No btw, if you read the card again closely, I'm very sure the intent is that you declare target, gather your pool, replace some dice, THEN ROLL.

I want to throw my idea in there that this makes the MC80 Defiance with CF rather crazy.

Nope. That ship is too **** expensive for this....

Maybe, but the idea of throwing 4 reds (Assault), Defiance for black, CF for another black, then replace 2 reds with 2 blacks is just outrageous. That's 4 black dice and 2 reds from long range.

Probs want a blue for leading shots

No btw, if you read the card again closely, I'm very sure the intent is that you declare target, gather your pool, replace some dice, THEN ROLL.

Its the same as that dual turbolaser thing.

Sato finally makes Hans ability very useful. No squadrons close to your 1st target to trigger Sato? Han's got it covered.

He's GOT THIS!!

No btw, if you read the card again closely, I'm very sure the intent is that you declare target, gather your pool, replace some dice, THEN ROLL.

The Rulebook says, very, very, very clearly, that when you "GATHER YOUR POOL", you roll your dice.

My first thought was just putting Sato in either an SW90 or TRC90 swarm. You get more ships with the SW90 swarm, add a few rogues, and go to town with black die throwing CR90's, say about 6 of them w/ 3 2400's, Han, and Dash; still leaves six points over for a small bid too.

Just get three of them in range of one target, that's 6-12 Blacks and 3 blues, in three separate attacks (and you can conceivably do it on two different targets. Ouch!

I see Mon Mothma and Cracken being pretty good against Sato. Sato might just become the next Ackbar.

I'll ask around tomorrow when I check out the semi finals, but it's hard to imagine being allowed to both change your dice *and* essentially reroll them. This commander has zero drawback.

No btw, if you read the card again closely, I'm very sure the intent is that you declare target, gather your pool, replace some dice, THEN ROLL.

The Rulebook says, very, very, very clearly, that when you "GATHER YOUR POOL", you roll your dice.

RRG page 2

"Attack Pool

During an attack, the attack pool is comprised of all dice being used for that attack. This includes the dice gathered prior to rolling as well as the dice after they are rolled."

The attack pool all dice gathered and rolled. You can't change the attack pool till after it is rolled.

2. Roll Attack Dice: Gather attack dice to form the attack pool and roll those dice. Gather only the dice that are appropriate for the range of the attack as indicated by the icons on the range ruler.

There is no break in gather and roll.

Can you guys just read the card. And link it here.

I think the problem people are having with Sato maybe the use of the word REPLACE in his text as this has never been used or talked about in the rules. For rules purpose it should be a modify step shorthand to cancel dice then add dice.

Can you guys just read the card. And link it here.

It is insulting to assume we have not read the card as we've made the determination.

But you wouldn't be doing that now, Would you?

Now,

EFFECT USE AND TIMING, RRG, Page 5:

• A “while” effect can be resolved during the specified event and cannot occur again during that instance of the event.

• An effect that modifies attack dice can only be resolved during the “Resolve Attacks Effects” step of an attack unless another timing is specified.

The argument that would have to be made is that "REPLACE" is not something that modifies attack Dice...

Is Replace a Modification of Attack Dice?

I would believe so. And I think it would take a bit to convince me otherwise...

The starting point to doing that is:

Modifying Dice

Dice can be modified in the following ways by game effects:

• Reroll: When a die is rerolled, the attacker picks it up and rolls it again. A die can be rerolled multiple times.

• Add: When a die is added, roll an unused die of the appropriate color into the attack pool.

• Change: When a die is changed, rotate it to display the indicated face.

• Spend: When a die or die icon is spent, remove that die from the attack pool.

• Cancel: When a die or die icon is canceled, remove it from the attack pool.

REPLACE is not listed there.

However, if it is not listed there, and is not a modification of dice, then we enter a portion of the rules where, no rules exist, and an Errata is required simply to reform a broken game state.

Because "While Attacking" does not give us a more pinpointed set of Timing than what we have above as it is.

In Defense of my interpretation of the card, here's some semi-unrelated things:

1) He's the second most expensive Rebel Admiral.. Almost on par with Ackbar, who adds two Red Dice to the Side Arcs.

2) His restriction is it must be set up with a Squadron beforehand... An aggressive squadron defence will nullify him completely.

3) I'm always totally happen to be proven wrong by FFG.

Effectively, he's a 32pt set of Rerolls, but you end up with different dice. IF you happen to have a Combined Arms Fleet, AND have managed to get squadrons placed in situations where those squadrons will get killed by anti-squadron fire.

I read it too. With sensor teams obviously so enhanced armanent scouts.....

I want both Ackbar AND Sato...and Madine for good measure

I'll ask around tomorrow when I check out the semi finals, but it's hard to imagine being allowed to both change your dice *and* essentially reroll them. This commander has zero drawback.

Except that without squadrons (e.g. destroyed), his card text is blank.

I'll ask around tomorrow when I check out the semi finals, but it's hard to imagine being allowed to both change your dice *and* essentially reroll them. This commander has zero drawback.

Except that without squadrons (e.g. destroyed), his card text is blank.

This I think is a very important observation.

Sato will struggle vs. certain anit-squad builds, even with a good number of squadrons.

Intending to rely just on Tycho/Dash/Han whatever will only give so much mileage.

So basically you'll need carriers and support card or a big chunk of rogues - or both. Which will cut down on your number of ships.

I'm guessing this guy is pretty balanced and has been like playtested to death. Like Ackbar.

I'll ask around tomorrow when I check out the semi finals, but it's hard to imagine being allowed to both change your dice *and* essentially reroll them. This commander has zero drawback.

Except that without squadrons (e.g. destroyed), his card text is blank.

This I think is a very important observation.

Sato will struggle vs. certain anit-squad builds, even with a good number of squadrons.

Intending to rely just on Tycho/Dash/Han whatever will only give so much mileage.

So basically you'll need carriers and support card or a big chunk of rogues - or both. Which will cut down on your number of ships.

I'm guessing this guy is pretty balanced and has been like playtested to death. Like Ackbar.

He makes squadron heavy builds important. You cant rely on small cheap squadrons either. You need things that can last. Jan will be a staple in his set up, Hera may be as well. I know FCT's will be important.

I believe that you need to replace the dice before they are rolled. His ability affects the gathering of the pool, which happens prior to the roll. Yes the dice once gathered are always part of the attack pool. But once they are thrown they are out there. You can't turn a laser bolt later into a missile. That just seems wrong.

Maybe 'Replace' isn't part of 'Modify' for a reason.

Also that would make Sato's ability about re-rolls, not dice swapping. For instance, if you are saying that you may perform 2 dice substitutions AND THEN roll those new dice, what is to stop people from just picking up their blank blacks and re-rolling them (substituting dice of the same color)?

I feel he's a dice changer not a auto-re-roller.

For Sato's ability, we can't know the rules definition of "replace" until it's defined, so it's all just speculation. However, if the intent is to add dice of one colour and remove dice of another colour after having rolled, there is clearly defined wording on how to do that. The new Dual Turbolaser Turrents read "While attacking, you may exhaust this card to add 1 red die to your attack pool. If you do, remove 1 die from the attack pool."

Therefore I think that if the intent was to have Sato allow you to add the new dice after rolling, he would say "the attacker may add 2 dice of any colour to it's attack pool. If it does, remove 2 dice from the attack pool."

Since he uses a new and unprecedented wording, I think the intent is to add a new definition for "replace" that takes place before rolling.

To be honest, I'm not sure what the point of Dual Turbolaser Turret even is. Perhaps it is as you say.

As far as I can read, the unusual wording leads me to believe it wouldn't be after rolling.

My initial instinct is that 'replace' will be defined as before rolling dice, when the initial attack pool is gathered. The other interpretation just seems clunky and to powerful.

It's still pretty cool to replace reds with black and use them at red range, although if you replace the dice at the gather attack pool step, does that reduce the range to that of the normal black dice, I'd guess it would, meaning you'd already need to be at short range to change red to black.

'REPLACE' is going to need to be defined.

My initial instinct is that 'replace' will be defined as before rolling dice, when the initial attack pool is gathered. The other interpretation just seems clunky and to powerful.

It's still pretty cool to replace reds with black and use them at red range, although if you replace the dice at the gather attack pool step, does that reduce the range to that of the normal black dice, I'd guess it would, meaning you'd already need to be at short range to change red to black.

'REPLACE' is going to need to be defined.

There is already precedent for using blacks at long range - Defiance and Paragon.

Using different colour dice at longer ranges has been a rebel trick for a while, rerolling dice has not. So I also expect that replace will be FAQ'd to being before rolling, in much the same way as Ackbar is determined before rolling too.

However, under current rules, replace would be after rolling.

I cant wait to finally have an excuse for running 11 HWK290's plus Jan Orrs with Torryn. Obscene anti ship potential, and ridiculous movement.

Not wanting to be pedantic, (I guess I am about to be though), there are no current rules for replace, the community, myself included, are making assumptions about it.

On the range question I raised, Defiance does clearly allow a dice added to the pool to be used at any range and so 'replaced' dice should follow that.

I believe that you need to replace the dice before they are rolled. His ability affects the gathering of the pool, which happens prior to the roll. Yes the dice once gathered are always part of the attack pool. But once they are thrown they are out there. You can't turn a laser bolt later into a missile. That just seems wrong.

Maybe 'Replace' isn't part of 'Modify' for a reason.

Unless they issue an explicit definition of "replace", then no. As worded, and from all rules we have now, he allows you to roll, pick up, and roll new black dice. It's just that simple. FFG may define "replace" in a FAQ, but keep in mind, Sato will be worthless if he's not played as we're claiming now. 32 wasted points.

I'm pretty sure the card would have stated something about during the "Gather" and "form" attack pool. They didn't though.

Not wanting to be pedantic, (I guess I am about to be though), there are no current rules for replace, the community, myself included, are making assumptions about it.

On the range question I raised, Defiance does clearly allow a dice added to the pool to be used at any range and so 'replaced' dice should follow that.

However, there are rules. Sato uses the term "attack pool" which is modified after the initial roll so that you cant replace black dice with red dice to enable long range shooting.

Whereas using "battery armament" would have become clunky to not break range and line of sight rules. However, altering battery armament occurs before rolling.

Straight up though you would not be able to declare an attack in the first place if your original armament couldn't fire at long range to begin with. So replacing black with red would be only possible if the ship started the attack within short range no?

Based on my first read of the Sato card, I read it as If I have 4 red dice while attacking, I can choose to replace up to 2 of those red with either black or blue dice or 1 of each. Before getting bogged down in the technical aspect of the wording, my natural interpretation of replace would be to substitute 2 dice with a different color before actually rolling them. Although it sounds really cool that I could roll, then say' those' are crap, make them 'these' instead and roll those seems like a bit of a stretch to me. Once again, the rules as they are this is possible, but seems to be lacking in the intention. As a casual gamer I would never assume that these would be rolled after already rolling the attack.