It's not a stress animal, but it's a real simple way to get a target lock and focus after a K-turn without having stress left over:

Braylen Stramm (30)

("After you execute a manoeuvre, you may roll an attack die. On a [bOOM] or [KABOOM] result, remove 1 stress token from your ship.")

ARC-170 (25), Targeting Astromech (2),

("After you execute a red manoeuvre, you may acquire a target lock.")

Kyle Katarn (3),

("After you remove a stress token from your ship, you may assign a focus token to your ship.")

Alliance Overhaul (0)

Neat *insert Bender pic here*

Hasn't something similar been around for a while already with Hobbie and the targeting astromech combo? When you gain a target lock you can clear a stress, basically the same except it works all the time, rather than half the time.

Also, if you clearing the stress immediately after the K turn, why do you need Kyle? You could just take a focus as your normal action seeing as the Arc only has focus and TL as actions anyway (unless you want to add vectored thrusters and get a barrel roll as well which could be cool).

Technically yes but Hobbie cant get a focus out of it too.

This would be more of a fun thing to do though not a legit strat since its not foolproof and ARCs usually arent doing many red moves.

Hasn't something similar been around for a while already with Hobbie and the targeting astromech combo? When you gain a target lock you can clear a stress, basically the same except it works all the time, rather than half the time.

Also, if you clearing the stress immediately after the K turn, why do you need Kyle? You could just take a focus as your normal action seeing as the Arc only has focus and TL as actions anyway (unless you want to add vectored thrusters and get a barrel roll as well which could be cool).

Nice! I like the Vectored Thrusters idea!

Technically yes but Hobbie cant get a focus out of it too.

He cab, can't he?

Execute K-Turn, acquire Target Lock, shed stress. Perform action, Focus.

Admittedly he only has one red maneuver

To get the most out of Braelen's ability, you might want to include extra ways to stress yourself. R3-A2 would be one option although you might be better with a Gunner to double-stress your target.

Technically yes but Hobbie cant get a focus out of it too.

He cab, can't he?

Execute K-Turn, acquire Target Lock, shed stress. Perform action, Focus.

Admittedly he only has one red maneuver

The ARC has 4 red maneuvers, so in a way you're using it's weakness as a strength.

I've only played five games with ARCs so far, but I've never K-turned once and I only did a 3-turn once in all those matches. I guess here lies the problem.

Not claiming to be an expert; everyone's play style is different. I found that with ARCs there's really no rush to turn around. If you go through or past your target, keep going. Use your rear arc to your advantage. The benefits of Stress Braylen doing a drive by is that once your target is stressed on the first pass, theres only so many predictable manoeuvres it can do, and you're probably within arc and range (ARCs be slow) to deliver another stress or two again from your auxiliary arc.

I think Braylen's ability and the ARCs 6 green manoeuvres are too much of a good thing not to take R3-A2 and Gunner. In fact, at times, the benefits of giving out two stress makes you not want to cause damage. Leave that to the rest of your list. In this case, dice modification isn't really needed.

It's nice to have such a diversity though - using stress to your advantage (strangely Keyan is another favourite of mine for pretty much the same reason) AND being able to give it out all through one pretty cheap 30-point chunk of a list.

Hasn't something similar been around for a while already with Hobbie and the targeting astromech combo? When you gain a target lock you can clear a stress, basically the same except it works all the time, rather than half the time.

Also, if you clearing the stress immediately after the K turn, why do you need Kyle? You could just take a focus as your normal action seeing as the Arc only has focus and TL as actions anyway (unless you want to add vectored thrusters and get a barrel roll as well which could be cool).

VT, so you can barrel roll afterwards. Now why I would K-Turn with a ARC in the first place I don't know. ^_°

Hasn't something similar been around for a while already with Hobbie and the targeting astromech combo? When you gain a target lock you can clear a stress, basically the same except it works all the time, rather than half the time.

Also, if you clearing the stress immediately after the K turn, why do you need Kyle? You could just take a focus as your normal action seeing as the Arc only has focus and TL as actions anyway (unless you want to add vectored thrusters and get a barrel roll as well which could be cool).

VT, so you can barrel roll afterwards. Now why I would K-Turn with a ARC in the first place I don't know. ^_°

3 Turns and 4 Straight are red as well.

Admittedly, the stress-donkey (?) is better... this is just an alternative idea. I don't have R3-A2, and I don't want to spend the $20 to buy him and I have no interest in epic.

What Hobbie would give for a native EPT. Stay on Target and Targeting Astromech would be beautiful.

Hasn't something similar been around for a while already with Hobbie and the targeting astromech combo? When you gain a target lock you can clear a stress, basically the same except it works all the time, rather than half the time.

Also, if you clearing the stress immediately after the K turn, why do you need Kyle? You could just take a focus as your normal action seeing as the Arc only has focus and TL as actions anyway (unless you want to add vectored thrusters and get a barrel roll as well which could be cool).

VT, so you can barrel roll afterwards. Now why I would K-Turn with a ARC in the first place I don't know. ^_°

I k-turned with one last night because the alternative was letting the Ghost bump me.

Hasn't something similar been around for a while already with Hobbie and the targeting astromech combo? When you gain a target lock you can clear a stress, basically the same except it works all the time, rather than half the time.

Also, if you clearing the stress immediately after the K turn, why do you need Kyle? You could just take a focus as your normal action seeing as the Arc only has focus and TL as actions anyway (unless you want to add vectored thrusters and get a barrel roll as well which could be cool).

Technically yes but Hobbie cant get a focus out of it too.

He cab, can't he?

Execute K-Turn, acquire Target Lock, shed stress. Perform action, Focus.

Admittedly he only has one red maneuver

The ARC has 4 red maneuvers, so in a way you're using it's weakness as a strength.

50% of the time*

for dice-dependent definitions of 50% of the time

my record is six rounds of utter failure, which I've hit surprisingly often

I've only played five games with ARCs so far, but I've never K-turned once and I only did a 3-turn once in all those matches. I guess here lies the problem.

Not claiming to be an expert; everyone's play style is different. I found that with ARCs there's really no rush to turn around. If you go through or past your target, keep going. Use your rear arc to your advantage. The benefits of Stress Braylen doing a drive by is that once your target is stressed on the first pass, theres only so many predictable manoeuvres it can do, and you're probably within arc and range (ARCs be slow) to deliver another stress or two again from your auxiliary arc.

my exact experience as well

ARCs have incredible synergy with upgrades that will stress them (aux arc + r3-a2; norra + ptl etc.) and use red maneuvers approx...none of the time? roughly

over a month of playtime and I've k-turned 3 times, twice of which didn't influence the outcome of the game at all and once of which turned out to be a mistake

Braylen occasionally takes red turns and forwards because **** it, but a build with r3-a2 works independently of random nonsense like his ability which seems to take 4-6 turns on average to trigger instead of being 50/50

but whether you're a failin' braylen or a successful stramm, r3-a2 is simply more reliable and far more impactful than a free KK focus on a 1 agi ship is (esp considering you already get a focus mod firing out of your auxiliary arc)

What about if he has 2 stress and then does a green move, if he rolls a hit does he then get 2 focus tokens from Kyle?

What about if he has 2 stress and then does a green move, if he rolls a hit does he then get 2 focus tokens from Kyle?

Yup! His ability is every time. Not once per turn.

Of course, with agility 1 and only one shot per turn, you have only so many ways to spend multiple focus tokens. But it's still a nice-to-have.

What about if he has 2 stress and then does a green move, if he rolls a hit does he then get 2 focus tokens from Kyle?

+

Yes, that should be the case, but the defensive focus is not that helpful and you give up gunner for it. Little point imho. Gunner + R3-A2 really looks much sweeter. You are not relying on the stress clear here, you just take it as a bonus. If it procs, great, if not you still would have picked gunner + R3-A2 for that control piece in your list.

If you want to make a maneuverable (ish! It's still an ARC-170) stramm, I'd say Targeting Astromech, Kyle and Vectored Thrusters - that way, rather than double focus, a red move gives you a guaranteed target lock and a 50/50 chance of a focus+barrel roll, rather than a less useful (for an ARC) double focus.

I'm not saying trying to make an ARC a manoeuvrable fighter is a great idea - FGD's stress donkey and tank are probably a better bet - but you have two ways to make an ARC surprisingly agile; Braylen (taking the red moves and hoping for stress clearance) or a (surprisingly cheap) combination of BB-8 & Nien Numb.

Hasn't something similar been around for a while already with Hobbie and the targeting astromech combo? When you gain a target lock you can clear a stress, basically the same except it works all the time, rather than half the time.

Also, if you clearing the stress immediately after the K turn, why do you need Kyle? You could just take a focus as your normal action seeing as the Arc only has focus and TL as actions anyway (unless you want to add vectored thrusters and get a barrel roll as well which could be cool).

VT, so you can barrel roll afterwards. Now why I would K-Turn with a ARC in the first place I don't know. ^_°

3 Turns and 4 Straight are red as well.

Admittedly, the stress-donkey (?) is better... this is just an alternative idea. I don't have R3-A2, and I don't want to spend the $20 to buy him and I have no interest in epic.

Flying Biggs without R4-D6? No R5-P9 for Poe? No StressBot … from a dollar value perspective that GR75 is basically free as you get tons of mechs and a few good X-Wings with that expansion. But even if you not considering those cards than Kyle on Braylen is still not optimal, because Thane + Biggs with Nora is still so much better. Stressbot is basically the only thing which makes Braylen worth considering.