So I kinda wanna try and make a build related to the devestator and I am curious as to if there is a quick and easier way to dispose of defense tokens. I know i could run motti on it as my flag ship and burn it as fast as I can but I am looking for a quicker way to do so

vader is probably your best bet if you want to burn your own tokens. in reality you can "use" any token when you're attacked regardless of it having an impact so there's that too(still only 1 of each type though so you can't double redirect).

On 3/26/2018 at 3:39 PM, Athlon2736 said:

So I kinda wanna try and make a build related to the devestator and I am curious as to if there is a quick and easier way to dispose of defense tokens. I know i could run motti on it as my flag ship and burn it as fast as I can but I am looking for a quicker way to do so

You can use Vader as your commander and with an Intel Officer you can target your own token while attacking and then spend it with Vader to make it disappear forever.

I can't say I super recommend it, but it fits the bill.

Per the FAQ, you can use Intel Officer on your own tokens with Vader for quick spends.

Edit: Ninja'd

If you dig through these forums there's someone that talks about devastator and makes a lot of reasonable arguments about how to use it effectively. Imo that would be a good place to start.

There are two ways to rapidly discard tokens with Devastator. You can either take a risk and discard by getting shot at (this method requires pinpoint flying to avoid getting blasted, and as you said Motti is very helpful to this ability, I recommend using an ISD2 with ECM to ensure you cam spend your tokens on demand) or you can use Darth Vader to spend your tokens. Intel Officer can target your own tokens to auto discard for Vader. This method works best on the Cymoon.

Just normal play has been all I really need to spend tokens... You can go the Vader/io route, but then you can't use Vader boarding team and you WANT VADER BOARDING TEAM!

Also, remember you can spend the contain even if it's just going on the shields

Vader IO is the only way you can discard your own tokens - it's pretty devastating (pun intended) early game but the problem then becomes can you keep your ISD alive with no (or only one) defense token.

More common is using another commander, usually Motti, to keep you alive and using Devastator to draw fire allowing you to dump your tokens. Of course if your opponent decides not to shoot at Devastator that is also good and you can use that to your advantage.

In my experience, Devastator either attracts a lot of fire and goes down or is left untouched.

[NB it has been mooted that using the Station Assault objective with Vader/IO allows you to shoot your own stations to dump tokens - however the rules are unclear as to whether this is possible and until FFG give us a ruling it will be up to individual TDs to make a ruling. At the Wales Regional it was ruled as 'gamey' and disallowed]

Captain Needa and TRC on your ISD is also the only way you can discard your defence tokens. You will need to be shot first.

Can you spend an evade at close range even though it doesn't do anything?

9 minutes ago, Mad Cat said:

Captain Needa and TRC on your ISD is also the only way you can discard your defence tokens. You will need to be shot first.

Can you spend an evade at close range even though it doesn't do anything?

RRG p. 4: "Defense tokens can be spent by the defender during the “Spend Defense Tokens” step of an attack to produce the effects described below:

Evade: At long range, the defender cancels one attack die of its choice. At medium range, it chooses one attack die to be rerolled. At close range or distance 1, this token has no effect."

I would say: yes. You exhaust it to produce no effect. You could also exhaust a Brace token against a single hit attack and half it to 1.

If you use vader, keep one token around for rerolls. +3 blue and rerolls is better than +4 and no rerolls

1 hour ago, Mad Cat said:

Captain Needa and TRC on your ISD is also the only way you can discard your defence tokens. You will need to be shot first.

Can you spend an evade at close range even though it doesn't do anything?

If you do this you can spend all 4 defense tokens for one attack regardless of whether any any damage is dealt and at any range.

From the FAQ:
Q: Can a ship spend a defense token even if it would have no
effect?
A: Yes. For example, a ship can spend a B token and choose an
adjacent hull zone with no shields remaining.

The problem with running Devastator without Vader and IO to dump your own tokens is that a canny opponent will only attack Devastator once per round. Which is fine to a degree.