that would be neat actually.

Low PS? Bank a bad defense for a better offense.

High PS? Bank a subpar offense for a good defense later.

The evade token fixates the latter one. Low PS will never see this astromech.

neither will high PS, because those guys all have far better astromechs to play with

high PS atleast CAN use him. Doesnt mean they will.

Its yet another piece of coal for the "Low PS sucks!!" bonfire.

high PS atleast CAN use him. Doesnt mean they will.

Its yet another piece of coal for the "Low PS sucks!!" bonfire.

seriously, you'd think they'd learn by now

want to encourage lower ps play? don't tie benefits to your attack!

it's like they had a stroke of genius with Mux and Palob and decided "okay, that's enough of that ****. I mean, Mux exists so it'll be impossible to ever see high PS again!"

What R3 should have been (to facilitate the ship it comes with and to help the rebel meta) is the ability to spend a focus defensively to remove am opponents offensive focus before mods

So you'd still get torped but not with focus, you'd make aces think twice AND you'd give 1 agi ARCs and Ys something cool because 1 focused agi kinda sucks anyway

Oh i like that. Since you mod before they do you can focus to make their focus blanks. They can still reroll of course but if they dont have a TL or only have Predator that can royally tick people off.

iirc focus is the only token we have that isnt role-reversed yet. We have a droid that uses TL defensively, Juke for evade offensively, and Soontir/Keyan/Ezra/Wired for bonuses while stressed which is supposed to be strictly negative.

Does anybody have an inverted focus use? Brath would be the closest but its kinda the same thing, just turning hits into crits essentially instead of focus to hits.

If thats what R3 did he would royally, ROYALLY tick off Soontir/Jax/Vader/OL because they either cant get a TL or really, really dont wanna use it. Makes their focus **** near useless.

high PS atleast CAN use him. Doesnt mean they will.

Its yet another piece of coal for the "Low PS sucks!!" bonfire.

It's funny I tried three x7 defenders with SD tonight I faced two t-70 aces and two headhunters, I didn't take a single point of damage, it was nasty he had initiative and ps advantage not to mention he took missiles and ept's but I shrugged it all off.

I'd say not all generics are sucking .

high PS atleast CAN use him. Doesnt mean they will.

Its yet another piece of coal for the "Low PS sucks!!" bonfire.

It's funny I tried three x7 defenders with SD tonight I faced two t-70 aces and two headhunters, I didn't take a single point of damage, it was nasty he had initiative and ps advantage not to mention he took missiles and ept's but I shrugged it all off.

I'd say not all generics are sucking .

x7 defenders are what happens when you get a proper r3 astro

high PS atleast CAN use him. Doesnt mean they will.

Its yet another piece of coal for the "Low PS sucks!!" bonfire.

It's funny I tried three x7 defenders with SD tonight I faced two t-70 aces and two headhunters, I didn't take a single point of damage, it was nasty he had initiative and ps advantage not to mention he took missiles and ept's but I shrugged it all off.

I'd say not all generics are sucking .

x7 defenders are what happens when you get a proper r3 astro

I have to agree with this. If R3 had the x7 ability and was 1 point, the X-Wing would be fixed.

As it stands now, you get two free bookmarks in your ARC-170.

granted I'd rather not just copy x7, but x7 is one of many many ways to illustrate just how hard ffg dropped the ball on this mech

R3 can work on low PS ships. This is where Swarm Tactics comes in. High PS pilot with Swarm Tactics triggers low PS pilot with R3. Low PS pilot used that round's action to acquire a target lock, and so lacks focus to mod his roll. Use a focus result to add an evade after attacking and DON'T spend the TL. R3's evade helps our rookie jouster live to line up a second shot, which is then modded with focus and TL, preferably at close range.

Just one potential use for this little droid. Add Integrated Astro, so that R3 is doubly useful as a ship saving discard when needed, allowing the rookie to potentially get one more shot before going down in flames.

In this case, you spend 2 points on a situational, RNG dependent card that has two ways to help your rookie last longer. Yes, it requires swarm tactics, but the use of R3 isn't the only benefit to swarm tactics. Obviously, it also opens the possibility of early coordinated strikes to take out an enemy before that enemy has a chance to shoot.

Did you read my post, or just the first sentence? Paraphrasing my sentences and feeding them back to me doesn't make an argument.

As far as bumping or rocks, BB-8 is way better than R3. I'd rather dodge the obstacle or ship and get an action, than maybe get an evade that may or may not even be relevant.

Apologies. Reading on my phone I sometimes miss stuff. You indeed mention what I said.

No, my bad. No reason to go swinging the snark bat.

granted I'd rather not just copy x7, but x7 is one of many many ways to illustrate just how hard ffg dropped the ball on this mech

R3, while certainly not great, fits more with the Rebel build style than x7; R3 pushes for squad synergy, which has been a hallmark of Rebel builds since Wave 1. Not saying R3 is great, or that they couldn't have done better, but they're at least consistent in their questionable choices.

x7 title is essentially the same thing as R3...it gives an evade to a ship that normally cant.

The difference is how and cost. x7 is LESS than free, since nobody ever put missiles on tie's anyway and if there was a cannon it was an ion or tractor which hey tie/d title! R2 not only costs 2pts instead of -2pts, it also takes a slot that has a lot of competition while the x7 basically doesnt have one since xD is a different strat.

x7 prevents you from being sluggish, which all rebel ships tend to do. iirc they ALL have 1straights, and a great deal of them have issues at 3speed or greater either by not many speeds or theyre red or both. x7 title makes no sense then since its basically rewarding blazing speed. Doing the opposite wouldnt make much sense, but they could have done something a bit more concrete that you may not want to do every time but have the option for. Such as "at the begining of the combat phase, you may assign an Evade and a Stress token to your ship" enabling a bit of a PTL effect without PTL, and working even while stressed so you could doublestress if you think you really need it.

How is he doing it? Overcharging your maneuver thrustors. Astromechs are usually fixing or boosting parts of the ship theyre on.

Regardless of how it works though it shouldnt have been a 2pt cost astromech since it not only competes for the slot with a LOT of mechs but its doing basically the same as x7 which is 4pts cheaper!! And more reliable!

x7 is LESS than free, since nobody ever put missiles on tie's anyway and if there was a cannon it was an ion or tractor which hey tie/d title!

That said, R3 is a disappointment especially when compared to x7.

granted I'd rather not just copy x7, but x7 is one of many many ways to illustrate just how hard ffg dropped the ball on this mech

R3, while certainly not great, fits more with the Rebel build style than x7; R3 pushes for squad synergy, which has been a hallmark of Rebel builds since Wave 1. Not saying R3 is great, or that they couldn't have done better, but they're at least consistent in their questionable choices.

squad synergy has been consistently crap for exactly as long, apart from Biggs' synergy of being the squad's red shirt

consistency in questionable choices only highlights an inability to learn, which is both concerning and confusing as FFG has taken the game in some incredible directions (wave 7 esp), only to somehow end up with this wave 1 garbage in Wave 9

what's even more weird is that nothing else in the ARC pack is even remotely as bad (unless the new torps turn out to be ACTION: waste X points on this upgrade card). Sure, I gripe about Shara's synergy ability, but Shara's ability has some actual application (and at least she has a native 3 dice offense, unlike freaking Esege). Meanwhile, the abject and utter failure of r3 goes far beyond even crap like Expose

Expose is just horrid from first glance and through every subsequent test, overpriced and requiring far too much for what is ultimately an equivalent benefit to a focus token unless overburdened with more upgrades. But at least Expose is neither pilot skill nor RNG dependent (nevermind both!). Seriously, you could have Roark baby-sitting your R3 and it could still do nothing

I just really don't understand how this thing came to be, emphasis on squad synergy or not

not to mention none of the other astromechs seem to care much about synergy, they either get the job done or just kinda suck (looking at you, you green dice dependent bastards)

there were plenty of ways to make r3 a unique defensive astromech without ripping off X7 and without making R3 so appallingly horrid (the ability to spend one's focus to remove the attacker's focus is just one of many possibilities)

Did you read my post, or just the first sentence? Paraphrasing my sentences and feeding them back to me doesn't make an argument.

As far as bumping or rocks, BB-8 is way better than R3. I'd rather dodge the obstacle or ship and get an action, than maybe get an evade that may or may not even be relevant.

Apologies. Reading on my phone I sometimes miss stuff. You indeed mention what I said.

No, my bad. No reason to go swinging the snark bat.

It's all good.

R3 is the mech we're getting. Since I plan to add a couple of ARCs to my collection (they're just nice looking ships), that means I'll have a lot of R3s. That being the case, much as I wished R3 did something different, I'll play around and see if I can make the little bugger useful.

Meanwhile, we can all hope FFG is reading the many criticisms leveled at R3, but realistically, we've already established that someone in the company is a bit of a slow learner. Therefore, I'll figure out how to have fun with the toys they sell me, such as my above noted idea of using R3 on low PS pilots triggered into early activation by a higher skill pilot with swarm tactics. Maybe it'll work well, maybe not. Only field tests will bear out how such combos may turn out.

Technically r3 isn't the mech we're getting

We're getting nothing, because leaving the slot empty is almost certainly more effective than putting r3 in it

Oh well, that's enough of that . I wish you all luck trying to make this work (you will quite literally need it)

Technically r3 isn't the mech we're getting

We're getting nothing, because leaving the slot empty is almost certainly more effective than putting r3 in it

Oh well, that's enough of that . I wish you all luck trying to make this work (you will quite literally need it)

We'll need all the luck we can get. More importantly, we'll need to be repeatedly obliterated until we learn the error of our ways.

Expose is just horrid from first glance and through every subsequent test, overpriced and requiring far too much for what is ultimately an equivalent benefit to a focus token unless overburdened with more upgrades. But at least Expose is neither pilot skill nor RNG dependent (nevermind both!). Seriously, you could have Roark baby-sitting your R3 and it could still do nothing

To be fair, Expose is better on higher PS pilots simply because they have more information available when choosing an action. If the highest PS pilot on the table has Expose he can make sure he doesn't use it if he'll be in a position to be attacked or if he won't have an attack. A low PS pilot may use Expose, and then find that they have no shot and ended up in 3 different arcs.

It's better on high PS pilots but it still sucks.

R3 is the mech we're getting. Since I plan to add a couple of ARCs to my collection (they're just nice looking ships), that means I'll have a lot of R3s. That being the case, much as I wished R3 did something different, I'll play around and see if I can make the little bugger useful.

Meanwhile, we can all hope FFG is reading the many criticisms leveled at R3, but realistically, we've already established that someone in the company is a bit of a slow learner. Therefore, I'll figure out how to have fun with the toys they sell me, such as my above noted idea of using R3 on low PS pilots triggered into early activation by a higher skill pilot with swarm tactics. Maybe it'll work well, maybe not. Only field tests will bear out how such combos may turn out.

Eh...this is a pretty early preview, the release isn't for several months.

Things have had their prices adjusted from preview articles, before.

We can always hope FFG sees the light, here, and knocks the guy down to 0 points. Or no more than 1, certainly.

R3 would have to be 0

You'd see him only as IA fodder, but you'd see him

No what needs to happen is that there was an error in printing and "attacking with" was actually "defending against"

Worthless v torp scouts and TLTs, but it'd actually do something!

Edit: no never mind

Relying on green dice would just make it worse

We can always hope FFG sees the light, here, and knocks the guy down to 0 points. Or no more than 1, certainly.

In a vacuum (no pun intended) 0pts does seem to suit its sense of being a "consolation prize" for rolling an [Eye] and not having a Focus to capitalise on it - in that way, you're essentially adding it as an IA sacrifical lamb, and taking an occasional freebie token as cream.

However, without knowing what the unrevealed Torp does (or the entire rest of the wave for that matter), it's not 100% certain it's a write-off yet...

...personally, I tend towards conservatism and will shy away from elements that have such a degree of risk - but I have been proven (from the seeing the potential of combinations I'd not build myself) that the rewards can often justify the risk (if you're skilled enough to mitigate the down-side).

The odd thing about this card is that it combines an anti-conservative mechanic (RNG) and a conservative-leaning defensive posture (by opting for Evade - unless you're looking to leverage something that converts Evade to an offensive effect as a 2nd phase play).

- - -

All that being said - does seem like a card more aligned towards keeping low PS ships alive in Epic.

What makes me feel so weird about this as that nearly every one is in agreement that this is just a really, really bad card. Yes, there are some who are trying to salvage it (no pun intended), but the question stands- how did FFG let this get by as is? Perhaps there is something coming in a later expansion that will bring some light to why this card is costed and worded the way it is? I have as much faith as anyone in FFG, but I will be amazed more than ever if this card even proves worth while in any realm of competitive play. I'm even struggling to find place for it in casual lists because it seems like a straight up, obvious waste of points.

I'm hard pressed to think of a situation where id take this over a 2 point bid. RIP competitive rebels waves 3 and 7 were a good time while they lasted.

It is a misprint. It has to be.

The Wave 9 errata with have this:

The R3 Astromech upgrade card's text should read like this:

Once per round, while defending from an attacker in your firing arc, you may cancel one of your blank results during the "Modify Defense Dice" step to assign one evade token to your ship.

It's some sort of inverse once-per-round all-range Autothrusters for rebel astromech carrying ships, guys. For even the same cost. Yes. That is what it is. It will boost their jousting capabilities! It will be even more awesome in the ARC-170, that has two firing arcs!

All is fine, people. Right, FFG? It's just a misprint...