I do have some issues understanding the nuance of certain cards and at a glance Passive Sensors seems like a huge waste of an upgrade slot.
Mind you, I fly Rebel Alliance and the B-Wings have a sensor slot, but for anything that I'd "gain" from Passive Sensors, it looks like I'd just be better off just taking a Target Lock action . . .
What am I missing with this card?
because many have passive mods to pair with it
Examples:
If your b-wing or other torpedo carrier with a system slot is a low initiative pilot, you are moving first. You may not have something in range at the time of your “perform action” step to take that lock you want. OR, you are concerned that the one you lock knows it and will attempt to arc dodge now.
Passive sensors lets you delay the action phase until after all ships have moved, giving you something likely to be in range and in arc for that attack.
Edited by ScummyRebelPassive Sensors is (generally) for low i ships
Because they move before higher I, they have a very difficult time locking before the first engagement phase. Passive Sensors bypasses this ISSUE AND removes guess work (both of range and of which target to most effectively lock)
Combine with Rebellion's easy access to shared focus mods and you get yourself some nasty Bwings
15 minutes ago, Mark Caliber said:I do have some issues understanding the nuance of certain cards and at a glance Passive Sensors seems like a huge waste of an upgrade slot.
Mind you, I fly Rebel Alliance and the B-Wings have a sensor slot, but for anything that I'd "gain" from Passive Sensors, it looks like I'd just be better off just taking a Target Lock action . . .
What am I missing with this card?
You can't lock something that's not in range yet.
Basically.
Thanks. That makes sense now.
Addionally, Whisper likes it.
She can't Lock normally, so delaying getting the lock is better than not having one at all.
Lambdas might also like it, but the title is probably better.
11 minutes ago, Gilarius said:Addionally, Whisper likes it.
Echo likes it more!
Whisper and Echo are just markign time til Targetting COmputer comes out though.
2 hours ago, Mark Caliber said:I do have some issues understanding the nuance of certain cards and at a glance Passive Sensors seems like a huge waste of an upgrade slot.
Mind you, I fly Rebel Alliance and the B-Wings have a sensor slot, but for anything that I'd "gain" from Passive Sensors, it looks like I'd just be better off just taking a Target Lock action . . .
What am I missing with this card?
As noted, Passive Sensors can get locks before ships get into range, which is nice on lower-initiative ships. There's also potentially a benefit in not needing to declare the target until right before you attack. If your primary target dies, Passive Sensors will let you lock someone who is still alive.
There are a few cool Rebel tricks, even if Torpedo launching doesn't seem that great for Rebels.
For a B-Wing, the benefit is having someone else in the squad who can provide the Focus token. Jake Farrell, for example. The lower-initiative B-Wing can take Passive Sensors when you're not in range to take a Lock action, and Jake Farrell can hand them a focus.
Another Rebel trick: Lothal Rebel with Passive Sensors and Saw crew. You'll be able to Passive Sensors to set up a lock despite being lower initiative, and you can use Saw to convert your focus results. It'd probably be easy enough to just use Hera most of the time, and manually take locks at Init 5, but maybe there's some reason, or you're running both Hera & Lothal or such.
11 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:Whisper and Echo are just markign time til Targetting COmputer comes out though.
Pretty much. But if the costs are similar (3 for Passive Sensors, maybe 2 for Targeting Computer), there's some benefit to PS. You don't run the risk of wasting a lock if your opponent dies, and sometimes it might be handy to grab the Calculate. If there's only a 1-point difference, I can see going PS over TC.
The reason not to is so you can still use your System slot for AS, CD, or FCS.
8 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:The reason not to is so you can still use your System slot for AS, CD, or FCS.
Sure. Sometimes. But it seems like it could be a viable option, is all.
2 hours ago, ScummyRebel said:If your b-wing or other torpedo carrier with a system slot is a low initiative pilot, you are moving first. You may not have something in range at the time of your “perform action” step to take that lock you want. OR, you are concerned that the one you lock knows it and will attempt to arc dodge now.
Passive sensors lets you delay the action phase until after all ships have moved, giving you something likely to be in range and in arc for that attack.
This is actually cool for a lot of subtle reasons.
For example, your B-Wing with Torps rolls up on initial engagement and takes its PS action, effectively telegraphing his intent to blow something off the table with Torps.
Now the other player scrambles to ensure that all his ships are either put of Arc or out of the range bands of that generic, or attempts to guarantee the initiative-kill before the B-Wing fires.
I like mind games.