@Ravncat was a guest on the Mynock's show awhile back and spoke about virtual actions, it was honestly one of the best podcasts I've ever heard. While there are plenty of aspects of squadbuilding and playing, his theory was that if you have more actions than the other guy you dramatically increase your chances. He gave some examples of incredibly efficient lists such as Dengaroo and Paratani, and I think he cited as much as 13 virtual actions a turn with those lists.

If I remember correctly, a virtual action is basically when you activate something in the game other than a maneuver that affects that round. For example, when you SPEND a focus token that is a virtual action. When you turn a red die to a hit/crit with Guidance Chips, that is a virtual action. Every time you stop one damage with Reinforce, it is a virtual action (that could be two or three times in a round). However, putting a focus token on the board without spending it is NOT a virtual action. Also, REMOVING an action from your opponent will count as a virtual action for you (stress, jam, etc) or if you block your opponent you get a virtual action.

That's how I remember it, correct me if I'm wrong. I know it's impossible to perfectly quantify every thing in a list and the value of different actions, but this is a tool to help establish an idea of action efficiency, especially passive effects. So, I thought we'd open up a thread posting lists that stack up some virtual actions.

I'll start with what I flew over the weekend: Joustero .

So, starting out, 3 ships should equal 3 actions.

If I drop a bomblet, that's 4.

If I fire Harpoons, then I get 3 more actions from Guidance Chips and 3 more actions because I get to keep my target locks (or Focus), that's 10.

If Jostero gets a bonus attack that's at least 11 actions.

If someone tries to TL Jostero and the Camo sheds the TL, that is 12.

If Dalan took a focus and then at the beginning of combat has a bullseye for a TL, that is 13 actions.

EDIT: Also, if I activate the Harpoon condition on all three shots that is 3 more actions.

So, this SPIKES at 16ish actions, which is really good.

However, once the Harpoons are gone, we're getting:

3 actions for 3 ships.

1 bomblet.

Maybe a Jostero bonus shot or camo TL shed.

So, about 4-6 virtual actions a turn which is pretty pedestrian. That is why the list is great at first, but fizzles over the course of the game. This tells me that if you fly the list you had better get the approach right every time or you will have a difficult time beating lists that average 8-9 virtual actions a turn.

This is a less volatile and more stable over time list that I just came up with and really want to try.

PTL Ryad gets a reliable 3 actions a turn (Evade, Focus, TL).

If Vessery shoots at what Ryad has target locked, he gets a reliable 3 actions a turn as well (Evade, Focus, TL) putting us at 6 actions. Using Crackshot once adds another action, putting us at 7.

The Reaper is where things get more interesting. I'm putting Krennic and his condition on the Reaper, which means he has FCS. The Reaper gets his standard action, FCS, and the condition ability to just delete a shield. That is 3 more actions. If I can block someone with my PS 1 Reaper than that's another action.

So, this list SPIKES at 11 virtual actions , but stays pretty reliably stable at 8 actions a turn. This tells me that if I can avoid a nasty alpha strike I might be able to win the game based upon my mid-game performance.

Rick, Rick, Rick...

Don't share this process with the Mrs. or she'll mop you up!

33 minutes ago, Force Majeure said:

Rick, Rick, Rick...

Don't share this process with the Mrs. or she'll mop you up!

We're a team! I build the list and she beats everyone else and claims the spoils of victory.

Actually, poor Mrs. Rick, she's been struggling lately flying anything except 4BQD. She flies that and destroys me, anything else and I beat her.

She won a Wookie Gunship recently, so now we have two, and I'm trying to build something that uses two Wookies. Let's look at the action economy on it.

4 ships equals 4 actions.

The X-Wing bring nothing to the table for extra actions, except for when they are about to die they can pop IA to negate a nasty crit. So, we stay at 4.

The Jyn/Jan combo is great for giving a ship a Focus and/or Evade token - especially if that happens to be a T-Rolling X-Wing! With the big arc you can reliably get 2 more actions from Jyn/Jan. So, that puts us at 6 actions.

Rey crew adds another action, 7 actions. With this Wookie being PS1, there's a good chance it will get shot at before it shoots, so with Magva giving it a TL that's 8 actions. If that wookie sheds a TL with Camo that is 9 actions. If either one of the Wookies gets shot TWICE with a Reinforce Token - that would be an additional action by blocking one damage.

So, this list is okay. It gives a reliable 6-7 actions. In an extreme case it would spike at maybe 10 actions. The fire-duty cycle is okay. It seems like once someone gets behind you it's all over.

Any tips for another list with 2 Wookies?

I was running Fel + Quiz + Vermeil (Krennic) -

Each round....

Quiz - TL, Evade, Focus (3)

Bonus - Auto thrusters (1)

Soontir - Boost, Focus, Evade (3)

Bonus - Soontir Optimize for shield (1)

Bonus - Soontir camo to drop shield (1)

Bonus - Soontir autothrusters (1)

Vermeil - Jam + Slicer (potentially) (2)

Bonus - Target lock from Soontir (1)

Bonus - LWF extra dice (1)

Bonus - dice mod to change blank/focus to hit (1)

----------

15 "actions" possible each round that every ship is alive.

Can you really count LWF and the extra shields as additional actions though? The Autothrusters definitely are.

Definitely a good list though.

It's the shield removal that's the bonus action. Burn a blank or focus dice and just auto-remove a shield. That's about as action efficient as you can get. It stops working when your opponents are out of shields though. Fel was absolutely beastly to a timewalk Asajj. He just kept plinking shields off. Quiz and Vermeil cleaned up after that.

As for LWF, each time you are being attacked with 3+ dice, you get a 3/8 chance of getting an evade. That's worth something.

In a store champ Fel rolled an evade 3/5 times he was targeted with camo. 2 of those were on FCS acquisitions from QuickDraw. Fel said "NO".

Just now, viedit said:

It's the shield removal that's the bonus action. Burn a blank or focus dice and just auto-remove a shield. That's about as action efficient as you can get. It stops working when your opponents are out of shields though. Fel was absolutely beastly to a timewalk Asajj. He just kept plinking shields off. Quiz and Vermeil cleaned up after that.

As for LWF, each time you are being attacked with 3+ dice, you get a 3/8 chance of getting an evade. That's worth something.

Ah yes, now I follow you! Yes, that shield removal ability is great. My second list from the top has that on the PS 1 Reaper. If you have the TL, you can spend the TL and if you still have a blank die apply the ability before the other guy rolls die. Absolutely fantastic.

Another concept that is different but related, useful to figure out the amount of actions before a game, is what Theorist calls " Turn Mapping "

I think he does not get enough recognition for the great stuff he writes.

Okay, I think I made a decent, er, better double wookie list than the one above.

So, 3 ships is 3 actions.

Add in Expertise on 2 ships, and that puts us at 5.

Double tactician puts us at 7.

C3P0 and Magva gives us a potential 9.

When Tarn gets targeted he can TL that ship (even if he is stressed), giving us 10. Then Tarn can use his droid to make the opponent re-roll, that is 11. If either one of the wookies gets shot twice (while reinforce is up) that would put us at 12.

Not bad!

Tactician is a weird one to figure out - giving stress doesn't necessarily equal an action or a negative action - for example, stress during the combat phase can be eliminated by a green maneuver, and really not remove any actions - or that ship might need to do a white maneuver - and it loses some actions, or it could prevent a red maneuver which could prevent a shot and possibly remove actions based on multiple shots. double stressing a ship will cause at least 1 lost action (most of the time, inspiring recruit may say no) and doublestress could well shut down expertise - effectively netting you 2 or more actions, while stressing 2 ships could result in no action advantage.)

I generally count the situational action advantage as +X in list building when calculating action economy.

It's easier to keep a running count of your action advantage as the game goes (just like counting cards for 21, this is super important, because its the only way you can really count if your focus actions are helping you, Action advantage isn't just the actions you take, it's the actions you take that affect the game state, taking a focus action, and not spending the token, doesn't affect the action advantage count), It can be useful to see what your theoretical action economy per turn could be - to do that assume all of your triggers go off every turn, and it will give you a good idea what your list is capable of, but some abilities/triggers like stress really just should be Max trigger +X.

In reality, you're not getting all your triggers unless you are flying really well, and the dice are giving you perfect ship destruction. (IE the double tap from tie D kills the only ship in arc - you're losing potential if the first shot kills a ship. ) The idea though is to target your opponents action economy, to help preserve or gain further action advantage.

I think this is an accurate concept for the way lists are perceived as more or less powerful. Lists like Ghost/Fenn are really off the charts in terms of consistency, and alphas are amazing in spikes. But there's one upgrade in the game that triggers more than all others - Lone Wolf.

A Dash/Corran list can easily get 5 virtual actions a turn from LW alone, then:
3 Actions per turn, 4 with Rey.
Shield regen.
FCS lock for corran.

Glitterstim for Dash can trigger just as often as LW - occasianally more often.
Corran's double tap and fcs lock are an additional two.

You get a total of 10 each turn, with the opportunity for a once per game spike up to 17. It really goes to show just how strong Dash is for a 52 point ship provided the doughnut hole can be kept clean.

I think the highest virtual actions / point cost you can get is a stressed A-wing Test Pilot equipped with lone wolf, wired and autothrusters defending against 4 TLT HWKs and a Z-95 at R3. That's something like 27 virtual actions in a single turn.

18 hours ago, Astech said:

4 with Rey 

For the action advantage concept - you're just comparing the actual used actions + virtual actions in a turn compared to your opponents action + virtual action use count.

Lets say you and your opponent are flying tie fighters, no upgrades. and you each perform a focus action. Your opponent spends his token to convert a focus result on his attack, you don't actually get any focus results on your defense, or on your counter attack. The turn ends, and the focus token on your tie fighter vanishes. Your opponent is up one action and now has a +1 action advantage (alternatively you are -1 and down action advantage... however you want to view it)

Rey crew increases the odds that your focus actions will actually be used, but it doesn't necessarily add an action. You took that focus action in a previous round, but it didn't count then - it will count when you spend it to convert a result.

If you have 4 focus tokens on Rey at the end of the game , they didn't actually affect your action advantage. Advanced Optics functions similarly. That's not to say that those cards don't add advantage, since they can convert that would have been wasted action into a used action! They are especially powerful because they let you bank actions from early turns that would have been otherwise wasted.