given the fattie is thus far the only ship whose rear arc isn't completely horrible and has the flexibility of two "primary" arcs with a neb's allotment of long range firepower, I feel mention should be made of their ability to employ the much vaunted tactic of

I suppose I did miss that in the Roles section. The ship makes an excellent Kiter. Keep the enemy at range chasing you, while other ships close from the flank. Easier said than done though.

Nice article! I really enjoyed it.

The Guppie is almost too good

I think it should be noted that the AFII is the first of the Rebel ships that have better broadsides than forward firing weapons. As such its tactical role in a fleet may be questionable somewhat.

For example, in the role of protecting a Nebulon B it is a waste of points. Yes, it may keep a GSD away from the flank of the Nebulon but at the expense of not getting its best arc firing at the GSD to begin with or if you are getting the best of the AFII then you are foregoing the best of the Neb. Mind you have the Neb to the rear and off to the flank of the AFII and you have a nice synergy and close/medium range (to/from the AFII), just try to avoid a direction change as the formation will break apart during a turn.

Blocking a Gladiator isn't best achieved by using the Nebulon to physically block as you have but to fly a "V" formation with te AF to the front and two Nebs to the left rear and right rear as to achieve overlapping fire zones.

You can also throttle up the AFII to speed 2 or 3, and turn into the GSD that point.

That keeps the NebB cruising at speed one, and gets you potentially 2 arcs on the flank ship, or sets you up for the broadside on whatever the Neb is pointed on.

That advice is situational, and it tends to lead to a type of arguement that begins with "there was an old lady who swallowed a fly..." with each itteration we present the other person with more of the situation. Perhaps the AFII has now flown into 2 VSDs that were supporting the GSD and we go back and forth until the death star has ambushed the whole rebel fleet.

My advice was to propose a strong formation, my best advice is to endeavour to play in that formation as far as it works, look at the situation and ask yourself, do I keep formation or break it? Is my opponent baiting me or is he that bad at the tactics? Look at what your opponent has in reserve and for that matter what happens if you fail to have the dice roll as expected.