Hi Guys,

The tournament is on Saturday so of course I'm doubting all of my choices and engaging in last minute tweaks.

Here's my list right now: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/636939/epic-2

What's up for change: I'm considering dropping down one of the GSPs to a prototype so I can give the remaining 2 GSPs autothrusters for better survivability.

The other item for consideration is dropping comms boosters in favor of cluster bombs, or gunnery team.

Comms Booster is nice for removing stress and/or giving a free focus action so I like it in theory

Because my CR-90 build has no short range capability, I was thinking the cluster bombs might be a nasty treat for any TIE swarm that closes into range 1.

Gunnery Team is the other option that might be useful for pushing damage through, but M9-G8 will give me 1 re-roll and Han will also help. Gunnery Team is the least favorite of my tweaks so unless everyone tells me I'm crazy for leaving them off they will probably not replace Comms Booster.

And the other option I'm considering is dropping a GSP altogether so I can add auto thrusters on the other two, and putting more ordinance in the list and/or another battery on the CR-90.

I'm leery of flying only 6 ships as escort, but is the difference between 6 and 7 that significant?

Help me FFG forum you're my only hope.

Epic is so hard to build for because there is no Meta so to speak.

I've flown against Ace's and I've flown against swarms.... It's hard to decide what to field to be effective....

your Hobbie build is a little strange... it deals stress but cannot take target locks unless your CR90 is handing out coordinate actions...Id see if I could swap in Wes, who could be effective against defenders.

R3 on Biggs is also kinda strange...

I like your Corvette build, but I would swap out Han for Toryn Farr, enemy ordnance carriers get disabled, defenders get punished. Its a good time.

Jess Pava probably won't be able to use swarm leader effectively. I understand the idea... I'd swap for Nein personally. he's a beast

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/636939/epic-2

edit: forgot to swap Hobbies droid for Targeting Astro

Changed a few things around overall, some different rebel synergies that will be a bit more effective I think.

Thanks for checking out the list:

Hobbie like R3-A2 because he takes as his action TL, then he gets stress from stressbot, shoots at his enemy, uses TL sheds stress.

The Jess swarm leader build is kind of the heart of my list so I'm going to give it a chance. R3 on Biggs is to get another evade token for the swarm leader.

So, while I thank you for your suggestions, I want to keep most of the list. What's at stake is 1) dropping a GSP to prototype to get autothrusters, 2) dropping Comms Booster for either Cluster Bombs or Gunnery Team, and 3) dropping one GSP altogether to beef up ordinance in the list and the CR-90.

Given those parameters, what would you do?

Additional gun on the CR90 > Autothrusters > Cluster bombs/Gunnery team

would be my priority.

How does this look?

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/641622/epic-3

My only concern is that once Jess is able to fire that the A's will have needed to use their evades to live. Otherwise pretty good based on your concept.

You're flying a CR-90, which is your first problem. Two weeks ago I played against a very similar one, and my 4 PTL Royal Guard TIEs (100 points) flanked and killed it in 3 turns. The thing did a total of four or so damage. I'd go with a Homing missile ordnance CR-90 with Toryn Farr, or replace the thing with a swarm, otherwise you won't get your points worth before it inevitably goes down.

Your escort is fantastic, barring one thing: you Biggs will die too quickly. In epic there is the opportunity to make him near-invulnerable. I'd swap out Tarn for Sabine (shuttle) with Jyn, Autoblaster and Crack Shot. That way you feed Biggs 3 focus tokens to help in that first engagement. If you can negate your opponent's entire first round of fire then you're golden.

I love the A-wings though. If I had the cards I'd field 10 of them and Biggs...

Which escort, the two or Three A wing list?

Here's the breakdown:

1 Snap-A is alright, but it's too small to make a good blocker by itself.
2 Snap-As is great for blocking, because 2 small bases covers about the area of 3 when done right.
3 Snap-As is technically better at blocking, but if you can't block a ship with 2 blockers then it's not worth trying. 3 is also too small for a swarm, so it's an odd spot.
4 Snap-As is the beginigs of a swarm, and about the smallest force I'd use for that purpose.

As such, 2 Snap Shot A-wings are great if your intent is to use them as blockers and mini-jousters (albiet throwing up to 5 dice per turn), whereas you really need 4 or more if you want the swarm effect.

Thanks!

I love the suggestions I've seen so far. Looks like your squad is moving in the right direction. My only concern is the energy consumption on the CR90. Repair droid, Toryn Farr, and Engine Booster are all potentially using energy, making it difficult to keep powering the weapons. True, you don't have to use them every round. The mere presence of Toryn Farr could adversely affect your opponent's flight plan...or just paint a big bulls eye on your CR90. Eh...I'm going back and forth about Toryn and Booster. You know what, with Tibanna Gas Supplies you'll probably be fine. I tend to play the long game, with the expectation that my huge ship won't die, but as long as it takes out a good chunk of the opponent's force, that's a win. Just remember that Tibanna Gas Supplies happens after you allocate your energy, so while it's good for Toryn Farr and WED-15 Repair Droid, it won't help you get weapons powered during the round you use it. Maybe you already knew that, but I just wanted to throw that out there.

The other thing I would caution you to have a plan for is that many squads will play the PS game with PS 5-7 ships to shoot before your CR90 (and most of the rest of your squad). If you make good use of your A-wing blockers, it should turn out alright, but just be aware that you're likely to run into that kind of squad (6 Royal Guards, or 4 Glaive Sq. Pilots, etc.).

Thanks for the help guys. I'm now thinking about Tantive title with Han and Jan Ors with Comms Booster so I can keep feeding evade tokens to Biggs and then when he goes down to Hobbie and/or Tarn.

I like the idea of Toryn though so I'll tinker a bit but I'm now pretty settled on 6 fighters so I should have points to play with on CR-90. I think the first round of fire from it should put a damper on my opponent's epic ships.

This is going to be fun either way I'm going to be playing Epic!

Thanks for the help guys. I'm now thinking about Tantive title with Han and Jan Ors with Comms Booster so I can keep feeding evade tokens to Biggs and then when he goes down to Hobbie and/or Tarn.

I like the idea of Toryn though so I'll tinker a bit but I'm now pretty settled on 6 fighters so I should have points to play with on CR-90. I think the first round of fire from it should put a damper on my opponent's epic ships.

This is going to be fun either way I'm going to be playing Epic!

Double post

Well the list went 1 win 1 loss. I immensely enjoyed playing epic. I think Epic is much better than 100 point death matches, but two games in a row was a bit much by the end.

The best part was I got to play along with my son, which was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

Han did not pull his weight, and nor did Jan. Also I'm going to kick the WED droid out of the airlock for the next time.

I did enjoy all the firepower in the first two rounds of shooting, but my next Corvette build will be more minimal. Ion batteries were better in my opinion than single turbo lasers.

The Jess swarm was very destructive while it held together but after the ships broke formation the EPT was wasted points but her reroll ability was great, it triggered for multiple dice just a about every round. So she stays.

M9-G8 was great when I remembered. R3 not total garbage and I might use it on Biggs in Epic again.

Ion torpedo worked but I'm not sure it was worth the points.

I can't wait to play Epic again.

Great to hear you had fun. Wish I could have made it, but I was spending time with the kids (assuming it was the same tournament - how many stores wotldwide do you think would have Epic tournaments on the same day?) Only two rounds, huh? Sounds like GenCon all over again.

The kinds of conclusions you drew regarding your squad and CR90 Loadout couldn't have been expressed accurately before your matches - it's something you have to experience for youtself. That also makes it a bit subjective. For example, I've heard that Han is invaluable on a CR90, so it's interesting your opinion differs. I've never used him before. Always figure the TL will be used to reroll at least one blank anyway.

So what did you face? If you had lost both games, do you think you'd still assert that epic is better than standard?

I'm fairly certain I played you in the final round ha,

I definitely gleaned a bit more about epic builds after today, and will likely make some minor tweaks to my list as well. I agree about the repair droid, I didn't use it one time, sounds good in theory but somewhat useless in practice.

Did you field Toryn Farr in the end? She is my nemesis in Epic. Played against her many times and yesterday I even built a Toryn resistant list and she still caused havoc doing something every turn. Never underestimate a GR75 with her on! Still running over an X-wing and E-wing with the Gozanti made me feel better.

I didn't use Toryn. I thought her energy use on an already energy hungry ship wouldn't be good. I used Han - who underwhelmed maybe because I had 4 attacks and after spending TL once he was not useful anymore. Jan was marginally useful for my swarm leader build. The WED droid is nice in theory but requiring an action and eating energy he never saw use. By the time you need him its probably too late.

I totally loved both games though! Both were thematic (fought raiders each time) and with so many targets you get to enjoy killing enemy ships even if you lose. It was the opposite of a 0-100 tabling in a regular death match. In the second match we (my son and I) got to stop a squadron of bombers from delivering their payload. (Sadly we didn't stop the TIEs from killing the Tantive).

8 hours ago, C5Z said:

I'm fairly certain I played you in the final round ha,

I definitely gleaned a bit more about epic builds after today, and will likely make some minor tweaks to my list as well. I agree about the repair droid, I didn't use it one time, sounds good in theory but somewhat useless in practice.

You guys were great to play!