I've played 1.5 epic games at this point and find myself unable to decide what is the best hard point configuration for either ship.

With the raider I am tempted to go with the Single Turbo laser upfront to give a range five option, and also knowing that with range 2-5 covered between the primary and secondary weapon nobody is likely trying to get into range 1 of the fore anyway. On the aft I'm leaning towards an Ion Battery and another Turbo laser to again give good range coverage with with addition of some Ion shenanigans. I'm having a hard time seeing the value in the Quad Laser given the range restriction. Do others with more epic experience see value in the Quad Lasers? It seems like they're not going to see a lot of action, though they could be a live saver against a flanking crew.

On the corvette my first thought is Ion and Quad as combined with the Primary this would give you 1-5 coverage and a diversity of weapons. Then you have the lonely aft weapon. I can see value in the quad as it would cover a good chunk of the turrets blindspot, but it is going to sit idle a lot when you're firing your broadside in the early phases. I feel like your small ships make better personal protectors than a range 1-2 secondary weapon, but just am not sure.

Would love to hear some more experienced epic players thoughts and experiences.

The most important thing to remember is that things don't 'sit idle', you just use the energy elsewhere. It's not often you'll have enough energy to fire everything anyway. It also depends on your tactics:

The raider really wants to be pointing towards its target, while the 'vette wants to be broadsiding it.

I have my first game against the raider tomorrow. I have a turbo laser and quad laser on the fore along with the primary, and another turbo laser on the aft. My tactics will be to try and stay at range 3-5 (ideally range 5), perpendicular to the raider, to hammer it with turbo lasers (as a good capital ship scrap should be.

The quads are just in case any small or large ships get into the turbo laser doughnut hole. (Along with three b-wing escorts).

To be honest, I wouldn't personally bother with ion on a huge ship. I want it dealing maximum damage where it can. Use yer squadron ships for control of that's yer thing.

Oh, and if peeps get too close, don't forget you can just squish them like bugs.

Best for the raider i've come up with is ion in the front and double quad or ion + quad in the back

I think the corvette really likes having 2 single turbos in the front, to bolster that dual turbo power. If you get to that range five band, you have a free turn of shooting with no retaliation (or just a single turbo) while you can hammer away at max range with 3 shots! That's 12-13 dice!

I honestly don't care for the Turbolasers on the Raider at all, My go to is Ion up front and quas+ion in the back.

If you are kitting a huge ship for the anti-fighter role, you want those ion guns. Great range, good odds to hit; and if it does hit small ships will be at the mercy of your escort- and will have a crit if they lacked shields. They're brutal. Note that attacks from ranges 3 and 4 trigger autothrusters.

If I'm setting up a Huge ship for the anti-Huge role, I may still want ion banks, as Ions inhibit energy production. Without energy, Huge ships are just fancy battering rams.

Ion banks are a sort of subtle tool, but they can be devastating in the long term.

I'm definitely loving the idea of a TIE Bomber with Extra Munitions and Iob missiles, for instance. And Blount + Ion Missile seems like a nice way to annoy a Huge ship.

To be honest, I wouldn't personally bother with ion on a huge ship. I want it dealing maximum damage where it can. Use yer squadron ships for control of that's yer thing.

I don't know. Landing an almost guaranteed crit on a huge ship while also stealing energy can be kind of a big deal.

EDIT: I don't have a Raider yet, and I haven't played a lot of Epic, but I'm thinking my favorite well-rounded hardpoint configurations are going to be these:

CR90 = 2 Fore Turbolasers + 1 Aft Quad Cannon

Raider = 1 Fore Ion Cannon + 1 Aft Turbolaser + 1 Aft Quad Cannon

The Quad Cannons in each ship are a deterrent to ships harassing the aft section, and the rest of the hardpoints are for putting pressure and damage on forward targets.

To be honest, I wouldn't personally bother with ion on a huge ship. I want it dealing maximum damage where it can. Use yer squadron ships for control of that's yer thing.

I don't know. Landing an almost guaranteed crit on a huge ship while also stealing energy can be kind of a big deal.

Different strokes for different folks. I'd rather hammer it with red dice. If I can set up a broadside' I'm chucking 13 red dice against their 3 green. With Han solo crew, I've essentially got focus on one of those fistfuls of red dice too. I've never been much of an ion fan though.

I've played 1.5 epic games at this point and find myself unable to decide what is the best hard point configuration for either ship.

With the raider I am tempted to go with the Single Turbo laser upfront to give a range five option, and also knowing that with range 2-5 covered between the primary and secondary weapon nobody is likely trying to get into range 1 of the fore anyway. On the aft I'm leaning towards an Ion Battery and another Turbo laser to again give good range coverage with with addition of some Ion shenanigans. I'm having a hard time seeing the value in the Quad Laser given the range restriction. Do others with more epic experience see value in the Quad Lasers? It seems like they're not going to see a lot of action, though they could be a live saver against a flanking crew.

On the corvette my first thought is Ion and Quad as combined with the Primary this would give you 1-5 coverage and a diversity of weapons. Then you have the lonely aft weapon. I can see value in the quad as it would cover a good chunk of the turrets blindspot, but it is going to sit idle a lot when you're firing your broadside in the early phases. I feel like your small ships make better personal protectors than a range 1-2 secondary weapon, but just am not sure.

Would love to hear some more experienced epic players thoughts and experiences.

Last night for example KY quads took fel out

Good luck trying to get him with single turbo lasers

Also ships are always going forward.

Eventually they will hit that range 1-2 spot and having two quads or even three on the cr90 will wreak havoc on squadrons.

With the cr90 I like to have two quads and a single turbo along with sensor team and weapon engineer

By not equipping quads your giving your opponent a sweat spot.

You will not be able to shoot range one with single turbo laser or primary

Last night I flew the Raider for first time.

I put quads on the front

One quad on the back and an ion battery.

Worked out pretty good I must say.

As i said earlier my quad took fel out so that is pretty good in my book

To be honest, I wouldn't personally bother with ion on a huge ship. I want it dealing maximum damage where it can. Use yer squadron ships for control of that's yer thing.

I don't know. Landing an almost guaranteed crit on a huge ship while also stealing energy can be kind of a big deal.

Different strokes for different folks. I'd rather hammer it with red dice. If I can set up a broadside' I'm chucking 13 red dice against their 3 green. With Han solo crew, I've essentially got focus on one of those fistfuls of red dice too. I've never been much of an ion fan though.

It'd be 13 red dice against 1 green. Single Turbolasers don't grant a bonus die.

An Ion shot against an epic ship is basically two damage: the damage from the attack, and the reduced energy generation that could have been spent on a Recover action next turn. The fact that it can also deal a critical hit when attacking if the rest of your fleet has already taken down shields is just icing. If you're capping your opponent at 2 energy gained per round, they're not going to be able to keep firing their weapons. If they can't fire, your ship takes less damage, needing to use recover less and allowing you to keep sending more energy to your own weapons.

EDIT: Every time someone says, "Good luck hitting Fel with Single Turbolasers," it makes me feel that much worse about the time my opponent rolled 4 hits with Single Turbolasers and I blanked the evade roll.

Well in todays day and age if someone has the Raider and fel chances are pretty good he's going to have at least autothrusters and the Emperor.

Fel with two focus, evade, and getting 6 green dice will be near impossible to hit with single turbo lasers.

Autothrusters kicks in free evade

Emperor can change a blank to evade

His evade token.

That's three evades right there.

So long as he doesn't roll all blanks, plus you have to roll 4 hits.

It's not like it can't be done but again good luck trying to kill fel in todays epic

It's not the same 6 months ago

Single turbo laser are best for huge /low agility ships.

I wouldn't even waste Mt time trying to hit fel with it.

I found out last night the Raider is great at taking out escorts

It's primary is range 2-4

While you don't get that extra range range 4 is pretty nice especially since the change to range bonus.

Getting two shots with that is nice

Once things start getting in close, especially range two that's three shots counting quads, and when they close in at range 1 your not left with no offensive options.

Now the raider is out I now put 1 STL and 1 QLC on the front and 1 QLC on the Aft. the reason why is Target Locks I always take Weapons Engineer, Sensor Team Gunnery Team and Han to get the most out of my dice. the STL is for Raiders, Shuttles and Decimator's only! and it is the gun I fire first incase I need the Target Lock. If i'm spending 2 energy to fire it I want it to be a good shot. then I fire the main gun at the same target. once combat gets close Weapons Engineer and the QLC's come into play and unless I have the energy to spear (I can hear you laughing at that) or the Raider is running away I don't bother with the STL

For the Raider I do the opposite 1 QLC on the front and 1 QLC and 1 STL on the Aft. my reason is the STL on the Aft reaches about as far as the main gun on the front. 3 attacks at range 4 is pretty good I think, don't need to be to greedy. If the Aft is crippled before the front then then each round It lives It can still fire twice out the front. Sensor Team you may not need but Gunnery Team is always good and I really don't like taking the Emperor over Weapons Engineer. 1 dice modifier or 2 Target Locks? ill Take 2 target locks I really think the Emperor belongs in the Shuttle sitting back Influencing the battle from there with Colonel Jendon and ST-321 giving the raider the Target Lock early letting the Raider give the Coordinate Action instead would make for a strong start of combat

Just how I like to build them

The hard points is only on what range you want to be engaging at but what will really make the huge ships viable is what upgrades on them to help out with their abysmal attack dice modification abilities. As fare as I can see there is only two types of viable huge ships.

1. Corellian Captain (Han Solo + Sensor Team on CR-90)
2. The Varader (Vader + Shield Technician on Raider)

So the Correllian Captain. You put Han Solo and a Sensor Team so he can make target locks at any range. Hans Allows for you to use target locks to turn focus results into hits an ability that huge ships lack. If you don't roll a bunch of focus and hit results you can still use the target lock as normal. Put Hans and Snesor Team in the front section (because if that gets crippled then those 2 upgrades are useless) As for hardpoints well it is all based on range.

• Single Turbo Laser (STL) is range 3-5 which the CR-90 already has a primary weapon against. It does allow for 1 focus to be turn into a hit so it doesn't work well with Han. If you need to target anyone at range 5 use the main weapon so you don't give out more than 1 green dice. STL is only good against targets with <2 agility so unless you are going after a Raider (which we will talk about more) it might be better to leave the STL off the ship.
• Ion cannons is range 2-4 which covers one of the range bands outside the CR-90's primary weapon and it doesn't give out extra green dice so this might be better.
• Quad Laser Cannons (you are going to want at least 1 of these to cover your arcs inside the range of your primary. Where to put it is a good question perhaps on the rear section.

So try this build out.

CR-90 Fore

• Han Solo <crew>
• Ion Cannon Battery
• Quad Laser Cannon
• Gunnery Team
• Sensor Team
• Tibanna Gas Supplies

CR-90 Aft

• Shield Technician
• Quad Laser Cannon
• Engineering Team

127 points

Now as for the Varader. Since you can use Vader for every attack keep in mind you will be taking lots of damage. However there are a couple of good upgrades you can take. The Shield Technician is a must so you don't dump your energy tokens when refilling your shields which you will do. The Instigator would be the title to take as it gives you an extra shield token for each recover action which will lessen the effect of using vader multiple times. This is going to burn a lot of energy so Tibana gas canisters and and Engineering team is a must. Now for the harpoints since the raider has 3 you can have one of each but lets take a look at each one first.

• STL you are going to want at least 1 of these so that you can reach up to 5 since your primary is range 2-4. Now taking 2 allows you to use Vader twice at range 5. The best thing about Vader is you don't have to hit with it. Say hello to soontir at range 5 and give crits despite soontirs 6 green dice with autothrusters.
• Ion Cannons At range 2-4 I would save energy and use primary weapons. Huge ships is all about action economey. Ion cannons will cost an extra 2 sure you can use vader 3 times but that would be 6 shields and 4 energy. Good thing you already choked out Ozzel. However Ion Cannons may be better against huge ships.
• Quad Laser Cannons. This fills the 1 range gap in you arcs so atleast 1 of them. If it misses you can pay an extra energy to fire again so that works with Vader as well.

For the Varaider build

Imperial Raider fore

• Single Turbolaser
• Sensor Team
• Tibanna Gass Supplies

Imperial Raider aft

• Darth Vader <crew>
• Shield Technician
• Single Turbolaser
• Quad Laser Cannon
• Engineering Team
• Gunnery Team
• Instigator (title)

144 points

All weapons starting with full energy is a big thing now. It encourages you to fill those hardpoints for a crippling alpha on enemy epics/low agility ships.

A CR-90 with three single turbolasers will beastmode a Decimator or Raider as soon as it gets withing firing range.

I thought it was just the main ship that started on full energy?

I thought it was just the main ship that started on full energy?

Every last card, as of... 3.11?

Makes me want to run Ionization Reactor+Mara+3xQuads

Excellent. Thanks for that. Playing against a raider today. That's going to help significantly...

I thought it was just the main ship that started on full energy?

yeah FFG errata to include hardpoint cards as well as the ship card start with energy in dogfight and epic competitive play.

I think ionization reactor is the only card that has an energy capacity but doesn't start with energy well oustside of missions that is.

I thought it was just the main ship that started on full energy?

yeah FFG errata to include hardpoint cards as well as the ship card start with energy in dogfight and epic competitive play.

I think ionization reactor is the only card that has an energy capacity but doesn't start with energy well oustside of missions that is.

Can you paste the relevant section from the Errata regarding this? I'm clearly going blind because I can't find anything about energy on Huge ships

It's in the tournament rules:

Step 8: "Players assign Energy tokens to each of their Huge ships and their equipped secondary weapons up to their respective energy limits."

I've played quite a few games of epic and find quads a very good choice and overall usually deals more dmg throughout the game

Interesting. I've found that Quad Laser Cannons are garbage. Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration. The reason I prefer Single Turbolasers is that you get a [focus] result that turns to a hit, and they're 4 dice. If you have Gunnery Team (which I used to hate, but now I love), then those Single Turbolasers are pretty accurate. I'll grant that Fel will be pro at dodging them, but I played a game where he dodged 4 shots from Quad Laser Cannons in 2 rounds (maybe more shots than that). They just couldn't hit him, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. The problem is that if you spend your Target Lock, and then the interceptor spends its token, then you're looking at unmodified shots which still help the attacker, I suppose.

You know what, I think I should just try them again. I just feel so vulnerable waiting for them to get to range 2 before I can attack.

It's in the tournament rules:

Step 8: "Players assign Energy tokens to each of their Huge ships and their equipped secondary weapons up to their respective energy limits."

Many thanks.