I think Cracken works well with fast moving ships that like to stay at range, otherwise Mothma makes as much sense....

Yet Cracken is just as effective at close range versus enemy Ships as he is at Long Range...

Mon Mothma Be Not.

Just to add my humble opinion... Mon Mothma works at Speed 1, 2 and 4, Cracken doesnt. For me that us super important, adds protection and flexibility,

Cracken Works at 4...

At the Moment

Dun dun DUNNNNNNN!!!!!

Seriously, though, this could bring them in. And given how popular swarms are now (CR90 and DeMSU), I've toyed with the idea of some tractor beam action already. The annoying thing is that it would't stop an Ozzel list. Tractor Demolisher down to speed one, then it uses the Nav it had prepared anyway, boosts back up to three and Engine Techs into your face.

But with that guy, well, if he gets super popular it would make sense.

The tractor beams force your opponent to discard the token if they have it, the way it is worded. So, the Q7s actually have very good current utility against the Clonsiher/Demo-Wulff-ET combo.

There is one thing we can Agree on, However...

... Both of them, Cracken and Mothma... Currently do Squat for Large Rebel Ships...

And of course, you don't want them to do Squat, even if they can do Squat.

Because Doing Squat is bad.

I mean, you might end up with a Sackful of Squat.

And a Sackful of Squat isn't even worth a Sack...

And Cracken does squat against squadrons,

When you go in close you run into squadrons

Whole lot of squat and all that.

Its a case of point-counterpoint semantics, after all...

Mothma's not that much better, since Evades disappear really quickly, so you tend to try to hold onto them for the ship shots anyway.

Besides, isn't that what I have squadrons for?

I think it is fair to say that Cracken has diminishing returns as he gets closer, because, unless you are talking a neb front arc or something, getting closer means more dice being thrown, so removing a die is less impactful.

I think it is fair to say that Cracken has diminishing returns as he gets closer, because, unless you are talking a neb front arc or something, getting closer means more dice being thrown, so removing a die is less impactful.

Same as Mothma.

Except, as you said earlier, I get to choose the die with Mothma, whereas Cracken has your opponent choose. AAAAAND we've come full circle. I still stand firm and say that they are two very different animals that will both be effective when playing to their strengths.

Except, as you said earlier, I get to choose the die with Mothma, whereas Cracken has your opponent choose. AAAAAND we've come full circle. I still stand firm and say that they are two very different animals that will both be effective when playing to their strengths.

Mmhmm.

I think I started as counter to the "You might as well take Mon Mothma instead" concept and just meandered from there.

I'm Tired.

Yes and no. Cracken is a little less flexible than Mon Mothma (due to speed requirements) and vulnerable to tractor beams. I'll be switching to Cracken for TRC90 swarms since they want to go fast anyway. However, I still see Mon Mothma as the commander of choice with mc30s. Foresight and Admonition both work very well with Mon Mothma.

Besides, isn't that what I have squadrons for?

Yes, but you are arguing from the standpoint that Cracken has uses outside of Assault Frigate carrier fleets.....

No worries, man. Always dig a lively Drascussion.

Mon Mothma and Cracken are different commanders who only appear to be similar on paper.

Understanding Mon Mothma

Every commander brings some kind of mathematical bonus. For Mon Mothma, that's defensive. At range 3, the evade functions exactly the same as under any other commander. So if you stay at range 3 or build intentionally for range 3, you're really better off with someone else.

At range-2, you cancel a die when you would have forced a reroll. That should be worth minimally .75 damage, but it probably better to say that it is worth closer to 1 damage mitigation. After all, you could ordinarily force him to reroll a red double hit (for .75 average), but under MM you cancel it entirely. Thus, in the end, it probably averages a bit more than 1 damage mitigation.

At range-1, you can reroll a die when your evade would do precisely nothing under any other commander. That's probably going to be a black double-hit (2 damage mitigated into 1.0 average), but it could easily be a red double hit (2 into .75 average). So you're still in the vicinity of 1 damage mitigation.

How much Mon Mothma is worth is really going to depend upon how many times you get to use those evades. And squadrons do count here. I'm very tempted to run MM squadronless and just dump more points into ships. Cracken is going to want some squadrons.

Cracken is somewhat more mathematically straight-forward (.75 damage mitigation per shot is going to be usual), but there's an open question of exactly how many shots the opponent is going to take on you and therefore what the final benefit is going to be. Cracken will strong counter lists with a lot of low dice shots. I just see tons of high dice pools presently, and there he has a nice bonus, but will be less useful.

Defensive commanders also run into another hidden difficulty in their calculations. After all, the defensive mitigation is there so that you can live longer and fire more shots. So if your opponent may have one-shotted a Corvette, but either commander helped live, activate, and then fire, then the commander's overall benefit was, in fact, far more than the flat damage mitigation would suggest.

One thing I'd like to do is start tracking benefits with a notebook as I'm playing games. How many shots do I actually take where Ackbar improves the ships? How much does MM actually mitigate? How much damage did I get out or Rieekan? What did my Intel Officers actually do in this fleet? I think this is a good exercise first for seeing if there is some way to improve the synergy of a fleet, but also to evaluate when different upgrades are actually worth it and to improve the overall quality of the flying.

One very minor point to add - if you're facing flotillas, Cracken prevents them from even taking a shot. No need to spend evade tokens.