Having a hard time deciding which one to choose if I can only take one, what do you guys do? When do you take them? What's the decision behind it?

Thanks!

Having a hard time deciding which one to choose if I can only take one, what do you guys do? When do you take them? What's the decision behind it?

Thanks!

For the ISD-II (the only Imperial ship up through wave 2 with a defensive retrofit slot), it's ECM easily. If I'm trading punches with something that actually thinks it CAN trade punches with an ISD, I'll want to be sure I have a Brace available, and Ackbar really would prefer that I didn't.

For Rebels, it generally comes down to how common XI7 Turbolasers are in your meta, as they shut down Advanced Projectors pretty harshly. Overall, Advanced Projectors let you make the most of your sizable number of shields, effectively "faking" your way to having similar durability to an Imperial equivalent. I'd consider Advanced Projectors superior in a vacuum, but ECM are better if you see enough XI7s.

The exception I'd make to that is putting ECMs on the Foresight (particularly with Mon Mothma). Being able to milk those super-charged defense tokens consistently all game long and not caring about accuracy lock-downs is very strong.

...or just run an Assault MC80 and use them both .

Having a hard time deciding which one to choose if I can only take one, what do you guys do? When do you take them? What's the decision behind it?

Thanks!

For the ISD-II (the only Imperial ship up through wave 2 with a defensive retrofit slot), it's ECM easily. If I'm trading punches with something that actually thinks it CAN trade punches with an ISD, I'll want to be sure I have a Brace available, and Ackbar really would prefer that I didn't.

For Rebels, it generally comes down to how common XI7 Turbolasers are in your meta, as they shut down Advanced Projectors pretty harshly. Overall, Advanced Projectors let you make the most of your sizable number of shields, effectively "faking" your way to having similar durability to an Imperial equivalent. I'd consider Advanced Projectors superior in a vacuum, but ECM are better if you seen enough XI7s.

The exception I'd make to that is putting ECMs on the Foresight (particularly with Mon Mothma). Being able to milk those super-charged defense tokens consistently all game long and not caring about accuracy lock-downs is very strong.

...or just run an Assault MC80 and use them both .

Snip beat me to it ("If I had to choose? More like if I could choose..."). In a vacuum, I would prefer ECMs, actually. As long as you don't lose defense tokens, being able to get the token you want, when you want it (well, once when you want it), is huge. That said, it is an exhaust card (while APs is not), so you still have to use it wisely.

APs still have their uses, most notably against Glad broadsides (since Glads can't take Xi7s, can't land an accuracy on a broadside unless your opponent has a Glad II, and even then the chance of the accuracy is miniscule). It remains to be seen how Glads fare in Wave II, with all that extra long-range dice being thrown about, but spreading out black dice damage can be the difference between taking hull damage (or two or three) and not.

This is exactly my train of thought as well. Thanks for the feedback!

Just thought I would weigh in as well, I like ecm better than advanced projectors in most situations. Especially with the change in interaction with xi7 turbolaser.

On the bigger ships I will go for ECM's mainly. This will be mitigated by Intel Officer though.

Personally I am trying to teach myself to not rely on either for a time.

huge ships: ECM

large ships: AP

small ships: you gotta be pretty good to need defense on something that small. (AP).

Ecm, gotta be able to use dat brace

Personally I am trying to teach myself to not rely on either for a time.

This is the correct answer.

I still like AP over ECM. I don't see enough accuracies to justify it. I see even less XI7's.

Personally I am trying to teach myself to not rely on either for a time.

This is the correct answer.

I'd normally go for ECM. Intel Officer (which is massively overpowered imho) kind of negates it, but its still useful to counter accuracy results and guarantees (bar the unlikely event of a large amount of NK-7 ion crits) that you can use your defense token when you need it most, even if just once. It's easily as valuable as 3 or 4 extra hullpoints on your ship for this reason, and possibly a lot more.. On ships with lots of shields compared to their hull I might prefer advanced projectors though.

ECM.

In my experience brace is the most valuable and most often targeted defense token. Speaking at least from an Imperial perspective, you have the redirects to burn but only one brace token. Anyone wanting to drain your shields, regardless of what craft you're flying, will always target the half-damage if they are able. The only thing that could stop you is an Intelligence Agent, but then the enemy is paying 7 points and taking up an officer slot for that ability from that one ship.

Advanced Projectors is a cheaper alternative and works for ships that don't have brace, like the CR-90 series.

I think people are forgetting that heavy turbo lasers are now a thing.

I think people are forgetting that heavy turbo lasers are now a thing.

They are, though everyone fixates on the Xi7 for some reason. They're both useful. Xi7s basically functions as an accuracy against any redirects, and pairs best with one accuracy to cancel the target's brace. HTT basically functions as 66-100% of an accuracy against your opponent's brace (depending on whether the opponent chooses to use the partial brace when using another defense token) or as 2-3 accuracies against any other defense tokens (if the target uses the full brace). The downside is that your opponent has the choice with HTTs, whereas you drive the choice with Xi7s.

Intel Officer is also there (as has been mentioned already), and is awfully tempting for just one more point over Xi7s/HTTs. It is an exhaust, though, and not persistent like HTTs and Xi7s, so that's a difference. But if you have the choice between blocking a defense token each round, or stripping a defense token each round, it seems like stripping the token entirely offers the quickest path to victory.

As in using it against a ship instead of using accuracy to block brace?

it still allows the targeted ship to use that brace. Heavy Turbolasers end up like XI7s since both nerf redirects. HTs essentially prevent redirect from being used and XI7s drastically reduce redirect But out of 8 damage you're dealing, the target is still only taking 4. Unless you're shooting at a small ship, most other mediums and heavies can tank it.

Meanwhile if you're blocking Brace that's 8 damage the target has to deal with. Even if he uses AdvProj redirect that means 8 shields are coming off the ship that can't be used in other arcs. Like when you're fighters have surrounded the ship, or when your corvettes are vectoring into he back, or after you've passed and the enemy is lacking the shields he/she used to protect the front arc.

Forcing the enemy to suffer the entire amount of damage you're dealing is Big. Bigger than any redirect power, which is why protecting your Brace token is so important on most ships. In fact double brace is what makes the Nebulon-Bs at least viable, because they can reduce enormous amount of damage to manageable levels. I think it's also why some feel the MC30 is fragile and pops too easily, because it has none.

Even in games against myself I tend to run Intel Officer with a lot of success. Just hoping for accuracies is a crapshoot at best.

Actually I'm slowly converting from defensive tools to more offensive ones. In my current favorite Rebel build I've replaced the AP's on everything except my MC30. I'm using those points for more IO's.

ECM, if any. Most of the time, neither.

Even in games against myself I tend to run Intel Officer with a lot of success. Just hoping for accuracies is a crapshoot at best.

Actually I'm slowly converting from defensive tools to more offensive ones. In my current favorite Rebel build I've replaced the AP's on everything except my MC30. I'm using those points for more IO's.

Heading towards offence myself. Been trying a brutal ISD build with the idea of mostly spamming repair commands and/or running with grand moff tarkin, so far it has worked quite well. Combining things like intel officer, XI7 and NK7s a medium range barrage is devastating. Took out a fresh motti ISD in 2 frontals and 1 side arc with mediocre rolling at medium range. Been paring it with Avenger and a suicide overload pulse raider @ speed 4 spamming navigate. Needs tweaking and I haven't faced enough different lists but its hella fun to play! Intel officer and NK7s with even 1 accuracy make any target sweat. Also been running it with screed to guarantee the NK7 proc.

I think people are forgetting that heavy turbo lasers are now a thing.

Thing is, we are all talking about XI7s etc because WAVE 2 ISN'T OUT yet, so Heavy TLTs aren't "really" a thing yet but people can easily buy 2 or 3 Neb B packs for some XI7s, intel officers and painting fun.

ECM unless both is an option, like on the MC80.

I provided a stack of printed upgrade cards to help people get into the game and ensure 'pay to win' as removed from the meta somewhat, and it leads to a lot of X17s being used.

ECM unless both is an option, like on the MC80.

I provided a stack of printed upgrade cards to help people get into the game and ensure 'pay to win' as removed from the meta somewhat, and it leads to a lot of X17s being used.

It really would be nice if they sold stand-alone upgrade card packs, but I guess they gotta make a living too, right?

Altho if they sold them at enough of a margin they could probably still do quite well with less manufacturing overhead. Like if they had a "rebel upgrades" and "Imperial upgrades" that have 1 of each ship pack upgrade cards and sold them for something ridiculous like $15 they would still make a mint without burdening people with crazy barriers to entry.

The only thing AP has going for it is that it can be stacked with ECM on a ship that has two defensive retrofit slots. I suppose the AP is also good against Gladiator-I Demolishers that have no way of producing an accuracy result, but you can't spend half a dozen points just to project against one ship in the meta, even if its a prominent ship.

This is all without the ubiqitous XI7 turbolasers nerfing APs into oblivion, which just further tips the scale heavily toward the ECM side. Also, once people eventually figure out how good Home One is (give them lots of time, since people still haven't realized how important squadrons are), you'll really need ECM to survive the hyper accurate barrage from a couple of AFIIs with X17s, who are now practically negating your Redirects and have a guaranteed Accuracy to negate your Brace. Good luck surviving that without ECM.

Even if ECM only lets you spend a Brace once (Intelligence Officer, Overload Pulse, etc.) it's still worth it, especially in the Wave 2 era of big attacks. A single brace token may save you three or four damage these days.

My NebB's can't use either, and AP's seem wasted on a CR90, so I vote ECM by default. I'll get back to you once I get my MC80.

On the bigger ships I will go for ECM's mainly. This will be mitigated by Intel Officer though.

Personally I am trying to teach myself to not rely on either for a time.

I understand what you are saying but at the same time I can't help but question this statement. Almost as if a carpenter has a lot of nailing to do and decides to not use a hammer or nail gun.

On the bigger ships I will go for ECM's mainly. This will be mitigated by Intel Officer though.

Personally I am trying to teach myself to not rely on either for a time.

I understand what you are saying but at the same time I can't help but question this statement. Almost as if a carpenter has a lot of nailing to do and decides to not use a hammer or nail gun.