I am playing in an upcoming epic tournament and I am seeking advice on my list.

The caveats of this tournament are you must field at least 3-5 epic points and the overall list is capped at 300 points.

I am planning to run a gunboat raider list but I am unsure about a couple of the upgrades; specifically I am torn between captain Needa or WED repair droid , I am also unsure if I should run assault missiles on the fore section or an ion cannon battery. Any suggestions would be appreciated

Below is the list:

Raider-class Corvette (Fore) — Raider-class Corvette (Fore) 50

Ion Cannon Battery 6

Tibanna Gas Supplies 4

Ship Total :60

Raider-class Corvette (Aft) — Raider-class Corvette (Aft) 50

Weapons Engineer 3

Captain Needa 2

Homing Missiles 5

Homing Missiles 5

Sensor Team 4

Backup Shield Generator 3

Ordnance Tubes 5

Ship Total: 77

Gamma Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber 18

Extra Munitions 2

Homing Missiles 5

Guidance Chips 0

Ship Total: 25

Gamma Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber 18

Extra Munitions 2

Homing Missiles 5

Guidance Chips 0

Ship Total: 25

Scimitar Squadron Pilot — TIE Bomber 16

Homing Missiles 5

Guidance Chips 0

Ship Total: 21

Captain Jonus — TIE Bomber 22

Adaptability 0

Plasma Torpedoes 3

Guidance Chips 0

Ship Total: 25

"Howlrunner" — TIE Fighter 18

Swarm Tactics 2

Ship Total: 20

Academy Pilot — TIE Fighter 12

Ship Total: 12

Academy Pilot — TIE Fighter 12

Ship Total: 12

Academy Pilot — TIE Fighter 12

Ship Total: 12

Academy Pilot — TIE Fighter 12

Ship Total: 12

Wow. That's a whole lot of Homing Missiles. I'm torn because Homing Missiles do not force you to spend your lock, so I'm left to wonder what Captain Jonus' role is in this squad - you already get rerolls on your missiles. Now, it's true that he will be a primary target, so it's nice to have rerolls after he falls, but maybe that's not the optimal use of points. I'm interested in your thought process behind Jonus.

Grr! The weapon loadout question for the Raider is tough. I go back and forth all the time, because I don't think there is one right answer. With Ion Cannon Battery, you get to balance the need for energy and the need for target locks, so that's good. But do you put it on the front or the side? The nice thing about putting it on the front is that it overlaps perfectly with your primary weapon arc, allowing for three shots on one target. Same thing goes for the Homing Missiles on the side: the two of them could potentially smash the same target. On the other hand, it would be nice to have some range 4 capability on the flank, so there is value to switching one of the Homing Missiles with the Ion Cannon Battery. Eh, I think I like it the way you have it.

If you want Assault Missiles, maybe you could give it to the little Scimitar Sq. Pilot so that he becomes a threat, instead of just he Extra Munitions Gammas and Captain Jonus. If they shoot him down, great! That leave Jonus/Howlrunner alive another round. If not, great! You get the chance to do some serious splash damage to enemy forces. And if the opponent isn't bunched up, it's not like you wasted a slot on your Raider to get them in there.

I'm no TIE Bomber expert but I've used ordnance on the Raider. Homing Missiles mean the target can't spend evade tokens... If you're going up against an epic ship they don't have evade tokens so could be wasted. On the Raider I've found Ion Pulse missiles better as the ion drains epic ship energy and you get to keep the target lock for the other attacks. Also on an ordnance Raider watch out for Toryn Farr... my nemesis in epic!

4 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Wow. That's a whole lot of Homing Missiles. I'm torn because Homing Missiles do not force you to spend your lock, so I'm left to wonder what Captain Jonus' role is in this squad - you already get rerolls on your missiles. Now, it's true that he will be a primary target, so it's nice to have rerolls after he falls, but maybe that's not the optimal use of points. I'm interested in your thought process behind Jonus.

Grr! The weapon loadout question for the Raider is tough. I go back and forth all the time, because I don't think there is one right answer. With Ion Cannon Battery, you get to balance the need for energy and the need for target locks, so that's good. But do you put it on the front or the side? The nice thing about putting it on the front is that it overlaps perfectly with your primary weapon arc, allowing for three shots on one target. Same thing goes for the Homing Missiles on the side: the two of them could potentially smash the same target. On the other hand, it would be nice to have some range 4 capability on the flank, so there is value to switching one of the Homing Missiles with the Ion Cannon Battery. Eh, I think I like it the way you have it.

If you want Assault Missiles, maybe you could give it to the little Scimitar Sq. Pilot so that he becomes a threat, instead of just he Extra Munitions Gammas and Captain Jonus. If they shoot him down, great! That leave Jonus/Howlrunner alive another round. If not, great! You get the chance to do some serious splash damage to enemy forces. And if the opponent isn't bunched up, it's not like you wasted a slot on your Raider to get them in there.

Yea the Jonus call was a toss up, initially I was going to run an array of rockets/missiles to cover all ranges, so keeping Jonus near the raider was the plan, but as you pointed out he seems a bit redundant, I'm thinking I may change the bombers loadout to plasma torps instead since their only job is to cripple the capital ship, in that scenario I would keep Jonus in the lineup. I may also boost the scimitar squadron like you mentioned.

As for the ion battery I was initially concerned about energy management, since I won't have access to automated protocols I will likely be recovering quite a bit once the action starts, that coupled with spending energy to fire the Raiders primary again had me a bit worried, but the overlapping field of fire at range is very tempting.

2 hours ago, Sasajak said:

I'm no TIE Bomber expert but I've used ordnance on the Raider. Homing Missiles mean the target can't spend evade tokens... If you're going up against an epic ship they don't have evade tokens so could be wasted. On the Raider I've found Ion Pulse missiles better as the ion drains epic ship energy and you get to keep the target lock for the other attacks. Also on an ordnance Raider watch out for Toryn Farr... my nemesis in epic!

Yeah the original idea beat behind the homing missile's was to have the ability to modify the attacks with the target lock. However I am considering swapping out for plasma torpedoes and just sending Jonus which of the squad

I hadn't thought about ion pulse missiles, could definitely be interesting, and yea Toryn Farr is definitely a big concern ha