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How do you guys normally outfit your raiders for combat?

I haven't been able to use it myself, but I was thinking something along the lines of:

Raider-Class Corvette (Fore) (50)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
Sensor Team (4)
Raider-Class Corvette (Aft) (50)
Ordenance Tubes (5)
Weapons Engineer (3)
Darth Vader (3)
Impetuous (3)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
Homing Missiles (5)
Ordinance Experts (5)

And then team it up with jonus or something.

I haven't played with Ordinance Tubes yet, but I would point out that you don't have enough target lock actions to shoot all your torpedoes at once (unless you get lucky and kill a ship every time).

I've had good luck in a couple of games with something like this:

Raider-class Corvette (Fore) (50)
Ion Cannon Battery (6)
Sensor Team (4)
Tibanna Gas Supplies (4)

Raider-class Corvette (Aft) (50)
Darth Vader (3)
Captain Needa (2)
Single Turbolasers (8)
Engineering Team (4)
Gunnery Team (4)
Ionization Reactor (4)
Optimized Generators (5)
Impetuous (3)

Total: 147

View in Yet Another Squad Builder


Darth Vader is an obviously strong upgrade for the Raider, so I usually start with him. He also combos well with Impetuous, as you can selectively kill ships and then regain target locks. Your main gun is your primary damage dealer, the Ion Battery on the front can be used to poke ships who hate crits and ion tokens, and the rear turbolaser is good for wrecking ships with 0 or 1 evade dice (e.g, YT-1300's, B-Wings, CR-90s). You don't generate quite enough energy to power 3 hardpoint weapons, so no need to overspend there. All the Team upgrades are useful on the Raider, and I like having at least one Tibanna to pop and give me an extra round of full-energy shooting. I'm also a fan of the Ionization reactor, as it makes your "waggle" very dangerous to enemy ships (they need to stay out of Range 1, not simply avoid collisions). Captain Needa is my choice of crew, to open up my maneuvering options, but the WED-15 repair droid is a good option.

The Epic meta is not very fleshed out, so there may be some strong strategies and builds waiting to be discovered.

 DanielBeaver wrote:
I haven't played with Ordinance Tubes yet, but I would point out that you don't have enough target lock actions to shoot all your torpedoes at once (unless you get lucky and kill a ship every time.

It does, because homing missiles don't spend the target lock. It's an unmodified 4-dice attack if you do it that way, but in theory you can fire all three shots.

this is my typical raider list.

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

Raider-class Corvette (Aft) (50)
shield technician (1)
Weapons engineer (3)
Quad laser cannons (6)
Quad laser cannons (6)
Gunnery Team (4)
Engineering Team (4)
Backup shield generator (3)
Imstigator (4)

she's done well this build. get in close and blast away. i haven't got the tubes yet so i haven't had the fun of trying a missile boat.

you might consider one energy-driven hardpoint weapon on the fore hardpoint.

Ordnance Tubes are cool and all, but if you lose the back of the raider you lose access to the target lock action. I guess you also lose access to most of your energy generation, too, though.

Alternatively, consider flying Jendon or a systems officer shuttle as a wingman, giving you some AWACS capability even if the stern goes down. Jonus as a wingman is good too.

Homing missiles - as peregrine points out - are a good call. The ability to bang off a pair of homing missiles without spending a target lock makes them very useful for an ordnance raider which needs to manage target lock economy rather than action economy. Impetuous is definitely the right title for that reason, and the weapons engineer is key.

I would consider assault missiles rather than proton torpedoes. The reason is that an epic game tends to have 3-4 times the points values on a double-sized board - which, in turn, means effectively 1.5-2 times the 'density of units', which makes area effect weapons much more tempting.

Some nice ideas here. I read a post once on a different forum about a "ramming ship" which was geared towards high speed and regenerating shields/health and basically mowing down everything else which I thought was a cool idea. I wish there was more to do with epic, the games are a pain to set up, but it's very fun playing them

This is great! I have a regular epic game, but haven't fielded my Raider because I just can't wrap my head around the upgrades.

buckero0 wrote:
I read a post once on a different forum about a "ramming ship" which was geared towards high speed and regenerating shields/health and basically mowing down everything else which I thought was a cool idea.

Ramming is a very powerful mechanic if you can do it correctly. A Rebel Transport or Gozanti might be a better choice, though - they're so much cheaper, and ram just as well.

 Anpu-adom wrote:
This is great! I have a regular epic game, but haven't fielded my Raider because I just can't wrap my head around the upgrades.

If you have access to a Gozanti, try using that instead as a "starter ship". A fully decked-out Raider is a Rules Soup.

Hmm, I thought the Raider was a free gift with the Tie Advanced upgrade cards.
It looks good displayed on a shelf.

 House Griffith wrote:
Hmm, I thought the Raider was a free gift with the Tie Advanced upgrade cards.
It looks good displayed on a shelf.

Hah, that's all I bought mine for.

 DanielBeaver wrote:

buckero0 wrote:
I read a post once on a different forum about a "ramming ship" which was geared towards high speed and regenerating shields/health and basically mowing down everything else which I thought was a cool idea.

Ramming is a very powerful mechanic if you can do it correctly. A Rebel Transport or Gozanti might be a better choice, though - they're so much cheaper, and ram just as well.

In my last epic game, I stupidly allowed both my decimator and phantom get run over. Granted, he lost a pair of blocking ships to do it but I got the short end of that exchange.

 Anpu-adom wrote:
This is great! I have a regular epic game, but haven't fielded my Raider because I just can't wrap my head around the upgrades.

If you have access to a Gozanti, try using that instead as a "starter ship". A fully decked-out Raider is a Rules Soup.

Only epic ship I'm missing at this point is the Corvette (ironic since it was the first). A Gozanti would work well with what I typically run for Epic Games.
2 Buzzsaw shuttles, Jonus, Whisper, Chirpy/Vader, and 4 AC Advanced



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 House Griffith wrote:
Hmm, I thought the Raider was a free gift with the Tie Advanced upgrade cards.
It looks good displayed on a shelf.

That is why everyone bought a Raider... then we found out that Palpatine was good... really good.