Ello Asty and Blue Ace seem also pretty good candidates for Autothrusters, BTW...

I'm really on the fence about it. On a GSP I found it worked great, really seemed to save some damage. But I wonder if over the course of a game if it will save more damage on avg then IA will.

Red Ace, too. His abilities plus R2-D2 give him regenerating health over time - and a lot of it, since he gets 'double benefit' from each shield due to his ability - as a result, autothrusters are quite good.

On a related note, one very annoying gentleman in our group figured out a good opening move for Red Ace: line up with a rock, do a fast move straight over it, do a slow green next turn, and you end up with the first shots of the game exchanged at the same time as the rest of the squad but you've picked up an evade, 'banked' it in a comms relay and regenerated the shield.