Yes or No?

I think I will give it a try at the very least.

The card text should probably read: "Discard to allow a disused Imperial ship to engage in ship to ship combat one turn sooner, requires a slot you probably were not going to use anyways"?

Certainly is a buff. It is also an NK-7 fix- this upgrade wants to get in early in the game, but blue range means it is often turn 3.

And I can just imagine Screed backed NK-7 Ion cannon raider (x2) dropping 2 defence tokens at long range, then 2 more at medium-close the next turn.

Previously my dancing CR-90s enjoy making their approach of the Victory at long range, front on, before extreme Madine clicking the early joints to get massive sideways drift. Leaving the slow Victory in the dust. But on longer is that safe if I'm to cop ~4-5 damage.

I'm a bit sad that there is no Rebel ship that can utilise this well.

For the VSDII, it's a straight fix. With Gunnery Teams it becomes a dangerous artillery piece. For the Raider II I think you need to combine it with an Ion Cannon upgrade to make those blue dice do a little more. Shmitty's success with Ion Batteries on the Interdictor could be a good starting point for the Raider II with DCaps.

INTERDICTOR FACE PUNCHES FOR EVERYONE WAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

*Ahem*

I would declare my cautious optimism in captaining a gunnery-teams, h9, warlord VSDII with the upgrade, as well as the RaiderII with SW7s. I represent one of the many profound admirers of blue dice and exercising them at long range is decidedly enticing.

*muffled cackling*

Probably better for interdictors too.

The problem with Vsds is that they cost 85 a pop. That's a huge deal. It's 12 points more plus 3. So 15 points. You had better really want that Vsd

7 minutes ago, Truthiness said:

For the VSDII, it's a straight fix. With Gunnery Teams it becomes a dangerous artillery piece. For the Raider II I think you need to combine it with an Ion Cannon upgrade to make those blue dice do a little more. Shmitty's success with Ion Batteries on the Interdictor could be a good starting point for the Raider II with DCaps.

I thought about several different Raider2 builds and I feel that the most used one would just have DCaps and SW7 with RS to taste. Its cheap enough, its universal enough and 3 damage at long range is pretty good for a small ship.

14 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

Probably better for interdictors too.

The problem with Vsds is that they cost 85 a pop. That's a huge deal. It's 12 points more plus 3. So 15 points. You had better really want that Vsd

What about in CC?

Even at 400 a fleet can fit 3 of them at 85+3+7 = 95 points, for a total of 285 points, thereby having 115 points left over. 24 for Sloane/Motti, so 94 points left for TIEs/other ships. Knock off GT and you save another 21 points. Either way, at least 2 seems tempting for 190 points. . . maybe add an ISD-II with Relentless and SW-7+GT for 120+3+7 = 130 points, and you have 130+24+190 = 344 points. 56 points buys you a decent fighter cover (especially with Sloane!). . . come to think of it, I gotta try that fleet out. . .

Add the extra 100 points for CC and a fleet of 3 VSD-IIs, an ISD-II, Motti/Sloane and 7 TIES is pretty good. You even have 5 points to dispose of as you will. . .

VSD II + Dominator + SW7 + Concentrate Fire command = minimum 6 damage, max 12, at long range. That could cause considerable consternation for an enemy fleet.

3 minutes ago, Teloch said:

VSD II + Dominator + SW7 + Concentrate Fire command = minimum 6 damage, max 12, at long range. That could cause considerable consternation for an enemy fleet.

Dominator is close-medium only. Luckily FFG futureproofed it from being good.

1 minute ago, Bike Stunts said:

Dominator is close-medium only. Luckily FFG futureproofed it from being good.

I stand corrected. Dam. Still, that just drops the min and max to 4-10. A hazard to be sure.

11 minutes ago, Teloch said:

I stand corrected. Dam. Still, that just drops the min and max to 4-10. A hazard to be sure.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it since I'm a big fan of the Victory. Still expensive but against certain fleets an alphastrike like that could be a nice little suckerpunch. I see this artillery Victory possibly being a good friend for Demo.

the only Rebel ship I can think of that can make use of it is the Pelta Command Ship, give you a one off 4 dice (5 with command) long shot.

But now I'm imagining a Quaser I with Disposable Capacitors, RLB, Flight Commander and Flight Controllers. Speed 3, take a long shot, move in drop 4 TIE Defenders. Follow up with an ISD II + Avenger.

1 hour ago, Bike Stunts said:

I see this artillery Victory possibly being a good friend for Demo.

Sunrise, sunset. We have come full circle.