So I was thinking:

you have a turbolaser and an ordnance slot. You want to ensure you get accuracies so you get a H9, but you also want your salvos to hurt. XI-7 are unfortunately out of the question, but won't ACM do kind of the same thing by stripping the shields even faster?

I don't have a build in mind, but that's something I wouldn't mind trying on MC30s someday.

So my question is, anyone tried this?

... Are ACMs still played?

Now Sato is in the game I'm going to run Admo with H9 and ACM. Otherwise APT is used the most I've seen.

I prefer ACMs on GSDs, MC30s & raider 1s. You just cant beat that effect. If only the ISD1 had an ordinance slot.

Depends, if your planning to hammer a number of times ( 3-4 shots) on a large imp ship ACM is worth it, if your going after small ships and rebels or will only have limited shots all the way APT.

Take a demo last first on an ISD front shield, since you have 3 arcs your going to splash thee damage to each side shield, effectively you have completely stopped the effect of his double divert. If you had APT you would have hit him for three more face up damage cards than Normal, but he would have mitigated 6 damage using double diverts. so ACM nets you 3 more damage than APT

If your only getting one shot off then the ACM is only going to reduce the effectiveness of a divert token by one damage, so laying an extra face up crit with APT is better.......

You really need a combination of effects to go ACM over APT:

1. You've got some other means in your list to handle small units. APT is one of the bigger boosts to Glads and MC30s in getting the last necessary hull on very small ships.

2. You need enough damage generation that you're alright wearing out the shields before hitting hull. Most lists can do this, but it requires that they be flown correctly against the enemy's set-up. That takes practice.

3. You might want to take a close look at your meta and make sure that you both need to kill medium or large ships and that they are showing up frequently enough to justify the expenditure.

At the moment, I find that APT covers a wider variety of match-ups, which in combination with its slightly cheaper cost, is likely why it sees such widespread use.

APTs are great, even in singles. If nothing else, the ability to force your opponent to reconsider their token/command choices to deal with what could be a very important crit is worth that outlay.

However, I'm a big fan of running multiple ships with ACM. I recently, to great success, ran a 7 activation list with 4 Raider Is toting ACMs, and a pair of Glads toting an ACM and APT each (with a lifeboat Gozer carrying Screed). Double arcing a large or medium ship with multiple Raiders meant it was often down to zero shields in the first turn of shooting, after which the ACMs effect really stacks up damage fast.

I actually found the APT Glad to be underwhelming in that list. I didn't see many small ships in the tournament, so I can't speak to how well that single APT Glad would have done against those over the ACM, but it was there as a defense. It arguably should have been both Glads with APTs.

H9s are for flotillas

I like acm on a gsd, apt goes better on vsd and raider. For what you have in mind it'll work as long as you get your crits. As an imperial there's always screed.

ACMs do more overall damage then ATPs I prefer ATPs because they let the small missle ships so real damage to big heavy shielded ships far earlier in the game then they other wise would.