So I played my second ever game as the Imperials just the other night. With Wave 2 having taken so long I've been burning out a bit, and as much as I do like achieving mastery over something variety is the spice of life. So I wanted to try some things I hadn't seen Kushiel (my usual opponent) try and the first of those was marrying the Dominator title to the SW7 Ion cannon upgrade. My thought was pretty simple: Dominator adds two more blue dice when firing, SW7s gurantee those two dice are going to be damage.

I think I only ended up using that ability twice total, each time turning one unneeded accuracy into a damage. So I'm not sure if it was as worthwhile as I had initially planned. What do you guys think?

So I played my second ever game as the Imperials just the other night. With Wave 2 having taken so long I've been burning out a bit, and as much as I do like achieving mastery over something variety is the spice of life. So I wanted to try some things I hadn't seen Kushiel (my usual opponent) try and the first of those was marrying the Dominator title to the SW7 Ion cannon upgrade. My thought was pretty simple: Dominator adds two more blue dice when firing, SW7s gurantee those two dice are going to be damage.

I think I only ended up using that ability twice total, each time turning one unneeded accuracy into a damage. So I'm not sure if it was as worthwhile as I had initially planned. What do you guys think?

SW7s are pretty "meh" in general for me.

The blue die is already the most accurate die you can throw, since it's either going to A.) Deal damage or B.) Negate a defense token.

Generally speaking, the likelihood of rolling "too many" accuracies with your blue dice is statistically very small, as you'd need to roll more than three on average. At most, your five point investment *might* buy you one or two extra damage.

I can think of many things I'd rather invest five points in.

That said, it's good to have some concrete reports from players using them and finding this hypothesis to be more or less correct.

EDIT: I think it may be an alright addition to a Vader Devastator ISD-II, but outside of that I can't think of any ship with enough blue dice to make it worthwhile.

So I played my second ever game as the Imperials just the other night. With Wave 2 having taken so long I've been burning out a bit, and as much as I do like achieving mastery over something variety is the spice of life. So I wanted to try some things I hadn't seen Kushiel (my usual opponent) try and the first of those was marrying the Dominator title to the SW7 Ion cannon upgrade. My thought was pretty simple: Dominator adds two more blue dice when firing, SW7s gurantee those two dice are going to be damage.

I think I only ended up using that ability twice total, each time turning one unneeded accuracy into a damage. So I'm not sure if it was as worthwhile as I had initially planned. What do you guys think?

SW7s are pretty "meh" in general for me.

The blue die is already the most accurate die you can throw, since it's either going to A.) Deal damage or B.) Negate a defense token.

Generally speaking, the likelihood of rolling "too many" accuracies with your blue dice is statistically very small, as you'd need to roll more than three on average. At most, your five point investment *might* buy you one or two extra damage.

I can think of many things I'd rather invest five points in.

That said, it's good to have some concrete reports from players using them and finding this hypothesis to be more or less correct.

EDIT: I think it may be an alright addition to a Vader Devastator ISD-II, but outside of that I can't think of any ship with enough blue dice to make it worthwhile.

The Raider-II and CR90B both have little but blue dice- for them, it's a solid upgrade.

So I played my second ever game as the Imperials just the other night. With Wave 2 having taken so long I've been burning out a bit, and as much as I do like achieving mastery over something variety is the spice of life. So I wanted to try some things I hadn't seen Kushiel (my usual opponent) try and the first of those was marrying the Dominator title to the SW7 Ion cannon upgrade. My thought was pretty simple: Dominator adds two more blue dice when firing, SW7s gurantee those two dice are going to be damage.

I think I only ended up using that ability twice total, each time turning one unneeded accuracy into a damage. So I'm not sure if it was as worthwhile as I had initially planned. What do you guys think?

SW7s are pretty "meh" in general for me.

The blue die is already the most accurate die you can throw, since it's either going to A.) Deal damage or B.) Negate a defense token.

Generally speaking, the likelihood of rolling "too many" accuracies with your blue dice is statistically very small, as you'd need to roll more than three on average. At most, your five point investment *might* buy you one or two extra damage.

I can think of many things I'd rather invest five points in.

That said, it's good to have some concrete reports from players using them and finding this hypothesis to be more or less correct.

EDIT: I think it may be an alright addition to a Vader Devastator ISD-II, but outside of that I can't think of any ship with enough blue dice to make it worthwhile.

The Raider-II and CR90B both have little but blue dice- for them, it's a solid upgrade.

On your CR90B you're paying five points to avoid the, again, statistically unlikely event of rolling three accuracies with no hits. Who is it that's depending on a CR90B's blue dice for damage output, anyway? That strikes me as a terribly fragile basket to hold those particular eggs.

On the Raider-II, you've still got a black die to back up that event with some damage. I seriously doubt this is a worthwhile investment compared to the option of a Raider-I with Exp. Launchers and Ordnance Experts, or a Raider-II with literally ANY other Ion Cannon upgrade and Screed to ensure they go off.

YMMV

An Avenger ISD 2 might be good since you might not even need the accuracies.

Its another "insurance" mechanism.

The nice thing about it is when you're forced to Reroll a Dice due to an Evade, and it becomes an Acc outside of the "Spend Acc to Negate Defense Tokens" steps... because it still counts as Damage...

I know that's something that frustrates the hell out of my opponents when I Evade... Have them reroll an Acc and it counts as a Blank if you dont have these...

Its also a bit of a devil's bargain for an opponent at times... Maybe you want them to Spend that already Spent Brace for a Discard, and rather than lock it out, you'll give them the opportunity...

An Avenger ISD 2 might be good as nce you might not even need the accuracies.

If you pair this with a Pulse Raider, that may not be a bad build.

An Avenger ISD 2 might be good as nce you might not even need the accuracies.

I actually quite like this.

Just threw together a Screed list with this, a Raider-II with OP, and a pair of APT Gladiators with light TIE escort.

We'll see what happens.

Its another "insurance" mechanism.

The nice thing about it is when you're forced to Reroll a Dice due to an Evade, and it becomes an Acc outside of the "Spend Acc to Negate Defense Tokens" steps... because it still counts as Damage...

I know that's something that frustrates the hell out of my opponents when I Evade... Have them reroll an Acc and it counts as a Blank if you dont have these...

Its also a bit of a devil's bargain for an opponent at times... Maybe you want them to Spend that already Spent Brace for a Discard, and rather than lock it out, you'll give them the opportunity...

Yeah I think you hit right on why it appeals to me. An insurance mechanism like TRC and the like.

For the point cost SW-7 ions is pretty much always worthwhile, but starts to shine especially in combination with other upgrades. For example coupled with intel officer you no longer need to use accuracy to negate say brace, or together with XI-7 turbolasers where you no longer need accuracies to lock down redirects. Or together with both.

An Avenger ISD 2 might be good as nce you might not even need the accuracies.

This.

ISD2 Avenger, X17s, SW-7s and gunnery team is going to be my first ISD that I try. As I supply the miniatures for both sides, there are no mirror matches. VSD/ISD2s are better against rebels.

At medium range, 4 guaranteed damage + an average of 3 more from the reds will be getting into juicy rebel hulls every shot, regardless of shields.

If you want to lay down the slappage, go ISD2 Avenger, Needa, SW-7s, Turbolaser Rerout Circiuts and gunnery team. Should stop 2 or 3 damage on the way in and add 2 or 3 on the first turn you hit medium.

With the stacks of upgrades I'm seeing thrown at the ISD, I think it's just possible that folk have overestimated how robust the ship is...

It's only marginally harder to kill than a VSD, and is a massive target for focused fire.

I like the combos, but I've seen the ISD pop far too easily to be comfortable layering more than a few upgrades on the ISD, particularly the 2 variant, and particularly when we haven't even factored in ECMs (which are going to be huge with the Home One hitting the field).

SW-7's might be fun on mothma CR90B spam. Ignore accuracies and just force your opponent to spend tokens or take X damage.

I can see the potential on the CR-90b, but on an ISD, VSD-II, or MC-80 give me Leading Shots every time over the SW-7. On the off chance you roll too many accuracies, they can be discarded to re-roll any red or black dice that came up blank. You are far more likely to benefit from Leading Shots than SW-7s on a ship that rolls a combination of blue dice and another color.

With the stacks of upgrades I'm seeing thrown at the ISD, I think it's just possible that folk have overestimated how robust the ship is...

It's only marginally harder to kill than a VSD, and is a massive target for focused fire.

I like the combos, but I've seen the ISD pop far too easily to be comfortable layering more than a few upgrades on the ISD, particularly the 2 variant, and particularly when we haven't even factored in ECMs (which are going to be huge with the Home One hitting the field).

The ISD yes, but the ISD-II is significantly more robust. The ECM is probably worth another 5 or so hitpoints over the ISD on average, it depends a lot on the situation though, some matches it won't have any benefit, some it might equal 10+ hitpoints. Then you have potentially Needa and Motti to further enhance survivability. The only thing lacking in the Imperial Fleet so far survivability-wise compared to the Rebels is a proper support ship that can transfer shields to the ISD.

Well, Tarkin can spam engineering tokens and a Glad can carry projection experts so it's possible, just not quite the setup the rebels have for it.

The Raider-II and CR90B both have little but blue dice- for them, it's a solid upgrade.

I just wanted to note this is what I've come around to on the SW7s. On larger ships you're delivering enough beatdown normally that the accuracy results are very useful for limiting your opponent's options for defending him/herself from damage getting to the hull (with some exceptions, like the Avenger vs. a ship with exhausted defense tokens). On smaller ships, the accuracy results don't really do much, because okay I rolled 3 blue dice and got hit+crit+accuracy... generally that's not going to be Braced and probably won't be Redirected (depending on circumstances). Evade does almost nothing against SW7s because at Medium range it forces a reroll so your 1 damage result became 1 damage. Worst case it can deny you a crit (by rerolling a crit to a non-crit), but that's not terribly bad.

TL;DR version: small ships do smaller increments of damage and thus using Accuracy to lock down defense tokens is not as good as it is with larger ships. Simply turning your 2-4 blue dice (Concentrate Fire) into 1 reliable damage per dice makes the smaller ships more consistent and is generally much more useful.

It also increases the odds of getting accuracy and crit results with Vader because you have no reason not to re-roll regular hits with him if you're refilling additional dice already.

Another consideration is all of the red dice you are throwing on an ISD2 chances are you probably get 1 accuracy from that (maybe more)

Another consideration is all of the red dice you are throwing on an ISD2 chances are you probably get 1 accuracy from that (maybe more)

41.38%- Not quite 50-50, but still reasonably common

I think another thing people are overlooking is if an opponent has ECMs (which I see a lot now days) accuracies sometimes aren't all that valuable. If I have xi7s and you are going to use ECMs on your brace I'd just as soon turn those accuracies into more damage.

On your CR90B you're paying five points to avoid the, again, statistically unlikely event of rolling three accuracies with no hits. Who is it that's depending on a CR90B's blue dice for damage output, anyway? That strikes me as a terribly fragile basket to hold those particular eggs.

You are paying 5 points so that you always get an amount of damage equal to the number of dice you are rolling. Nobody is going to Brace 3 damage unless there is no other threat. You use the SW7s so that if you double arc them and Concentrate Fire, they take 6 very hard to mitigate damage from your 44 point ship. 6 damage is half the total shields of an ISD, and the vette B with SW7s is only a third the cost of an ISD with even a couple upgrades.

Who is it that's depending on a CR90B's blue dice for damage output, anyway?

Clearly, you haven't played me much recently... The CR90B drive-by works wonders in conjunction with fighters to force those defense tokens before the big hit, especially if it hits at the beginning of the turn Demolisher wants to strike on.

And I'm almost never happy to see accuracies come up on it. This will be a pretty good upgrade for the CR90B.

Who is it that's depending on a CR90B's blue dice for damage output, anyway?

Clearly, you haven't played me much recently... The CR90B drive-by works wonders in conjunction with fighters to force those defense tokens before the big hit, especially if it hits at the beginning of the turn Demolisher wants to strike on.

And I'm almost never happy to see accuracies come up on it. This will be a pretty good upgrade for the CR90B.

I also love the CR90B + NK-7 idea. It is ludicrously easy to double-arc a larger ship with it, and you can decide to focus fire as and when you want due to command 1. With a double-arc, this is a guaranteed 6 damage across 2 shots - for 44 points.

It is both the ship you use to bulk up your fleet numbers to get uncontested activations, and the rebel ship that benefits the most from that advantage. (pre-MC30, anyway).