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I can't imagine there're many threads on epic strategy, but I'm going to bring one up.

4 Warthogs are a great way to shut down capital ships, because ion tokens eliminate energy- the lifeblood of the CR-90.

X-Wings seem like the best counter, since 1) speed matters a lot when you're trying to kill ships before they reach a target and 2) A-Wings just don't have the required punch.

I may need to reread rules, but deploying away from enemy ships seems viable, since I don't recall any rules requiring Huge ships to deploy first- allowing them to go at PS 4. Was this FAQed or did I miss something?

Why use a warthog when you can use an ion cannon b-wing? You get range 3 ion shots (which means you shut down their guns sooner), a better shield/hull ratio, and better firepower against smaller targets. Sure, you lose the primary shot, but that's not doing much damage against a huge ship anyway unless you risk instant death at range 1.

As for how to counter them, use your big ship's guns. Y-wings are an easy target thanks to their low agility (and the recent FAQ removing the extra defense dice at range 4-5). Add a turbolaser to your corvette and you should kill a y-wing each turn at range 3-5, before they can get into ion range. Alternatively, use ion weapons of your own to stall the incoming y-wings at range 3+ from their objective and prevent them from getting ion shots. Finally, never use x-wings when you can take b-wings instead. The comparison is even more in favor of the b-wing in epic games where the b-wing has the HP to survive a shot or two from the big guns and the x-wing doesn't.

 Peregrine wrote:
Why use a warthog when you can use an ion cannon b-wing? You get range 3 ion shots (which means you shut down their guns sooner), a better shield/hull ratio, and better firepower against smaller targets. Sure, you lose the primary shot, but that's not doing much damage against a huge ship anyway unless you risk instant death at range 1.

As for how to counter them, use your big ship's guns. Y-wings are an easy target thanks to their low agility (and the recent FAQ removing the extra defense dice at range 4-5). Add a turbolaser to your corvette and you should kill a y-wing each turn at range 3-5, before they can get into ion range. Alternatively, use ion weapons of your own to stall the incoming y-wings at range 3+ from their objective and prevent them from getting ion shots. Finally, never use x-wings when you can take b-wings instead. The comparison is even more in favor of the b-wing in epic games where the b-wing has the HP to survive a shot or two from the big guns and the x-wing doesn't.

The primary reason is no one wants to play rebel vs rebel Epic games, because they make no sense.

Epic is, in my local, always Rebels vs Imp or Scum or Imp+Scum.

Until the Raider comes out, Rebel vs Huge ships isn't a concern.

 Peregrine wrote:
(and the recent FAQ removing the extra defense dice at range 4-5).

Say what the wha now? Where's that? Am I reading an old FAQ or just being completely unobservant?

We have done some things a while ago that has a CR-90 controlled by the Imperials, since it's a generic ship.

 Compel wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
(and the recent FAQ removing the extra defense dice at range 4-5).

Say what the wha now? Where's that? Am I reading an old FAQ or just being completely unobservant?

We have done some things a while ago that has a CR-90 controlled by the Imperials, since it's a generic ship.

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/1b/4f/1b4fc4a0-f20a-4fad-8113-eaa05fbaada1/epic_tournament_rules_v301.pdf

Ah, awesome!

They should fit that into the normal FAQ's too, as most people who play Epic games don't play in Epic tournaments anyhow...

Srategy for Epic Games largely revolves around the squad you're facing. BTL-A4 y-wings have massive firepower for their cost, but it's (a) short range and (b) susceptable to defence dice. A capital ship with a reinforce token is nigh immune to their popgun primary weapons. Plus, a Raider or Corvette seeing agility 1 ships facing it will have a field day with turbolaser fire.

Broadly speaking, a squad at epic level consists of up to 300 points and up to 5 epic points, on a double-sized board.

There are several things worth considering at epic scale:

a) You have 300 points worth of stuff firing per turn. This means you put three times the number of attacks into your opponent every turn. Even assuming there are limits to how much you can concentrate fire, that means you'll take the same casualties in your first turn of combat that you'd usually take in the first two. Upshot - upping the pilot skill of your ships - at least for combat - is much more important than it is in a 100 point dogfight, because if you have ten PS2 pilots and ten PS4 exchanging fire, you can take serious casualities before you get to shoot.

b) Equally, arc dodgers will struggle. With three times the ships in twice the board size, the density of enemy fire arcs has gone up - which makes finding safe gaps a lot harder. Defence dice are as good (or bad) as they always are, but boosts and barrel rolls will struggle to find safe gaps where there are a dozen or more ships coming at you in a loose pack.

c) With many ships exchanging fire, important targets will be taking many attacks per turn. As a result, 'expendable' defences like shields and tokens are less useful than 'sustainable' defenses like Xizor's ability to redirect damage, green dice, autothrusters and reinforce tokens - abilities which don't care if this is the first time you've been shot at this turn or the fifth.

d) Equally, 'every friendly ship within range 1' abilities become much more valuable - Jonus, Howlrunner, Etann, Serissu, Strom, Jax and Biggs can find themselves affecting many more ships than normal - and/or you can afford to upgrade their escorts' abilities far beyond normal.

e) As a counter to this; splash damage abilities become much more cost-effective in this game space. Ruthlessness doesn't have to trigger many times in a game to pay for itself, and an assault missile or seismic charge is likely to hit far more opponents

f) Killing capital ships is...... I dunno. Punching through a Reinforce token is night impossible without at least a 3-dice attack, but 2-dice attacks against an unreinforced side can tear a cap ship to shreds in short order because they have no defence dice and they're not that tough - if they want to use their energy to recover shields they're not using it to kill you.

g) As a result, work on flanking a capital ship. Coming in from the side, you can put shots into the front or rear as required. Even if shooting at the other half changes a range 1 shot to a range 2, or a range 2 to a range 3, it's better than trying to punch through reinforce.

h) Don't fall in love with Ion weapons. Ion tokens reduce the amount of energy a ship is going to gain, but they don't remove energy it already has. They're worth having, but they're generally not a substitute for doing 2-3 damage per shot.