hello all, with the raider coming out we have a new resugence of epic play and new parts of the game can be explored, such as how certain pilots work in epic can be screwy (BIGGS). My local group is doing a super epic match tomorrow and I am part of the imperial team, bringing in support for my shiny new friend.

To get to the point, the raider has secondary weapons(or at least I am assuming they can be considered that)

Captain Jonus gives everyone rerolls with secondaries.

IS THIS COMBO LEGIT?!?

sorry caps but seriously

Unless/Until they release a ban like they did with Biggs, its legal. (FYI Biggs can be used in epic but he doesn't protect Huge ships he is escorting).

I kind of hope he is banned since otherwise hes an auto include in any Raider list and I don't like that.

Edit: Okay Ban is sloppy wording, maybe restricted would be better.

yeah they are gonna have errata him like they did biggs, but for now thats gonna be brutal

Keep in mind that Huge ships activate after small/large. He's going to have to move first, and the Raider's going to have to be careful to stay in Range 1 when it moves.

Also without Biggs to protect him, Jonus can be focus fired pretty effectively. With 2 agility, he also doesn't have that much protection from ion cannon batteries which will hurt him a lot with crits and tokens. Even turbo lasers will do a number on him.

He is going to hurt for sure, but he is also priority number 1 to die. He is pretty much a no brainer in an epic list (Raider or not).

You could Fly him with a captain Kagi or have the raider take the shield projector to try and disrupt focus fire

Is it really any worse than the Rebel equivalent of flying a HWK nearby to hand out PS12 or 6-die primary Corvette fire every round? Note that the HWK at least can load up with a Blaster or Ion turret and also help watch the Corvettes blind spots while hanging out nearby. A Bomber can only shoot forwards or mine backwards, and the latter is positionally tricky when you're trying to not collide with your Huge buddy at Range 1!

All in all, I'm not too worried. Yes, he's going to provide an incredible boon to Raider firepower while he holds formation. No, he's not going to last long or contribute anything else. And Epic loves crit-dealing weapons; a 6-hull, Agi2 ship is going to have a number done on him with those as well.

Kagi might be able to soak fire too, but now you're talking 50+ points dedicated to boosting your Raider that started at 100 before buying the secondary weapons that Jonus can boost at all... Do you actually have any fighter cover for your escorts? Sure, 8 or 9 TIEs is a nice enough swarm... but not one that lives long in Epic.

yeah they are gonna have errata him like they did biggs, but for now thats gonna be brutal

Teh Biggs errata was necessary as huge ships can obstruct or even tripple obstruct biggs. Also since huge ships had alot of health that combo had to be tone down.

As for the jonus rerolling capabilities I don't think it has to be eratted. Huge ship dice are less effective than the dice of all other ships for 1 important reason, they can't spend focus token to modify dice. That being said a reroll dice from a Dash HLC will always be more effective than a reroll from a quad laser cannon because if dash has a focus he can spend it for more hits. Raiders can't do anything unless it is a hit or crit. Some upgrade cards allow one dice (sometimes a blank, sometimes a focus) but it is a far cry if you roll 4 eyeballs. A huge ship with 4 eyeballs on STL will get only 1 hit where as a 4 eyeballs on Dash HLC the focus can be spent and Dash gets 4 hits. As for target locks and other rerolling capabilities dice can only be rerolled once.

Also without Biggs to protect him, Jonus can be focus fired pretty effectively. With 2 agility, he also doesn't have that much protection from ion cannon batteries which will hurt him a lot with crits and tokens. Even turbo lasers will do a number on him.

He is going to hurt for sure, but he is also priority number 1 to die. He is pretty much a no brainer in an epic list (Raider or not).

EM Emitter:

When you obstruct an attack, the defender rolls 3 additional defense dice (instead of 1). Limited.

Brutal!

Jendon with ST-321 flying alongside a Raider with an EM Emitter and Weapons Engineer.

Jonus flying alongside the Bomber/Defender squadron supporting it.

Vader with X1, ATC and Squad Leader dishing out extra actions where needed.

A Fleet Officer in a Decimator

Palp in the Palpmobile

And a partridge in a pear tree.

My hope is they errata all small and large ships to not support. That means no HWKs, no Jonus or Howlrunner on a Range 1 tether, no Roark buff or Torkil debuff and no Jendon target locker. Of those, Jendon is the only one that made any sense.

The telemetry bomber flying next to the Raider looks stupid and the argument for HWK deactivation is fairness.

That being said, I'd be content with just Jonus and Howlrunner being prohibited.

So long as the Rebel HWKs can support the corvette, I see Jonus and Howlie being legitimate support for the Raider

Comparing the hwk support with jonus and howl isn't quite right. Only Jan and Roark do anything. Jan only adds one die, to one attack. Far less valuable than having a reroll on 2 separate 4 dice attacks. Or in jonus' case two rerolls. With huge ships, it's not the number of dice that is the limiting factor on damage output, but rather dice *modification*, which is severely limited on a ship that has 3+ attacks, and no ability to focus. Han solo and weapons engineer help, but you are still very limited. Roark is nice but isn't over powered by any stretch of the imagination. I don't know if jonus and howl will be, but their abilities are far more powerful for a huge ship than the hwk abilities.

Howlie adds reroll to one primary attack is close to Jan adding one die to primary attack. Jonus adds rerolls to secondaries, and Roark makes it so that you shoot first, and second, and third, and fourth. Honestly, it's pretty close to same level of advantage, in my opinion. Those rerolls don't mean anything if you get destroyed, or lose all of those secondaries to crippling before you get a chance to shoot during a round. Not saying Roark is overpowered at all, just saying he works well in this situation.

Comparing the hwk support with jonus and howl isn't quite right. Only Jan and Roark do anything. Jan only adds one die, to one attack. Far less valuable than having a reroll on 2 separate 4 dice attacks. Or in jonus' case two rerolls. With huge ships, it's not the number of dice that is the limiting factor on damage output, but rather dice *modification*, which is severely limited on a ship that has 3+ attacks, and no ability to focus. Han solo and weapons engineer help, but you are still very limited. Roark is nice but isn't over powered by any stretch of the imagination. I don't know if jonus and howl will be, but their abilities are far more powerful for a huge ship than the hwk abilities.

Jonus is secondary weapons only, remember - and Howlie only rerolls one die.

Both are potent, but frankly it's potency epic ships need to work at all.

I've long wished they had a crew/modification/something that read like, say, (Huge ship only) "When attacking a ship you have a Target Lock on, you may reroll all blank dice." or the like.

That way you focus fire. But that way, Countermeasures and Expert Handling become shiny, too.

Bonus points: The new Raider title still doesn't suck, it just lets you switch targets more easily!