Please be gentle with me on this, but I, after playing 1st edition for a year and now am playing 2nd edition, I am still not understanding the power of Advanced Sensors. I would say I am still a beginner / intermediate player, but some concepts are still evading me and I would like to understand them so that I can improve my game. In the forums I am constantly reading about how the sensor slot is so good as you can equip Advanced Sensors, but... why?

For the timing window, is the advantage / power really simply so that you can perform an action and not have to worry about being blocked? and or perform an action before you dial in a red maneuver? (I think this is the one I am struggling with the most, as you are going to have to shed that stress at some point, so not really anything gained here... in my beginner mindset)

As an Empire player who loves Darth Vader and TIE Defenders, it seems that Advanced Sensors hampers their ability, and yet I hear of lists where they also are equipping it... confused.

I would love some advice so that I can fully unlock the awesomeness that is Advanced Sensors.

Boost or barrel-roll before you move is really powerful. Makes it much harder to block you, etc.

5 minutes ago, drazen90909 said:

perform an action before you dial in a red maneuver? (I think this is the one I am struggling with the most, as you are going to have to shed that stress at some point, so not really anything gained here... in my beginner mindset)

Also, yes, this. Advanced sensors a dice mod before your red maneuver. Next turn, dial up a blue maneuver, remove the stress, take an action. Whereas normally (without Advanced Sensors) you lose your action after the red maneuver due to the stress.

The main power is in its ability to work with the Boost and Barrel Roll actions. If your regular K-turn is going to be blocked, but you have boost on the dial, then you might have three other locations that you could use instead. You can freely end your movements facing an asteroid, confident that you'll be able to reposition before you would have to fly through it on the next turn. This is especially valuable on high-initiative pilots, as they can read the board state and then choose an action that would best respond to it.

Vader can only use one action with it, so it does work against his ability somewhat. However, it's also 22 points cheaper than Supernatural Reflexes while keeping much of the same value, so it's not a huge loss there.

EDIT: Also, in some cases you can Advanced Sensors a red action, like the Daredevil talent, and then reveal a blue maneuver in order to instantly clear that stress.

11 minutes ago, drazen90909 said:

For the timing window, is the advantage / power really simply so that you can perform an action and not have to worry about being blocked? and or perform an action before you dial in a red maneuver? (I think this is the one I am struggling with the most, as you are going to have to shed that stress at some point, so not really anything gained here... in my beginner mindset)

Yes. It still lets you take an action if you dial a red - gain a focus or evade, do a barrel roll.

Even if you don't dial a red it just makes you so much more maneuverable by being able to barrel roll or boost before your maneuver

1 minute ago, Skitchx said:

Yes. It still lets you take an action if you dial a red - gain a focus or evade, do a barrel roll.

Even if you don't dial a red it just makes you so much more maneuverable by being able to barrel roll or boost before your maneuver

So yeah, forgive me. If I go 2 straight and then barrel roll vs barrel roll then go 2 straight, am I not ending up in the same place? However, I would be able to sidestep a block (at high init) or an obstacle... so there is that.

Even without considering all the benefits of the pre-maneuver shenanigans, think of it like this:

Normally over 2 turns:

Red move, lose action, blue move, take action = 1 action over 2 turns

But with Advanced Sensors:

Take action, red move, blue move, take action = 2 actions over 2 turns

That's 100% more actions

100% more actions. Now your talking my language!

Right. You don't want to be flying over rocks and losing your action all together on a white or blue maneuver. Or having to roll damage, or taking stress. It adds a lot more options for you and may allow you to do maneuvers you may not have considered if you couldn't boost or barrel roll first.

2 minutes ago, drazen90909 said:

So yeah, forgive me. If I go 2 straight and then barrel roll vs barrel roll then go 2 straight, am I not ending up in the same place? However, I would be able to sidestep a block (at high init) or an obstacle... so there is that.

You are.

But if you 2 bank roll versus roll 2 bank you're not. Especially so if you bank boost then do your move.

The big things you gain:

Perform your action before your red move or if you're going to be blocked.

Perform your repositioning action before your move so as to end up in a different position than would have been possible after.

Neither Vader nor Defenders are the best users for it by the by. Vader because it blocks his pilot ability, defenders because it blocks their free action. But Defenders specially Rexler also like it because they are very predictable and easily blocked, and it means you get your evade anyway, because you took Juke, and if you're Rexler, you need it for your ability.

The best single user of it in the entire game is 4LOM. He has a dial that is amon the reddest in the game, with some key moves being red, he can reposition with the title, and he gets a free token from completing a red move, AND he can lose the stress in order to repeat it every round, which most other ships cannot, which means advanced sensors is a bit of an 'every other round' thing, which is middling at best.

Excellent. It is sounding like it benefits higher initiative more (as they can also react to other ship moments) than lower initiative ships. But yeah, the 100% more actions is helpful (guess I never ran the full scenario in my mind) , and while I try to avoid flying near rocks, the ability to sidestep them if I do sounds pretty cool. Yeah I will stick to FCS on Vader, but the Advanced Sensors on TIE Defenders is interesting... the flexibility to ensure the token sounds promising.

Thank you all. I do appreciate it.

Ehh. Without the ability to Link off it, it's a lot less good for high init in 2e than it was in 1e, where you could douuble reposition and then clears the stress and repeat.

It's good for high init to guarantee not getting blocked, and to get more reposition options, it's good for low init because you can use moves which would otherwise cost your action, and in particular, low init ships often have coordinate, which you really don't want to miss.

It's also great for shuttle-style ships with 0-stop maneuvers. I've only flown a Lamda once in 2.0, but I ended up doing a 0-stop every other turn, and being able to take my double-focus (perceptive copilot) action on those turns was great.

Another example is the U-Wing. That 90* turn is a great maneuver, but losing a defensive die for the round and losing your action can be really annoying. Definitely worth the 8 points if you can spare them.

2 notes.

It's 10pt now ofc

A Defender that uses Adv Sen to do an action will not then gain the free evade action, the card text forbids it. This is actually a good thing, otherwise Adv Sen + Juke Defenders would be almost too good. I love an Adv Sen Defender but I also like balance and some negative cost to powerful things.

I was quite the fan of Rex and Ryad with Adv Sen and Outmanoeuvre, the latter to reward a surprise move behind an enemy, when Juke would not. The popularity of turrets at the moment mean it's not as useful as it was early on though.

I lets you move good.

1 hour ago, drazen90909 said:

So yeah, forgive me. If I go 2 straight and then barrel roll vs barrel roll then go 2 straight, am I not ending up in the same place? However, I would be able to sidestep a block (at high init) or an obstacle... so there is that.

In that example, yes... But let’s say you perform a 1-bank Boost first, THEN do a straight 2. Now you’re in a considerably different position than where you would have ended up if you had performed a straight maneuver and then boosted. But that’s small examples...

Let’s say you have Guri. And you dialed in a 3-speed Segnor Loop to the left. And you Advanced Sensors a 1-bank to the back-left (starviper bank). Your facing is now rotated 45-degrees left, and you then pull the Segnor Loop... Your final position will be more less laterally to the left, turned around and facing towards your initial position. A lot of ships can make use of Advanced Sensors, but Starvipers become damned near unpredictable with it.

A lot of the power lies in the flexibility to do either of two great things (a) give you a token wouldn't have had or (b) put you in a position you couldn't have otherwise been in; and you get to make this decision at the best possible timing.

The benefits of AS aren't just limited to high PS. For low PS it still offers dramatically increased unpredictability and bumping ability.

AS is especially great on generic b-wings, it makes their close in movement options insane.

If it has a pricing structure similar to SN, it would become overpowered on low PS swarms.

3 minutes ago, It’s One Of Ours said:

Let’s  say you have Guri. And you dialed in a 3-speed Segnor Loop to the left. And you Advanced Sensors a 1-bank to the back-left (starviper bank). Your facing is now rotated 45-degrees left, and you then pull the Segnor Loop... Your final position will be more less laterally to the left, turned around and facing towards your initial position. A lot of ships  can make use of Advanced Sensors, but Starvipers become damned near unpredictable with it.

Thank you! I was wondering why it was taking so long for someone to mention Guri. Seriously, Advanced Sensors was made for Guri.

2 hours ago, drazen90909 said:

So yeah, forgive me. If I go 2 straight and then barrel roll vs barrel roll then go 2 straight, am I not ending up in the same place? However, I would be able to sidestep a block (at high init) or an obstacle... so there is that.

Yeah...that won't change much except potentially avoiding a block.

However, once you start introducing turns into thinks it becomes interesting. Check out X-Wing Mapper .

Select the TIE Advance, dial in a 2 hard turn and then see where a barrel roll will take you at either side of the manuver.

If you barrel roll towards the outside of your turn you'll essentially end up the same place if you did a 1 forward, except your now facing 90 degrees in the direction you turned. If you barrel roll to the outside of your turn, you'll get more movement in the direction of the turn. It gives you more control over where you end up.

While pre-movement boost or barrel roll is definitely excellent, don't write off taking actions before red move, taking actions before bumping, or taking actions before cruising over an obstacle. Advanced Sensors protects you from your opponent somewhat, yes, but also from yourself.

Also the number of times you can self-block for arc and still have a mod is a lot higher than you might think.

56 minutes ago, Ebak said:

However, once you start introducing turns into thinks it becomes interesting. Check out X-Wing Mapper .

Select the TIE Advance, dial in a 2 hard turn and then see where a barrel roll will take you at either side of the manuver.

Doesn't have the option to apply Foslo's ability. Still, thanks for the link to a good reference.

11 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Doesn't have the option to apply Foslo's ability. Still, thanks for the link to a good reference.

Message the creator, you have a very good point that it is missing Foslo's ability and he is not beyond putting very specific features in. The T-70 allows you to pick pilots with abilities that impact maneuvers.

1 hour ago, Ebak said:

However   , once you start introducing   turns into thinks  it becomes interesting. Check out X-Wing Mapper .

Slightly off topic, but do the phantoms show the decloak options for you?

Advanced Sensors on defenders can be pretty nutty with their white 4k. You can easily put yourself in places that your opponent can not reach.

Sure, turns off the ship ability, but I hear not getting shot whilst having shots is pretty good

2 minutes ago, Roundy1161 said:

Slightly off topic, but do the phantoms show the decloak options for you?

Advanced Sensors on defenders can be pretty nutty with their white 4k. You can easily put yourself in places that your opponent can not reach.

Sure, turns off the ship ability, but I hear not getting shot whilst having shots is pretty good

No, which is strange because you can select Echo as a pilot...I'm pretty sure you used to be able to show cloak options.

3 hours ago, Ebak said:

Yeah...that won't change much except potentially avoiding a block.

However, once you start introducing turns into thinks it becomes interesting. Check out X-Wing Mapper .

Select the TIE Advance, dial in a 2 hard turn and then see where a barrel roll will take you at either side of the manuver.

If you barrel roll towards the outside of your turn you'll essentially end up the same place if you did a 1 forward, except your now facing 90 degrees in the direction you turned. If you barrel roll to the outside of your turn, you'll get more movement in the direction of the turn. It gives you more control over where you end up.

The only think I dislike (dislike is an overly strong word...) about the X-Wing mapper is that there isn't a convenient way to select *only* Advanced Sensors reposition actions. I guess it's the flip side of Echolocation, which wouldn't show both AS and non-AS movement actions.

It's also good for coordinating in loose formations. If your desired maneuver will take you outside of your coordinated target's range 2, you have flexibility. Same with jam.

Also, ten Numb could do a red action such as evade, but make use of the stress with his ability, effectively having 2 actions. You could also dial a red move, see your opponent not be where you expected, so you perform a red action, and since you can't do reds when stressed, you do a white 2 forward! This is one of maaaany reasons why Advanced Sensors Corran is a blast to fly. Or you could put elusive and chopper on him: use sensors to chop the elusive charge to gain a shield, perform your red maneuver to recharge elusive, and now you could use it for it's intended effect or to chop again! It's a more efficient GNK droid!

Advanced sensors lives up to the adjective part of its name: advanced. It's a superpowerful tool limited only by imagination or better uses of its points!