Probably the Brace is what's keeping the AFII relevant in wave 2. If the MC30 had a brace, it would be King! I've come to appreciate the power of the MC30(scout) run in pairs, they can be devastating, I load them up with APT and TRC, in combo with an Akbar MC80, they can unload a torrent of pain, you need to be first player though! And I agree, in this scenario I don't take Home One.

No, the A/FII is still quite relevant. You can take it as a carrier (A/FIIB // Gallant Heaven / Expanded Hangars / Adar Tallon / Flight Controllers). You could give it Tractor Beams as well. It can stay at medium range and circle strafes while the MC30 really has to get into dangerous range in order to be really effective (which in stock configuration, loses the effectiveness of half its defense tokens).

There is also the argument that two AFs are better than one MC80. I can believe that actually... I don't think any of the Rebel ships are really obsolete by Wave 2.

Empire on the other hand...

Intelligence agent is your keyword on dealing with braces.

it would be Gladiator >_>

guess why glads are so epicly powerful (aside from uber title)

Actually I said, the reason the AFII is still relevant.....

You mean the arcs I'm trying to catch as target ships activate and move away? Or the ones I collide with and blow up my own ship after taking damage on the approach?

With Home One handing out accuracy it means the one token useful at the Raider's optimum range is just gone.

That's odd... I destroy the Home One with Raiders all the time.

I must be doing it wrong.

Even if everything ran ECM - if you have a blank red die showing at long range.... best to turn it into an accuracy rather than just leave it blank!

Yeah you can inflate that with concentrate fire and enhanced armament, but you might as well trade the black dice for a single blue and upgrade to an assault frigate (which has better protection).

I... am not sure how you got from the beginning of that sentence to the end of it. It seems you're implying that 1 blue is worth 3 blacks straight across...?

I'm also not sure why you would CF a red when you have blacks, or why you would take EA on an MC30.

I'm also not sure what the AF2's superior protection has to do with the MC30's synergy with Home One. The MC30 and the AF2 are very different ships, neither is a drop-in replacement for the other.

What point are you even trying to make here?

Edit: sorry, on rereading I think I came across as rude. Apologies, I'm just confused.

For a second I had to re-read as I thought I wrote that

I think it's safe to say that Home One is a force multiplier that when combined with Ackbar, garauntees massive damage potentional that is a meta-changer.

Yeah you can inflate that with concentrate fire and enhanced armament, but you might as well trade the black dice for a single blue and upgrade to an assault frigate (which has better protection).

I... am not sure how you got from the beginning of that sentence to the end of it. It seems you're implying that 1 blue is worth 3 blacks straight across...?

I'm also not sure why you would CF a red when you have blacks, or why you would take EA on an MC30.

I'm also not sure what the AF2's superior protection has to do with the MC30's synergy with Home One. The MC30 and the AF2 are very different ships, neither is a drop-in replacement for the other.

What point are you even trying to make here?

Edit: sorry, on rereading I think I came across as rude. Apologies, I'm just confused.

For a second I had to re-read as I thought I wrote that

I think it's safe to say that Home One is a force multiplier that when combined with Ackbar, garauntees massive damage potentional that is a meta-changer.

I don't think it's safe to say that *at all*.

Home One has a massive drawback in that it cannot apply to itself, and given the cost of the MC80 you're simply not going to be able to fit in enough other ships to take advantage of the ability for it to be a force multiplier to the level you're describing. This is of course ignoring the range restriction that is either going to see your ships A.) bunched up around a predictable anchor point or B.) Not benefitting from your expensive flagship title.

It makes smaller ships more deadly to a number of Imperial cruisers that lack the Defensive Retrofit slot. That's about it.

Furthermore, you still need to roll decent damage for that single accuracy to be worth anything. Literally the only thing it guarantees is that you'll have at least one accuracy.

As a strictly Imperial player I've had no difficulty dealing with Home One.

Is it good? Sure.

Is it a meta-changer? That's a negative.

It's no more meta-changing than an upswing in the popularity of H9 turbolasers or Sensor Teams.

Sure, but I think you're wrong.

Did Home One by itself change the meta? No. But Ackbar increasing damage and being able to hand out free accuracies from the same ship did. Who cares that it doesn't benefit itself? You can buy upgrades like Intel Officer to force the discard on a fresh volley. Not to mention 8 dice being thrown will probably see an accuracy result already in there.

No one should look at upgrades in a vacuum. Saying that Home One is crazy might be a little obtuse, but no one can argue the effectiveness of Ackbar working in unison.

Home One is good, but it is not this panacea that I see a lot of people (mostly imperial players, now that I think of it...) treating it as. Home One + Ackbar is not an IWIN button: as scary as six red dice may look, it's still only 4 average damage, at long range (that is, evadable).

Home One is good, but you do still have to build for it to get the best value. Just like you could drop, say, Screed in any list and get a benefit from him, he's kind of a waste if you don't build to leverage his strength.

Hey everyone,

With all the major capital ships equipping ecm these days in order to get that Brace down against an accuracy result I'm wondering if anyone is getting any use out of this title. My last opponent ran 2 ISDs without ECMs against me and they quickly melted under sustained and accurate rebel fire. I'm betting ECMs are an auto-equip on high value targets across the armada universe.

I'm thinking Intel officers are the way to go now if your build relies on high volumes of ship to ship fire. "Sure you can use that brace but it will be for the last time."

ECMs are a staple on any ship that can take them in this new meta IMO. Damage is just too explosive and most ships need their Brace to survive.

As for the Home One title, I'm convinced that it is the best title. Like others have said, it's not about forcing your opponent to use their ECM, it's about having multiple attacks forcing the same decision until there's no way out.

I have a couple of articles talking about these exact interactions on my site. Feel free to take a look (see sig).

Agreed, that was my observation last night.

Sure, but I think you're wrong.

Did Home One by itself change the meta? No. But Ackbar increasing damage and being able to hand out free accuracies from the same ship did. Who cares that it doesn't benefit itself? You can buy upgrades like Intel Officer to force the discard on a fresh volley. Not to mention 8 dice being thrown will probably see an accuracy result already in there.

No one should look at upgrades in a vacuum. Saying that Home One is crazy might be a little obtuse, but no one can argue the effectiveness of Ackbar working in unison.

Also agreed.

The Ackbar/HO combo is a potent force multiplier with little restriction on its viability and applicability to ALL shooting range bands. Are you in range of Home One? Are you shooting your broadsides? Are you in range to shoot your basic battery pool? Congrats! More dice and a guaranteed accuracy to lock down that pesky brace?

I'm with Leowulf. The title has value if for no other reason than it allows other Rebel ships--who basically have no skills to modify dice beyond TRCs, a CF token, and sometimes Leading Shots (on certain vessels in medium range if you spend a die)--to exercise a little more control over the outcome of fickle reds. But there's a steep buy-in (106+7 minimum) for an ability that can, at most, boost 257 points worth of ships (assuming you run with Dodonna).

That's not a bad ability, but if you're looking to maximize the investment's impact, the scaling (finding the best types and numbers of ships to boost) is tricky. Three Ackbar-led AFIIs with Gunnery Teams seems ideal, but if you have them naked besides GTs, that leaves just 12 points for other upgrades. Lots of firepower, not much survivability and no squadron cover whatsoever. Taking two AFIIs gives more upgrade options, but that's just two ships gaining the benefit of Home One. Whether that's worth it or not depends of course on what you want that fleet to do. I can also see the benefit in theory for Scout MC-30s, though they tend to run more expensive than AFIIs (base cost of only 3 less than an AFII, and they usually sport more upgrades to help with survivability/damage output), so the points-considerations are basically the same. But I can't fly MC-30s, so I won't opine on them further.