Im planning to play first epic game this coming weekend using the imperial assault carrier. I honestly have no idea how to approach building an epic list. Do you guys bother to use the carrier for carrying TIEs? What sort of ships should I used to support it? i.e. cost allocation, should I bother with named pilots? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I think I'll be up against the Raider.

I have the following imperial ships:

1 x Assault Carrier

4 x TIE fighters

3 x TIE FO

1 x TIE SF

3 x Interceptors

2 x TIE Bombers

2 x TIE Defenders

1 x Decimator

1 x Lambda Shuttle

1 x Striker

1 x Phantom

1 x TIE Advanced Prototype

Cheers

Congratulations are in order for braving the dangerous world outside of 100/6 games.

First up, you've got to accept that flying epic ships inherently puts you at a disadvantage to any player who doesn't fly them, so always make sure you and your opponent bring a Huge ship to keep it fair, which it seems you've done.

Secondly, don't be afraid to proxy everything - you're going to save a lot of space by printing a list, and you'll keep the fun aspect. This lets you utilise your ships properly, rather than scavenging for second-rate cards to fill out the 300 points.

Finally, bad ships for Epic games are those that rely on tokens, agility or arc-dodging to stay alive - the sheer volume of ships on the board makes it impossible. Your best ships are TIE fighters, TIE Bombers, Defenders, TIE/FOs, the Lambda and maybe the decimator, but it can be vulnerable.

As such, here's my suggested list:

Gozanti-class Cruiser (62)
Gozanti-Class Cruiser (40), Operations Specialist (3), Operations Specialist (3), Dual Laser Turret (5), Docking Clamps (0), Tibanna Gas Supplies (4), Vector (2), Automated Protocols (5)

Gamma Squadron Veteran (26) x 2
TIE Bomber (19), Deadeye (1), Extra Munitions (2), Cruise Missiles (3), XX-23 S-thread Tracers (1), Guidance Chips (0)

Black Squadron Pilot (16) x 4
TIE Fighter (14), Snap Shot (2)

Glaive Squadron Pilot (37) x 2
TIE Defender (34), Tractor beam (1), Crack Shot (1), TIE/D (0), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Patrol Leader (48)
VT-49 Decimator (40), Darth Vader (3), Gunner (5)

Totalling 300 points.

Starting with the simplest parts:

The Patrol Leader [decimator] is excellent for drawing fire away from the Gozanti. If your opponent has brought any aces, gunner+vader will burn them down rapidly. Try and park it at range 3 on the wing of your formation to draw that fire away.

The Glaive Squadron Pilots [defenders] are the highest PS pilots in your list and, with crack shot, they are effective ace-hunters, first lowering their agility and moving them out of position, then doing serious damage with the primary weapon. These guys are tanks, but they can be burnt down by focused fire from aces, so try to keep attention off of them.

The Gamma Squad Veterans [bombers] are capital ship killers With deadeye+cruise missiles+guidance chips, they can reliably punch out 5 hit attacks. If there is no clear target for the cruise missiles - or if you had to take it slow on the way it - the XX-23 S-thread tracers massively increase the action economy of the whole list (remember, even TIE fighters can get a target lock from XX-23s). They aren't very evvective in the endgame though, so they're a suitable sacrifice after they've made 1 or 2 shots.

Getting to the best part not, the Black Squad Pilots [TIE fighters] are equipped with snap shot to make aces sweat, and to give them massively increased jousting potential. Depending on your opponent's list, you can either deploy them straight up or dock them in the Vector [Gozanti].

The Gozanti Cruiser has a dual laser turret for offense, just so it's part of the action. It has tibanna gas supplies because you'll inevitably need the energy to recover shields. Automated protocols gives you a bit of action economy, and the coordinate action is very useful. The Vector title lets you dump all 4 TIEs in one turn. Finally, the key to the list is the two Operations specialists onboard:

Essentially, very time any of your ships miss an attack (for example, a Snap Shot from a TIE during the activation phase, or a Glaive's tractor beam), you get to assign 2 focus tokens to ay sips you want. Potentially, this means that from missed snap shots alone each of your ships could have 2 focus tokens before the combat phase starts, and many more after that. This insane action economy should give you the absolute edge.

Overall, you've got a list with good power, fantastic action economy and strong support abilities. Your only weakness is low PS, but the sheer number of your ships mitigates that.

As a side not, you could conceivably replace Vader + Gunner with a further two Operations specialists, giving you up to 16 free focus tokens before your ships actual actions....

Wow...Thanks for the brilliant comprehensive reply!

Are there any decent app or websites which allow you to print squad lists with card abilities?

Also, Ion weapons are your your friend in Epic play, Huge Ship rely heavily on Energy to regen, power weapons and fuel other abilities. Ion Tokens reduce the amount of energy they gain, so some Ion hits at the right time can cripple a Huge Ships ability to do anything and stop it regenerating its shields.

As for list building sites, I really like: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/build

It has collection management, saved lists and outputs in a nice print format that can include card text as well.

Thanks for the reply. I will check it out.

32 minutes ago, UberMunchkin said:

Also, Ion weapons are your your friend in Epic play, Huge Ship rely heavily on Energy to regen, power weapons and fuel other abilities. Ion Tokens reduce the amount of energy they gain, so some Ion hits at the right time can cripple a Huge Ships ability to do anything and stop it regenerating its shields.

As for list building sites, I really like: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/build

I, too recommend that squadron builder. It's very flexible. In the print menu, setting the view to "full" or "cards" gives you the full card ability.

I like Ion weapons, but for the price of an ion cannon you can now have a cruise missile, which is pretty much 3 guaranteed damage, probably more. For an Ion Turret you could have homing missiles, assault missiles or nearly half a TIE fighter. If anything, I'd say Ion Torpedoes are the best choice - target the section of the opponent's flagship with the most friendlies at R1, then watch in glee as they get crushed under the heels of their own admiral next activation phase.

Is the best way to go for the capitol ship or the others? Is the docking of the TIEs primarily to protect them until they are in a suitable position?

Thanks again!

12 hours ago, Astech said:

Gozanti-class Cruiser (62)
Gozanti-Class Cruiser (40), Operations Specialist (3), Operations Specialist (3), Dual Laser Turret (5), Docking Clamps (0), Tibanna Gas Supplies (4), Vector (2), Automated Protocols (5)

Cool build! Two Op Specs with the Snap Shot TIEs Personally would drop the Tibanna Gas Suppiles. I've never needed extra power on a Gozanti since we started using the tourny rule of fully powering Huge ships up.

2 minutes ago, Villan said:

Is the best way to go for the capitol ship or the others? Is the docking of the TIEs primarily to protect them until they are in a suitable position?

Thanks again!

If you're in a tournament, it's always good to go for an opponent's capital ship first, since it is great for MoV. In a casual game, I'd advise against totally destroying it so soon, mainly because they're not very threatening and fun to have on the board. However, if your opponent is protecting his capital ship with a screen of others, then take targets of opportunity.

Protections is a big part of it, but it's also about being able to drop 4 TIEs at PS4 after nearly everything else has moved. A Gozanti can easily fall in a single turn of combat, even with a well placed reinforce token. Because of this, you have to be careful of the games you dock TIEs in:

1. If your opponent has an alpha strike (4 TIE bombers with Homing missiles and deadeye are a good example), then docking the TIEs is a very bad idea. This is because it can - and will - leave your TIEs in a bad position, as well as damaged.
2. If your opponent has a very large number of ships (the extreme being, say, 12 TIE strikers and some bombers with XX-23 S-thread tracers, for instance) then don't dock the TIEs, because your opponent will destroy the Gozanti and still have shots left to blow up some TIEs.
3. Howeve,r if your opponent has Huge ships, or less than around 8 ships, docking the TIEs is an excellent move. This is mainly because the Gozanti can't get one-shotted, but also because that 64 points of TIE firepower will not be missed as much until you're in position.

12 minutes ago, Sasajak said:

Cool build! Two Op Specs with the Snap Shot TIEs Personally would drop the Tibanna Gas Suppiles. I've never needed extra power on a Gozanti since we started using the tourny rule of fully powering Huge ships up.

Thanks! I've been trying for some time to bring it into 100/6, but couldn't quite find the points.

Tibanna gas is, more or less, an afterthought. The only other good place for the points is on the decimator, but given its decoy function, I'm loathe to put too much into it. You could alternatively use Supercharged Power Cells for a 6-die attack when it counts.

Minor problem with Operations Specialist: it's Limited, meaning that each ship can only equip one copy. You could put one on the Gozanti and one on the Decimator.

4 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Minor problem with Operations Specialist : it's Limited, meaning that each ship can only equip one copy. You could put one on the Gozanti and one on the Decimator.

Ah, right you are. I just assumed since you got two in the Upsilon shuttle expansion pack that they weren't limited.

Some tips for a game in Epic :

The number : The more ships you have, the more difficult if your opponent to choose a priority target. Number give a moral impact sometimes, especially if your opponent bring few ships.

Generic pilots : Are awsome, especially those with Ps4+ , they master on this format. They will always shoot against a epic ship (if at range).

Standardization: Epic game are long, very long. Choose a least 3 differents types of ship to avoid "brain fart"

Finally, what works in standard format don't work well in Epic game. For my part I love used this kind of list :

Tie fighter : Crackshot + Howlrunner: A mass of these cheap ships is terrifying to the opponent.

Tie advanced : Tempest or Storm with accuracy corrector. Reliable generics and cheap too

Tie defender : The tie / d with canon a ion is ideal to deal agains your opponent's epic ship.

Some ace pilot excels in this mode as it brings a fine support to the entire fleet like Howlrunner, Jonus and Rexler

Have fun with this format

Let us know how it goes!

Cheers chaps. Will let you know what happens...

Looking forward to hearing about it.

I've found in Epic Play that killing their big ship is a great goal but it is not always practical. If you can get a screen of fighters between their ordanance ships and your epic ship to tie them up that's always good, then hit their epic ship with as much ordanance as you can. If you can kill it quickly then you will be in a really strong place for the rest of the game.

Hi Chaps,

Just to feed back. Didn't go to well...

I used the Decimator to irritate his Tantive and made a huge dent in its shield and hull initially meaning it didn't get to fire for a couple of rounds with its double turrets. I ionised both of his A wings in front of his Tantive but he scrapped by...just... leaving them intact!!! I then had terrible dice with my defenders barely pushing any damage through on his 2 x wings and TIE fighter!!! I then proceeded to get my Decimator and Assault Carrier in a position where I couldn't avoid a collision. I lost my Decimator, followed by 2 TIE Bombers, and one of my Defenders was on its last legs before finally eliminating His Z-95 and Tie Fighter. I lost one of my defenders before deploying my TIEs behind his X-Wings, and taking one down straight away. I lost my other defender and after that my TIEs were turned to dust by his A Wings, X Wing, HWK and Tantive. We set a timer for 4 hours play and Tallied up points.... I was left with my AC vs his Tantive, 2 A Wings, X Wing and HWK....

Sorry for the loss, but hoepfuly you enjoyed it. It is so easy to get distracted on loose track of which ship is going where. (I had my GR-75 run over a 1/2 health Ghost and the next round flew an x wing off the board.)

I like to fly ships with turrets in circles on the edges. Keeps them out of the way and with token shots.

It was good fun. I flew the AC down the centre to deploy the TIEs in a suitable location. However I didn't consider how I was going to turn it around hence the crash. Will keep it on the outside next time!!

Two options I like to use on the carrier:

1) keep it outside and circle w/ Vader aboard. I don't care if the shots miss, cause Vader will get them. Then use recover or construction droid to fix Vader.

2) Keep the carrier light, use lots of ion, keep the rest of the fleet outside, and ram! Hilarious.