Hi everyone,

I'm looking to have my first Epic game next week. Never ever played Epic and I have barely an idea of how the Huge ships works. Got any tips and basics to share?

The opponent will probably field the Corvette.

I'm on the Imperial side, and I think we're going to play either 300 or 400pts, as a IMP 3 vs Rebel 2 game.

My friend is dead set on running Defenders only.

My other friend has a hopeless love affair for top interceptors. (That said, hes really good at arc dodging.)

I've got nary a clue what to build and how to approach the game.

Was thinking, is it good to have 3 Tie Defs with Ion Cannon? The idea is that the Ion Cannon is a choice, sometimes we'll go for just 3 attack dice, and sometimes we can go for trying to ion the big ship. (Since ioning removes energy right? is that a good idea?)

- I'd try placing the asteroids through the center as a corridor. Tie Def lead, while Ints cover them from a few steps behind. Have the Tie Defs and Ints push past them on the opposite side of the rocks from the big ship, using them to cover against the big ship's attack and engage the escorts for a few opening turns. Then have the option of turning quickly on the big ship or K-turn pincering the escorts against the Ints flying slightly behind.

Then the question is also, what role should my squadron try and play?

Damage output squad? mini swarm?

air superiority? swarm of ps1 ints + tacgunner shuttle?

heavy damage? bombers and HLC shuttle?

I have only up to wave 3 stuff. =)

I only played through the campaigns included with the two huge ships, so I'm no expert. Ion is a good choice, the huge ships gennerate one less energy for each ion token, so keeping it ioned will make it difficult for it to use its secondary weapons and some of its crew and cargo abilities. The GR75's primary weapon is at the front, and can fire through the blue line in the middle of the base, and the secondaries point to the sides, this leave a large blind spot in the rear to attack the aft, which is where its energy is gennerated. Part of your squad should be designed to assault the huge ships, and another group should deal with its escorts? With 300 points you could easily design 2 or 3 sub-squadrons to fill the nessesary roles. The GR75's long range weapons have difficulty hitting 3 agility ships, and it destroys shuttles before they get in range. HLCs on firesprays and/or Defenders suppoted by Jonus are a good choice to assault the huge ships, bombers would work here too. 2 Attack dice ships will struggle to put a dent in the huge ships when it's using the Reinforce action, but it can only assign that token to one section, so attacks from the side, splitting into to forces to attack fore and aft simultaniously, or crippling the section with the reinforce action are your best bets to hit it with only 2 dice, or get into range 1 and try not to get run over when it moves.

Good luck.

Is there any possibility of using Shuttles? Or are they just too easily smashed by the long range weapons?

Also do huge ships have things that can change focuses to hits? I've been thinking about using both Opportunist on some Royal Guards in conjunction with two TacGunner shuttles with Sensor Jammer.

Does that work?

If you swarm it with cheap ties it will drop very fast. At 0 agility you can easily go through the 13 hits it takes to cripple the front section in one turn.

All i can recommend is getting into the rear arc of the corvette where it can't hurt you much - TIE-D's are maneuverable enough to do this then you can sit then dishing out a pretty much guaranteed 1 damage and 1 ion token per TIE-D per turn. The corvette will need to swing escorts round behind it to take out the TIE-D's at which point your team mate can pile in and take out the escorts.
If the Corvette tries to move away from you fast, it will be generating less power, which is what the Ion Cannons are for anyway, so doing your job for you by limiting what cards it spend energy for. Worst thing you can do is let it coast along at speed 1 and build up energy while taking pot shots at long range at you.

The problem with cheap TIE Fighters is that the Huge ship player might reinforce the most exposed section, nullifying at least 1 out of your 2 potential damage. Then, on the next turn, he can regenerate most of his shields lost back.

That's where the ion weapons come in - cut off his regeneration possibility. Each ion token retracts 1 energy gained on the next turn (that's all they do on Huge ships)

Just play it casual and have fun. Not like Epic games are super serious or anything.

What I do when I play Epic is that I just play what is fun.

For example Black Squadron led by Vader in a formation and then Obsidian Squadron led by Howlrunner in another formation.

Elite Interceptors from 181st or Royal Guards going with Lambda (Pretending Palpatine is inside)

Jonus leading scimitars..

I don't understand why people are over theorycrafting casual epic games.

Just have fun

Personally I wouldn't wast a Defender with ION on a huge ship. 3 red dice vs 0 green is a good deal. Damage alone may force them to repair shields/damage using their energy anyways. Just get a few ships behind it and it's done.

The key to defeating a CR90 is massive number of ships in waves imo. Just smaller groups so they don't get in each others way. Fly a group in and shoot at the escorts and keep going hitting the CR90, then get behind it. Then send another group right behind them so the escorts are sandwiched.

Have a small group 1-2 go right for the other side of the CR 90, attack from the sides at an angle so when they use reinforce you have the option on which section to hit.

I would avoid using Shuttles, the CR90 primary and single turrets while expensive will tear them up.

Sounds like your team-mates are the dogfighters, so you may want to concentrate on the CR-90. Bombers with 2x Clusters each, perhaps with Jonus.

How about something like

Krassis Trelix w/ Heavy Laser Cannon

Jonus w/ 2x Cluster Missiles

Gamma w/ Cluster and Homing

OR

Bounty Hunter w/ HLC

3x Scimitar w/ cluster

Yeah Firesprays aren't too bad against corvettes but the bigger base size makes it easier for the corvette to bring some of its weapons to bear against you, forcing you to take Evade actions to weather the punishing firepower for longer, and diminishing your attack, or going all out attack and getting popped sooner. I fielded Fett and Trelix as my primary anti-corvette ships and they got taken out too quickly for my liking.

If you swarm it with cheap ties it will drop very fast. At 0 agility you can easily go through the 13 hits it takes to cripple the front section in one turn.

Only if they are stupid and don't use reinforce. One hit immediately mitigate per tie makes that a lot harder.

Just get to close range to stay away from the big guns. Get a couple fast ships behind it and cripple the corvette's energy and it is harmless. Ordinance can help. Crits on capital ships are much worse than normal crits. First focus down the escorts with your numbers advantage then get behind the capital ship and crush it. Pretty simple. That is the way that usually works for me. I'm usually on the imperial side of our epic games.

The main thing you want to avoid doing against a Huge ship is dividing your fire: the corvette can recover shields from turn to turn (although this will limit its offense), especially if it's only being attacked by ~100 points worth of ships.

If you want to take down the corvette, the best way to do it is with one concerted strike, hitting from the sides so that your opponent can't reinforce effectively. Any kind of ship is good for this kind of attack, not just ordnance-carriers.

It will probably be a better idea to focus on the escorts first, though. They will be significantly outnumbered and outgunned by your small ships. If you can isolate them away from the corvette, even better.

I suggest a build designed for normal anti-fighter play. Mini-swarms, howlrunner swarms, and PTL interceptors all seem fine to me. Plan to eliminate enemy fighters first, then envelop and destroy the corvette second.

One of the best things you can do is to focus fire. Do not worry about evading to much.

Just stay on target. Assign a few ships to only attack the section of your choice and keep them doing that until they kill it or are killed by it. Chances are you will loose these ships but you will also kill the Huge ship.

Use the rest of your force to deal with the rest of your opponents force.

Have fun!

On a more practical note, epic games are tremendously long by nature. It will help if you know what you are playing and have it ready to go ahead of time. This would include dials, shields, and tokens. Have a game plan and use it until you see an opening.

One problem with flying swarms is that they require a large balance of time. While I certainly think it's a great idea tactically, it doesn't make games as much fun.

Give yourself plenty of time to play. Start early and don't have any plans for later. Try to get all of the players to show up with their squads fully assembled and ready to put on the table.

Prepare an order-of-action cheat sheet: one for Activation order, another for Combat order.

I second the idea of bringing some ordnance to the party, particularly since the other Imperial commanders are all about dogfighting. You've got 100-140 points to work with, so I'd run Jonus with two or three Scimitars and as many Proton Torpedoes as you can pack in.

You might run something like this, with another Scimitar and some Protons/Ion Pulse/Clusters for Jonus if you end up splitting 400 points 3 ways.

Captain Jonus (22)

Predator (3)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Ion Pulse Missiles (3)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Ion Pulse Missiles (3)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Squad Leader (2)

Total: 99

I would try and leave the shuttles on the sidelines when goin gup against a CR90, especially if they are packing single turoblaser. They can really put a hurting on a shuttle before it even gets in range. Also, their maneuverability or lack thereof makes them easy targets to get rammed.

FS 2 agility helps them survive a lot better. Also you can take shots with the rear after you make a pass. Throw a Seismic charge down for good measure.

I second the idea of bringing some ordnance to the party, particularly since the other Imperial commanders are all about dogfighting. You've got 100-140 points to work with, so I'd run Jonus with two or three Scimitars and as many Proton Torpedoes as you can pack in.

You might run something like this, with another Scimitar and some Protons/Ion Pulse/Clusters for Jonus if you end up splitting 400 points 3 ways.

Captain Jonus (22)

Predator (3)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Ion Pulse Missiles (3)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Ion Pulse Missiles (3)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Squad Leader (2)

Total: 99

that list looks good too. hmm.

Here was my thought on what to try: