Good Morning Peeps, (or afternoon to you within the not USA)

Quick question, for some reason I want to love Calculation and I really like the idea of it, how do I make it work. I was thinking about Vader with ATC and I feel like it would be fun to add an extra crit, but that might not be the best usage with so many other really solid EPTs floating around. Tycho would be a fun time with Score to Settle, Calc, and Ex Interface. So what is a good usage for Calculation that people are finding success with or is a dead card because the focus is better spent on something else?

It's okay on cheap ships to give them a boost but keep them cheap. The problem is, Crack Shot is a better choice in nearly all situations. It can be helpful in giving crits to ships that need them to trigger something else. For example, I've used it to fair effect on Bossk, but that's about it really. Now that Kylo Ren is a thing, we may see it on a pair of Strikers to escort the Decimator, but that's unnecessary if Chiraneau can land a crit anyway. An ace or control ship is probably a better investment.

Calculation is probably never the best choice for an EPT. It's not terrible on Ten Numb but Ten Numb is pretty much terrible so...

7 minutes ago, gamblertuba said:

Calculation is probably never the best choice for an EPT. It's not terrible on Ten Numb but Ten Numb is pretty much terrible so...

At least its not expose :-p

With the release of A Score to Settle, Calculation has lot what value it had (particularly for Ten Numb). I think if it was released now, it would need to be 0 points or just let your focus token change a focus to a crit in addition to changing the other focus icons to hits.

17 minutes ago, Cubanboy said:

At least its not expose :-p

I dunno, an Expose swarm with Youngster and Hux could be decent?

cheap way to proc the abilities of Bossk and Ten Numb

It's a nice combo on Garven Dreis if he flies next to Esege Tuketu.

Paired with Recon Specialist, I've got good use of it on a fat HLC Outrider. Not optimized tournament championship material, but solid and good performance

Edit: IMO, it's a classic early EPT, good, but eclipsed by later cards. If you've got it, use it. Good planning and maneuvers still wins most non YWing games... Everything doesn't need to be the most/best/cheapest for a list to get wins (even at a competitive tourney).

Small named Fighters need a mod that adds an EPT (hello Horton), then it's easy and a fantastic card to fly with:

I use it on mareek steele sometimes.

Bossk, in a few builds....

The only pilots that come to mind are Bossk, Ten Numb, and Imperial Kath Scarlett. They all benefit from the Crit that Calculation generates. Ten and Kath are fun for casual games; Bossk has a little more traction competitively but he isn't often seen with Calculation.

On any other ship Calculation is lacking because if you roll two eye results why wouldn't you spend the Focus normally? It makes the upgrade more situational and there are plenty of other EPTs that are more consistent or just stronger.

It's great for keeping Bodyguard and Cool Hand separated in the EPT section of you cardholder.

Do you have something that takes extra advantage of a kaboom results? Then MAYBE you'd want to use Calculation but otherwise it's most likely not worth the filling your EPT slot with it even at the low cost of 1.

It had been compared to big brother Marksmanship except that you're performing a standard Focus Action instead of the upgrade specific action. Calculation may only apply to one attack instead of all attacks and it only turns one Eye into a kaboom but it's 1/3 the cost and still lets you keep the standard Focus uses if you need it for defense or you've got multiple eye results on your attack that you'd like to turn.

AStS may be even cheaper and easier to use but it does lack a certain versatility.

Unless you're to the card dealing stage dealing kabooms generally isn't any better than dealling booms.

Maarek or Ten Numb is all i'd ever consider putting Calculation on. And even then i'd rather something else.

Maarek does better with Juke, as Calc only mods 1 focus its possible you have a weaker attack which is easier to dodge (But theres a crit! oh wait doesnt matter).
Ten Numb kinda wants VI to prevent people from slipping by him. Besides he gets his crit from Mangler cannons.

18 minutes ago, RayCidivist said:

It's great for keeping Bodyguard and Cool Hand separated in the EPT section of you cardholder.

You beat me to it ?

But seriously, in casual games it's great for Bossk and Ten. Competitively though, it doesn't have a place. It's a one point EPT that might proc, that is, you have to roll a focus and you have to take the focus action, given you didn't bump, etc. Alternatively, Ten would rather have VI and Bossk would rather have crackshot.

19 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Ten Numb kinda wants VI to prevent people from slipping by him. Besides he gets his crit from Mangler cannons.

Talk about throwing good money after bad...

M3-A Interceptor: Tansarii Point Veteran (17)

Calculation (1)

"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (2)

"Mangler" Cannon (4)

-- TOTAL ------- 24p. --

That's a fun ship to fly and fairly cheap.

vader, cuz you're half as likely to get 2 focuses then 1

though i prefer "A score to settle" now

It makes an excellent bookmark while reading Shadows of the Empire.

6 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

Talk about throwing good money after bad...

Actually, I used Ten to a pretty good result during the 2016 SC season. That was back in the W8 meta that was full of Palp Aces, primarily Soontir and Inquisitor. So Ten w/ VI and Mangler at 36 points was a huge threat to both of those ships that rely upon AT and Palp and F+E token stacks to prevent any damage from getting through. Often times I'd find that my opponent would keep Fel out of the fight on the hope that his other 65 points could kill Ten before my 100 points killed his 65... It normally didn't happen, and I'd have a 3 hull Ten and 3 Greenies left to hunt down Fel, which was always fun and easy to do.

It was nice for a minute back when Wave 6 dropped. You could run 5 Green Squads with Calculation and Autothrusters. It gave a little boost to offense and you were usually only converting one eyeball per attack with A-Wings most of the time anyways. It was a decent and cheap choice for a second EPT on A-Wings as well.

Calculation seemed to be the first of the useful 1 point EPTs. For most ships it had essentially the same functionality as Marksmanship without commiting you to an offense only action. FFG kept putting out other good cheap EPTs and Calculation was left in the dust.