So first time playing epic.... do I have enough ships? To much invested in the raider? Thoughts?

I love ion, would like to keep some in the list. Id also like to keep the three fighters I have in here (1 defender, 2 interceptors) though Im open to having more.... The raider is my only huge ship.

So yeah the list:

1 • Raider-class corvette (fore) - Raider-class corvette - Ion Torpedoes - Backup Shield Generator (58)
2 • Raider-class corvette (aft) - Raider-class corvette - Assault Missiles - Quad Laser Cannons - Ordnance Experts - Sensor Team - Tibanna Gas Supplies - Ordnance Tubes - Impetuous (82)
3 • Rear Admiral Chiraneau - VT-49 Decimator - Predator - Ion Torpedoes - Gunner - Munitions Failsafe (60)
4 • Countess Ryad - TIE Defender - Ruthlessness - Ion Cannon - Twin Ion Engine Mk. II - TIE/D (41)
5 • Turr Phennir - TIE Interceptor - Expertise - Autothrusters (31)
6 • Royal Guard Pilot - TIE Interceptor - Push the Limit - Autothrusters (27)

299pts.

You're getting into the upper limit of points I am comfortable spending on the Raider, but it's not too bad. Since your weapons are primarily missiles, you could probably use Weapons Engineer to obtain two target locks, so you could fire your Ion Torpedoes and Assault Missiles in the same round at different ships. To get these points, I'd drop Tibanna Gas Supplies, which is an awesome card, but not all that essential for an ordnance Raider.

At first glance, I'd say you don't have enough ships. With unlimited Ion Torpedoes on the Raider, I can't help but think the torps on Chiraneau are a waste. If you dropped that, you could easily afford to pay extra for Vessery instead of Ryad as your Ruthlessness TIE/D - he does that jobs so well that although Ryad is amazing, it feels like you're intentionally limiting yourself. Actually, trading out the rest of Chiraneau for a bunch of TIE fighters might not be a bad idea. They can get in the way of opposing ships, and in a furball* they're throwing three attack dice, which isn't anything to scoff at. I feel Chiraneau will be an easy first target for your opponent, which actually might not be that bad if you are pulling shots away from the Raider. Conversely, if the Raider is the first target then Chiraneau should be able to clean up the remaining enemy forces pretty well. So I can go along with it.

Turr Phennir with Expertise...I've never even considered that before, but it's not a bad idea to keep his focus for defense, and then he gets to boost/barrel roll after an attack.

*I just realized that if you're launching Assault Missiles and Ion Torpedoes, you don't want any fighters up close with the enemy. From that point of view, fewer ships may be the way to go...I just can't help feel that you will be fighting an uphill battle. Let me put it this way: if you were my opponent, I would feel pretty good knowing that I have a Raider with a range 1 blind spot, two TIE interceptors that I could easily block and kill, and a decimator with no agility. With more ships, you could cover that blind spot, and throw more dice per round, which I think is pretty important. I really hesitate to say this, because I think people shouldn't just follow what everybody says. Trying out unconventional ideas is how great squads are made. However, I think you need more bodies.

I will stay away from Tie Interceptor in Epic, 3 hull and no place to run. Generally the more ships you have to shoot with, the better is the chance to win. Six ships are not much in Epic for my standard.

With the Impetuous title and Ordnance Tubes on the Raider, I'd dump Tibanna and quad lasers and optimize it as a missile boat. Here's my favorite loadout:

The Raider activates after all small and large ships, so Sensor Team isn't necessary - the target lock is only used for its ordinance. You can shoot two salvos of homing missiles and a salvo of clusters off of a single target lock. Or engage multiple targets with the help of weapons engineer.

You can add Backup Shield Gen to increase survivability, but otherwise I prefer to keep it lean. It's gonna blow up, but it can take a lot of ships down with it.

VT 49 in Epic, if you play 3×3, is a bad idea. Raiders and CR 90s kill 0 AGI ships ultrafast. 60 pts better invested in a 4 ship Tie squadron, per example. Generic pilots are better playing Epic and and cheap 3 AGI ships are quite effective if you invest more than 120 pts on your Raider.

To reiterate what others have said- in my experience, having many generic ships is ALWAYS better than a single ace or two in epic games. For imperials, a simple tie swarm would be measurably more successful than RAC. I would honestly sub out all of your named pilots for as many cheap naked ships as you can get.

The Decimator will be decimated.

Alrighty, looking at your inputs- much appreciated, especially Parakitor and Robert for your more in depth replies!- I dropped the quad laser cannons for Cluster Missile and trimmed the upgrades a bit. Vessery is probably a better pick for the format, as things might be a bit crowded for K-turns to be viable on a frequent basis.

Switching out Chiraneau and the trimming gave me enough for 4 Tie-Fos, which is about even on the hitpoint tradeoff... but 4 harder to hit tragets. Thoughts?



[ IMPERIAL SQUADRON (300 points)
1 • Raider-class corvette (fore) - Raider-class corvette - Ion Torpedoes - Ordnance Experts (60)
2 • Raider-class corvette (aft) - Raider-class corvette - Assault Missiles - Cluster Missiles - Weapons Engineer - Fleet Officer - Sensor Team - Ordnance Tubes - Impetuous (77)
3 • Colonel Vessery - TIE Defender - Ruthlessness - Ion Cannon - Twin Ion Engine Mk. II - TIE/D (42)
4 • Turr Phennir - TIE Interceptor - Expertise - Autothrusters (31)
5 • Royal Guard Pilot - TIE Interceptor - Push the Limit - Autothrusters (27)
6 • Epsilon Squadron Pilot - TIE/fo Fighter (15)
7 • Zeta Squadron Pilot - TIE/fo Fighter (16)
8 • Zeta Squadron Pilot - TIE/fo Fighter (16)
9 • Zeta Squadron Pilot - TIE/fo Fighter (16)

I like it. Seems like it would be fun to play and fun to play against.

It's a lot better, but there's one glaring problem: Fleet Officer requires an action, which you can't do because you have to target lock each round. I think Operations Specialist would be superior here. Moff Jerjerrod or Rebel Captive would also fill in nicely.

Having run the Raider with different types of ordnance I've found Homing Missiles (that allow you to retain target locks) are really good - this allows you to fire ordnance at one ship multiple times e.g. You could potentially (if you get a ship in that double arc) fire four times at one ship using three Homing Missiles and then a primary. More likely you'd get two shots on one target. Also simply having that re-roll option is great on any attack from a huge ship.