the ISD-2 was made for Gunnery Team; never leave home without it

ISD-1 not as much; not sure it's terribly worth it when most of its damage comes out at close range

I tried Gunnery Team with my ISD-I and I can confirm that overall I wasn't super impressed. I got solid use out of it once, otherwise I would've been better off without or perhaps with a different weapons team upgrade. ISD-1 is one of those rare circumstances where I think I might actually consider Sensor Team. You're likely to roll at least one blank amongst all those red and black dice (82% chance) that you don't mind giving up to flip to an Accuracy somewhere to lock down Brace. Combine with XI7s and it's all gravy. That's assuming you don't outfit your ISD-I as a carrier (Flight Controllers), of course. The other weapons teams I just don't see a lot of use for. You might be able to argue for Ordnance Experts but I'm not as confident there as I would be on a Gladiator or Raider-I.

The ISD is arguably the most survivable ship in the game, sure.

But not by much.

Under sustained or concentrated fire, they'll go down just like anything else. They can sustain all of five more damage than an Assault Frigate. That's not nothing, but they're far from the unstoppable juggernaut that a lot of people seem to think they are.

I would question that analysis. There is a reason the ISD is equipped with a double redirect, and that is to fully utilize its shields before hull gets touched. It is a rare game where I don't have zero shield on all sides before I have more than 2 or 3 damage cards on the hull, and that is where the engineering spam comes in. 3 rounds of engineering plus 1 token = 7 additional damage that can be spread, if I'm running Tarkin it's more (which is why with more than 1 big ship Tarkin is substantially superior to Motti on certain strats). I typically run advanced projectors to facilitate this, yes XI7s hurt that, but I have never ever ever seen a swarm list that packs an XI7 on every ship, seen plenty that pack enhanced armaments, and it's a simple matter to regen shields facing the XI7 ship while I burn it down.

Long story short, it is substantially more survivable when you play it in the role of bait tank instead of hunter-killer

but your summary is correct. They are most certainly not an "unstoppable juggernaut" as people attempt to play them. I know when I kill an opposing ISD that was played too aggressively there is this dazed confused look on the opponents face like "that wasn't supposed to happen"

All true, but you can stack all the same commands and (defensive) upgrades on the AF2; bringing up the ISD 's 4 engineering (same as AF), AP (also available on AF), or ability to reshuffle shields (available on... basically everything) is not useful. You are correct that they get the second redirect, but it's really only relevant in edge cases: a well-defended AF2 will also go down with zero shields left. If I lose a frigate that still has shields, I ****** something up.

Which puts us right back where I started: in terms of survivability, the ISD is only five hull better than an AF2. It's obviously not a perfect comparison, but if the ISD were just a bigger, meaner ________ with MOAR NUMBERS, it wouldn't make for a very interesting game.

So the AF2 is about the closest comparison to the ISD survivability-wise that we have much experience with. And several months of experience have shown us that an AF2 flown too aggressively will die and die hard. All I'm saying is that the same is true of the ISD.

I still have to disagree because I think offense is an important part of survivability. An ISD can burn down return fire much faster than an AF, therefore staying on the board longer on top of having more/better defense tokens and health.