Cannot Get Your Ship Out 4/10 to 4/16

By Snipafist, in Star Wars: Armada

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Moving is just crushing me right now. Not sure if I'll have enough energy to get another article out this week but we'll see. John wants me to write something up about using black dice ships (which is something I talked about in different ways with the Gladiator and Raider articles but might be handy to have it explored in more depth all in one place) so that may be the next article when it finally arrives.

Seriously, though, I spent the last 12 hours moving things, setting up things, doing laundry, and painting two rooms and that's after doing basically all that yesterday and then lots of gardening/tilling soil on Saturday and Sunday. My arms are going to fall off, haha.

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Don't worry, I'll blog for both of us! As soon as I find the freaking time.... Stupid GR article, it's in progress. Then squadrons and bombing. Yes, there will be much explosions.

Posted at
20 minutes ago, geek19 said:

Don't worry, I'll blog for both of us! As soon as I find the freaking time.... Stupid GR article, it's in progress. Then squadrons and bombing. Yes, there will be much explosions.

Bold man.

Posted at
41 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

Moving is just crushing me right now. Not sure if I'll have enough energy to get another article out this week but we'll see. John wants me to write something up about using black dice ships (which is something I talked about in different ways with the Gladiator and Raider articles but might be handy to have it explored in more depth all in one place) so that may be the next article when it finally arrives.

Seriously, though, I spent the last 12 hours moving things, setting up things, doing laundry, and painting two rooms and that's after doing basically all that yesterday and then lots of gardening/tilling soil on Saturday and Sunday. My arms are going to fall off, haha.

How dare you have a life outside of writing blogs about toy spaceships. How very well dare you! What will I do when I am supposed to be sleeping without your articles!?

Posted at
6 hours ago, Alzer said:

How dare you have a life outside of writing blogs about toy spaceships. How very well dare you! What will I do when I am supposed to be sleeping without your articles!?

Be at work at 5 am like the rest of us?

Posted at
3 hours ago, geek19 said:

Be at work at 5 am like the rest of us?

What is this "Work" you speak of?

You mean "On the Forums", right?

Posted at
4 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

What is this "Work" you speak of?

You mean "On the Forums", right?

A little bit of assault frigate A, a little bit of assault frigate b.

Posted at
11 hours ago, Alzer said:

How dare you have a life outside of writing blogs about toy spaceships. How very well dare you! What will I do when I am supposed to be sleeping without your articles!?

I humbly beg forgiveness.

Posted at
5 hours ago, geek19 said:

Be at work at 5 am like the rest of us?

Are you insinuating I don't get to work on time?

4 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

I humbly beg forgiveness.

Granted.

It's probably good, I have enough list ADHD without suddenly wanting to go buy three new raiders (or whatever else your articles have inspired.) ;)

Posted at
2 minutes ago, Alzer said:

It's probably good, I have enough list ADHD without suddenly wanting to go buy three new raiders (or whatever else your articles have inspired.) ;)

Haha, that's fair.

I've been really surprised at the positive responses I've received to the Raider article in particular. Having been outnumbered or shouted down in several "seriously guys the Raider is legit" conversations here on the forum, I was expecting more pushback. Instead it's been 100% positive feedback. Raiders are awesome. Once I get my hands on some External Racks* I'll be running all four of the pointy fellows at once again!

*I've been advised by my attorney not to disclose any details about putting my hands on any racks.

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Hahaha.

Yeah I really wanted to run a raider-centric list, but the Light Cruiser came in and I got a bit addicted to those. Raiders are very much next on my to-buy list though. Especially as a blue-dice fanatic.

Posted at
1 hour ago, Snipafist said:

Haha, that's fair.

I've been really surprised at the positive responses I've received to the Raider article in particular. Having been outnumbered or shouted down in several "seriously guys the Raider is legit" conversations here on the forum, I was expecting more pushback. Instead it's been 100% positive feedback. Raiders are awesome. Once I get my hands on some External Racks* I'll be running all four of the pointy fellows at once again!

*I've been advised by my attorney not to disclose any details about putting my hands on any racks.

As your pretend lawyer, I also advise you against running 4 raiders because I don't want to face them. That's a good reason right?

Posted at
1 hour ago, Alzer said:

Hahaha.

Yeah I really wanted to run a raider-centric list, but the Light Cruiser came in and I got a bit addicted to those. Raiders are very much next on my to-buy list though. Especially as a blue-dice fanatic.

I'm gonna warn you that Raider-IIs at the moment are a bit of a let-down but those blue dice on the Raider-I have a notable impact. Seeing that accuracy come up has allowed my Raiders to one-shot their CR90 counterparts when I'm concentrating fire with the front arc. Kaboom!

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Raider II has Ion Cannon upgrade. So that's a nice synergy there with her blue dices.

Posted at
16 minutes ago, Alexhurlbut said:

Raider II has Ion Cannon upgrade. So that's a nice synergy there with her blue dices.

There's not really a great ion cannon upgrade to give a Raider-II right now, though. SW7s kind of but eh...

I'm sure sooner or later we'll get a weapons team and/or ion cannon upgrade that works well with Raider-IIs. I don't think they're inherently bad. They just aren't that good right now.

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I would use them the way they were built for; supporting the squadrons. Isn't there an Ion Cannon upgrade (by the way of Raider II carrying it) that would help TIE Bombers/Defenders a heap lot against a ship?

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Everyone always ignores Ion Cannon Batteries...

The raider is able to push additional damage, or add token control through it, for a relatively cheap platform... And then scoot away.

Posted at
1 hour ago, Alexhurlbut said:

I would use them the way they were built for; supporting the squadrons. Isn't there an Ion Cannon upgrade (by the way of Raider II carrying it) that would help TIE Bombers/Defenders a heap lot against a ship?

That's not all Raiders are really meant to do. It strongly depends on what your opponent's fleet wants to do as to whether they're best used as anti-squadron or anti-ship resources.

You also can't really rely on getting a critical result with a blue crit upgrade on a Raider-II, either. Without concentrate fire, the front arc has a 58% chance of getting a crit. With it (4 blue dice), you have a much better 68.4% chance, but that's still just slightly better than 2 in 3. If your plan is leaning a lot on that crit, you're really counting on dice to save it for you.

I don't recommend using black crit upgrades on Raider-Is (unless you're using Screed) but at least with a Raider-I you can use Ordnance Experts for the reroll to help your odds of critting. With 2 black dice and rerolling everything to fish for a hit+crit, a Raider-I without concentrate fire has a 68.4% chance of critting (same as the 4 blue dice Raider-II) and with a concentrate fire has an 82.4% chance.

If we ever get an Ion Experts weapon team then my complaints about the Raider-II's crit reliability will vanish pretty much immediately and it would definitely carve out a niche for the Raider-II that makes it more competitive compared to the Raider-I and makes it notably different from the Rebel CR90B.

To answer the original question, though, I'd prefer using Assault Concussion Missiles to soften up shields prior to a bomber group going after a ship on a Raider-I. If you plan to use a Raider-II for the same purpose, I'd go for Overload Pulse (to exhaust all the defense tokens prior to the bombers attacking) or Ion Cannon Batteries (to zap an extra shield).

1 hour ago, Drasnighta said:

Everyone always ignores Ion Cannon Batteries...

The raider is able to push additional damage, or add token control through it, for a relatively cheap platform... And then scoot away.

Ion Cannon Batteries are legit on Suppressor Interdictors. Especially with Vader for the rerolls. Being able to double-arc with it can help beef up the Interdictor's damage output a bit and it's got all right odds of happening from 3 of your hull zones.

On a Raider-II it doesn't go as far. My complaint with the Raider-II generally boils down to "why don't I just spend these points on a Raider-I for an overall better end product which has more synergy with better upgrades?" If and when the Raider-II gets access to some stronger upgrades for its overall profile, I hope to change my tune. I don't like coming to the "meh/don't bother" conclusion on things.

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Kallus range is all that stands out to me on the Raider II, and then Impetus.

Posted at
24 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Kallus range is all that stands out to me on the Raider II, and then Impetus.

Don't forget Ruthless Strategists ;)

Posted at
5 hours ago, Snipafist said:

I'm gonna warn you that Raider-IIs at the moment are a bit of a let-down but those blue dice on the Raider-I have a notable impact. Seeing that accuracy come up has allowed my Raiders to one-shot their CR90 counterparts when I'm concentrating fire with the front arc. Kaboom!

Raider 1s still have two blue dice out the front, and I'm OK with some black dice tagging along as well.

I am likewise super excited to put some nice racks on my ships. If only raiders iis had ordnance slots....

Posted at
40 minutes ago, Alzer said:

Raider 1s still have two blue dice out the front, and I'm OK with some black dice tagging along as well.

I am likewise super excited to put some nice racks on my ships. If only raiders iis had ordnance slots....

Raider II having Ion Cannon Upgrade was thematically... After all, besides the TIE Defender, none of your TIE starfighters has ion cannons.