Maaaaaaaaaaaaaan, now I want to outfit my ISD with a drop pod and a few Marauders.

We can't! The fandoms can't repel awesomeness of that magnitude!

"Sir! Imperial Walkers!"

"What model?"

"Two legs, but...taller...I think it has a canno-"

*ERPPC Noise*

I love these little ships. They represent a previously unseen ability for Imperial fleets to spread their threat equally across numerous targets rather than putting all the eggs in one big, triangular basket. Presently I'm running a GRGRG list that I can't get enough of.

First of all, add Ordnance Experts. There's no reason not to have Ordnance Experts on a Raider-I.

Now, you've realized their big weakness already: they go pop.

Survival for a Raider is entirely a matter of maneuverability and positioning, and I find their best admiral to be Ozzel for this reason. An Ozzel'd Raider can launch out at speed 4, staying well out of range of significant return fire, slow down to 2 and pull a 90 degree turn, then speed back up to four to close the distance on an enemy flank.

Running a Raider wide like this both keeps them alive, and forces your opponent to modify their maneuvering based on the hovering threat. If they ignore a Raider with Expanded Launchers (Honestly, even if they ignore a basic R-I with Ord Experts) they are in for a world of hurt when that undamaged little thorn comes back at the worst possible moment to bleed them dry.

Another good way to keep them from dying too quickly is to run them in pairs, and make sure their attack run is timed with another ship.

Give your opponent one big ship and two small meanies to choose from, instead of one vulnerable ship. This game is all about choices. Try to give your opponent decisions that YOU wouldn't want to make.

Been doing this same thing with CR-90 and or Neb-Bs since my 2nd game. Its works. your basically using the bigger ship as a red cape and the smaller faster ships are the sword fighting the bull known as a star destroyer.

But... but... a Raider with Expanded Launchers is as much as a naked Glad I which is just better in... like... every way!

But a Glad I is 20,000% Less Cruise-Missile-y

This might be the best thing you have ever said.

But... but... a Raider with Expanded Launchers is as much as a naked Glad I which is just better in... like... every way!

But a Glad I is 20,000% Less Cruise-Missile-y

This might be the best thing you have ever said.

It's also terribly accurate. An indecent Raider is faster and more maneuverable than an exhibitionist Gladiator, which makes one especially well suited to poking holes in people.

But... but... a Raider with Expanded Launchers is as much as a naked Glad I which is just better in... like... every way!

I started off running my one Raider-I (from Sullust) with Expanded Launchers and it's a very win-big-lose-big kind of configuration. I've come around to feeling like Raider-I+Ordnance Experts is all you need (and it allows you to run more total Raiders) most of the time. I will say that the one advantage Raiders have over Gladiators is the blue dice. Being able to quasi-reliably lock down Brace can be a very unpleasant surprise for enemy ships who are taking a big salvo right to the dome.

Has anyone thought of mottie with raiders? Do people find it helpful at all? I mean, going from 4 to 5 health is a 25% increase...

It's not very useful. The one extra HP is often redundant (as in it is rare that the single extra hull actually saves the Raider from destruction). Motti is better with larger ships. I like Ozzel, Screed, and Vader best with Raiders. You can do some weird shenanigans with Tarkin (Raider-1+Expanded Hangar Bays+Tarkin for Squadron token = activate 3 squadrons each Squadron command), though.

The difficulty of maneuvering the Raider, combined with the necessity of it, is the drawback of the ship itself. It's very much a finesse weapon that you have to expect to see die horribly many times before you start really understanding all the places you can put it.

Agreed on the shocking amount of damage they can do.

In fact, I've started leaving Expanded Launchers at home and just taking multiples of Raider-Is with Ord Experts.

People CONSTANTLY underestimate the front arc of the Raider-I, but its seen more MC80s off than I care to count. Two black and two blue with a re-roll and a concentrate fire goes as such: Roll dice pool, if you roll an accuracy, add a black die, if you don't, add a blue die. Re-roll any blank black dice.

Roll this combo a few times at home, and it'll start to become apparent that the Raider can dish out black eyes pretty handily.

I just wanted to quote to note how overwhelmingly I agree with you.