As the title says, finally got to deploy Raiders and the MC series en-masse to get some feeling games. Some impressions;

+The MC80 repair super build I was afraid of works only if you're opposed by one ship. Facing down an ISD-II and a Demolisher spelled the end for that kitted out MC80 pretty quickly. It cannot handle being attacked by more than one heavy dice throwing ships.

+MC30s aren't as fragile as you'd think. Both using and attacking against the 30s, they didn't seem to pop as easy as the firecrackers I thought they would be. In my first game of the night I should have committed my Rieekan MC30s into suicide missions to do concentrated damage. Both games involved Torpedo frigates.

+Raiders are disposable. My second game used three of these, two kitted out with Assault Proton Torpedoes and the third with an NK-7. They should not spend more than one turn under the guns of an enemy ship, because you have to exert effort to move the shields around and the Raider doesn't really have the time to do it. I think if I run three, it should be with a Gladiator and this needs to be a speedster list.

+Wave 2 fighters have more rogue than you would think. In the lsit I ran only Dengar and Rhymer did not have rogue. If you value Rhymer only for allowing medium-range attacks, you can just never attack with him in the fighter phase while he's kiting and all your rogue squadrons do their move-attacks benefiting from Rhymer when he doesn't

I really wish I could have more than two games a week or so because I'd like to keep experimenting with lists and really learn how these ships are supposed to work.

I feel there is a lot more reliable damage modifier cards, that work for all colours of dice. So where in the past Screed and Black Dice had a brutal efficiency to them now you have more tools that can give you a pinch across all ranges.

As such you want to look at how you work to best effect with ships that only have one defense token that removes damage (brace being the best example) if you take 7+ damage in a hit I don't mind that you can and do redirect the damage. Two shields to zero isn't a bad thing at all. Dealing 15+ damage to take down a big ship is far better than 20+ after all.

I also like Intel, IMHO, I believe that Intel trump rogue. Now having Intel and Rogue.....

its so hard to find games consistently in our area. even more so if you happen to be picky in some way.

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Raiders... man, I really wish they just had Redirect. theyre sooo freaking easy to kill. =/ and im not happy about that at all.

I have only been kitting out raiders as either:

• expanded launchers rear arc donkeypuncher
• dedicated anti squadron with quad lasers and ordnance turret

I find they die far to quickly to be in the main arc of anything other than a CR90.

Well... if anyone is in SE Florida I haven't played yet so come on down.

As the title says, finally got to deploy Raiders and the MC series en-masse to get some feeling games. Some impressions;

+The MC80 repair super build I was afraid of works only if you're opposed by one ship. Facing down an ISD-II and a Demolisher spelled the end for that kitted out MC80 pretty quickly. It cannot handle being attacked by more than one heavy dice throwing ships.

+MC30s aren't as fragile as you'd think. Both using and attacking against the 30s, they didn't seem to pop as easy as the firecrackers I thought they would be. In my first game of the night I should have committed my Rieekan MC30s into suicide missions to do concentrated damage. Both games involved Torpedo frigates.

+Raiders are disposable. My second game used three of these, two kitted out with Assault Proton Torpedoes and the third with an NK-7. They should not spend more than one turn under the guns of an enemy ship, because you have to exert effort to move the shields around and the Raider doesn't really have the time to do it. I think if I run three, it should be with a Gladiator and this needs to be a speedster list.

+Wave 2 fighters have more rogue than you would think. In the lsit I ran only Dengar and Rhymer did not have rogue. If you value Rhymer only for allowing medium-range attacks, you can just never attack with him in the fighter phase while he's kiting and all your rogue squadrons do their move-attacks benefiting from Rhymer when he doesn't

I really wish I could have more than two games a week or so because I'd like to keep experimenting with lists and really learn how these ships are supposed to work.

Played my first Wave 2 games (Imperials).

- MC80s - I think we have a case of warhead beating armour here. The two I fought were engineering like hell but it didn't save them

- Havent had to fight an MC30 yet (there were a bunch at the tourney though)

- Raiders - yeah. Love the ship, but when mine wandered a bit to far forward it got one shot by an Ackbar enhanced guppy. One roll and he was wreckage.

On the other hand, he severely inconvenienced an MC80 with proton torps, and chased down a fleeing CR90 and eviscerated it.

- Rogue - I thought YT2400s were bad when I first fought 6 of them. Very dangerous. But then I started running firesprays. I think we are going to hear a lot about the meta effects of Firesprays going forward. I didn't lose one all day, and they did a horrendous amount of damage. Any small ship needs to be very careful if they are around. If still has doubts that fighters were back, ha ha ha...

- Bossk is a legend. The things he can do to opposing wave 1 squadrons are just disgusting.

Bossk is an auto-include in every imperial list I have written. He really has your back covered from stray fighters, and is hilarious against scatter-TIE fighter squadrons.