I'm currently trying to organise a Team Epic tournament and it made me revisit the Epic mode, more particularily the Gozanti combined with the new tools from Imperial Veterans.

First, here is what is needed:

-Gozanti Cruiser with Dual Laser Turret, Docking Clamps, Ordnance Experts and Vector title (to deploy 4 ships instead of 2)

-Captain Jonus with Tie Shuttle title, Twin Ion Engine MkII, Systems Officer, Fleet Officer

-2x Gamma Squadron Veteran with Deadeye, Homing Missiles, Guidance Chips

-Gamma Squadron Veteran with Crack Shot, Plasma Torpedoes, Guidance Chips

153 pts, then use more to continue equiping ship with Extra munitions, other ordnance, some crew on the Gozanti, etc

Here is how you deploy. The idea is to first get both Gamma Veteran with Deadeye out first and then make them do a barrel roll in each direction. Then you get the Gamma Veteran with Crackshot out and take a Focus with it. As an exemple, here's what it would look like with a bank 3 maneuver:

Then, you get Jonus out by doing a maneuver 2 speed lower, which should be green thanks to TIE MkII. By doing a green maneuver, you can then give a free TL to the third Gamma Squadron (the one that already have a Focus), then as your action, you use Fleet Officer and give one Focus to both Gamma with Deadeye. It will look like this:

Every ship is now in range one of Jonus (Gozanti included) and can benefit from his two reroll. Then it's up to you with which Bomber you start attacking. You could start with the central one with the Plasma Torpedoes and Crackshot to strip the shields and hopefully get rid of a token or two. Both bombers with deadeye will keep their Focus if they shoot a Homing Missile, so in practice, every Bomber will have a Focus, 2 dice reroll thanks to Jonus, and Guidance Chips. That should give you very good odds to get your 4 hits for each attack.

If you decide to deploy with a Hard 3, here is what it would look like. You would have to still do a bank 1 with Jonus, but next turn by doing a straight 1 with each bomber and a bank 1 with Jonus, you'll be back in formation.

It cost a lot, but there is not a lot of thing that can survive that Bombing run. And since they deploy during the Epic ship maneuver, you just can't arc dodge it They'll have their shot and there is nothing you can do about it.

This is delicious. I love it!

" ...no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force. "

(HvMtE)

With that much tie'd up (sic) in the package, is there space for a bit more to be spent on defensive measures?

- - -

Ordinance Experts for even more offensive buff...?

Nice.

I couldnt quite deploy that way because of a rock but i did something similar with 4 Black TIEs with Juke. They hit Dengar pretty **** hard

" ...beyond the first contact with the main hostile force, or asteroids. "

For more Gozanti ideas...

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/203292-gozanti-a-deadly-behemoth/

" ...no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force. "

(HvMtE)

With that much tie'd up (sic) in the package, is there space for a bit more to be spent on defensive measures?

- - -

Ordinance Experts for even more offensive buff...?

Ordnance Experts does sound nice indeed!

Yeah, I'd see you performing the "Red Castle Gambit", then the Goz turtles up with shield buff's and trundles along after the Bombers giving out Ordinance advice and steam-rolling any non-huge ship that tries to get behind it's lil' hatchlings.

Yeah, I'd see you performing the "Red Castle Gambit", then the Goz turtles up with shield buff's and trundles along after the Bombers giving out Ordinance advice and steam-rolling any non-huge ship that tries to get behind it's lil' hatchlings.

The beautiful thing of this strike is that just those three bombers can take a full health reinforced Front Corvette to 2 Hull, crit non-included. If you can time your strike properly and bring one or two more ship with PS5+, you could technically cripple it before it even got a chance to shoot. Of course, nothing ever goes according to plan, but I love to theorycraft.

This list, plus two more Goz tooled up with Ord Toobz, and whatever small-base ship(s) fit in the remaining points, would be fun.

@Red Castle: So correct me if I'm wrong: what you listed is the bare minimum to get it working, and it comes out to 153 points? That leaves almost half a squad to fill out in an Epic 300 point squad! That's amazing! You could just drop a block of TIE fighters in there and watch your opponent sweat. I'm sure there are other fun ideas to be had.

How much more would you feel comfortable upgrading those five ships? Extra Munitions on each of the Gamma Vets? Grand Moff Tarkin to steal a focus token from a target enemy ship? That's 12 points right there, so you have to ask yourself if that's worth an Academy Pilot (what is an Academy Pilot worth in Epic play anyway?)

@Red Castle: So correct me if I'm wrong: what you listed is the bare minimum to get it working, and it comes out to 153 points? That leaves almost half a squad to fill out in an Epic 300 point squad! That's amazing! You could just drop a block of TIE fighters in there and watch your opponent sweat. I'm sure there are other fun ideas to be had.

How much more would you feel comfortable upgrading those five ships? Extra Munitions on each of the Gamma Vets? Grand Moff Tarkin to steal a focus token from a target enemy ship? That's 12 points right there, so you have to ask yourself if that's worth an Academy Pilot (what is an Academy Pilot worth in Epic play anyway?)

Yup, 153 pts is the minimum, if you consider that Ordnance Experts is a must.

How I would continue to equip them. Extra Munition is pretty much a must have on the Bombers, 6 points to allow them a second strike is very cheap. Then I would probably give Crackshot to Jonus, so that he can also play his part. So that's 7 points for the Bombers. For the Gozanti, I would probably give it Automated Protocols to give it a second action that he could use to give a second action to Jonus. And I like the idea of Tarkin helping the strike by taking a focus from the target, or giving one to Jonus. (That makes me realise that by taking Automated Protocols, Tarkin and Crackshot on Jonus, it effectively gives me good odds of crippling the reinforced front part of a Corvette before it even have a chance to fire Jonus 2 dice with Focus+TL+Crackshot have pretty good odds of pushing the 2 damage missing. Very interesting!) and probably a shield Technician for 1 point. So that's 19 more points for a total of 172, leaving 138 pts to fill the fleet as you wish.

Why not using Rear Admiral Chirenau or Engine Boosters, to release the 4 bombers anyways, and upgrade Vector to Requiem, so your alpha strike hits at 8 pilot skill, instead of 4...?

Why not using Rear Admiral Chirenau or Engine Boosters, to release the 4 bombers anyways, and upgrade Vector to Requiem, so your alpha strike hits at 8 pilot skill, instead of 4...?

1- this technique is about deploying all at once in formation, not break it into two deployment.

2- The Alpha strike is actually PS5 (Gamma Squadron Veteran), I just didn't change the base for the exemple.

3- Your suggestion cost 5 more points and a crew or cargo slot, in my opinion not worth it to gain 3 PS but breaking the formation in the process.

But that's my opinion, feel free to do it how you please.

THis is a great post Red, thanks for sharing your idea. I've been using my Goza to deliver crack ties on the main, but was thinking of going bomber for my next epic game. I'll bear your formation tips in mind, and they won't know what hit them

THis is a great post Red, thanks for sharing your idea. I've been using my Goza to deliver crack ties on the main, but was thinking of going bomber for my next epic game. I'll bear your formation tips in mind, and they won't know what hit them

If you do use something like this, please tell me how it went. This is only musing from a guy with a scotch, I'm not sure how it will fare in practice.

I'll report back! I do suspect that it'll make the Goza a big target though, could be a dangerous mission!

I'll probably play something like this...

Gozanti-class Cruiser (61)
Gozanti-Class Cruiser (40), Weapons Engineer (3), Construction Droid (3), Dual Laser Turret (5), Engine Booster (3), Docking Clamps (0), Vector (2), Optimised Generators (5)

Gamma Squadron Veteran (25)
TIE Bomber (19), Deadeye (1), Extra Munitions (2), Ion Pulse Missiles (3), Guidance Chips (0)

Gamma Squadron Veteran (27) x 2
TIE Bomber (19), Deadeye (1), Extra Munitions (2), Homing Missiles (5), Guidance Chips (0)

Captain Jonus (27)
TIE Bomber (22), TIE Shuttle (0), Crack Shot (1), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1), Fleet Officer (3)

Excellent, exactly what I was trying out lately.

Other than capital ships do you find anything else requires that much love? I was using a similar list but I dropped two of the bombers as i was ending up with no targets left before all the bombers got to shoot!!

"...no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force."

(HvMtE)

I believe HvMtE stole this idea from the brilliant tactician Mike Tyson when he said "Everyone has a plan til they get punched in the mouth.”

aaaaaaaaaaaaand stolen

been playing some epic and it is really hard to get that deployment going because of ship placement or rock placement, or even just to get the right target in the right range.

Also gets wrecked pretty hard against a PS8 raider.. **** decoy from howlrunner! (on top of giving the raider a reroll on its 1 or 2 primary attacks t_t

" ...no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force. "

(HvMtE)

With that much tie'd up (sic) in the package, is there space for a bit more to be spent on defensive measures?

- - -

Ordinance Experts for even more offensive buff...?

Ordnance Experts does sound nice indeed!

5 points for a once per round effect when you already have guidance chips, a reroll, and a focus token?

No

Exactly what I had in mind when I picked up my Gozanti!

(Actually, what I had in mind was "Holy crap, only $30!? That's cheaper than Most Wanted!)