After playing Rebels for the first time in months last weekend, I've realized that the critical factor in choosing XI-7s is not whether you might face Advanced Projectors, but in whether you expect to fight more Rebels or Imperials. Rebels getting access to so many defensive upgrades (not only the retrofits) means that every weapon denying a defense token ability is much more powerful than hitting an Imperial ship that was planning to tank the damage from the start in favor of overwhelming firepower.

I have to say after playing with both, I find xi7 much beter of an investment over HTT in most situations especially when minimizing the defensive capacity of a whale or MC80. My experience has been so lopsided that I'm not sure if the ruling on AP should be reversed or if xi7s should be banned (has FFG ever banned a card?) and a new less damaging upgrade be made to fill it's place.

I love the sheer power of the card but after both seeing it's effect and dealing with its effect, I can't help but feel like it's interaction might be too strong. In any event, that is just my 2 creds.

from my experiences so far while Xi7 is still slightly more useful than heavy turbolasers, 2 xi7's is way worse than a heavy turbolaser and an xi7 working together.

the lead ship with the heavy turbolasers will force them to either brace and lose all of that sides shields or use his other tokens and prob lose 2 arcs worth from sheer hits. both result in the side you are focusing losing the shields. once they are down the xi7 ship can pile into the shield less side with only one damage redirectable(and the brace if used will prob be discarded). i just feel they were designed as a force multiplier with each other

After playing in wave 2 i am honestly more intrigued by the ECM/ Intel officer economy since as accuracy results become more common (home One/ mass dice) Ecm becomes essential and naturally it's counter, Intel Officer, becomes more useful

I love love LOVE Intel Officer. It's a mean card and priced right.

I don't like HTTs simply because it still allows the brace token to be used. Since I approach this game trying to kill brace as much as possible, I like taking H-9s for that auto-accuracy in large pools of dice. I figure even if the enemy is using redirects, those shields are still gone forever.

At least XI7s allow you to concentrate damage on one zone... not completely, but mostly.

XI7s are superior to HTTs in every way if Brace is not an option.

Example 1:

With brace, 8 damage inflicted, given Brace as the only option, you're looking at 4 damage to that hull zone.

With brace, 8 damage inflicted, given Brace and Redirect, you're looking at 3 damage to that hull zone.

Example 2:

With no brace, 8 damage inflicted, HTTs will do whatever damage minus the redirect (so in the case of a full ISD, shooting at the front), you're doing 1 damage to the hull.

With no brace, 8 damage inflicted, XI7s will do 3 damage to the hull.

Example 3:

With no brace, on the same target ISD next round, with 8 damage inflicted, HTTs will do whatever damage minus the redirect, so 5 damage after redirect to the rest of the side shields.

With no brace, on the same target ISD next round, with 8 damage inflicted, XI7s will do 7 damage to the hull.

Therefore, XI7s are superior on ships that can reliably lock down Brace, or force situations where Brace can be lost (such as Intel Officer), Home One to hand out accuracies, or when ECM is not an option.

So you're saying that XI7s are superior as long as you spend extra points for other upgrades to enhance it, roll an accuracy, and/or your opponent does not have ECMs?

You're stating that XI7s are superior in a situation that favors them. I will concede that larger ships typically have only one brace and multiple redirects, so locking down that brace is easier, but in your above situation if the target has access to all of their defense tokens (which happens a fair amount of the time, at least on my rolls), the following happens:

1) HTTs deal 8 damage, braced to 4, wiping out the front shield. The second hit for 8 damage is braced for 4 hull so they take 4 damage. (The target could use redirect as in your example to take 1 hull from the first shot, then 4 with a brace for a total of 5 hull damage)

2) XI7s deal 8 damage, braced to 4 with 1 redirected. The front shield has 1 left and the side has 2, 0 damage. The second hit does 8, again braced to 4 with 1 redirected and deals 2 hull damage.

Which puts HTTs over the top. I think what we're seeing here is the rock-scissor-paper of Armada in effect: HTTs vs. ECM are superior to XI7s, but APs stop HTTs dead. XI7s make a mockery of APs, but against ECM they fall short when brace comes back in.

YAY! Another HTT champion!

I agree with the above comments that Xi7s are better with tiny damage totals--the kind where reducing damage by 1 with a gimped brace might actually be useful (usually around the 3 damage range, by my count). For the more standard 5-8 damage totals, I think you generally get more damage total or more damage where you want it with HTTs. The issue is that you don't get to choose whether you get more damage total or more damage where you want it, because the opponent gets to choose whether to reduce damage with brace, or whether to spend other tokens to move/shift damage around.

At this point, I've accepted the fact that not everyone agrees which is better, and that's fine. There are different damage-dealing philosophies--I can see why wanting to put as much damage as possible on a particular hull zone would be valuable, even if it means that the overall damage output is slightly lower, and vice versa: why wanting consistently higher damage totals would be valued, even if the total damage gets more dispersed. I'll just say that either one, in a vacuum, is a fine choice, that if you take a closer look at the numbers they're closer in value than many seem to think, and leave it at that.

I think your rock-paper-scissors analysis hits the nail on the head. ECM is the new Brace-reviver (well, maybe it always was that, but it feels like it's getting way more use now). HTTs (and Intel Officer) are ECM-Brace-gutters: either exhaust your precious ECMs to use that Brace (and use nothing else), or exhaust your precious ECMs to use that Brace and then lose it--FOREVER!!!. Xi7s don't do anything to the brace, so you're counting on locking it down, which you can do with an accuracy... unless the target has ECMs... then you can't. Unless you have Intel Officer. Then he still can...but then he loses it--FOREVER!!!

So the moral of the story is, if you want to really prevent an opponent from using brace, what you really want--as Stasy and Clontrooper have pointed out--is Intel Officer. He's the real difference-maker, the other stuff is just set-dressing on the margins.

(Not really... but kinda... in a hyperbolic sort of way...)

XI7s are superior to HTTs in every way if Brace is not an option.

Example 1:

With brace, 8 damage inflicted, given Brace as the only option, you're looking at 4 damage to that hull zone.

With brace, 8 damage inflicted, given Brace and Redirect, you're looking at 3 damage to that hull zone.

Example 2:

With no brace, 8 damage inflicted, HTTs will do whatever damage minus the redirect (so in the case of a full ISD, shooting at the front), you're doing 1 damage to the hull.

With no brace, 8 damage inflicted, XI7s will do 3 damage to the hull.

Example 3:

With no brace, on the same target ISD next round, with 8 damage inflicted, HTTs will do whatever damage minus the redirect, so 5 damage after redirect to the rest of the side shields.

With no brace, on the same target ISD next round, with 8 damage inflicted, XI7s will do 7 damage to the hull.

Therefore, XI7s are superior on ships that can reliably lock down Brace, or force situations where Brace can be lost (such as Intel Officer), Home One to hand out accuracies, or when ECM is not an option.

So you're saying that XI7s are superior as long as you spend extra points for other upgrades to enhance it, roll an accuracy, and/or your opponent does not have ECMs?

You're stating that XI7s are superior in a situation that favors them. I will concede that larger ships typically have only one brace and multiple redirects, so locking down that brace is easier, but in your above situation if the target has access to all of their defense tokens (which happens a fair amount of the time, at least on my rolls), the following happens:

1) HTTs deal 8 damage, braced to 4, wiping out the front shield. The second hit for 8 damage is braced for 4 hull so they take 4 damage. (The target could use redirect as in your example to take 1 hull from the first shot, then 4 with a brace for a total of 5 hull damage)

2) XI7s deal 8 damage, braced to 4 with 1 redirected. The front shield has 1 left and the side has 2, 0 damage. The second hit does 8, again braced to 4 with 1 redirected and deals 2 hull damage.

Which puts HTTs over the top. I think what we're seeing here is the rock-scissor-paper of Armada in effect: HTTs vs. ECM are superior to XI7s, but APs stop HTTs dead. XI7s make a mockery of APs, but against ECM they fall short when brace comes back in.

Wait, so you mean that buying upgrades like Intel Officer and Home One to specifically limit Brace is a new thing or something? I would GLADLY pay for those upgrades to push damage in in the meanest way possible.

Large amounts of dice also means more accuracies, which is what all the big ships are doing. Brace being targeted by an accuracy in a 8-dice throw is almost a SURE thing.

Ships that matter more in the meta also favor redirects over brace. In the example that I provided, if you negate brace, XI7s come out on top. If you're shooting at targets with redirects, XI7s still come out on top. XI7s pose a major threat to almost every ship in the game minus the Neb and maybe the Raider, but most of the dice you'll lock down the Raider anyway. CR90s and MC30cs fear the XI7 much more than the HTT, that's not even debatable.

So in short, XI7s are better. Against large targets, against smaller targets, against target with AP, and against the majority of the metagame. Furthermore, if you add Intel Officer into the mix here, XI7s with IO Dominates HTTs and IO. Once you kill the Brace, HTT means absolutely jack shh where XI7s will keep on kicking teeth.

I don't know, I compared HTTs with XI7s for a long ass time, and I clearly see no contest.