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I would like people's opinions on this imperial raider build. first time building an epic ship so I am open to suggestions:

Fore
Ion Cannon Battery
Sensor Team
Tibanna Gas Supplies


Aft
Instigator title
Captain Needa
Shield Technician
Quad Laser Cannons
Quad Laser Cannons
Gunnery Team
Engineering Team
Engine Boost

Total squad points: 144pts

With the Gozanti release soon, the tactics of Epic will change. For now, my thoughts:

Your main tool will be the primary weapon's double-tap. You're going to want to use that every single round, which will cost 2 energy per turn (I'm going to keep a running tab on energy).

The Instigator title is good, and it combos well with Shield Technician. You'll never be wasting energy on excess shields, and will effectively be getting the opportunity to use 1 extra energy every other turn (later in the game, when you'll be using Recover a lot, it will proc almost every turn).

I like Captain Needa, lets you pretty much ignore obstacles when you're moving. Vader is probably be a better choice for your 2nd crew slot, since you can use his ability multiple times per turn, and then just regen shields next turn (doubly effective with the Instigator). WED-15 Repair Droid, Fleet Officer or Weapons Engineer might be good choices once Automated Protocols is released.

Engineering Team is an obviously good choice, which will usually net you 1 energy every other turn.

As for hard points:
I like Ion Cannon Battery on the front arc. 2 energy a turn, and does a deceptive amount of damage against unshielded targets.

I'm not a fan of QLC. Their range is too short, and without dice modifiers they often fail to do damage. 1 energy a turn (because every other turn, you won't be using them). I would put a Turbolaser on the back, and use it in conjunction with Gunnery Team to get 3-4 hits each round. That will cost 3 energy. It also sits far back enough on the ship that you can often get range 3 attacks. Putting a turbolaser on the front of a raider would be a mistake.

So, I would specifically suggest:

Raider-class Corvette (Fore) (50)
Quad Laser Cannons (6)
Sensor Team (4)
Tibanna Gas Supplies (4)

Raider-class Corvette (Aft) (50)
Darth Vader (3)
Shield Technician (1)
Ion Cannon Battery (6)
Single Turbolasers (8)
Engineering Team (4)
Gunnery Team (4)
Engine Booster (3)
Instigator (4)

Total: 147

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

You'll be gaining 3-4 energy per turn, spending 7 per turn on weapons, 5 per turn to fully regen the shields on your Fore. You'll enter your first combat with an energy reserve of 6 + 6 on your hardpoints, and you'll be able to pop Tibana to gain 4+3 energy once per game. That will give you 2 turns near the beginning of the game where you can fire all your weapons and still be able to fully regenerate your shields - use them wisely. Later in the game, you'll only be able to fire 1-2 of your weapons (since you'll need to be regening shields to keep your ship afloat), but you'll have some options for which weapons to use (e.g., turbolaser at enemy huge ships, primary weapon at range 2 targets).

Again, this will all change once the Gozanti cards are available. I've only played a few games of Epic, so I'm not expert on the topic. But you definitely need to think about what you're going to be using your energy for, what actions you ship is going to be taking, and what range your ship will be from potential targets. And, of course, the rest of your list needs to be good. Spamming lots of generics is not a bad idea - super aces like Fel and Vader tend to just bite it early on in an Epic game.

I played my first game against a mate last night. we muddled through it because he had only played a few games as well. though I do have some questions:

1) does the ship start with 0 energy? it doesn't expressly say either way. it only says during the activation phase you gain X energy, but says nothing about how many you X energy you start the game with.

2) I thought that primary weapons don't need energy since there is no X energy number beside it. I could be very wrong and I'm unable to check currently.

I think a few more games plus extensive reading of the rules and faq stuff as well are in order

Yes, it starts with 0 energy, you get energy on your first activation.

Primary weapons don't require energy, but both the raider and the corvette let you spend energy on them; the raider, for 2 energy, can fire twice, and the 'vette can bump the attack up to 5 dice.

Under the standard rules, you start with 0 energy.

Under tournament rules, you start with max energy on your ships and secondary weapons.

Use the tournament rules. The standard rules lead to a super slow and boring early game.

 captain bloody fists wrote:
2) I thought that primary weapons don't need energy since there is no X energy number beside it. I could be very wrong and I'm unable to check currently.

You're right, but take a look at the Raider Fore pilot card. Firing your primary weapon costs no energy, and you have the option to spend 2 energy to fire twice.



For comparison, the CR-90 Fore has a special ability that lets you boost the primary weapon by 1 dice for the cost of 1 energy.



In neither case do you actually need to spend that energy - it's an optional ability.

What would you build for 130 points? I want to run two 35 point buzzsaw shuttles along side of this in a team event.

 DanielBeaver wrote:
Under the standard rules, you start with 0 energy.

Under tournament rules, you start with max energy on your ships and secondary weapons.

Use the tournament rules. The standard rules lead to a super slow and boring early game.

 captain bloody fists wrote:
2) I thought that primary weapons don't need energy since there is no X energy number beside it. I could be very wrong and I'm unable to check currently.

You're right, but take a look at the Raider Fore pilot card. Firing your primary weapon costs no energy, and you have the option to spend 2 energy to fire twice.



For comparison, the CR-90 Fore has a special ability that lets you boost the primary weapon by 1 dice for the cost of 1 energy.



In neither case do you actually need to spend that energy - it's an optional ability.

we're playing an escalation campaign and we're starting huge ships, so I might make the suggestion to the organiser to modify it to start with max energy.

thanks, should have read the card properly.

 DanielBeaver wrote:
Use the tournament rules. The standard rules lead to a super slow and boring early game.

This. Use the tournament rules. Technically they're for tournaments, but they're really the "oops, we're really sorry about how badly we screwed up the original energy rules" rules that should apply to all games.

Well it didn't make sense to me why you would start with no energy. sure you could explain it as "oh hey we just came out of FTL."

A quick question. is the primary weapon only fired from the front section or can it be fired from any section?

 captain bloody fists wrote:
A quick question. is the primary weapon only fired from the front section or can it be fired from any section?

Only the front section's primary arc for the Raider. The CR-90 has a 360* arc from the front section. A hypothetical future ship could put the primary weapon on the back, in which case it would only be fired from the back.

Exactly. The rear section has the 'energy' score where the primary weapon should be.

That's the choice when fighting a big ship - go for the prow (and take out the main gun) or go for the stern (and take out the ability to generate energy tokens).

As an extra issue to make the choice more important, note that the CR-90 and Raider also reverse which actions are associated with which half - the CR-90's ability to improve defence rolls and regain shields is located in the aft, too, whilst a Raider with its arse on fire can still muster the Recover action to try and keep itself alive a turn or two longer.

However, most of a raider's weapon hardpoints, which are where those damn quad lasers are firing from, are on the back.

Decisions, decisions....

Thank you for that guys. so we were using it right then with only firing from the front