Ok so my last idea was for the Instigator, and in-tight, run-'em over or shoot-'em down Raider.

This is the opposite: stay far away, plink away, and let your Starfighters earn their pay:

Fore: Single Turbolaser, Gunnery Team, Supercharged Power Cells, Title

Aft: Weapon Engineer, Tarkin, Ion Cannon x2, Sensor Team, SC Power Cells, Auto Protocols.

The idea being that Tarkin and the Sensor Team gives reach, the Gunner Team makes the shots count, and the title is worth its points because you are staying out of the fray.

The Raider titles have never really impressed me, particularly because the two defensive ones only offer really minor benefits. This one for instance is useless against ordnance unless you're behind a rock. The only one I've gotten mileage out of is the one that gives you a TL after killing something.

So...I saw a crazy idea for the Rebels, and kind of championed it for a bit. Basically, the Rebel Transport flies between the enemy and the CR90 with Single Turbolasers, so shots coming at the corvette are obstructed. The CR90 is also equipped with Dash Rendar, so that its own weapons are not obstructed. It's a bit gimmicky, and tough to keep formation, but it has the potential to do serious damage from afar, and it means you can equip all long-range weapons on the CR90, because anybody that closes the distance will now have to face your fighter escort.

Now, the Imperials don't quite have that kind of synergy, but you could put a jamming Gozanti in between the Assailer and the enemy. You give the opponent obstruction bonuses when you shoot, though, which is not ideal.

So going with the idea that the Assailer needs obstruction to add defense even against secondary weapons, what about Oicunn with Intimidation and Tactical Jammer? Just send him up suicide style into the enemy's main force. Now at least one opposing ship has reduced agility, and can't target Oicunn, so it has to shoot through him at the Assailer who now has a defense die. Admittedly, it's a lot of hoops to jump through, and basically all you're doing is handing your opponent 45 points of Captain Oicunn on a silver platter. Bonus points if you have Ion Torpedoes on the Assailer to repeatedly force your opponents into straight 1 maneuvers into Oicunn.

Another idea is to set up your Assailer in the thick of the obstacle field, and equip Captain Needa, so that if you run over the obstacles, it's not quite as damaging. The trick is that people will see an obstructed shot on a reinforced Raider and say, "No thanks, I'll wait until I close distance." And hey, maybe that is worth the two points by itself!

By the way, I was in the process of writing a whole treatise on all of the huge ship titles, so I've given them quite a bit of thought. You majorly beat me to the punch, though, with all of your posts @Darth Meanie!

9 hours ago, defkhan1 said:

The Raider titles have never really impressed me, particularly because the two defensive ones only offer really minor benefits. This one for instance is useless against ordnance unless you're behind a rock. The only one I've gotten mileage out of is the one that gives you a TL after killing something.

4 hours ago, Parakitor said:

By the way, I was in the process of writing a whole treatise on all of the huge ship titles, so I've given them quite a bit of thought. You majorly beat me to the punch, though, with all of your posts @Darth Meanie!

And I'm going to keep doing it. . .here's what I came up with for Impetuous. It's basic ally designed around the same idea, stay out of the fray and attack at long distance:

Fore: Single Turbolaser, Gunnery Team, SC Power Cells, Title

Aft: Kallus, Merc Copilot, Ion Battery x2, Sesnor Team, SC Power Cells, Optimized Generators.

In bullet point form:

- Optimised generators: its nearly mandatory for energy weapons.

- Sensor team goes in the front, gunner in the back: because when the front blows up, it will be because the enemy is in range, so sensor team is useless by that point.

- If you go witht he Assailer, consider taking a large base ship (lambda) with tactical jammer to provide your own cover. Kagi is a beast because of his ability to mess up target locks.

19 minutes ago, dotswarlock said:

In bullet point form:

- Optimised generators: its nearly mandatory for energy weapons.

- Sensor team goes in the front, gunner in the back: because when the front blows up, it will be because the enemy is in range, so sensor team is useless by that point.

- If you go witht he Assailer, consider taking a large base ship (lambda) with tactical jammer to provide your own cover. Kagi is a beast because of his ability to mess up target locks.

Excellent safety tip. This is why I'm doing these posts; the devil is in the details.

Just now, dotswarlock said:

- Sensor team goes in the front, gunner in the back: because when the front blows up, it will be because the enemy is in range, so sensor team is useless by that point..

On the other hand, the Raider's TL capabilities are all in the aft, so if the aft blows up you can't TL anyway.

3 minutes ago, defkhan1 said:

On the other hand, the Raider's TL capabilities are all in the aft, so if the aft blows up you can't TL anyway.

If the Aft is destroyed then he loses both secondary weapons there, only has 1 energy and his remaining secondary weapon has a range of 3-5. A destroyed aft also usually implies that the enemy small and large base ships are no longer in the forward arc and the odds of enemies going back to range 4-5 are slim. He will be screwed on so many levels that the range of the target lock will be a distant memory

In all seriousness, if the aft of a energy based Raider is destroyed before the fore then its because a terrible, terrible mistake was done, like deploying the Raider in the middle of the map and speeding forward. With ordnance, it might be doable, but energy based, you definitly want to start in a corner with units ready to deal with an alpha strike if your opponent deploys straight in front of you.

13 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

This is the opposite: stay far away, plink away, and let your Starfighters earn their pay:

Fore: Single Turbolaser, Gunnery Team, Supercharged Power Cells, Title

Aft: Weapon Engineer, Tarkin, Ion Cannon x2, Sensor Team, SC Power Cells, Auto Protocols.

The idea being that Tarkin and the Sensor Team gives reach, the Gunner Team makes the shots count, and the title is worth its points because you are staying out of the fray.

If I'm calculating correctly, your Raider is 147 points?! That's...pretty expensive. You may want to consider dropping an upgrade or two, just to make some more room for the rest of the squad, and make the loss of your Raider less painful.

At first I was looking at those Ion Cannon Batteries suspiciously, but after the above comment by dotswarlock, I like them to keep flanking ships pinned so you can bring your front weapons to bear before they really get behind you. Still, I don't think you need all hardpoints loaded, and dropping either the Single Turbolasers or an Ion Cannon Batteries will help to lighten the load.

The other upgrade I question, and I can't believe I'm saying this, is Grand Moff Tarkin. He is an AMAZING crew member, but I just don't see how he fits in, and he's pretty expensive. Okay, so he doesn't have to 'fit in' because he is the Grand Moff - he'll help whatever squad he is in. But if you took 12 points off that beast, you're sitting at 135, which is a much more comfortable points total in my opinion....nah, he's just too good! You've gotta keep him there.

I suppose the answer to whether or not to drop some upgrades is completely squad dependent, so you'd have to revisit this when you had the rest of your ships picked out, and see if you were reaching for a few more points. Just something to think about.

The build that I used for this current season of epic play was 146 points. The new build that I'll use for the finals is worth 148 points (I have to switch builds since the Palpatine nerf). Through the course of 8 games, my average MOV was 507 points. If an epic ship is properly supported by a sizeable escort then it actually becomes a lot easier to keep the Raider alive. I usually have 8 ships escorting my Raider.

29 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

If I'm calculating correctly, your Raider is 147 points?! That's...pretty expensive. You may want to consider dropping an upgrade or two, just to make some more room for the rest of the squad, and make the loss of your Raider less painful.

At first I was looking at those Ion Cannon Batteries suspiciously, but after the above comment by dotswarlock, I like them to keep flanking ships pinned so you can bring your front weapons to bear before they really get behind you. Still, I don't think you need all hardpoints loaded, and dropping either the Single Turbolasers or an Ion Cannon Batteries will help to lighten the load.

The other upgrade I question, and I can't believe I'm saying this, is Grand Moff Tarkin. He is an AMAZING crew member, but I just don't see how he fits in, and he's pretty expensive. Okay, so he doesn't have to 'fit in' because he is the Grand Moff - he'll help whatever squad he is in. But if you took 12 points off that beast, you're sitting at 135, which is a much more comfortable points total in my opinion....nah, he's just too good! You've gotta keep him there.

I suppose the answer to whether or not to drop some upgrades is completely squad dependent, so you'd have to revisit this when you had the rest of your ships picked out, and see if you were reaching for a few more points. Just something to think about.

And mine as well. I did get a bit excitable with the new upgrades. Maybe you could dump both SC Power Cells (give up 2 mega-hits) and/or trade Tarkin for Kallus. Like dotswarlock, I had sort of envisioned a TIE/ln escort.

Best Raider I've ever run is a straight missile boat.

Raider Fore: Homing Missiles, Gunnery Team, Ordnance Tubes

Raider Aft: Weapons Engineer, Darth Vader, Homing Missiles, Proton Torpedoes, Sensor Team, Ordnance Experts, Impetuous

Keep him alongside Howlrunner and Captain Jonus and equip Howl with Swarm Tactics/Decoy so that the Raider shoots at PS8. Fighter screen to taste.

It wrecks most things. Howl and Jonus give rerolls for days so you can keep your TLs for ordnance. The Impetuous title is nice because if you accidentally kill a ship before getting all of your ordnance off, no problem! You immediately get a TL on another ship and can fire ordnance at them. No shot wasted. Vader is also nice for putting the finishing blow on a ship, and with the health and regen on the Raider, taking a couple damage isn't a big deal.