Okay, my last thread on analysis (of Ships, specifically) didn't really take off, so I thought I'd tackle the Upgrade Cards instead =D.

We have, at the moment, the following Upgrade Card categories:

Astromech Droids
Crew Members

System Upgrades

Elite Pilot Talents

Ship Upgrades

Laser Weapons

~ Laser Cannons

~ Laser Turrets

Ordnance

~ Proton Torpedoes

~ Missiles

~ Bombs

I'll go ahead and edit this list as the thread goes on, striking through what gets posted. Shall we?

Crew Members

At the time of this posting, only 4 ships have Crew Member slots: the Firespray-31 and the HWK-290 have 1 slot, while the YT-1300 and Lambda Class Shuttle having 2 each. It is also the only upgrade slot in the game with Faction Specific options.

Shared Crew-Members

• Intelligence Agent: This crew member lets you see maneuver dials after they have already been set, for no actions. If you have no ability to alter your position from where your dial has already been set (via Navigator, Barrel Rolling, Boosting, or Boba Fett's ability), or have access to Bombs, this crew member is useless. However, if you do have the ability to act upon this information, by forcing a collision or positioning a Detonation, the Intelligence Agent can be worth far more than the 1 point it costs. You can double up for twice the knowledge, and thus twice the potential disruption.
• Mercenary Copilot: Theoretically, action-free Crits are a wonderful thing. However, most experienced players will tell you that Range 3 combat is a rarity, particularly once shields are down, and the two points are probably better spent elsewhere. However, our Rodian friend can convert a hit from the supposedly crit-less Heavy Laser Cannon. Moreover, you can double up for twice the crit conversion, which is an entirely different kettle of fish.
• Saboteur: Spend an action, have a 50/50 shot of doing nothing with it, targeting an enemy at only Range 1 who already has a damage card assigned to them. That much of the card is terrible. However, if you meet all of those qualifications, you turn a regular damage card into a Crit. This... is actually an excellent finisher, made all the better by the existence of Proton Bombs, which plant a card beneath shielding, albeit already face-up. If you're not an action-heavy ship, and need some 360* functionality, this may be your best shot.
• Navigator: You may change your mind about the length of your maneuver when you're making it. The higher your pilot skill, the better this card gets. It is also one of the few ways to make the Intellegence Agent relevant as a Rebel player. The offensive and defensive importance of positioning is undeniable, and selecting your position from up to 3 locations (or up to 4 if you're going straight ahead, or 6 if you're Boba Fett and banking) is one hell of a piloting advantage.
• Recon Specialist: Focusing is the only ability that can directly aid you offensively and defensively, but you usually have to choose one or the other. Getting a 2 for 1 on your focus tokens mean that you either are both attacking AND defending with improved odds, or you're defending better against two attacks. However, defensive focuses aren't that good when you're running only 1 defensive die, but this is a phenomenal pick-up on the Firespray-31, and practically a requirement for a titled HWK-290, particularly when driven by Kyle Katarn.
• Weapons Engineer: Target Locking is the best purely-offensive action. Even at only 1 attack die, it gives even odds with the Focus bonus, and it only improves with more dice. Being able to target lock twice for a single action is huge, as you may now spend the other actions you'd normally spend focusing to improve your offense, or in the case of the Millennium Falcon or a Firespray-31, evading for extra defense. Moreover, it it combos beautifully in a Shuttle with the ST-321 title, the Col. Jendon pilot, and/or a Fire-Control System.
• Flight Instructor: Normally, re-rolling 1 die, even defensively, wouldn't be that exciting, particularly when you don't have the choice of which type of result to re-roll. However, considering the YT-1300 and the Firespray-31 both fall fairly hard when outnumbered, this pure defense upgrade lets you play more offensively, turning the tide in your favor against the dreaded Swarm.
• Gunner: If your opponent dodges all of your hits, you get to try again with your primary weapon. Since 3 of the 4 ships that can equip this have 3 primary attack dice, and 2 of them have larger primary arcs than usual, this is one of the most used upgrades in the game.

Rebellion Exclusive

• Nien Nunb: For the less maneuverable of the two factions, Nien Nunb is always a solid pick-up for 1 point. He's practically required for Jan Ors, and is very good on the rest of the HWK pilots, as he turns one of their Red maneuvers into a Green.
• Chewbacca: In the worst-case scenario, Chewbacca is 2 shield upgrades for the price of 1. However, his true worth is in the fact that you may look at the face-up damage you would receive before using his ability, meaning that you always dodge one you dread the most. He is always worth his cost if you depend on the ship for victory.
• Luke Skywalker: Remember Gunner? Luke is that, but with a little Marksmanship thrown in, free of charge. Well, 2 points more expensive than Gunner, but still insane with the damage.

Empire Exclusive

• Darth Vader: Quite possibly the most difficult-to-use crew member, Darth Vader will damage your ship twice to crit the ship you're attacking once. That crit will knock out shields as though you had rolled it, but it cannot be intercepted by Draw Their Fire, or dodged by dice or evasion tokens. He is already seen competitive use on the Shuttle, ensuring that the Shuttle never has to attempt to turn around for a second pass.
• Rebel Captive: The first ship that attacks you every turn becomes stressed. Most players will want to avoid any stress on their ships, and so they're likely to focus other ships first, regardless of the power your ship is bringing to bear. If they do decide to focus your ship down, you'll still punish their most skilled pilot for the audacity, giving your opponent a Catch-22.

Elite Upgrades:

Great -

Swarm Tactics: let that cheap rookie or academy pilot get a shot off before his opponant

Squad Leader: Has many uses especially for suport ships like howelrunner or ship that already have two actions (Vader/ ships with PTL)

Push The Limit: 2 actions is always great, but combined with certain pilots it get's even better.

Vetran Instinct: +1 pilot skill for only one point- love it.

Adrenaline Rush: that first K-turn in the middle of the dag fight is so critical, this let's you do it without getting stressed.

Okay-

Elusiveness - it might be better than I think, Probably better than the super populat Stealth Device (fewer points and it doesn't go away)

Deadeye - Best benifit as I can see is that you can shoot your missiles at any target you want.

Determination - there is the off chance that it might remove one point of damage, but I think VI and AR are better 1 point upgrades

Expert Handling - not bad I just haven't see it as incredably useful. I would like to try this on a large base ship life a firespray or the falcon

Daredevil- I would life to try this, but as it turns out my elite pilots with the boost action are such great choices for PTL I haven't used it yet.

Draw Their Fire- Could be good, but only on a large ships with lots of HP and I usually want to protect my YT-1300s or Firesprays and I you can't put Elite Upgrades on the Lamda Shuttle

Bad-

Expose - Costs (YOUR ACTION and an agility dice) don't outway the benifits (one extra dice isn't really that much better than a Target Lock) - not to mention the card costs 4 points

Marksmanship - Again it costs your action and it is only slightly better than a focus offensive. - and again it cost 4 points

Elite Upgrades:

Great -

Swarm Tactics: let that cheap rookie or academy pilot get a shot off before his opponant

Squad Leader: Has many uses especially for suport ships like howelrunner or ship that already have two actions (Vader/ ships with PTL)

Push The Limit: 2 actions is always great, but combined with certain pilots it get's even better.

Vetran Instinct: +1 pilot skill for only one point- love it.

Adrenaline Rush: that first K-turn in the middle of the dag fight is so critical, this let's you do it without getting stressed.

Okay-

Elusiveness - it might be better than I think, Probably better than the super populat Stealth Device (fewer points and it doesn't go away)

Deadeye - Best benifit as I can see is that you can shoot your missiles at any target you want.

Determination - there is the off chance that it might remove one point of damage, but I think VI and AR are better 1 point upgrades

Expert Handling - not bad I just haven't see it as incredably useful. I would like to try this on a large base ship life a firespray or the falcon

Daredevil- I would life to try this, but as it turns out my elite pilots with the boost action are such great choices for PTL I haven't used it yet.

Draw Their Fire- Could be good, but only on a large ships with lots of HP and I usually want to protect my YT-1300s or Firesprays and I you can't put Elite Upgrades on the Lamda Shuttle

Bad-

Expose - Costs (YOUR ACTION and an agility dice) don't outway the benifits (one extra dice isn't really that much better than a Target Lock) - not to mention the card costs 4 points

Marksmanship - Again it costs your action and it is only slightly better than a focus offensive. - and again it cost 4 points

Further Analysis:

Veteran's Instinct increases your Pilot Skill by 2, not 1.

Elusiveness combos excellently with Captain Yorr onto the field, turning into a pseudo Sensor Jammer.

Deadeye is pretty worthless, as the ships that can pick it up could probably target lock anyway, unless it's an A-Wing.

Expert Handling is astonishing on a large-base ship, as you can potentially go from Range 1 (barely) to out of Range 3 (also, barely). On Fettigator with an Autoblaster or a Han Shoots First variant...woof!

Daredevil on a Hyper-Mobile B-Wing (i.e. one with Engine Upgrades and Advanced Sensors, who wind up being more mobile than Fettigator) is something to consider, as it can turn a right turn into a koiogran that wound up behind yourself... but Push the Limit is typically better in this instance.

Draw Their Fire is a huge combo-piece when flying next to Biggs Darklighter, or when you're running an Obsidian Tie Swarm alongside an important target.

Marksmanship is a Gunner's best friend, as it applies its bonus to both attacks.

The only ship I routinely put a gunner on is my Han Solo YT-1300 and I alway give it the Millennium Falcon upgrade, and evade almost every turn. Just take Luke he is only 2 points more than a normal gunner (instead of 4 for marksmanship)

Deadeye helps let's you shoot your missiles/torpedoes at whomever you want You don't have to commit to a particular target during your action phase. (that being said, I don't usually use it. There are just upgrades I like better)

Marksman is only 3 points and on Han that is up to 4 rolls where marksman takes effect, compared to 1 roll where focus could be used. Any ship with gunner is a good use of marksman.

Also of note you can never combine squad leader with ptl as they take the same upgrade slot.

Marksman is only 3 points and on Han that is up to 4 rolls where marksman takes effect, compared to 1 roll where focus could be used. Any ship with gunner is a good use of marksman.

Also of note you can never combine squad leader with ptl as they take the same upgrade slot.

I think he meant the TARGET of the Squad Leader... or at least I hope so. That is a fairly good combo, after all.

Also, you can't Squad Leader twice, even with Vader. Actions are non-repeatable.

Okay-

Elusiveness - combos excellently with Captain Yorr onto the field, turning into a pseudo Sensor Jammer.

Shush, you never know who might be listening.

Okay-

Elusiveness - combos excellently with Captain Yorr onto the field, turning into a pseudo Sensor Jammer.

Shush, you never know who might be listening.

To avoid the return of the Yorr War, it won't let you use Elusiveness recursively, but it WILL let you use it once per attack (so long as you clear the Stress each time with Yorr).

Okay-

Elusiveness - combos excellently with Captain Yorr onto the field, turning into a pseudo Sensor Jammer.

Shush, you never know who might be listening.

To avoid the return of the Yorr War, it won't let you use Elusiveness recursively, but it WILL let you use it once per attack (so long as you clear the Stress each time with Yorr).

http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/topic/1826-stress-creation-w-yorr/

Astromech Droids

At the time of this posting, only 2 ships have a Droid slot: the X-Wing and the Y-Wing. However, given that both are veritable staples of the Rebellion, these see a lot of play.

____________________

• R2 Astromech: One of only two upgrades in the game that directly improve maneuver dials (Nien Nunb being the other), the R2 Astromech turns all 1 and 2 distance maneuvers Green. For the X-Wing, that only changes the 2 Turns and 2 Banks, while for the Y, it alters the 1 Bank, the 2 Turns, and the 2 Banks, bringing both to the second best number of Green Maneuvers in the game (5, tied with the Interceptor, just behind the A-Wing), and at 1 point, it is definitely worth picking up.
• R5 Astromech: The first of the Regenerative droids, the R5 Astromech turns a ship-based Crit into a regular hit at end of turn (including the dreaded Direct Hit), for free. Considering that there are only 8 Pilot-based Crits in the 33 card damage deck, this has awesome utility as well, and at 1 point, is also definitely worth picking up.
• R5-K6: This is a proto- Fire-Control System, and if they shared a ship, this would be strictly worse. You have a 3 : 8 chance of it doing nothing each time you use it.... but it can be equipped by "Dutch" Vander, one of the best pilots in the Rebellion for his ability to give out free Target Locks (as a non-action!) when he acquires one. Not terrible on the rest of the ships, but definitely useful on "Dutch".
• R2-F2: R2-F2 is rarely used, as it costs an Ability to activate. When it is used, it is most often used by Biggs Darklighter, who hopes to dodge as much damage as possible. At 3 points, R2-F2 seems a little overcosted.
• R5-D8: The second of the Regenerative Droids, R5-D8 will actively remove damage from you...as an action... 5/8 of the time. However, on a Y-Wing with 5 hull, R5-D8 can really do work!
• R2-D2: The king of Regeneration, R2-D2 regenerates Shields, which unlike Hull, ignores critical hits. This already makes him worth more than R5-D8. The fact that he does so guaranteed, and with no action lost, just by taking a green maneuver....Woof. Combined with Draw Their Fire on a different pilot (Luke or Wedge), you can keep an allied ship (usually Biggs) alive for days!

**Edit: Accidentally called a Y-Wing an A-Wing in the R5-D8 section. Thanks for the catch, yoink101!

Fixed!

• R5-D8: The second of the Regenerative Droids, R5-D8 will actively remove damage from you...as an action... 5/8 of the time. However, on an A-Wing with 5 hull, R5-D8 can really do work!

(nudge nudge) Y-Wing. Y-Wing!

Oops. Fixed

There doesn't appear to be much analysis in these posts. You're basically just stating what they do and your opinion of if it's useful or not. I was expecting some more "analysis." For example:

R5-K6 allows you to keep your TL 3/8 of the time, freeing up your action next turn, assuming you were planning to fire at the same ship next turn. On a 3 dice attack, a focused attack rolls 2.25 hits. Combine that with a TL, and it is raised to 2.81. So, the TL is worth an additional .56 hits, 3/8 of the time, averaging out to be worth .21 hits each time its used, or .105 hit/point each time it is used. This does not account for the times that the ship is destroyed, or you choose to shoot at a different ship beforehand. When coupled with Dutch, he can potentially provide 2 TL, which raises its value to .21hit/point.

And...

PTL allows you to take a second action for a stress token. While that action could be anything, lets for now look at its offensive capability of Focus + TL. On a 3 dice attack, a single action nets you 2.25 hits, both net 2.81 hits. Therefore, PTL raises your average hit value .56 each turn you use it. This works out to .186 hit/point each time it is used, which is clearly superior to R5-K6, not to mention PTL is more flexible. However, the downside to PTL (which I'm not going to bother analyzing right now) is that you gain a stress token. This can be practically ignored on ships like an A wing, or brutal on ships like the HWK, especially if you end up going against someone with a rebel captive or Kath.

So by ANALYZING these, you can see that R5-K6 is not really ever useful as it's such a marginal ability. Dutch makes it potentially useful, but once you calculate in the other requirements, I think it would come up short anyways. Now obviously not everyone can take PTL, thus why an analysis would have to be done on lots of things in order to be able to rate them. And some things are easier to analyze than others. For example, I do not know how one could put a value on deadeye. Obviously it needs to be coupled with missiles/torpedos. But it would be less effective on APT, where you could likely take a TL anyways than it would on any of the R3 ordinance. But how often can you end up in R2 and get the shot off the following turn with a TL? And how often do you die first? Things like that are not easy to quantify. But an analysis should be more in depth than your thoughts

FYI - Expose is horrible, but not for the reasons you provided. As a single action, Focus or TL are better than expose as long as you don't have 1 attack die to begin with. As a second action, F+TL is better than Expose + F/TL if you have 2 or 3 attack dice, and equal if you have 4. Obviously expose does lots of damage then when you have 3 actions and can stack Ex+F+TL (Fel w/ Targetting computer comes to mind). But for sake of analysis, lets look at 3 attack dice w/ 2 actions.

F+TL w/ 3 dice will net you an average of 2.81 hits. Expose + F/TL will net you an average of 3.00 hits. This is .19 hits more each time you use it. I am going to ignore the defensive loss aspect of it because there's little reason to expose when you know you're going to be the target of multiple attacks. Plus, the impact can range from .275 (2->1 dice) to .45 (4->3 dice) reduction, and is obviously multipled for each attack made against you. But if no attacks are made, such as you're out of everyone's firing arc, you're going to shoot first and (hopefully) kill the target, or you have Biggs to draw the hate, then there is no down side to expose. But you're still left with a .19 hit increase for 4 points, netting .05hit/point per use. This is one of the worst ways to increase damage output available. And that's ignoring the loss of agility, which severely limits how often you can use it.

There doesn't appear to be much analysis in these posts. You're basically just stating what they do and your opinion of if it's useful or not. I was expecting some more "analysis." For example:

R5-K6 allows you to keep your TL 3/8 of the time, freeing up your action next turn, assuming you were planning to fire at the same ship next turn. On a 3 dice attack, a focused attack rolls 2.25 hits. Combine that with a TL, and it is raised to 2.81. So, the TL is worth an additional .56 hits, 3/8 of the time, averaging out to be worth .21 hits each time its used, or .105 hit/point each time it is used. This does not account for the times that the ship is destroyed, or you choose to shoot at a different ship beforehand. When coupled with Dutch, he can potentially provide 2 TL, which raises its value to .21hit/point.

And...

PTL allows you to take a second action for a stress token. While that action could be anything, lets for now look at its offensive capability of Focus + TL. On a 3 dice attack, a single action nets you 2.25 hits, both net 2.81 hits. Therefore, PTL raises your average hit value .56 each turn you use it. This works out to .186 hit/point each time it is used, which is clearly superior to R5-K6, not to mention PTL is more flexible. However, the downside to PTL (which I'm not going to bother analyzing right now) is that you gain a stress token. This can be practically ignored on ships like an A wing, or brutal on ships like the HWK, especially if you end up going against someone with a rebel captive or Kath.

So by ANALYZING these, you can see that R5-K6 is not really ever useful as it's such a marginal ability. Dutch makes it potentially useful, but once you calculate in the other requirements, I think it would come up short anyways. Now obviously not everyone can take PTL, thus why an analysis would have to be done on lots of things in order to be able to rate them. And some things are easier to analyze than others. For example, I do not know how one could put a value on deadeye. Obviously it needs to be coupled with missiles/torpedos. But it would be less effective on APT, where you could likely take a TL anyways than it would on any of the R3 ordinance. But how often can you end up in R2 and get the shot off the following turn with a TL? And how often do you die first? Things like that are not easy to quantify. But an analysis should be more in depth than your thoughts

FYI - Expose is horrible, but not for the reasons you provided. As a single action, Focus or TL are better than expose as long as you don't have 1 attack die to begin with. As a second action, F+TL is better than Expose + F/TL if you have 2 or 3 attack dice, and equal if you have 4. Obviously expose does lots of damage then when you have 3 actions and can stack Ex+F+TL (Fel w/ Targetting computer comes to mind). But for sake of analysis, lets look at 3 attack dice w/ 2 actions.

F+TL w/ 3 dice will net you an average of 2.81 hits. Expose + F/TL will net you an average of 3.00 hits. This is .19 hits more each time you use it. I am going to ignore the defensive loss aspect of it because there's little reason to expose when you know you're going to be the target of multiple attacks. Plus, the impact can range from .275 (2->1 dice) to .45 (4->3 dice) reduction, and is obviously multipled for each attack made against you. But if no attacks are made, such as you're out of everyone's firing arc, you're going to shoot first and (hopefully) kill the target, or you have Biggs to draw the hate, then there is no down side to expose. But you're still left with a .19 hit increase for 4 points, netting .05hit/point per use. This is one of the worst ways to increase damage output available. And that's ignoring the loss of agility, which severely limits how often you can use it.

A useful critique. I shall go back through and make mine more in-depth.