I read through the new epic rules. I am pretty excited. But I am primarily an Imperial Player. And as I thought about what I would do, it pretty much came down to just taking lots and lots of ships. I found that there was little impetus to really make my points count as I built my lists.

I think I was a little underwhelmed. With no big ships the Empire doesn't seem to get much out the the new Epic Format. Besides of course incredibly HUGE squadrons.

I actually felt like I would have sooo many ships on the table that it would be hard to keep them from getting run over by the Rebels Huge ships.

Well, if we take a look at the maximum number of ships...

12 Academy Pilots = 144 points

9 Scimitar Squadron Pilots = 144 points

So... You could only have 21 ships on the board that is twice the size as before (with a max of 8 ships before).

On the flip side...

Boba w/ 15pts

Kath w/ 15pts

Krassis w/ 12pts

BH w/ 12 pts

Those 4 ships come out to 200 points by themselves... And you could add in 3 more ships... say, Soontir w/ PTL+Stealth+SU, Rhymer w/ APT APT PTL and Vader or something, and you're easily at 300 points with only 7 ships.

I'd love to see a bomber swarm.

Add Vader + squad leader, a shuttle who passes aroudn target locks and more of dem shenanigans.

Any points left; fill em up with Tie's.

One thing I think the empire is going to get out of this is that they are going to have a much better time on the larger board, they have a lot more high speed ships and the lambda title to take target locks from up to 6 feet away. I think in epic play we are going to see at least a few empire lists that try to split the rebels then dart away and dog pile on a lone formation instead of a massive focus fire swarm. Only ship the rebels have that can attempt that is the A-wing and possibly the E-wing.

Honestly, I'm fascinated by the squad building the Imps have to deal with. I'm thinking Rexlar Brath and Bombers with Ion Pulse Missiles will be the core of good Imperial Epic squads.

The thing 300 points does is make the support ships or ones needing lots of upgrades a lot easier to fit. A more pure support shuttle, or bombers with 3-4 ord upgrades are a lot easier to manage in 300 points.

With the larger table, you'll likely want to have 2-4 formations in different areas of the board, flying them all more or less independently of each other.

Do people feel more comfortable with the high cost of Defenders now that we are using an increased point limit? They are still pricey, but I feel there is more flexibility when putting them in your list now.

Do people feel more comfortable with the high cost of Defenders now that we are using an increased point limit? They are still pricey, but I feel there is more flexibility when putting them in your list now.

Do people feel more comfortable with the high cost of Defenders now that we are using an increased point limit? They are still pricey, but I feel there is more flexibility when putting them in your list now.

Yes. Brath's ability is better in epic play, there is more cost flexibility in epic play, ionization is seemingly better in epic play maybe. Etc.

You're right. Brath with Ion Cannon and Predator could be really great against a huge ship. Especially since the Defender will excel at performing strafing runs. Phantoms throwing 4 dice against huge ships will also be great.

I can also see pure support Lambda's being more viable. Dishing out the points for Jendon to set up a bomber alpha strike was always iffy at 100 points, but now it could be devastating. And once the Imperials get their own huge ship, Kagi will finally find a use. Have him fly wingman and you can potentially prevent alpha strikes on the huge ship. That's pretty awesome.

Man, Rexlar Brath is a capital ship killer. Once the shields are down, they will be in trouble. I can't wait to see what kinds of crits the huge ships get. Even just using the Ion Cannon while the shields are down is going to be a pain. A crit AND one less energy to recharge your shields. Add in a few Bombers with Ion Pulse missiles, and the Corvette is not recharging it's shields next turn.

I shall nickname Rexlar Brath "Ahab", because he's hunting whales.

And once the Imperials get their own huge ship, Kagi will finally find a use. Have him fly wingman and you can potentially prevent alpha strikes on the huge ship. That's pretty awesome.

Doubt that... Biggs' ability does not affect huge ships. Kagi's shouldn't either.

And once the Imperials get their own huge ship, Kagi will finally find a use. Have him fly wingman and you can potentially prevent alpha strikes on the huge ship. That's pretty awesome.

Doubt that... Biggs' ability does not affect huge ships. Kagi's shouldn't either.

So enemy ships can acquire target locks on huge ships even if kagi is in range? Must have missed that.

You may even consider adding some Omicron shuttles with ion cannons. No need for Engine Upgrades when hunting for whales.

They said nothing about Kagi in the tournament rules, so I'm willing to bet he still works.

They said nothing about him because he can't coexist with huge ships for the moment. I would be willing to bet that once huge imps ships are released, you'll see an errata or addendum or whatever to his ability saying the same thing that Biggs' ability does, which is that it only affects small and large ships, not huge ships.

I sure hope he will be able to work with huge ships. Kagi will continue to twiddle his thumbs on the side lines if not.

Honestly, I think Bigg's restriction is to prevent a conundrum with the Shield Projector, which is a Biggs like ability.

Honestly, I think Bigg's restriction is to prevent a conundrum with the Shield Projector, which is a Biggs like ability.

There are probably also some very cheesy tactics involving things like r2-d2 on biggs and the recover action on Huge ships, among other things, that they want to prevent, Kagi wouldn't cause those issues. Not being able to target lock isn't as bad as not attacking at all and he can't recover hit points with anything we have atm.

Well and from a fluff stand point... It makes some sense that Biggs can 'block a shot' fired at another X-Wing... The YT is pushing it a bit. But how could he stop someone from shooting something as large as a CR-90 in a X-Wing?

Kagi on the other hand is I assume using some sort of ECM to prevent people from locking on to anyone other then himself. But I wouldn't be surprised to see he doesn't work in some cases, I'd think the signature of something CR-90 sized or bigger would be hard to beat with what you can carry on a shuttle.