Recently i had the joy of attending my local store's store championship with a 2 ship list that i would class as ordinance heavy and a spike damage. My question is as the title suggests would be which one would be best over the long term of a game?

Both is best. Get an alpha where you get all your alpha guns on the same target and it dies. Preferably before it shoots.

That's like asking, "What makes for a better race car, higher top speed or faster acceleration?" Both are important, and the trade-offs between them depend entirely on the context and details involved, including information about who you're racing against and what they're driving.

Jumpmasters are good; they do both. Soon, one can do mines while the other alpha's, with scavenger crane and pretty much forget red dice usage altogether.

Alpha strike lists generally have such spiky damage and high PS that most popular lists melt in front of them. Bringing a lot of guns means that nothing will want to be in front of you because it will just melt. Alpha strike lists have a lot of advantages against arc dodgers while a lot of guns have trouble with them. Though I do find lots of guns can deal with the alpha strike lists. As usual it comes down to what you enjoy flying more and plays to your strengths.

Very good points here and thanks everyone. I do enjoy the spiky lists over the other but with this said i also see the value of some extra guns when ordinance want to fail you, and i know everyone has had those games.

3 minutes ago, thestggrwng said:

Alpha strike lists generally have such spiky damage and high PS that most popular lists melt in front of them. Bringing a lot of guns means that nothing will want to be in front of you because it will just melt. Alpha strike lists have a lot of advantages against arc dodgers while a lot of guns have trouble with them. Though I do find lots of guns can deal with the alpha strike lists. As usual it comes down to what you enjoy flying more and plays to your strengths.

Sir i can see that this could bring some scary and versatile lists in the near future.

Alpha Strikes imply a high damage output that can only be used very few times. You really can't compare that to "multiple-guns-on-target" as that actually would be a type of alpha strike under the assumption that you have a hard time keeping all of those guns on the target. Although they may be shot at and take casualties before they get to shoot back many swarms can effectively be seen as having an "alpha strike" so long as they can maintain formation or otherwise bring all of their guns to a single target; break the swarm and you've effectively done the same thing and stopping/surviving any ordnance based spike damage type of Alpha strike.

6 hours ago, EdgeOfDreams said:

That's like asking, "What makes for a better race car, higher top speed or faster acceleration?" Both are important, and the trade-offs between them depend entirely on the context and details involved, including information about who you're racing against and what they're driving.

Good analogy. and I would extend it to this:

alpha strikes = good acceleration

high top speed = guns on target

I mean, we don't talk about BETA strikes. It's a one-hit wonder, and you need to back it up with solid punches for the rest of the game.

An alpha strike should get you out in front. But you'd better back it up, or it's just a flash in the pan.

"Alpha Strikes" are ultimately about doing sufficient damage to cripple a list before it gets to fight properly.

The Dengar/Tel list does that incredibly well because you're flinging two heavily modified plasma torpedoes down-range at PS9, which is (normally) enough to take out a PS8 'normal' ship before it fires - or at least (thanks to extra munitions) certainly before it fires twice.

The problem is what happens once your torpedoes are expended (fortunately less of an issue now Scavenger Crane is a thing), because whilst Dengar remains an awesome Han/Chiraneau/Rey analogue "take on a whole squad" big ship, Tel Trevura's single 2-dice attack is essentially an irritant.

Multiple Guns On Target - having the weight of numbers is also nice, but you have to figure out what losses you're able to sustain before taking a hit to combat effectiveness.

I've seen a squad of 4 'sniper' bombers (gamma veteran/crack shot/homing missiles/long range scanners) wreck face, but the problem is that against a lot of squads, you have to assume you're working with the firepower of three bombers, because one will die with missiles still in the tubes.

That's why - whilst it's not exactly winning worlds - one of the best 'raw numbers' squads is to me the 4 T-70s; because not only do you have the numerical advantage, but each ship is a right bugger to kill.