Is it bad to run only 2 ships? I have 2 very beefy MC80's and take quite a bit to kill, however is the 2 ships no enough? Would adding a third make it that much better? Is having 3 or 4 a standard almost? With wave 2 picking up speed I feel like the meta is a toss up between, multiple ships and then heavy 2 ship, heavy squadron fleets. Or is this only in my part of the world?

Imho its very doable, but only as long as you have at least 80-100 points invested in squadrons so you can rely on those to deal damage to ships that will inevitably outmanouvre you through sheer activation advantage.

Is it bad? No. Not neccessarily.

The thing is, what is bad, good, cheap, expensive, all rely on your own personal opinion.

What is Cheap for someone, is expensive for someone else, and vice versa.

If you are comfortable with it, and you are willing to practice with it, and you are able to make it your own, there is absolutely no reason why it won't be not only good for you, but could end up being the best for you.

I won't suggest doing it unless they're both ISDs. You're just so damned fragile otherwise. Even as a guy who loves squadrons, I'm still not comfortable with only two capital ships. ISD-IIs with gunnery teams are a different story though. They're tanky and shooty enough to pull it off with good squadron support. I'm not comfortable doing it with MC80s because they don't bring enough firepower for their points. They're great buff platforms, but they need to be in support of something else to make up for their relatively low firepower for their points.

2 ship meta comes to armada. complete with turrets.

repent the end is nigh

Ive ran double ISDs in 5 games now. Totally feasible. I also suggest bringing a decent fighter wing (not only to keep your ships safe it helps during deployment).

One thing i've noticed (in all 5 games) is that one ship will get picked on. Sounds obvious but you will benefit from being able to guess which one and spam engineering commands. I've never lost both ISDs so my margin of victory really comes down to if i can keep that ship alive. Difference between 10-0 and 2-8 .. sigh

I've tried it. You actually get more mileage out of Home One and a MKII more because at least the MKII has the same long-range firepower of the MC80, and can shoot two separate targets.

I do recommend giving the Home One and Defiance a go at least one time though. Defiance can put out a ridiculous amount of firepower by itself at close range. I'm talking about 8 dice + 2 blacks out the sides with CF.

my two ship build is an MC-80 and an Assault frigate

Prefer a mc80 and two assault frig

I hate being the parrot for a crowd that already exists. But for a ton of reasons, I'd rather play a Assault Frigate rather than a MC-80.

The Assault Frigate is just far too maneuverable and multifaceted. It truly is becoming, an all purpose tool!

The AF is still the best ship by far; 4 AFs with Gunnery Team and Ackbar is terrifying.