I've been looking at the Swivel-Mount Batteries as it seems an interesting card and I like the concept of it. However I don't think the overall execution of the card was very good. What are others' thoughts or experiences with it? Is it working for your?

To explain the problems, there are 3 ways to use it:

1. Simple buff to a particular firing arc, but otherwise you still fly the same way, still want to double arc, etc. If you double arc (or use an adjacent arc to shoot another ship) you are basically robbing one arc to improve another. A bit of a sideways upgrade for 8pts and a modification slot. Are you better off with Spinals/Enhanced Armament for 1-2 pts more, that add a dice, but don't hurt your adjacent arc. Now you might argue that you can refresh this card to change your buffed arc as required, but again if you are double arcing, that is only a marginal improvement. If you only intend on shooting out of the buffed arc then perhaps slaved turrets are better as don't need to spend a token to refresh and save 2 points.

2. Buff to your strongest firing arc and use twice with gunnery teams. But generally gunnery team ships only have 1 good arc, and are you better off with Spinals/Enhanced Armament to boost that arc?

3. Use to get a blue/black dice to trigger critical effects at longer range. But is this reliable? Furthermore this goes against the theme of the actual card which is about pointing your turbolasers in a different direction, not firing off long range ordnance.

17 minutes ago, Divad said:

3. Use to get a blue/black dice to trigger critical effects at longer range. But is this reliable? Furthermore this goes against the theme of the actual card which is about pointing your turbolasers in a different direction, not firing off long range ordnance.

Epic. Count me in

I’d be ok with this if it didn’t need a confire token to un-exhaust and it only affected shooting at ships, so you still had full flak out an adjacent hull (thinking Hardcell battle refit). Otherwise LTT’s for me.

If they lowered the points cost It’d be a decent card for ships with few shields on the sides like Hardcells, or hard to manuever ships with large arcs. The way it is now though I don’t think that it’s worth taking unless you list would be 2 points over the limit when using Spinal or Enhanced Armament.

You pretty much summed it up. #3 is the only real reason to take Swivel Mounts over any other modification, but that's basically their intended purpose, and also why they're CW exclusive (can't be used with Sato/Screed). Kraken, OrdEx, or just ConFire commands help ensure that you land your crits. I don't think it really breaks thematically, since there are plenty of Turbolaser cards that care about other dice colors.

Right now the only real uses for it are long-range APTs/ACMs with an Acclamator, or a long-range/broadside HIE Munificent under Kraken, though the latter is a bit more expensive than that ship likes to be run (though CIS currently has a much easier time generating tokens to refocus). This is a Clone Wars-exclusive upgrade and we're still very early into Clone Wars, so future ships/upgrades could find more advantages to running it.

I bet they'll be good on the Venator.

At first read I thought you can add both subtracted dice, and it seemed decent and thematic. Now that I know it's only one die I don't think it is too useful atm.

2 hours ago, Divad said:

I've been looking at the Swivel-Mount Batteries as it seems an interesting card and I like the concept of it. However I don't think the overall execution of the card was very good. What are others' thoughts or experiences with it? Is it working for your?

To explain the problems, there are 3 ways to use it:

1. Simple buff to a particular firing arc, but otherwise you still fly the same way, still want to double arc, etc. If you double arc (or use an adjacent arc to shoot another ship) you are basically robbing one arc to improve another. A bit of a sideways upgrade for 8pts and a modification slot. Are you better off with Spinals/Enhanced Armament for 1-2 pts more, that add a dice, but don't hurt your adjacent arc. Now you might argue that you can refresh this card to change your buffed arc as required, but again if you are double arcing, that is only a marginal improvement. If you only intend on shooting out of the buffed arc then perhaps slaved turrets are better as don't need to spend a token to refresh and save 2 points.

2. Buff to your strongest firing arc and use twice with gunnery teams. But generally gunnery team ships only have 1 good arc, and are you better off with Spinals/Enhanced Armament to boost that arc?

3. Use to get a blue/black dice to trigger critical effects at longer range. But is this reliable? Furthermore this goes against the theme of the actual card which is about pointing your turbolasers in a different direction, not firing off long range ordnance.

It’s #2 and 3. The reason Swivels works for #2 over something like Spinals is when an opponent gets out of your best arc you can use swivels to buff a different arc and use GT out that one.

Take an Acclamator II with GT and swivels. You buff your front to be a 7 die attack and reduce your sides to 2. Since the clam is awkward to maneuver (or if you blow past and are running), you are likely to have a moment when the desirable targets are out your side or rear arc. In that moment, you swap swivels to you side and buff your side to 4 dice and use GT out that side.

Spinals, EA only help 2 arcs. QBT limits speed options Swivels gives a buff to any arc but has with a liability.

#3 seems like the strongest use though.

For weird uses, try Captain Zek, Clone Gunners and Swivels on a clam II. On approach, confire for 9 out the front. Once they pass your front, you adjust swivels and throw 7 out the side with a confire. This requires some token generation help though. I don’t think it’s a great build, but throws some surprising haymakers.

#1 is the main reason. One has to plan for it and CF but it is a solid card on at least Acclamator. Adding a black die long range is a good bump by itself irrespective of any crit-generating effects.

My current use case/fleet uses Acc2 with Intel/OE/Swivels and Munition resupply support ship (So swivels can be unlocked on a short notice). Ability to fire 3 red/2black long range is a solid opening shot (and 2 red/2 black side arc is a good backup plan) - and definitely beats spinals/slaved as far as dice reliability goes.

I have to agree - I currently don't see much use of it outside of Acclamator but that will presumably change next wave.

Wait what? Can somebody explain 3) to me? How does this allow you to roll dice beyond their normal range?

3 minutes ago, mazz0 said:

Wait what? Can somebody explain 3) to me? How does this allow you to roll dice beyond their normal range?

It's an add effect and you can add any color die from your neighboring hull zone. It's dumb, but that's how it works: your turbolasers push missiles out to long range. Such helpful lasers.

Right now SMBs are mostly good on Acclamators going for black dice at long range while con firing and rerolling with OE to increase your chances of getting a black critical off against non-evade ships. They're awful on Separatists, who are double-arcing: the faction.

11 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

It's dumb, but that's how it works: your turbolasers push missiles out to long range. Such helpful lasers.

Turbolaser-guided missiles?

11 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

to increase your chances of getting a black critical off against non-evade ships.

From my experience it's good even if one doesn't rely on criticals/doesn't have any crit-triggered effects.

SMBs feel like a test run for a core mechanic of a second edition. 'Focus token' feels like a core concept they want to carry over in general actually.

4 minutes ago, ForceSensitive said:

SMBs feel like a test run for a core mechanic of a second edition. 'Focus token' feels like a core concept they want to carry over in general actually.

May or may not be true - Chaff token is only used by EWS.

4 hours ago, Herr Style said:

I’d be ok with this if it didn’t need a confire token to un-exhaust and it only affected shooting at ships, so you still had full flak out an adjacent hull (thinking Hardcell battle refit). Otherwise LTT’s for me.

Seconded. I just don't understand why a ship battery benefit has to naturally de-power your anti-ship AND your anti-squadron armament.

I think acclamators are ok with them as per the original points. If you can gey acm/apt to go off. But acclamators also serm to struggle for dice control and for con fire commands. Still not sure if LTT isnt better overall.

Seem to be much less good on the other cw era ships so far.

4 minutes ago, Ophion said:

I think acclamators are ok with them as per the original points. If you can gey acm/apt to go off. But acclamators also serm to struggle for dice control and for con fire commands. Still not sure if LTT isnt better overall.

Seem to be much less good on the other cw era ships so far.

LTT is super flexible. OC it's even better on muni, but still great on clams.

I would rather nav better and use spinal or enhanced.

The card is expensive and has a refresh requirement. 1 or 2 points more. No restrictions and no refresh requirement.

11 minutes ago, Rune Taq said:

I would rather nav better and use spinal or enhanced.

The card is expensive and has a refresh requirement. 1 or 2 points more. No restrictions and no refresh requirement.

And less damage output. Presuming CF: 1.5 vs 2 (or 2.5 with OE)

I love the gimmick! It's a cool mechanic.

... it's not efficient at all with the current Clone Wars ships.

5 hours ago, Rune Taq said:

The card is expensive and has a refresh requirement. 1 or 2 points more. No restrictions and no refresh requirement.

Yea, but the refresh requirement isn't that big of a deal? You keep the Focus token until you refresh the Swivel-Mount Cards, so it can benefit all six rounds of the game even if you never ready it. And for ships that plan on using it, I think that's the point. Still, would Spinal not just be better to preserve the opportunity to also dual-arc, for 1pt more? Probably.

I am waiting for the Republic Arquitens for it.

Intensify Forward Firepower

So I won't claim it's good, but... it might be okay?

Name: Exhaust Ports Beware
Faction: Republic
Commander: Bail Organa

Assault: Opening Salvo
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Solar Corona

Acclamator I (66)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)
• Swivel-Mount Batteries (8)
= 82 Points

Acclamator I (66)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)
• Swivel-Mount Batteries (8)
= 82 Points

Acclamator I (66)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)
• Swivel-Mount Batteries (8)
= 82 Points

Acclamator I (66)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)
• Swivel-Mount Batteries (8)
= 82 Points

Consular Armed Cruiser (37)
• Bail Organa (28)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
• Radiant VII (1)
• Munitions Resupply (3)
= 71 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 399

21 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

Epic. Count me in

It really isn't though. You invest 4 pts (APT) plus 4 pts (OE) plus 8pts (this upgrade) = 16pts. Meanwhile your odds of rolling a Black Critical off 2 black die with rerolls [ie 1 Black die from this upgrade, and 1 from C.F] is 42% [1-((7/8)^4)]. Very unreliable. To make it worse, it has very poor odds of working against targets with Evade.

19 hours ago, redleader002 said:

It’d be a decent card for ships with few shields on the sides like Hardcells

Until you realize the Hardcell would then have no dice from the sides, and thus could only output 1 attack, and you are effectively running a worse Slaved Turrets.

19 hours ago, Flyinpenguin117 said:

#3 is the only real reason to take Swivel Mounts over any other modification, but that's basically their intended purpose

I doubt this is their intended purpose. Why do swivel guns boost the range of your proton torpedoes? This game effect would be fine... on another card.

19 hours ago, Church14 said:

It’s #2 and 3. The reason Swivels works for #2 over something like Spinals is when an opponent gets out of your best arc you can use swivels to buff a different arc and use GT out that one.

I didn't consider this. But again doubt it's efficiency. How likely are you to fit 2 enemies in your nice and wide front arc, then later 2 in the same skinny side arc? Particularly with your opponent knowing you are running GT, thus want to spread out. Then this upgrade provides further incentive to hit multiple arcs.

It's just generally outclassed by other upgrades for whatever niche way you intend on using it. With the exception of #3, but that goes against the theme of the card and is fairly luck heavy.

Maybe some new ship will love it.