Epic squad: Assailer with Expose TIE swarm

By Parakitor, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Posted at

Now that I have the Imperial Assault Carrier, I am starting to put some squads together. Here's a first go at one that I am very excited about! It takes my Assailer build for the Raider, and gives it some good starfighter support.

300 points
Imperial Raider (Fore)
-Engineering Team, Quad Laser Cannons, Ionization Reactor
Imperial Raider (Aft)
-Optimized Generators, Tactician, Gunnery Team, Cluster Bombs, Quad Laser Cannons, Ion Cannon Battery
"Howlrunner" (Push the Limit, Shield Upgrade)
Black Squadron Pilot (Wingman)
Black Squadron Pilot (Draw Their Fire)
"Youngster" (Expose, Shield Upgrade)
"Night Beast" (Hull Upgrade)
"Chaser"
"Wampa"
"Backstabber"
"Dark Curse"
The Raider isn't especially equipped to support the TIEs, but I'm hoping that if my opponent tries to double-down on theAssailer, then my TIE swarm can deliver some real punishment. So the Assailer likes ships to fire with primaries at range 3+. I have Ionization Reactor, Cluster Bombs, Tactician and Quad Turbolasers to discourage enemies from rushing to close range. Cluster Bombs is the cool new upgrade that I can discard if I am attacked to roll two attack dice, and all ships at range 1 suffer any [hits] or [critical hits] rolled. Ion Cannon Battery can keep a ship at range for longer, all while dealing crits. My TIEs hopefully rush to engage the enemy, serving as another means to keep them at range. (Although on second thought, they may be better for hanging back and punishing ships that get too close. Still need to think about that). Other goodies on the Raider are the Optimized Generators to power up my second primary attack, courtesy of the Raider ship card (after you perform a primary weapon attack, spend two energy to perform another primary weapon attack).
Okay, here's where it gets REALLY exciting. "Howlrunner" does her thing, granting rerolls to squad mates. To keep her alive, I equipped her with Push the Limit and a Shield Upgrade. To augment her skills, two Black Squadron Pilots fly close by, providing Wingman stress removal and crit-taking Draw Their Fire support. Next up is "Youngster," equipped with Expose and a Shield Upgrade. "Youngster," will likely Focus or Evade for defense. The real fun starts with "Night Beast" who will perform green maneuvers to get a free Focus action, allowing him to stack Expose with a Focus and "Howlrunner's" reroll. This will likely make him a big target, so he should be flying close enough that the Black Sq. Pilot with Draw Their Fire can help him out. So "Night Beast" attacks, spends his Focus and Target Lock for his attack, and so "Chaser", who performed the Expose action, gets a free Focus token to power up his attack, still with "Howlrunner" rerolls. "Wampa" performs Expose as well, because he doesn't care about modifying dice: he just wants a crit to stick under the shields, and the more dice the better. Finally, "Backstabber" and "Dark Curse" are my trailing/flanking ships. They don't really need to stick close to "Howlrunner," so if I can't fit all nine together nicely, then they get to be separated. If we break up formation, they'll be the first to get out of there.
My only regret is that I wish I could have a Targeting Coordinator to spend an energy to grab a Target Lock and pass it to a friendly ship at range 1-2. "Backstabber" and "Wampa" would really appreciate that, as would any of my Exposing TIEs once "Howlrunner" blows up. I would probably drop the Cluster Bombs because they are pretty situational, but I'd probably miss them if I got rid of them. And I'm not sure how close I'd fly my TIEs to my Raider: one wrong move could wipe out a lot of my squad, so I'm probably better off without the coordinator.
Thoughts?
Posted at

How do you put cluster bombs on you're raider?

Posted at

I think I'd stay away from expose in epic

It's not all that great, and unless you can kill way more, your ties are going to go up in smoke real fast.

Not only will your opponent be coming at you with squads but another raider or Tantive will make short work of them

Posted at

How do you put cluster bombs on you're raider?

Cluster Bombs are not Cluster Missiles. It's an huge ship only cargo upgrade not a missile.

You can however put Cluster Missiles on a Raider using the new Ordnance Tubes card that comes with the Gozanti!

Posted at

Well, I tried it out tonight, and wouldn't you know it: my opponent brought 4 HLC B-wings, and Dash with HLC, making the Assailer title absolutely useless. Expose was alright, but I lost pretty strong to Dash and Han (his final ship was a GR-75). I didn't even use Expose that much, and I realized that I would have much rather had TIE interceptors, even Avenger Squadron Pilots, than all that TIE fighter nonsense. I must admit, I am not used to flying in formation, and I had to land a couple of fighters on debris tokens to get shots. When we quit Dash was destroyed, Han had lost one shield, and I had lost 5 of my 9 TIE fighters. There's a possibility I could have won, but I would have needed to a) run over all of his B-wings or b) get really luck on my attack dice to wipe out a B-wing a turn. In other words, it was nice fun, but a spectacular loss.

I think next time I try something like this it will feature a mini-swarm a.k.a. flight group of "Howlrunner," "Night Beast," "Chaser," and "Wampa" or maybe a Black Squadron Pilot with Draw Their Fire. I'm also seriously thinking about getting rid of the swarm entirely and just have "Howlrunner" with Swarm Tactics flying back and forth at the rear of the Raider.

Final thought: all the preview squads of the Imperial Raider featured Quad Laser Cannons on the fore section. I thought maybe there was wisdom there because range 1-2 is a pretty big blind spot. I now disagree. I argue that Ion Cannon Battery is great on the fore section because you can wipe out shields on a single target with the primary weapon double-shot, and then follow up with a crit from the Ion Cannon Battery because they all have the exact same range. Putting a Single Turbolasers on the aft helps add additional damage potential if you catch a ship in the "sweet spot," and you can add either Quad Laser Cannons or Ion Cannon Battery to taste. Either way, Optimized Generators is my modification of choice for the Raider. It is very handy to power up that second shot with the Primary weapon.

Posted at

Thanks for the follow up

I have to ask.

Would automated protocol have helped in any way?

As much as I'd like the generators to have that extra energy, my experience (especially with the raider) is in epic play I eventually find myself in a position where I have to make a hard choice.

Do I reinforce, or recover

Now with automated protocol I can do both.

So do you think that may have made a difference

Too make up for energy I'm thinking 2 Tibanna gas supply.

Ya it's pretty rough, especially when your opponent is coming at ya with a herd of bwings, especially hlc ones at that

My buddy did same thing.

Though wasn't hlc bwings, he had 4 of them protected by Biggs.

Was pretty nasty.

Tie fighters can't joust bwings.

I'm thinking take the raider and come at them head on. Reinforce the front. Then once your close just keep regen shields and now that you broke his formation send in the swarm.

The loadout I'm thinking if using for our next game is

Fore

Ion Cannon

Engineer team

Tibanna gas

Aft

Tibanna gas

Ion Cannon

Quad laser

Weapon engineer

Instigator

Automated protocol

It's finding the right squad to escort it is where I'm having a hard time

You either go low ps and can have 8-10 ships but some will die before they get to shoot

Or

Go high ps ships but then your only going to have 6-8 and if you lose one seems like it hurts more

With so many ships arc dodgers, fel and others have a harder time avoiding.

Defender and firesprays are expensive.

A lot of ties seems the way to go, but even so, as you said they can die fast

I was thinking with my build I can get 8 ties and 2 advanced in there for 10 ships but is that enough against all those bwings?

It's definitely tough that is for sure

Edited by Krynn007
Posted at

Thanks for the follow up

I have to ask.

Would automated protocol have helped in any way?

As much as I'd like the generators to have that extra energy, my experience (especially with the raider) is in epic play I eventually find myself in a position where I have to make a hard choice.

Do I reinforce, or recover

Now with automated protocol I can do both.

So do you think that may have made a difference

The Raider was never attacked before we had to quit, so it's tough to say. Really I didn't need either modification, which probably borders on blasphemy. My thought about the modifications is that you have two options if you're going to fill out all the hardpoints: Optimized Generators for hardpoints, or Ordnance Tubes to replace some or all of them with missiles/torpedoes. If you're going the route of Automated Protocols, you will likely want to be focusing on Recover, which doesn't leave a lot of energy for weapons, so one hardpoint should remain empty. Just my opinion, and it's only been backed up by limited Epic play experience.

To make up for energy I'm thinking 2 Tibanna gas supply.

Unfortunately, Tibanna Gas Supplies is a Limited card, so only one can go on the Raider. Perhaps adding Shield Technician will help so you can keep 2 energy on your Raider card when you Recover, so you can use your second primary weapon attack. That puts you at 134 points.

It's finding the right squad to escort it is where I'm having a hard time

You either go low ps and can have 8-10 ships but some will die before they get to shoot

Or

Go high ps ships but then your only going to have 6-8 and if you lose one seems like it hurts more

With so many ships arc dodgers, fel and others have a harder time avoiding.

Defender and firesprays are expensive.

A lot of ties seems the way to go, but even so, as you said they can die fast

I was thinking with my build I can get 8 ties and 2 advanced in there for 10 ships but is that enough against all those bwings?

It's definitely tough that is for sure

My preference is Interceptors. I've played too many games where a few TIEs survive and just can't break through the CR90's reinforced section fast enough to keep it from recovering all its shields, and we're slowly whittled away into oblivion. So I have switched to interceptors for the extra attack die. With the Raider you posted above, you could fit 6 Saber Squadron Pilots with Push the Limit, and an Omicron Group Pilot with Intelligence Agent to help you figure out where aces might be going.

6x Saber Sq. Pilot + PtL = 144

Omicron Group Pilot + Intelligence Agent = 22

Raider = 134

300 TOTAL

My biggest problem with Push the Limit TIE interceptors is that they often end up stressed for no reason. If you don't know what to do, you Focus + Evade. Then only one of them gets focused down, and everybody else is stressed for no reason. However, Boost is really helpful for turning around and navigating the huge playing field, so Boost+Focus gets used a lot. You may not have 6 TIE interceptors, so maybe you'll need to balance it out with other ships. Each Saber is worth 2 Academy Pilots, so you could do 4 Saber Sq. Pilots and 4 Academy Pilots just for more shots and more health.