Epic Ships - What Cards do I need for regular play?

By neospike, in X-Wing

Hello fellow X-Wing fanatics,

I am new to the game, and have been purchasing a few of the smaller expansions because I simply cannot afford the huge epic ships. So my question is: what cards/upgrades that are in the Tantive IV/Rebel Transport/ Imperial Assault Ship/Imperial Raider would I need to benefit my smaller ships? All of the ones that are not specifically used for the epic ships.

Thank you for your help.

I bought the rebel transport purely for the Red sqn named T65 pilots and the 3 astromechs, R3A2, R5P9, and not forgetting R2D2. It's not too bad, I've seen several sales where it's been out for under £30, the cost of 2 smaller ships.

Edited by Grumpy54

It's worth saying that you don't need any of these. A lot of them are very strong, but it's certainly possible to make tons of strong squads using none of these cards.

Putting a # next to the ones that are so good that they see serious competitive use. Putting a & next to the ones that are fun/useful but not top-tier competitive. Only listing cards that are exclusively found in Huge ship expansions.

  • Rebel Transport:
    • #R5-P9 (good for Poe)
    • #R3-A2 (Stresshog/stressarcs)
    • #R4-D6 (used on Biggs and no one else)
    • #Wes Janson
    • &Jek Porkins
    • &Hobbie Klivian
    • &Tarn Mison
  • Tantive IV:
    • Leia Organa
    • &R2-D2 (Crew)
    • #C-3P0
    • &Han Solo (maybe good on the VCX-100 with FCS, not sure if competitive though)
  • Imperial Raider
    • #Emperor Palpatine
    • #Advanced Targeting Computer
    • #TIE/x1
    • &Juno Eclipse
    • &Zertik Strom
    • &Comander Alozen
    • &Lieutenant Colzet
  • Imperial Assault Carrier / Gozanti
    • &Scourge
    • &Youngster
    • #Wampa
    • &Chaser
    • #Agent Kallus (Whisper and Echo's best friend)

That's all of them.

Edited by EdgeOfDreams

See EdgeOfDreams' comment for the breakdown, but I would add that you really don't need these to play. For casual games, just proxy the cards - much simpler to do.

If you have any tournaments going on in your area where you want to run one of these, ask around your group - someone will have bought the epic ships and might be happy for you to borrow them. I do this all the time, I have a fairly small collection so I often need to borrow a card or two for a list I make using a squad builder.

Putting a & next to the ones that are fun/useful but not top-tier competitive. Only listing cards that are exclusively found in Huge ship expansions.

  • Tantive IV:
    • Leia Organa

I like that you gave the "&" symbol to everything but Princess Leia.

Sick princess burn.

Putting a & next to the ones that are fun/useful but not top-tier competitive. Only listing cards that are exclusively found in Huge ship expansions.

  • Tantive IV:
    • Leia Organa

I like that you gave the "&" symbol to everything but Princess Leia.

Sick princess burn.

Hah, true. I actually was somewhat surprised by that myself. I was expecting there to be more that would get neither symbol, but there's actually just not that many non-Epic cards that are exclusively in Huge ship packs. Han would have been rated the same as Leia a year ago, but now he at least has a home on FCS Ghosts. I also marked almost all of the pilots with & because none of them are just flat-out bad, even if they're not competitive.

Hello fellow X-Wing fanatics,

I am new to the game, and have been purchasing a few of the smaller expansions because I simply cannot afford the huge epic ships. So my question is: what cards/upgrades that are in the Tantive IV/Rebel Transport/ Imperial Assault Ship/Imperial Raider would I need to benefit my smaller ships? All of the ones that are not specifically used for the epic ships.

Thank you for your help.

The Rebel Transport expansion comes with a large collection of really awesome and for some list really essential cards:

Mainly the stress hog R3-A2,

the essential mech for our beloved standard Biggs: R4-D6,

our beloved Wes Janson X-Wing Pilot. All part in a lot of the current Tier 1 Rebel lists, especially Biggs, Wes + X

Oh and naturally Poes best friend R5-P9, the base for Rebels double or triple regen list. Currently kicked out of the meta by triple scouts, but still rather fun. If fun is defined by making your opponent cry about your ability to negate all damage ^_^

Furthermore two more situational good X-Wing Pilots in form of Klivian and Tarn Mison.

So that expansion is really strong and brings a lot to the table for a small amount of money, especially as the transport is cool in epic play and missions and the expansion comes with one X-Wing as well.

For Tantive IV expansion it is basically just C3PO and that card was handed out a lot in tournament kits, which means buying a second hand one should be reasonably cheap. Though the model is cool and the campaign is a good reason to play with it too. So there is some value outside of standard epic play.

The imperial gozanti expansion comes with two TIE-Fighter Models, Wampa and Youngster are interesting pilots, especially Wampa, furthermore can Agent Kallus really enhance some 100 point standard-play lists. Not the same level of usefulness as the rebel transport, but still decent value for standard play I would guess, especially as the two two tie-fighter are basically half the price of the expansion and the ship comes with tons of interesting upgrades for epic play.

Lastly the Imperial Raider has the fixes for the TIE/Advanced fighters, comes with one as well, adds Juno Eclipse as Pilot (a fan favorite) and brings Palpatine to the table. The model is nice, the campaign is awesome, Palpatine, well it Palpatine one of the most dominating imperial archetypes is build around him. Palp aces are a lot of fun to fly, even when not everyone agrees that it is as much fun to fly against.

The big thing about the raider is that you get 4x Advanced Targeting Computer and 4x the TIE/x1 Title, meaning you can fix up to 4 TIE-Advance into something remotely competitive. This increase the card value dramatically as you can always sell three of those cards on the aftermarket, keep Palpatine for yourself and basically halving the price raider expansion for you. The model itself is the least expensive part of the expansion even its resale value is rather low as the cards are so useful for standard play.

Edited by SEApocalypse

In my novice, fun-loving, casual flying opinion, you'll need this sleeper ship. Located within Rebel Transport for the gambling joust master:

E5E80523-CA1F-457D-B898-46088C159DC6.png

I've always k-turned him and kept him in the fight and always removed the stress and have never suffered damage. Everyone laughs as Portkins gets his revenge. He has even jousted Soontir and won, beer in hand.

Edited by clanofwolves

Thanks for the responses, folks.

*technically* you dont need any huge ship cards to play. But if anything is mandatory for fun play it would be the Gozanti and the Transport because they give you a bunch of pilots that are fun to mess with. The CR90 doesnt give you any new pilots (which i find odd) and the Raider technically gives you a really good one (Juno) but i seldom see anything other than Vader in that ship anyway. Even in fun lists.

Wow. I forgot how many of the best cards I have came in those huge ships. So that's where all my money went...

R5-P9, R3-A2, Palpatine, Kallus, the TIE advanced fix... All those cards are pretty much essential for the current metagame. It always makes me sad when people talk about buying the raider just to get the emperor, but it definitely happens... The emperor is worth $40 on eBay just for the one card!

Huge ships might cost a lot of money but if you look at the cost of buying 150-200 points of ships through expansions you might find that huge ships will cost less money for 200 points.

But if you are looking only for Standard than I would say just go with what faction you are playing first (sorry scum) and here is the ranking in order of huge ships for standard.

  1. Raider
  2. Rebel Transport
  3. Gozanti
  4. Tantive IV

So if playing imperial then pick up the Raider first. Sure it is the most expensive huge ship but it has the most for standard play with the TIE advanced fix and most of all Emperor Palpatine. If you play Rebels then the Rebel Transport should be your first buy. If you are playing scum then just play scum. There are no huge ships for scum as of yet.

But if you happen to get the rebel transport and what to try what a scum ship might look like. Well HERE is a shameless plug for house rules using the rebel transport as a huge scum ship.

Edited by Marinealver

So silly, buy them all and play Epic.

Edited by rilesman