Sunday, March 11, 2018

Defensive Retrofit Updates

Added in EWS, updated AP and Cluster Bombs.  Hit the jump for the relevant portions:

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-best-defensive-retrofits.html




Mark, have you tried NOT cheating on your girlfriend?
Our wave 7 entrant, Early Warning System (EWS) is exactly the same cost as ECM (above).  EWS makes one hull zone of your choice obstructed.  This doesn't stack with other obstruction effects (Cracken, obstacles), but it does mean EVERYTHING (not Jaina's Light) rolls one less dice against you with it.  It's REALLY good on the front arcs of ISDs or the side arcs of HMC80s (those big arcs that multiple fighters and ships want to fire dice into).  It softly shuts down a LOT of squadron attacks, and can potentially ruin any chance Yavaris had of getting to double-attack with the squadrons it activates.  It's more fun combined with your own SFC in order to ensure that you've neutered a squadron heavy fleet flying right at you.

So how do you pick which one to use, EWS or ECM? If you fear a squadron heavy fleet or a bunch of tiny attacks from CR90 or Raider swarms coming right for you, EWS (when the hull zone is picked correctly) will counter them.  If you fear fighting other ships that would lock down your defense tokens, preventing their usage while they fire large attacks into you, well then I suggest ECM.  Both have their uses, and while EWS just showed up, it's definitely a good card already, that I can tell.

AP update:
What's going to happen to AP now that EWS exists? Well, damage PREVENTION beats damage MOVING, so I don't predict much of a life for AP now outside of a few specific builds.  I am happy to be proven wrong, of course, but EWS seems stronger to me (and doesn't have the XI7 restriction, for that matter).

Cluster Bombs update:
For you rebels (not Rebels, haha) who want to make this card your THING, well let me say that you're going to need to bring these in multiples and you'll want to make sure that any squadron you hit goes DOWN and doesn't get to stick around at half health to finish you off.  Make sure you're flakking heavily, and you should still (just like Raiders!) bring in a SFC to deal with squadrons.  I've seen people take 1 of these on their big ship and expect it to solve all their squadron problems.  Don't do that; this card (and all these retrofits for that matter) are attempts at damage prevention.  It won't solve all your problems but it should help you out in some fashion.  If you go up against a squadron presence, flak heavily, flak often, and move fast towards taking out their carriers.  MC30s and CR90s are where I've seen this used well, I leave any other attempts as an exercise to the reader.

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