Oftentimes, the most powerful upgrades are the simplest. No truer is this than in the tech slot, especially within the context of the TIE/vn. Granted, other tech options are quite powerful on the Silencer. Primed Thrusters allow the craft to be either more aggressive after advanced maneuvers or keep an effectively open dial after stressing. Pattern Analyzer gives the craft high time on target and allows actions despite maneuvering over asteroids or gas clouds. But the cheapest tech upgrade useful to the Silencer is not only guaranteed to uptick damage output, but is also Hyperspace legal.
Now, in order to demonstrate why this is useful on a craft that naturally has full mods in the form of Kylo and can easily generate full mods through Fanatical, one has to consider the decision-making factor of the game. Often, it can be difficult to decide who to lock when you are locking. Will that I6 abscond? How many guns do I need on this target? How many, if any, focus results should I reroll? How much force should I spend if I accidentally reroll something into a blank? What happens if I lock but the target is destroyed and the upcoming shot is less powerful? What happens if I think I’ll have killed the target so I locked something else, but it still lives? These are decisions whose consequences for either making the wrong choice or sometimes plain bad variance will make themselves felt, especially when dealing with friendly or enemy I6’s. To throw in further opportunities for bad decisions, when encountering an enemy that moves after you, you add in the question of tokening for defense or locking the incoming enemy.
If, however, the use of the focus token is expanded, there will be fewer reasons to not take it. Therefore, fewer mistakes/instances of getting screwed by variance will take place.
It must be noted that when modding dice, the quality of the modifications matter almost as much as the number of modifications. For instance, lock + 1 force charge is noticeably less accurate than lock + focus, especially as the red dice count increases. Fortunately, the cost in accuracy the Silencer pays for opting into optics instead of a lock is a very minimal one, one that typically involves rolling 4 red dice. In fact, in many cases, it becomes more accurate when using optics instead of the lock. To illustrate the sheer consistency of Advanced Optics, consider the following table.
| Lock Focus | Lock 2 Force | Lock 1 Force | Optics 2 Force | Optics 1 Force | Lock Optics 2 Force | Lock Optics 1 Force | |
| 3 dice | 2.81 | 2.79 | 2.65 | 2.82 | 2.78 | 2.99 | 2.97 |
| 4 dice | 3.75 | 3.67 | 3.46 | 3.67 | 3.56 | 3.97 | 3.93 |
Unless we disregard the turns where locking for later is pretty much all the ship wants to do or the turns a crit needs to be forced, when attacking with your typical amount of dice, Optics + 1 Force/Fanatical is actually more accurate than Locking with 1 Force/Fanatical. Similarly, Optics + 2 Force is even more accurate than Lock Focus when rolling 3 dice. Granted, Lock + Focus remains the king of the conversion rate of 4 dice or more (before pointing to the last two columns, remember that Lock + Focus is the workhorse of that triple mod conversion), especially as the counts increase to 5 (Proton Rockets or Advanced Proton Torpedoes), but I left the 5 dice values from this table due to this post’s focus on efficiently making correct decisions and upping damage output.
I cannot stress the value of Advanced Optics when facing Kylo’s greatest nemeses: Vader and Soontir. Their ability to swoop in and exchange a double-modded shot in exchange for only a single-modded shot is not to be taken lightly. Fortunately, with Advanced Optics, Kylo stands a sporting chance, and in some matchups has the upper hand. The ability to return fire with full mods yourself scares Soontir off many a time and can pose problems for Vader without the evade action, especially if your squad manages to focus fire on the Dark Lord. Granted, in extended, I’d still place my bets on the Vader and Soontir squad (my loss to Dale Cromwell at World’s and most my games with Pyoinator have taught me that). But a chance is a chance, and not to be disregarded.
Fortunately, Vader and Soontir are only the worse of cases, and Kylo’s full mods even on the first round of engagements against enemy I6’s make their approaches wary. Fenn’s approaches are even more cautious, and if he’s stressed, Kylo has an idea of how fast he can go comfortably. Wedge thinks twice about his single-modded shot on Kylo without the full support of his squad, which can lead to the First Order splitting the enemy and mucking things about. Poe really wonders if his attack angle is correct. The ability to turn an arc-dodger into an area-denying piece a la Braylen Stramm or a single-modded Upsilon can work wonders when your arc-dodging capacity is limited by the enemy’s Initiative number or bid. And it becomes absolutely comical in some cases. My Fac + 5 matchup at World’s went pretty much the way it typically does on Vassal: Kylo Supernats a barrel roll back out into a hard 1 in and focuses for full mods. Fac doesn’t like that his only engagement range is 2 or 3, so he bugs out. Kylo locks and cycles out so Fac certainly doesn’t have a good shot, if any. From then on, Kylo bullies the I6 to death by either swiftly covering ground where Fac can’t pump the brakes safely, or by playing the TIE/ph candy-cane to hold back. Despite being outbid 13 pt, IIRC. But nearly all this talk is extended. Which means Kylo can’t Supernatural Reflexes without some Jerry-rigged help, but at the same time, Vader can’t boost except in the N-1 (of which Kylo was never concerned with) and Soontir is not present. What remain present, however, are the ever-reliable Advanced Optics.
If you can fit Advanced Optics, by all means, throw them on Kylo (unless you have Fanatical Silencers in your list, as they would benefit significantly more from them, especially in being open to spend the focus on defense should a shot come their way). It may seem counter-intuitive to place the accuracy-correcting upgrade on Kylo, but as a point-fortress if need be, a closer for sure, and consistently your list’s sledgehammer, Kylo makes the best use out of them. If you need a bid, especially if you’re fielding the TIE/ba, you might want to hold Advanced Optics off. If you have room for upgrades after the bid with the TIE/ba, you might still want to look for other options to boost the general squad efficiency (such as Daredevil/Outmaneuver on Vonreg or Proud Tradition/Daredevil on Holo). But if you haven’t tried Advanced Optics on the TIE/vn, give it a go. It’ll transform your view on the tech slot until FFG rotates the curated format.
Screaming into the Void 