Expose ... again

By Hawkstrike, in X-Wing

So, we know that beyond the points, EPT slot loss, and loss of an agility Expose isn't very good because adding a naked red die is the equivalent of taking a Focus, and the Focus is free. But what about with a Target lock?

Use the new TIE with Corran Horn ...

Corran Horn (49)
E-Wing (35), R2-D2 (4), Fire-Control System (2), Expose (4), Engine Upgrade (4)
Ahsoka Tano (28)
Sabine's TIE Fighter (17), Push the Limit (3), Sabine's Masterpiece (1), Captured TIE (1), Thermal Detonators (3), Sabine Wren (2)
Ahsoka takes a Focus, and can PTL for other actions (more in a moment). Corran moves and takes Expose; Ahsoka spends the Focus to give Corran another action, so he takes Evade. With FCS active, he can fire up to 10 dice at range 1 in a turn, without loss of agility, and with FCS to reroll all dice. Alternately, if you're willing to give up regen, put R2-F2 on in place of R2-D2 and Ahsoka allows him to add back the agility die he lost.
This build also allows Ahsoka to drop a thermal detonator, inflict two damage and a stress, and the next turn potentially do a third damage without having fired a shot, still protected by Captured TIE. Or drop Sabine and the bomb for rec Spec if you want to retain your focus for combat.
Season the rest of the ist to taste... Biggs, Prockets Jake, or maybe an ARC.

Rebel synergy might be coming back!

Just don't let anyone bump you!

no

this has been your regularly scheduled response to a thread about Expose

For the same price of those two ships, I could have a pair of Lothal Rebels with FCS and other upgrades. They can also throw a total of 10 dice at a target in one round at range 1, but without needing to play shenanigans with actions or losing their effectiveness if they get separated.

What about Vader?

Expose is never the right choice.

Ever.

Expose is never the right choice.

Ever.

And I have the restraining orders to prove it!

Expose only works (and then only slightly) if you're on a ship with no agility with experimental interface. And even then it's kinda weak!

Edit: died laughing at your post, EastCoast! I agree that there's so many jokes to be had at the name of this card!

Edited by Kieransi

Expose has four costs associated with it. Points cost, EPT cost, action cost, and agility cost. Even if you completely remove one of those costs, it's still a bad card. The only time you should ever equip Expose, is if you are in a contest to build the worst list ever. It is really that bad.

This is from Wave 10's FAQ, where they errata Expose:

expose.jpg

Edited by Azrapse

no

this has been your regularly scheduled response to a thread about Expose

We have a guy in my local meta that would probably disagree...

Double Drawer's droppin' VT-49 Deci's can be very scary to deal with.

So, we know that beyond the points, EPT slot loss, and loss of an agility Expose isn't very good because adding a naked red die is the equivalent of taking a Focus, and the Focus is free. But what about with a Target lock?

Use the new TIE with Corran Horn ...

Corran Horn (49)
E-Wing (35), R2-D2 (4), Fire-Control System (2), Expose (4), Engine Upgrade (4)
Ahsoka Tano (28)
Sabine's TIE Fighter (17), Push the Limit (3), Sabine's Masterpiece (1), Captured TIE (1), Thermal Detonators (3), Sabine Wren (2)
Ahsoka takes a Focus, and can PTL for other actions (more in a moment). Corran moves and takes Expose; Ahsoka spends the Focus to give Corran another action, so he takes Evade. With FCS active, he can fire up to 10 dice at range 1 in a turn, without loss of agility, and with FCS to reroll all dice. Alternately, if you're willing to give up regen, put R2-F2 on in place of R2-D2 and Ahsoka allows him to add back the agility die he lost.
This build also allows Ahsoka to drop a thermal detonator, inflict two damage and a stress, and the next turn potentially do a third damage without having fired a shot, still protected by Captured TIE. Or drop Sabine and the bomb for rec Spec if you want to retain your focus for combat.
Season the rest of the ist to taste... Biggs, Prockets Jake, or maybe an ARC.

Main problem with this idea - the moment you take PTL rather than VI - is that any PS7/PS8 target is no longer fooled by the 'Captured TIE'.

Using up the ept slot, an action, losing a green die for the complete round and paying 4 points might be the highest price in the game to gain a single red die more.

I've played ppl in the early days of X-Wing that brought that even in tournament lists. Ships with expose died in the turn they used it while this one red die gave them nothing.

To be fair, in theory any ship that is able to equip FCS might be a candidate for Expose, unless the ept is needed for different upgrades, like Whisper needs VI.

The best candidates probably remain chiraneau - because:

  1. Why would -1 agility matter
  2. With gunner you can be rolling that extra die twice
  3. he has a 'built-in' focus effect

or Thane Kyrell (with R2-D6) because:

  • He can trigger Expose part-way through the combat phase, so doesn't suffer the lost agility
  • His 'free action' comes when someone shoots someone else, so by definition that person isn't shooting him.
  • Because he's getting it from a free action, he can get potentially a focus and a target lock as well (especially since Rebels have plenty of ways of passing round tokens and free actions)
  • He can shelter behind Biggs to reliably get to trigger his ability

What about Vader?

Baron Rudor might be a better choice, since he gets that free action after defending. As long as he survives that ace shooting at him he can shoot back a bit harder with the lower agility 'safely' if no one else is targetting him that turn.

But yeah 4 points for Expose is just...not cool.

For expose to work, you pretty much have to be able to get rerolls and focus together independently of your EPT slot. Because if you don't, it's not better than rerolls and focus for 0 points, let alone 4, with the exception of sheer dice *volume* which can make it less bad.

And that's ignoring the agi penalty which you also have to mitigate somehow.

Expose is just bad.

The best candidates probably remain chiraneau - because:

  1. Why would -1 agility matter
  2. With gunner you can be rolling that extra die twice
  3. he has a 'built-in' focus effect

or Thane Kyrell (with R2-D6) because:

  • He can trigger Expose part-way through the combat phase, so doesn't suffer the lost agility
  • His 'free action' comes when someone shoots someone else, so by definition that person isn't shooting him.
  • Because he's getting it from a free action, he can get potentially a focus and a target lock as well (especially since Rebels have plenty of ways of passing round tokens and free actions)
  • He can shelter behind Biggs to reliably get to trigger his ability

Prince Xizor + Expose + FCS + Experimental Interface because:

  • With his buddies around he could divert some damage
  • Gury + Bodyguard mitigates the loss of a green die

Baron Rudor might be a better choice, since he gets that free action after defending. As long as he survives that ace shooting at him he can shoot back a bit harder with the lower agility 'safely' if no one else is targetting him that turn.

Indeed. Plus the extra die is kind of important, because no matter how many dice modifiers you have, a 2-dice attack caps out at 2 hits, which simply isn't enough.

On the other hand, triggering Rudor's ability requires you to deliberately let yourself be shot at, which isn't an ideal situation for a not terribly tough ship. Getting an extra attack die by "being the Inquisitor" is generally easier. For that matter, you're talking about a level of cost where a homing missile is a viable alternative.

In certain situations (mostly epic games), youngster with Expose is not bad. Quickdraw with Rage, Electronic Baffle, Pattern analyser, and Experimental Interface can in theory pull a red maneuver, expose, experimental interface/rage, and then john woo two opponents with extra attack dice before they can move. Of course, that costs you a shield, a point of agility and a metric arse-tonne of stress, but the first time you do it it's worth it for the look on your opponent's face.

If you can line it up right. she can position herself such that the same large ship is at range 1 in both her primary and auxiliary arc. That's four, four dice attacks, rerolling up to three dice each time, two in the combat phase and two at PS9 - enough for a single "TIE fighter" to theoretically gun down a VCX-100 or VT-49 before it ever gets to shoot!

Edited by Magnus Grendel

Combining expose with bodyguard to have the chance to remove the autothruster from the starviper. Now that is something.

Sarcasm aside; it might actually make people really shoot at the prince.

I did fool around with expose on a few Biggs lists. Not awful, but not worth 4 points for me. It has the alure of increasing your maximum possible dam age which things like crackshot shot, predator, etc... do not, but the reality alas is that you will roll some blanks and focus results and dice mods are usually going to give you more bang for the buck without the drawbacks expose offers.

All of the 4pt epts would be fine at 2pts. Expose would even be fine if it was just something that happened at some point in the round, the minus agility is costly enough.

Corran is a glass cannon. If you reduce his agility, hes going to die before his 2nd attack almost every time. More often than not i either see him die as it is before he fires twice or only does it once because he barely survived.

I would say go for it! Expose yourself!

Expose will only work in HotAC. I've tried. It's just not worth it. Even in the best uses, it's still 4 pts.

I've thought about running Expose with Tycho before, and I think that might be the best place for it (but with BMST, Tycho is currently DOA in all varieties). Tycho w/ AWTP, Expose, Rage, EI, CR = 32 points at PS8.

Comparing this to Poe w/ R2 + IA, the price is the same, the PS is the same, the T70 gets 3 extra health and a better dial, but the A wing gets more offensive and defensive modifiers. T70 has a Troll a K turn, but the A wing has the 1 turn. The A wing is immune to stress causing factors, but Poe has his defensive ability. The A wing is much more susceptible to action denial.

TL;DR, even in the best case for Expose, it's not worth it.

I've used it with Gemmer and almost 1-shot an Interceptor, but it had Hull Upgrade. :angry:

Still not worth the 4 pts.