Saturday the 31st of October marks the rough anniversary of the sudden death of a good Friend & X-wing Player from our small group.

To commemorate the event we are planning on playing an Epic game of some form.
Our previous Epic games have been so epic that they took forever & didn't really produce a satisfactory outcome, so we are looking for some suggestions on what we could do that would be Epic, Fun & interesting, but not insanely long in play time.

There will be four of us & we have a CR-90 & a few Raiders at our disposal along with oodles of large & small craft from all three factions.

Anyone have any ideas that they'd like to toss our way for what we could do that would be thematic, fun & not overly massive in scope?

We're kicking a few thing about, but could use some fresh ideas.

Any what is a good build for each side in Epic with only one Raider, one CR-90 and one Transport?

Perhaps play a mission? The mission Raid on Fondor by Babaganoosh is fun, balancen and really thematic. Good for 3-5 players. You can download it on FFG X-wing Mission Control

Any what is a good build for each side in Epic with only one Raider, one CR-90 and one Transport?

A good combo is EM emitter and ionization reactor on the transport and then dash crew on the CR-90. The transport is then a great one way obstacle as Dash makes the vette ignore the transport as an obstacle.

Recommendations for Missions/Scenarios is certainly what I'm looking for here, rather than builds.

Starfighter swarm

Okay well as I have said in previous posts the greatest weakness is that huge ships can't have focus results. So they have a much harder time hitting than smaller ships despite their number of dice and multiple attacks. So what you have to do is compensate for that.

With the CR-90 Han Solo<crew> allows you to use Target lock tokens as if they were focus tokens and that is huge for huge ship well unintended puns aside he is an auto include on a CR-90. Pair him with a weapons engineer and hitting ships won't be as much of a problem.

For the Raider well it is trickier but Darth Vader is the answer here. The fact that you don't have to hit to do damage makes the no focus problem not that necessary. You want to make sure shields are down first so use fighters to bring ships down then start laying on face up damage cards. Take a shield technician and the recover title to replenish the damage Vader will be doing to the ship.

As for hardpoints well you want them to cover the range bands you don't have. So funny as it sounds for the Raider you don't actually want Ion cannon batteries (especially if you plan on using vader) but instead you want either a Single Turbo laser and quad laser turrets so you can use Vader from range 1-5. Selecting which arc to equip is tricky. For the CR-90 Ion Turret Batteries does great for covering the 2-4 as well as having some extra firepower in arc. QLTs are also good if you get in close with another huge ship or catch a starfighter trying to skirt past your sides.

Speaking of starfighters positioning is important. Most players make the mistake of keeping fighters in the back and bring the huge ship up front. THIS IS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE! The end result of this positioning is that fighters get stuck behind the slower moving huge ships and the huge ship just takes the brunt of the opposing side's firepower getting crippled within the first two volleys. Put fighters in front of the huge ship as a screen to catch other fighters and keep them from getting behind the huge ship. If one or two fighters escape it is easier to catch them with the other fighters in front then it is to catch them from behind the huge ship. For support ships depending on their range those could be placed towards the back near the huge ship and they could act as a rear guard for the vulnerable aft section.

This looks like it might have possibilities!
Anyone tried it?

This looks like it might have possibilities!

Anyone tried it?

Haven't played it. But wouldn't the Rebels just put Tibanna Gas Supplies on and be un-moored by round 2? Then it can gun straight for the hyperspace beacon with Straight 4's and be gone by round 4 or 5. Sees like an awful challenge for the Imperials to battle through 206 points of Rebels, reach the CR90 and destroy it before it escapes. Perhaps it's worth trying out, though. After writing this up I'm getting excited about it!

Try each side with a CR-90/Raider and allow them to cap out at 130-135 points (your call). Allow the rest of the squad to be made out of the remaining points up to 200, with one ship being an Ace pilot with PS 5 or higher. A capital ship with 1-4 escorts is very manageable time wise.

Speaking of starfighters positioning is important. Most players make the mistake of keeping fighters in the back and bring the huge ship up front. THIS IS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE!

I've run a few Epic events. There are a few suggestions dealing with list building that does help with time. It's purely from a time saving standard and not a list power build.

1) Build squads of x number of points designed to be played by one player. Give them a group of ships that will work together to accomplish a task in the mission. Example is to give someone all the Y-wings that are going to make a torpedo run. Or give someone the Tie Interceptors to intercept the enemy ships. These squads can be any number of ships or any number of points. 3 Y-wings with ordnance or 4-6 Tie Fighters. You get so many points or ships, but they fly like a unit with a sole purpose. This way a player can focus on what his job is in the mission and you don't get too bogged down with trying to figure out what to do with all your ships.

One example I did was Rebels attacking an Imperial space station (made up some rules). We had:

CR-90 - one player

3 Y-wings - one player for torpedo run on station

3 A-wings - one player to intercept their fighters

3 X-wings - one player to either intercept fighters or go after station

Station + Lambda shuttle - one player

3 Tie Bombers - one player to try to lay bombs and then torpedo the CR-90

3 Tie Interceptors - one player to intercept their fighters

4 Tie Fighters + VT-49 - one player to go after their Y-wings

Breaking up the ships into squads with sole purpose really helped time wise to figure out what you will do.

2) For each player, have ships with different PS numbers. Don't give one guy 6 Academy Pilots. It might make sense for points economy, but everyone else will get bored when this one guy takes 20 minutes to move all these Tie Fighters and pick their actions. Spread out the PS of each player. If you want a bunch of Tie Fighters, pick different PS levels. Yes, it's not the most efficient, but it will save time. Do this for all squads. Try to have as many different PS for one player as possible.

3) Give someone on each side the task of slave driver to remind people what PS for which side it is.

Hope these help in making it a fast and fun game. It always sucks when it bogs down and you don't get to finish.

Speaking of starfighters positioning is important. Most players make the mistake of keeping fighters in the back and bring the huge ship up front. THIS IS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE!

My Z's like to roll three and four green dice... my TIE's like rolling four and five greens even better.

Speaking of starfighters positioning is important. Most players make the mistake of keeping fighters in the back and bring the huge ship up front. THIS IS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE!

My Z's like to roll three and four green dice... my TIE's like rolling four and five greens even better.

Unless you are obstructed you don't get that many dice. The rules have been patched. I know the raider they changed this, I think the Tantive IV still has the old rules though.

For tournament rules, yes they adjusted the range bonus to attacks made at ranges 4 and 5 to be the same as range 3 (one additional agility die). But for scenarios the old rule remains. Of course, you can play however you want.

Speaking of starfighters positioning is important. Most players make the mistake of keeping fighters in the back and bring the huge ship up front. THIS IS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE!

My Z's like to roll three and four green dice... my TIE's like rolling four and five greens even better.

Unless you are obstructed you don't get that many dice. The rules have been patched. I know the raider they changed this, I think the Tantive IV still has the old rules though.

So you mean to tell me that FFG says no Huge Ship Blocking?

If so I have yet another reason to be happy that I do not go to tournaments thus do not have to abide by that because I am BOSS and I play at homes!

For tournament rules, yes they adjusted the range bonus to attacks made at ranges 4 and 5 to be the same as range 3 (one additional agility die). But for scenarios the old rule remains. Of course, you can play however you want.

Guys I am referencing the Huge Ship obstruction ability here. I knew they nerfed that extra 35 defense dice thing, which I do agree with and use here at Boss Central.

So at range three say all day everyday just because it is a Huge Ship fighters can get a plus two bonus for keeping BIG Daddy between them and their enemies. At range two they get a plus one, and at range one they still get the plus one for obstructed.

Any what is a good build for each side in Epic with only one Raider, one CR-90 and one Transport?

Raymus Antilles and Slicer Tools on the Transport, add in EM Emitter.

[EDIT] - With the Transport Jam action, you might not need Raymus

Also, Bright Hope with Shield Projector?

For tournament rules, yes they adjusted the range bonus to attacks made at ranges 4 and 5 to be the same as range 3 (one additional agility die). But for scenarios the old rule remains. Of course, you can play however you want.

Guys I am referencing the Huge Ship obstruction ability here. I knew they nerfed that extra 35 defense dice thing, which I do agree with and use here at Boss Central.

So at range three say all day everyday just because it is a Huge Ship fighters can get a plus two bonus for keeping BIG Daddy between them and their enemies. At range two they get a plus one, and at range one they still get the plus one for obstructed.

There is huge ship obstruction still but you will also be obstructing your own shots. Flying damaged small ship behind the big ships is okay but really you want to send the small ships out at first and get as much hits as possible and keeping the huge ship from getting crippled by the other fighter swarm. Much like infantry and tanks in urban environment. You want infantry in front of the tanks not behind or the tanks get picked off easily.

There is huge ship obstruction still but you will also be obstructing your own shots. Flying damaged small ship behind the big ships is okay but really you want to send the small ships out at first and get as much hits as possible and keeping the huge ship from getting crippled by the other fighter swarm. Much like infantry and tanks in urban environment. You want infantry in front of the tanks not behind or the tanks get picked off easily.

How worthwhile is it to invest in the resilience of your huge ship, give it an EM Emitter and send a hard-hitting ship with Dash crew behind it?