I'm having trouble coming up with an outfit combo I like for my AF2A when it comes to direct combat. I'm a little more comfortable outfitting the AF2B for fighter support, but really I'm curious about how my fellow rebels outfit either design. And you Imps, what combo on an AF2 makes you groan in anticipated frustration?

I like Gunnery Teams and with wave 2 Ackbar and the Turbo Laser Reroute Circuits look like they could be worth a try.

The problem with TRC on a Gunnery Teams whale is you only get the benefit in one of your two attacks (unless you burn the token for the second one, which... don't do that). Gunnery Teams pairing is pretty much the only situation where I don't default to TRC these days...

Also, why with the expensive A? B all day errday for me.

Oh, and my contribution: ECM, XI7, Gunnery Teams, with Ackbar.

I prefer throwing ECM, Enhanced Armanents, Paragon and the soon to be Tractor Beams. Tractor Beams on Assault frigates will be a thing i reckon.

XI7s and Heavy Turbolaser Turrets are both good options if running Ackbar. TRCs are good if running Dodonna, but awful if running Mon Mothma. Garm Bel Iblis just wants Gunnery Teams and Enhanced Armaments with a Defensive Retrofit, same as he ever did.

Gunnery team every day, it's basically an extra ship's worth of dice for seven points or a free swat at incoming fighters. The only ship in the game with absolutely no use for Gunnery Teams is the Demolisher Gladiator and that's only because the range is so short.

Players are abandoning Advanced Projectors in droves after the latest change to XI7s. However, against small and medium ships without XI7s they're still a tremendous asset. If you're playing against lots of the new W2 large ships though you should look into Electronic Countermeasures to keep Brace available.

Intel Officer is rapidly gaining popularity to act as a form of accuracy replacement. Combine with a Defense disabler like Heavy Turbolasers or XI7s and you can basically prevent your opponent from ever using single Defense tokens. Or force your opponent to spend a first token, then use Intel Officer to threaten the untouched one (pair with an accuracy on the spent one to REALLY mess with them if they have ECMs). Basically, he forces enemies into a Sophie's Choice when played right, and can really mess with their future strategies.

My bog standard all the way through Wave 1 has never let me down:

AF2B + XI-7, Intel Officer, ECM/Advanced Projectors (pick to taste). Gunnery teams if the points are there.

2B with a carrier setup. Expanded hangars, ECM, flight controllers, 4 X-wings.

Combined with HomeOne on an MC80, to turn those blank reds into an accuracy, and you're golden!

Wave 1 my standard build would be A's with gunnery team and advanced projectors.

Wave two? Not sure, as I only have the Raider and the Shrimp frigate. I suspect my loadout won't change much.

I take either an A on its own, or a B with Gunnery Teams.

Both generally have Garm and ECMs, occasionally APs.

Mostly because I admit, if I'm taking the A, I'm doing so for the Anti-Squadron and the Extra Blue Die I get when I'm Double-Arcing. If I'm taking the B, I'm saing "Screw Double Arcing, I'm Broadsiding".

It means the two are only like, 4-5 points different from each other, rather than the 12 they are normally... And it makes me think about my use - or rather, makes the use readily apparent to me right away.

I like Gunnery Teams and with wave 2 Ackbar and the Turbo Laser Reroute Circuits look like they could be worth a try.

When spewing 5+ dice I find that Xi7's are the real winner here.

Wave 1 I have liked AFMK2B Gunnery Teams, Enhanced Armaments, and Advanced Projectors.

Advanced projectors, gunnery teams and enhanced armaments, if there is enough points Intel officer. Take a couple of these and then add some fighters and a MC-30 and pick a general.

I'm interested by how many people use Advanced Projectors on their Fatties. When I first posted about using it, there was some discussion that since you only have one redirect token, the APs were less useful than ECM because one accuracy could shut the redirect down.

One acc could shut the redirect down, but that generally left the Brace... Since you - ideally - are duelling at Long Range with an Assault Frigate.

Getting hordes of Dice and hordes of accs with DAMAGE still remaining means that the Assault Frigate did something wrong to let you.

I personally like the AP over ECM. Not every roll has an accuracy with it. And I want you to melt as many of my shields as possible to hit hull.

Although, I haven't ran into Intel Officer much at all in the wild. That may change things.

Shmitty will tell you that one does not need Advanced Projectors or Electronic Countermeasures and I have seen him not use them and win the 2 Sullust events I was at so it is a thing but that is his play style.

With Ackbar and wave 2, I have been toying with using a naked AFIIB as a suicide blocker/ slasher, charging him into the middle of the enemy line.

It actually works okay.

Other than that, I like Gunnies and ECMs, season to taste.

I think light upgrades are the way to go. Mark II-B, Advanced Projectors (til now), maybe maybe maybe Gunnery Teams, usually just AP, sometimes with Hangar Bays if it calls for it.

EDIT: I like light upgrades, but just one is light even for me.

XI7s and Heavy Turbolaser Turrets are both good options if running Ackbar. TRCs are good if running Dodonna, but awful if running Mon Mothma. Garm Bel Iblis just wants Gunnery Teams and Enhanced Armaments with a Defensive Retrofit, same as he ever did.

Gunnery team every day, it's basically an extra ship's worth of dice for seven points or a free swat at incoming fighters. The only ship in the game with absolutely no use for Gunnery Teams is the Demolisher Gladiator and that's only because the range is so short.

Players are abandoning Advanced Projectors in droves after the latest change to XI7s. However, against small and medium ships without XI7s they're still a tremendous asset. If you're playing against lots of the new W2 large ships though you should look into Electronic Countermeasures to keep Brace available.

Intel Officer is rapidly gaining popularity to act as a form of accuracy replacement. Combine with a Defense disabler like Heavy Turbolasers or XI7s and you can basically prevent your opponent from ever using single Defense tokens. Or force your opponent to spend a first token, then use Intel Officer to threaten the untouched one (pair with an accuracy on the spent one to REALLY mess with them if they have ECMs). Basically, he forces enemies into a Sophie's Choice when played right, and can really mess with their future strategies.

Agree with all of this, really. Gunnery Team is the auto-include for me, with or without Ackbar. Xi7s and HTTs are solid choices for boosting damage output, though they only leverage against certain ships (Xi7s don't affect Raiders or Nebs, HTTs don't affect CR-90s or MC-30s). Intel Officer is a nice choice if you're concerned about accuracy (or want to force a really tough choice). I'd experimented with pairing Intel Officer with either Xi7s or HTTs, but on everything but large damage-dealers (read, ISDs/MC-80s, maybe MC-30 Scout?), not sure the expected boost to damage output is worth spending 13 points on the two upgrades.

APs are still useful against Glad spams and could be useful against Raider spams, too, since neither of those ships can take Xi7s. Since these ships have the potential to chuck a ton of dice, many of them black (4-6 from a side arc of a GSD, if CF and/or Rapid Reload are involved; up to 7 on the front arc if either the GSD or Raider take Expanded Launchers and CF), being able to redirect that damage freely could be the difference between high shield depletion and significant hull damage. It could also help to a certain degree against bomber spams (not that you'd want to spend redirects to diffuse hits from bombers, but rather that having APs reduces the chance that your opponent can bore through a single shield arc, and then concentrate all bombers on that exposed arc). I still think ECMs is probably the safer choice against most ships, but there's definitely situations where APs would be more useful (Glads/Raiders/other ships that roll low accuracy results/no accuracy results).

I go back and forth between how much to kite out these ships, or whether it would be better to put points into some A-wings/rogue squadrons to keep bombers off my back. At the moment, I'm leaning more towards the leaner AFIIs (Gunnery Teams + ACMs), in favor of getting some more models on the board. But we'll see if that remains viable when more of the Wave II stuff enters the meta.

Upgrades aren't really too necessary I think...

Before Ackbar I always ran Enhanced Armament, but now Ackbar makes that less necessary. Gunnery Teams are great, but I would usually leave one without and then take Advanced Gunnery as an objective. If you stay at long range, you can get by without ECM or AP.

If running 2 I would consider taking the lead with HTT and the second with XI7s. The first makes a hole and the second ensured its shots bit that hole.