Run a Captain jonus next to the raider for maximum support.

Jonus just needs the beacon from the TIE/Inquisitor and he is fine for epic

... and Deadeye

... and many Scimitars surrounding him, of course

It must be said, I am desperately trying NOT to drop the raider in favour of a bomber wing following behind my superiority wing (of primarily advanced).

Wanna see my list?

Seems like a good chance to bring out Rexlar and Vessary. Two HLC-wielding, high-PS Defenders should do a number on enemy capital ships (unless one of those ships the GR-75).

Run a Captain jonus next to the raider for maximum support.

A 22 point buff for a couple of turbolaser shots.

You would be better off with a sensor team and a weapon engineer for 7 points!

I'd use Jonas to lead a bomber group.

I've run a couple different configurations with mine so far.

Anti-fighter Raider: 125 points

Fore: Quad Laser Cannons

Aft: Quad Laser Cannons (2x), Tactician, Shield Technician, Instigator

Last time I ran this one, it was paired with four Delta squadron Defenders to handle other huge ships and add more control. With all quads, the Raider can move a bit more aggressively and use the recover action fairly liberally. The last game I used this configuration it chewed through a Scyk swarm and several Z's, though it eventually was destroyed by a CR90 after several turns of ramming each other and multiple exchanges of quad laser fire (only reason the CR90 survived was R2-D2 repairing shields each turn, though the Defenders ultimately were able to bring it down). Still, fairly cheap and quite energy efficient.

Command Ship: 127 points

Fore: Coms Booster

Aft: Back-up Shield Generator, Quad Laser Cannons, Grand Moff Tarkin, Fleet Officer

This one was run in a big 400 points a side match where-in the Imperial side was down a player so they had me bring the Raider to compensate. It basically was intended to just provide support to all of the various aces (particularly a Rexler, Whisper, and Redline) and let them do most of the work. While I imagine the upcoming Gozanti will probably be a better platform for a purely support role, it did actually do a really good job keeping everyone alive by purging stress and handing out (and occasionally taking away) focus tokens. Energy consumption was also fairly light, so it was able to keep its shields up most of the game despite drawing a lot of fire. If I were to run this again I'd probably swap the backup shield generator for another Coms Booster and maybe swap the Fleet Officer for a Targeting Coordinator (and Sensor Team) to distribute target locks.

Sniper Raider: 135 points

Fore: Ion Cannon Battery, Tibanna Gas Supplies

Aft: Single Turbolasers (2x), Engineering Team, Backup Shield Generator, Assailer

This one was the last variant I ran during a big team game our group held a few days ago. The opposition sunk most of their points into a pair of CR90s and Scum large ships, so the Turbo Lasers actually did pretty well. They tore up a transport and shot down Moralo, and put some damage on an outrider and the CR90s (one fled the table and the other was destroyed by the Scum players).

I also really wanted to try running one with 3 Ion Cannon Batteries and an Ionization Reactor, but I've generally found the Ion Cannon batteries a bit lackluster compared to Defenders equipped with standard ones. I imagine it might work if one can find some way to strip shields quickly, but I'm not sure what the best means of doing such would be...

I'd use Jonas to lead a bomber group.

+1

The Empire don't need to use such a rebel 'synergy' trickery. The Empire just don't care. Just bring masses and the big guns. And formations using one ship model, of course.

Jonus is a bomber leader - so he leads the bombers. And I mean Tie Bombers.

Yes, I was thinking scimitars with expanded munitions, cluster missiles and plasma torpedoes, specifically.Three of them, with Jonas as the 4th craft with a similar loadout.

If i have the points left over, seismic bombs or ion bombs.

Wanna see my list?

300 points

Raider-class Corvette (aft) (59)

Raider-class Corvette (50), Darth Vader (3), Ion Cannon Battery (6)

Raider-class Corvette (fore) (56)

Raider-class Corvette (50), Quad Laser Cannons (6)

Delta Squadron Pilot (37) x 5

TIE Defender (30), Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

You don't own 5 Defenders? ... Well ... I do.

I imagine this list does will. Durable ships fair much better in EPIC play. Even before the Advanced fix, I would run loaded Bombers and TIE Advanced. They had the staying power to insure they delivered their payload and dropped big ships quickly!

It must be said, I am desperately trying NOT to drop the raider in favour of a bomber wing following behind my superiority wing (of primarily advanced).

With the Raider out you really should house rule to require both sides to field a corvette. Epic is not hyper-competitive format and is all about the big ships. Scum is kinda on the outs for now but maybe require (at least) three IG-88's?

I might do that, make the game 400/400 with a mandatory 3 epic point ship (because otherwise a Bob Marley GR75 will appear). cap. Otherwise yeah, the raider will be shelved in place of a tactical bombing wing to fly behind my advanced core and TIE swarm.

Said swarm will prolly be howlrunner and 5 blacks with ruthlessness. In epic that has to be hilarious.

Otherwise, for a raiderless opinion - here is something I just cooked up:

==============================
Black Omega Leading TIE Charge
==============================

299 points

Pilots
------

“Howlrunner” (21)
TIE Fighter (18), Ruthlessness (3)

Black Squadron Pilot (17) x 5
TIE Fighter (14), Ruthlessness (3)

Captain Jonus (31)
TIE Bomber (22), Extra Munitions (2), Plasma Torpedoes (3), Cluster Missiles (4)

Scimitar Squadron Pilot (25) x 3
TIE Bomber (16), Extra Munitions (2), Plasma Torpedoes (3), Cluster Missiles (4)

Darth Vader (37)
TIE Advanced (29), TIE/x1 (0), Predator (3), Engine Upgrade (4), Advanced Targeting Computer (5)

Tempest Squadron Pilot (25) x 2
TIE Advanced (21), TIE/x1 (0), Cluster Missiles (4), Accuracy Corrector (3)

Ruthless TIE Fighters take the front rank targetting bigger, slower ships and distributing damage that way. Bombers and advanced lay the hurt.

It also forces a hard decision, because really who do you target first, Vader - a dogfighting monster, Jonas & the bombers, who have a nasty payload, or Howlrunner and her distributing damage swarm.

I might do that, make the game 400/400 with a mandatory 3 epic point ship (because otherwise a Bob Marley GR75 will appear). cap. Otherwise yeah, the raider will be shelved in place of a tactical bombing wing to fly behind my advanced core and TIE swarm.

Said swarm will prolly be howlrunner and 5 blacks with ruthlessness. In epic that has to be hilarious.

I played a 300 point game once where i outfitted all my interceptors with ruthlessness. It really is incredible how much damage it does to an enemy formation. I killed an e-wing (etahn) on the second round of engaging with just the splash damage off of my opponent's Ys and Bs.

If you are thinking of actions, I'd go with Reinforce. It's best vs. TLT's, as it neuters them. Your opponent will have to fire at the section that is closest and you can Reinforce it. No damage vs. TLT's. Maybe the title that gives you an evade with Reinforce? Also try to grow back shields when you can. Tibana Gas is great for when you really need it. BOOM! Shields back up.

Reinforce is a great action, but not against TLT's. It does require that the TLTs roll 2 or more hits in order to damage the ship on each shot, but it does not automatically prevent 1 damage as you infer, it only adds one evade result.

Versus TLT's your best bet is actually to use the recover action, though doing so does hurt your offense.

Given that most of the time you opponent can choose which section to target reinforce is more preventative than defensive. It usually just forces your opponent to fire at the unreinforced section (if able). Switching which section you reinforce has an added benefit of forcing your opponent to alternate which section to target allowing both sections to live longer than if they were able to focus fire down just one of them.

The Scum Huge ship is quadruple IG-88s. Their only problem is that they practically don't need anything else...

I find secondary weapons tricky for the Raider - the fire arcs are all wrong, and the much-vaunted 'double tap' zone is cute, but the range restrictions on the primary ruin it. I really don't get why they're there at all; isn't the whole point of Epic primaries to reach out and touch someone?

Green dice will fail sooner or later.

A truer statement has never before been spoken

It looks to me like the suggested Raider builds in the release article are pretty sound. I'm partial to the Assailer build, myself. TLT will ruin his day, though, because you can't change a [focus] if you don't roll dice.

get another 3 raiders and fly a mini raider swarm

get another 3 raiders and fly a mini raider swarm

Wrong game

In the LCG the raider comes with 2 Decimators in the same pod. It's not competitive but a raider and 2 Decimators sounds like a super fun epic list.

LOL I have 2 Deci's just for that purpose (the ability to "ruthless" an entire fighter wing is merely coincidental). Generally though I save that formation for 600+ and larger boards. Otherwise leaves fighter cover too light on the b oard.

Well I truely believe that the Varaider build is the strongest build for the Raider in terms of firepower.

Take Vader Sheild Tech and the title that gives +1 shield token and you are in business.

For hardpoints load outs 1 quad laser cannon and either 2 STLs or an STL and an Ion cannon.

The whole purpose is to use Vader to put crits on ships up to range 5 and even 2 or three times per turn. Use the recover action to lessen the damage suffered by Vader's ability and pretty much do damage regardless if dice hit or not.

Now having howlrunner fly close is not a bad idea especially since huge ships need a lot of help with dice modifications as they don't have access to the focus token. However the point about vader is he needs no dice.

It does sound really good on paper (and probably in practice) but that does mean taking Vader out of his TIE Advanced.

It does sound really good on paper (and probably in practice) but that does mean taking Vader out of his TIE Advanced.

true, but while vader in his TIE advanced is now rather strong in standard I don't think that build will have the same weight in epic.