Talk:Saw Gerrera (Crew)/@comment-94.214.205.31-20180303171511/@comment-454133-20180527052521

Could be nasty indeed, but APTs are tricky to get off -- you need a lock (or focus with Deadeye) at range one with a presumably unwieldy bomber that also has a crew slot. Do-able in casual games at least though, and I'm excited to try the jank strategy with Nera + Squad Leader Jan Ors. ^_^

The Epic ships are more concerning, though I should note your options are: Tantive. And that's it. Saw is faction-locked to Rebel, and their options for huge ships are Rebel Transport (which has no attack) and Tantive. Huge ships do struggle for ways to make focus results useful, so Saw could definitely make the Tantive happier. You have 3 hardpoint and your options are Quad Laser Cannons (probably the best), Ion Cannon Battery (not great since all dice are canceled), and Single Turbolasers (4 dice, but terrible against medium- and high-agility ships while great against inagile ships). You also have your 4-dice primary, always valuable, and any or all of your hardpoints could be, say, Harpoon Missiles thanks to Ordnance Tubes (plus optional Weapons Engineer and even Ordnance Experts + Gunnery Team).

That's scary, given that the tantive has 11 - 13 health per section and the ability to restore shields, though in practice it's always harder than that. Unlike APTs, most shots don't convert blanks to focuses, so the number of focuses you roll will be limited (typically 1 or sometimes 2 per shot). If you're making 3 or 4 shots per round, dealing 3 or 4 damage to yourself, you have to wonder why the enemy isn't capitalizing on your self-harm and piling on the damage to kill you. They can start dealing irreversible damage to you very quickly if you're helping, so you need to be judicious with your use of Saw.

And if you're spending every round or two restoring shields on the front or back, that's energy that isn't available to power your weapons -- quad laser cannons, single turbo lasers, gunnery team, etc. Huge Ship play is all about finding a viable balance of energy, actions, positioning, etc, and exploiting Saw the wrong way could be power-gaming us into a corner. But with very judicious use, it could instead be used to make crucial shots count and give you an edge.

So is this scary? I dunno, and this all feels too hypothetical for me. Most people didn't realize how broken Jumpmasters were, and everyone's terrified of OP Protectorate Starfighters until they've fought them a couple times and realized their flaws. I've found the best way to know is to playtest and find out. ^_^  Let me know if you play Epic and it turns out to be unreasonably overpowered, balanced, wimpy/suicidal, etc!