Yeah, I messed around with a squad awhile back trying to get it to work... And it really didn't work out. I think it was something along the lines of:

Jan w/ Squad Leader + Ion

Ibby w/ Expose + FCS

Dutch w/ Ion + APT

100pts total

This way Jan could hand Ibby a Focus, Ibby could Expose, Dutch can hand out a TL. And then Jan can hand out an additional attack die. And Ibby could maintain a TL with FCS for future attacks, allowing Jan to keep her action. And the APT can be modified with Jan to make it really deadly. But the problem is as soon as any one ship is killed, this list is useless. If it's Ibby, then you're left with two ion turrets. If it's Jan / Dutch, Expose becomes useless, and you have a gimped Ibby (who could have had PTL + AdSns for the same points)

You could sub Jan for Garven for a bit more longetivity to the list. And then you have 14 points left to buff everyone else... Likely AdvSns, R2D2, and either HLC or APT. But again, the list has one specific purpose, that is rather easy to disrupt.

You're using the wrong agility. R1 the X wing only has 2 agility.

Edit: I can't figure out where your numbers are coming from - they don't agree with mine for 3 agility dice either. There's no reason for my formula to be wrong with 3 attack dice but work just fine with 2 attack dice - are you sure your numbers aren't slightly off?

Edit 2: Nope... I found the error in mine. Forgot to add the rolling 3 hits and 2 evades... don't know why I missed it on those cells when I didn't on anything else.

This one reason why I like using scripts instead of Excel. Carefully program it once, and then it's pretty idiot proof later when calling the function. I'm sure I would make a bunch of mistakes if I had to manually calculate stuff every time in Excel. You know you can use the VB Editor (ALT+F11) to write custom macros. Very handy. I use Matlab so I can wrap a ton of other code around it (it scales WAY better than Excel once you start talking about more complicated scenarios to analyze), but you can still do scripts in Excel.

Yeah... I should have done all of it in Matlab. But it started so simple... and has just exploded into so much more than the initial scope of the project, and I hate to rewrite it all in Matlab. One of these days I should bite the bullet and do that though. I have all the formula's written out, and then I can continue to expand (ordnance is next) properly. *sigh* Lets get started...

I see lots of people comparing marksmanship to focus (for obvious reasons), but shouldn't it really be compared to TL because of its pure offensive nature?

(and really a crit is ~1.2 damage with 7/33 ~1/5)

(edit: counting the two minor explosions as 1.375 damage, then each crit is effectively 1.2348 damage, close enough)

Yeah... I should have done all of it in Matlab. But it started so simple... and has just exploded into so much more than the initial scope of the project, and I hate to rewrite it all in Matlab. One of these days I should bite the bullet and do that though. I have all the formula's written out, and then I can continue to expand (ordnance is next) properly. *sigh* Lets get started...

Well, you certainly don't have to use Matlab specifically. Any programming language will do. I just happen to use Matlab for other things, and already have a license. It's also handy for making graphs, better than Excel IMO.

I would suggest making some more generalized functions, so all you have to do is change the input vectors for ordinance. For example I have a "HitCalculator" function that has the following inputs: AttackDice, TargetLock, FocusTokens, FreeBlankToHit, FreeBlankToEye, FreeEyeToHit, FreeRerolls, FreeHits, and it returns the exact probability distribution for 0:AttackDice number of hits. This set of inputs can handle any of the attack effects currently in-game.

Yeah... I should have done all of it in Matlab. But it started so simple... and has just exploded into so much more than the initial scope of the project, and I hate to rewrite it all in Matlab. One of these days I should bite the bullet and do that though. I have all the formula's written out, and then I can continue to expand (ordnance is next) properly. *sigh* Lets get started...

Well, you certainly don't have to use Matlab specifically. Any programming language will do. I just happen to use Matlab for other things, and already have a license. It's also handy for making graphs, better than Excel IMO.

I would suggest making some more generalized functions, so all you have to do is change the input vectors for ordinance. For example I have a "HitCalculator" function that has the following inputs: AttackDice, TargetLock, FocusTokens, FreeBlankToHit, FreeBlankToEye, FreeEyeToHit, FreeRerolls, FreeHits, and it returns the exact probability distribution for 0:AttackDice number of hits. This set of inputs can handle any of the attack effects currently in-game.

That's a much simpler way of doing it. It'll sure make programming the blank->hit and howlrunner/jonus rerolls much easier. It was a pain in the $*#@# to do Luke's evade. And I can check the math against the Luke math I already did. Cool. Thanks for that suggestion. I too already have a matrawb license and experience with it, so if i'm going to write code, its going to be in there. It bugs me that does not equal is ~= in that instead of !=... and it bugs me even more that it tells you that when you put in !=... but alas, that's a small complaint against a wonderfully powerful software.

I see lots of people comparing marksmanship to focus (for obvious reasons), but shouldn't it really be compared to TL because of its pure offensive nature?

(and really a crit is ~1.2 damage with 7/33 ~1/5)

(edit: counting the two minor explosions as 1.375 damage, then each crit is effectively 1.2348 damage, close enough)

The reason why I compared it to focus is becasue Focus and TL give the same expected boost if used alone. Also it works more like a focus than a Target Lock. Yes it is purely offensive, but you can't keep it from turn to turn and you can use it on anyone you shoot at. Those are big differences between it and TL.

Another reason why I compare it to Focus, is because if for some reason you get two actions (or tokens at least) you want to trade the Focus for a Marksmanship instead of a TL for a Marksmanship because having marksmanship and focus together doesn't help much, while TL + Marksmanship does help a lot.

The statement that Focus can be used both offensively and deffensively, though true, can be a little misleading. If you have at least three attack dice and high pilot skill then two things are likely to happen. 1 you will likely shoot first (so your first oppertunity to use focus will be on attack) and you will probably roll some eyeballs on your attack. You only have a 27/64 chance of not rolling any eyeballs. Sure it happens and if it does you haven't wasted your focus, which is one great thing about focus.

I am not saying that marksmanship is awesome, or even good. I am just saying that it might not be as bad as I thought it was before I did these calcualtions. (Yes, I thought it was the second worst upgrade, after expose)

I see lots of people comparing marksmanship to focus (for obvious reasons), but shouldn't it really be compared to TL because of its pure offensive nature?

I think Hrathen just made the points. The key ones are:

1. Using TL forces you into specifying who you are attack. Marksmanship and Focus can be use on anyone you could attack.

2. TL can be held from round to round if not use. Marksmanship is used or it's not. In most cases Focus is lost at the end of the turn.

3. Marksmanship + Focus is pretty much worthless as an attack booster but Marksmanship + TL IS a valid attack boost.

Focus may have some defense value but if you want it for offense then it is just like Marksmanship (at least for one attack) except that if you do NOT need it you can use it for defense..

Yeah... I should have done all of it in Matlab. But it started so simple... and has just exploded into so much more than the initial scope of the project, and I hate to rewrite it all in Matlab. One of these days I should bite the bullet and do that though. I have all the formula's written out, and then I can continue to expand (ordnance is next) properly. *sigh* Lets get started...

Well, you certainly don't have to use Matlab specifically. Any programming language will do. I just happen to use Matlab for other things, and already have a license. It's also handy for making graphs, better than Excel IMO.

I would suggest making some more generalized functions, so all you have to do is change the input vectors for ordinance. For example I have a "HitCalculator" function that has the following inputs: AttackDice, TargetLock, FocusTokens, FreeBlankToHit, FreeBlankToEye, FreeEyeToHit, FreeRerolls, FreeHits, and it returns the exact probability distribution for 0:AttackDice number of hits. This set of inputs can handle any of the attack effects currently in-game.

That's a much simpler way of doing it. It'll sure make programming the blank->hit and howlrunner/jonus rerolls much easier. It was a pain in the $*#@# to do Luke's evade. And I can check the math against the Luke math I already did. Cool. Thanks for that suggestion. I too already have a matrawb license and experience with it, so if i'm going to write code, its going to be in there. It bugs me that does not equal is ~= in that instead of !=... and it bugs me even more that it tells you that when you put in !=... but alas, that's a small complaint against a wonderfully powerful software.

I actually posted my Matlab code (individual functions anyway) on these forums somewhere recently, but now I have no idea where it is. Feel free to dig through my post history and dig it up.

Edit: found it on page 7 of the Imperial Aces Update thread.

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/96145-imperial-aces-update/page-7