I am sure I am not the only person on the planet that thinks the blaster turret is about as useful as a wompa in a cargo hold (womp womp). ... I amaze even myself sometimes. Anyways, back on topic: The Blaster Turret, right now, really sucks. I would be much more receptive if the turret cost one point more, but instead of the current card text, it said the following:

Attack (Focus): Spend one focus token to attack one ship (even a ship outside of your firing arc). Change one (eye) to a (hit).

At least then, i would feel I would be getting my points worth with the turret. It would be a "Luke" type ability but still have the pluses of the turret.

Thoughts?

Adding a 360 degree attack to any ship isn't enough for your monies worth?

Adding a 360 degree attack to any ship isn't enough for your monies worth?

Not when an ion cannon costs one point more and you can fire it without a focus token. If you run into someone while carrying a blaster turret, you can't fire it at all unless you acquire a focus token somehow. Ion cannons can at least fire naked.

Adding a 360 degree attack to any ship isn't enough for your monies worth?

Not when an ion cannon costs one point more and you can fire it without a focus token. If you run into someone while carrying a blaster turret, you can't fire it at all unless you acquire a focus token somehow. Ion cannons can at least fire naked.

But the Ion Cannon also only does a max of 1 damage. The blaster cannon has a chance to crit and do more damage.

It also fits in the theme of the support ships from Wave 3. There's a few that pass around focus, etc.

I could easily see running a Blaster Turret or two in an all Y-wing list instead of all Ions. Against larger, less evasion-y ships you need the extra damage. I think if it was costed any differently, this would be a dominant list: 4x Gold Squad Y-Wings with Blaster Turret (3 instead of 4) and Proton Torpedos (4). The blaster turret costing 4 prevents this from happening.

Ion cannons also have an aditional movement control aspect to that one damage. Each has pros and cons to each weapon, and right now, the cons on the blaster turret don't make it worth a 3 point weapon, much less a four. In your example as well, 4 blaster turret Y-Wings would all still need to take a focus action, spend the focus, and just roll 4 naked dice, whereas a 4 ion cannon y-wing list wouldn't need to take focus, but could take target lock instead, get the hits, and then gain movement control on the damaged ships. Blaster turrets may be worth it in their current form at 3 points, but are over costed at 4. A 4 point turret that has a 1-2 range and 3 attack shouldn't have the focus requirement. It is the same argument for missiles/torpedoes: they are not worth it unless there are specific instances and conditions where it is worth it.

An errata for a card that isn't released yet?!

Yes!

I think we should probably wait and see how it plays before looking for errata. On paper, Wave 2 was going to introduce Stealth Devices everywhere, and the Firesprays that people had to buy to get the Stealth were going to be doorstops, at best. That didn't play out as we had forseen.

I also wouldn't hold my breath. FFG has so far been reluctant to errata anything for actual rules issues; so far as I know they have yet to errata anything to make it more competitive. Don't really think now's the time to start that path.

Ion effects aren't worth it. Give me a 360 miniature falcon attack with crtits and 3-damage potential over the weak Ion cannon any day.

Sure my Y-Wings will be choosing focus all the time, but I intend to run them close to one another so they support each other and won't need anything more than Focus anyway.

I also think he should be a target for any and all weapons just like everyone else is a target. Dark Curse's ability is fantastic value regardless. I usually think an attack is being resolved when the attack dice are rolled. Normally you only spend your focus token when attacking if you roll one or more focus results on the attack dice. Then you decide whether or not to convert these to hits. So this is when Dark Curse's ability kicks in to say "no you cannot spend that focus token to hit me!" The blaster turret spends their focus token just to be able to use the weapon, before any dice are rolled. Then you attack by rolling the 3 dice. Unless you have an extra focus token (given by a 3rd party) the blaster turret cannot convert focus results to hits anyway.

It just seems unnecessary to create a "cannot hit with this weapon" clause for one ship.

Comparing an Ion Cannon with Focus to a Blaster without:

vs. TIE (no tokens)

Ion: 0 = 28% / 1 = 72%

Blaster: 0 = 53% / 1 = 29% / 2 = 15% / 3

vs. TIE with Focus:

Ion: 0 = 55% / 1 = 45%

Blaster: 0 = 77% / 1 = 17% / 2 = 5%

vs. TIE with Evade:

Ion: 0 = 61% / 1 = 39%

Blaster: 0 = 82% / 1 = 15% / 2 = 3%

vs. X-wing (no tokens)

Ion: 0 = 16% / 1 = 84%

Blaster: 0 = 41% / 1 = 34% / 2 = 20% / 3 = 5%

vs. X-wing with Focus:

Ion: 0 = 30% / 1 = 70%

Blaster: 0 = 60% / 1 = 28% / 2 = 11% / 3 = 2%

In general, you're going to have less than a 1 in 5 chance of the Blaster Turret landing more damage than an Ion Turret, and the Ion Turret will have dramatically lower overall miss rates. If you can stack actions, the Blaster Turret obviously gets better. But with nothing but base actions, keeping the Ion Turret is almost certainly a better choice.

For 7 points you can get a Blaster Turret and Recon Spec on a HWK-290 and be as accurate as Ion Cannon Turret with the potential for more damage. Seems pretty balanced to me. There are plenty of ways to pass an extra action or focus to a Y-wing if you really want it equipped with a Blaster Turret.

Consider the source for the Blaster Turret. You have to have a HWK-290 to get the card. That ship happens to have a crew slot available. It also happens to bring introduce a crewman that can produce TWO focus tokens instead of just one although it costs 3 points. Now for 7 points you can have your Blaster Turret and pick up two Focus token so you have one to fire with and the one you'd "normally" have to play with.

I've seen calls that if it did not have the use requirement then the Blaster Turret would need to cost 7 points or more to keep it from appearing on Y-Wings everywhere.

If there needs to be Errata to the Blaster Turret it should be such that it allows its use against Dark Curse and thing similar that may show up in the future.

An errata for a card that isn't released yet?!

Haha, You do catch the foolish arguments. Yes, it does seem that many are upset about something they've never used... We need to change it because I want it to do this instead.

Let it run for a cycle/wave. If it doesn't work I think they will fix it. They may not change everything to one person's liking though. Don't like it, don't use it...

However, on the Moldy Cow Blaster Turret armed with Kyle Katarn as pilot having Marksmanship carrying a Recon Specialist as crew using this is a support craft... Move over Dutch with and Ion Turret, Kyle might be my new best friend.

There is no need to "try it first" if the FAQ rule pretty much says "You cannot use a blaster turret against Dark Curse". No amount of playtesting is going to make this work differently. If you had Dark Curse and your opponent has a blaster turret anyone would be silly not to try and gain the maximum benefit out of it. It is not a game breaker but it is an exception that appears to be unique.