Ok brave tie pilots, there have been several previews for both new huge ships already and the time has come for us to discuss how to defeat them! Lets see the best strategies and upgrades you all can think of to use against these large rebel scum!

I was thinking that a group of tie bombers with some assault missiles and proton bombs could really ruin there day. Proton bombs wont have to worry about them regenerating shields with that new action, and it should be easy to get one within range one of a foot long ship. And the assault missiles could help take care of any smaller escorts it brought along with it, because most of the smaller ships will probably be close to their larger friends anyway. It's pricy, but the new epic play should allow for more points. But lets see what you all can come up with!

Well for the following 3 ships

(a-wing) Jake Farrel - relies on focus actions,
Carnor Jax will shut his ability down if you can keep him at range 1 when jake performs actions, one way to guarantee that would be via an Ion canon as well. A-wings have high agility, but are maneuverable- so bring big maneuverable guns (Phantom?, Defender?, Interceptor) or some homing missiles....

(B-wing) Keyan Farlander - Relies on stress.
B-wings have low health, so pound them and they will fall to pieces pretty quickly, also, stay out of his arc so he can't use his ability - Shoot first! 4 VI Royal Guards ought to do well - range 1, fire first, tear him up... Likewise, ion canons are excellent at controlling B-wing movement - while simultaneously quashing advanced sensors. You might consider Bounty hunter + RGs + stuff... or if the defender is cheap enough, Ion + defender + 3 royal guards....

(Z-95) Lt Blount's ability is Good for Assault missiles or Killing stealth.
Like the A-wing, these are fragile enough to experience the occasional one hit kill (4 dice at range 1 with an interceptor, and you just need hit hit crit minimally.. Without the Assault missiles, all he does is drop stealth. Captain Kagi lets you force Blount's target lock on him - also having a higher P.S. than blount will allow you to move after - possibly making the first exchange impossible for his lock - and then you move in and crush him before he has a chance. Also, not relying on or bringing stealth - if you do bring stealth, approach cautiously and flank with your ships so he can't deal with both at the same time - Fel should still fly circles about a z-95... assuming they're about as maneuverable as an X-wing. There's a reason Z-95s are known as "flying coffins". So bring some big guns, and seal the rebel's shut before they matter.

(I believe that we're going to see the heydey of the ion canon)

Good points but I was referring mainly to the rebel transport and corellian corvette.

Misread huge ships as new ships somehow I think Missiles ought to help - don't know enough about the rules for new ships yet to know - if we field larger armies, i could see swarming them with interceptors

Need to know more about how they move, set up, and more info about how they regen energy. Proton bond sound great but you have to get close to them and they destroy you, literally, if they run into you. Also, loads of anti- get close tech that is revealed by not spoiled.

Here is what you do use as many tie fighters as possibles

Maybe but don't you think that's a bit pricy? Point wise and money wise... Plus there maneuverability which gives them an advantage would be useless against the larger firing arcs of that corvette.

Unless it's a royal guard swarm, that would be awesome

And here are the links to the rules and cards released so far:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4628

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4663

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4682

There's another one for the scenario in the rebel transport but there's no new cards in it

And I'm referring to Ravencat, sorry forgot to quote

The issue will be, is that during all of these. You will be dealing with the bigger ships plus escorts. This means you need to be dividing forces in order to handle escorts while taking down the big ships. Now the Rebel Transports will have no combat, as far as we know. However it will have alot of support/survival options to keep it and escorts close to it alive. Ideally you will want to draw the escorts away, either picking them off. Dividing your force to have heavy hitters slam into the Transport while your fighters draw escorts away and destroy them.

The Tantive however, will be alot different. The idea is that, it will be able to shoot back, at all targets. Even more until we learn the range rules for range bands 4-5. We are in the dark, because the Tantive will have MUCH farther shooting range. Now you might be thinking get up close, however the Tantive could come with 4 attack dice turrets meant to strike fighters are close range. With the ability to fire the weapons should they miss, this could mean deadly bouts of fighting really quick. If you try to use bigger ships like the Lamba shuttle and Slave one? You will run into Turbolasers, which while they will double the agility value, could still mean heavy hitting damage on the larger ships. Thus the Tantive is leaving you with a very..harder idea on how to handle it. Did I forget to mention the escorts the Tantive will have on top of it all? Plus being able to run support roll and buff the escorts?

Just thrown out as some ideas to work off, on what you will be facing. Hopefully this helps spawn some ideas for tactics.

Here I've thought Bombers were built to take out these big ships. I'd say a torpedo alpha strike followed up by some proton bombs could do a number on them.

I wonder how "splash" will work with them if they can be attacked front and rear.

If I were a beating man I would say with the large ships battles are going to be 250 per capital/transport.

If this is the case, I would say.

5 Tie Fighters. 60

4 Tie Bombers 64

3 Tie Intercepters 54

2 Tie shuttles 42

With upgrades would be just fine. Though point for point 4 shuttles would have a very good time with a 100 point yavin 4.

what if you take dark curse + SD night beast + SD trying to primarily do green maneuver to get focus and evade to be used defensively and maybe backstabber + SD and howlrunner with SD. If the escorts allow backstabber out of firing arc he becomes a cheap interceptor. Then maybe filling the rest with soontir fel and some saber squadron tie interceptors with PtL and SD and a few tie bombers. The tie fighters can try to hold off the escorts with their strong defense and if the escorts ignore the fighters backstabber and howlrunner fly together making backstabber a cheap interceptor with a partial non action requiring targeting computer. The interceptors remain defensive primarily, focusing defensively and evading, trying to stay out of firing arcs with boosts and barrel rolls when possible, while backstabber tries to take out the fighters. if the escorts go for the ties they try to avoid being killed while the interceptors and bombers swarm the huge ships. bombers maybe with advanced proton torps or proton bombs trying to close and then slam the huge ships hard

This is where we pray Proton Rockets do serious damage to big ships, and buy the Rebel Aces pack to steal appropriate weapons that should have been ours from the start.

Until then, TIE Bombers with Homing Missiles, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, and Proton Bombs. If you need to save on points pick one and compromise on the others. These huge ships seem to have no agility, so you're best bet is to throw out as many attack dice as you can against these things.

This is where we pray Proton Rockets do serious damage to big ships, and buy the Rebel Aces pack to steal appropriate weapons that should have been ours from the start.

Until then, TIE Bombers with Homing Missiles, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, and Proton Bombs. If you need to save on points pick one and compromise on the others. These huge ships seem to have no agility, so you're best bet is to throw out as many attack dice as you can against these things.

I would say Advanced proton torpedoes are too much of a risk, being at range 1. Rhymer could dish them out fine, but that corvette has some srious firepower. But against the transport with no attack you just gotta worry about the escorts, and then your good.

I like the shuttle to hammer on these large ships. The shuttle will finally be able to fly circles (all be it very large ones) around another ship. The Shuttles ability to fly slow and even stop means that their attack runs against the big ships will be long and devastating. Fire Control systems will come in handy since the biggest disadvantage of the fire control system is when you kill what you are shooting at.

Proton Bombs are looking very attractive...

Proton Bombs are looking very attractive...

Comboed with the Proton Rockets.... BOOM.

Alas, we are gunna hafta wait for those toys.

I think the next successive releases, acter the Wave 4 and the CR-90, but likely before we get the the RebAces pack, we will see more Imperial love in an anouncment from FFG. Some sort of Huge Imperial ship plus wave 5.

The CR90's long range weapons get double defenses against. I'd say a bunch of missiles at range three might do the best. However, we haven't seen any team cards. They could change everything.

Proton Bombs are looking very attractive...

Comboed with the Proton Rockets.... BOOM.

Alas, we are gunna hafta wait for those toys.

I think the next successive releases, acter the Wave 4 and the CR-90, but likely before we get the the RebAces pack, we will see more Imperial love in an anouncment from FFG. Some sort of Huge Imperial ship plus wave 5.

I sure hope so, I mean it makes sense

The real answer: TIE Phantoms

Well bombers would certainly work well. Also, you have me wondering… if you hit a huge ship with an Assault Missile, then does it have an enormous splash radius? The card text says "range 1 of the defender." But if memory serves me, they have two bases right? But in general, does this mean it's better to fire AMs at large-based ships?

Well bombers would certainly work well. Also, you have me wondering… if you hit a huge ship with an Assault Missile, then does it have an enormous splash radius? The card text says "range 1 of the defender." But if memory serves me, they have two bases right? But in general, does this mean it's better to fire AMs at large-based ships?

This might be addressed in the acompanied rulebook with the new Epic Rules.

If not, FAQ?

Well, we took a look at some of the scenarios. What if you dropped a couple of Proximity Mines to cut off the Rebel Transport's escape route? I don't know if the Tantive IV has places to go, but you could probably use them against that ship, too. If I were the Rebel, I'd try to get one of my more resilient ships (B-wing?) or disposable ship (Z-95?) to run through the mines to set it off and clear the way for the transport. Unless the transport had enough health, and then I'd just run right through them. The best part is that you could drop them without necessarily getting very close to the transport and either do some free damage or dictate it's flight path.

Beyond that, I think that TIE swarm feels like the way to go. You'd have to be careful not to get run over, but they have a limited number of shots, and I think giving them too many targets is a sound tactic. Maybe send Black Squadron in to do some damage because the Rebel Transport is PS 3.

Slicer Tools is a concern because the transport can jam you for stress, then slam you for damage. But it has to spend one energy for each ship with a stress token at range 1-3 that it wants to put damage on. I'm getting the feeling that this isn't going to be a trivial price to pay. If you provide enough targets you could drain their energy pretty quickly, which may hamper it's effectiveness at supporting its escorts. I'm probably wrong, but it's a thought.

Still, I'm going to have to side with everybody else and say, "Send in the bombers!" Seriously, it's what they're designed for, and I am super excited to use them in a bombing role, as opposed to dogfighting (thought they are also capable at that).

Slicer Tools is a concern because the transport can jam you for stress, then slam you for damage. But it has to spend one energy for each ship with a stress token at range 1-3 that it wants to put damage on. I'm getting the feeling that this isn't going to be a trivial price to pay. If you provide enough targets you could drain their energy pretty quickly, which may hamper it's effectiveness at supporting its escorts. I'm probably wrong, but it's a thought.

Yeah, and that will be even less of a threat with wingman

For 150 points:

Could we possibly see a renaissance, of sorts, for the TIA Advanced? The combination of speed (to close the range), good Agility + Shields (to survive the defensive fire) and Missiles (to launch Assault or Ion Missiles) could prove really handy. I'd also think that long-range fire from a Lambda Shuttle with HLC would be a good sniper platform as it also has FC. Likewise, TIE Bombers (with Missiles and/or Bombs) and the Phantom. Of course, there is the expensive "All-In-One", TIE Defender, as well.

If you were playing Rebels v Rebels, then a swarm of Missile-armed Z-95 Headhunters equipped with Ion Missiles or Assault Missiles could be frustrating.

In general, use the heavy weapons that, were this "real" would be used against just such targets, ie. Torpedoes, Missiles,and heavy beam weapons like HLC and Ion Cannons.

Chris