I don't feel that it dose, certain ships really want to take a con fire command such as a CR-90 and an Arquites really hunger for a con fire, also flotillas with combat dice like them as well. In all its better used on small ships with few dice then on large ships with a large amount of dice already.

I don't think it needs a FAQ. NOw, of course, what the OP meant was "does it need an errata?"

NO.

For reasons that should be clear from the most astute posters in this thread. Some ships really benefit from the CF dial. Others not so much. That's a feature, not a flaw. The one observation that I can add to this that I haven't seen explicitly stated is that one of the keys of the game is being able to do exactly the kind of damage when you need to do it. When you're one damage short of finishing off an enemy ship, that's where you feel the pain of that missing die. You generally want your CF dial when it is going to boost your damage in a clear way that meets the circumstances of the game. And even if it doesn't feel like much, that piling on of damage from even a single extra CF die really does add up over the course of the game. It may be the weakest of the commands, but its still very much usable in the right circumstances. The simple fact is that there is hardly a game where I don't have at least one ship that wants to CF at least once.

6 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

Perspective is quite important here. Notice that @Caldias sees the CF command as valuable. His perspective is driven by playing a lot of MC30s.

Some ships value the CF command highly just as carrier ships value squad dial above all else. Is this a game flaw? Not really imo.

I do think it's still valuable on medium and large ships, but of course you're right that I do play MC30s a lot. Still, a CF is arguably more valuable on something like an AFMKII or an Interdictor searching for an accuracy. Even a non-Ackbar MC80 Command highly values a CF if it isn't pushing squadrons. I do agree it has diminishing returns, but just as Ginkapo pointed out, squadron commands on low squadron ships is the same exact thing.

1 hour ago, Vergilius said:

I don't think it needs a FAQ. NOw, of course, what the OP meant was "does it need an errata?"

Yeah it said FAQ so I immediately thought it was the weird con fire timing.

The only complaint I have about the CF is that it really doesn't have much use unless you have an unusually low number of dice in your normal attack pool.

Also, frankly, I think that the token+Command timing is just plain bad and for several rolls there is a strong possibility that your token is useless.

I find the C.F dial to still be a good option on large ships, particularly early and late in the game.

Early to allow fishing for accuracy and to 1 shot small ships. Meanwhile your shields are at/near full and you can keep your squadrons on defensive duty, depending on how you build your list.

Late it is useful once the enemy has escaped your primary arc/s, and your only arcs with shots have 3-4 dice. In this situation at C.F dial adds 25-33% firepower which may be enough to break through the target ship's remaining defensive efforts. Of course there is some prediction required on whether to go offensive to pick up the final kills or defensive to save your big ship from death.

It also has its uses to remove squadrons. If you need that one squadron to go so you get 3 bombers to do their thing, it is worth it.

Also double turbolaser turrets can be used on anti squadron. An escort nebulon can get to 1 blue and 2 red anti squadron dice like that. Came in useful sometimes.

12 hours ago, RogueCommander said:

Ever tried to fly a LMC80 without Madine?

Yep, regretted it real fast

Sorry to disagree, but I utterly reject this.

Yes, SQ is better for a big ship than CF, and CF better for a little ship than SQ. That's fine. Big ships and little ships should play differently. Under the right circumstances, a CF dial can double the firepower of a small ship, and that's not to be sneezed at. A Squadron command, on the other hand, might be a wasted command, particularly if there are no usable squadrons in range.

As well, your example of SQ effectiveness is an extreme case, unless I'm missing something. I can get 6 activations off of a 4-command ship with Squadron Token and Expanded hanger bays, but there aren't too many two-die squadrons. At least, not many you can take six of. Might be able to mix and match. (interestingly, you can take six Decimators, just barely, and get 18 dice) And of the ones you can get, not too many are bombers. (major exception: B-Wings. Bloody B-Wings) Depending on how you get your setup, this may be expensive, and it limits fighter mobility. (if you're using Yavaris, that's a single ship title, and not a good basis for comparison to a command that any ship can take at any time) lastly, depending on how you setup your squadron-pushing mechanism, it might be sufficiently expensive that you'd do better to get some more generally handy upgrades.

Squadrons are an incredible asset if you can get them set right, but they can also be picked off, locked down, avoided, or otherwise nullified.

And lastly, and yes, this is petty, a FAQ explains what a card is intended to do by clarafying cards or rules that are often misinterperted, or cleaning up sloppy wording. You want an Errata, or an Update, which will fundamentally alter the card or rule.

I think some of the command dials and tokens have a scale/ percentage problem when they have a set number and not a percentage of the power of the ship their used on.

This is just another example of the problem. I ship with one squadron has the same effect with a token or a dial but a ship with 4 is gutted with a token and not a Dial. (should be half on the token no less then one)

same problem with concentrate fire

effect on big to small ships is not in scale. Maybe should be something like ( + 1dice for every 3 dice in a attack roll, no less then +one dice)

3 dice attack +1 is adding 33% to the attack a 6 dice attack +1 is adding only 16% added to the attack. as less powerful effect for the bigger ship.

seems like one of the things that make smaller ships more effective then big ones.

I feel both the concentrate fire and the Squadron activation commands need some work done to them.

Personally I would like it FAQed to work for every attack that round, against ships this would reward good players who get as double arc. But mainly it would become a potent anti fighter choice, as potent in fighter defence as a fighter command dial is for fighter offence.......

Yeah, but dice in this game have synergies amongst themselves. The best rolls have accuracies AND damage. Larger pools are more likely to throw both.

The larger the pool, the more valuable every extra die thrown is since that's a die that's getting added to a roll that likely already has a decent number of accuracies or damage. Locking down an additional defense token for the significant damage in the pool or adding more damage against a ship with locked down tokens.

Not to mention that the additional die is benefiting from the upgrades that the larger ship is likely packing, like XI7s for instance.

If the 2nd edition were being designed today i suspect ships would have a Firepower rating, just like they do Squadron/Engineering that would tell you what they got out of the order.

I found that the CF command is most potent on smaller ships, as has been said before. A 25-33% increase in firepower is their best friend followed by navigate as the other commands do not work as well with them based on stats.