Ketsu is cool because he might tractor on the Snap Shot with the title, at start of combat with his ability, and again with his normal attack with the title. That's both more chances and the ability to stack to tractor larger ships. Snap Shot is a forward arc at range 2, which is decently easy to line up, and he's a higher init.

However, Asajj is pretty solid. 2 force points for attack and defense is useful on its own, and foresight is more accurate than Snap Shot if you can line up the bullseye... though I can tell you, bullseyes on fat ships can be hard. And if you're fielding Asajj, it's tempting to equip Hate instead. That said, Asajj is solid on her own, so she's not a bad choice with Foresight.

Ketsu is more tractor-focused and wants to be shorter range with his turret always forward. I can see that working out, just like Asajj, but I'd have to try both to see which I like better. I do know Ketsu has seen more table time overall where I play, while I haven't seen much Asajj for a while (the Hate nerf hit her pretty hard). And right now init 5 counts for a lot.

@Wazat Um, she... 😋

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ketsu_Onyo

5 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

@Wazat Um, she... 😋

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ketsu_Onyo

Bah! I can either remember the spelling of Star Wars names, or remember literally anything else. Choose!

Ketsu likely is still better, I5 and that powerful ability.... But Asajj is very decent still. Foresight went on my radar for her straight away, at 4pt it's definitely a consideration.

However, her force points are incredibly valuable in their own right as passive mods. Heightened Perception is also golden on her and may still prove to be a more clutch upgrade. You don't need to use it often to benefit massively. Whereas Foresight will possibly want to proc more often to be worth taking, possibly putting undue strain on the force pool. That's if you manage to proc it at all...

Worth testing though. Tractoring a ship with Foresight, so it cannot then dodge your arc, could be a decisive moment.

Well, snap fire certainly seems to be a nice option for the Empire.

• TIE/v1
  • A Baron of the Empire (32) with Snap Shot (7) actually works out the same as an Inquisitor (35) with Foresight (4), and matches initiative and dial.
  • That allows 5 ships, in whatever combination of the two pleases you best, plus 5 points to spend on whatever you see fit, all with hair trigger fire.
  • The barons fire at anything moving in range 2 'arcs', the inquisitors at anything on a straight line forwards. Two of one type and three of the other produces quite a 'crossfire' of attacks.
  • I'd probably say Two Barons and Three Inquisitors, and give the Barons Fire Control Systems to up their normal attacks a touch (so they can get focus/fire control whilst the Inquisitors can get lock/force)
• TIE/ln
  • A Black Squadron Ace (26) with Snap Shot (7) is 33 points; the maximum price for a ship fieldable in squads of 6
  • 6 double-tapping TIE fighters is a scary thought. Obviously it's not quite that good in practice, but it's still scary (the thought of a ship flying into 6 snap shots before it gets to do anything but complete a manoeuvre sounds nice!), especially since you're no longer beholden to flying in a nice predictable brick around Howlrunner and Iden Versio.
  • You have 2 points spare - enough for a small initiative bid (and control of activation order against other I3 swarms like separatist droids is actually pretty relevant, as is making sure you're first player against TIE Defenders or Naboo N-1s with the Full Throttle rule) or else to 'promote' one Black Squadron Ace to Baron Von Incompetence*; his pilot ability isn't that great without something specific to use it on, but it's definitely worth 2 points and he doesn't mess up your initiative order the way most added named pilots do.

* Valen Rudor

With Ketsu you have 41% to tractor small ship away when it tries to block you at R2. I think it could be pretty good. Also when Medium ship with 1 Agi blocks you at R2 you have 56% for Snap Shot Tractor and then you bump and tractor it with Ketsu's ability.

And you can fit naked Old Teroch and Talonbane with Snap Ketsu Maul title (200 points).

2 hours ago, Boreas Mun said:

With Ketsu you have 41% to tractor small ship away when it tries to block you at R2. I think it could be pretty good. Also when Medium ship with 1 Agi blocks you at R2 you have 56% for Snap Shot Tractor and then you bump and tractor it with Ketsu's ability.

And you can fit naked Old Teroch and Talonbane with Snap Ketsu Maul title (200 points).

Isn't attempting to block Ketsu a bit of a no-no?

She's generally built to love a bit of that already. Snap will add a considerable amount of 'Don't put your ships here', so more fool anyone that does.

I do think Snap Ketsu will be something of a terror but you are looking at 94pt for that plus Maul and title... On a ship that often dies. I'd be inclined to go Maul or Snap, rather than both.

16 hours ago, Boreas Mun said:

Isn't Snap Shot Ketsu still better?

Yes, snap Ketsu is better, and only 1 point more expensive. That 9 point snap is a hard pill to swallow. Foresight is more likely to hit with its slight mod, but less likely to get it off. I'm torn because I love both pilots. No question I will test both out and see what I like better. I'm just excited to want to play the shadowcaster again in 2E. This is a first for me since I can't throw Push the Limit on it anymore.

4 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

Isn't attempting to block Ketsu a bit of a no-no?

Depends if the blocking ship has the hp and luck to survive the impending asteroid collision/possible focus fire and if you will have enough guns pointed at Ketsu to capitalize on the block. If you have less than 5 ships ( maybe can with 4) on the table or a low possibility of having the shots modded, imho don't bother blocking her.

I'm not sure how this will play out on the table, but it feels like one value of Snap Shot and Foresight will be toying with the first player bid logic. This is at least a moderate incentive for ace players to choose to go first. Fielding snap shot could mean your opponent decides they want first player for the ability to roll/boost out of those snap shots with Fine-Tuned Controls or Afterburners, or they want their Full Throttle evade before the snap shot hits. Those effects are pretty common in the meta right now, and I can imagine them taking that timing into consideration.

Even if you only have one or two snap shot users, but they have something nasty like Shadow Caster, Seevor, Torani, etc... that could be enough for the opponent to take first player, giving your own aces a lot more room to breathe.

And if they give you first player, assuming they can eat the snap shots and be fine? Try to make them regret that bravado.

Snap Shot and Foresight also works against low inits who are setting up to block fast maneuvers.

9 hours ago, Cuz05 said:

Isn't attempting to block Ketsu a bit of a no-no?

She's generally built to love a bit of that already. Snap will add a considerable amount of 'Don't put your ships here', so more fool anyone that does.

I do think Snap Ketsu will be something of a terror but you are looking at 94pt for that plus Maul and title... On a ship that often dies. I'd be inclined to go Maul or Snap, rather than both.

Yes, so maybe Zuckuss crew? With Snap Shot you have more chance to have an action, because you can tractor enemy ship before you move. Zuckuss change the probability of succesful hit agains 2 Agi target from 42% to 58% and from 29% to 47% for 3 Agi target.

About blocking Ketsu my point was that enemy blocks her because she pilots large ship and often bump even when enemy doesn't want to.

1 hour ago, Boreas Mun said:

About blocking Ketsu my point was that enemy blocks her because she pilots large ship and often bump even when enemy doesn't want to.

Fair point, this is very true.

I am quite the fan of Zuckuss

would a decloak also trigger snap shot?

29 minutes ago, pakirby said:

would a decloak also trigger snap shot?

“Decloaking does not count as executing a maneuver or performing an action but does count as a move.”

2 minutes ago, pakirby said:

“Decloaking does not count as executing a maneuver or performing an action but does count as a move.”

Are you answering your own question?

11 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

Are you answering your own question?

That appears to be the case -- they asked, then dug deeper, and then posted the answer so someone else wouldn't have to reply.

In other news:

Last night I played against Wedge and 3 SnapShot-Juke A-Wings. It was a brutal death by a thousand papercuts. The range 2 band is really hard to avoid, and my maneuvers weren't doing a good job of dodging all those shots. They could k-turn or sloop to set up snap shots -- what do they care if they don't have dice mods? On non-stressed turns they evaded both to survive shots, and make their Snap Shots and regular shots extract consistent blood. They set up blocks with one a-wing so the other two would snapshot the bumped ship, then attack again during engagement against the still-tokenless victim. And all through this Wedge was being Wedge -- brutally effective. I got some lucky hits off and killed Wedge a bit faster than expected, but still had a terrible time with all the free damage he and the A-Wings had scored. I don't remember for certain, but I believe I lost that match and walked away kinda mentally exhausted.

So uhh... that confirms in my mind that Snap Shot is going to be around and in force, far from DOA (always a good sign for a card). Might even feature prominently in the meta; we'll have to see. I'm very curious to find out what this does to ace players and others strong in the meta, but that'll take some time to shake out. Jedi and Naboos in particular are going to have to be smart about the initiative bid -- who gets first player determines a LOT about what that Snap Shot player can do, and particularly if they have an ace of their own, it's a bit of a rough ride either way.

Sorry if it was asked already, but can you equip Snap shot in a ship that has no regular forward arc? Like a YT1300? or a Nantex?

There seems to be no restrictions....

Just now, LUZ_TAK said:

Sorry if it was asked already, but can you equip Snap shot in a ship that has no regular forward arc? Like a YT1300? or a Nantex?

There seems to be no restrictions....

Yup! And there's an advantage to doing so in addition to being able to snap shot after foes move. If you have your turret arc behind or to the side, Snap Shot can be used as your Engagement attack on an enemy in front of you. This means you can cover your forward arc, but only at range 2 and you can't modify your dice. Really useful for a Nantex or RZ-2 A-Wing, for example.

Txs. I get the feeling Awings will begin to sport this a lot indeed...

8 minutes ago, Wazat said:

Yup! And there's an advantage to doing so in addition to being able to snap shot after foes move. If you have your turret arc behind or to the side, Snap Shot can be used as your Engagement attack on an enemy in front of you. This means you can cover your forward arc, but only at range 2 and you can't modify your dice. Really useful for a Nantex or RZ-2 A-Wing, for example.

Or you could have Juke. You can't modify your dice, but you can modify theirs...

1 minute ago, MasterShake2 said:

Or you could have Juke. You can't modify your dice, but you can modify theirs...

Yup, and I've seen Juke + Snap Shot first-hand recently. 14 points (46 or 49 points for RZ1 or 2), but it gives the A-Wings a lot of bite.

I just added Lieutenant Bastian to the combos list, as his ability turns out to be a nice pairing with Snap Shot (whether he or an ally equips it). Realized it while theory-crafting a resistance a-wing list.

I'm not sure whether other ships have an ability like this... let me know if you think of any.

Having played against 4 Snap RZ-2s tonight, 7pt seems like great value there. I can see it getting similar levels of extra damage through to free evade powered multi Juke. The shots are unmodded, but when greens are too, reds win. And R2 is EVERYWHERE.

Unconvinced about pairing it with Juke on lower Init. A Wings can explode quite easily and end up under the cosh very quickly. Lose one before it shoots and you're in for a hard game.

But it is REALLY effective if you keep them on the board long enough. People are going to need to wrap their heads round the counter play. Range jump the magic band and let them scoot is much easier said than done.

But RZ-2s do like to shoot out the butt, Snap being a secondary front arc will also encourage that. 4 of them shooting normally is not really enough against most squads, so it's an interesting and seemingly fair game.

Just got to avoid ALL THE SNAP.

Which is hard.

Is Kestal on the list? She can mod defence dice. Only once ofc, and only after focussing, so it's hardly worth it, but still.

13 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

Is Kestal on the list? She can mod defence dice. Only once ofc, and only after focussing, so it's hardly worth it, but still.

" Opponent's Dice cannot be modified

This may not seem valuable since most foes don't have tokens yet, but it's useful against ships with Full Throttle and Force, etc. Those are in the meta right now, but it's still a bit niche.

• Midnight : If you have them locked
• Dineé Ellberger : only if your speeds match
• Lieutenant Kestal : You need to spend a focus token, but doing so eliminates the dice they'd want to mod"