We ran our first Epic game on Monday using the full 3'x6' playing space, 300 points per side, and of course, the CR90 to make things as epic as possible. And while it was a blast to have that many ships on the board initially and evoked an "epic" feel to the game, I'd like to share a few thoughts before you take the plunge yourself.

My experience will most certainly be different from yours, but I was playing as imperials against two friends of mine - one ran the CR90, the other ran the rebel small ships. I play just about every week, lurk on the forums often, and have gone to numerous tournaments. They play because I invite them over and provide the minis

Both are big star wars fans and enjoy the game, but they fall under the "casual" part of fly casual. Which is awesome - I love playing with fans because they play for the love of the universe. However, it also leads to a slightly different experience for regular games which becomes more visible when you transition to epic games.

General Thoughts:

1 - Follow the guidelines in the manual and do not set up on the long ends. No matter how much you or your opponent thinks it allows for "better strategy" or more freedom, just don't do it. You'll spend 4-5 rounds just getting your ships into position which after a few rounds of movement, gets stale fast. Flying is fun, shooting is fun, but flying + shooting is what makes this game awesome.

2 - Though it's tempting to load the CR90 up to the gills with upgrades, don't do it. Like any other ship in X-wing, you need to think long and hard before filling up any single target with expensive add-ons. And for the huge ships in particular, everything you do is limited by energy and most of the fun stuff costs energy. There are a few cards that let you get more energy, but like all good things, it will never be enough. Choose upgrades wisely.

3 - What's nice about the huge ships is that like the magnificent albino space whale, you can kit them out a few different ways. It's not a jack of all trades - rather, it's a versatile specialist that comes with the tools to make it whatever you need. Want a long range sniper? Turbolasers are your best friend. Need a small ship killer? Load up on quads and let her rip. Got a large fleet and want some support? Target Coordinator, Comms Boosters, and the coordinate action open up your fleet's action economy in unprecedented ways. Pick a flavor and stick to it and you won't be disappointed.

4 - Huge ships will almost always have a giant target painted on them. Do not rely on a huge ship to do all the heavy lifting - it needs a solid support fleet to get the most out of your investment and zero evade dice means it simply won't last under sustained fire.

5 - Pilot skill is suddenly much more valuable....unless your enemy outnumbers you 2-to-1. As you'll see in our fleet breakdown below, the lowest pilot skill the rebels had was the CR90 at 4. Everyone else was 7+, which meant even my RGPs had to weather the bulk of their fire. But when I had 2 shots for each 1 of theirs, they just couldn't last. As with regular games, you need to balance the number of ships with their pilot skill. I have a feeling that a few high ps pilots each with a ps1-4 escort will really put the hurt on attacking ships.

6 - 3 times the points is 3 times the work to keep track of your ship abilities, movement, etc. Be aware that your first few games may take 3 times as long to finish. Everyone who's had the pleasure of running 5+ ships knows that it takes a bit of brain power to keep track of what all you can do and what your opponent can do each round. 300 point games take that to a whole new level and for my friends, it meant a lot of "wait, what does this do?" and "okay you go there....wait, no we want to go here instead. What if we did this?" I've had plenty of practice keeping track of where everyone is and how they can move and it was still a bit of a strain. I'm definitely more a thinker and the more I have to think about the longer things take. I'm not saying that everyone's the same way, I'm just saying that you're basically running 3 100 point lists at the same time which, while fun, is definitely a different kind of game. We thought we might get in two sessions in 7 hours but we only managed one and after I took out the CR90, they just called it.

If anyone else has had a similar or different experience, let me know! I'd love to hear how your first epic games went and share notes

Fleets for each side are below:

Rebel - 300

CR90 - 141

Single Turbolaser x 2 - 16 points

Quad Laser - 6 points

Slicer Tools - 7 points

Toryn Farr - 6 points

Engineering Team - 4 points

Gunnery Team - 4 points

Sensor Team - 4 points

Dodonna's Pride - 4 points

Wedge - 33

PTL - 3

R2 - 1

Wes Janson - 35

PTL - 3

R5-P9 - 3

Jek Porkins - 34

Marksmanship - 3

R2-D2 - 4

Jan Ors - 32

Ion Turret - 5

Squad Leader - 2

Horton Salm - 26

R2 - 1

Empire - 305

Turr Phennir - 26

Veteran Instincts - 1

Royal Guard Pilot x 3 - 84

Hull Upgrade - 3

PTL - 3

Bounty Hunter x 2 - 40

HLC - 7

Colonel Jendon - 32

ST 321 - 3

Ion Cannon - 3

Captain Jonus - 29

Flechette Torpedos x 2 - 4

PTL - 3

Scimitar Squadron x 2 - 48

Cluster Missiles - 4

Concussion Missiles - 4

*Edited to reflect point miscalculation on both the Royal Guard Pilots and Colonel Jendon. So it looks like I ran an overpowered fleet, which my friends will be happy to use to invalidate the game

Minor detail, I think you were actually running a 303 point fleet. Royal Guard Pilots should be 28 points each, not 25 points.

Minor detail, I think you were actually running a 303 point fleet. Royal Guard Pilots should be 28 points each, not 25 points.

****! You're right. And I think I didn't actually have Weapons Enginner on the shuttle. I'll make an adjustment.

Like he said, that's a lot of points to keep track of.

Yeah, exactly. I just opened up my CR-90's last night, its going to be quite a hairy mess getting a game going with both.

I didn't find it to bad to keep track.

Though I can see some issues with the Corvette loadout already.

Having 2 single lasers is probably not that best idea. First off that's 16 points. Second with the primary and one single laser gives you two long range shots, and only one quad gives one closer range.

I really think it works best with 2 quads. Really tears the small ships apart. Also really makes it hard for your opponent to get close.

Plus slicer tools? I see no point to put that on the vette. Waste of points and I think it's actions can be used for better purpose.

Again they have toryn Farr on there as well. To many actions to choose from with not enough actions.

Plus one of every team. I think since you only need one single laser on it that sensor team is a waste.

So take off toyran far -6. Sensor team -4, single laser -8. That right there is 18 points free up.

Plus only 4 ships for an escort? That is really rough. If you were flying Imps you have them way out gunned. I'd be surprised if you lost to be honest.

Again with 18 points free up, they could have picked some cheaper pilots and probably had another 1-2 small ships or a large one.

Jek porkins with R2 and marksmen is not a good choice imo.

Horton? I think dutch with his passing of target locks, plus again save for some points is a much better investment.

So you set up along the 3' edge rather than the 6' side? I don't see why setting up on the 6' side would be no good. Just because you have a bigger start area, still doesn't mean you have to space out your ships so far apart. You can still keep them together and fly them close together. However I'd you set one group on one side and the other on the other side, you just spread your forces to think

Loading up the corvette to the gills is exactly what it looks like they did. I can only assume they didn't get to use a lot of the abilities, seeing as each section only gets one action. Having to many actions available,is not a good thing, as in most case a waste of points somewhere

Your right, they do have a huge target, that's why they need an escort, Having so few ships are going to get focus fired very fast, and without then, there is nothing to put in between your vette and his fleet

Next week I'll be facing against my buddy in a vette vs vette match. Im still wondering if I should use the Transport in that game or not.

I think most of us still have a lot of practice left with the huge ships.

So you set up along the 3' edge rather than the 6' side? I don't see why setting up on the 6' side would be no good. Just because you have a bigger start area, still doesn't mean you have to space out your ships so far apart. You can still keep them together and fly them close together. However I'd you set one group on one side and the other on the other side, you just spread your forces to think

To clarify, I absolutely agree with setting up on the 6' side. Setting up on the short ends was a mistake and did NOT help with our game length issue I'll clarify that as well.

@Krynn007 you make a number of excellent points that i agree with fully. We talked about their list afterwards and made some recommendations on quantity vs quality so hopefully they'll consider that in future builds.

As far as CR90 loadouts, I've actually been toying with a close-support gunship built around your quad lasers - you can make the approach to the huge ship very painful and can still fit in 4X's and 3B's (at PS4 no less) to cover your blindspots. They might have the numbers but you've got the hull, the PS, and the firepower to knock down multiple ships in the big exchanges. And if you can keep the fighting close to the CR90, it can punish any ship that slips through the cracks.

I've got a feeling Han Solo with Weapons Engineer backing the quads will really put on some hurt.

Actually if you could fit in Jan I believe you could make it so the vette fires at a 12. Just a thought.

Plus a combo I thought of, but not sure if it works is dutch,weapons engineer, with the vette (just made a post about it if you're wondering what the combo is)

Edit

If copy paste the link to my post by can't seem to do it on my phone for some reason.

If interested thread is called

Dutch, weapons engineer, corvette combo?

Edit

If copy paste the link to my post by can't seem to do it on my phone for some reason.

If interested thread is called

Dutch, weapons engineer, corvette combo?

I saw that combo and I think that could be very interesting indeed. You could then kit out the corvette to be in a bit more of a support role then, tossing out target locks to the people, and firing on their enemies.

Good idea!

So abilities like Dutch's and Jan's can apply to the corvette? Or similar to Biggs do they just apply to small and large ships?

So abilities like Dutch's and Jan's can apply to the corvette? Or similar to Biggs do they just apply to small and large ships?

In the new tournament rules I believe they have restricted, Biggs ability to read small and large ships, and you cannot equip gunner and navigator on any huge ships.

For now the rest are fair game, but they may change in a new faq/tournament ruling