Arsenal vs Barrage?

By MicroManager, in Rules

Hi all,

I just can't see how not using Arsenal during your activation and thereby getting to use Barrage instead would be beneficial.

Obviously I must have misunderstood one of the rules, but what am I doing wrong, please help me understand 😊

In example: The AAT has arsenal 2 and is epuipped with HE Shells, it can now move and shoot both weapons on either one enemy unit or divide the attack pools shooting each on a different unit, right?

If Arsenal is not used, then it can use Barrage to make to attack actions, which still count towards your two action allowance.

What are the benefits of passing on arsenal x and instead using Barrage?

6 minutes ago, MicroManager said:

Hi all,

I just can't see how not using Arsenal during your activation and thereby getting to use Barrage instead would be beneficial.

Obviously I must have misunderstood one of the rules, but what am I doing wrong, please help me understand 😊

In example: The AAT has arsenal 2 and is epuipped with HE Shells, it can now move and shoot both weapons on either one enemy unit or divide the attack pools shooting each on a different unit, right?

If Arsenal is not used, then it can use Barrage to make to attack actions, which still count towards your two action allowance.

What are the benefits of passing on arsenal x and instead using Barrage?

it means that you can fire the primary weapon on the AAT twice and dont have to take a supplementary weapon. High Energy Shells have cycle so you can use them 3 times in a game without recovering. On the turns that you are not firing the shells you can fire twice with the main gun if you are in the right place (at the same atrget if you want).

But, I could fire the primary weapon twice with arsenal 2 and either take an aim tokem or move, right?

9 minutes ago, MicroManager said:

But, I could fire the primary weapon twice with arsenal 2 and either take an aim tokem or move, right?

Ah, so there's the issue. No, you can't use the same weapon twice with one attack action. Arsenal requires you to use a different weapon for each "instance" of Arsenal (i.e., 2 different weapons for Arsenal 2, 3 different weapons for Arsenal 3, etc).

What Arsenal does is, basically, let you use more than one weapon in a single attack action.

Barrage is a different beast - it allows you to do ANOTHER attack action if you haven't used Arsenal in your activation.

Ok thanks for all your kind help.

So fx Barrage is only really worth it on a naked AAT, but a drawback if I have a weapons upgrade, right?

5 minutes ago, MicroManager said:

Ok thanks for all your kind help.

So fx Barrage is only really worth it on a naked AAT, but a drawback if I have a weapons upgrade, right?

No. It's often the best option, since the main gun is so much better than most of the Payload upgrades. However, the Payloads can definitely be useful in certain situations (range and target dependent). The AAT is fantastic because it's totally legit to take it with no upgrades or loaded down, it will be great either way.

23 minutes ago, MicroManager said:

Ok thanks for all your kind help.

So fx Barrage is only really worth it on a naked AAT, but a drawback if I have a weapons upgrade, right?

If you can fire the main cannon twice, it's often the best option.
It's 2 attacks of 4 red with critical 2. There's a really high probability of rolling 7 or 8 hits/crits. That's better probability of raw damage than any combination of main gun plus other weapon, even taking cover into account and the possibility of aiming. The shells work if you need that range 1 or extra impact in my opinion.

Edited by Lemmiwinks86

It all depends on context. In some situations firing the main gun twice can put a ton of damage into something (as Lemmiwinks said), though sometimes you may need to move.. Such as when an Obi-Wan decided to chip your paintjob, where you can use your massive base to back up out of range 1 and shoot with the main gun and high-velocity shells and say "no u" to his dodge stack :P (Admittedly, newbie tournament, so an unlikely scenario in most games i'm sure. But funny nontheless)

And of course, Barrage is great for cycle turns where you've already used High-Velocity, or want to put 2 suppression on a unit (or 4 with technoman)

Edited by RejjeN

It depends on the situation.

If the target has Armor or Armor X, then the main cannon + AP Shells are better.

If the target is behind cover, then the main cannon + HE Shells are better (doubly so against Jedi/Sith behind cover). There's a specific torpedo against cover, but it's Range 1-2 and has lots of whites...

In any other situation, using Barrage is usually better.