Talk:Wedge Antilles/@comment-30765049-20161220132823/@comment-454133-20161220215540

Short answer: For rebels, not so much. Scum and Empire have good tractor beam options, but they can't fly with Wedge except in custom mixed-faction scenarios.

Full answer:

The typical TIE will have 1 agility left even with Wedge Outmaneuvering him, and it could have an evade or focus token. At that point, with luck it could shed up to 2 damage (but usually only 1, with the evade token). You could certainly fly with a YT-2400 or B-Wing to reduce that last agility with a tractor beam, maybe even throwing the target into position for a more optimal shot. You could also fly with Wes Janson (with Adaptability) to drop the evade token.

However, there's an opportunity cost in pursuing such a focused strategy. It's worth a try, but I'd say the tractor beam is less potent than simply focus-firing the target with normal 3+ dice attacks and letting the odds do their evil deed. A Twin Laser Turret is a particularly good way to play the odds against the target -- they may have 3 agility, but it's decently likely that one of those attacks will get through to ping them for a damage, or at least make them waste their tokens.

Reducing the target from 1 agility to 0 would presumably increase Wedge's expected damage by only 0.38 or 0.63 per shot (the odds of the one remaining die rolling an evade, without or with a focus). You get a lot more out of reducing their agility from 3->2 or from 2->1. See the table on Dice for more info. Simply attacking with a 3 dice ship and scoring the same hit you needed with the tractor beam would deal 1.0 or more damage (the tractor beam has slightly better hit odds at range 3, but that's it). So a normal attack is likely better than a tractor beam shot, all other costs being equal etc.

The evade token is a greater value (1.0), so Wes is more valuable than the tractor beam in that sense (aside from the repositioning potential). And he's not a bad ship at all, quite potent in fact: good attack power, useful ability, and high PS, decent maneuver dial. A hit from Wes both deals damage and possibly removes a token. Assuming equal point investment, you get more bang from Wes than a tractor beam YT or B-Wing.

Finally, putting a tractor beam on a YT-2400 or B-Wing (both expensive ships with potentially powerful attacks) to empower another ship's attack feels like undervaluing them. They do a good deal of damage on their own, and they cost an aweful lot to be spending their single attack per round on a short-term debuff that's as likely to miss as their primary attack. Tractor beams are usually attached to cheaper Cannon ships (e.g. Scyks), or ships with multiple attacks (like the TIE Defender).

BTW this is a lot of opinions on my end -- I do not want to suppress other peoples' opinions on the matter! Please correct me if I'm overstating or misinterpreting! Or even if you see other ways of thinking about it.