moment rules apply, but there are some rules of thumb you can note of the individual actions to help you choose the most appropriate action for the game state you're in at the time. People 'default' to focus because more often than not it is the more useful action but like I say, don't fall into that trap.

Target lock

Target lock is clearly only an offensive buff in this case, and it means no matter what you roll on your initial attack you have the possibility to amend and failures into successes. those modified successes can also be critical results as an added bonus. If you attack and get 100% success on your first roll or don't have the option to attack at all then the action is not wasted as it stays in play. The only way to waste a TL action is if the ship you TL is destroyed before you get the chance to fire. This can have a big impact on action choice, as I know my TL is more likely to be wasted if I lock a low durability ship than if I lock a 'fat' ship.

Focus

Focus has the chance to buff both your offence or your defence, but unfortunately not both. It's this versility that makes focus so popular, even if it is statistically worse than a TL in offensive boost and the point of this after all to destroy your opponent ASAP. You must bear in mind that failure to spend a focus token will result in it automatically being removed from you, thus meaning you received no benefit from your action this turn and as we all know by now action efficiency is king in this game.

Considerations

You can use your actions to effect target priority; an injured ship with a focus token and an undamaged ship with a target lock can present interesting targeting considerations for your opponent and allow you to attempt to dictate your opponents target choice.

You should also consider you opponents target options before you choose your actions; if 3 of 4 Z's in a block are one 1 hull and the 4th is on full health, he is unlikely to be targetted this round and therefore will not need to worry about a defensive buff

Sometimes you will need to stack actions to hit more agile targets. In this scenario you will want to present temping targets who can focus for defence whilst your other Z's squire there locks and move in for close range action stacked shots the next round.

If you're sure your opponent will be at range two to some ships and range three to the others, he's unlikely to target the back ships who can therefore TL if able.

If downing a ship is an absolute must you may need to throw caution to the wind and TL simple for the damage increase.

Hopefully his gives you a few ideas of when TL can be better than a focus, but I really can't stress enough how important the game state is on what action is suitable for the time. Being able to determine that is a big part of what makes a top class pilot

Have fun figuring it all out!!

Target lock

... it means no matter what you roll on your initial attack you have the possibility to amend and failures into successes.

That's actually a misconception.

A 3-dice attack with focus has a (1/4)^3=1/64 chance of rolling all blanks

A 3-dice attack with TL has a (1/2)^6=1/64 chance of rolling all blanks.

Many people intuitively think that a TL is "less prone to bad luck", giving you a re-roll if you whiff completely, but math does not support this .

You can re-roll and get a worse result.

The math's has been done by people waaaaaaaaaay better than me and it's real clear on two dice focus and TL are the same statistically.

There's one situation where you want to TL with an fo and that's when you can't shoot but can't be shot, in all other circumstances you focus.