Trade meaning "trading shots" with an opponent.

• What makes a trade good?
• How patient are you willing to be to setup a good trade?
• How aggressive do you need to be to force a good trade?
• How many hit points would you trade for good board position?

Have I removed the biggest obstacle towards late game victory?

Have I lost a critical piece of my squad?

Do I have to change my strategy based on points killed?

I hit, he misses?

Hargle has it. Points matter more towards the end of a game, whereas early trades should be more strategic than points-oriented.

For example, say I'm flying Imperial aces (soontir, vader and duchess) against a beefy rebel squad (wedge, vtg norra, leia u-wing, and vtg dutch). Turn 0, I identify wedge as a critical threat against my list. At the same time, I recognise that Vader's crits, high point value and high damage output make him my most important piece for dealing with these high-hull rebel ships. With my aces, I should be able to fly well enough and arc-dodge to avoid a trade, but if I wind up in a pickle I'm prepared to trade soontir or duchess for wedge. I'm confident that with wedge gone, Vader and the remaining ace can put in enough damage on the rebels to win the game.

Now, imagine it's late game and things aren't going great. There are only 1-2 more turns and the rebels are ahead on points. At this point, I am more concerned with getting points on the board than gaining a strategic advantage, because there's not enough time to make use of a strategic advantage. Thus, I might ignore a fleeing wedge to kill 1hp norra, even though she's run out of bombs.

Do I win?

5 hours ago, Boom Owl said:

• What makes a trade good? Opponent is closer to losing points/Gains worse turning options. Either.
• How patient are you willing to be to setup a good trade? Not very.
• How aggressive do you need to be to force a good trade? A little.
• How many hit points would you trade for good board position? An eighth of my total? Totally squad dependent.

What makes a trade good?

In the early game: removing a crucial piece for roughly the same point cost. I'm fine trading 80pts for 60pt Wedge, or 60pt for 45pt LeiaU.

Mid/Late game: more points for fewer points

E: for the other questions

Very patient

Depends on your meaning of aggressive. Forcing it? Sure. Overly risky? No.

1s or 2s1h

7 hours ago, gadwag said:

Hargle has it. Points matter more towards the end of a game   , whereas early trades should be more strategic than points-oriented.

I actually disagree with this. Mostly because of half points.

Losing a ship is sort of obvious and tactile, so if you're on 2 HP, and you are in a position of trading shots, you know that it might kill you. Being destroyed is worse than being halved, since you give up points and board threat.

But trading shots when you're 2HP above half points can be game-losing, too. It tends to not feel that way, since the ship's still alive and probably still has shields, and shields make you feel pretty safe. But half points win games, so those first 4hp or whatever are actually super crucially important.

Basically, I'm looking to remove threats that are strong against my most important ships or threats that require all of my list to manage.

In the first engagements you want to trade your non-critical pieces for you opponent's critical ones. After that, it's a scramble for points.

But before that, you can make some important positional trades. Can you rush the first shots, and trade away a perfect setup to start shooting before your opponent's flanker has time to get there? Can you threaten a more valuable ship do disengage? Can you make him take a bait, and run with your ace while your other ships get in position?

These trades are all about options. Try to keep your options open, while limit your opponent's (or make them irrelevant).

The quick thoughts that enter my head

• did I do damage?
• is the damage I did vital or important, or on a filler ship that doesn't matter?
• did my opponent do damage?
• did they do more important damage than I did?
• how is this going to impact further combat?

I don't spend time on these questions most turns, but if something dramatic happens I'll take a moment to consider each pretty hard.

11 hours ago, svelok said:

But trading shots when you're 2HP above half points can be game-losing, too.

Precisely. In the closing turns, trading well (or avoiding a trade) for points is much more valuable than trading for board advantage. Better to get half points on several enemy ships in the final turn than to kill one (unless it's going to kill you)

The first thing I think about is which of their ship is best in the end. Then I try to kill it without giving up more points than that ship and/or giving up my best ship in the endgame. I consider a good trade to be any trade that accomplishes those two things.

A good trade is one that makes my win condition easier to achieve than my opponents. If I trade half points on a 51 point t70 to get half points on a 78 point Poe, I'll take that trade any day. If I can ram a 1 health LuLo with a crack shot, stressed and a focus token into range 1 of another i5 ship that is worth more than LuLo (they almost all are) I'll give up Lulo to take out that other ship.

Conversely, I'm also more than happy to eat a couple shots from the i5 A wings if that means I can delete one or two i1-i4 A's off the board in one turn. Lists that suffer snowball effects (like A's and damage output) as you remove ships from their list I'm okay whittling away at what is shoved at me.

The absolute worst situation though is where you enter a trade agreement and statistics go sideways against you. Like putting 4 juke phantoms into range 1-2 of a Kimogila and instead of it being deleted, it takes one damage and nukes one of your ships in exchange. Some trades can go south.