Let's say you are tossing together a fun Scarif themed Imperial list. TIE Reaper with Director Krennic + crew of choice (maybe that yet unspoiled crew), and a handful of TIE Strikers.

Would you optimize Countdown, to add the shield and lengthen his time on the board by possibly another round, or Pure Sabacc to increase use the shield to require another point of damage to remove his bonus attack die? Which do you think is the best use of the shield boost + shield stripping?

Pure Sabacc, as Countdown still falls prey to his own stress.

Put a regular hull on Sabacc, and then Optimized on Countown, there you get most value for his "cancel a die" to deal damage (remove shield) IMHO.

Wait for the striker/punisher imperial bombers fix?

A boy can dream.

4 hours ago, RedHotDice said:

Put a regular hull on Sabacc, and then Optimized on Countown, there you get most value for his "cancel a die" to deal damage (remove shield) IMHO.

Wait, why the Hull on Sabacc? He loses his extra die when he's damaged, the remaining HP aren't a factor...

Anyway, point is, I'd change these two upgrades around- Countdown is great with more staying power, so he can survive his own stress longer, and Sabacc needs to stay pristine, hence the shield. The fourth die also increases the chances for Optimized Prototype to proc more often offensively.

4 hours ago, kris40k said:

Let's say you are tossing together a fun Scarif themed Imperial list. TIE Reaper with Director Krennic + crew of choice (maybe that yet unspoiled crew), and a handful of TIE Strikers.

Would you optimize Countdown, to add the shield and lengthen his time on the board by possibly another round, or Pure Sabacc to increase use the shield to require another point of damage to remove his bonus attack die? Which do you think is the best use of the shield boost + shield stripping?

Why are people arguing about hull upgrades and shield upgrades when the question is about Krennic's Optimised Protoype condition?

For me, it depends on the rest of the list, and it depends on the opponent. Assuming Optimised doesn't do anything else, anyway. Usually I'd say it does best on Sabacc, though, if you have both. Because he values the shield more, because he has a higher likelihood of winding up with a blank die to spend, and because he shoots first so he's more likely to be able to spend a blank to kill a shield.

i agree with the "Optimized" Sabaac and the hull upgrade on Countdown. I've run the HU on Countdown before and it gives you that extra round of annoying your opponent with his ability. You can also Use the stress to your advantage for slowing the ship down by cancelling out the aileron title. Love me some strikers!

Optimized Sabaac is still going to be a huge target. It's nice to have an extra shield, but the condition makes them an even bigger priority. Perhaps some lists can't really adapt to that, but at least to me, I probably wouldn't make PSabaac the Optimized ship.

Honestly, I'd be more inclined to use either Countdown or Duchess. Duchess is PS 10 with VI and LWF at 26 points, and Prototype would go a long way to helping her offense, and arc dodgers can always use an extra hit point. Countdown is someone who's probably a lower priority a lot of the time, since they can be ****'d frustrating to kill. Part of me wonders about going for TIE Mk. II on Countdown. Having the longer banks be green would go a long way while stressed and unable to use Aelerons.

If the points work out this way, I'd have Krennec's reaper escorted by Countdown with Prototype, Pure Sabaac, and Duchess, both with VI/LWF. Your opponent needs to either: ignore the fast arc dodger in Duchess, ignore an Optimized Prototype Countdown, who's just plain reliable before actions, or ignore the 4-dice Pure Sabaac. So there's no good target. If the list was Optimized unique, and a pair... Black Squadron Scouts with Crack Shot, then the issue as I see it is that the unique is the obvious target and just gets burned down.

Put optimized on countdown - Putting it on sabaac just makes him a bigger target. Putting it on countdown makes them both threatening and forces your opponent to chose to kill one and ignore the other, rather than just having sabaac be super dangerous and the obvious target.

Is Krennic fully spoiled or is there still unseen areas with potential text on the card?

EDIT: I know you can see Krennic himself, I meant is there a spoiled Optimized card yet

13 minutes ago, piznit said:

Is Krennic fully spoiled or is there still unseen areas with potential text on the card?

EDIT: I know you can see Krennic himself, I meant is there a spoiled Optimized card yet

We don't have the full card spoiled yet, there is the possibility that there is more on it. Just working with what we know so far.

I'm kinda liking @theBitterFig 's reasoning so far. If anyone is wondering what you would be facing, since this is just a thought experiment on a themed list, lets say your opponent will be flying some mix of T-65 X-Wings and/or U-Wings to keep with the Battle of Scarif theme. Saw's Renegade stuff is allowed.

Could probably let Y-Wings in, but they didn't make it to the surface. Technically the Ghost was there as well, but if we let that one in, then I'm just going to say that Vader was there too, and take an Optimized Vader and that just blows the whole thing out. So, let's keep it simple: a TIE Reaper + TIE Strikers vs. a U-Wing + X-Wings.

13 hours ago, RedHotDice said:

Put a regular hull on Sabacc, and then Optimized on Countown, there you get most value for his "cancel a die" to deal damage (remove shield) IMHO.

This.

Also Countdown is the greatest wingman for a Vader or QuickDraw with swarm leader out there. Doesn't need his evade and will stick around for many shots to grant the extra attack die.

Problem with optimised Countdown is you are possibly losing the auto-shield-damage benefit by not shooting first

Unless of course your list caps at ps 5

Vi duchess makes the most sense to me, unless you're keeping your list to ps 5 or lower

Why in the world would you consider putting a hull upgrade on Sabacc? It doesn't help him any more than it would help a generic striker. Either spend the extra point and give him a shield upgrade, which might actually keep his ability alive a bit longer, or save a point and stick with LWF, which is a better option anyway.

I can see the argument for balancing out your team to not give your opponent an obvious target. I can also see the argument for beefing up one and protecting it/using it as bait. You can switch it around depending on the list you're playing, or figure out which strategy best suits your playstyle. Maybe against high burst damage you want a 6HP Countdown annoying the heck out of your opponents, while against a more defensive and grindy list you want to optimize Sabacc to keep his ability alive and help chew through the tankiness. There's a ton of different ways it could play out.

Definitely want to run optimized on Sabaac. The best of all worlds is to have a shield upgrade and LWF, and the only way to do that is optimized. Because his ability is damage card based, with 1 or fewer, hull upgrade is pointless. Shield upgrade, but the extra green dice of LWF will likely pay off far better than shield upgrade. Hence optimized.