Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So... if you're a Tie Fighter pilot, assuming you can't barrel roll your way out of trouble, do you focus or evade?

A focus token increases your chances of getting an evade on the defence dice from 3/8 to 5/8.

An evade token however, guarantees at least one evade result, but nothing more.

I guess at Range 1-2, a guaranteed evade result might be a tempting lifeline when you've only got three dice to roll while at Range 3, 4 dice would mean an increased chance of a focus coming up, so perhaps it make more sense to focus at this distance.

Thoughts?

For TIEs 4 or less, pilot level, it's focus. They generally get ignored and are not expected to do much. If they survive the attack; the attack back with focus makes up for that one or two hits.

Now if I see some assault missiles on my opponent's ships, I am running evade until those missiles are gone.

The lower your defense, the more effective Evade becomes relative to Focus. Evade can be great on the Falcon, because it guarantees you will cancel one hit and gives you a chance to cancel two. Evade is also relatively better on more expensive ships.

With TIE Fighters, evade is only worthwhile if you know that specific ship will get shot at, AND you don't think you will have a shot that turn. Otherwise, Focus gives you more flexibility. On a higher PS pilot, you may also be able to barrel roll out of harm's way, making evade pointless.

The biggest problem with Evade is that it is a purely defensive option (with one exception) and so it is less appealing if you think you will shoot this turn.

Only been playing awhile but this is a great question for any player. I agree with alot of whats already been posted too. One thing I'd like to add as food for thought is that X-wing like many games where the dice are identical except for how many you get, you can game the system on how many more dice can I generate over the course of the game than my opponent? Easy way to do that is often times simply living longer. Consider a B-wing has the same attack value as an X-wing and is slower and less agile. But its durability over the course of a game may allow it to bring those three dice against a target 4 or more times for a total of eighteen dice! While the X-wing only get as few as two runs for a measly 6 dice. I often joke that a TIE fighter only starts to bother me after being allowed to live for three turns of shooting haha So the moral is I generally try to keep my dudes alive because they are not just a one time investment, In another light they are a resource generator. So evade is usually my friend, focus can wait for a good opportunity. Probably basic but, basics are where you win games and wars so the wise folk tell me.

Ok, let's do some math for our TIE fighter, base defense dice with no bonuses or penalties:

Evading uses up your action to give you a 100% chance of avoiding a single point of damage.

Focusing uses up your action to give you a focus token that can be spent to give you a:
* 57% chance of avoiding at least a single point of damage (by converting at least one {eye} to an {evade}) against one attack, assuming you didn't already roll well enough to avoid all of the shots without spending your focus token (a fairly safe assumption).
* 82% chance of avoiding at least a single point of damage against two attacks.
* 92% chance of avoiding at least a single point of damage against three attacks.
* A non-trivial chance of avoiding more than one point of damage (by converting multiple {eye}s to {evade}s).

So, what do we learn from this? If what you want is maximum defense then the evade action is clearly superior, especially if you're facing a small number of attacks. However, evading comes with a huge opportunity cost: unlike focus, it can't be spent on offense. If you don't get attacked, you wasted it. So the question here is whether or not the improved defense from evading is worth committing yourself to pure defense for the turn. So, some general rules:

* Ships that can stack actions (TIE interceptors, A-wings) will focus and evade, unless they want to boost or whatever instead of evading. Why pick one or the other when you can take both?

* Ships that will not have an attack should almost always evade unless they have extra defense dice to make focusing more valuable, since you're not going to shoot anyway. Depending on how aggressively you want to play this may even include situations where you have no good attacks to make, such as an academy pilot against Soontir Fel (with stacked focus + evade) at range 3 through an asteroid.

* Swarm TIEs will almost always focus instead of evading, unless you're in full-defense mode at the end of the game and trying desperately to keep your last ships alive long enough to win. Only a small number of your TIEs will be attacked each turn, so the majority of your squadron is wasting their action. Take the slightly less effective defense on the one ship they're going to shoot at in exchange for giving everyone else a focus token on offense.

* Howlrunner should evade. Her own shooting is much less relevant than the bonus she hands out every turn that she's alive.

* Other "elite" TIEs are a judgement call: the correct answer to focus vs. evade will probably depend on the exact situation that turn and how much you need offense vs. defense.

yeah,

 Pound Puppy wrote:
If I see some assault missiles on my opponent's ships, I am running evade until those missiles are gone.

Can you evade the splash damage?

Panic...

 Panic wrote:
Can you evade the splash damage?

No. Like mines/asteroids/etc the splash damage is just automatic and bypasses the entire attack vs. defense dice system. The post you quoted is talking about evading to maximize defense and avoid the initial hit that triggers the splash damage.

Exactly as Peregrine says here

* Swarm TIEs will almost always focus instead of evading, unless you're in full-defense mode at the end of the game and trying desperately to keep your last ships alive long enough to win. Only a small number of your TIEs will be attacked each turn, so the majority of your squadron is wasting their action. Take the slightly less effective defense on the one ship they're going to shoot at in exchange for giving everyone else a focus token on offense.

and here:

 Panic wrote:
Can you evade the splash damage?

No. Like mines/asteroids/etc the splash damage is just automatic and bypasses the entire attack vs. defense dice system. The post you quoted is talking about evading to maximize defense and avoid the initial hit that triggers the splash damage.

In the smart TIE swarm against assault missiles, all ships should use evade; because, we all know the gods will make sure that one guy who didn't will be targeted and hit.

Also with a swarm, you shouldn't be too concern about avoiding hits and should be concentrating your fire via focus to get in far more hits then your opponent can dish out.

Interesting thoughts all. Many thanks

Flashman

I always go through a check list of what I'm going to do.


If I can get out of Range of a ship and still get a shot at it without ramming into everything and messing up my formation, I'll barrel roll every time.

If that's not possible, I'll Evade. I have Howlrunner so I still get one reroll if I'm in range.

If I am out of their firing arc or if I'm going to pass an Action from Vader via Squad Leader( like if Vader is just not going to be in as good of a position as say Mauler Mithel or Backstabber) then I'll focus and in the case of Vader's Action either Barrel roll or Evade based on what going through the Checklist shows me.

My Meta is full of Big ships running Gunner so I try to minimize damage flying at my ships from those to One damage instead of clearing it to stop them from using gunner, That's not something you can guarantee when using Focus. If a Bounty Hunter hits 2 times and you roll 2 focus and a blank, using that Focus could put you at risk of him rolling 3 hits and you wiffing, losing that TIE all together or risk him getting a Crit through with Gunner and crippling your ship. That being said eating two damage when you have 3 hull does not a pretty picture make.


But my list isn't a true TIE Swarm, It's all named Black Squadron Pilots that Have Howlrunner on Loan from Black Sqaudron, So I only have 17HP and anywhere from 10-17 attack dice across 5 ships and losing any of those named Pilots (other than Dark Curse) hurts my list more than someone who is running Howlrunner + 6 Academy TIEs losing one of the Academys.