I am trying to determine the best use of the second ordnance slot on my MC75OC. I already have ACM in one of the slots, and as the title suggests, I am trying to decide between ER and OP. ER has been my default choice, but since my list is light on squads I am wondering if the extra squad shots will help over the course of the game. Anyone who has used OP, I would love to hear about your experiences using it. Thanks!

I have found acms and apts hits like a truck

2 minutes ago, chr335 said:

I have found acms and apts hits like a truck

With Fire Control?

Thats a ballsy move ?

I've tried both in a no squad build. I decided that killing all the combat ships for a tabling was the more effective than trying to kill the squads. So I choose ER. But if you fail to kill all the opponents ships, say one sneaks away.. then OP is be better for keeping the fighters off your MC75 or maybe even killing some of them. Do you think you can kill all the ships nicely for a tabling?

If you do take OP, Draven can give you 4 black dice a turn out of one arc (vs Counter and Intel squads.. thank you Dengar).

I think the eracks.

An ord cruiser wont have gunnery teams so it would rather shoot a ship with its main guns if at all possible. And it only has single dice flak anyway. This means against marek jendon or a big rebel squad ball you are going to need three turns min of firing both your arc and the pods at them - you wont survive being bombed for that long.

Wheras the eracks can push its damage output to insane levels. An apt erack cruiser popped my mostly undamaged kuat like a rotten watermelon the other day.

The ord pods are nice. Said kuat with gunnery teams and quad lasers and ord pods shredded any fighters that came near it but that was a very antisquad build and i didnt face any serious fighters.

Really the answer will come down to if you think you will face a lot of squads and if the pods woukd help that scenario. Lately, in my 'meta' its been lots of big ships and minimal squads.

52 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

With Fire Control?

Thats a ballsy move ?

The guy who used it couldnt garuntee the crits but only needed one

Ord pods really shine when paired with Ruthless Strats so you can proc it twice per turn

Unfortunately pods, like other anti squad upgrades, come with the caveat that you may never have meaningful targets for them. Because of this they will always be inferior to something like racks which will always have targets no matter what...****! Racks can even be used against squads, not just ships... Pods should have been like racks in that regard, retaining the functionality it has now, with the added ability to be discarded to add a black die to a roll against ships.... That way you aren't punished when your opponent shows up with non threatening squadrons... But they missed the boat on that one as they've done with strategists, QLT, raider titles, etc. The game strongly favors flexibility and these hard counter type cards that pigeon hole you into one specific type of counter run headlong against that axiom, more often then not unsuccessfully.

1 hour ago, SkyCake said:

Unfortunately pods, like other anti squad upgrades, come with the caveat that you may never have meaningful targets for them. Because of this they will always be inferior to something like racks which will always have targets no matter what...****! Racks can even be used against squads, not just ships... Pods should have been like racks in that regard, retaining the functionality it has now, with the added ability to be discarded to add a black die to a roll against ships.... That way you aren't punished when your opponent shows up with non threatening squadrons... But they missed the boat on that one as they've done with strategists, QLT, raider titles, etc. The game strongly favors flexibility and these hard counter type cards that pigeon hole you into one specific type of counter run headlong against that axiom, more often then not unsuccessfully.

Normally I would totally agree with you- it’s why I cringe every time I see a Kallus/Flechette Demo because the opportunity cost is so high on the slots you are giving up.

However a Kuat/Armored 75 seems to be the sweet spot for me in terms of getting those AA upgrades while not gimping yourself vs ships. You can still equip leading shots to both and even a Turbolaser to the 75 so no need for OE, letting you toss ruthless strats in that slot. Exrax is good in the torpedo, but Ord Porgs isn’t really giving up THAT much compared to it on those ships especially since they don’t NEED crit effects like Demo or the Ordinance cruiser.

Couple one of those ships with a pile of generic bombers and you have a very versatile little group. Against squadronless fleets you can bomb freely, and against squad heavy fleets you feast on 134 points of squads that can be burned down in a single round. And on the Imperial side you can pair with mauler for even more autodamage shenanigans

ER hands down. I'm of the philosophy that you should destroy the carriers and ignore the squadrons and ER helps kill ships faster. An ER ACM shot is kinda like an anti brace/redirect attack, because you reduce shields and bump your damage to over come the brace. And if you can double arc, you get the option of ER on either attack, potentially forcing a brace to be used twice to discard.

For 3 points, Aspiration is the upgrade you want to deal with squads. You show your strong side and dare your opponent to jump to the weak side and potentially over extending their fleet.

7 hours ago, Undeadguy said:

ER hands down. I'm of the philosophy that you should destroy the carriers and ignore the squadrons and ER helps kill ships faster. An ER ACM shot is kinda like an anti brace/redirect attack, because you reduce shields and bump your damage to over come the brace. And if you can double arc, you get the option of ER on either attack, potentially forcing a brace to be used twice to discard.

For 3 points, Aspiration is the upgrade you want to deal with squads. You show your strong side and dare your opponent to jump to the weak side and potentially over extending their fleet.

^^This^^

This is what my current list is doing at the moment. Add to your remarks the fact that it is a Sato list and it just means more black dice! Right now, I am also using a PE Pelta to cover the Aspiration weak sides to move shields back to it and also if squads show up to shoot the weak sides, the Pelta has Blue/Black flak to send right back at them. I just thought that maybe the addition of the Pods would help farm some extra points in a game. It's like getting a third shot with my biggest baddest bully ship around.

11 hours ago, itzSteve said:

^^This^^

This is what my current list is doing at the moment. Add to your remarks the fact that it is a Sato list and it just means more black dice! Right now, I am also using a PE Pelta to cover the Aspiration weak sides to move shields back to it and also if squads show up to shoot the weak sides, the Pelta has Blue/Black flak to send right back at them. I just thought that maybe the addition of the Pods would help farm some extra points in a game. It's like getting a third shot with my biggest baddest bully ship around.

Because you're playing Sato, I think you could get away with OP. You already have enough dice to trigger ACM, so all you're giving up is a stronger attack. It also depends on what squads you're taking. X-Wings + Jan, you should take ER. A-Wing spam, you might want OP.

2 hours ago, Undeadguy said:

Because you're playing Sato, I think you could get away with OP. You already have enough dice to trigger ACM, so all you're giving up is a stronger attack. It also depends on what squads you're taking. X-Wings + Jan, you should take ER. A-Wing spam, you might want OP.

My squads are Tycho, 2 A-wings, and a HWK

2 hours ago, itzSteve said:

My squads are Tycho, 2 A-wings, and a HWK

In that case I’d go exrax- Sato makes you look at squads very differently- you are not trying to win the squad game, just survive long enough to table your opponent. And if your opponent is smart they will be gunning for your squads not ships meaning you will get little use from ord porgs

2 hours ago, MandalorianMoose said:

In that case I’d go exrax- Sato makes you look at squads very differently- you are not trying to win the squad game, just survive long enough to table your opponent. And if your opponent is smart they will be gunning for your squads not ships meaning you will get little use from ord porgs

That's the thing though...I have gotten better at hiding my squads until the time I need them in range of ships, but my MC75 is usually the one sticking its nose into the brawl before my opponents ships get in range. This is what brings the squads into play, especially when I am facing a Sloan list. Most Sloan lists are full of 3 hull squads and if I can get two shots off against each of them, they can only scatter one. My hit rate on squad dice is pretty good with the black reroll due to OE.

I think it's a meta call then. You'll find use in either case. And if you don't face squads, OP won't do anything but your A-wings will make up with their own black dice.