So knowing this, as an Imperial player I would field huge ships of my own, one with guns that can obliterate the transports very easily.

Why? If the imperial huge ship is like the corvette then it won't have enough energy to use its guns, and you'll do more damage with a horde of conventional ships.

Consequently, a Rebel player knowing this would bring his corvette to fight the huge Imperial ship at range.

Or they'd just bring some HLC b-wings, which do more damage for the same points as a corvette and can shoot more than once every other turn.

And which are non-regenerating turbolaser food at Range 5. Imperial turbolasers are much more potent than rebel ones because rebel ships have so much weaker dodging ability.

Deterrence Theory.

If you have not played against two rebel Transports, I would recommend it. They absolutely wreck face. One hands out stress, the other damages ships, all without attacking, all without rolling dice, or relying on defence actions/tokens. Around this you can build a very harsh stress/ion list. Its absolutely brutal to be on the receiving end of it.

As it so happened, I did play against two Transports just last friday. And while their potential is impressive, it falls short against numbers. The transports were easily swarmed by a multitude of interceptors and several phantoms, which whittled down its shields and hull very rapidly and forced the transports to spend all their energy in their shields in order to try and hold out long enough for the escorts to come to the rescue. But by that time the damage was done and the Transports where drifting hulks. The Rebel side's saving grace was that Transports are cheap, so there were still plenty of escorts buzzing around to finish me off after I focused down the Transports.

But that is an advantage the 90 point Corvette does not have.

Being the fanboy of huge ships that I am I'll by an Imperial huge ship, but it's hard to deny that in terms of points VS value, the Corvette needs work. It just doesn't have enough energy to make use of its full potential, and what little it can do reliably, the Transport can do for a third of the points.

And which are non-regenerating turbolaser food at Range 5. Imperial turbolasers are much more potent than rebel ones because rebel ships have so much weaker dodging ability.

Again, they aren't because you don't have energy to fire them. Which is scarier: two HLCs that give you a bonus defense die, or a 10-TIE swarm with Howlrunner? And when you answer keep in mind that if you have to maneuver or spend energy on defensive/support upgrades then you're down to one HLC, or even zero HLCs.

Right, but my question is, why would an Imperial player field a huge ship? As you noted, the Corvette is at its their best against agility one. Which for the Empire means... the shuttle and the upcoming Decimator. They aren't quite as handy against agility 3+ fighters, which is the bulk of the Imperial arsenal. And those are quite capable of killing a Corvette.

Support options the Imperials lack, plus anticipating the Rebel ships will be kitted out with antifighter Quad Lasers.

Not to mention Imperial Huges will likely have crew slots and thus can equip Fleet Officer. And huge ships can't get stressed.

Again, they aren't because you don't have energy to fire them. Which is scarier: two HLCs that give you a bonus defense die, or a 10-TIE swarm with Howlrunner? And when you answer keep in mind that if you have to maneuver or spend energy on defensive/support upgrades then you're down to one HLC, or even zero HLCs.

Confused. You said use HLC B-wings in lieu of a Corvette against an Imperial Huge. Where does a Howlmother Swarm come into it?

A Corvette can attack the B-wings with Single Turbolasers at Range 5, which'll be A: early in the engagement when the Corvette doesn't lack for energy, and B: when the slow B-wings can't shoot back. Assuming the Vigil/Lancer is similar to the CR-90 it'll easily be able to do the same.

Again, they aren't because you don't have energy to fire them. Which is scarier: two HLCs that give you a bonus defense die, or a 10-TIE swarm with Howlrunner? And when you answer keep in mind that if you have to maneuver or spend energy on defensive/support upgrades then you're down to one HLC, or even zero HLCs.

Confused. You said use HLC B-wings in lieu of a Corvette against an Imperial Huge. Where does a Howlmother Swarm come into it?

A Corvette can attack the B-wings with Single Turbolasers at Range 5, which'll be A: early in the engagement when the Corvette doesn't lack for energy, and B: when the slow B-wings can't shoot back. Assuming the Vigil/Lancer is similar to the CR-90 it'll easily be able to do the same.

I do believe he's referring to two Single Turbolasers on a Huge ship (which is about what can be reliably powered every turn if using all energy), since they have 4 Attack, but "give you a bonus defense die".

Right, but my question is, why would an Imperial player field a huge ship? As you noted, the Corvette is at its their best against agility one. Which for the Empire means... the shuttle and the upcoming Decimator. They aren't quite as handy against agility 3+ fighters, which is the bulk of the Imperial arsenal. And those are quite capable of killing a Corvette.

Support options the Imperials lack, plus anticipating the Rebel ships will be kitted out with antifighter Quad Lasers.

Not to mention Imperial Huges will likely have crew slots and thus can equip Fleet Officer. And huge ships can't get stressed.

Granted, but if we use the Rebel ships as a base (as grasshoppery conclusion jumping as it is), that would mean the Imperial Transport variant would be the better pick.

I'm looking at:

CR90 Corvette (Fore)

Quad Laser Cannons, Sensor Team

CR90 Corvette (Aft)

Quad Laser Cannons, Weapons Engineer, Backup Shield Generator

For a total of 112. Not sure it really needs much else, maybe an Engineering team?

Edit: Also.... gwoooooooooooooaaaar.

I doubt the Imperials will have an unarmed ship, especially if their 2 Epic Pointer is a Gozanti as predicted. I'm very interested to see how FFG handle it. Will they have it as a two halves ship in the 50-60 point ballpark, or break their previous trend of no more than 4 stats a card?

That, or the Gonzie has no primary weapon but does have Hardpoint slots. That's my bet.

CR90 Corvette (Fore)

Quad Laser Cannons, Sensor Team

CR90 Corvette (Aft)

Quad Laser Cannons, Weapons Engineer, Backup Shield Generator

For a total of 112. Not sure it really needs much else, maybe an Engineering team?

Considered double Tactician? Every quadlaser shot at Range 2 jams, if you miss and refire, that's four stress tokens. And that's on every quadshot.

I doubt the Imperials will have an unarmed ship, especially if their 2 Epic Pointer is a Gozanti as predicted. I'm very interested to see how FFG handle it. Will they have it as a two halves ship in the 50-60 point ballpark, or break their previous trend of no more than 4 stats a card?

That, or the Gonzie has no primary weapon but does have Hardpoint slots. That's my bet.

I would switch a primary weapon for more energy (and energy generation) in a heartbeat.

Still iffy on the Gozanti though... the ship just doesn't feel Empire to me. More something Old Republic.

Considered double Tactician? Every quadlaser shot at Range 2 jams, if you miss and refire, that's four stress tokens. And that's on every quadshot.

That's just plain mean.

I like it!

Going that route, may as well drop the Sensor Team and Weapons Engineer (who needs to hit?) and take the third Quad Cannon...

The Gonzie guess is from SW Rebels using it as a small Imperial patrol craft, with four TIEs docked to the bottom.

I would switch a primary weapon for more energy (and energy generation) in a heartbeat

To be consistent with the transport (making it a one card ship) FFG would need to either design a five stat card or give it no primary. Otherwise it has no Energy stat (Power generator replaces Primary Weapon on cards). I can see them giving the Gonzie no Primary but having weapons slots.

Yeah, that seems the most likely.

It was originally a cargo vessel after all. That would allow people to run the basic transport version or an up gunned imperial escort version while avoiding the graphical design issue of 5 stats on one card.

Pretty sure it was an anti-piracy escort ship actually: a convoy guard.

When i first read the thread title, this was the kind of suck that I was thinking about:

Interesting.

Wookiepedia now has tabs for entries, one for canon and one for legends. The canon entry for the gozanti now lists 63.8 meters in length instead of the old, legends value of 41.8m.

Wookiee and lengths never really got on. Look at their jumboHWK and Stretch Limo TIE scout.

Wookiee and lengths never really got on. Look at their jumboHWK and Stretch Limo TIE scout.

Hell, look at the issues they had with the Falcon...

I think "feet" and "metres" may have been mixed up on several occasions...

I'm looking at:

CR90 Corvette (Fore)

Quad Laser Cannons, Sensor Team

CR90 Corvette (Aft)

Quad Laser Cannons, Weapons Engineer, Backup Shield Generator

For a total of 112. Not sure it really needs much else, maybe an Engineering team?

What about a targeting coordinator? Are you planning to let it use all of its own target locks?

Edit: Also.... gwoooooooooooooaaaar.

Oh...

****.

There's no way my wife is going to let me spend $250 on this.

Confused. You said use HLC B-wings in lieu of a Corvette against an Imperial Huge. Where does a Howlmother Swarm come into it?

Two different situations. The Howlrunner swarm is in response to the idea that the imperial big ship will be good at killing low-agility rebel fighters with its turbolasers. The answer to that is that a Howlrunner swarm of equivalent points will be much better at killing low-agility rebel fighters.

A: early in the engagement when the Corvette doesn't lack for energy

There is no such time. Remember that allocation happens after energy is generated, and your guns start with zero energy. On the first turn you move, generate zero energy (because you're already at your limit), and can put five energy on guns. If you fire those guns immediately to take advantage of the 1-2 turns while your opponent is still out of range you will spend four energy to fire two turbolasers. Next turn you generate a maximum of four energy (with a 2-straight and an engineering team), just barely enough to fire another two shots. There is never a time when you can fire more than two turbolaser shots (or spend energy to modify your dice) unless you skip a turn or two of shooting to charge all of your guns.

B: when the slow B-wings can't shoot back.

Who cares about shooting back when you're not doing very much damage over those turns? You're averaging three hits per turbolaser shot, against an average of 0.75 evades per shot, plus another two hits from the main gun against 0.75-1.125 evades. So a full round of shooting gives you an average of 5.75 damage against an 8 HP b-wing. IOW, you just spent 150ish points to kill a b-wing every other turn.

Now compare that to how fast those b-wings die when 150ish points of Howlrunner swarm does 5-straights to reach the b-wings ASAP and starts dumping a giant bucket of attack dice on them.

What about a targeting coordinator? Are you planning to let it use all of its own target locks?

With three weapons and the ability to carry two target locks, I was kind of hoping it might get to use them. We'll see how often it uses the TL action I guess...

Oh...

****.

There's no way my wife is going to let me spend $250 on this.

I'm looking forward to seeing it printed and painted. WSF material doesn't fill me with a great deal of confidence, but it if looks good (read: smooth) enough, and if we don't see something inspiring at GenCon, then some more of my GW models might be appearing on ebay...

(...well, they might end up appearing on ebay anyway at the rate GW is going)

Wow! how did FFG let this turn out so bad?

I was here to learn about the Imperial Raider and Tantive, but after reading this there is no way we would want to get the huge ships for some of our games.

I thought the price of the Raider was too high just to get the tie advanced, now I wouldn't even pay it for both ships in the package, if playing them sucks so bad why would I spend that kind of money.

What? We've had a lot of fun playing with the huge ships and I'm sure our Epic matches will just get better when the Raider shows up.

Firstly, that's one hell of a n-n-n-n-n-necro, secondly...

Oh...

****.

There's no way my wife is going to let me spend $250 on this.

I'm looking forward to seeing it printed and painted. WSF material doesn't fill me with a great deal of confidence, but it if looks good (read: smooth) enough, and if we don't see something inspiring at GenCon, then some more of my GW models might be appearing on ebay...

(...well, they might end up appearing on ebay anyway at the rate GW is going)

I repeat for emphasis: Gwooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaar.

What? We've had a lot of fun playing with the huge ships and I'm sure our Epic matched will just get better when the Raider shows up.

Well then what is all this talk about?