R3 possibilities already:

Spend a focus to remove an attackers focus - good as a counter-meta tech, a solid 2 points if you ever saw it (especially on low-agility ships, which the ARC certainly is).

Cancel an evade result to gain an Evade token - good as a counter-ion/TLT tech; if you were being hit regardless might as well bank an Evade and hope it helps better next time.

Cancel an eye result to gain a Focus - pretty powerful, but great for 'are you sure you wanna' situations

Did I miss any?

are you making theories of what it does after it's been released? Or did you wish this was it?

I assume it's a "oh, but what could have been" wish-list:

What about, at the beginning of the combat phase, spend a focus to assign 1 Evade token and 1 Stress token* to your ship.

(* = or perhaps Weapons Disabled token instead, for diversity - "R3, divert all resources to avoidance protocols!" - though, you're most likely to do it when you don't have a shot anyway, thus effectively not a penalty)

- - -

...however, if the timing was "after you perform an action" it could open up a whole new world of possibilities and speculative decision making (leaning back towards 'Weapons Disabled' as a option that involves more trade-off - having to guess whether or not you'll have a target of opportunity vs how much you think you'll need to avoid a hit).

"Could've been" R3 possibilities already:

Spend a focus to remove an attackers focus - good as a counter-meta tech, a solid 2 points if you ever saw it (especially on low-agility ships, which the ARC certainly is).

Cancel an evade result to gain an Evade token - good as a counter-ion/TLT tech; if you were being hit regardless might as well bank an Evade and hope it helps better next time.

Cancel an eye result to gain a Focus - pretty powerful, but great for 'are you sure you wanna' situations

I like the underlined one quite a lot!

I'm not much of a numbers person, but I think that would be really good for the people that dislike variance in the dice rolls. When you "overevade" one attack, you can bank one of the unused evade results for a later defense this round. It would make sense thematically, since a ship that is evading a lot from one attacker should be also evading as much for any other attacker, right?

It would also be good for low PS pilots with Juke, and it could complement Autothrusters in a T-70 if it generates extra, unused evades (to the point of likely not making you miss Integrated Astromech at all).

Sure, it wouldn't help much for Agility 1 ships, but for X-Wings and E-Wings it could be handy.

I'm going to call it, the reason for its cost is it's synergy with seismic (action) torps. I bet you will be able to fire them at asteroids and cause splash damage, move them or some such. You will get 2 or 3 red dice to fire them but only need one hit result. Any eyes you then bank as an evade for use in the combat phase (when you likely won't be able to shoot).

It's a crazy stab in the dark I know :-)

I wish, but it seems unlikely. R3 works during an attack.

However, what we can see from Seismic Torpedoes is something like:

Action: Discard this card

to choose an enemy ship at

Range 1 - ? that is within your

primary firing arc. All ships within

Range 1 of that ship must roll

1 attack die and suffer all

damage (hit) and critical damage

(crit) rolled this way.???

of???.

I don't know what the last few words could say, but it clearly isn't an attack. (Perhaps they say "This cannot be obstructed" or something like that)

It's more like a lobbed mine that you throw forward and deal 1 attack die of damage to all ship at range 1 of the target. Think on Assault Missiles meet Proximity Mines, but without the safe 1 damage of the missiles, and without the 3 dice of the mines. Probably very cheap and good against swarms. If spammed, potentially good against aces like Soontir, that have no way to defend against this other than Palpatine.

If it costs 1-2 points, it could finally be the torpedo filler than many rebel ships could have on their single torpedo slot. But it isn't spectacular. And it certainly isn't the hardcounter to contracted scouts Alex promised, neither the ordnance that will bring Bombers, Punishers or K-Wings to an even level with the scouts.

So what you're telling me is I'll be disappointed by this card as well? It's Action based Anti-Pursuit Lasers!

Greeeat... x_X

You'll be less disappointed by that now that R3 is about the worst thing ever made since r5d8

Maybe that was ffgs insidious plan all along !?!?

But if costed right (ONE POINT, FFG) those aren't horrible torps even if they fart out on you. For example, I'd certainly stuff it as filler on anything bringing munitions and an unused torp slot (bombers, punishers, connerKs etc)

Granted it can do jack ****, but unlike r3 it can also provide a significant advantage across all PS levels (favoring lower PS due to activating before higher PS) and is FAR less stringent about actually working

If it costs one point it's going to be awesome for Redline. Spend your action at r3 to deal some damage, plink with your primary to get FCS, shoot cluster missiles or protorps next turn.

If it's one point it's going to be phenomenal on everything up to and including who-needs-actions-anyway TLT Y-wings.

So it's almost certainly 2, unless this is *actually* a new designer at work and it's 3 because they don't know how to balance yet

If it's one point it's going to be phenomenal on everything up to and including who-needs-actions-anyway TLT Y-wings.

So it's almost certainly 2, unless this is *actually* a new designer at work and it's 3 because they don't know how to balance yet

except it won't be phenomenal

because it won't work 50% of the time

it's worth a point at most

If it's one point it's going to be phenomenal on everything up to and including who-needs-actions-anyway TLT Y-wings.

So it's almost certainly 2, unless this is *actually* a new designer at work and it's 3 because they don't know how to balance yet

except it won't be phenomenal

because it won't work 50% of the time

it's worth a point at most

The above implied 50% per ship within a bubble.

If so, that's much better odds. It'd also mean that the weapon was tripping over its own feet - it's anti-swarm tech we didn't need, that we're paying points for when we really planned on using it against aces - but, y'know, maybe that's one of their balance 'tradeoffs' or something. I dunno.

But I doubt an easier-aimed AoE Proximity Mine type effect is less than 2pts, even if it's only one die apiece. Look at Cluster Mines, for instance.

Cluster mines are atrociously bad and a perfect example of why you don't put a lot of value in cards that can end up not doing a **** thing

And it's not a proxy mine (proxies are 3 dice), it's a more easily applied but more costly to use (ACTION as opposed to nothing) and REALLY sh*tty seismic charge

Can't say I agree with that.
IGs love the seismics that decimate swarms.

Decimator also loves it for the same reason.

Point is: it's PS-dependent. And as anything PS-dependent

Red Squadron Veteran (26)

Juke (2)

R3 Astromech (2)

Comm Relay (3)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (26)

Juke (2)

R3 Astromech (2)

Comm Relay (3)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (26)

Juke (2)

R3 Astromech (2)

Comm Relay (3)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Alright, I've played this list against two elite Defenders and the Inquisitor.

This list was crap against this named pilots, because you have only PS4 pilots.

But the Juke-Comm Relay-R3 combo was very nice!

It was quite annoying for my opponent, to have Evade tokens on my X-Wings. So in my opinion, R3 is fine.

I guess, there will be a big home for R3 on the T-65 X-Wing with high PS, because this X-Wing costs fewer points than the T-70.

Yes. I understand the intention of it.

All the hoops and loops the players needs to jump thru to get anything from R3 seems like a convoluted way to restrict this to pure jousters without the action economy to properly modify their attacks, so at least they get something out of their misses (if they rolled eyes).

As stated, this only benefits high PS pilots like Wedge, Luke, Wes, that are spending their action on repositioning (with Vectored Thrusters, or Engine upgrade, or Stay on target, or doing a koiogran) or throwing seismic torpedoes, instead of on getting Focus/Target Lock for their attack. Instead of giving X-Wings better action economy so that they can do both, they have opted for designing the "consolation prize" astromech.

"You can reposition and be bad at shooting, but at least you get an evade token... sometimes. Perhaps you can use it to survive to the next round and actually deal some damage. Thanks for playing."

Perhaps I am totally wrong with this reading. But it seems they are attempting to make a jouster fix that is something more complex than an evident buff to stats or action economy.

R3 seems to follow the trend of Targeting Astromech.

Instead of removing some bad things these ships suffer from, they provide a minor benefit to a major inconvenience.

Red Squadron Veteran (26)

Juke (2)

R3 Astromech (2)

Comm Relay (3)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (26)

Juke (2)

R3 Astromech (2)

Comm Relay (3)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Red Squadron Veteran (26)

Juke (2)

R3 Astromech (2)

Comm Relay (3)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Alright, I've played this list against two elite Defenders and the Inquisitor.

This list was crap against this named pilots, because you have only PS4 pilots.

But the Juke-Comm Relay-R3 combo was very nice!

It was quite annoying for my opponent, to have Evade tokens on my X-Wings. So in my opinion, R3 is fine.

I guess, there will be a big home for R3 on the T-65 X-Wing with high PS, because this X-Wing costs fewer points than the T-70.

Juke says when attacking I thought you needed the evade first.

R3 happens before Juke.

The "Modify Attack Dice" step is when you can cancel an eye result to get the evade token.

Juke is used during the "Modify Defense Dice" step, when you already have the token.

The 58% restriction is a bummer, but that goes up to ~80% if you have a Target Lock. So, it encourages you to TL. With Focus, 42% of the time on an X-Wing the eyeball is "wasted" on the attack, whereas TL is never "wasted" unless you roll 3 hits (12.5% of the time). If you boost or barrel roll, this gives you a defensive bonus (not everyone shooting at your ship will be PS9) and even an offensive one with Juke. It's 4 points together, and it's debatable whether you want to add Comms Relay to make it 7. PTL+R2 is also 4, and leaves you stressed.

If you pull a K, 58% of the time you will get an evade versus a possibly unmodified shot or shots. You certainly don't have a Focus to cover yourself with. If you Juke, you can cut through unmodified defence. The TA requires you to be stressed to activate, and only really gives you an out in a bad situation. As with R3, higher PS is better because you know your victim will be in your arc and not disappear out of arc, wasting the TL.

Is it worth 2 points? Predator gives you permanent half-assed TL, and people think that's worth 3.

Again, let's see how it plays.

Diss the mines all you want but dont diss the seismics! those things rock.

Diss the mines all you want but dont diss the seismics! those things rock.

the torps or the charges?

because only one of those are guaranteed

and those rock

charges.

Easily the best and probably the only bomb slot thats actually worth taking if you have a random bomb. That thing causes so much pain its hilarious lol.

I like the idea of clusters but both the action issue and its cost deter me. Ive had it utterly crush people but ive also had it do jack squat...for 4pts...

Mostly an area denial. If you can put that in a choke suddenly the field just went into your favor as you know someone just broke formation because one ship cant keep up with the other going one way. Its so **** hard to do that unless its Deathrain though and f' punishers.

idk about area denial for cluster mines

I've just barreled through them with low ps pilots to clear them for my high PS, suffering no damage for my trouble

seismic torps are obviously different in application, wherein their potential lies (Easier to apply in arc and range than out the butt), it's just gotta not be abhorrently overpriced (like clusters)

COnners are the best area denial tool.

Conners are also long and narrow. If you dont dump it ON them or you were flying perpendicular to them, they can easily fly right past it.

on the flip side, conners actually do something

Not denying that lol.

Hope theres some new mines in the future that are either action-independant or do guaranteed damage or both.

Ive completely shafted myself with clusters in the past by predicting a move that never happened and planned my own move to not have those mines there anymore. That TIE fighter ate all 3 clusters and took 1 hit lol...i fully expected him to blow up right there.

Ironically, thats why teh conner is so loved! it DOES damage, not CAN damage, on top of other things.

But i'd love something like "Scattermines" that deploy in a die-5 pattern 1speed away from each other. Huge area denial, moderately cheap, does 1 damage if you touch one.

The 58% restriction is a bummer, but that goes up to ~80% if you have a Target Lock.

If you instead use the target lock "as normal" to maximise hits, then R3 is more like 30%.

I didn't model a "middle-ground" strategy, where you keep the natural 3 hits/crits. That would drop your chance of an evade a bit, to say 70 something percent, and increase your expected damage to probably slightly above an unmodified shot.

The problem is, unmodified 3 dice shots, in my experience, are rarely any good. This is a contested roll game, so small improvements and small drops are amplified in how many shots actually get through.

I would have preferred something a bit more reliable - a bonus instead of a zero-sum option. Like, if your attack misses gain an evade token. Or the current ability, but on defense dice, so it useful at any PS and you make an informed decision.

Definitely the designers are trying to make target locks an equal option with the focus action, but is making the worse action equal worth 2 points and a slot for another Astro?

Also, I'm disgusted with the talk of using R3 with Luke. Luke flies with R2-D2. Always. Haven't you seen the movies??

R3 also could be useful explicitly for the jumpmaster matchup. A ship at PS4+ and R3 takes a potshot at a jumpmaser, even with 2 reds (Ywing or rear arc ARC) has a 7/16 chance of having an extra HP that turn. For the Ywing that extra HP would guarentee surviving through 2 torps, the T70 with Integrated would need only 1 evade on 4 dice to survive 2 torps, the ARC with perfect evade rolls could survive all 3 torps, and the generic Xwing with Integraed would need 2 evades to survive 2 torps.

And that's assuming all perfect 4 hit torps, which the Overclocked cannot guarentee.

you know what also can't be guaranteed?

the evade from r3

not to mention that, in using it, you're reducing your damage potential and just allowing the jm5ks to survive longer instead of burning them down before they fire