6 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

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

5 hours ago, pt106 said:

Don't forget Ruthless Strategists

Yep, those are the main appeals to me of the Raider-II at the moment. In those regards it can be better but I don't find the trade-off to be worth it usually. Again, I'd love to change my mind about the Raider-II as it's one of the few Imperial ships where I say "nope, basically not worth it 99% of the time."

4 hours 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....

Actually my dream "fix" to Raider-IIs would simply be to change all their anti-ship dice to blue (maybe +1 or +2 points too, if necessary, but I'd largely prefer to not touch points unless it proved too strong a change). That's all it would take. 4 blue out the front and 2 blue out the sides and they'd be great recipients of SW7 Ion Batteries and would be swell for stalking flotillas (concentrate fire hopefully for accuracy+4 damage or double-accuracy+3 damage+ram). Raider-Is would be superior at burst damage and more lethal short-ranged flak but Raider-IIs would be better mid-ranged skirmishers.

14 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

Actually my dream "fix" to Raider-IIs would simply be to change all their anti-ship dice to blue (maybe +1 or +2 points too, if necessary, but I'd largely prefer to not touch points unless it proved too strong a change). That's all it would take. 4 blue out the front and 2 blue out the sides and they'd be great recipients of SW7 Ion Batteries and would be swell for stalking flotillas (concentrate fire hopefully for accuracy+4 damage or double-accuracy+3 damage+ram).

I...might not field another ship ever again if they did that...besides an Interdictor perhaps.

Or there needs to be another card that adds more blue dice.... +2 in the front for 10pts?

(Speaking of Support Refits, any estimations on a W4 article?)

27 minutes ago, Snipafist said:

Actually my dream "fix" to Raider-IIs would simply be to change all their anti-ship dice to blue (maybe +1 or +2 points too, if necessary, but I'd largely prefer to not touch points unless it proved too strong a change). That's all it would take. 4 blue out the front and 2 blue out the sides and they'd be great recipients of SW7 Ion Batteries and would be swell for stalking flotillas (concentrate fire hopefully for accuracy+4 damage or double-accuracy+3 damage+ram). Raider-Is would be superior at burst damage and more lethal short-ranged flak but Raider-IIs would be better mid-ranged skirmishers.

That would make it pretty much a modified CR90B. So, yup, love it!

Just now, Alzer said:

Or there needs to be another card that adds more blue dice.... +2 in the front for 10pts?

If the Rapid Reload vs. High Capacity Ion Turbines comparison holds any water, it seems like FFG estimates blue dice adding upgrades to have the same points value as black dice adding upgrades. If we ever got a blue version of Expanded Launchers, I'd assume it would also be 13 points. Maybe not, though (could be FFG updated their formula?). It would also be an interesting upgrade for a Raider-II but I fear it would still come off a bit worse compared to the CR90B, which isn't stuck in the same position at medium range as the Raider-II: the CR90B is happy to be there but the Raider-II is wishing it was a bit closer so it could justify its increased points cost and get those black dice in (...at which point you're asking yourself "why didn't I just bring the Raider-I which wants to do that anyways?"

If I wanted to give the Raider-II a bit of a boost compared to the CR90B (which is already a super legit corvette with the right Rebel commanders), I'd look to the upgrade slots the Raider-II has but the CR90 does not: namely the weapon team or offensive retrofit slots, neither of which currently does much for the Raider-II when it comes to anti-ship capabilities. Something even as simple as Ion Experts (Ordnance Experts with a blue paint job) or some more original blue dice favoring ability would be swell.

Quote

(Speaking of Support Refits, any estimations on a W4 article?)

I'd say probably at least one article next week*. I'll have more free time but the to-do list on the house is still going to be plenty long and I expect some new nonsense to pop up when I least expect it ;).

*I could always write a really short Konstantine article which just links to
DON'T DO IT MAN
in huge font. I don't think the readers would be too keen on such a casual dismissal of poor Konstantine, however. That's the problem with doing reviews in waves: for Imperials you get Tagge (not that great just yet, maybe never will be), the Interdictor (fun, very unusual/new style for an Imperial ship, but a bit of work to build around at 400 points), and Konstantine (way too much work for an unreliable effect, but might get better with the Quasars coming out soon) all in a row. People are going to think I suddenly got very snooty and hate everything but I dig most everything except this very short run of options :(.

That's fair, and I'd shudder to see what an ID could do to something with an extra pair of dice out its nose...

I feel like Konstantine is a trap for new players on a similar scale to pulse tap Avenger lists. It all looks so good on paper until you realize your list is a pair of ISDIs and a Support Refit with minimal squadron cover, that still can't get a decent shot on enemy ships most of the time. Also, I think Jerry really pulled the rug out from under Konnie.

But hey, at least he's just as effective as he is in the fluff, so it works?

@Beatty how did you find Konstantine? Did you get anywhere with that list?