No redirect means it blanks the vaunted xi7.

Tonight I ran the following list:

Imperial-I Class Star Destroyer (169 pts)
- Grand Moff Tarkin

- Captain Needa

- Gunnery Team
- Expanded Hangar Bay
- Boosted Comms
- "Relentless"

Raider-I Class Corvette (49 pts)

- Expanded Hangar Bay

Raider-I Class Corvette (49 pts)

- Expanded Hangar Bay

Squadrons (133 pts)

- "Howlrunner"
- Major Rhymer
- TIE Bomber x5
- TIE Interceptor x4
- Jumpmaster 5000


The list comes right in at 400 pts, and my opponent was under at 397 with four Victory-I SDs sporting XX-9 Turbolasers and Assault Concussion Missiles, with a small squadron complement of Rhymer with one bomber and a pair of Advanced. We played his Dangerous Territory objective, and my higher number of deployments in combination with my increased maneuverability let me dictate a lot of the conditions of our engagement.

His Victories deployed in a line abreast spread over maybe half of the setup area, and I attacked this line from one end, forcing the far destroyers to turn to face me and dealing with them more or less one-by-one rather than all at once.

First of all, let me just say that the Raider is *shockingly* tough to kill. Sure, under sustained fire they go pop fairly quickly, but that Brace really does a lot to keep them alive. Both of mine came into the front arc of a VSD at least once and got pelted with side arcs a few times and still managed to escape with a few hull each.

My second main observation from this game is that having this many squadron activations on a bomber list more or less nullifies the usefulness of Rhymer. On only one occasion did I have reason to use his ability to let an Interceptor take a long range shot, but the rest of the time I was able to keep my squadrons in place to whale on ships using commands (5 off the ISD + Token, 2 off each Raider + token = 12 activations for 12 fighters per turn).

Those somewhat piddly few dice coming off the front arc of a Raider are INFINITELY more deadly when the target has been softened by a few bomber shots, either dropping a shield facing or forcing them to spend a few defense tokens. Between the bombers and the Raiders whittling down the Victories, my Imperial was able to wipe two VSDs off the board in a single activation with Gunnery Teams.

I'm fairly sold on the concept of the pocket carrier.

I need more practice maneuvering Raiders. As someone who hasn't been flying CR90s the sheer flexibility of the ship sometimes locks me into analysis paralysis come command phase.I think the 2 speed 90 degree turn the Raider can do lends it VERY well to this role, enabling it to charge past the dangerous front/side arcs of medium ships and fall into place in their rear arc to keep issuing squadron commands before pummeling with its black/blue battery.

Even if you aren't going squadron-centric like this, the idea of including a couple of bombers and an advanced as escort to a Raider with Expanded Hangars seems very workable, giving that small nimble ship a bit more punch to make those black dice count.

EDIT: Oh, and Captain Needa is great. Having an Evade on the ISD is wonderful, and losing Contain just doesn't strike me as *that* much of a loss, but maybe it's just because I'm used to not having it.

Tonight I ran the following list: Imperial-I Class Star Destroyer (169 pts)

- Grand Moff Tarkin

- Captain Needa

- Gunnery Team

- Expanded Hangar Bay

- Boosted Comms

- "Relentless" Raider-I Class Corvette (49 pts)

- Expanded Hangar Bay

Raider-I Class Corvette (49 pts)

- Expanded Hangar Bay

Squadrons (133 pts)

- "Howlrunner"

- Major Rhymer

- TIE Bomber x5

- TIE Interceptor x4

- Jumpmaster 5000

Motti Value of 5. Nice. I like it

First of all, let me just say that the Raider is *shockingly* tough to kill. Sure, under sustained fire they go pop fairly quickly, but that Brace really does a lot to keep them alive. Both of mine came into the front arc of a VSD at least once and got pelted with side arcs a few times and still managed to escape with a few hull each.

My second main observation from this game is that having this many squadron activations on a bomber list more or less nullifies the usefulness of Rhymer. On only one occasion did I have reason to use his ability to let an Interceptor take a long range shot, but the rest of the time I was able to keep my squadrons in place to whale on ships using commands (5 off the ISD + Token, 2 off each Raider + token = 12 activations for 12 fighters per turn).

Those somewhat piddly few dice coming off the front arc of a Raider are INFINITELY more deadly when the target has been softened by a few bomber shots, either dropping a shield facing or forcing them to spend a few defense tokens. Between the bombers and the Raiders whittling down the Victories, my Imperial was able to wipe two VSDs off the board in a single activation with Gunnery Teams.

I'm fairly sold on the concept of the pocket carrier.

I need more practice maneuvering Raiders. As someone who hasn't been flying CR90s the sheer flexibility of the ship sometimes locks me into analysis paralysis come command phase.I think the 2 speed 90 degree turn the Raider can do lends it VERY well to this role, enabling it to charge past the dangerous front/side arcs of medium ships and fall into place in their rear arc to keep issuing squadron commands before pummeling with its black/blue battery.

Even if you aren't going squadron-centric like this, the idea of including a couple of bombers and an advanced as escort to a Raider with Expanded Hangars seems very workable, giving that small nimble ship a bit more punch to make those black dice count.

EDIT: Oh, and Captain Needa is great. Having an Evade on the ISD is wonderful, and losing Contain just doesn't strike me as *that* much of a loss, but maybe it's just because I'm used to not having it.

Great to hear! I'm looking forward to the Raider, and am interested to see how it fares against larger ships (since really anything but a CR90 (and maybe a Neb, depending on positioning) is larger than it, at least in terms of damage output. During theory crafting list building, I've been putting some anti-ship upgrades on my Raiders (Ordnance experts + APTs usually), for some added punch. Did you get the sense upgrading the Raiders' damage would have helped much, or would taking two bombers (for the same point cost) seem more worthwhile?

Needa does look exceptionally fun.

It has 1 more shield than the CR90 and needs to shift shields around a bit more but yea.

Tonight I ran the following list: Imperial-I Class Star Destroyer (169 pts)

- Grand Moff Tarkin

- Captain Needa

- Gunnery Team

- Expanded Hangar Bay

- Boosted Comms

- "Relentless" Raider-I Class Corvette (49 pts)

- Expanded Hangar Bay

Raider-I Class Corvette (49 pts)

- Expanded Hangar Bay

Squadrons (133 pts)

- "Howlrunner"

- Major Rhymer

- TIE Bomber x5

- TIE Interceptor x4

- Jumpmaster 5000

Motti Value of 5. Nice. I like it

Motti value in a fleet without Motti? I'm not sure I understand?

You could do this?

Raider 1, expanded hangar bays, Wulff Yularen

3x TIE Interceptors

You wouldn't even need tarkin, as Wulff would perma-repeat the squadron token.

This setup would be blitzkrieg fast, and utter death to enemy squadrons.

How about swapping the interceptors for bombers, and adding Ruthless Strategists? This would make your mini battle group much more of a threat against ships, but still reasonably effective against squadrons. (You'd use your squadron command to move in your bombers and start softening up the target, then follow up with anti-squadron fire including the guaranteed extra damage.)

Fascinating. How about:

Raider 2, expanded hangar bays, Wulff Yularen -60

2x TIE Bombers -18

Dengar 20(or Jumpmaster if you're feeling cheap) -12

98points (or 90 for the poor man)

The Raider won't need to approach too close to keep these bombers going and the combo of the Raider and Dengar will really punish any squadrons that attempt to intercept your bomber unit. Also Dengars Black is statistically better for non bombers when shooting at a ship. Intel is important because of the momentum of you Raider, as is keeping the raider in range because you lack boosted comms.

One last thought; if you're spamming squadron command you'll need to be clever with your approach and not to overshoot once you pull into range (you will need to swap to a manoeuvre command once you are close which will interfere with your ability to command the squadrons unless you can leave them in front of an enemy ship for a turn).

On the upside you wont have to be careful about jousting a CR90; I think you'd waste them even if they had fighter support. Also Dengar will ruin Yarvaris' day as he engages the B-Wing escort and your bombers unload on the weak flank of the Neb B.

Lots of interesting scenarios to mull over. I like your ideas, great thread.

Edit: You could take 3 bombers, the intel ship just has to follow in the squadron phase to keep the other ships from being locked down next turn. (Alternatively you could make this a bit cheaper and not take Wulff Yularen).

Tonight I ran the following list: Imperial-I Class Star Destroyer (169 pts)

- Grand Moff Tarkin

- Captain Needa

- Gunnery Team

- Expanded Hangar Bay

- Boosted Comms

- "Relentless" Raider-I Class Corvette (49 pts)

- Expanded Hangar Bay

Raider-I Class Corvette (49 pts)

- Expanded Hangar Bay

Squadrons (133 pts)

- "Howlrunner"

- Major Rhymer

- TIE Bomber x5

- TIE Interceptor x4

- Jumpmaster 5000

Motti Value of 5. Nice. I like it

Motti value in a fleet without Motti? I'm not sure I understand?

I get it.

Sounds a bit pointless without Motti in it

I hate you all. I might play more imperial now. Darn dark side.

Welcome to the dark side. We don't have cookies, but we can teach you how to kill the guy that does and take his.

Let the hate flow through you.