So my last post and reading through some others I have received some good advice and decided to re-tweak my raider build.

So please tell me what if anything I can do for improvement

What I'm really trying to do is find the best squad to escort the raider

Fore

Ion Cannon

Engineer team

Aft

Ion Cannon

Quad laser

Shield Tactician

Weapon engineer

Instigator title

Automated protocol

135 pts

I'd say it's not too much nor little upgrade wise

Now as for squad this is where I'm having a difficult time

In my last game my opponent had 4 bwings and Biggs along with a green pilot and Corran escort his Tantive.

With that in mind it'll likely be similar. I expect lots of bwings and Biggs.

So I'm trying to go for numbers

3x avenger squadron

4x Academy pilot

Lt colzet

Title

Fcs

Bounty hunter

Recon specialist

Gives me a total of 9 ships

5 of which are ps3, and 4 are ps1

So some will get to shoot before any ps2 b/ywing, and hopefully get that off the board.

I didn't include Howlrunner which is something I wonder if I should

She's always a huge target but those reroll would be nice

I've looked at having higher ps ships like fel or a Phantom but that reduces the amount of ships on the board

With the 3 interceptor and bounty hunter, I hope that maybe enough dice to kill something before it shoot

I'm open for suggestions.

Do you think this could handle a barrage from bwings and friends?

I'm pretty new at Epic but this actually worked out pretty well.... on my last build I slackened the Raider a bit, with Quads fore and aft as my only secondary weapons, but included Comms to use in tandem with a Stress Manatee (Yorr with Rebel Captive, HLC, and AC). This was a surprisingly good stress beast, considering the amount of stress the Raider could flush from the Albino Brahma with both packing some offensive punch at range. This meant the Raider cost 116 with the Alabaster Hippo soaking up another 37, leaving me with 147.

This gave me the opportunity to run a 3-element squad of Int Aces:

Soontir + RGT + PTL + TC + Hull: 35

Turr + RGT + PTL + TC + Hull: 33

Royal Guard Pilot + RGT + PTL + AT + Hull: 30

and another element with 4x Academy Pilots, leaving me with a 1-point initiative bid. I took my capital ships up the middle and brought in the two elements from opposite flanks. It took some planning to avoid the battering rams (enemy AND friendly) and I did lose an Academy pilot due to collision, but Fel and company were pretty good at stripping dice and skittering out of arcs. It went quite well, even with an opposing turret (apart from Leia's Escalade) on the board and was quite fun to fly!

What was your opponent flying?

You did give me another idea of how to set up the raider, but my concern is trying to take on 4 b, Biggs,ywing,Corran and a cr90

That's what my buddy used last time.

He melted my shuttle right away,

Not a bad idea though, I find it very hard for myself to run the raider with Anything less than 130 pts.

Especially with the new goodies from the gozanti

What was your opponent flying?

You did give me another idea of how to set up the raider, but my concern is trying to take on 4 b, Biggs,ywing,Corran and a cr90

That's what my buddy used last time.

He melted my shuttle right away,

Not a bad idea though, I find it very hard for myself to run the raider with Anything less than 130 pts.

Especially with the new goodies from the gozanti

I knew you were going to ask that! Should've kept a better record, but best I can recall, Leia's Escalade and the Rebel Minivan were the two capital ships, along with Outer Rim Smuggler, Poe, Luke, Bandit Z, a Knave E, and a gold Y. Managed to squash the E and the Y with the Raider. Poe, Luke, and the Z fell to a vice I set up with the Interceptors and the TIEs, and ORS fell to the Hippo and the Raider. Lost Soontir, the Royal Guard pilot, the Shuttle, and 3 TIEs when the dust settled, with both sections of the Raider still operational (although the Fore just barely hanging on).

I think what kept my Ivory Ox alive for a while was that I kept it either behind the Raider (so attacks were obstructed) or in a place where if my opponent tried to fly in to attack it ran the risk of getting squashed by the Raider. The shuttle was the soft underbelly of my strategy, but having a scary interceptor list raining red dice took a lot of the heat away from her. The crossfire from the movement of the TIEs and the Interceptors was a big key, especially since the ships left behind once they passed got spitted on the Raider's primary and/or run over.

Rebel minivan?

So your opponent had both the Tantive and transport?

My opponent likes to field as many tanky ships as possible.

So at least 4 bwings and he keeps Biggs close to them and then a ywing or two and Corran.

It's a lot of hull to chew through, and makes really short work of ties and anything with low agility (shuttle) or low hp.

Interceptors don't want to get caught in their arc, oh and I think he uses Roark, so the cr90 shoots on a 12

So this time I was considering going with ps3-4 ships, can still field a lot, and hopefully shoot before most of his, maybe get Biggs and a bwing off the board before they get to fire.

Either way no matter how I look at it, seems like a very tough battle for the squads.

I did try taking some upgrades off the raider, but I find I still want the title and automated protocol to help with recover and mitigate as much dmg as possible.

Also the gas supply because o know he'll go for the raider, so I'll need all the energy I cm get to keep our alive and hopefully keep it alive long enough till the squads can pick away at him or he goes for my squads and they can live long enough to let the raider do some dmg and not have to use all its energy on shields

Tonight I'm having a game in couple hours but we are just doing the campaign with the raider as we never played any missions from any of the sets.

Tomorrow I'll be having a epic game against the gozanti.

I'm expecting a lot if ties interceptors and advanced

Tomorrow game should give me a good idea where my squad stands.

It's the Rebel fleet I'm more concerned about