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.

Also the benefit of higher damage output is non-linear (can I get enough damage to kill that ship?), so one also needs to look at the probability of getting at least X damage and OE raises it significantly.

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.

All good points.

But the original point of this argument was that OE should not be an automatic upgrade for an MC30. An MC30 has three black dice and not four, and suddenly those numbers dont look quite so good do they?

I think people forget that the MC30 is not a Gladiator all too often. OE makes a significant difference to black die squadron attacks too, but the MC30 has blue dice.

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.

Good response and I completely agree. Ordnance Experts improves average damage total, can help salvage bad luck with black dice, and helps fish for hit+crit results. They're easily the first upgrade I slap onto faster black dice ships (Raiders and Gladiators for sure; MC30 Torpedo Frigates for sure, MC30 Scouts it depends on if Gunnery Team wants the seat (particularly with Ackbar)). Sometimes even on ISD-Is or VSD-Is, but not nearly so often.

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.

All good points.

But the original point of this argument was that OE should not be an automatic upgrade for an MC30. An MC30 has three black dice and not four, and suddenly those numbers dont look quite so good do they?

I think people forget that the MC30 is not a Gladiator all too often. OE makes a significant difference to black die squadron attacks too, but the MC30 has blue dice.

Actually those numbers suddenly look lots better. With fewer dice being rolled, every miss and every critical effect has a much larger impact on total damage output. Front dice damage foes from 2 to 2.5, side goes from 3 to almost 4. It's a big improvement. With the Scout variant, there's am argument to improve your red dice attacks, but for the Torpedo OE is definitely where it's at.