Ok, I did a search, and I understand and agree that an evade token can be used to cancel an autoblaster hit, but not evade dice. Here is my question. Can critical hits be cancelled by dice, or only be evade tokens? In other words, if I am using autoblaster, does the defender even get or need to roll defense dice? My understanding is that defense dice would not cancel hits or crits, but that an evade token could cancel crits first. Others have said that you do roll defense dice, and that these may cancel crits, but not regular hits. This seems to make the autoblaster underwhelming if true. Can someone set me straight, and explain why your position is correct ? Thanks. My apologies if this has been asked before.

Ok, the card is very specific. It says that HIT results may not be cancelled. Because normally you must cancel HIT results with evade dice before CRIT dice, the card then goes on to specify that CRIT results may be cancelled first. Thus, evade dice MAY be used to cancel CRIT dice, but not HIT dice. Note that Ten Numb's ability which doesn't allow a CRIT to be cancelled by evade dice does stack with the above.

It's one of the reasons it's dangerous to read into a card.

I don't think I agree. When using evade token to cancel hits of any flavor, under ordinary circumstances you must cancel hits first and crits after that. I think the bottom sentence on the card is an exception to that rule. A crit is still a hit. But if you have an evade token, you can cancel the crit first. I see nothing that says that crits can be cancelled by evade dice, just the opposite. Is there anywhere in the errata or official rulings that clarity's this?

If what you are saying is true, why would anyone ever take autoblaster other than ten numb?

I think it's pretty clearly stated to be honest.

Normal Rule - Must cancel hits before Crits. May use Dice or Evade tokens.

Autoblaster Rule - Hits CANNOT be cancelled with dice. Hits may be cancelled using Evade tokens. Crits MUST be cancelled first.

Example 1.

Autoblaster attack rolls 1 Crit, and 2 hits. Defense rolls blank, evade, evade

Evade on die negates Crit, leaving 1 evade. Since it was an autoblaster attack, you cannot cancel 1 of the other 2 normal hits with your left over Evade, because the card for Autoblaster says you can't.

You take 2 damage.

Example 2.

Ten Numb is equipped with Autoblaster.

Autoblaster attack rolls 1 Crit, and 2 hits. Defense rolls blank, evade, evade

Since Ten Numb doesn't allow you to cancel crits, you cannot cancel this crit. Since the autoblaster doesn't allow you to cancel hits using dice, you cannot cancel the hits.

You would take 1 critical hit, and 2 regular hits. Regular hit damage applied first per normal rules.

In my game experiences...Autoblaster is very effective at killing TIE Fighters.

To take that a step further, suppose I have target lock and I fire autoblaster at range 1 and score 2 crits and a blank. I am shooting at a tie who will be defending with 3 dice. If what you are saying is correct, I would likely be ahead to spend my target lock to re roll everything, as the crits will likely get canceled. I think it is referring to the action of an evade token to cancel crits first, then hits. It's the only way both statements make sense to me. I appreciate your response, it just does not make sense at all that way to me, but maybe I am just screwed up? A critical hit is still a hit, but if you have an evade, you can use it to cancel crits first. If you had 2 evades, you could cancel a crit, then use the second evade to cancel a normal hit. Such as a tie that gets a second evade from a squad leader.

Hmmm, that's two opinions stating I am incorrect, and the guys I was playing with tonight said the same thing, so it's remotely possible that.....I am incorrect. Still would like to see this addressed in the errata. I think the intent is what I mentioned, but the way the card is worded is confusing. In the reveal for wave 3 FFGs own literature says " only an evade token can quell the fury of an autoblaster". Apparently not if you roll crits. Anyway, I will concede as I seem to be in the minority here, and as I said, the. People I was gaming with tonight said the same thing. Thanks for setting me straight. Hope the clarify for certain next errata cycle.

In your example, if an Autoblaster attack can only be defended using Evade tokens...because a crit is a hit, then at 5 points it is the best add-on in the game. Because in that example, the only people that can defend against it are the Empire, an A-wing and a YT with the MF title as they are the only ones that get the Evade action on their action bar.

Granted, you can attempt to mitigate offensive rolls either through Elusiveness, or Sensor Jammer; but even then that's not a lot of options and only available to a select few.

I sincerely find it hard to believe that a single add-on completely negates the use of defense dice all together...unless of course the autoblaster attack rolls all normal hits. Then there is no need to pick them up.

Hmmm, that's two opinions stating I am incorrect, and the guys I was playing with tonight said the same thing, so it's remotely possible that.....I am incorrect. Still would like to see this addressed in the errata. I think the intent is what I mentioned, but the way the card is worded is confusing. In the reveal for wave 3 FFGs own literature says " only an evade token can quell the fury of an autoblaster". Apparently not if you roll crits. Anyway, I will concede as I seem to be in the minority here, and as I said, the. People I was gaming with tonight said the same thing. Thanks for setting me straight. Hope the clarify for certain next errata cycle.

It's all good. As the game progresses, and new rules are introduced to support new game functions, these things will occur.

For me, a good rule of thumb is, "If a rule printed on an add-on card interferes with a standard rule, use the rule on the card."

The card is pretty deliberate in its use of symbols. Autoblaster, like HLC, is meant to be a non-precision weapon that lands hits but doesn't accurately target weak spots (land crits). Except, as pointed out, Ten Numb can use it to vicious effect. It says Hits cannot be cancelled by evade dice, and that's all it means. They didn't leave crits off by accident, as they're mentioned specifically later on the card.

For what it's worth, AB isn't actually taken often, because at 1 range and 5 points, it's not a great investment. It does one thing well - land hits on high agility targets at point blank range - and is rarely going to be better than a focus/TL attack of four dice at the same range - which every ship that can mount AB can do.

One root of the confusion here is this statement, which I've seen several times: "A critical hit is still a hit". This isn't correct.

The Autoblaster deals entirely with the icons, which are not actually named anywhere in the rules. We typically refer to them as "hit" and "critical hit" because they turn into regular damage and critical damage, but that's a player thing, not a rule thing. When I refer to them, I reference them as {Hit} and {Critical Hit}. Let's break down the different things the Autoblaster does:

(1) Target can't cancel {Hit} results with dice

(2) It does nothing to prevent the cancellation of {Critical Hit} results, so {Critical Hit} results can be canceled normally

(3) You may (not must, as was suggested above) cancel {Critical Hit} results first

(1) I think we're good on. (2) is hopefully made clear by the realization that {Critical Hit} results and {Hit} results are two unrelated things.

(3) is interesting. It essentially removes the requirement to cancel {Hit} results first. It's pretty obvious why this is here - since you normally have to cancel {Hit} results first, and the Autoblaster doesn't let you cancel {Hit}s, any {Critical Hit} would be equally untouchable. As it is, this bit of the ability basically says that you can cancel any result in any order you wish.

It's not spelled out clearly in the book, but the community has come to a (pretty obvious, IMHO) agreement that the defense dice belong to the defender, so the defender gets to choose which defense result cancel which attack results. So if, for instance, an Autoblaster happens to roll 2 {Critical Hit}s and 1 {Hit} while you have one {Evade} result and an evade token, you could choose to cancel both {Critical Hit} results and leave the 1 {Hit}. Just because the evade token can cancel the {Hit} while the die can't, that doesn't mean you're forced to do so.

Hopefully that covers all the possibilities here, but happy to tackle other specific ones if we need to.

Nope I think I'm good, thanks. Just underwhelmed by auto blast er. Thanks for the clarification.

Nope I think I'm good, thanks. Just underwhelmed by auto blast er. Thanks for the clarification.

You and everybody else.

I've had success with autoblaster. Ran 3 B-Wings with autoblaster and just tore apart a TIE swarm. Created a bumb situation and turned it into a knife fight. Every hit I rolled, the TIEs just had to take it and I was destroying one to two ties a round while denying them either actions or shots. But it is a bit weak, you're right.

But again - as I said earlier, you're using it in the sole situation in which it shines: point blank range against a group of high agility ships. And even then it's debatable whether it was more effective than saving the 5 points, locking at range 2-3 (assuming no elite pilot ability for PTL), taking a focus at range 1 and simply rolling 4 dice, focused, and target locked would have been.

Against a 3 agility ship? Maybe, slightly - assuming that you roll hits or focuses on the AB and not crits or misses.

But in general, for 5 points, range 1, and 3 attack dice, there are almost always better investments out there.

Nope I think I'm good, thanks. Just underwhelmed by auto blast er. Thanks for the clarification.

You and everybody else.

Underwhelmed by autoblaster??? You can't be serious! I am blown away by autoblaster (rather my opponents are, lol), if you feel this weapon is sub-par I would inquire as to how you are using it.

Just the other day I flew 2 b-wings with PtL and engine upgrade, boosted them each within range 1 of tie interceptors, then focused. My first b-wing rolled hit, focus, focus. Turned into 3 hits, opponent had no evades, interceptor #1 is toast. Second bwing, hit, hit, focus - 3 hits, opponent still had no evade tokens, interceptor #2 is toast.

This was the first attack of the game, I took down 2 interceptors, each with stealth device. If that doesn't show how awesome the autoblaster is I don't know what would.

Nope I think I'm good, thanks. Just underwhelmed by auto blast er. Thanks for the clarification.

You and everybody else.

Underwhelmed by autoblaster??? You can't be serious! I am blown away by autoblaster (rather my opponents are, lol), if you feel this weapon is sub-par I would inquire as to how you are using it.

Just the other day I flew 2 b-wings with PtL and engine upgrade, boosted them each within range 1 of tie interceptors, then focused. My first b-wing rolled hit, focus, focus. Turned into 3 hits, opponent had no evades, interceptor #1 is toast. Second bwing, hit, hit, focus - 3 hits, opponent still had no evade tokens, interceptor #2 is toast.

This was the first attack of the game, I took down 2 interceptors, each with stealth device. If that doesn't show how awesome the autoblaster is I don't know what would.

Again - you're using this in the precise scenario in which it's good - high agility, hard to hit targets. Against something like a B-Wing, which you would hit for a damage or two ANYWAY, more than likely, it's going to take the hit or two, shrug, and then punch you in the nose. It's DESIGNED as a counter to something like agility 3 + stealth, which is awesome if you're facing agility 3 + stealth, but it is a bad point investment against basically everything else.

Not to mention the fact that if a PTL Interceptor LETS a B-Wing with autoblaster get into range 1, in his fire arc, where he can use it, the Interceptor pilot has done something terribly wrong in the first place.

Not to mention the fact that if a PTL Interceptor LETS a B-Wing with autoblaster get into range 1, in his fire arc, where he can use it, the Interceptor pilot has done something terribly wrong in the first place.

Agreed.

The Autoblaster is great in a given situation, but is a bad way to spend points in a all comers list.

Lets say I have 2 lists, one list of 3 B-Wings with Autoblaster & AdvSen with Ten, another with 4 B-wings with AdvSen. You can't do 4 B's with Autoblaster, FWIW...

List 1 will excel against high agility targets like a Tie/In with PtL or SD, but against something like say a 3 Firespray list or 6 Tie Bomber list, those autoblasters are an effective waste of points, because you're not going to get more damage out of them then you would the B-Wings guns. In fact you'll do less total damage per turn then 4 B-Wings will against a list like that.

Even if you mixed it up, and only put the Autoblater on Ten, you're still down one ship and have reduced your damage output unless you're flying against something like Tie Interceptors.

Even against Tie Fighters, you're going to be better off with that extra ship, because Autoblater won't likely do enough to increase your damage output over that 4th B-Wing.

My point is, if you look at a card in a vacuum, in only the specific situation which it is tailored to, you're not going to get a true sense of its value.

You might think a NASCAR car is the greatest car in the world, because even though it costs $150,000 or something, it can go in excess of 200mph and blow away everything else on the track. That's great, if you're racing on a nice flat oval track and only going left. Try taking it to an offroad race and see how far that gets you.

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My point is, if you look at a card in a vacuum, in only the specific situation which it is tailored to, you're not going to get a true sense of its value.

You might think a NASCAR car is the greatest car in the world, because even though it costs $150,000 or something, it can go in excess of 200mph and blow away everything else on the track. That's great, if you're racing on a nice flat oval track and only going left. Try taking it to an offroad race and see how far that gets you.

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That's a great point, but would you call a nascar car "underwhelming"? No, I would call it super powerful in the right situation. Same goes for autoblaster, it's anything but underwhelming - it just had a specific use.

Not to mention the fact that if a PTL Interceptor LETS a B-Wing with autoblaster get into range 1, in his fire arc, where he can use it, the Interceptor pilot has done something terribly wrong in the first place.

Agreed.

The Autoblaster is great in a given situation, but is a bad way to spend points in a all comers list.

Lets say I have 2 lists, one list of 3 B-Wings with Autoblaster & AdvSen with Ten, another with 4 B-wings with AdvSen. You can't do 4 B's with Autoblaster, FWIW...

List 1 will excel against high agility targets like a Tie/In with PtL or SD, but against something like say a 3 Firespray list or 6 Tie Bomber list, those autoblasters are an effective waste of points, because you're not going to get more damage out of them then you would the B-Wings guns. In fact you'll do less total damage per turn then 4 B-Wings will against a list like that.

Even if you mixed it up, and only put the Autoblater on Ten, you're still down one ship and have reduced your damage output unless you're flying against something like Tie Interceptors.

Even against Tie Fighters, you're going to be better off with that extra ship, because Autoblater won't likely do enough to increase your damage output over that 4th B-Wing.

All very excellent points.

And as I pointed out before, *maybe*, if your B-Wing is a Dagger (ps4) and loses initiative to a squad of ps4 PTL Sabers, where the Sabers have to move first, you can pony up to range 1 on one. More often than not, though, that's not going to happen. If there are B-Wings with AB on the table it should be child's play for the Sabers to make sure they're out of range, or arc, or both, of the B-Wings by using their ridiculous speed, boost, and barrel roll as needed.

And then, more often than not, if you DO get in range/arc, you had to barrel roll to do so, and if you did that you're not going to be able to focus and better hope that you already had the Interceptor target-locked, or you're rolling 3 dice and hoping luck is on your side.

AB is very good (but expensive) for what it does, but it really only does the one thing well. And most of the time, the targets it's meant to hit are very good at simply running away and arc dodging and not giving you a chance to use it.

My point is, if you look at a card in a vacuum, in only the specific situation which it is tailored to, you're not going to get a true sense of its value.

You might think a NASCAR car is the greatest car in the world, because even though it costs $150,000 or something, it can go in excess of 200mph and blow away everything else on the track. That's great, if you're racing on a nice flat oval track and only going left. Try taking it to an offroad race and see how far that gets you.

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That's a great point, but would you call a nascar car "underwhelming"? No, I would call it super powerful in the right situation. Same goes for autoblaster, it's anything but underwhelming - it just had a specific use.

It depends. Would I call a NASCAR car "underwhelming?" If I was trying to race it in the Baja Open, yes. Yes, I would. If I was trying to take it to a Formula-1 race, where it needed to slalom through the streets? Yeah, I suspect I would be pretty underwhelmed with my $150 grand investment.

If I knew for a fact I was going to be playing against nothing but agility 3 ships, maybe with stealth, I might consider it a decent investment, but even then for range 1 and 1 less attack die than you'd have firing normally at range 1, I'd still think it didn't give enough bang for the buck when I look at the other things I could have spent that 5 points on.

Here's a good breakdown with some math as to why AB is such an underwhelming card:

http://teamcovenant.com/theorist/2013/10/02/second-look-autoblaster/

Autoblaster:

Good: High Agility Ships at Range 1.

Bad: Everything else.

Against those Stealth Device equipped Interceptors it will be Golden but how bout against Y-Wings? Has someone run the numbers to know where Ignoring defense dice at range 1 (but remember CRITS can still be cancelled!) with a 3 dice attack is better than just making a 4 dice attack? If you could match up Autoblasters with 2 die primary attack ship it would be more useful but when you give up a dice for all ships that can currently use it those points are expensive.

how often are you going to get a ship like a bwing or slave 1 into range 1 to use it? Only if you take engine upgrades, high pilots, expert handling, navigator, etc. that's a whole lot of points to get to where you need to be to make it work. now, if I was right (I am not) and the opponent did not get to roll defense dice, it would be worth souping up a bwing to get it there, but since they can evade crits, and probably cancel one hit with an evade token, I don't see the benefit in most cases. I did ok with it on fett because of his natural maneuverability and high pilot skill, and it is glorious at times. but in the above example you also focused. so if attacking with your primary dice, adding one for range 1, and taking that same focus, you are still likely to dish out the damage and have a decent shot and sticking a crit as well. I want to like it, I really do. I thought the range restriction was appropraite, but that combined with the ability to cancel crits, and probably losing one die to evade......well, I still want to like it.