The Premise

Ok, so I picked my Raider up on release day (after a 5 month pre-order wait!) and managed to play the first mission of the Campaign with my Fiancée within a few days. This was my first time playing around with a huge ship. The weekend just gone, we decided to go full throttle and hammer out our Epic game.

Now I’ve been playing for two years this Christmas and have played in a few store champs and regional’s (24th and 17th for those interested) so I have a reasonable amount of experience. My opponents, Jane and Browny, are both solely casual players. They probably have 20ish games each under their belts at this point but using my models and such. Due to the lack of a thorough knowledge of abilities and upgrades, piloting a 300 point list was a daunting task for either of them, so we decided a 2v1 would help ease the burden of remembering so many ships, abilities and upgrades for them. It worked a treat.

Leading up to the fateful day of the Epic clash, I was searching the forums and you tube for some epic batreps, lists and other goodness to get my creative juices running and I hit nothing but a brick wall. I thought the forums and blogs would be overflowing with Epic info following the Raiders release, however I was clearly wrong.

For those of you in my position, I decided to write up the report as comprehensively as I would for a normal 100 point game, including detailed list breakdowns. I hope someone considering or simply awaiting the first game or two of Epic can glean a little bit of info and help from this post.

So without further ado, lets get going...

Edit: I have post-activation pictures for each round, but I suffer from some form of technological Autism. Even the seemingly basic computer-person interactions elude me and I can’t figure out how to load them on here sorry!

Imperial Fleet - 300

Raider - 146

Raider Fore - 50

Quad Laser Cannon - 6

Tibanna Gas Supplies - 4

Engineering Team - 4

Raider Aft - 50

Instigator Title - 4

Ion Cannon Battery - 6

Ion Cannon Battery - 6

Gunnery Team - 4

Back up Shield Generator - 3

Weapons Engineer - 3

Grand Moff Tarkin - 6

Darth Vader - 40

Tie Advanced - 29

X/1 Title - 0

Advanced Targeting Comp - 1

Outmanoeuvre - 3

Proton Rockets - 3

Engine Upgrade - 4

Omicron Group Pilot - 29

Lambda Shuttle - 21

Emperor Palpatine - 8

Tempest Squadron Pilot - 25

Tie Advanced - 21

Tie X/1 - 0

Accuracy Corrector - 0

Cluster Missiles - 4

Academy Pilot (1) - 12

Tie Fighter - 12

Academy Pilot (2) - 12

Tie Fighter - 12

Academy Pilot (3) - 12

Tie Fighter - 12

Academy Pilot (4) - 12

Tie Fighter - 12

Academy Pilot (5) - 12

Tie Fighter - 12

Scum Fleet - 300

Boba Fett - 49

Firespray - 39

Veteran Instincts - 1

Engine Upgrade - 4

Proton Bomb - 5

IG88-B - 48

Aggressor - 36

Fire Control System - 2

Heavy Laser Cannon - 7

Autothrusters - 2

Inertia Dampers - 1

Mandalorian Mercenary - 38

Firespray - 35

Recon Specialist - 3

Guri - 40

Starviper - 30

Viagro - 1

Advanced Sensors - 3

Predator - 3

Hot-Shot Blaster - 3

Pablo Ghandi - 28

HWK-290 - 20

Blaster Turret - 4

Opportunist - 4

Serissu - 23

M3-A Interceptor - 20

Predator - 3

Mercenary Thug (1) - 25

Y-Wing - 18

Ion Cannon Turret - 5

BTL-4 Title - 0

R2 Aggromech - 2

Mercenary Thug (2) - 25

Y-Wing - 18

Ion Cannon Turret - 5

BTL-4 Title - 0

R2 Aggromech - 2

Binayre Pirate (1) - 12

Z-95 Headhunter - 12

Binayre Pirate (2) - 12

Z-95 Headhunter - 12

Set Up

The Raider deploy in the bottom left corner at 45 degrees, aiming to run through an asteroid cluster. Three Academy Ties deploy to its left facing up the board, whilst the other two deploy to its right, facing across my deployment zone. The Shuttle deploys in the centre, with Vader to his right and the Tempest to his left.

Scum Set up with IG and Guri in the top left corner, the Mand Merc and Palob about range two to the right facing towards the left board edge, Boba just about range 3 from them to the right and the mini-swarm (Y’s, and Z’s lead by Serissu) about two thirds of the of the way to the right.

The Plan

Ultimately, I wanted to a field a movie-themed list of a big bag ass being flanked by Vader and a load of Ties. The Shuttle made the cut as the Emperor fit the theme and my raider-advanced was looking at me being new and wanting to play too so in he came.

My overall plan when building the list was to use the Ties to screen the Raider and block ships trying to close into range 1 whilst the Raider blows stuff up. It wasn’t until I placed my Ties around my Raider during deployment that I realised I only had three ships left to deploy, and one of them was the (basically) vanilla Shuttle! I therefore didn’t really have a counter to the mini-swarm on my left flank. I instead decided I would sacrifice Vader (who one of my opponents wanted to kill only marginally less than the Raider) to kite the swarm away from the battle whilst I dealt with his big hitters. If he didn’t bite, Vader should be able to bring a couple down as he followed them from behind. The Tempest and the Shuttle would try to maim/kill Boba and keep him away from engaging the Raider too. This left the Raider and Ties to try and destroy the initial assault before the second wave of Boba and the Mini-Swarm hit me. Easy Peasy right? Right?!?!?!?!

Turn 1

On the left, the advance is cautious from both sides as we juggle for positioning for the first engagement, and the Scum on my left are wary of the range 4 Raider guns. In the centre Boba bombs forward whilst the Shuttle holds and the Tempest crawls forward as slowly as possible. Vader, however, initiates the first part of the plan and turns right whilst the swarm head three forwards, looking like they will head him off.

Turn 2

Smelling blood both side move to engage. On the left, the two front Academy Pilots bomb 5 forward to block Guri and the Aggressor. Sensing the danger or for other more cowardly reasons, IG88 creeps 1 forward and narrowly misses the block, whilst Guri piles into the other Tie, Advanced Sensors meaning she’s barely effected by the collision. The Mand Merc and Palob cut into the field towards the advanced Ties.

. The Ties to the right of the Raider advance forward on the other side of the ‘roids covering the Raider. The Shuttle and Tempest creep forward and Boba moves in to engage. On the right flank the Swarm moves two forward somewhat indecisively but partly to due to trying to obtain optimal rock positions for the following movement phase. Vader banks in 3 and barrel rolls to the right, back out of range. The Raider chugs another 2 forward giving it good ‘roid cover from most angles and a clear path out of the rocks. He’s still got full energy banks so the energy generated is lost.

Combat is somewhat short, with two Ties on the left taking some damage from the Mand Merc and IG88, for only a shield from IG88 in return. In the centre, Boba pulls the shields off the Tempest for the loss of two in return from the Tempest and the Shuttle.

Turn Highlights

The Raider rolls all blanks and focus on his two primary attacks despite using a target lock for one of them!

Turn 3

Now combat begins in earnest! The Ties on the left who rushed forward last turn try to position to get shots this round, whilst the third the who held back tries to block the Aggressors assumed 3 bank. Unfortunately the Aggressor 3 forwards and boosts left to bring the Raiders Aft into arc. Guri also manages to bring the rear into arc. The Mand Merc and Palob continue to advance, the Fore of the Raider looking likely to be in range. In the midfield the Shuttle, one Tie and the Tempest move to engage Boba, who turns to his left (away from the Raider) and boosts to try and shake some arcs. The Mini-Swarm is still indecisive about what to do and moves 1 forward whilst Vader 1 banks to bring him in arc of the swarm, slightly to its right. He barrel rolls and accepts the asteroid he will now be unable to avoid next turn to avoid all the swarms arcs save 1 of the head hunters. The Raider Cruises forward again the energy generated simply replaces the energy spend firing the main gun twice last turn.

In the Combat Phase, the Aggressor and Guri fire into the rear of the Raider but only manage to shift a shield each thanks to the reinforce token. The Mand Merc and Palob engage the Tie Fighters, destroying one outright and putting another damage on the other already wounded Tie. The Raider returns fire and puts some hurt on the Mand Merc but more importantly double ions the Aggressor from his Aft thanks to a target lock, Gunnery team and the Emperor. Boba loses the rest of his shields and a hull or two whilst Vader pings a shield off one of the Z-95’s for nothing in return. The Raider recovers a shield from its back up shield generator at the end of the turn.

Turn Highlights

Palob punching 4 damage through on a Tie with his Blaster Turret, getting the first kill of the game in style. Double Ioning the Aggressor would also help out a lot in the next turn.

Turn 4

Reasonably confident that the IG88 won’t get a shot due to being ionized the Ties on the left make best attempts to bring all guns to bear on Guri. IG88 moves his one forward (ioned) and boosts left again in an attempt to get something in his sights. The Merc and HKW try to get around the flank of the Raider and onto the Aft with Guri and IG88. Seeing Boba heading away from the Raider, the Tempest and one of the Ties that deployed on the right of the Raider head left for support; I need to get rid of the immediate threat before the swarm arrives. The Shuttle lazily heads right in a half-hearted attempt to keep the pressure on Boba. The Swarm finally decides to get its act together and all turn 2 to the right and towards the Raider. Vader K-turns over the rock, losing a shield and leaving no one in arc. Bad Vader. Boba continues away from the Raider with a 2 straight. The Raider banks left 1, narrowly clearing an asteroid with its ass! This brings me up to six energy, and I put two into one of the Ion cannons on the Aft.

IG88 has nothing in arc whilst Guri plinks another shield off the rear of the Raider.

With no good shots on the reinforced rear, the Merc and HWK go back to work on the Ties dogging Guri, and yet again Palob annihilates another Tie with his 4 dice blaster turret. The Merc, struggling to get through the cluster of ships fared less well without his actions. The Raider returns fire on the Merc putting him down to only a few hull, and the charged Ion Battery on the back misses Guri. The remaining Ties plink away ineffectually at Guri. Boba finally claims the Tie who has been bugging him since the first combat rounds, whilst the Swarm members close enough plink 2 or 3 shields off the Lambda. I recover another shield on the Aft.

Turn Highlights

The Raider avoiding landing on a roid with it Aft by a few Minimeters and Palob demonstrating last turns 4 hit attack was not a fluke!

Turn 5

By this turn I was starting to panic; I had not removed any of his fighters from the board, the Swarm was a couple of turns away from arriving within combat range of the Raider and IG88 and Guri were firmly on the Raider’s ass who would now struggle to target them. I absolutely had to put some damage out this turn and take some of his ships of the board.

The remaining Ties (only two left now and both on the left) revert back to blocking duty, blocking IG88 from turning into the Raider and the Mand Merc from getting too close. Both IG88 and the Merc end up bumping, holding them where I want them. Guri bumps the Raiders ass and takes a damage but doesn’t care as she still took her action with advanced sensors. Boba continues heading directly away from the Raider, and I assume he’s after Vader, but with a bank and a barrel roll Vader is out of his Arc and back on the tail of the Mini-Swarm. The Raider crawls 1 forward, maintaining its forward arc on the Merc and Palob.

On the left, IG88 is out of arc again thanks to the block, but Guri, Palob and the Merc hammer the Aft with some force. I mistakenly reinforced the Fore, thinking only Guri had a shot on the Rear but somehow all the little scumbags managed to draw a bead! In the end, the Aft takes 10 (!!) damage including two crits (structural collapse and surrender an upgrade card, I gave up the gunnery team) Leaving the Aft on 1 hull. Luckily, this is enough to wake the Raider up who destroys Palob outright with two primary weapon attacks and puts another couple of damage on the Merc at range 1 with the Quad Laser Cannon. The Tempest is then able to finish off the Merc with his Cluster Missiles. On the other side of the battle, the Swarm drops the Shuttle to 2 hull whilst the Z-95 on 1 shield loses than one too.

Round Highlights

2 four-hit attacks on Palob from the Raiders main gun gives him a taste of his own medicine, where as Vader leading Boba right out of the fight and then avoiding his arcs completely was also lovely. The devastating damage done to the Raider by the Scum main assault however meant that destroying Palob and the Merc had really come one round too late.

Turn 6

There was no way to stop the Aggressor and Guri getting arcs back on the Aft of the Raider, but the two Ties moved to make sure they could try and bring Guri down. Guri again bumps the Raider and takes yet another damage. The Tempest tried to turn back into the fight but would almost certainly be without a target this round. The Shuttle and the Swarm bumped, which caused a massive jam in the swarm which Vader narrowly missed as he finally got into a good position on the Swarms tail. Fett, finally realising the error of his ways K turns, but by this point he’s way out on the right of the battle. The Raider banks right 1 again, and this turn used the gas supplies for a quick energy boost. I think at this point, I have 1 energy on the Quad Laser Cannon and two energy on one of the Aft ion cannon batteries, plus I am able to spend the three from the gas supplies to get my Aft shields back to full (thanks Instigator title!)

IG88 and Guri can only manage to put 4 damage on the Aft, leaving it again on 1 hull remaining. The Raider’s Ion Cannons and the Tie Fighters try to put more damage on Guri but once again she evades everything they can muster. The Raider, I think, takes a ranged shot at the swarm with its Main gun but can’t push any damage through. The Swarm utterly destroys the Shuttle, but it manages to put a couple of damage onto the remaining Z-95 before it goes down. Vader plinks a couple of shields of one of the Y-Wings.

Turn Highlights

A pretty dull turn, but the Raiders Aft surviving on one hull again was great!

Turn 7

The Ties continue their chase of the Aggressor and Guri, being completely behind them now. Guri and the Aggressor stay on the tail of the Raider, whilst the Tempest is now in a position to get back into the fight. The swarm banks right, hoping to line up some ranged shots on the Raider after it moves. Vader stays right on their ass with a 5 forward, and is able to target lock the full health y-wing who is at range 1 and grabs a focus; Proton rockets are a go-go! Boba keeps his stress to 4 forward but is still out of range of Vader. The Raider pulls a 1 or 2 straight and all energy goes back to shield regeneration other than one into the Fore Quad Lasers.

Guri and the Aggressor can only manage 4 damage again on the Aft of the Raider, leaving it back on 1 hull. The Ties once again whiff vs Guri, who has now taken close to 20 attack dice without being hit once! Vader puts 5 hits with his Proton Rocket into the back of the Y-wing who gets no evade dice thanks to outmanoeuvre before the Raider’s primary weapon blows the poor Y-wing out of the sky. I think the swarm knocks a couple of shields off of the Raider’s Fore this round too.

Turn Highlights

The Aft continues to refuse to die to very vocal complains of overpowered-ness and frustrating-ness from my opponents. Proton rockets do their thing and the Raider collects his second kill.

Turn 8

I’ve not managed to so much as graze Guri or the Aggressor for three rounds and I have been lucky not to have been punished more, but I get the feeling that things are about to change. The Ties and Tempest continue to chase Guri and IG88 who continue to chase the Raider. The swarm moves forward, fast. Like 3 or 4’s if I remember correctly. Vader breaks off to finish Guri seeing how his minions are doing a fantastically poor job at it. The Raider banks right 1 and the remaining Y-wing and Z-95 pay for their haste as they’re crushed by the Raider who loses one shield in the collision. Serissu escapes automatic destruction by a few millimetres! For those of you keeping track, Serissu is the only surviving member of the swarm! Energy again goes into bringing the Aft shields back up to 4.

This turn, Guri and IG88 finally cripple to Aft (I keep weapon engineer as the Moff has been mostly useless for me this game, but more on that later) and Boba puts a few shields worth of hurt on the Fore. The Raider fires back and puts Boba down to a couple of hull left whilst Vader, the Tempest and the Ties all fail to hit Guri some more!

Turn Highlights

Yay! Crushing stuff is fun! Lessons were learned by all.

Turn 9

The Scum may be battered and bruised but the partial destruction of the Raider spurs them on. At this point, we have IG88 (1 shield), Guri (3 hull), Sessisu (untouched) and Boba (2 hull) left. I have the Raiders Fore (3-4 shields) Tempest (2 hull) Vader (1 shield) and two Ties (1 and 2 hull) so things look like they’re going to the wire on this one.

Guri and IG88 continue their ruthless assault on the Raider, switching to target the Fore. The Ties and Tempest move in on IG88 and Guri, whilst Vader moves into Range 1 of Guri. Serissu (sans swarm) K turns over the Raider. Boba slows his advance to a 2 forward, landing him right on top of the Debris field (first obstacle collision all game!), leaving Browny complaining that he knew he meant to do a 3 forward and then forgot why and dialled a 2 to clear his stress. He quickly cheers up however when he realises that I have pulled a 4 forward with the Raider (to screams of RAMMING SPEED!) and finish maybe 2 centimetres in front of Boba. Drats!

During the combat phase, Vader shows his lads how it’s done by evaporating Guri at range 1 and the last shield is plinked off of IG88. In return the Fore of the Raider is taken deep into hull. The Raiders only shot is from its Quad Lasers at the front, which deal 1 crit to Boba, Stunned pilot. The Tempest pilot is also destroyed this turn, probably by Guri.

Turn Highlights

Vader showing Guri who’s the boss!

Turn 10

Seeing an opportunity to kill Boba through the stunned pilot crit, I move my 2 remaining Ties to make any turn to the left impossible. The position of the Raider meant forward and right turns and banks would be impossible, and sure enough Boba crashes into a Tie and loses his last hull to the stunned pilot crit. The Raider banks right again, but is promptly destroyed by Serissu and the Aggressor. I manage nothing.

Turn Highlights

What do you mean the Raider is dead!?!?!

Turn 11

Serissu and the Aggressor K turn, whilst for some reason I fly my two remaining Ties and Vader into a crazy ‘Mothers meeting’ formation whereby none of them bumped but they’re all facing each other and almost touching. Vader fires at Serissu as his only target and wiffs, before Serissu and IG88 promptly blast him off the board. At this point, tired, drained and upset at the death of Vader and the Raider in quick succession, I throw in the towel!

Afterthoughts

For our first game of Epic, I was pretty **** impressed. The game took just over 4 hours, but it felt more like an hour. We were all so engrossed in the game time simply slipped away unnoticed. My main fear about epic was that one side would quickly get ahead, and the game would just completely snowball from their as the side getting an early lead ran away with the game. In practise, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. The game pinballed back and forward and despite feeling like I was constantly behind, the presence of the Raider on the field made my opponents feel like they were fighting a loosing battle too. Basically, we all felt doomed for the majority of the game, which is exactly how massive space battles should leave you feeling!

Now for some list critique, starting with the Raider;

In general: I was reasonably impressed with the raider. It probably didn't kill its points worth of ships, but it soaked soooo much firepower. I definitely messed up with energy management and the actions a couple of times so I imagine I could squeeze more efficiency even out of the build I used without looking at tweeking the upgrades. One thing I will note is that the Aft feels far to vulnerable. It's physically easier to destroy that the Fore due to having less shields, but it's loss may as well destoy the entire model. So many upgrades are forced onto the Aft and once crippled you can only retain one crew member, costing you up to 2/3rds of your secondary weapons. But it's even worse than this, as you now can't ever generate enough energy to fire the main gun twice, so it's cost you half or more of your firepower. It just keeps getting better when you realise target lock is on the Aft too, so as well as loosing half or more of your attacks you lose one (or more if you lost gunnery teams of crew) of the very few means available to modify your dice. It's a very glaring weakness for the Raider and one my opponents decided to capitalise on at all costs. I really would have like to have seen the Fore and Aft actions reversed and a team + a crew slot moved from the Aft to the Fore too, I think it would really help stop the Aft being such a clearly better target than the Fore.

The Moff: I can see the effectiveness of this card, but unfortunately I never really got the opportunity to use it effectively. As I was being support mainly by Tie Fighters, typically my best option was to give a focus to a Tie who bumped. Not a great use of six points and a crew slot. Occasionally I got to knock a focus off someone, but the main offensive on the Raider came from the Merc, Guri and IG88. IG88 was relying on target locks, Guri was focusing and generally getting another focus from range 1, and the Merc bumped so often he only got a couple of actions and Recon specialist ensured he’d be left with at lease one focus if I did nick one. Palob was the only one really affected by the Moff, and I kept forgetting about him lurking around at the back. If I was playing with a bunch of squints or phantoms, this would have been great but for me I found it more of a pain to remember than and actual boon to my list. I think if I ran a similar list again I’d take Mara Jade over Grand Moff Tarkin.

Hardpoints: I really like 2 ions on the Aft, enabling you to ion even big ships trying to get around on your rear, giving you the chance to slip away or at least avoid a few damage that turn. It worked great against IG88 in turn 3. However, I have the feeling that three hard points is simply too much energy usage to fuel efficiently. Especially once you need to start charging those shields. In future games, I’d be tempted to run two hard points. Which I’d ditch I don’t know, but I certainly felt like I had points tied up in the Raider I couldn’t effectively use.

Title: Instigator title was great. Effectively (as I charged shields 4 times I think) it gave me 4 extra health this game. For 4 points and given the other options, it’s a steal.

The Ties: Worked exactly as I wanted and I was able to control the early rounds with my blocking and get some good action and fire arc denial later on too. The main problem is they came up against two agility 3 ships and couldn’t put the damage through on them. The list really needed more firepower.

The Advanced: Vader is a boss. Plus it’s a huge Imperial fleet, Vader simply has to be there. Vader was my only ship other than the Raider who did any significant damage. I would definitely run him again, as he gives people something to think about. The Tempest was a bit meh. His Cluster missiles worked, but even with accuracy corrector 2 damage is still only 2 damage and against a list with 61 hull and shields, those two damage don’t mean much most of the time. Maybe a squadron of them would be good but as a damage buffer for the Ties, it was simply insufficient given the cost.

The Emperor: Just like Tarkin, this card didn’t work for me. The main problem was I kept forgetting about him, and thus using him on a non-crucial roll after I remembered late in the turn, but generally he was used to increase the Raiders accuracy. Given the Shuttle with him on is pretty useless, this did not work out to be worth the 29 points. Again, I can see value in this card with Squints and Phantoms, but in this list I would not run the Lambda with Palpatine again without spending more points on the Shuttle to make it combat viable in its own right, but by this point it becomes an easy high value target.

So looking ahead to my next epic game, the Tempest and the Shuttle will be gone (54 points) and the Moff will be changed to Mara Jade (57 points)) and if I lose Vader’s Rockets (60points) I can take two Royal Guard Interceptors with PTL, Title, Stealth and Autothrusters, which increases my overall firepower and my positional game. Combined with Vader, it also gives me a fast, hard hitting fire-fighter squadron which I can use as a second threat. I may also be tempted to lose one of the hardpoint weapons (6 points) to upgrade a Tie to an Alpha Interceptor. This would take me from 7 two dice and 1 three dice attacks to 5 two dice and 3 three dice attacks. It does lower my overall health somewhat however, which is also something to consider. I’d keep the Alpha Interceptor around the Raider and effectively fly it as one of the Ties, probably to Intercept (see what I did there) and ships who make it onto the tail of the Raider. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for reading!

As always, all comments, thoughts and advice welcome!!

Nice report! I'd love to see some pictures. I load my pictures onto Flickr, and when I post them here I only copy the part of the code that starts with "https" and ends with ".jpg". The other garbage makes it impossible to embed the pictures.

It sounds like Instigator really worked for you. On the turns that you regained shields, did you feel that they did more for you than a Reinforce action? That's always my toughest call: whether to recover or reinforce. I suppose if you have only one or two shots incoming, recover is better providing you can get more than 2 shields.

Yeah precisely that. On the turns I recovered shields I calculated how many shots I would take vs how many shields I could recover. If it was equal or more (incidentally it was always more as there wasn't more than three ships attacking the raider per turn for a good chunk of the game) I recovered the shields. It saved the Aft from certain destruction for two turns more than it should really have lived.

When I was looking up epic tips and such I found most people favoured the reinforce action over recover, mainly citing the use of all your energy being required so I nearly took the shield tech. What I found however that as I was able to assign out my energy before taking my action I didn't really find that it affected me other than sometimes forcing me to fire an ion cannon over the main gun twice. Not a huge biggie in the grand scheme of things. I think both actions are equally useful, and recover is certainly better if the enemy is attacking both sections of the ship because you can effectively effect both sections with the single action. The gas supplies seemed to go hand in hand with the recover action to, combined with instigator it makes it easy to get a 7 shield boost after the initial burn down of the raider.

Wow, it's been so long since I've read the rules I forgot that Recover was so diverse: I had begun to think of it like Reinforce, where you had to choose a section to Recover. Interesting. It does seem a bit more versatile now.