Which is the best route? Opinions, experience appreciated.

I've done both, and prefer freezing first.

I freeze, then tort, when the cake is thawed but still very cold and firm.

I always torte then freeze. Frozen cakes are very easy to frost.

I torte and then freeze. I wrap each layer in plastic wrap and then in foil.

35 years baking and decorating cakes, I've never frozen a cake in order to frost. Just not necessary.

To me its essential to freeze after you've covered them in BC so when u lay the fondant on top u keep the crisp edge

I have been going back and forth about this. But I think my answer may have been given with my trial and error. I have a practice cake from yesterday (WASC). I just tried torting it (sprang for an Agbay - Happy 40th to me). B/c it is so moist, I am having some tearing issues (although those were on some pretty thin layers). Now, a lot (or all) of this is probably my inexperience. But I think that a frozen cake will be much easier to torte with this cake.

What I may have to do (time constraints) is freeze, torte, and freeze the torte layers also. Then I think I may fill the frozen torte layers (Amer Buttercream) and then maybe ice the cake when it is a little defrosted. No fondant except for some lettering.

Does this sound like it will work properly?

Well, I ended up doing some torting before and some after freezing. I found it really difficult to torte after freezing. even though I thought the cake was too delicate to do before freezing, it ended up working better for me. But it may also partly be that by the time I tried the before freezing I had been practicing a good bit. And had better got the hang of the Agbay.

And btw, that Agbay is awesome!!!!