Everything I see about this ship says its bad, but I love the little toothpick to death. Has anyone any advice on how to fly the ship in a manner that doesn't lose me the game?

Right the popular build for it seems to be the class 1 with ordance experts and flechette torpedos

Raider 1 + Impetuous + Agent Kallus + Ordnance Experts + Flechette Torpedoes

Anti Fighter ship. Unique sqn's get you 3 black dice against them, re roll any number of those dice and use fletchettes to toggle the activation to negate those squadrons. And at the end, use Impetuous title to have another crack at another fighter. 58 points of anti squadron goodness.

I can't give any advice myself, but I'm going to save @Snipafist the trouble of self-promotion and link to his excellent article:

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.fi/2017/03/imperial-ship-review-raider-corvette.html

I feel like the same sort of topic has popped up a couple of times lately, so a forum search might help you too. This one seems to be fairly extensive:

I'd suggest reading the Cannot Get Your Ship Out blog's Raider Review. Since @Snipafist, the author of the post, appears to love flying fleets composed largely of Raiders, it'll likely be of some use to you.

Edit: Ninja'd

Fly it cheap and dont send him alone to death, chase flotillas, or rear hull zones in late game. Most people give away with the raiders because they lose them at very early stage of the game. Be patient and fly safe for 3-4 turns flanking, then drop his nasty double arc.

I use it a lot. Like, 4 isn't unusual. I don't have a standard build for them, because I find them to be pretty decent to build into different styles. The Flechette/OE builds are fine, but their problem is the squadrons they're designed to go hunting are better at hunting them. As a result, you kind of need to run them as a pair, because one is quite likely to burn to the ground if you come against a bomber heavy list with any kind of BCC support. That said, I have shut down an entire Rieekan aces build with a pair for pretty much the entire game. It was pretty amazing to be able to just cruise around the cloud of potential death, and just go for the AFMk2 and Transports while they just sat there with the Raiders circling them like a couple of sharks.

The Raider 2 with Overload Pulse is something I rarely see anyone but me using, but I'd imagine that the rise of Sloane will change that. I've found it to be fantastic using it with Screed against any large/medium ship, especially as a lead-in for a Demo or a frontal ISD barrage, and lately to really help push damage with a pair of Arqs - few ships are willing to spend that evade to cancel a double-hit red from long range if it means outright losing the token to do it. It's kind of a win-win whether they do it or not, anyway.

Raider 1 has won me several events in MSU lists, too. APT and OE is pretty great as a combo, and it's anti-fighter capability with OE is impressive (especially if you stick Kallus and/or Impetuous on there. Personally, I like a pair of them, with one on each). There's something to be said for ACMs, too. I've used a pair with ACM and OE beside an Interdictor to pretty much obliterate an ISD. They're an oddly spikey ship at times.

If you really want to help them survive, you could do worse than stick Admiral Montferrat on one of them. Speed 3 isn't unusual to be at when trying to line up an APT run with them, but it's not hugely cheap. I'd save that to run on a single OP Raider 2, because the ordnance led Raider 1s can be screaming kamikazes of death for all sides sometimes, no matter what you do.

The Raider is really a versatile little ship. It can run with your fighters and add some anti-fighter fire power, it can hunt enemy corvettes and flotillas or flank larger ships.

As with anything in this game you really need to think about how it best can serve you in any particular battle. Just make sure not to charge larger ships where they have lots of guns.

I try to put a few upgrades on them but not really specialize them, I like them for their versatility. If I go with the raider II they get Ordnance Experts and some Ion Canon upgrade and Agent Kallus. Makes for a rather versatile build that can adapt depending on the situation.

first of all:

you are incorrect that the ship is bad.

there are "bad ship designs", less competitive ships that have not seen actual success on tournament level, etc.

the Raider is not one of them. it is not, say, uberpowerful for its points, but it has consistently useful uses. an important point, though, is that only the Raider-I finds such uses. the Raider-II is underrepresented.

some uses:

Raider-I, ordnance experts, expanded launchers. you will be amazed at HOW MUCH DAMAGE this ship does to other ships. 2 blue and 4 black, 2 blue and 5 black with a concentrate fire command, AND REROLLS from ordnance experts, can often deal more damage than an ISDs front arc. fragile, glass cannon. for 61 points total, it is a steal.

Raider-I, ordnance experts, flechette torpedoes, agent kalus, impetuous/instigator. dedicated antisquadron ship. 58 points.

Raider-I, ordnance experts, Assault Proton Torpedoes. mid between the two. good damage, and antifighter is still 2 black dice with rerolls. 53 points.

3 hours ago, Villakarvarousku said:

I can't give any advice myself, but I'm going to save @Snipafist the trouble of self-promotion and link to his excellent article:

http://cannotgetyourshipout.blogspot.fi/2017/03/imperial-ship-review-raider-corvette.html

I feel like the same sort of topic has popped up a couple of times lately, so a forum search might help you too. This one seems to be fairly extensive:

3 hours ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

I'd suggest reading the Cannot Get Your Ship Out blog's Raider Review. Since @Snipafist, the author of the post, appears to love flying fleets composed largely of Raiders, it'll likely be of some use to you.

Edit: Ninja'd

Thanks, fellas .

And yes, @Nyxen please read my article when you get the time. Raiders are very much misunderstood but they're quite excellent little burst damage corvettes. It's just they're not forgiving of mistakes so it can take a little while to pick up on them. With External Racks hitting the scene soon, I expect to see those become pretty standard kit on Raiders, which will make them even more dangerous.

I don't run Raiders in every fleet but they do show up pretty frequently in my fleets. Usually I prefer to run 2+ at a time when they make it into a fleet to improve the reliability of their flak coverage.

With wave 6 out, there are (wishful thinking) wil be so many Raider builds I'm not sure I would be squeeze them all into one list. I'm so glad this happened

Raiders' biggest problem is the difficulty of keeping them alive (their defenses are best at long range, but their attacks require close-medium range). So, it's rarely worth bloating them up with upgrades that just make them more painful to see explode. Thankfully, Raiders are poised to get a big buff in wave 6, as they are ideally suited to several new upgrades, actually arguably better than the new ships that those upgrades come with. In particular, some of the new upgrades encourage sudden, swingy attacks that do something big, but can only be done once per game. Perfect for a ship that wants to hedge its bets because it might not live past its first brush with the enemy. It carries Boarding Troopers and Boarding Enginners well, since it has the slots for those, the squadron/engineering value for those, and the agility to get in close. The II goes well with Disposable Capacitors, so it can attack at long range. And the I goes well with External Racks, just as much as the Hammerheads do.

Thanks for the in depth analysis, I might just pick up a second one in a few days now.

I'm extremely excited for External Racks. Combined with OE it'll make the Raider a very fearsome ship. 5 black dice + 2 blue dice with a CF dial and OE for rerolls means an average of 7.75 damage in one attack. That's enough to one-shot a CR90 or inflict serious damage against any bigger ships in a bad spot (no brace, missing a few shields, etc.).

Disposable Capacitors and External Racks are both great upgrades for Raiders. Add this to the already proven Kallus+Flechette+Title combo for fighter hunting, their excellent synergy with Screed's Avenger (add Overload Pulse), or the fact that they can bring boarding parties along, the Raider is becoming the most flexible ship in the game!

I think it has always been flexible, but it's relatively fragile frame has made it scary for many to contemplate bringing to the table. Low hull and few shields don't promote aggressive play, despite their dice profile. I regularly run 4 of them, and love doing so, but that style did take a serious hammering after CC came out and gave Rebel squadron builds a huge boost. Between that and Rhymerballs, you rarely ended up coming out of an engagement without having lost a ship a turn.

Raider I: External racks is a much more efficient upgrade for hit and run style Raiders.

Raider II: Disposable Capacitors add a new play style well suited to the Raider. Makes it much easier to overload pulse combo with other ships or Sloan. I personally like the look of NK-7. You can potentially knock off 2 defence tokens before your big hitter makes its medium/close range attack.

Any Raider with any combination of Agent Kallus, Flechette Torpedoes and Titles are great anti-squadron support ships.

Every time people post this topic (not hating on OP, I just feel like there is always one "Is the Raider actually bad?" thread in the first three or four pages on the forum), I'm so confused. Who are these people that think the Raider is bad, and why are you listening to them?

To the ship itself, the Raider is one of the highest skill floor ships to use effectively. (Not the highest mind you, but it's up there.) However, it is more than capable once you are familiar with it. Remember that at speed 2, it is already natively as agile as is possible in this game. Double black on the R-1 sounds short ranged for anti-squadron fire (and it is), but between Ordnance Experts and the Wave 5 Flechette Torpedoes several previous posters have mentioned, those Raiders are vicious to squadrons they catch. In theory they can even see service as pocket carriers, boosting a couple squadrons along to help deal with those accursed Rebels. (I keep trying this, and I think Snipafist's article goes over it too. It doesn't quite work in my experience, but it's nearly there.)

They also are more than capable of stripping the shields off a larger ship they can catch, provided they have managed to maneuver into a weak arc. I have had a pair clean off the shields of a Liberty, and if armed with APTs, they are quite capable of destroying MC30s and CR90s that wander into range with a pair of crits and rams. (I still remember the first time I did that; my opponent's expression is still priceless.) Expanded Launchers means they hit like trucks (and cost like it too), and with the advent of External Racks and Disposable Capacitors, a already-not-bad ship is going to get better. If you have any specific tactical questions, feel free to follow up with me, here or in a PM.