So Guidance Chips is out. It does make some Missile / Torpedo builds more viable. but which Missiles or Torpedoes to use with which ship(s)?

Personally I feel that low cost missile / torps with range of 2-3 gained the most on ships which have limited amounts of sec. weapon slots. The problem with missiles and torps has always been that each shot cost a number of points and still hasn't been addressed by Guidance Chips.

Assault Missiles; 5 pts, 4 Attack, Range 2-3, Effect: If hits, AOE range 1 splash 1 damage.

Pricey. But the Guidance Chip lessens the cost of discarding TL. Not sure if it's worth the 5 pts however.

Homing Missiles: 5 pts, 4 Attack, Range 2-3, Effect: Defender cannot spend evade tokens against the attack.

Pricey and situational. Requires TL but doesn't require TL to be discarded however.

Cluster Missiles: 4 pts, 3 Attack, Range 1-2, Effect: Attacks twice.

Was good against low Agi targets, and still is with Guidance Chips. Only first attack is modified.

Concussion Missiles: 4 pts, 4 Attack, Range 2-3, Effect: You may change 1 of your blank results to a Hit result.

Cheapest 4 attack missile. Guidance Chip mods 1 Die, while Concussion Missiles mods one more Die, lessening the cost of discarding TL.

Adv. Homing Missiles: 3 pts, 3 Attack, Range: 2; Effect: If this attack hits, deal 1 faceup Damage card to the defender. Then cancel all dice results.

Range 2 maybe a pain. Requires TL but doesn't require discard of TL, so isn't really changed by Guidance Chips.

Ion Pulse Missiles: 3 pts, 3 Attack, Range: 2-3; Effect:If this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 damage and recieves 2 ion tokens. Then cancel all dice results.

Cheap as far as missiles get. Requires TL but doesn't require discard of TL, so isn't really changed by Guidance Chips.

Proton Rockets: 3 pts, 3 Attack, Range: 1; Effect: You may roll additional attack dice equal to your agility value, to a maximum of 3 additional dice.

Cheap as far as missiles get and deady. TL is not a requirement to use this so Guidance Chips can help. Can be deadly on Agi 3 missile carriers especially cheap ones (A-wing, TAP, etc).

XX-23 S-Thread Tracers: 1 pts, 3 Attack, Range: 1-3; Effect: If this attack hits, each friendly ship at Range 1-2 of you may acquire a target lock on the defender. Then cancel all dice results.

Cheap swarm support. Sacrifices an attack. TL is not a requirement to use this so Guidance Chips can help.

Advanced Proton Torpedoes: 6 pts, 5 Attack, Range: 1; Effect: You may change up to 3 of your blank results to Focus results.

High cost, high attack, close range. Guidance Chip lessens the cost of discarding TL, and up to 3 Focus can also be changed. Not sure if it's worth the 6 pts however.

Ion Torpedoes: 5 pts, 4 Attack, Range: 2-3; Effect: If attack hits, AOE range 1 splash 1 Ion token.

High cost, high attack. Guidance Chip lessens the cost of discarding TL, and secondary effect requires 1 hit only. Rather expensive, doesn't affect large ships with no Ion tokens.

Proton Torpedo: 4 pts, 4 Attack, Range: 2-3; Effect: You may change 1 of your Focus results to a Critical Hit result.

I'd expect the same.

Guidance chip 1 die modification still is weaker than a target lock modification.

Takes up modification slot whic doesn't allow things like munitions failsafe or LRS.

Homing missiles, deadeye, and guidance chip should work well.

The mod slot also means no autothrusters, etc. So A-Wing, T-70 X-Wing, TAP, TIE Punisher might look elsewhere...

I see Z-95s benefiting... maybe?

Autothrusters are now completely off the Punisher's menu (not that it was that appetizing to begin with). Free vs. 2 points to occasionally mod a max 2 dice roll at range 3 is pretty garbage.

Ships that always take thrusters will continue always taking thrusters since it isn't worth sacrificing durability for modding a single attack, but for named and higher PS/elite dedicated ordnance boats you're only ever going to see Chimps from now on.

On weapons that let you keep your lock or focus it just gets even better.

With a TL and focus, concussions have something like a 95% chance of 4 hits. This is all you need to know.

Homing missiles 100%

Except on redline, jumpmaster torpboats and Ghost (later two because they ain't got no missiles!)

I can't imagine any ship that would have taken Munitions Failsafe before not taking Guidance Chips instead.

A 1 point mod that lets you try again later when you happen to miss vs. a free Mod that makes you much less likely to miss in the first place? Seems like a no-brainer.

Cluster Missiles: 4 pts, 3 Attack, Range 1-2, Effect: Attacks twice.

Was good against low Agi targets, and still is with Guidance Chips. Only first attack is modified.

More likely 'only one of the two attacks is modified' since Guidance Chips says 'Once per round' but you get to roll attack dice twice.

Someone could very well wait for the second roll to kick in Guidance chips.

Homing missiles 100%

Except on redline, jumpmaster torpboats and Ghost (later two because they ain't got no missiles!)

*cough* Drea/Nera *cough*

Cluster Missiles: 4 pts, 3 Attack, Range 1-2, Effect: Attacks twice.

Was good against low Agi targets, and still is with Guidance Chips. Only first attack is modified.

More likely 'only one of the two attacks is modified' since Guidance Chips says 'Once per round' but you get to roll attack dice twice.

Someone could very well wait for the second roll to kick in Guidance chips.

Ah yes, caught me on that.

Ion Pulse Missiles: 3 pts, 3 Attack, Range: 2-3; Effect:If this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 damage and recieves 2 ion tokens. Then cancel all dice results.

Cheap as far as missiles get. Requires TL but doesn't require discard of TL, so isn't really changed by Guidance Chips.

goes onto -any- missile that doesn't lose TL, not just the IPM, so:

it IS changed by the chimps. massively:

it is one more GUARANTEED hit, and therefore one less dice the reroll can eff up. when talking about a 3-attack, that is a MASSIVE increase in accuracy, even with the TL you still got.

With a TL and focus, concussions have something like a 95% chance of 4 hits. This is all you need to know.

No - more like around 70% chance of 4 hits and around 25% chance of 3 hits - so it's about a 95% chance of 3 or 4 hits for a conc with focus

*Edit - unless you meant with focus and guidance chips - then it's about right

Ion Pulse Missiles: 3 pts, 3 Attack, Range: 2-3; Effect:If this attack hits, the defender suffers 1 damage and recieves 2 ion tokens. Then cancel all dice results.

Cheap as far as missiles get. Requires TL but doesn't require discard of TL, so isn't really changed by Guidance Chips.

goes onto -any- missile that doesn't lose TL, not just the IPM, so:

it IS changed by the chimps. massively:

it is one more GUARANTEED hit, and therefore one less dice the reroll can eff up. when talking about a 3-attack, that is a MASSIVE increase in accuracy, even with the TL you still got.

Do you have number you can share? I posted this just before sleeping and was on the it's another dice mod mind frame. Sure a re-roll is different from a convert to hit - Ive not worked the probability myself yet.

I disagree that its inferior on target locked missiles. If I roll one blank, I'm keeping, my lock for later but still getting four hits. If I get a few blanks, Im using GC and THEN spending the lock.

One reroll is hardly a guarantee, especially if you're not focused. Guidance Chips will still be quite helpful.

I'd expect the same.

Guidance chip 1 die modification still is weaker than a target lock modification.

Takes up modification slot whic doesn't allow things like munitions failsafe or LRS.

Munitions Failsafe was never very good and is now obsolete. LRS is best for an alpha strike strategy and when your opponent sees it, they will know that. It will help you fire one volley. This will help you fire several.

And you should still use GC on every shot even if you still have a target lock.

I'd honestly go with Homing missiles, 4 dice, one is assured as a hit/crit (depending by which ship is firing them) and the target lock still free to use.

I wouldn't call the secondary effect of Plasma torps "Very seldom usable". Unless you're playing against an entirely light or shieldless enemy fleet then it ought to be your first attack of the game at R3, you roll 4 dice and get two hits, and then your target probably evades one, causing 1 damage (shield) so unless your target only has the one shield, you get essentially a free damage when you drop another shield from the effect. Against something like a Lambda or Y-Wing (both very popular ships right now) then it's more likely to be 3 damage at R3, which isn't terrible. However...

The main problem with a lot of ordnance isn't necessarily that it's expensive, but that it's completely matchup dependent. Would you pay 5pts for Assault Missiles or Ion Torps if you KNEW you were facing a Swarm list? Probably. Would you take IPMs vs Double Decimator? Maybe. But since you have no idea what you're going to be facing until you put models on the table, it's a safer bet to instead spend the points on something that is going to be useful in EVERY game, regardless of opponent, such as higher PS pilots, Engine Upgrades, and so on. To my mind, that's a bigger problem than either the points cost or the accuracy of the shots.

I am curious about the number of people who are claiming that a target lock reroll is better than the 1 die modification from the chimp.

If we assume a 4 dice attack (which IIRC is about standard for ordnance):

- Without focus: On average, you roll 2 hit/crits and 2 eye/misses. Rerolling the eye/misses gives you 1 hit/crit and 1 eye/miss. Overall, you've gained 1 hit/crit vs the chimp's 1 hit.

- With focus: On average, you roll 3 hit/crit/eys amd 1 miss. Rerolling the miss will give you another hit/crit/eye 75% of the time, but 25% of the time will just give you another miss. The chimp would have just given you a confirmed hit without the risk.

Now, the above was just taking expected results, and there's a whole world of different possible results that someone with more time on their hands could no doubt calculate the chances of. Overall though, it's looking to me as though the chimps are equal to a target lock for a 4 dice attack without focus, and will be the better option if you either have a focus or are rolling less dice.

I'm also confused. People seem to think that a TL re-roll is mutually exclusive with guidance. You can re-roll a die, then use guidance chips on it.

A die can be modified more than once, it just can't be re-rolled more than once.

I'd expect the same.

Guidance chip 1 die modification still is weaker than a target lock modification.

Takes up modification slot whic doesn't allow things like munitions failsafe or LRS.

Munitions Failsafe was never very good and is now obsolete. LRS is best for an alpha strike strategy and when your opponent sees it, they will know that. It will help you fire one volley. This will help you fire several.

And you should still use GC on every shot even if you still have a target lock.

Well, I think this is a ship that can make decent use out of a loadout like this.

Gamma Squadron Veteran + Concussion Missiles + Extra Munitions + Guidance Chips

You get two shots with it at PS 5 which is not bad, both in terms of its place in the activation and combat phases. The missiles have one native die mod, plus the one from GC. You could fly two of these, along with another bomber shuttle with Fleet Officer. You'd still have 27 or so points left over for fodder. If you wanna bump the PS of any of the bombers down, then you get a few more squad points to work with (but then you'd have a higher chance of using up your focus tokens on defense). But in return, you'd be getting some missiles that have a very very high chance of doing some very serious damage per shot.

Those PS5 gamma vets still need to acquire TLs, which will be fine against generics, but still very difficult against aces. Long Range Scanners allows you to roll up with TL+F, which with concussion missiles will be better than a GC more often than not.

For me, the best ordnance to use with the chips are as follows:

1) Proton torpedoes (on an x wing or b wing this nets you 2 crits most of the time.)

2) Homing missile: almost guarantees 4 damage unless, you roll all focus and have to reroll them all.

3) Ion Pulse: making this more accurate is so important for that one turn you can make any ship fly onto a rock or off of the table.

While GC make all ordnance better, I think we will really see it shine on Z95s and Punishers.

I could also see it on a Kirahshwts. They only get one missile, but with GC get to add a crit for free. Predator makes them expensive, but 26 points for stim and cluster/concussion, or 27 for homing looks like a solid choice.

T65X wings will be busy taking IA (although I quite like the idea of Hobbie kturning, getting a TL, unleashing a super powerful proton torp attack, and ending up stress free...)

B wings cost 28points with proton torps and EM, 30 when you add in a FCS.

Y wings have BTL and TLT, but Horton Salm is the perfect torpedo boat. He can make a strong case for Plasma torps, EM, and GC for only 30. Do you want TLTs for multiple unmodified weak attacks, or do you want 2 modified torpedo attacks that can stack on a lot of damage? Both seem good.

Bombers probably want LRS in most scenarios.

Most other ships want to take Autothrusters instead.

If I have 15-17 points left over in a rebel or scum list, I can't think of anything better than a Z95 with GC and a missile.

I'm loving the idea of Gamma Vet, Crackshot, Homing Missile, and LRS for 25 points. EM and/or a bomb us a solid addition. The base build let's you put out one of the nastiest shots in the game (4 dice, Focus/TL, no range bonus, no Evade Tokens). You don't need to spend the TL or Crackshot, and can keep it on the target for a followup shot.

Those PS5 gamma vets still need to acquire TLs, which will be fine against generics, but still very difficult against aces. Long Range Scanners allows you to roll up with TL+F, which with concussion missiles will be better than a GC more often than not.

Gamma Squadron Veterans have an EPT slot. Take Deadeye. Never worry about target locks again. Anything that flies into your arc is fair game.