This weeks AMM we look at a bad card and talk about what could make it good as the game continues to develop.

https://nichurz.wixsite.com/mysite/blog/how-it-could-become-good-sensor-teams

I don't necessarily think that ECM is over powered for a few reasons.

1.) It is expensive points wise

2) you can only use it once per round.

3.) there are other ways of getting around it such as Intel officer and boarding team Vader.

In my opinion ECM just forces players to be creative to get around. I personally don't think it needs to be nerfed or redone.

I enjoyed the article. Although I don't typically run acc shenanigans

With ECM, Although in and of itself it may not be overpowered. But it’s light years ahead of almost every other defensive retrofit, even for its points.

That in itself is an Issue worth doing something about

All defensive retrofits are "meta" upgrades as well. At the moment, large dice pools with the potential for accuracy generation are definitely in the meta. If you have any kind of big asset with a brace, it pays to be able to protect that asset with ECM. And even if some builds have neither large dice pools nor much accuracy generation, the fact that some good builds will exist in the meta that do mean that you are incentivized to take ECM.

The central questions strategically are: 1. What ships am I interested in using for which this would be a good upgrade? and 2. How does this upgrade help me outfit some or all of those ships? 3. Are there other upgrades that help me answer questions posed by the meta more cost efficiently and more consistently? 4. What ships will I be encountering in my meta? 5. How does this ship and this upgrade help me build a list that will be competitive in that meta? It isn't merely about doing maximum damage. It is about doing the right kind of damage at the right time, and about having the tools in your list to deal with lots of different situations.

Best candidate I can find is the MC30 Scout. Ackbar can make your Sensor Team valuable on your red dice shots. The large pool means you have a much higher chance of spending a blank to change a blank red to an accuracy. External Racks can increase your die pool. Red dice are also a bit more second player friendly. While we are all used to OE, they help specifically to trigger ordinance. I've just seen more ER builds lately. Some of that is fear of the hit/crit being Brunsoned away. Some of it the fact that you might only get 1 round of black range, so why not save points? In that case, OE helps you by .25 per die. That's probably 1.75 on most games, spiking as high as 3. So the damage question is whether the presence of an ACC can be worth more than 3? Against the right target, the answer is yes. You're basically talking 10 more points than a Torpedo, while gaining some relevancy for more turns through your red dice. Burst damage can be surprisingly even between the two variants.

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Hold my beer

I've certainly looked at Sensor team builds on Raiders to go Flotilla hunting or such. I find the main issue is the cost-benefit, and the access to other accuracy generation that can be more effective, or simple access to re-rolls for your blue dice (Vet Gunners on a Raider II is actually pretty solid). The dice-spend is a very hefty price when Home One exists (For Rebels) and Captain Jonus (For Imperials). Granted I've never actually ended up taking Sensor Teams so I suppose it may be worth looking into.

Sensor teams are (currently) bad, and you should feel (currently) bad.