I put a Fire Control System on a B-Wing and proceed to attack several ships over several turns. Am I allowed to gain a target lock on my most recent target while maintaining target locks on my previous targets? Is there a limit to how many target locks a ship can maintain?

You can only have one Target Lock (as the shooter) unless you have the Weapons Engineer which will allow you to maintain TWO Target Locks. Even if you had multiple Weapons Engineers on your ship you'd still only get to maintain two locks.

So if you attack and target lock ship A, then shoot at ship B, you'd have to decide whether to keep the lock on A or ' transfer ' it to B.

Thanks for the clarification. Best to hammer on a single ship with the FCS, it seems.

Thanks for the clarification. Best to hammer on a single ship with the FCS, it seems.

When you can. Sometimes easier said than done.

Although I know I was playing a buddy one game where I had at least three Bs with FCS, and he was flying several Interceptors. I felt like FCS was a waste, because I'd shoot and TL one round, then the next round that Interceptor would be halfway across the map and I'd have no shot at him - if I was lucky, my ships would all have shots at a ship one of my OTHER ships had target locked.

He told me later, however, that just having those target locks kind of dictated his movements to him, because he was working twice as hard to keep each target-locked Interceptor out of range/arc of at least the specific B that had him targeted. So I guess there was kind of an intangible benefit there.

But yes, generally you want to keep the TL and keep hitting the target until it's gone, unless you have reason to believe you won't be able to shoot at that same target next round for some reason.

The reason I'm not a huge fan of the Fire Control System. You attack (often without TL unless you spend your action getting it) and then try to TL that target. Now what happens? If you're really unlucky, although you may also call it lucky, you destroyed the target leaving you nothing to lock on with FCS. Alternatively, you may get a TL but the next turn that ship moves in such a way that you don't get an attack at it leaving you the choice of chasing it down or shooting something new without the benefit of that TL. Now the third option is simply that the ship shrugs it off and tries wasting you before you get off the follow up shots.

FCS works great if you can target one ship and KEEP targeting it but in a lot of those cases you could probably hammer it without the FCS. I guess the other place FCS can be good is if you have some ordnance that requires a TL but which you also want to have a Focus available when you use it; probably NOT the best use of points but a B-Wing with a FCS could take long range shots at a ship to get the TL allowing it to set up an Advanced Proton Torpedo w/ Focus later.

Speaking of Advanced Proton Torpedoes... it seems really tough to get in range with a B-Wing. It looks like a better option for something faster, like an X-Wing. Does that seem right?

Well the nice thing about a B-Wing is that if you can avoid the temptation to just charge headlong at your opponent's squad, you're tough enough that it's very unlikely you won't survive to get into torpedo range. Another point in the B's favor is that it can take FCS, getting an automatic target lock with a range 2-3 shot, and then only has to focus when it closes to range 1 with its hopeful target.

If you really want to make your opponent sob, though, sending in Wedge and Biggs, where Wedge has an APT on him can definitely ruin somebody's day.

It's a high risk/high reward weapon to begin with. You really NEED to have a focus (and obviously a target lock) to ensure it hits and lands damage, but have to get to range 1 with both of those things on you and the target locked, err, target, in your arc of fire. It's a lot easier said than done no matter the delivery system.

Unless you're Rhymer.

Speaking of Advanced Proton Torpedoes... it seems really tough to get in range with a B-Wing. It looks like a better option for something faster, like an X-Wing. Does that seem right?

The APT can be tough to use because you often telegraph its us and nobody really wants to be on the receiving end of one. Its best use is often on a ship that moves AFTER what you want to shoot and which can TL + Focus and fire all before something moves. It is the action needs as much as the range that make APT hard to use.

In some ways TIE Bombers are the best thing to use APT. 5 dice is a huge improvement over their primary 2 and they carry the potential to have ordnance for any range. Rhymer can cause death with an APT but that is expensive; often times what you may want is a low PS Bomber who moves and Focuses and then a HIGH PS ship with Squad Leader to later give it an action allowing it to TL someone who has now moved into weapon's range.

I should point out that my favorite use for an APT is to never actually fire it. Target lock something and it'll vastly change how that ship moves next turn. I've seen enemies break their formation or panic to avoid it when I had no intention of actually firing the APT that turn. It's also great to draw fire from the enemy. An APT on a PS2 TIE Bomber, when all your other ships are high value targets, and their targeting priorities are skewed. An APT is basically giving something Biggs' special ability for 5 points.

Great comments- thanks! Still haven't figured out how to fly my B-Wing successfully....