Obviously, we want both. But if you can't....

When faced between choosing between one or the other, which do you go for?

My latest struggle is trying to decide between (Hyperspace) Snap and 3 Black Squadron Aces or Snap, a Black, Jess and Bastian.

Thanks,

If it's a choice between I2/3 and I4, I'd say go for extra mods. It's only really worth sacrificing efficiency if you are going to be getting I5 or I6.

I'd also drop Snap in that 2nd list for Cova with Leia and then drop Black to a Red so you can get Heroic on both.

13 minutes ago, Tvboy said:

If it's a choice between I2/3 and I4, I'd say go for extra mods. It's only really worth sacrificing efficiency if you are going to be getting I5 or I6.

I'd also drop Snap in that 2nd list for Cova with Leia and then drop Black to a Red so you can get Heroic on both.

After the Composure nerf, I'm not bully on Snap in general. I'd also argue that the Black Squadrons aren't using the initiative for much. Unless you really need to initiative-kill things (and even then, they're not that great at it) it's basically irrelavent because they aren't your endgame and aren't going to be arc dodging much as the chassis just isn't quite built for it. Initiative on something like a TIE interceptor/Silencer means a lot because of the open dial and double repo, not so much on X-Wings (see Wedge and Poe for reference).

Unless it's an agile endgame piece or something you really need to shoot first with, initiative is a tertiary consideration.

3 hours ago, BlastyMcBlasterFace said:

Obviously, we want both. But if you can't....

When faced between choosing between one or the other, which do you go for?

My latest struggle is trying to decide between (Hyperspace) Snap and 3 Black Squadron Aces or Snap, a Black, Jess and Bastian.

Thanks,

I'd consider Bastian and Jess separately. Could easily go Snap, Black, Black, Bastian, for example.

I know there are strengths to Jess Pava, but she does have that awkward Range 1 bubble. She's got effective red dice, but often I kinda feel like I don't want that bubble constraint. But I suppose that even if only with a single other ship, she's probably fine.

Bastian drops to Init 2, which isn't ideal, but he does have that nice ability. I guess the worry is that he becomes an easy target. Jess at least can defensive reroll if she needs to.

But then again, I'm mostly hung up on Heroic/Optics Reds. *shrug*

Initiative is hugely contextual on the chasis. It is always good, even an I3 vs an I2 gives you a lot with all the generics running about, though obviously don't break the bank on that upgrade, but the question is if you are using initiative as information denial or actively weaponizing it.

Wedge at I6 is great, but its great mostly because he is only paying 8 points for it on an I4 with a dice modding ability. So he denies aces the ability to ace on him, but rolls are relatively weak reposition, especially if you can't slow turn, and while he can boost he gives up attack to do it. The initiative has value, but he isn't say... Fenn who pays 12 for one more initiative than a pilot who has arguably a more mathematically impactful ability on offense AND defense because the Fang is a stupidly slippery ship able to dance about at range 1 forever due to how, even if you cant link them, useful it is to have both boost and roll on your bar to increase the available choices you have with information. Compared to I4 he is almost twice the difference Wedge has, because the difference between i5 and i6 on a Fang is way more impactful on an X wing.

On a fang, more initiative is worth much more than Old Teroch's stronger pseudomodding assuming the target can't passive mod. On the X wing well... people aren't rushing to take Red Squad Vets, and Thane may be seeing play... but mostly to round out high initiative pseudo ace lists like 3X.

1 hour ago, dezzmont said:

On the X wing well... people aren't rushing to take Red Squad Vets, and Thane may be seeing play... but mostly to round out high initiative pseudo ace lists like 3X.

4x RSV is beginning to make a splash. I assume because of access to heroic and the ability to Init kill I2s in the generics-off, more than any kind of ace repo ability. The frame itself is solid.

Optics vs Hull Upgrade are the differences I'm seeing there, rather than pilots.

Bids are most important for repositioning and (less so) taking TLs.

If your list is totally anchored on those, consider a bid.