Just finished playing a game with a mate of mine.

He proxied a Gozanti to see how it would get on - it had Boosted Comms, Bomber Command and ended up controlling two Firesprays.

Yes, the firesprays didn't need the commands, but he was using it like this to activate them before their target ships ran out of range and to get re-rolls from bomber command.

It worked quite well overall. The Gozanti spent a large part of the game ordering the Firesprays to chase down my MC30 and at one point the two ships crossed paths where I ended up with a double arc from the MC30 (torpedo frigate) on the Gozantis with Ordnance Experts and ACMs. But he lived without a scratch as he used his scatter for both attacks and I never managed to roll an accuracy on the blue dice. Nice! I can see these being quite survivable

The main downside was that they were not as nimble as we though they might have been.

But he lived without a scratch as he used his scatter for both attacks and I never managed to roll an accuracy on the blue dice.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the future!

again I say to the dismay of iff

Sensor teams on mc30s is good come wave three

again I say to the dismay of iff

Sensor teams on mc30s is good come wave three

Sort of. In most cases h9s are better on the mc30. The one exception being the ackbar mc30 where enhanced armanents have extra worth.

I can see that big points though

Especially on the MC30, sensor teams are terrible and will stay terrible for the foreseeable future. They're terrible for basically every reason that an upgrade can be terrible:

1) They replace two almost-mandatory upgrades (OE and GT).

2) You lose not one but TWO dice to use them (the one you spent and the one you flipped). You only have five dice!

3) It's freaking exhausted on use, so you can only use its terrible ability once per turn.

two blues on that is no biggie. Not terrible imo

also "only" five dice?

"Only," as in, you're spending almost half of your dice for an accuracy. One has to be a blue hit (on a torp); the other is either the other blue hit or a blank black. Which means you're generally spending two damage in opportunity cost (one for the die you flipped and one either for the other blue hit or for the opportunity cost of the OE reroll on that black that you didn't get to take). Which, on average, is the amount being braced off anyway. In the context of the flotilla, you're averaging 3 damage (well, slightly above, since you can selectively spend misses for ST), which means less than 50/50 chance to one-shot the flotilla, which was the whole point in the first place.

I just can't conceive of a build in which this is the best choice. Maybe on an Ackbar MC30T with EA like Gink suggested? Although personally I prefer TRC in that build anyway, so I guess that's an agree-to-disagree example.

How would you propose building an MC30T to leverage ST? Because I really can't figure it out.

How about sensor teams on an Ackbar AF? The way I roll there's always at least two blanks, so let's use them for something productive.

You don't compete with OE here, just gunnery teams. It's a bit less expensive so for niche anti-flotilla work it might do.

The biggest obstacle to that to overcome - you stated.

Gunnery Teams.

AF's are generally the platform for GTs... Especially Ackbar'd ones.

I feel like losing GT on the AF2 is a huge price to pay. Maybe I'm wrong... But Im usually not.

I had to force myself to try Ruthless Strats as an alternate at the moment. Not sold.

But I also can't sell myself to TRCs either, so I might be a H9 Candidate.

Maybe this will motivate me to build a Home One list that I really like.

again I say to the dismay of iff

Sensor teams on mc30s is good come wave three

Intel Officer. It works in more situations.

Maybe this will motivate me to build a Home One list that I really like.

I might just rebuild my Ackbar 80 list with Flotillas instead of the second Assault Frigates. Add in some squadrons. . . Hmmmm

But he lived without a scratch as he used his scatter for both attacks and I never managed to roll an accuracy on the blue dice.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the future!

Was waiting for this.

1) They replace two almost-mandatory upgrades (OE and GT).

Why is OE mandatory? I dont get why, in ships without a black dive crit effect upgrade, OE is seen as essential.

I agree low dice pools is not condusive to sensor teams.

Enhanced armanent for ackbar torp, trcs for ackbar scouts.

1) They replace two almost-mandatory upgrades (OE and GT).

Why is OE mandatory? I dont get why, in ships without a black dive crit effect upgrade, OE is seen as essential.

I agree low dice pools is not condusive to sensor teams.

Enhanced armanent for ackbar torp, trcs for ackbar scouts.

94% chance of a minimum 1 damage per die on black dice. On a Gladiator, it's a single point per black die rolled, and a half point per die if using Expanded Launchers to double-tap.

When you factor in the chances to crit on a black die, it raises the average damage of a die to somewhere around 1.25, and on Gladiator front arc with EL that raises it to on par with an Imperial Star Destroyer. And that's before the side arc shot or triple-taps.

You are paying 4pts to increase from 75% to 94% of damage per die.

Assuming you arent fishing for crits, or have screed/vader, that doesnt seem like great value to me.

I'm on my phone and its to early for my brain to type up a big thing all I will say is you make great points but I disagree that OE is a must. I do really like Lyr's Intel officer point

Maybe this will motivate me to build a Home One list that I really like.

Early in Wave 2 I was running 80-30-30 with Ackbar's Home One for both guaranteed accuracies and TRC on the MC30T's. It's a lot of fun to fly, but a little too much risk for not enough reward for my tastes. I can definitely see it making a comeback for Wave 3, though.

I'm on my phone and its to early for my brain to type up a big thing all I will say is you make great points but I disagree that OE is a must. I do really like Lyr's Intel officer point

No worries, I fell asleep right after my last post, too.

Yeah, the IO is definitely a good option. Little bit different approach than I personally prefer, but I've flown Lyraeus' DtO and it's definitely well-built (it's no match for my own 30-30-90-90-90 list, but, hey, we can't all be perfect. )

I've been thinking about the Sensor Team thing, and I could see it if you're going for a long-range focused Ackbar/EA build and wanted to focus on single-target elimination rather than spreading out more, but unfocused, damage; but only if you also forego ordnance upgrades. In that case, you would be relying less on your blacks for damage output, you'd have better odds of rolling a pair of bum reds to burn, and you'd be losing relatively less damage by not rerolling blacks.

The problem is, I can't see that kind of build being competitive in the first place. Since the MC30 was spoiled in the first place I've been of the opinion that you don't take MC30's for long-range firepower. The scouts can offer some, sure, but it's inefficient to build and play toward that, since you're paying for all those black dice and associated upgrades on them.

Anyway, sorry OP, I'm afraid I've egregiously derailed your thread.

Flotillas... YEAH!

You are paying 4pts to increase from 75% to 94% of damage per die.

Assuming you arent fishing for crits, or have screed/vader, that doesnt seem like great value to me.

No, no. You're paying 4 points to increase the average damage output of each die from 1 to 1.25. Making your *average* roll of four dice the same as if you had rolled 5. This is the cheapest damage output increase in the game. As an example, Rapid Reload costs 8 for one die per side facing and Expanded Launchers costs 6.5 per die to the front only. Since Rapid Reload cannot realistically get both hull zones to hit the same target in most situations, we acknowledge that it is closer to fill cost per die.