The detail is great, it's looking great on my shelf. It has no weapons, how can I use it in a match? When my friends don't have any epic ships can't they just ignore it till all my ships with weapons are dead?

Nope, the transport is excellent. Try it and see. Even the first time I used one, it killed plenty of Tie Fighters (by running them over and Jamming & Slicing them), whilst being very hard to kill. There are several recommended builds in the squad forum to try out.

I usually build it as a stress barge and jam/slicer tools things until they cry. Basically it gives your opponent a tough target priority. Deal with the no guns control boat and get shot or go for the fighters and get jammed. You can keep it relatively cheap and with automated protocols you can jam and reinforce/recover every round

Well, it does come with a number of useful Astromechs, so there's that. But that's tangential to your question.

I haven't used it in in Epic yet, but in Heroes of the Aturi Cluster it has been pure gold. No weapons, you say? It is a weapon in its own right, a flying battering ram! Hurtle headfirst into enemy positions and squash your foes!

In our last campaign, the GR-75 squashed 7 ships in 2 missions--one of which was the super-scary, loaded-to-the-gills elite Phantom that was supposed to be the mission "boss." Happened on the very turn that the ship appeared, too....

1 minute ago, fiesta0618 said:

It is a weapon in its own right, a flying battering ram! Hurtle headfirst into enemy positions and squash your foes!

Also this works as a valid strategy.

The Transport is amazing, and much more useful Tha their heavily armed Corvette. It's an amazing support ship, and the combination of Jam and Slicer Tools in epic is pure carnage. Hell, I'd rather field two transports than a CR-90.

Just don't overload it. 40-45 points is enough.

There was a topic on the Transport on the forum a couple of months ago. Do a search, as there were a lot of great ideas on it.

It's definitely one of the better huge ships. The Automated Protocols let it be a real pain to take down while heavily disrupting opposing ships. The Bright Hope title makes it really hard to take down and lets you aggressively ram it into enemy ships, particularly with an Engine Booster.

The GR75 is generally a menace due to it's actions and abilities, not because of what it kills. It's a hilariously fun support ship that is totally viable in epic play. Might even be in 100 points, need to try that for fun. My own GR75 has been the last ship on my side once. And even then, it crushed Parakitor's Gozanti before it went down to the surviving TIE swarm.

4 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

The GR75 is generally a menace due to it's actions and abilities, not because of what it kills. It's a hilariously fun support ship that is totally viable in epic play. Might even be in 100 points, need to try that for fun. My own GR75 has been the last ship on my side once. And even then, it crushed Parakitor's Gozanti before it went down to the surviving TIE swarm.

FWIW, it has issues maneuvering on a 3x3.

Ram, Jam and Scenario play.

25 minutes ago, LunarSol said:

FWIW, it has issues maneuvering on a 3x3.

I don't know if I should like your post because of the implied attempt you made, or not due to the bad news. I suspected maneuvering issues, but hadn't tried. Considering I'm not attempting ramming, just going in circles like a dizzy turtle may work for me. Just need a couple of seismic torpedoes to clear some of the trash out of the way.

The transport is a great support ship. The fact that it can be a great "flying battering ram" is an issue to me and one of the main reasons I'm not a huge fan of Epic in general. It makes zero sense that a full health small or large ship just pops when a huge ship touches it. I know it is the rules and I'm not complaining that people do it. (I've done it myself)I just think that it should not even be an option as a viable tactic.

1 minute ago, JJFDVORAK said:

The transport is a great support ship. The fact that it can be a great "flying battering ram" is an issue to me and one of the main reasons I'm not a huge fan of Epic in general. It makes zero sense that a full health small or large ship just pops when a huge ship touches it. I know it is the rules and I'm not complaining that people do it. (I've done it myself)I just think that it should not even be an option as a viable tactic.

I don't mind the popping, though likely due to memories of the old X-Wing PC game. I managed to get myself and a TIE Bomber I was chasing run over by a Mon Cal cruiser that was beginning it's run into hyperspace. It was definitely POP when it hit the bomber ahead of me. I had about five full seconds of frantic evasive maneuvers before the cruiser got me too.

I don't like the battering ram tactic though. It's also pretty clumsy, so using this as your strategy is rather risky play. It's pretty easy to avoid the big ships unless the combat takes place right next to it.

The threat of it is definitely a big part of the appeal of Epic to me. Having this big mobile obstacle that you absolutely have to avoid makes maneuvering more interesting than the normal game and generally keeps players from locking the game up in the middle with blocking tactics.

Ramming small ships isn't a tactic so much as a bonus, and it keeps the little guys honest.

Comm booster. Jake Farrell. Push the Limit.

This is on the very high end of what I'd put on a GR-75, but for my play style it'd work really well. All the upgrade cards are Energy-based only, so it won't impact your Action selection each turn. Bodhi and TargetCo work well together, as for 1 Energy you get to pick a friendly ship at R1-2, and then pull a TL based on any ship at R1-3 of you (so that same friendly ship). Having two Comms Boosters equipped will let you spend 1 Energy each to remove all the Stress tokens from the friendly ship then give it a Focus token. Combat Retrofit I take because I like the three extra life points as I tend to fly the GR75 more aggressively and in the battle. Quantum Storm pops your Energy rating up to 5 so you can bank a bit more for your intensive turns.

I find that a GR-75 on the board suddenly makes A-Wings really useful again... again, at least for me at my FLGS.

GR-75 Medium Transport (30)
Targeting Coordinator (4)
Bodhi Rook (1)
Comms Booster (4)
Comms Booster (4)
Tibanna Gas Supplies (4)
Combat Retrofit (10)
Quantum Storm (4)

Total: 61

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

1 hour ago, JJFDVORAK said:

The transport is a great support ship. The fact that it can be a great "flying battering ram" is an issue to me and one of the main reasons I'm not a huge fan of Epic in general. It makes zero sense that a full health small or large ship just pops when a huge ship touches it. I know it is the rules and I'm not complaining that people do it. (I've done it myself)I just think that it should not even be an option as a viable tactic.

No small or large ship is going to survive a collision with a Huge ship, they might breech the hull of the cap but it's not going to take it down.

41 minutes ago, Slugrage said:

This is on the very high end of what I'd put on a GR-75, but for my play style it'd work really well. All the upgrade cards are Energy-based only, so it won't impact your Action selection each turn. Bodhi and TargetCo work well together, as for 1 Energy you get to pick a friendly ship at R1-2, and then pull a TL based on any ship at R1-3 of you (so that same friendly ship). Having two Comms Boosters equipped will let you spend 1 Energy each to remove all the Stress tokens from the friendly ship then give it a Focus token. Combat Retrofit I take because I like the three extra life points as I tend to fly the GR75 more aggressively and in the battle. Quantum Storm pops your Energy rating up to 5 so you can bank a bit more for your intensive turns.

I find that a GR-75 on the board suddenly makes A-Wings really useful again... again, at least for me at my FLGS.

GR-75 Medium Transport (30)
Targeting Coordinator (4)
Bodhi Rook (1)
Comms Booster (4)
Comms Booster (4)
Tibanna Gas Supplies (4)
Combat Retrofit (10)
Quantum Storm (4)

Total: 61

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I think you'll do a lot better with Bright Hope/Automated Protocols instead of Combat Retrofit. The double reinforce is crazy powerful and makes up 3 health pretty quickly. Just remember you get to place the Reinforce after every ship has moved and put it where you're most threatened. The extra energy doesn't hurt, though I've never found it that important. The bigger benefit is the extra starting energy, IMO.

Going free action crazy is definitely viable and I'd totally recommend overspending and putting everything on the thing once. It's not ideal long term because you'll quickly find that you only get energy to power it for a turn or two, but putting too much down on the table is a good way to figure out which pieces fit your playstyle.

For other action outlets, I'd also recommend the Frequency Jammer to splash stress around or the Engine Booster for ramming speed. Comm Booster is absolutely awesome in general though.

3 hours ago, Dett Starley said:

The detail is great, it's looking great on my shelf. It has no weapons, how can I use it in a match? When my friends don't have any epic ships can't they just ignore it till all my ships with weapons are dead?

I never played but I hate that ship. It's so good. Good platform for Toryn Farr (my Epic nemesis). Also the Jam action with Frequency Jammer and Dutyfree . And of course ramming or the threat of ramming is very useful. Wow even thinking about it makes me hate it even more!

However we tend agree before hand that we'll take Epic ships as this helps balance things a little. If fighting against a pure fighter force any Epic ship will struggle.

They tend to do better against IG-8000 than CR-90. So yeah useful.

2 hours ago, Jetfire said:

No small or large ship is going to survive a collision with a Huge ship, they might breech the hull of the cap but it's not going to take it down.

I know that. In "real" life. In real life any ship hitting any ship would do serious, catastrophic damage. But in Xwing ships bump all the time and there is no damage done(except for Oicunn.) The ship is just prevented from moving/finishing their move. And I know they wanted to prevent small/large ships from blocking huge ships and rightly so, but outright destroying then seems wrong. I really don't have a better idea and I'm not trying to complain as I know it's not going to change, I'm just saying it doesn't follow the movement set in normal play.

3 minutes ago, JJFDVORAK said:

I know that. In "real" life. In real life any ship hitting any ship would do serious, catastrophic damage. But in Xwing ships bump all the time and there is no damage done(except for Oicunn.) The ship is just prevented from moving/finishing their move. And I know they wanted to prevent small/large ships from blocking huge ships and rightly so, but outright destroying then seems wrong. I really don't have a better idea and I'm not trying to complain as I know it's not going to change, I'm just saying it doesn't follow the movement set in normal play.

No what I mean is that when two small/large ships overlap in the 2D game it is assumed they simply use their skill to use the Z axis to avoid collision which is why they skip their actions.

However a HUGE ship basically eats the Z axis too making evasion impossible during an overlap.

1 minute ago, Jetfire said:

No what I mean is that when two small/large ships overlap in the 2D game it is assumed they simply use their skill to use the Z axis to avoid collision which is why they skip their actions.

However a HUGE ship basically eats the Z axis too making evasion impossible during an overlap.

That makes perfect sense and I totally agree.(I still don't think the small/large should be destroyed, maybe moved out of the way and suffer one damage)But your original statement did not reference this fact at all.

3 hours ago, LunarSol said:

I think you'll do a lot better with Bright Hope/Automated Protocols instead of Combat Retrofit. The double reinforce is crazy powerful and makes up 3 health pretty quickly. Just remember you get to place the Reinforce after every ship has moved and put it where you're most threatened. The extra energy doesn't hurt, though I've never found it that important. The bigger benefit is the extra starting energy, IMO.

Going free action crazy is definitely viable and I'd totally recommend overspending and putting everything on the thing once. It's not ideal long term because you'll quickly find that you only get energy to power it for a turn or two, but putting too much down on the table is a good way to figure out which pieces fit your playstyle.

For other action outlets, I'd also recommend the Frequency Jammer to splash stress around or the Engine Booster for ramming speed. Comm Booster is absolutely awesome in general though.

Totally a cool combination as well. I like Comms as that works for how I fly my Epic squadrons, but yes I've had good success with Auto Proto too. I used to use Frequency a lot when stress seemed to mean more. That's what I love about the GR-75. There's just so many different ways to put it together and be a really great and annoying support ship.