Guess who’s back, back again

[Snap Shot]‘s back, tell a friend

After being sadly absent from the game for about a year, this much-loved, fan-favorite upgrade is making a highly anticipated comeback!

And at range 2 instead of 1st edition range 1; that’s approximately 3x the attack area!

(We’ll see in practice whether range 2 is actually better than range 1)

Like many other players, I have 5 beautiful repainted RZ-1 A-Wings (that a friend very kindly did for me), because Snapping A-Wings were such great fun.

Skittle Squadron! Let’s get these bad boys back on the table.

(I also needed a pretty picture to make up for the incoming wall of text)

So in preparation for this grand occasion, I looked through all 247 upgrade cards and 348 pilot cards (released before Wave 5) to find combinations and good places for Snap Shot.

Rules

With that many cards to potentially combo with, its good to figure out the rules as to what will and what won’t work. Link to Rules Reference v1.0.4

Firstly, Snap Shot is a Special Weapon (yes, even though it is a Talent upgrade). To quote the rules reference this means “Since special weapons are not primary weapons, they do not benefit from abilities that trigger while performing a primary attack.” There’s an awful lot of pilot and upgrade cards that interact with primary attacks that won’t interact with Snap Shot, an important one for us 1st edition veterans is Crack Shot. Snap Crack A-Wings can’t Crack Shot on a Snap Shot any longer. And, being a Special Weapon, you could choose to shoot with Snap Shot when you engage, but I can’t think of a good reason why you would want to. Also the rule that a ship can only perform one bonus attack per round applies.

(yes, even though it is a Talent upgrade). To quote the rules reference this means “Since special weapons are not primary weapons, they do not benefit from abilities that trigger while performing a primary attack.” There’s an awful lot of pilot and upgrade cards that interact with primary attacks that won’t interact with Snap Shot, an important one for us 1st edition veterans is Crack Shot. Snap Crack A-Wings can’t Crack Shot on a Snap Shot any longer. And, being a Special Weapon, you could choose to shoot with Snap Shot when you engage, but I can’t think of a good reason why you would want to. Also the rule that a ship can only perform one bonus attack per round applies. Timing is also important, Snap Shot triggers after an enemy ship executes a maneuver, which is between steps 2 (Execute Maneuver) and 3 (Perform Action) of activating a ship. Therefore, that ship generally has no tokens to defend or repositions to escape. However, in 2nd edition there are a myriad of other cards and abilities that trigger after you (fully/partially) execute a maneuver (see below). More rules: “If both players have abilities that triggered from the same event, the abilities are added to the ability queue in player order.” So with any of these other effects present, if first player has Snap Shot, Snap Shot happens first, if second player has Snap Shot, Snap Shot happens last.

Cards/Abilities with the same timing and have an effect that matters to Snap Shot: Lando Calrissian (Modified YT-1300), Full Throttle (TIE Defenders, N-1 Starfighters), Night Beast, Fine-Tuned Controls (Delta-7 Aethersprites), Ahsoka Tano, Kad Solus, 4-LOM, Temmin Wexley, Elusive, Afterburners, R4-P17, R4-P44, Dauntless, Unkar Plutt (crew).

The other highly relevant bit of rules is Dice Modification. Adding, changing, rerolling or spending a die result is all dice modification and and cannot be done to the attack dice during a Snap Shot attack. Note: “Rolling additional dice or fewer dice is not a dice modification.”

Onto the combos, breaking them down into the good, the bad and the ugly.*

*Points dependent of course

Also there’s waaaaay too many cards being mentioned here, so no pictures or ability text. But I linked them all to a picture if you don’t know any of the abilities. You’re welcome.

The Good

There’s no R3-A2, but these ones might work effectively, in no particular order:

New pilot in upcoming Nantex expansion deserves a picture

The Bad

These ones probably won’t work well:

Outrider : Let’s you ‘ignore’ obstacles when Snap Shotting (+1 green dice, then -1 green dice), probably not worth, better off with Snap Shot on a different chassis and a different Talent on the YT-2400

: Let’s you ‘ignore’ obstacles when Snap Shotting (+1 green dice, then -1 green dice), probably not worth, better off with Snap Shot on a different chassis and a different Talent on the YT-2400 Trick Shot : Only available on A-Wings with the 2 Talent slots, but probably to tricky to get to trigger and not worth the points

: Only available on A-Wings with the 2 Talent slots, but probably to tricky to get to trigger and not worth the points Juke , Outmaneuver : Again, only for A-Wings. Should be easier to trigger than Trick Shot, but at 6 or 7 points plus the (estimated) 5ish for Snap Shot, that’s a lot of points being put into an A-Wing. As much of a A-Wing fanboy that I am, I don’t see this being the combo of choice. Better off with Crack Shot or Heroic in the 2nd Talent slot, even though they don’t interact with Snap Shot attacks.

, : Again, only for A-Wings. Should be easier to trigger than Trick Shot, but at 6 or 7 points plus the (estimated) 5ish for Snap Shot, that’s a lot of points being put into an A-Wing. As much of a A-Wing fanboy that I am, I don’t see this being the combo of choice. Better off with Crack Shot or Heroic in the 2nd Talent slot, even though they don’t interact with Snap Shot attacks. Lieutenant Kestal : In most situations the defender will have no way to modify their focus or blank results (unless coordinated, Full Throttle, gas cloud, force… actually there are a few ways). Still weird edge case, put the Snap Shot on something else cheaper/better

: In most situations the defender will have no way to modify their focus or blank results (unless coordinated, Full Throttle, gas cloud, force… actually there are a few ways). Still weird edge case, put the Snap Shot on something else cheaper/better “Blackout” : As above with Outrider and Trick Shot, obstructed Snap Shots is trying/hoping for too much.

: As above with Outrider and Trick Shot, obstructed Snap Shots is trying/hoping for too much. Joy Reckoff : Spending a very limited and expensive resource to reduce defense dice on a weak Snap Shot attack seems like a waste.

: Spending a very limited and expensive resource to reduce defense dice on a weak Snap Shot attack seems like a waste. Rexler Brath : His ability only works while evading, so generally won’t be active until after he activates at Initiative 5, reducing the opportunity for a nasty Snap Shot.

: His ability only works while evading, so generally won’t be active until after he activates at Initiative 5, reducing the opportunity for a nasty Snap Shot. 4-LOM (crew): Unless Full Throttle with a first player bid becomes the meta, Snap Shot attacks are unlikely to run into any green tokens on defense that need nullifying.

(crew): Unless Full Throttle with a first player bid becomes the meta, Snap Shot attacks are unlikely to run into any green tokens on defense that need nullifying. Synchronized Console : I mostly just think this card is bad in general, but this combo does have the interesting effect of being able to pass a lock up the initiative chain. Action neutral and needing the enemy to fly a certain way to get the combo off doesn’t feel the best.

: I mostly just think this card is bad in general, but this combo does have the interesting effect of being able to pass a lock up the initiative chain. Action neutral and needing the enemy to fly a certain way to get the combo off doesn’t feel the best. “Midnight” : Bad card with a fringe use as defense dice from Snap Shots are generally unmodified.

: Bad card with a fringe use as defense dice from Snap Shots are generally unmodified. “Axe”: This one sounded alright, until I looked at the base points cost of the pilot. Not even close to value.

And the Ugly

These ones don’t work… for now

Ones that don’t work at all:

Crack Shot : I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (because its a common enough mistake, and one I have made myself), but Crack Shot is primary attacks only. No Snap, Crack, Pop.

: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (because its a common enough mistake, and one I have made myself), but Crack Shot is primary attacks only. No Snap, Crack, Pop. R5-TK : As fun as Snap Shotting a friendly ship with Deadman’s Switch might sound, Snap Shot only triggers on enemy ship’s maneuvers.

: As fun as Snap Shotting a friendly ship with Deadman’s Switch might sound, Snap Shot only triggers on enemy ship’s maneuvers. Major Rhymer : This range broadening ability on triggers for Torpedo and Missile attacks. No range 1-3 Snap Shot (holy sh*t that would be hilarious)

: This range broadening ability on triggers for Torpedo and Missile attacks. No range 1-3 Snap Shot (holy sh*t that would be hilarious) Thane Kyrell , Director Krennic +Optimized Prototype: Spending dice results counts as modifying dice, so not allowed.

, +Optimized Prototype: Spending dice results counts as modifying dice, so not allowed. IG-88B: Can only perform 1 bonus attack per round.

Ones that don’t work with current upgrade slots (which are subject to change every 6 months):

Predictive Shot : If there becomes a pilot with both Talent and Force upgrade slots, this might be a useful combo. Or might not be.

: If there becomes a pilot with both Talent and Force upgrade slots, this might be a useful combo. Or might not be. Count Dooku (pilot): If Dooku gets a Talent slot, performing an action at weird times in the activation phase could be good.

(pilot): If Dooku gets a Talent slot, performing an action at weird times in the activation phase could be good. Ben Teene : As good as applying the Rattled condition in the Activation phase would be, no Talent slot.

: As good as applying the Rattled condition in the Activation phase would be, no Talent slot. Same for Caption Rex and “Wampa”, no Talent slot, no fun allowed.

And a lot more I skipped over because they don’t work, so mostly irrelevant. Dozens of things that work with primary weapons or modifying dice.

I probably should have done more research before writing most of this, as after having written most of it, I ventured onto the FFG forums and reddit (something I don’t do a lot of) to maybe find a couple things I missed, and found recent threads on the same topic on both of them! FFG Forums Thread and Reddit thread. But whatever, I’d done most of the work, and I’d like to think I have less mistakes than some of the discussion (I gave up correcting them all here, Snap Shot is not a primary attack FYI). Enjoy!

-Nathan

Blog post number 20! With almost 37,000 total views before posting this, I’m very happy with how this little venture is going. Thanks everyone!