The R5 Astromech costs 5 points. That's exactly the same as a Hull Upgrade for the X-Wing.

The R2 Astromech costs 6 points. That's as much as the Shield Upgrade for the X-Wing.

So, at first sight, it seems like the Astromech are very valuable if you use them twice per Match. Otherwise you could very well use the Hull or Shield Upgrade instead and save an ingame action (R5) or don't get a weapon disabled token (R2).

But maybe it's not that simple. What do you think?

Are the R5 and R2 Astromech valuable? Do you actually use them?

Been using R2 on survivable aces like Luke that can disengage or even Corran. Meanwhile the biggest R5 users for me have been Norra with her damage reduction ability or with a Saw carrier or with Jess for 2 charges and then have a useability after those charges are gone.

I see!

23 hours ago, KiraYamatoSF said:

Been using R2 on survivable aces like Luke that can disengage or even Corran. Meanwhile the biggest R5 users for me have been Norra with her damage reduction ability or with a Saw carrier or with Jess for 2 charges and then have a useability after those charges are gone.

This. It's two hull/shield upgrades for the price of one (on an agility 2 X-wing, anyway), but to get them you need to:

• Survive the attack on at least 1 health
• Have a subsequent turn where you're prepared to give up your shot or action (R2 and R5 respectively) meaning that you won't be achieving much that turn

Therefore the more survivable and free-action-heavy (afterburners, the force, other free dice modifiers) a ship, the more chance it has to live long enough to spend those charges and to use them without messing up its engagement phase too much.

The fact that the cost of an astromech doesn't vary with agility (like shield or hull upgrades do) may improve their value on higher agility ships (like the E-wing).

Corran's ability goes nicely with the disarm from R2 as well, Jan 28th could be a big day for the dude.

I was playing with someone locally yesterday who was running 4x Red Vet T-65s with R2 and Marksmanship (Crack Shot probably would be better). The R2 kinda made sense, there were often times when the X-Wings were disengaging and turning around. If one avoids being killed, it can break off, and force your opponent to either split up or let it regain health.

Now, whether this would be better than 4x Red T-70s, I don't know. Those have 1 shield instead of 2 they have to work for, an action bar & SFoils combination which is probably better, and 2 points each to spend on droids (R4 seems meh), talents (Predator might work well with closed S-Foils; Heroic isn't availble to Rebels), or 8 points asymmetric weapons (two Tractor Beams might be handy).

But I was somewhat impressed by first impressions on a ship which doesn't really seem optimized for taking full advantage of R2 Astromech.

I don't know that I'd like R5 in the same way. The regen can't start as early in the game, and giving up actions might be harder than giving up shots, since Shots often won't be needed.

//

I did run a list once with 2x Rogue Squadron Escorts with R2 Astromechs and Crack Shot, as well as Miranda with Proton Bomb and Hotshot Gunner. I liked it, but it was an odd game that probably wasn't too representative.

If I have the points to spend, I’ll take either one of them. Even after the charges are spent R5 lets you flip ship crits. And the fact they cost as much as a hull/shield upgrade on a 2-agility ship is nice, while freeing up the mod slot for afterburners, or something else. I’ve had several instances where ships just seemingly refuse to die because an astromech burned it’s charges on repairs or shield recharges.

And if you have 8 points to spare on a Y-Wing or Kimogila, Hull Upgrade + R5 makes them ludicrously tanky.

Everyone has different opinions. Personally I like R5 on Luke because he doesn’t necessarily need actions

I had an R5 on Jess. Had. Poor thing didn't last very long.

I mean the droid. Jess survived just fine.

I just take the equivalent mods if I'm going to spend the points. I don't fly Luke. I've found that normal 6 health x-wings typically don't live long enough to reliably get off both damage recoveries before dying, and even when they do recover the 2nd damage it often doesn't matter, and when I do get the 2nd recover to work, it means I've crippled my ship for 2 turns (1.0 Blinded Pilot or Damaged Sensor Array) and probably hurt my chances of winning more than helped it.

Strangely I feel like the droids have more merit on ARCs and Y-Wings despite the mods being 1 point cheaper, since they tend to live just long enough for them to matter and they have more ways of mitigating the downsides, like bombs on the Y-Wings and Saw or Magva on the ARCs.

But I actually prefer using Chopper on the ARC over the other 2 recovery droids, since he can recover shields and doesn't take away your attack and he's the same cost as R5-D8 if you combine it with crack shot and ablative plating.

15 hours ago, Tvboy said:

But I actually prefer using Chopper on the ARC over the other 2 recovery droids, since he can recover shields and doesn't take away your attack and he's the same cost as R5-D8 if you combine it with crack shot and ablative plating.

"Chopper" and Ablative Plating is a nice combination - takes active advantage of the medium base. Norra is nice and tough even without actions if she can get in close with her automatic added evade result, too, and you still have a crew slot for....I dunno, Kanan?...if you absolutely must have offensive dice modifiers at the same time.

As noted by @It’s One Of Ours , I can see a kitted out Killergorilla taking quite a bit of killing. Agility 1 means you can take a hull upgrade as well for cheap - meaning you have more "space" in the ship's lifespan whilst it is damaged, which is where R5 can be used.

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

"Chopper" and Ablative Plating is a nice combination - takes active advantage of the medium base. Norra is nice and tough even without actions if she can get in close with her automatic added evade result, too, and you still have a crew slot for....I dunno, Kanan?...if you absolutely must have offensive dice modifiers at the same time.

As noted by @It’s One Of Ours , I can see a kitted out Killergorilla taking quite a bit of killing. Agility 1 means you can take a hull upgrade as well for cheap - meaning you have more "space" in the ship's lifespan whilst it is damaged, which is where R5 can be used.

This is the build I’ve been using.

(55) Norra Wexley
(2) "Chopper"
(8) Saw Gerrera
(1) Crack Shot
(4) Ablative Plating
(9) Proton Torpedoes
Points 79

(36) Airen Cracken
(3) Swarm Tactics
(6) Concussion Missiles
Points 45

(25) Tala Squadron Pilot
(3) Swarm Tactics
(6) Concussion Missiles
Points 34

(38) Sabine Wren
(4) Juke
Points 42

Total points: 200

2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

As noted by @It’s One Of Ours , I can see a kitted out Killergorilla taking quite a bit of killing. Agility 1 means you can take a hull upgrade as well for cheap - meaning you have more "space" in the ship's lifespan whilst it is damaged, which is where R5 can be used.

There’s a player at my LGS who regularly runs a Kimogila with hull (or shield) upgrade, and often times 2 of them. And that’s where I first got the idea. Even when it’s just a low intiative Executioner, they’re still at minimum 47pts of ten hull+shield before all other upgrades. The amount of punishment they can tank is disturbing.

3 hours ago, It’s One Of Ours said:

There’s a player at my LGS who regularly runs a Kimogila with hull (or shield) upgrade, and often times 2 of them. And that’s where I first got the idea. Even when it’s just a low intiative Executioner, they’re still at minimum 47pts of ten hull+shield before all other upgrades. The amount of punishment they can tank is disturbing.

I can imagine. And the Executioner has enough points and slots left for predator, which paired with Dead To rights means you wouldn't even need actions for attacking much.