Right, so my friend who plays Imperials got his hands on the new Raider, and he wants to try it out. So, I've gathered almost every single ship I own, and made this monster of a list. If anyone who's fought a Raider before has any input, PLEASE let me know! The battle's currently scheduled for Sunday, so time's short!

The problem with an epic ship is the balance between energy and speed. The more energy you get per turn the more turns you're under fire. The faster you move the less energy you have for weps. The raider's weak spot is dead astern. The aft section is your primary target.

You didn't mention squad points so I can't offer any build ideas but get something or several somethings dead astern and lay waste to the aft section. Keep several high agility fighters in the back to provide cover and support for your assault units. The second time I flew the Raider my opponent did that and cleaned my clock but good.

Alright, thank you for the info - I had a feeling the ass end would be vulnerable. Are the ion weapons even worth bringing against this thing? And roughly how much should I expect the Raider itself to cost? He has a sizable Imperial fleet, so I expect it to be a lot of ships.

You will win, most likely by a huge margin. Epic ships are weaker than similarly-pointed squadrons - they roll fewer dice, they have fewer hit points, they have big limits (weapon ranges for example). If focused, especially with proton torps and other high die amount attacks you can take one section per turn out. To me the only way for epic to work is if both players are forced to dedicate a sum of points to their epic ships, especially when both rebs and imps have access to two types of ships, letting you decide if you want to field, say, three Gozanti carriers or one fat Raider. Or a raider and Gozanti. And so on, but you're still forced to spend points on epic ships.

Alright, thank you for the info - I had a feeling the ass end would be vulnerable. Are the ion weapons even worth bringing against this thing? And roughly how much should I expect the Raider itself to cost? He has a sizable Imperial fleet, so I expect it to be a lot of ships.

A naked raider is 100 points. Allowing an additional 50 to out fit the raider with a couple of ties as escort or maybe a 200 point build allowing 50 or 60 points for escorts.

Ion weapons work to reduce energy production. I think energy production on the raider is a max of 4 per turn but not positive. You'll want to read the huge ship rules pdf. That will explain a lot.

The raider was designed as an anti-fighter ship. Heaviest firing arcs are in the front but they have good overlap to the sides. Spend some time looking at the arcs. It will save you some aggravation.

As mentioned above you'll probably win. Take your time analyzing your moves. Remember if he bumps you you're dead. Lousy way to lose a ship. They move last but pilot skill determines shooting order.

Right, thanks! He messaged me on Skype today, so we're looking at 200-250 points. I elected to go with 250, giving me plenty of points to work out this build:

I'd personally consider shaving the abundant K-Wing upgrades and use them to replace Airen with something neat. Say, drop torps, engineers and missiles to not have too many points sunk into small ships and you'll have 24 points to spend. That gives you 44 points to spend. Now think about the ridiculous utility value of two additional naked blue squadron B-Wings! Manage to give each FCS and you'll be golden.

I'd personally consider shaving the abundant K-Wing upgrades and use them to replace Airen with something neat. Say, drop torps, engineers and missiles to not have too many points sunk into small ships and you'll have 24 points to spend. That gives you 44 points to spend. Now think about the ridiculous utility value of two additional naked blue squadron B-Wings! Manage to give each FCS and you'll be golden.

Unfortunately, I only have two B-Wings! And the point of the K-Wings is to just slam into the Raider with everything they have; what's the point of running them if we're not going to take advantage of the abundant munitions slots?

Right, so I was unable to go meet him to play - I just felt like utter crud! However, I've got a neat little list set up that I feel has some serious potential!

BB-8 on a Y is interesting. I may borrow that for a build if for no other reason than for the look on my opponent's face when it barrel rolls.

I might suggest swapping the HLCs out for two Manglers. The aft section only has 4 shields and the Mangler allows you to swap a hit for a crit. Once the shields drop you have the added ability for 2 crits per turn which on a huge ship can be far more devastating. If you swap out both that gives 6 additional points to work with. Not enough for another ship but maybe additional ordnance on the Bs for anti-fighter use or two hull upgrades.

With a 250 build limit you'll be facing 100-150 points of fighter support. You can't allow yourself to be blocked. You need the actions and you need to close the distance on the Raider.

This seems pretty solid. Good luck vs the Imperials!