I was writing lists thinking how great it was to have a cheap but capable ship that could give the Imperials an activation advantage.

But then I realised - Raider II has 4 blue dice if dual arcing at medium range. Corvette B has 5.

At close range the Raider II gains an advantage in going to 4 blue, 2 black, compared to the Corvette Bs 5.

But the Raider II is 48 points compared to the Corvettes 39!

You can have a corvette B with overload pulse for cheaper than the Raider II. The corvette also has a range of cheaply priced but very useful upgrades available...

Does this make the Raider II over priced?

Leaving aside the fact that they belong to two different fleets and hence are priced to balance the wider fleet meta, does this mean the Corvette B (usually ignored by Rebel admirals as best I can see) is really great value? or does the Raider II need particular upgrades/roles to display its goodness?

Anti-squadron.

Better shields (very slightly) and better defense tokens.

corvette B with SW-7 ions, concentrate out side on a double arc, 6 auto hits.....its silly

Anti-squadron.

I get that is the obvious answer, but then, why wouldn't I just get a Raider I? Its cheaper, does more natural damage (0.75+0.75 vs 0.5 + 0.75), and makes much better use of the titles and other obvious upgrades (ordnance experts, ruthless), and can equip ordnance, which also benefits from the ordnance experts!

Clearly the Raider II has a design purpose, but struggling to find where that is, other than as a slightly heavier skirmisher/ion carrier but more expensive than the Crv B...

Better shields (very slightly) and better defense tokens.

Sure... but how often is that Brace ever going to get used?

corvette B with SW-7 ions, concentrate out side on a double arc, 6 auto hits.....its silly

No, 4+2 is not the way to go, 3+3 is better. You concentrate FP out the front.

I can't say this is precisely why it costs more, but the Avenger ISD title is something the rebels can't access and the RDR2 is capable of toting Overload Pulse. Then we factor in the hundreds of other combos that are imperial-unique, then compare the stats ...

There's no math equation behind all these ships. Who knows why anything costs anything? Count my amongst the people struggling initially to figure RDR out though.

The raider can suffer a 13 hits attack and survive.

Cr90 can't survive a 10 hits shot.

Overload pulse with gunnery team is awesome. APT with gunnery team too.

The raider can suffer a 13 hits attack and survive.

Cr90 can't survive a 10 hits shot.

Overload pulse with gunnery team is awesome. APT with gunnery team too.

How?

13 braced is 7. Enough even to kill a Motti-Raider. Or is there something I don't see here?

Factor an evade green. I dont see how the numbers are getting that high at a range evade can happen, but I think thats whats going on.

edit: Unless...ITS A TRAP!

technically if its only 13 hits, yes, cuz to get that many on 8 dice you need to ahve some doubles, so evade a double. 11. /2 = 6.

However, I gotta say, redirect is pretty awesome. But honestly, the little ships are not meant to take ackbar broadsides or isd front arcs. they can take isd side arcs just fine.

Point is 12 damage is lethal damage to a Raider, where as only 8 is needed to pop a corvette. (add evades to taste)

Factor an evade green. I dont see how the numbers are getting that high at a range evade can happen, but I think thats whats going on.

edit: Unless...ITS A TRAP!

OK.

The good thing about the raider brace is that it CAN survive a big hit. If it does you can shift shields around on it's next turn. Very useful. The brace token is much less useful vs smaller swarm attacks, say from squadrons.

The evade but yes I was wrong. I counted the evade and brace token in wrong order so the number isn't 13 rather than 12. 3 hull 2 shields X2 (brace) and evade (up to 2).

I think the number on cr90 is right. 4 hull 4 shields (redirect) an evade (up to 2).

I played a game where the raider 2 was awesome - delivered an overload pulse on 2 enemy ships in the same activation, one of which was then smashed by Avenger. However, the enemy ship that didn't get ninja-chopped in two by the ISD blasted the raider to pieces in 2 volleys. Accuracy on the brace and that thing is toast with only 6 damage.

It feels to me that the raider needs to go last to get position, then go first to get out of dodge. Ozzel or a banked navigate token and order would help keep it alive. Could work better either as a one-shot missile role (with overload pulse or APTs), or perhaps as a 'finisher' lurking behind the ISDs to kill off weakened enemy ships (ACMs, SW7s) - a hyena to the ISD's lion.

Eh, I see it as a fair trade. Small fast ships are the rebels thing so they get it cheaper. The black dice brawler is the imperial thing, which is why Mc30s cost disproportionately more than glads.

Sure! We are not paying the broadside of 5 dice, the long range, the shields, the defensive retrofit, the maneuverability at speed 3, the turbolasers slot, the support blue dice...

It is more expensive but I am not sure if disproportionately, at least at this moment.

Raiders are tricky to keep alive.

A good rule of thumb is that any Raider will die to either 12 damage straight, or six with an accuracy. About the only way to keep them alive through multiple rounds of shooting is to strictly control which hull zones your opponent can fire on and use engineering commands to rotate shields into those zones.

Thanks to the brace, they can usually stomach one BIG attack, but fall easily to multiple small attacks. This is reversed from the CR-90, who is able to use redirect to weather several smaller attacks but stands little chance against one big hit.

Keeping this in mind, they're actually well suited to dive headlong through the side-arc of an MC80, as long as they only spend one turn there and there are other targets to take the heat off of them.

So far, I haven't found a compelling reason to run the Raider-II.

The R-I with Ordnance Experts is only 48 pts and can give even the biggest ships on the board a black eye, not to mention being incredibly easy to keep in the rear arc of Rebel broadsiders once you get there.

Gaining blue dice just doesn't excite me that much. If you're staying at medium range you're limited to three dice off the front. You have to close distance to use your black die anyway, so why not have more black dice for cheaper? Not to mention the fact that the anti-squadron on the R-I is hands-down superior in every way to the black/blue on the II.

I hate blue anti-squadron dice.

Eh, I see it as a fair trade. Small fast ships are the rebels thing so they get it cheaper. The black dice brawler is the imperial thing, which is why Mc30s cost disproportionately more than glads.

I don't think that's why the prices are the way they are.

The MC30 is very, very different than the Glad.

The thing you have to remember is that at CR90 is cheaper than a raider and can take a defensive refit. wave two dishes out so many accuracies that it's unlikely a raider will get to use its brace. CR90s can have a the pleasure of ECM, advanced projectors ( great against Glads and raiders) or shields regeneration..... This makes them potentially harder to kill then a raider.

The thing you have to remember is that at CR90 is cheaper than a raider and can take a defensive refit. wave two dishes out so many accuracies that it's unlikely a raider will get to use its brace. CR90s can have a the pleasure of ECM, advanced projectors ( great against Glads and raiders) or shields regeneration..... This makes them potentially harder to kill then a raider.

Harder to kill, but then they are more expensive, too. Advanced Projectors is 6, putting the CR90 at least to 45 points, and still not protecting it from accuracies, or from XI7s. ECM preserves 1 defense token per round, but makes it more expensive.

"ECM preserves 1 defense token per round, but makes it more expensive."

but it kept 3 CR90 alive attacking a VSD for 7 turns in a boarding action game yesterday We almost killed the VSD we were trying to board because overloaded pulse stopped its defense every turn it was fired on.

I should hope that 3 corvettes could kill a VSD, they are quite a bit more expensive.

Raiders have much better upgrades for anti-ship and anti-squadron damage. The points increase is completely reasonable in light of the amazing upgrades the Raider can get, largely due to the Black Dice upgrades such as Ordinance Experts, Expanded Launchers, and SW-7 Ion Cannons.

Raiders have much better upgrades for anti-ship and anti-squadron damage. The points increase is completely reasonable in light of the amazing upgrades the Raider can get, largely due to the Black Dice upgrades such as Ordinance Experts, Expanded Launchers, and SW-7 Ion Cannons.

Its a theory that I could almost believe - until last night when I met 3 x Ackbar Corvettes with turbo reroute circuits.... Vader is still in force therapy.