Gunnery teams was one of the cards seen quite often in pre 1.5. However I was moving away from this card for quite awhile before 1.5 came out, and then when it did you now need to resolve a con fire command to trigger its ability. So is gunnery teams still worth it? In a word yes, but it needs to be in the right list in my opinion. In this weeks AMM we are going to look at what gunnery team can do for you, what kind of list wants to take it, and what other options you should consider in its place and why.
Gunnery teams is a bit of a weird card it makes you play inefficiently. What I mean by that is the best way to kill a ship is to overheat it's defense tokens and watch damage stick. This means its better to attack the same ship twice, because it puts more pressure on defense tokens. Gunnery teams makes you want to play completely differently use your most powerful battery armament twice, but against two completely deferent targets. This means a ship using gunnery teams wont be able to overheat tokens at least not by itself.
Even with this inefficient way of play it does have a few upsides. First when you have a ships with a huge arc it is very possible for opponent ships to escape a double arc and if two ships are in your big powerful arc and no other arc at least you will still get two shots. Its also nice to attack a ship then squadrons out the same arc. The ships that have the super powered arc can take out smaller ships in one shot so getting a two for is really nice, however much less likely now a days with the evade change.
However this just makes gunnery teams nice to have, and as a general rule for list building don't take nice to have upgrades they just take away points from need to haves. So when would you take gunnery teams? Gunnery teams does on other thing that is fairly interesting, it takes your most powerful arc and lets it put pressure on two separate ships defense tokens. However in order to take advantage of this its important to have some way to put follow up presser on BOTH ships you attacked so you can get them to burn tokens, and really start to get damage to stick. Gunnery teams lets the right kind of list focus down two ships at once instead of just one at a time, so if your list is not capable of putting heavy pressure on two ships at once don't take gunnery teams, let me show you what I mean.
Imperial II (120) • Moff Jerjerrod (23) • Captain Brunson (9) • Gunnery Team (7) • Reactive Gunnery (4) • SW-7 Ion Batteries (5) • Linked Turbolaser Towers (7) = 175 Points
Gladiator I (56) • Ordnance Experts (4) • External Racks (4) • Demolisher (10) = 74 Points
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54) • Director Krennic (8) • Slaved Turrets (6) = 68 Points
Raider I (44) • Ordnance Experts (4) • Corvus (2) = 50 Points
Squadrons: • 4 x TIE Fighter Squadron (32) = 32 Points
Total Points: 399
In a list like the above list we take gunnery teams on our ISD, because both the Arquitens and Gladiator are capable of putting a lot of presser on a ships defense tokens as they both can hit very hard a long with the ISD. This forces ships to spend tokens like brace very quickly because of how much punch each attack from all of our ships pack. The Gladiator can go after a ship on the left Arquitens can go after a ship on the right and the ISD can run up the middle and split its attack to help each ship overwhelm the other ships defense tokens. This tactic could also work in a double ISD list, have both ISD target the same two ships with Gunnery teams. Lets look at another list.
Imperial II (120) • General Romodi (20) • Captain Brunson (9) • Gunnery Team (7) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) • Reactive Gunnery (4) • SW-7 Ion Batteries (5) • Chimaera (4) • Intensify Firepower! (6) = 178 Points
Onager Testbed (96) • Admiral Ozzel (2) • Ordnance Experts (4) • Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6) • Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5) • Cataclysm (5) = 118 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23) • Hondo Ohnaka (2) • Munitions Resupply (3) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) = 31 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23) • Darth Vader (1) • Reserve Hangar Deck (3) = 27 Points
Squadrons: • 4 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (44) = 44 Points
Total Points: 398
This list is an example of a list that in my opinion should not take gunnery teams. The issue with this list taking gunnery teams is that its not really capable of putting the pressure needed to force defense token discards from two ships in a single round. Using the ISD to double arc with this list would be much more effective at bringing down ships then splinting damage between two ships instead of focusing down one ship faster. I hope that is clear a list than can reliably put presser on two ships each round to discard defense tokens gunnery teams is a good choice otherwise pick something else.
So when gunnery teams is not for you what is?
Local Fire Control is almost always a good pick. Getting to salvo lets you really put the pressure on the ship you are trying to focus down and overheat its tokens, and if you already have done that your salvo token can act as a deterrent from attacking you.
Weapon Battery Techs is also a really good choice. It makes getting blue crits pretty easy meaning you can trigger Ion Cannon Batteries or Heavy Ion Emplacements very reliably. It can also just act as a light dice fixer, sometimes you just really don't need that accuracy and well now you have a crit its not a bad upgrade even if you don't need blue crits; other dice fixing options are likely better, but its still good.
Flight Controllers is a good option even if you just have a light screen it makes them just that much more punchy. You need to take this on a ship with at least 3 squadron, but it is a very solid option.
Gunnery Chief Varnillian for the Empire can be really nice, especially when using the focusing tactic as sometimes you just have a little over kill so save one of the dice for the next ship you are looking to gun down. She also works great with salvo
Caitken and Shollan is a great way to get the re-rolls you need they are a very nice upgrade for the rebels. They only work on one attack, but on a ship with a lot of dice of one color it can be amazing dice fixing.
Last one I will mention is Boarding Troopers. Now this also requires an offensive retrofit slot, but this card will put a lot of pressure on defense tokens even if you only have a squadron value of 2 you can knock out a brace and salvo and that just feels nice. They really play into the focus tactic very well and I think they are a bit of a sleeper card, even without avenger they are still very good
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That's it for this weeks AMM. What do you think of gunnery teams? How do you use it? Until next time have a great week!
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