As we all know, in Epic play you can field named pilots who need more numerous squads to work that those available in a 100 pts environment.

Obvious, Captain Jonus is one of them. Allies at range 1 may reroll up to 2 Reds while firing secondaries. No idea if some FAQ límited him modifying Huge Ship's weapons. In my group we simply house ruled that only Large or Small after some "abuses" (or smart squad building).

This morning busy playing half of a 700 pts game. 3 CR 90 Rebel side, 2 Raiders and a Jonus Squad Imp side. Plus a pletora of small ships to furball in a Scenario depicting the rescue of Leía (last two Rebellion games saw her captured and once turned to the Dark Side). Jonus plus 3 Gamma Vets. LRS to all. Plasma Torps, Clusters and EM. EPTs to enhance their defence and avoid crackswarms.

Just a pleasure to watch that 4 Tie Bombers flying in square formation, firing their weapons with devastating results. EM Emitter protected them while aproaching one CR 90. The Raider with the EM device obstructed fire against the bombers while TL the Corbette. Then attack run to launch Focused Clusters at rng 2 and Plasmas at rng 3 (2 each). Cheap Academy Ties to disrupt the interception vectors of X wings against the Bombers... Concentrated Raider plus Bomber attacks and the CR 90 exploded like HMS Hood.

Firing Plasma Torps or Clusters with Focus plus 2 rerolls vs a (Reinforced) 0 Agi target is simply devastating. And fun.

Jonus works on all Secondary Weapons. This includes the hardpoints on the Epic ships!

As far as Epic gunships go so far each faction has their go to crew and go to pilot for Epic.

For Crew Rebels have Han Solo when combined with Weapons Engineer, Imperial have Darth Vader which can tag interceptors at range 4 and 5 regardless if they hit or not. Scum have Zuckuss which makes opponent reroll all evades (or focus if so desired) results.

For go to pilots. Imperials have the aforementioned Capetian Jonus to get rerolls on hardpoints. For Rebels there is Esege Tuketu depending on who you ask as there is arguments over both ways and FFQ hasn't made this clear despite emails from FFG devs shared on the forum and prompt rebuttals from the opposing party. Scumm is a little bit trickier, not much for dice modification as of yet. You have Latss Ratzi for reducing enemy agility. You can use IG88-A and D<crew> to gain shields every time you destroy a ship. Maybe one of the scyk pilots could act as the helper pilot for scum large ships. Still we have at least on mroe scum huge ship to act as the counterpart for the CR-90 and raider.

Bomber formation and fighter tactics sound awesome, but imagine all that glorious firepower being unleashed by a gozanti right into the fur ball...

9 hours ago, StevenO said:

Jonus works on all Secondary Weapons. This includes the hardpoints on the Epic ships!

Yes I know. As said we simply nerfed it because the idea of a super fire director flying in a small ship between 2 Raiders to maximice their fire was...weird to our taste. As a game mechanic this is a superb combo. But I do not think FFG was thinking about Epic while releasing wave 2.

5 hours ago, Hexdot said:

Yes I know. As said we simply nerfed it because the idea of a super fire director flying in a small ship between 2 Raiders to maximice their fire was...weird to our taste. As a game mechanic this is a superb combo. But I do not think FFG was thinking about Epic while releasing wave 2.

I agree it's kind of weird at first. Though in my mind I justified it that there are ways even today to spot for for Target Lock for other craft. Honestly though I would have preferred the the craft giving the bonus be in the firing arc. Hanging on in the engine wash and providing support, target locks, re-rolls etc seems very lame.

For example if Jonus is allowing rerolls, then Jonus should be in the arc of the weapon which is firing. Haven't tried this though. It can still give a huge benefit but also puts him at risk.

10 hours ago, Yoda Man said:

Bomber formation and fighter tactics sound awesome, but imagine all that glorious firepower being unleashed by a gozanti right into the fur ball...

It's actually pretty fun when you set up scenarios or missions like this. I say each ship has to have at least 3 ships of that type and they all fly together. It makes it a really cool game. I had the CR-90 attack a home built space station once. The Rebels got 3 Y-wings with torps, 3 A-wings for intercept, and 3 X-wings with torps. The Imperials got 3 Tie Bombers for ordnance, 3 Tie Interceptors for interception, and 4 Tie Fighters for general purpose fighters. It's a fun game when you play it that way.

7 hours ago, Hexdot said:

Yes I know. As said we simply nerfed it because the idea of a super fire director flying in a small ship between 2 Raiders to maximice their fire was...weird to our taste. As a game mechanic this is a superb combo. But I do not think FFG was thinking about Epic while releasing wave 2.

Oh, and awesome that you did it that way. I hate when game mechanics get in the way of a good story.

57 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

It's actually pretty fun when you set up scenarios or missions like this. I say each ship has to have at least 3 ships of that type and they all fly together. It makes it a really cool game. I had the CR-90 attack a home built space station once. The Rebels got 3 Y-wings with torps, 3 A-wings for intercept, and 3 X-wings with torps. The Imperials got 3 Tie Bombers for ordnance, 3 Tie Interceptors for interception, and 4 Tie Fighters for general purpose fighters. It's a fun game when you play it that way.

Really, I always thought two (2) or four (4) was good. Never even thought of three.

1 minute ago, Ken at Sunrise said:

Really, I always thought two (2) or four (4) was good. Never even thought of three.

I only have 3 of some ships, so I thought I'd try it. It works pretty well, in my opinion. 3 seems enough like an organized squad. It's enough points without being too crazy or too few.

A bomber is easily enough dealt with. He's kind of a Biggs for the Empire in Epic scenarios. You need to take him out and that's ok.

7 hours ago, Ken at Sunrise said:

I agree it's kind of weird at first. Though in my mind I justified it that there are ways even today to spot for for Target Lock for other craft. Honestly though I would have preferred the the craft giving the bonus be in the firing arc. Hanging on in the engine wash and providing support, target locks, re-rolls etc seems very lame.

For example if Jonus is allowing rerolls, then Jonus should be in the arc of the weapon which is firing. Haven't tried this though. It can still give a huge benefit but also puts him at risk.

I keep using Jonus and frustrating myself that he always seems to be in the way of what I want my Raider to do. Obviously , just bad flying. And I "storyline" justify him by making his ship a TIE Shuttle. Plus, I add a Systems Officer since Jonus has to stay in the neighborhood anyways--hand the TL to the Raider, and the raider can spend its actions on other things.

OTOH, one of the prize moments of our 600 point per side game last night was a TIE Bomber jumping off the hooks of a Gozanti and putting a plasma torp in the fore of the opposing CR-90. My Raider was there within range 2 with Jonus's help and finished the bow off with her quad cannons in a full bore broadside. Magnificent!

4 hours ago, heychadwick said:

I only have 3 of some ships, so I thought I'd try it. It works pretty well, in my opinion. 3 seems enough like an organized squad. It's enough points without being too crazy or too few.

Vader and his wingmen--3 is classic!!

13 hours ago, Hexdot said:

But I do not think FFG was thinking about Epic while releasing wave 2.

Man, I hope they were at least considering it:

Wave 3 (When the Bomber was released...)
Release date: September 13, 2013

GR75 Transport Expansion Pack
Release date: April 30, 2014

CR90 Corvette Expansion Pack
Release date: May 22, 2014

8 minutes ago, LunarSol said:

Man, I hope they were at least considering it:

Wave 3 (When the Bomber was released...)
Release date: September 13, 2013

GR75 Transport Expansion Pack
Release date: April 30, 2014

CR90 Corvette Expansion Pack
Release date: May 22, 2014

It's clear that back then those were just a test to see the interest in such scale battles and if it was feasible to support it or make a new game all together. especially when the CR-90 did not come with a standard ship but it did come with what was back then one of the most beloved/hated upgrade cards of all time. After the considerable interest in Epic play and many people simply borrowing CR-90s for their Imperial squadrons that there was enough interest to continue on thus the Raider was made.

I mean, sure... but realistically I'd say FFG is as concerned with how things are balanced in Epic today as they were when the CR90 was released...

18 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

After the considerable interest in Epic play and many people simply borrowing CR-90s for their Imperial squadrons

Yep, did a repaint and flew an Imperial Corvette for many a battle.

I wish they would do an all-faction Corellian Gunship:

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/9/9f/CorellianGunship-SWR.png/revision/latest?cb=20100601032851